My parents would turn in their graves.
I had to go - we were priviledged to be among the few invited to a Christening by some friends. We can't expect them to come to our church if we won't go to theirs.
My parents consider the Catholic gospel to be a demonic counterfeit of the real one. I'm not so harsh, but I do take issue with the suggestion I get from Catholic friends that doing the rituals and doing good will get you into heaven - salavation by works. I am staunchly 'salvation by faith', so long as the faith is proved genuine by fruit, ie good works. In between there is the grey area of faith that is genuine but is ot articulated in the vocabulary I have learned, instead it is articulated through rituals and good works.
So, there I was, having stepped across the threshold of 'Satans lair'.
It was chaos.
The service was just the christening, with five familes bringing their babies. I could say it was a good family atmosphere. They each had a large number of guests, small children everywhere, and nobody was paying much attention to the proceedings but chatting away and letting the kids run riot. The priest soldiered on bravely through the noise, even saying 'wonderful' appreciatively when no one uttered the respnses they were supposed to.
Of course I have to take issue with various things:
- Biblical baptism is of hose who have come to faith and wish to sign up for the deal. There is no reference to infant baptism. (The family of the Phillipian jailor were all believers, if you read the whole story.)
- Baptism does not get rid of original sin. (1) the catholic idea of original sin is that it is guilt form Adam's sin, passed down, rather than a sinful tendency inherited from him. (2) It is the death and resurrectionof Christ that deals with sin, not our rituals.
- Why are they praying to Mary, when the Bible teaches that there is 'one mediator between God and Man, the man Christ Jesus'? No need for intercession by Mary or saints. In fact the Bible forbids attempts to contact the dead.
We'll leave it at that for now.
Thank you for posting this. It is interesting that we are in the same Church and yet we may hold theological views so different from one another.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the theology of Baptism to which you are upholding is not Anglican at all. For example, Infant aptism was indeed kept at the time of the English reformation. If you like an impartial view, have look at Richard Hooker.
Re: the Blessed Virgin Mary, or all the other saints. The theological discussion in not closed within the Anglican Communion and there are many views about it all. However, in the Creed of the Church we affirm to believe in the Communion of Saints, both here on earth and departed = they are not dead. Whether or not you want to ask their prayer is another matter.
I am a convert from the Roman Church btw. Event though I left that wasn't "Satan's Liar".
Thank you for you time.
Simon, Jesus wants you to join the Church He founded. Have a look at this http://patrickvandapool.com/this-blog/%E2%80%A2-60-minute-logic-challenge/ and see what you think
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