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[MENTION=127]zecryphon_nomdiv[/MENTION]
Our brother is no Atheist.... he is just like many: He has vested into a particular Tradition (well, corpus of them) taken from the Anabaptists. He embraces them (passionately but as you note, without much examination). Since he holds this Tradition to be TRUE.... and since he tolds the Bible to be TRUE, ergo the Bible MUST teach his chosen Tradition even though he PROVES the actual words do NO SUCH THING.
So, there are two things going on here - neither does he acknowledge (it's POSSIBLE he doesn't realize it but I find that extremely unlikely): 1) He's just swallowed a Tradition (series of Anabaptist Traditions on Baptism) but largely unexamined; he echos (very well, of course) the whole argument without realizing it conflicts with his theology (He's a Calvinist monergist) and without realizing he completely rejects every bit of it, and PROVES that. You COULD help him examine thing - but we've been trying for 2 years; he does not regard it as accountable. 2) Scripture agrees with him NOT because the words do but because the Bible would be wrong if it didn't. His Tradition IS true so the Bible MUST teach it, even if in words that are invisible, even if the words THERE suggest just the opposite. This is WHY he can PROVE (right there in black and white!!!!) Scripture doesn't teach what he does and yet insist that it does.
Friend, I don't know your background, but I was once Catholic. A good Catholic boy. Altar boy.... sang in the children's choir.... the whole nine yards. And by the time I was 12, I realized something critical. ONE of the ways this dawned on me was this: We were discussing some Catholic dogma (don't remember which) and I simply asked, "Does the Bible teach this?" And this is VERBATIM what the teacher said: "Josiah, what the Church teaches is true.... what the Bible teaches is true.... so OF COURSE the Bible teaches it, although perhaps not in words YOU CAN SEE." Ah.... that soaked in. An epiphany. This is actually TAUGHT in the Catechism and in official Catholic teaching. I have a current thread here that concerns this called "Tradition and the Bible."
What I soon discovered is that this very flawed epistemology exists outside of Catholicism often MORE than inside. There is a deep and profound and very operative egoism and individualism at word in the church.... like a cancer..... and one way it reveals itself is by this embrace of some Tradition (it may be ecumenical and historic, or very individualistic and new) that is just embraced. Now Catholics and Orthodox are MORE apt to just be honest and admit this is not really found in Scripture but they yet hold it as true. I give 'em a little bit of credit for honesty. But among radical Protestants, this presents a problem (especially for those who SAY Tradition is bad and who have made that part of their Tradition). They'll do EXACTLY what the Catholic does - but lack the honesty and humility to admit it, and (just to shoot themselves in the foot) go on to PROVE that their Tradition isn't in the Bible. But we get the SAME THING: My chosen Tradition is true.... the Bible is true.... so the Bible MUST say what I do but you can't see it."
Check out my "Bible and Tradition" thread.... it's just one of my latest on all this. Also, by MennoSota's demand, I put up one on infant baptism (I actually addressed all his Anabaptist Traditions there, not just Anti-Paedobaptism) but he pretty much evaded it (it's longer and more complex than he deals with).
BUT, friend, our brother is a good guy. SOLID on the issue of monergism and justification. Solidly Christian. He just (so well) reveals a flaw - and he does it more obviously than anyone I know. And not JUST when it comes to his Anabaptist stuff. It's pretty extreme in Evangelicalism (the modern American brand), and just like our brother, most of them don't even realize it.
Side note: When I was an undergrad, about to graduate, I suddenly discovered I lacked a core course needed to graduate. I could fill it with a history class, and I like history, but I just didn't want to take World History or American History AGAIN. But there was an upper division class called "Revolution." I got the profs okay and registered for that. We studied the history of Revolutions - in ancient times and right up to present day. Many you'd never heard of, and some pretty well known (Including the American Revolution). One of many things I learned is that TYPICALLY, they go full circle, they tend to end up pretty much where they started - just the names have changed. The Russian Revolution overthrew the Czar and replaced him with Lenin and Stalin, arguably worse. Just one example. I came to see a connection here.... Luther was a REFORMER (no revolutionary).... one can say similarly about Calvin and Henry (at least theologically). But soon REVOLUTIONARIES entered the picture (Zwingli, Anabaptists at first) ... and IMO, I think we can see how they took things right back to Rome in a lot of ways, and in some ways, worse.
It's GOOD to have you in the community! GREAT to see you getting involved in the threads, as time permits. Thank you.
- Josiah
He discusses like an Atheist. His whole argument can be reduced to a "nuh-uh" reponse, because he has zero proof from Scripture for anything he says regarding Baptism. Also, like an Atheist, he has claimed what Scripture does teach about Baptism is lies.
Our brother is no Atheist.... he is just like many: He has vested into a particular Tradition (well, corpus of them) taken from the Anabaptists. He embraces them (passionately but as you note, without much examination). Since he holds this Tradition to be TRUE.... and since he tolds the Bible to be TRUE, ergo the Bible MUST teach his chosen Tradition even though he PROVES the actual words do NO SUCH THING.
So, there are two things going on here - neither does he acknowledge (it's POSSIBLE he doesn't realize it but I find that extremely unlikely): 1) He's just swallowed a Tradition (series of Anabaptist Traditions on Baptism) but largely unexamined; he echos (very well, of course) the whole argument without realizing it conflicts with his theology (He's a Calvinist monergist) and without realizing he completely rejects every bit of it, and PROVES that. You COULD help him examine thing - but we've been trying for 2 years; he does not regard it as accountable. 2) Scripture agrees with him NOT because the words do but because the Bible would be wrong if it didn't. His Tradition IS true so the Bible MUST teach it, even if in words that are invisible, even if the words THERE suggest just the opposite. This is WHY he can PROVE (right there in black and white!!!!) Scripture doesn't teach what he does and yet insist that it does.
Friend, I don't know your background, but I was once Catholic. A good Catholic boy. Altar boy.... sang in the children's choir.... the whole nine yards. And by the time I was 12, I realized something critical. ONE of the ways this dawned on me was this: We were discussing some Catholic dogma (don't remember which) and I simply asked, "Does the Bible teach this?" And this is VERBATIM what the teacher said: "Josiah, what the Church teaches is true.... what the Bible teaches is true.... so OF COURSE the Bible teaches it, although perhaps not in words YOU CAN SEE." Ah.... that soaked in. An epiphany. This is actually TAUGHT in the Catechism and in official Catholic teaching. I have a current thread here that concerns this called "Tradition and the Bible."
What I soon discovered is that this very flawed epistemology exists outside of Catholicism often MORE than inside. There is a deep and profound and very operative egoism and individualism at word in the church.... like a cancer..... and one way it reveals itself is by this embrace of some Tradition (it may be ecumenical and historic, or very individualistic and new) that is just embraced. Now Catholics and Orthodox are MORE apt to just be honest and admit this is not really found in Scripture but they yet hold it as true. I give 'em a little bit of credit for honesty. But among radical Protestants, this presents a problem (especially for those who SAY Tradition is bad and who have made that part of their Tradition). They'll do EXACTLY what the Catholic does - but lack the honesty and humility to admit it, and (just to shoot themselves in the foot) go on to PROVE that their Tradition isn't in the Bible. But we get the SAME THING: My chosen Tradition is true.... the Bible is true.... so the Bible MUST say what I do but you can't see it."
Check out my "Bible and Tradition" thread.... it's just one of my latest on all this. Also, by MennoSota's demand, I put up one on infant baptism (I actually addressed all his Anabaptist Traditions there, not just Anti-Paedobaptism) but he pretty much evaded it (it's longer and more complex than he deals with).
BUT, friend, our brother is a good guy. SOLID on the issue of monergism and justification. Solidly Christian. He just (so well) reveals a flaw - and he does it more obviously than anyone I know. And not JUST when it comes to his Anabaptist stuff. It's pretty extreme in Evangelicalism (the modern American brand), and just like our brother, most of them don't even realize it.
Side note: When I was an undergrad, about to graduate, I suddenly discovered I lacked a core course needed to graduate. I could fill it with a history class, and I like history, but I just didn't want to take World History or American History AGAIN. But there was an upper division class called "Revolution." I got the profs okay and registered for that. We studied the history of Revolutions - in ancient times and right up to present day. Many you'd never heard of, and some pretty well known (Including the American Revolution). One of many things I learned is that TYPICALLY, they go full circle, they tend to end up pretty much where they started - just the names have changed. The Russian Revolution overthrew the Czar and replaced him with Lenin and Stalin, arguably worse. Just one example. I came to see a connection here.... Luther was a REFORMER (no revolutionary).... one can say similarly about Calvin and Henry (at least theologically). But soon REVOLUTIONARIES entered the picture (Zwingli, Anabaptists at first) ... and IMO, I think we can see how they took things right back to Rome in a lot of ways, and in some ways, worse.
It's GOOD to have you in the community! GREAT to see you getting involved in the threads, as time permits. Thank you.
- Josiah