Saturday, December 22, 2012

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS (REALLY) PART II

     On those rare occasions when we would come across some reference to the Apostolic Fathers when I was a Bible college student in Nashville, Tennessee, it was always somehow implied or expressly stated that these Fathers had fallen away from the truth into error and were therefore, for the most part, discounted. They may have had a few things to say that were ok but mostly, it was understood that they had departed from the true Christian Faith. 

      At Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri I had a little more exposure to the Fathers and they were given a bit more credence but in the end they were dismissed as inconsequential or contradictory to our Faith. 

     It was only when I actually read the writings of the Apostolic Fathers many years later that I came to see things were not as I had been told. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers sound just like the writings of the Apostles themselves, revealing that their minds and hearts were taught by and saturated in the Apostolic teachings. It also became clear to me that these Fathers were very particular and devoted to maintaining, preserving and defending the teachings they had received from the Apostles without change or compromise. They staunchly defended the Apostolic teachings even to the shedding of their blood and giving themselves over to unbelievable tortures and deaths. These were not men who compromised or changed what they had been taught by and received from the Apostles.

      So why did our modern day “Fathers” discount them and their teachings as being false or unreliable? The answer became clear to me. It was because they taught things that our modern day version of Christianity did not believe or want to hear. That’s it. There was no other basis or reason for dismissing them out of hand except for the fact that we held a different understanding of the Christian Faith. So I had to ask myself. Who changed the Faith? Who is more believable?  Are we to reject the teachings of those who were taught by the Apostles, who all taught the same undivided Faith and who gave their lives rather than to compromise, while embracing the teachings of those some 2,000 years later in the midst of thousands of conflicting and contradicting beliefs, interpretations and innovations? I knew if we wanted to understand the mind and teachings of the American Fathers of the Constitution we would read the writings of those Fathers and those who were taught by them rather than the conclusions of the conflicting voices today. It was clear to me that the same had to be true regarding the Church and the Christian Faith. 

     The more I read the Fathers, the more I came to see that their teachings actually were true to the Scriptures, while modern day “Fathers” were deviating, twisting or ignoring many of the things taught in the Scriptures. There were several main areas where this came to light as I read the Apostolic Fathers and documents: 
1.Teachings as to whether the Church is visible or invisible 
2.Whether the Church is congregational or hierarchical and the place or necessity of bishops
 3.How the early Church worshiped
4.How disputes and controversies are to be resolved in the Church 
5.The understanding of salvation – what it means to be saved and how it is accomplished 
6.The meaning and place of Baptism and Holy Communion and how they relate to our salvation
 -To Be Continued-