This reminds me of Jesus parable about the wheat and the tares when he said to let them grow together and he would sort it all out at the end of the age. My burden is to see that I am part of the wheat not to figure out which of those I disagree with are tares.
Thank you Andrew. My memories of struggle in my youth resemble yours. Hardship has a way of keeping us humble, even as we cross into “the good life”. Being your age, my focus has become HOW CAN I BE A BETTER PERSON? For a reason only God knows,
I remain alive AND healthy. Yes, judge not, lest we be judged. We are all God’s children.
I remember when I could finally afford a brand new car. I never washed it as I was worried that someone might think it was a status symbol. It looked like a farmer owned it.
Here I would differ from Klavan the Elder. In my youth, when our religion grade in elementary school was determined by how well you could memorize by rote the Baltimore Catechism, we were taught that non-Catholics would not be saved, but that was a long time ago and the official Catechism of the RCC states that there are many paths to salvation, and that the RCC is the truest (what religion does not believe that?). However, anyone may be saved, and Christ states it explicitly in Mt 25; “whatever you did for these least brothers of mine, you did for Me”. Anyone, even dyed in the wool atheists can act in accordance with Christ, and may achieve salvation; that is wholly up to God. It’s a LOT easier to find a good church and try to follow proper teaching, rather than trying to invent a parachute once you have jumped out of the plane.
(I remember the old Baltimore Catechism really had it in for Methodists, however.)
What is critical to Christianity is that we cannot earn salvation, we must accept God’s love and keep his word as the evidence of our “yes” to this. His love is always there, and unconditional, but unforced. We must accept it as creatures with free will. Not every religion believes this.
I do agree. We share many values and our age as well. However, the line that you put in at the end of the article that you wrote “we want to know what our orthodoxies will give us, that we will be saved and that those who disagree with us are damned”. I knew that this was not your value judgment. It is no longer that of the Catholic Church and I suspect it never was, although commonly it might have been misstated as such. I am not a good enough church historian to know with any certainty, but it was certainly a very common misunderstanding.
Maybe that whole thing could be illustrated thus: "You have to give your heart to Jesus Christ, but you don't have to know it's Him you're giving your heart to."
I love the argument about grace and works. As so often with Jesus it’s that wonderful superposition. You are saved by grace alone. And by works. It makes no logical sense on earth. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is it’s true. At least I think it is.
The classic argument was between works and faith being salvific. The letter of James reflects on this when he says that faith without works is dead and that I will show you my faith through my works. The Catholic Church and Protestant denominations years ago both came to the agreement that it is grace which saves and it is best exemplified by faith and works.
Why would you accept the grace and then live a bad life in the expectation that you will be saved? No one would ever do that. I guess that’s the logic of the duality here.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If you live a dissolute life after “accepting grace“, you probably never really accepted it to begin with. I do believe that you must accept Jesus has your savior, but you must continue to accept him as your savior by constantly saying “yes“. Living a bad life as you say would be pretty blatant evidence that you are saying “no”.
I’ve always had a slight issue with having to accept Christ as saviour as it excludes the Jews, who I’m a big fan of. I believe no one is saved without Christ but as long as they have their covenant with God, they don’t necessarily have to accept that is who saved them. At least I hope that’s true because I do love the Jews. I guess we’ll find out. Well, I hope we will. I don’t need to do a Dante thank you very much.
I see what you’re saying, but I believe that Matthew 25 really gives those who would say, “but Lord, we did not know you” the out. This way anyone who acts in the way consonant with Jesus‘s teachings can be saved.
And like the two political parties, it is what they believe. Unfortunately, for them, the parties and all the rest that goes with it, the straight and narrow, with sustained perseverance and love of God and neighbor is all we need to know. Just love and do the work.
Hello, I have been trying to contact someone to unsubscribe to The New Jerusalem but have received no responses. Who do I contact (or the email) for unsubscribing and receiving a refund? The substack feature does not allow me to undo automatic renewals, and the email that was sent as a reminder of an automatic renewal a few days ago was a thank-you note rather than a notice of renewal in the subject line. So I missed that opportunity to cancel. --Thank you, L.
I cannot for the world of me imagine why you'd want to cancel your subscription. But here's what helped me when I had some problems being recognised as a paid subscriber:
Go to the substack website, go to Manage my Subscriptions, and see what you can do. If nothing works, there is also an email address you can write to. That's what I did, and I received an answe the same day. Problem solved.
This reminds me of Jesus parable about the wheat and the tares when he said to let them grow together and he would sort it all out at the end of the age. My burden is to see that I am part of the wheat not to figure out which of those I disagree with are tares.
Thank you Andrew. My memories of struggle in my youth resemble yours. Hardship has a way of keeping us humble, even as we cross into “the good life”. Being your age, my focus has become HOW CAN I BE A BETTER PERSON? For a reason only God knows,
I remain alive AND healthy. Yes, judge not, lest we be judged. We are all God’s children.
I remember when I could finally afford a brand new car. I never washed it as I was worried that someone might think it was a status symbol. It looked like a farmer owned it.
Here I would differ from Klavan the Elder. In my youth, when our religion grade in elementary school was determined by how well you could memorize by rote the Baltimore Catechism, we were taught that non-Catholics would not be saved, but that was a long time ago and the official Catechism of the RCC states that there are many paths to salvation, and that the RCC is the truest (what religion does not believe that?). However, anyone may be saved, and Christ states it explicitly in Mt 25; “whatever you did for these least brothers of mine, you did for Me”. Anyone, even dyed in the wool atheists can act in accordance with Christ, and may achieve salvation; that is wholly up to God. It’s a LOT easier to find a good church and try to follow proper teaching, rather than trying to invent a parachute once you have jumped out of the plane.
(I remember the old Baltimore Catechism really had it in for Methodists, however.)
What is critical to Christianity is that we cannot earn salvation, we must accept God’s love and keep his word as the evidence of our “yes” to this. His love is always there, and unconditional, but unforced. We must accept it as creatures with free will. Not every religion believes this.
I don’t think we differ very much.
I do agree. We share many values and our age as well. However, the line that you put in at the end of the article that you wrote “we want to know what our orthodoxies will give us, that we will be saved and that those who disagree with us are damned”. I knew that this was not your value judgment. It is no longer that of the Catholic Church and I suspect it never was, although commonly it might have been misstated as such. I am not a good enough church historian to know with any certainty, but it was certainly a very common misunderstanding.
Maybe that whole thing could be illustrated thus: "You have to give your heart to Jesus Christ, but you don't have to know it's Him you're giving your heart to."
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. But not good hearts.
I love the argument about grace and works. As so often with Jesus it’s that wonderful superposition. You are saved by grace alone. And by works. It makes no logical sense on earth. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is it’s true. At least I think it is.
The classic argument was between works and faith being salvific. The letter of James reflects on this when he says that faith without works is dead and that I will show you my faith through my works. The Catholic Church and Protestant denominations years ago both came to the agreement that it is grace which saves and it is best exemplified by faith and works.
Why would you accept the grace and then live a bad life in the expectation that you will be saved? No one would ever do that. I guess that’s the logic of the duality here.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If you live a dissolute life after “accepting grace“, you probably never really accepted it to begin with. I do believe that you must accept Jesus has your savior, but you must continue to accept him as your savior by constantly saying “yes“. Living a bad life as you say would be pretty blatant evidence that you are saying “no”.
I’ve always had a slight issue with having to accept Christ as saviour as it excludes the Jews, who I’m a big fan of. I believe no one is saved without Christ but as long as they have their covenant with God, they don’t necessarily have to accept that is who saved them. At least I hope that’s true because I do love the Jews. I guess we’ll find out. Well, I hope we will. I don’t need to do a Dante thank you very much.
I see what you’re saying, but I believe that Matthew 25 really gives those who would say, “but Lord, we did not know you” the out. This way anyone who acts in the way consonant with Jesus‘s teachings can be saved.
Amen.
And like the two political parties, it is what they believe. Unfortunately, for them, the parties and all the rest that goes with it, the straight and narrow, with sustained perseverance and love of God and neighbor is all we need to know. Just love and do the work.
Hello, I have been trying to contact someone to unsubscribe to The New Jerusalem but have received no responses. Who do I contact (or the email) for unsubscribing and receiving a refund? The substack feature does not allow me to undo automatic renewals, and the email that was sent as a reminder of an automatic renewal a few days ago was a thank-you note rather than a notice of renewal in the subject line. So I missed that opportunity to cancel. --Thank you, L.
I cannot for the world of me imagine why you'd want to cancel your subscription. But here's what helped me when I had some problems being recognised as a paid subscriber:
Go to the substack website, go to Manage my Subscriptions, and see what you can do. If nothing works, there is also an email address you can write to. That's what I did, and I received an answe the same day. Problem solved.