Oh - you are making great senses.
There is nothing more profitable than learning a bit of how our human nature works. The Greek philosophers said �Know Thyself� and this is exactly what the desert fathers went off to the desert to do� peer inside where the water churned so deeply � and discover what makes them tick. They spoke of angles and demons - and today we speak of subconscious motives etc� it makes hardly a difference what names we use for these deep motivating influences - as long as we know them and recognize the experience of them and something of their workings and influences.
ARE they angels � good and bad (such as John Climacus calls them)? Or are they psychosis and neurosis? (such as Sheen and Merton call them)? What difference does that make?! As long as we recognize them and know a bit about how they influence us.
We need the nut - inside - the shell. We must crack the shell to get to the meat of the nut. If we spend all our time arguing over the terms and semantics of specifically theologies - then we are - spending all our time on the shell and have not enough time left for the meat inside. (Sorry - my little rant at sectarianism within the body of Christ).
Yep. Calvin �codified� what you said - but that same idea (as a common belief) also exists in other Christian churches within its members. And it is strong. Not as codified or even as apparent and open - but it is there.
We are all interested in proving � to self � that we are holy. This is fallen human tendency. The most popular form is � that if we can find fault in someone else�s church teachings - that [ip]proves[/I] (so we believe) that I am a member of a church which has more grace and more holiness! (proper theology!) as opposed to the wrong or lacking theology of that other church. This kind of though � (call it a demon if you want to)� assumes that our environment produces holiness in us. Now - why would we want to assume that?! The answer is - for the very reasons you had outlined : we feel ineffective by our own efforts and so we want to believe the church will make us holy � somehow in a magical sort of way.
Within the Catholic churches (before any divisions) this was addressed by the earliest Councils which announced loud and clear that the sacraments are not magic - and that their effectiveness depended entirely upon the condition of our - conscience. Also - the early Councils made it clear that the sacraments were an assistance - for our cooperation - with day to day Providence and conscience.
But do we not (more often than not) treat the sacraments as if our reception of them will produce within us (in some mysterious way we can not understand) the holiness we desire?? This is what the early councils And this is exactly - what those councils wanted to nip off in the bud - this �magic� quality to the sacraments. And they made it very clear that the sacraments are an assistance only after - the fact of cooperation with Providence and good conscience. Like salt which brings out the flavor of foods - but the meat must already - be good.
holds that we are responsible and culpable for doing the things necessary for salvation even though we are incapable of doing them. The elect are given grace to do them but even at that, it is not "they" who do them but CHrist does the necessary work for them.
This is a mix up of two levels of theology. Apples and oranges. And, just like most misguided interpretations of theology and scriptures, it is a definition which is entirely lacking in the most important ingredients! = Providence! Good conscience!!
The view that this theology (what Calvin gives here) is taking - is that the world is a mechanical place - and that Providence is something that the bible writes about - but has no really daily application. WE say that we believe Jesus has Resurrected!! but in reality � we act and think (privately) as if the risen Jesus is really - ineffective - not interested in me - and really uninvolved in our salvation. So to get him involved - we must pray really really hard and insistently.
On the whole, most Christians feel this way - most of the time (that they must keep trying even though they do not seem to get much success � or even experience Jesus as being real effective in their lives). And despite - not experiencing the acts that Jesus does daily - it is a tenant of faith that we MUST
believe what we do not really experience (the living God acting within our daily lives).
And so the
experience of Jesus is shifted to � an emotion. And/or shifted to something that is not attainable here � but if we keep believing � it will be attainable � after death � or at the Second earthly coming � etc� No matter what the particular �shift� - it puts the real experience of God - off - to some future time - if only we continue to believe � what we do not really experience.
And that is how the �love of God� gets turned into � emotions.
We assume that the greater our emotions of love for God are - the more assurance - we fee (experience) that we are on the road to holy. Because we CAN feel emotions. Emotions are of the senses and the physiology - and we CAN feel and experience these. And the Holy Spirit now gets equated = with our rise of emotions of love.
This is a stage all Christians go through and so, in a way, it is necessary during growth. But some get stuck in this stage - and do not mature further.
In the prophets and in John there is an angel (wings) which has four faces. Now let me see if I can remember (scratching head) the faces are usually given as an ox, a lion, an eagle, and a man. And early pious opinion (good intentions but missing the mark) assumes this to represent the four gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John). Now .. Perhaps� in someway � they do (represent the four gospel writers) and this interpretation (only and opinion) has come down to us to be concrete. But as likable as this interpretation is - it is wrong.
The four faces represent - the church (the people of God) in more than one form. That is: the entire church, any church, each church, all churches - the people of God across all time � etc.. even down to the church in one individual man (any man). And so it also represent the church in you - and in me. It has four faces because the soul (person) who progress in the spiritual life toward holiness� goes through four major phases.
As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. (Ezekiel 1:10)
By the way - each face is symbolic of the four tribal standards of those tribes of Israel who would do military duty - the church militant (for those who are Catholic and understand that term) Numbers 2:2-33.
The tribe of Judah (lion)
The tribe of Ephraim (ox*)
The tribe of Reuben (man)
The tribe of Dan (eagle)
Now keep in mind this represent the entire - church - in every form including the individual and so the entire church (including each individual in it) goes through these four stages.
It has wings (it flies near God in the heavens)�
1) when a man first converts - he is like a lion - for God. He is fearless. Outspoken. He feels invincible (God will protect him!) and he goes forth into the wilds of the world and is like a lion for God.
2) when the first conversion wears away (in other words time goes on) he has found that being a lion - has really not done him much good. He has bored and irritated a lot of people and few (if any) have really converted because of his exuberance. And so now he becomes more like a lamb or calf (the Hebrew is not an ox - it is a calf and can also be a lamb). And now his spiritual life becomes more quiet. He follows Providence better (as the calf or lamb follows its mother). As a lion - he jumped out ahead of Providence trying to convert the world without Providence leading the way. And now - he lowers his sights from the big targets down to the small targets of everyday life and just living his own following of conscience and Providence in little and quiet ways.
3) In the third stage (after some real cooperation with Providence in the second stage) his human nature is now being restored. His human instincts and tendencies and powers - once �fallen� and out of kilter - begin to operate as they were originally designed by God to operate. In Catholic theology this is called preter-natural gifts. That is: the powers which rightly manage and order our human nature. In effect - we now become more of the human and less of our animal nature.
4) In the fourth stage (this is comparable to the spiritual marriage of Catholic and Eastern theologies) we are now a member of heaven (the eagle). Our home is in the highest trees - we soar above the mountains - and our eyes see even the smallest details of what is happening on earth. We are the prey of no one .
Now this has gotten too long� and I am concerned that I may have dipped into too many scriptural images and made people dizzy.
There - is no - specific assurance - of our personal holiness. None. None that we may know.
And there are good reasons for this.. There are very good reasons why God does it this way.
First - we humans - are more in our human nature - like God - than any other creature. And the nature of God is a mystery (none of our senses of mind nor body are capable of being turned upon God so that we may know him). And we also (the I, the ME, the essence which goes on when the body dies and the psychological mind is also severed) are mystery to ourselves. None of the faculties which we possess - are capable of being turned onto the �I� or �ME� (the philosophical term is - person). And so all that we MAY know about the I/Me/person/essence is by way of a lesser reflection within the created world of which our senses of mind are capable of obtaining. But like the dog looking at his own reflection on the surface of the water (Greek myths) we believe that we ARE our reflection (ego) but we are not. And it is not a true reflection. The created natures of sense (body) and mind (created spirit and psychological mind) are a media which is not capable of holding a true reflection of - person.
We are � like God� A mystery in our essence. We can not know about it (our senses can not be turned onto it) and so it is not an object which we can have any real intellectual knowledge about. We can only have an - experience of it. Let us not get on to that subject. And THIS is what we have fallen from. Instead of living from the mystery of our person (what God created us to be) we look into creation (we have two created natures - psychological mind and body) and we believe we ARE the programming of our mind and the emotions of our body (as Paul says: the law of the members).
There is no assurance.
And so you just keep your eyes straight ahead (like the ox who has side-blinders on his eyes so that he is not distracted and he plough the furrow crookedly) and talke both Providence and conscience - day by day by day.
Remember� we are not after a �goal� or a thing that we obtain or possess (we are not after a �thing�) what we are doing is creating (by the arrangements of Providence and our cooperation) new habits that replace the old habits. We are not after to obtain a certificate that says �You now own Holiness� because that is a possession� and holiness is - a habit. A way of life.
The goal � IS � the journey.
And that being true (the goal is the journey) we shall not (in this life) be free of troubles and some faults and weaknesses and such (that would end the journey). And the further we progress in good conscience and such - even the smallelst faults will seem like huge obsticles and seem much darker than they really are.
And so the "rule" is - no matter if you feel holy or you feel like you have great sin - in either case - you return to cooperation with Providence and paying attention to conscience.
Have you fallen? Well then... go back to daily Providence and attention to conscience.
Are you holy? Well then... go back to daily Providence and paying attention to conscience.
If in heaven or if in hell - there is just one simple thing that we are to do ... return to attention to Providence and attention to conscience.
Those who do this ... will barely be able to recognise both when they start out doing this - but just as in any human endevor - as time goes by and the habit is created and we gain expereince - we come to more easily recognise the acts of Providence surounding our lives and we hear much better the voice of conscience.
How is it that the saints say that they have expereinced God (??!!) it is because of growth in this very pratice I am telling you about. God has not come down to them 'more' than God comes down to us.. (no) ... THEY have gone to God more than we have gone to God (Providence and conscience).
I hope this has helped. I know I yak too much.
Peace be to you and to your church.
-ray
