tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post519402354809511945..comments2024-02-14T14:53:03.810-07:00Comments on Καθολικός διάκονος: "Christ can fill that cosmic void in your heart"Deacon Scotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01385969740195992108noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-39238632118555707782011-03-21T21:21:10.652-06:002011-03-21T21:21:10.652-06:00Anon: I am surprised and pleasantly so. I was comp...Anon: I am surprised and pleasantly so. I was completely unfamiliar with that history. So, thanks!Dcn Scott Dodgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09994604395739905637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-86258242400135926982011-03-21T15:40:52.723-06:002011-03-21T15:40:52.723-06:00THIS WILL SURPRISE YOU:
an excerpt from an artic...THIS WILL SURPRISE YOU:<br /><br />an excerpt from an article in 'Christianity Today:<br /><br />"The Pope We Never Knew"<br />The unknown story of how John Paul II ushered Campus Crusade into Catholic Poland.<br />by David Scott | posted 4/19/2005 <br /><br />"When Karol Wojtyla stepped out on the Vatican balcony on October 16, 1978, as the new Pope John Paul II, waving to the crowds in St. Peter's Square on the first day of his auspicious papacy, the person preaching for him in his home pulpit back in Krakow, Poland, was none other than Billy Graham. <br /><br />Behind that fact is a surprising story of the late pope's personal involvement with American evangelicals. With his passing, it is time to tell that story.<br /><br />In the mid-1970s, American mission organizations like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association began taking the gospel behind the Iron Curtain to Eastern Europe. After Graham's first "communist" crusade in Hungary in 1977, he was invited to the predominately Catholic country of Poland by the tiny Protestant community there, which amounted to less than 1 percent of the population. Just as in his 1957 New York City crusade, Graham wanted to work with as many Catholics as possible.<br /><br />Initially, the Polish Catholic church rebuffed him. Wojtyla was the exception, giving Graham the invitation he needed for his crusade in a country where evangelicalism was considered cultic. The two men made plans to meet for tea, but by the time Graham arrived, Wojtyla had been summoned to Rome.<br /><br />At the time, the man who would be pope was already overseeing a radical partnership between a Polish Catholic youth renewal movement popularly known as Oasis and the American evangelical ministry Campus Crusade for Christ."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-75820787814708912282011-03-21T08:39:38.880-06:002011-03-21T08:39:38.880-06:00as long as we have the experience the other agrees...as long as we have the experience the other agrees with? if not we are judging things through the filter of our experience? perhaps your filters did not allow you to even hear my point and lost an opportunity for engagement by giving a very cerebral and abstract response?patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12649642843714758175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-69969447331897854732011-03-20T19:08:59.806-06:002011-03-20T19:08:59.806-06:00I don't want to make too big a deal, Patrick. ...I don't want to make too big a deal, Patrick. It is important to attend to what Graham says in what I have posted and not to generalize. It is well known that soteriology is a major point of contention between Catholics and Evangelicals. As with most things of this kind, such differences are often exaggerated, which is one of the most revealing aspects of the Joint Declaration on Justification issued by Lutherans and Catholics. However, in addition to the anthropological quality of Graham's preaching in this vignette, I was also struck by how he describes sanctification. He seems to me to transcend a merely forensic soteriology, just as he overcomes the Calvinistic tendency to see humanity as totally depraved.<br /><br />One of the things Don Gius teaches us is not to judge things through the filter of our preconceptions. How we are sanctified, as a Tami indicates, is more a matter of experience than it is of study. Theology can be only be descriptive in this regard. It cannot be prescriptive.Dcn Scott Dodgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09994604395739905637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-38723714097358920452011-03-20T18:56:31.518-06:002011-03-20T18:56:31.518-06:00i am sorry the post came across being political, t...i am sorry the post came across being political, the main point i was making is that the evangelical tradition (of which Dr Graham is one of the best teachers) has a whole different soteriology. I am not attacking anyone, just making a statement that is true and fundamental when understanding how God saves us in Christ.patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12649642843714758175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-85631567588975660552011-03-20T18:11:04.557-06:002011-03-20T18:11:04.557-06:00Scott, thank you so much for this post and video. ...Scott, thank you so much for this post and video. Sound theology that I can verify by my own experience, and through sharing the journey with others. God bless you these Lenten days, my friend.taminoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-86546250209680162882011-03-20T16:11:38.269-06:002011-03-20T16:11:38.269-06:00Of course it is true that Catholics and Orthodox d...Of course it is true that Catholics and Orthodox differ from Evangelical Protestants on any number issues, just as Catholics and Orthodox differ from one another, especially on matters of ecclesiology, but also on Trinitarian theology. However, this is not what my post is about. So, I'll just stick with your opening sentence because at the end of the day that is what matters.<br /><br />When it comes to the reality that only Christ can fill the cosmic void in our hearts, that it is only Christ who bridges the infinite gulf between fallen, sinful humannity and our all-holy God, we're on the same page. So, I would say that in this excerpt his theological anthropology is quite sound. By referring to the fact that we bear the divine image and only by grace are we transformed into Christ-likeness, he eschews the Reformed idea of absolute corruption and embraces a more positive view of man, which is certainly consonant with Catholic thought. <br /><br />During Lent I am avoiding politics, especially religious politics. So, for me, this is not a time for apologetics.Dcn Scott Dodgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09994604395739905637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8254272216866737058.post-92093916356466904962011-03-20T13:58:14.020-06:002011-03-20T13:58:14.020-06:00There is no doubt that Billy Graham is a man of re...There is no doubt that Billy Graham is a man of real integrity and dedication to Christ. But it also true that there is a big difference from the traditional Catholic/Orthodox understanding of real basics that is very different from the evangelical tradition. this short video shows very clearly the difference between the Orthodox (and i would say Catholic) view and the main stream evangelical view of Dr. Graham and other main line evangelicals.<br /><br />http://www.monomakhos.com/2011/03/the-salvation-of-the-chairs/patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12649642843714758175noreply@blogger.com