Lucy107. You said in
post 73:
The Protestants seem to believe that God sacrificed His Only Son in order to spare humans from His own wrath.
Yes. I think that is insightful.
Many followers of various Protestant traditions call it “the doctrine of substitution”.
And “the doctrine of substitution”, although true, taken by itself is a partial truth.
Followers of many Protestant traditions, frequently use the doctrine of substitution, to
ignore the doctrine of PARTICIPATION or as St. Paul says, “koinonia”.
It surprises me that some Protestants whittle-down the Gospel to this extent given that St. Paul teaches so much about the doctrine of participation and many of the adherents of various Protestant traditions always claim to follow “Paul”.
Many of the Protestant tradition adherents
down-size God to a mere judge in a proverbial courtroom setting and justification as mere forgiveness of sins.
- God in some Protestant traditions = Judge (primarily)
- Justification in some Protestant traditions = Merely forgiveness of sins
You can see this ethos sort of lived-out on the court-room cover of
this book (
Justification by Faith Alone: Affirming the Doctrine by Which the Church and the Individual Stands or Falls (Reformation Theology Series)).
Catholics affirm all of this too. But as Scott Hahn says, we believe MORE.
Many Protestants see themselves as a guilty sinner who gets acquitted by the judge and released.
Whereas Catholics see themselves as a guilty sinner who gets acquitted by the judge and then the Judge, adopts you and takes you into His home and Family as a Son or Daughter of God.
Protestants believe fervently, but they believe much LESS. And the MORE of the Gospel that believing Catholics affirm, bothers many of them.
And it is easier to get “fired up” and “excited” about your “faith”, when you affirm a truncated mini-Gospel, and focus on your emotions (our feelings are good things, but we need to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and MIND too, not just our “feelings” and “emotions”- Mt 22:37 & Lk 10:27).
Catholics have these emotions also. Many of us have wept tears of joy at Mass contemplating what is taking place. But we need to have more than emotional sensations too.
Spiritualizing Away the Gospel
When a Catholic becomes a Protestant, if you listen carefully to them, there is almost always
a moral crisis.
For example, some don’t want to reflect Christ’s relation to His Church in their own marriages of at least trying total self-giving to their spouse (see Ephesians 5), so now they reject the Church’s teaching on the contraception. Now being “fruitful and multiplying” morphs into a mere option.
Anti-Incarnational Disguised as "Spiritual"
Or some can’t believe Jesus for what He says about really actually being born of water AND the Spirit.
Some don’'t REALLY believe that Jesus is the fulfilled manna from Heaven. We really and actually have one-flesh communion with Jesus Christ and they don’t believe that.
It is a lot easier to
“spiritualize” all these Biblical teachings away, than conform your life (by His grace) to the Gospel and believe ALL of the Gospel.
I once asked an Anabaptist about the Anointing with oil in James 5. She said: “Oh we don’t really believe in the oil. This is all spiritual prayer.” (I am thinking why not believe in BOTH?)
A "Stumbling Block"
We all want to think we’d follow Christ if we were there 2000 years ago.
But would we?
The
Heavenly Eternal meeting the
physical flesh was a “stumbling block” then, and it is a “stumbling block” or a “scandal” now too (1st Corinthians 1:23).
Many of the Pharisees were likewise anti-incarnational. They couldn’t believe that God would take REAL PHYSICAL flesh and join Himself to Humanity in a way we could never imagine. And flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary no less.
Many Protestants will get real excited about Eve being made from the
real actual flesh of Adam. They will even have organizations asserting many of these truths like
Answers in Genesis.
But alas . . .
When it comes to the New Adam, the FULFILLMENT of mere Adam and Eve, when God takes
real actual flesh from the human Blessed Virgin Mary, the New Eve, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it gets more difficult.
When Jesus gives the world
His real actual flesh for the life of the world (as He says in John 6), it becomes even more difficult.
And When Jesus gives us that
real actual same flesh today (as He also says in John 6) for US to adore and receive in the Eucharist . . . . for US to have “one-flesh communion” with Jesus Christ with . . . it really becomes quite a “stumbling block” to them.
If you want insight as to if you would believe Jesus back then incarnationally, ask yourself if you believe Jesus today incarnationally.
Protestants know Jesus is the Bridegroom. They know the Church is His bride. But real actual one-flesh communion?! Abiding in us and we IN HIM??
This is a “stumbling block”. Or as Jesus own “disciples” who walked away from Jesus and
went about with Him no more, said:
“This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it!” (John 6:60)
You can really take and meditate upon these mysteries and just worship God because . . . well . . . because he is God.
It takes a lot of grace for us as Catholics to affirm and believe Jesus, and I don’t think we often realize how much we have been given. We have much to be thankful for.
May God be praised!
