Many of You May Remember the Reformation

Many of You May Remember the Reformation May 26, 2015

Funny thing. In a classic display of Truth Cancer, wherein heresy mutates into its opposite over time, many Protestants (who originally broke with the Church over her alleged “legalism” are now champions of salvation through ceremonial works of the law: keeping kosher, observing Jewish feasts, and doing all the other stuff Acts 15 and Sts. Peter and Paul said were complete unnecessary for salvation.

Note to Catholics: We are still saved by God the Father, through Christ the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit, whom we receive by grace through faith expressing itself in works of love. The ceremonial works of the Mosaic law remain, what they always were: signs pointing to Christ and completely unable to save us. See the letter to the Galatians. Or just read this:

See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.(Col 2:8–3:4).


Browse Our Archives