The Elephant in the Room

In the last two essays we've been considering the question - "Is perfection possible, and if so, how much?" And the answer was - "Just barely!" In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus Christ said - "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Mat. 5:48) and "Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it" (Mat. 7:13-14). When someone asked Him - "Lord, are they few who are saved?" He said to them, "Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able" (Lk. 13:23-24).

So... what's the elephant in the room? What are the unspoken and likely unconscious assumptions in our minds when we hear such sayings of the Lord? Perhaps we say to ourselves - "Oh, that's really not possible in today's world!" or "No problem, I've got it made!" The former implies that I'm out of luck, there's no way I can live up to it. And the latter implies that I may think too highly of myself, that I'm one of God's very special people. Where do these ideas come from?

As I wrote in the 12 Nov. issue of Hosken-news, Romans 5:12 is the key verse: "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, in that all sinned." When St. Jerome translated the original Greek New Testament into the Latin Vulgate, this verse became: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin death: and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned" (1899 Douay-Rhiems Catholic Bible). Note "in whom" (masculine pronoun) vs. the Greek - "in that" (neuter pronoun).

The neuter pronoun is just one letter in Greek, but either Jerome's knowledge of Greek wasn't that great, or he held a prior belief that it *must* refer to Adam, but in any case, he rendered it as "him," and This One Letter has changed the West's dominant theological system! Based mainly on this verse in the Latin Vulgate, St. Augustine developed his doctrine of original sin and guilt passing on from Adam to all men. And even though most modern Bible translations including the modern Catholic Bible have corrected this translation error, the Western doctrine of original sin and guilt in all of us has remained.

St. Augustine built his doctrine of predestination mainly on this verse. If I'm guilty of Adam's original sin but God's grace is not intended for me, I'm predestined to damnation, the situation is hopeless - there's nothing I can do about it, I'm out of luck, I can never be perfect. But on the other hand, if God's grace is intended for me, I'm delivered from original sin, predestined to be one of God's elect, I've got nothing to worry about: no matter what I do it's OK, I've got my ticket to heaven! What's wrong with this scene?

First and foremost, this doctrine stating that God chooses to predestine the vast majority of mankind to burn in hell for all eternity has become the primary reason for doubters rejecting the whole idea of God: it is the main cause of atheism in the West. Who would want to believe in such a malevolent deity? How many millions of people today have become atheists because of this false dilemma? The flip side is that if I think I'm one of the elect, one of the righteous, then everything I do is righteous: many who call themselves Christians behave worse than unbelievers because of this self-righteous, false notion.

Secondly, because both the damned and the elect are predestined to their eternal fates, they have no choice in the matter, so they are freed of moral responsibility. How can I responsible for my actions if I have no choice but to do evil? How can I responsible for my actions, on the other hand, if I have no choice but to believe and go to heaven? Thus the doctrine of original sin making all mankind guilty, and the follow-up doctrine of predestination actually demolish the idea of sin: nothing is either right or wrong, good or bad, because moral responsibility does not exist. We are merely animals that follow our natural instincts. So these two doctrines are self-contradictory, they collapse upon themselves.

But the teaching of the Eastern Church doesn't suffer from either of these defects: even though original sin has weakened human nature and made us prone to sin, we still have free will and can choose to resist temptation. The many mentions of "perfect" and "perfection" in the Scriptures are not meaningless, they're very meaningful for us. Here are just a few of them:

"Having been made perfect, He [Christ] became to all of those who obey Him the author of eternal salvation" (Heb. 5:9).

"Therefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on to perfection -- not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God" (Heb. 6:1).

"For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a Son forever Who has been made perfect" (Heb. 7:28).

"God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect" (Heb. 11:40).

"Therefore, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2).

Do you see the pattern emerging here? Christ had the same weakened human nature as we have, He was tempted in every way just as we are, but without yielding to sin. He attained perfection: "having been made perfect." So we are urged to "press on to perfection," "let us run with patience the race."

Life isn't easy, it's a constant battle against the temptations of the lusts of the flesh (sexual sin, gluttony, drugs, alcohol), the lusts of the eyes (greed and coveting), and the pride of life (ego, status). Christ endured to the end, and so can we: "But he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Mat. 24:13).

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 10 Dec. 2016.)