Timothy

An hour long but healthy exchange with a very learned Roman Catholic apologist, Timothy. This is the first time in all my years on the street have I encountered someone adept in church history. He contended for the Roman Catholic faith. But one must still wrestle with the question, "is the work of Christ on the  cross ultimately sufficient, or is it still deficient?" Can one trust God fully, his salvation in Christ being sufficient, or must he still add to what God has done, if it is deficient? 

Much of our exchange dealt with church history and the church fathers, which I am all too thankful to the Lord for giving me directions in studying them previously. One of the major misconception about the church fathers is they were Roman Catholics. It is important to understand what they meant when they called themselves "catholic," and many Christians today still confuse "catholic" as being "Roman Catholic".A The two do not hold the same meaning.

That said, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of studying church history, in relation to the proper handling of biblical text. Jaroslav Pelikan defines historical theology as being "the study of the interpretation of Scripture and the formulation of doctrine by the church of the past." It helps define orthodoxy from heresy. The term orthodoxy is what the New Testament refers to as sound doctrine (1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1). It reflects in summary form all the teachings of Scripture and which the church is bound to believe and obey.1 Heresy, on the other hand, is anything that contradicts sound doctrine. It is false belief that misinterprets Scripture or that ignores some of the teaching of Scripture, or that incorrectly puts together all the teaching of Scripture.2

Historical theology also provides sound biblical interpretation and theological formulations. It presents stellar examples of faith, love, courage, hope, obedience, and mercy. The lives of Polycarp, Perpetua, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine, the Cappadocian Fathers and many many more who in one form or another died as martyrs or valiantly championed causes against numerous heresies shaped the very foundation of what we believe today. It protects against individualism that is rampant today among Christians. Says McGrath, 

Tradition is like a filter, which allows us to identify suspect teachings immediately. To protest that "We have never believed this before!" is not necessarily to deny the correctness of the teaching in question. But it is to raise a fundamental question: why have Christians not believed this before? And, on further investigation, it usually turns out that there are often very good reasons for not accepting that belief. The past here acts as both a resource and a safeguard, checking unhelpful and unorthodox doctrinal developments by demanding that their supporters explain their historical and theological credentials.3

Historical theology also helps the church understand the historical developments of its beliefs, but enables it to express those beliefs in a contemporary form. Richard Muller explains, "Not only does doctrine necessarily arise in a historical context, it also arrives at contemporary expression only by way of meditation on and through earlier stages of historical expression." It encourages the church to focus on the essentials, that is, to major on the areas that already been emphasized repeatedly throughout the history of the church.

Perhaps, as beneficiaries of the heritage of doctrinal development sovereignly overseen by Jesus Christ, the church of today is privileged to enjoy a sense of belonging to the church of the past.4

May the LORD grant dear Timothy grace to have eyes to see that salvation is an undeserved gift from God solely by faith on Jesus Christ and never through any fallible man made system of works. Good works is the fruit of that salvation, not the means to it.

A. Liftin, Brian, Getting to Know The Church Fathers, (Grand Rapids, Baker, 2016), 11.
1. J.I. Packer, Orthodoxy, in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, (Grand Rapids, Baker, 2001), 875.
2. Allison, Greg, Introduction: Historical Theology, (Zondervan, 2011), 24
3. McGrath, "the Importance of Tradition," 167
4. Allison, 29