Tradition and Transformation

"Tradition and Transformation" - how could these two words possibly belong in the same sentence? In a recent blog article, Things You Can’t Invent, Fr. Stephen Freeman explains that nearly everything we have is something that has been handed down to us -

"Most of the things in our lives are not of our own making – they were given to us. Our language, our culture, the whole of our biology and the very gift of life itself is something that has been 'handed down' to us. In that sense, we are all creatures of 'tradition' (traditio='to hand down'). Of course, these things that are not of our own making and are the least controllable are also those things that we take most for granted. We may hate our culture and our biology, but will still have to use our traditioned language (or someone’s traditioned language) to say so. Tradition is simply the most foundational, inescapable aspect of human existence."

Lately we have been bombarded with instances in which certain public persons have tried to change their gender or race, resulting in something ludicrous if it weren't so sad. One can't re-invent oneself as a different race or gender - these are permanent characteristics we are born with, and they will be with us until death, if not beyond. Fr. Freeman goes on to say -

"A common fallacy in the contemporary world is to treat tradition as an option, the sort of thing you can value or dismiss at will. A number of contemporary Christian groups dismiss tradition as a stumbling block and hindrance to the spiritual life. But such an attitude creates a false spirituality, one that assumes that we can live without the necessity of tradition.

"The Christian faith is a Tradition. This is inescapable. Everyone who names Jesus as “Lord,” does so because the story of Jesus, and even the reality of His Person have been handed down to them from someone else. The concepts with which they practice their discipleship will not be new – they will have been handed down as well. Christianity is a traditioned faith."

Every culture, religion, Christian sub-grouping, or denomination has its traditions, things handed down from previous leaders and generations. Even if they are not called traditions, in reality that is what they are. Some traditions are merely cultural preferences, such as the types of ethnic foods certain nationalities prefer. But other traditions claim to be based on unchanging, divinely revealed truths. If a Baptist were to attend a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses and begin sharing his beliefs about salvation by grace or singing "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound" - he would be quickly given the left foot of dis-fellowship. And conversely, if a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon were to begin asserting his doctrine that Jesus Christ was a finite, created being, he would be invited out of an Orthodox Christian meeting.

There are both "traditions of men," and "Holy Tradition." But heterodox doctrines, beliefs that do not agree with Orthodox Holy Tradition, often are not bluntly and overtly asserted: they are gradually insinuated, hinted at, then perhaps using "modern science" or isolated Scripture verses out of context they are quietly introduced: "Modern genetics tells us that some people are born with indeterminate gender" (using this extremely rare case to excuse those people who choose to have their gender altered) - or - "Nobody actually witnessed Christ's resurrection from the dead," implying that He didn't really rise from the dead, although the blinding light of some angels appearing caused the guards to become like dead men. Nobody has witnessed a nuclear explosion with their bare eyes and had their vision remain intact, either!

The step-brother of our Lord Jesus, Jude, humbly describes himself as "a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" (Jude 1:1). He was so overwhelmed by the majesty of Jesus Christ that he would not make any claim to a relationship in the flesh, but rather he was content to be just a servant of Christ the Lord. He went on to write -

"Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe" (Jude 1:3-5).

Here we see the words "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints": the word "delivered" in Greek is paradotheisi, meaning "traditioned" or "handed down." Jude tells us that we must "contend earnestly for the faith", we must not sit back quietly when some people try to insert ideas that contradict traditional Christian doctrines, such as saying that Jesus Christ was merely a good man or a prophet but not the pre-eternal Son of God, or that all religions point to the same god. Indeed, Christ was a good Man and a prophet, but He was also the eternal Word of God incarnate. And yes, there are many so-called gods, but even human logic tells us there can only be one true God, one Absolute Being.

How should we "contend earnestly for the faith"? Are we to be contentious and argumentative? Just the opposite: those people who rely on "modern science" are often proud, contentious and argumentative in their efforts to put down any and all traditional beliefs. Fr. Freeman continues - "the rejection of tradition creates a false sense of competency. One of the great errors of our contemporary society is its assumption that the present exists in order to correct the past. There are inherent utopian assumptions about our ability to create a better world. The arrogance of those assumptions consistently produces a world of unforeseen consequences."

Our contending for the faith must be "marked by a spirit of humility and stewardship. Through no particular competence other than being born at this time, we have been given stewardship for everything that has gone before. It is the treasure of countless lives" - writes Fr. Freeman. The Apostle Paul tells us - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think humbly, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith" (Romans 12:2-3). Our faith that has been handed down to us is not something we just now dreamed up, but rather it is apportioned to us by God. To humbly contend for the faith requires real transformation of our character.

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 21 June 2015.)

'Social Constructs' or Objective Reality?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This key sentence summarizes the theological and philosophical basis for equality, life, liberty and seeking happiness. My ancestor Roger Sherman was the only person to sign all four founding documents of the Unites States: this Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. His descendant, General Sherman, led many battles of the Civil War to secure equality and liberty for the millions of Africans who had been enslaved in the U.S. So I feel a close connection to these immortal words. Now we are engaged in a great (at times not very) civil debate as to whether this nation or any other nation can long endure the excesses of liberty at the expense of life.

The theological and philosophical foundation for human rights is not the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but rather "our Creator" - the Lord of the Universe. Rights such as the right to life, the right to freedom of religion, and the right to seeking happiness and meaning in life - are all given to us from God. They are not created by legislation of the state, nor should they be taken away by its legislation. If, however, we deny our Creator Who made us in His image, male and female as He created us, we ourselves undermine those very rights. If freedom to be creative and express ourselves becomes the freedom to refuse to re-create life, we will lose not only our freedom, but life itself: society cannot survive the abandonment of procreation for the sake of pursuing "happiness" - sexual pleasure radically separated from creating the family, the foundation of society.

In the article A Warning from Canada: Same-Sex Marriage Erodes Fundamental Rights the author, who lives in Canada and is a child of a gay father who died of AIDS, tells us that "in Canada, freedoms of speech, press, religion, and association have suffered greatly due to government pressure." That country federally mandated same-sex marriage in 2005, when "Canada’s gay marriage law, Bill C-38, included a provision to erase the term 'natural parent' and replace it across the board with gender-neutral 'legal parent' in federal law. Now all children only have 'legal parents,' as defined by the state. By legally erasing biological parenthood in this way, the state ignores children’s foremost right: their immutable, intrinsic yearning to know and be raised by their own biological parents." Here we witness a clear violation of human rights in the audacious move of the state to seize control over natural parenthood, replacing it with a legal fiction of "legal parenthood." The article continues -

"Mothers and fathers bring unique and complementary gifts to their children. Contrary to the logic of same-sex marriage, the gender of parents matters for the healthy development of children. We know, for example, that the majority of incarcerated men did not have their fathers in the home. Fathers by their nature secure identity, instill direction, provide discipline, boundaries, and risk-taking adventures, and set lifelong examples for children. But fathers cannot nurture children in the womb or give birth to and breast-feed babies. Mothers nurture children in unique and beneficial ways that cannot be duplicated by fathers."

In Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog article Speaking of Reality he explains that the massive propaganda brainwashing movement by the liberal media to redefine the family, gender and parenthood is actually the brainchild of "Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida – both generally described as Post-Modernists. Certain aspects of their ideas have roots in Marxist theory." Fr. Stephen explains - "The idea that certain realities are 'social constructs' is in the process of becoming mainstreamed with its popularization in the culture’s discussion of sex and gender-related issues. The argument is that various aspects of reality are only perceived in a certain manner because of a social agreement – a sort of collective prejudice. We see and we label because we have been taught to see and to label. And what can be taught can be un-taught. Thus the un-teaching and the re-teaching become a mode of social change."

So according to Post-Modernism, reality isn't really real, it's merely a figment of our collective imagination, a "social construct." But if that is true, then Post-Modernism and its social constructs themselves are also unreal, just figments of our collective imagination. This reminds me of a puppy chasing its tail, or rather like a snake eating more and more of its own tail until it eventually devours itself. As the saying goes, "The revolution devours its own children."

Thus we have the logical absurdity of stating there are no absolutes except for the statement that there are no absolutes. Secular Humanism/Social Darwinism redefines humanity as nothing more than a mindless, purposeless evolution of multi-cellular life with no more value than a bacteria or a bug, the exception being the Social Darwinists, who consider themselves to be superior beings like the Greek gods and goddesses - see the video at Darwin Day in America.

Secular Humanism/Social Darwinism makes a deal with the Devil, like Esau selling his soul for a bowl of pottage. The Bolsheviks in the 1917 Russian Revolution promised "land, peace and bread" - none of which they were able to produce. As Fyodor Dostoyevsky foresaw in The Brothers Karamazov chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" -

"Oh, never, never will they feed themselves without us! No science will give them bread while yet they are free, but the end of it will be that they will bring us their freedom and place it at our feet and say to us: 'Enslave us if you will, but feed us.' At last they themselves will understand that freedom and earthly bread in sufficiency for all are unthinkable together, for never, never will they be able to share between themselves! They will also be persuaded that they will never be able to be free, because they are feeble, depraved, insignificant and mutinous. You [Christ] promised them the bread of heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare in the eyes of a weak, eternally depraved and eternally dishonorable human race with the earthly sort?"

Real, objective reality and the real Bread of Life are to be found in Christ, "Who is the icon of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things are held together" (Col. 1:15-17). There is structure, intelligence and logic built into the universe. When God created the cosmos - "In the beginning was the Word [Logos = logic], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that has been made", as the Apostle John wrote (John 1:1-3).

And yet, Social Darwinists, even though they can see the evidence of intelligent design built into the universe, will find a way to refuse to believe in an Intelligent Designer: in the TEDx Talk Life's 'Complex Interacting Molecular Machines' Appear 'Built by an Engineer', biologist and engineer Stephen Larson, who holds a PhD in neuroscience, says - "what we understand of course is that life evolved on the planet over billions of years." Nonetheless he admits that he finds the extremely "well organized" nature of life's "technology" to be "unsettling." He goes on to say -

[A]s science continues to reveal how life works, we find again and again that the magic that seems to distinguish between things that are alive and things that are not [is] actually created by complex interacting molecular machines. These microscopic machines are as precise and intricate as a mechanical watch, but instead of being run on gears and springs, are powered by the fundamental rules of physics and chemistry. Our understanding of the precise coiling and uncoiling of the DNA molecule, or the way that one molecule can literally walk almost robotically along the tightrope of another molecule, continue to show us again and again, this molecular clockwork is real and pervasive.

Now what's most unsettling to me about this is that we didn't build these machines. As someone originally trained as an engineer, I've got to be honest with you, I kind of hate this. As the most clever species on the planet, we kind of like to think of ourselves as the builders of the most sophisticated technology in the entire universe. We invented written language and the printing press. We cured polio and sent a man to the moon. Heck, we even took savage beasts and turned them into kittens, and then built a global communications network to share pictures of them. That's pretty impressive.

And yet when I look through a microscope at a humble bacterium -- by the way its ancestors were on the planet a billion years ago, billions of years ago -- I still wonder how it really works. Because the mechanical watch that is life is not like any watch we've ever built. It is biological gears and springs, but they fill rooms and buildings and cities of a vast microscopic landscape that's bustling with activity. On the one hand it's extremely well organized, but on the other hand the sheer scale of all of this unfamiliar well-organized stuff that happens in there makes me feel that I've stumbled onto an alternate landscape of technology that's built by an engineer a million times smarter than me.

It is difficult for me to fathom how a scientist, with such overwhelming evidence of design staring him in the face, can continue to believe that the universe somehow invented itself by pure random chance. As St. Paul wrote - "By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible" (Heb. 11:3). Here we must take another look at what Fyodor Dostoyevsky foresaw in The Brothers Karamazov -

It is not miracles that dispose realists to belief. The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Even if he admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognized by him. Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith. If the realist once believes, then he is bound by his very realism to admit the miraculous also.

In 1 Cor. 10:3-5 we read - "For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Our task in these days is to overthrow the ideologies that are attempting to exalt themselves over God and displace the Creator with man, the creature. To do this, we must first know Christ, and then make Him known!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 06 Jun. 2015.)