I’m writing to you because I heard that you
were interested in finding out what I am doing now that I’ve left Messiah
Lutheran church. It was not a sudden
thing where I just jumped off of the boat at a whim because of some minor doubt,
instead the whole edifice of Lutheranism, when founded upon the belief in Young
Earth Creationism, which it is, as it
is proclaimed in sermon and literature from the synod, simply crumbled to the
ground when that foundation proved inadequate. It seemed to me, and I still think this is
true, that the position of the LCMS on evolution is, well, silly. It was this issue that precipitated my
rejection of the whole church actually.
For a very short time when I left Messiah I went back
to being an atheist, my default position for over ½ of my life. When I returned to my default “unbeliever”
position though I was not in a closed off frame of mind but was again open to all options. You see, for me unbelief was not a dogmatic
atheism but a release or rejection of the whole set of positive beliefs
surrounding Lutheranism. I still was
interested in ultimate truth, where the cosmos came from and what is the
meaning of life, if any. Although at
first I was inclined to reject all theism along with Lutheranism and go with
pure naturalism, I did not find this
idea plausible though and soon was casting about for some sort of religion to fill
the space recently vacated by Lutheranism.
I very briefly glanced back at the various eastern mystical traditions I
had once been fascinated by, but they do not have the benefit of being True. I lightly brushed over the idea of going to
some Evangelical church like Cornerstone Fellowship in Livermore but that
didn’t work for me because one thing I got from my studies in the Lutheran
church was the fact that the early Christians were both liturgical and
sacramental. The early fathers most
certainly affirmed that and thanks to the Lutheran church I am familiar with
some of those early writings.
I next considered some of the other denominational options
out there, from UU to the Liberal Mainline Protestant churches but for the same
reason the Evangelicals don’t work for me I had to reject these as well, these
churches are not in that Liturgical and Sacramental tradition I know is what
the early fathers proclaimed. They don’t
have things like a baptism that really does
something and the real presence of
Christ in the Eucharist to list the two I had in mind at the time.
Not long after I had posted on my blog about my return
to unbelief my mother called me on the phone.
Mom is a sort of generic Christian type of believer but she is most
certainly a Christian. She was very kind
and told me she was praying for me, and she did pray too! Mom had never much cared for the LCMS because
they didn’t allow her to take communion with us when she visited, so she wasn’t too upset with me leaving, but she was concerned I remain a Christian. Anyway, to wrap up the story here, almost as
soon as mom told me she was praying for me I had a strong urge to go to the Catholic
church again.
A side note: I was on the verge of joining the
Catholic church and was entering the RCIA program when I stumbled upon Messiah
with it’s Thursday Eucharist that fit my schedule so well and I fell into that
comfortable place that so reminded me of my childhood growing up in a Lutheran
church. Sadly I didn’t know enough of
the beliefs of the LCMS when I joined. I
immersed myself in the Lutheran doctrines, reading everything I could lay my hands
on, from the bible to the Book of Concord and dozens of books from Concordia. I also listened to Issues Etc. almost every
day. But although I tried to just accept
it all it never quite clicked, I was always saying “Yes, but.” And the YEC issue just made me cringe.
So now I’ve chosen, or to be more accurate, the Lord
has led me, to go back to the Catholic faith.
Here I find the authentic church of the ancient fathers in its fullness,
with all of the sacraments, turns
out there are seven of them J. I have concluded, after much
study, and most of this was done long ago not in just the last few weeks, that
Luther was wrong to rebel against the authority of the Church, even though he
had many valid points about corruption and obscuring of the gospel in the
Church. In my study of the church as it
really is now I find these things
addressed to my satisfaction. The most
important thing for me though is actually historical, I find the arguments for
the magesterium of the Catholic church, the authority of the Popes and the Bishops, to be compelling. I do think that the Catholic church is the
legitimate one founded by Christ and handed down from the apostles. I do not think God would allow His Church to
go off the rails for thousands of years until Luther came along to fix it. I do not think the continually fractioning
denominations of the protestants is how God wants His Church to be. He wants us ONE as He is One. Without
authority this cannot be, as has been proven by the continuing proliferation of
denominations after Luther. The
Protestant branch of Christianity has cut loose from the anchor that was
provided by the authority of the Popes and bishops and has gone in literally thousands
of different directions. This makes
outsiders say “Which one is True?” and so reject the whole batch. This is not
God’s plan for His Church.
I’m now in RCIA at a local Catholic church and am
fully convinced that this is the true Church founded by Christ and handed down
to His apostles. I don’t understand
everything here but I’m confident that it’s true nonetheless. As to that issue that first served to free me
from my attachment to Lutheranism, evolution, the Catholic church has no
problem with it, and although they insist on a literal Adam and Eve they don’t
state where or when they existed. I’m OK
with that. It was the assertion that the
cosmos is less than ten thousand years old that never passed the giggle test
with me.
So, I’m happy with my course now, I think the Lord was
leading me all along, as He always does with His baptized children.
Do know this, no one at Messiah ever did anything to
offend me in any way. I am not angry or
anything, it’s just me following Truth, and that Truth is Jesus, and His church
is the Catholic church.
Peace be with you,
RE: "I do not think God would allow His Church to go off the rails for thousands of years until Luther came along to fix it." I confess this was wrong, that's Mormons who say such things, not Luther! Duh. I knew that, my defense is I wrote most of that in bed at 4:00 AM because I woke up thinking about the subject. :-)
ReplyDelete