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"None of those who have Hell before their eyes will fall into Hell. No one of those who despise Hell will escape Hell.... Nothing is so profitable as to converse concerning Hell. It renders our souls purer than any silver."  

~St. John Chrysostom~

BOOK 

Protestantism 

Dear Aaron,

             I rather suspected this would be next on the list. I guess I even set it up by some of the remarks in my last e-mail. Before we get to it though, I must say I am glad that some of what I had to say about Hell made sense, and I am thrilled that you are all still friends. I’ve seen way too many friendships break up over doctrinal differences.

As far as Protestantism is concerned, I wasn’t sure if you knew that I had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy a few years back, and apparently you did not. Before I get into the reasons why I converted, let me first of all be clear as to what I am not saying. I am not saying that Protestants are going to Hell or are not Christian. So please don’t take what I am about to say in that way.

There were two basic reasons why I left Protestantism. First, through much studying of the Church Fathers and the history of the Church, I came to believe that Orthodoxy was the true expression of Christianity. Secondly, the two pillars of Protestant Christianity collapsed before my eyes. When they fell, all of Protestantism fell with them. To be more specific, I came to believe that sola scriptura, or “the Bible alone,” and sola fida, or “faith alone”, were neither biblical nor did they work in real life. As I am sure you know, the phrase “the Bible alone” means that the Bible is the sole authority of Christianity, and “faith alone” means that our salvation is accomplished without any works on our part.

This personal transformation of mine began when after months of debating an Orthodox student on campus, he finally challenged me to find the idea of the “Bible alone” in the scriptures. This occurred late on a Friday afternoon so I told him that I would check out my resources over the weekend and get back to him on Monday. I should have suspected the outcome when I didn’t have the scriptures to such an important doctrine at my fingertips. Anyway, after an entire weekend of searching I came up empty. The best I could do was to find one passage that said that the scriptures were profitable towards certain ends, and another which said not to go beyond that which is written. The first one did not say that the scriptures were the only thing profitable towards those ends, and the second was specific to only one issue, and so could not be generalized to all of Christianity. In any case, neither one was making the claim that the scriptures were the sole authority.

At the same time, I did a word search on tradition, hoping to show my friend that the scriptures put it in an unfavorable light. What I discovered was that when Jesus spoke of the tradition of the Pharisees, he had nothing good to say, but when St. Paul spoke of the apostolic tradition, he had nothing bad to say. Imagine my chagrin, as a die hard Protestant, when I discovered that not only did the scriptures fail to express sola scriptura, but that on the contrary they exalted tradition. Then to make matters worse my friend showed me a scripture which said that the Church was the pillar and ground of truth. In other words, the Church was the foundation and upholder of the truth. By this time I was reeling. If the Church and her tradition was the authority, then the obvious question from the Protestant point of view was, “Which church?”

You see, Aaron, what I slowly came to realize was that since the Bible has no ability to actually speak, in a concrete as opposed to a figurative sense, then it’s up to the individual reading it to decide for himself what he thinks it means. He may check with other sources, but in the end, and this is the ultimate outcome of sola scriptura, he is his own authority. Since we all tend to read the scriptures differently, we naturally split up into different sects and denominations. With so many to choose from, which church could possibly be the pillar and ground of truth?

This is when I began to realize that the doctrine of sola scriptura did not work in real life. I had always known that the splits and divisions in Christianity were not right, but now I was seeing that what created all those divisions was one of Protestantism’s foundational beliefs. Everything seemed to be turning upside down. The conclusion I finally came to was that since Christianity is a revelation given to the apostles by God through Jesus Christ, then if there was a true church, it had to be one that was there in the beginning with Christ and is still here today, without changing the doctrine or manner of worship. As I said earlier, after much research I came to believe that Orthodoxy is that Church, but we can talk about this at another time if you are interested.

The second pillar of Protestant Christianity that collapsed in front of me was the idea of justification by faith alone. Whereas the scriptures make it clear that we are saved by grace through faith, they do not say we are saved solely by faith. In fact, St. James says in his epistle, “You see now how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only.” This doesn’t mean that we make ourselves good enough for God, but that salvation is the process of taking a sinful, mortal, human being, and making him Christ-like and eternal. Our works, then, have a part in this process.

Too often in Protestantism, salvation is reduced to a one time only repentance of sin and faith in Jesus. The process of becoming Christ like, when theology books mention it at all, is presented as an addition to, and not a part of salvation. This is how Protestants can believe in justification by faith alone. On the one hand, if all of salvation is accomplished when one first believes, then there is no place for works. On the other hand, if salvation is the process of becoming Christ like, then prayer, fasting, keeping the commandments, going to church, and so on, all become part of one's salvation. I came to believe that this was more scriptural, historical, and works better in real life than the once and done Protestant idea does.

For instance, Paul says that our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed, and Jesus says that he who endures to the end will be saved, both of which indicate some sort of process. But also, if all of our salvation was accomplished the moment we first believed, then what is the purpose of the rest of Christianity? Why does Jesus give us all these commandments, doctrines, and practices? I guess for some they may become a way of judging or maintaining their salvation, but they are never a part of salvation itself.

The very reason why many Protestants are so comfortable with all of the differences in their doctrines and beliefs is that they don’t see how they apply to their salvation. Why does it matter what one believes about communion, baptism, confession, free will, and so on, if we’ve already been saved and made ready for Heaven? They only matter if salvation is an on going process.

Finally, I think what you’ll find, if you pay close attention when you are reading the scriptures, is that most, if not all of the time, when they speak of grace and faith, works will follow close behind. This is because, as St. James says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” They were meant to fit together as a seamless whole and not to be ripped artificially apart.

            Well, there you have it. At least in part this is why I am no longer Protestant. Again, please don’t take this as a condemnation of everything you believe. Obviously we have a lot in common. Just take it as a friendly challenge to look a little deeper and to see if these things are true. As Christians we should always be seeking after truth and never think that we have arrived and know it all. 

With much trepidation,

Uncle Greg