Paul's Passing Thoughts

The question has been posed to me thrice this week; twice in person and once by email: “If everybody is wrong, what is right? Can we even know truth if everybody is wrong?” I will answer the question with another one of the rhetorical sort: “Is there a better example of Protestant tradition than this question?”

Notice the link between “truth” and the pronoun, “everybody,” i.e., the most notable Protestant teachers of our day and the past. And with a few Catholics thrown in for good measure. This is classic Protestantism; while denying that truth is embodied in men, that is how we function because of orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is “truth” repackaged for the masses by the “Divines.”

So, let me properly rephrase the question in context: “If all of the Divines and those who cite them as authority are wrong, how can we know truth?” That would be primarily the Westminster Divines who directly and indirectly executed people for disagreeing with them. The Westminster Confession is the toast of Protestant orthodoxy.

But prior to this week’s threesome, another caveat has been added to this line of questioning as well: “So, you must be Catholic?” This is more Protestant tradition in our Western culture; you are either Catholic or Protestant. Supposedly, we were in a “Dark Age” under Catholicism and the Reformers started a “reformation.” Some historians even suggest that the Reformers were the historical segue to the Enlightenment Era which is an utterly absurd idea. The Reformers, like their Catholic mother, were vehemently opposed to free reasoning among the people—especially the common breed.

Furthermore, the Reformation credits most of its doctrinal construct to Augustine who was always a Catholic. Protestants are conditioned to be comfortable with these contradictions because of the value placed on the traditions of men. The ideology and spiritual caste mentality is the exact same which led to both having a linear gospel. By linear gospel I mean the idea that sanctification finishes justification. Catholicism, according to the Reformers, propagates the idea that the indwelling Holy Spirit aids the Christian in finishing justification. The Reformers believed that any work of grace inside the believer, even by Christ, made Christians participants in finishing justification because like the Catholic Church, they saw sanctification as links of a chain between justification and glorification.

Hence, the Reformers insisted that ALL grace must take place outside of the believer. The belief that any work of grace takes place inside the believer is, “making sanctification the ground of your justification.” This is why we are not EITHER Protestant OR Catholic: because both hold to a linear false gospel. The biblical gospel is a parallel gospel that radically separates justification and sanctification. Justification is a finished work completely separate from works and sanctification. In other words, sanctification can’t affect justification. This is what separates the biblical gospel from the Protestant/Catholic gospel.

Christ promised that the gates of hell would never prevail against His church. The truth of His word has always flourished somewhere in the world. And the propagation of truth has always been possible when a Spirit indwelled believer picks up a Bible and reads it with their own mind.

Paul warned Timothy that there would be a lot of people in our day who are wrong. Wrong people are not the measure of truth, nor can they contribute to it. Those who love truth more than the traditions of men must find like-minded groups. And if you can’t find one—start one.

paul