by Christopher M. Klukas
May, 2008
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:3-5, This and all other quotes from the bible are taken from the English Standard Version) "Christianity is not so much a system of propositional truths as it is a life lived in relationship to the living Christ."
I was asked to respond to this statement as a part of my canonical exams before being ordained to the priesthood.
It is a very interesting statement because it suggests that propositional truth and relationship are somehow opposite ends of the same spectrum.
This is not the case. In reality, propositional truth goes hand in hand with relationship, and relationship is built on propositional truth.
The oldest confession found in the history of the Church was simply "Jesus is Lord."
This confession is so old that it even predates many (if not all) of the Epistles.
Paul's Letter to the Romans tells us that "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9).
In its most basic form, Christianity is nothing more (and nothing less) than a relationship with Jesus Christ.
If we were to leave Christian faith at this point we wouldn't be wrong, but we would be left with a lot of questions. How do you come into a relationship with the living Christ? What does it take to maintain this relationship? If Jesus is Lord, what is he Lord over?
Most of these questions can be answered by taking a look through the pages of the Bible.
But when you answer questions with this book, more questions begin to pop up. Where did the Bible come from? Why does it have authority? How is it to be interpreted? Can we add more books to the Bible?
So it seems that the simple confession of "Jesus is Lord" is not so simple after all.
Christianity is a life lived in relationship to the living Christ.
The problem is that it is impossible to know how to live this life without the guidelines of the scriptures and Christian doctrine.
Through the historic course of the Christian faith, the Church has developed a system of propositional truths to aid believers as they attempt to live out their lives in relationship to the living Christ.
As we look back on the history of the Church and of Israel, we can see many periods where God's people began to waver from the truth of the Gospel.
Sometimes it was individuals leading a group of believers astray, other times it seemed as through the whole Church had become corrupt.
Whenever this has happened, God has called the faithful to rise up and proclaim the truth, banishing heresy from their midst.
Remember Elijah in that dark period of his ministry when it seemed as though he was the only faithful one left.
At this point of utter discouragement God spoke to Elijah in that still small voice saying, "Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him" (1 Kings 19:18).
It was just after this that God gave him Elisha as his successor and together they began to work for the restoration of God's people.
We now find ourselves in a time such as this.
There are large portions of the Episcopal Church that no longer proclaim the historic truth of the Gospel.
And the faithful must now rise up and take a stand.
But how did we get to this point? How did the Church become so corrupt?
We can compare the Episcopal Church to a house that has gradually fallen into disrepair.
When small issues aren't fixed, they almost always turn into bigger ones.
The roots of our present problems go as far back as 150 - 200 years.
The situation didn't become acute, however, until the 1960's.
It was at this time that Bishop James Pike published a book called "A Time for Christian Candor."
In this work he openly denied such basic doctrines as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Virgin birth.
Bishop Pike wasn't the only one who believed these things, he just happened to be the one who published them in a book.
Bishop Pike's book caused an uproar throughout the Church, but particularly in the House of Bishops.
In 1966 he was formally presented to the House of Bishops on the charge of Heresy. An advisory committee, led by Bp. Stephen Bayne, was formed to deal with these issues.
The report of this committee "called the concept of heresy "anachronistic" and called for the revision of canon law to make heresy trials almost impossible." ("An American Apostle: The Life of Stephen Fielding Bayne, Jr." p. 147)
They stated that, "Any risks the Church might run by fostering a climate of genuine freedom are minor compared to the dangers it will surely encounter from any attempts at suppression, censorship, or thought control."
The House of Bishops then affirmed this report and adopted its recommendations concerning cannon law.
Thus instead of disciplining Bishop Pike, they supported him and made it nearly impossible for future bishops to be disciplined on the charge of heresy.
At a time when the faithful could have taken a stand, they decided instead to accommodate and affirm.
This was the beginning of the formal acceptance of heresy in our church.
As the years march on more and more liberties are taken and the church becomes less Christian and more Pagan.
Do all Episcopalians believe these heresies?
Certainly not. There are faithful Christians in every diocese.
But the number of faithful Christians continues to diminish as the heresies become ever more popular.
We have come to a place where the overwhelming majority of the Episcopal Church believes Bishop Pike's heresies.
A place where the General Convention can no loner pass a simple resolution affirming that Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" and that "no-one comes to the Father except through ."
As was the case at General Convention 2006. Because we have come to this place, we now need to make a decision.
Will we remain within a denomination that denies the basic doctrines of the the Church; or will we choose to realign ourselves with another part of the Anglican Communion that conforms to the historic faith and order? ...choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
----The Rev. Christopher M. Klukas is the fifth rector of Saint Martin's Church, Monroeville PA. He is married to the Rev. Carrie Klukas, and they currently live in an old farmhouse in Pitcairn with their son, Kieran Augustine Klukas, and their two dogs. More information about St. Martin's Church is available at http://www.saintmartins.net
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1 comment:
I hope you have read Bishop Pike's works. Over his lifetime he was responsible for more conversions to the Christian faith than any twenty five other people -- and these conversions were to traditional Anglicanism, not some odd, fringe group.
His major contribution to the church regarding the doctrines of the Virgin Birth, Resurrection and Ascension was to focus on the saving meaning of those events rather than simply stopping with a physical description of them.
At the end of his life, he did lose touch with reality after the shock of losing his son. Something snapped. However before that he had always been a champion for Prayer Book Christianity, for the church's need to reach out to young people and for civil rights.
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