Evangelicals Trying to Avoid Being Catholic

…are finding it hard and hard to do. That’s because Evangelical culture spends a lot of time rediscovering Catholic truths due to the fact that so many Evangelicals are a) thinking a lot about Scripture and b) living in reality rather than trying to prop up human traditions like sola fide and sola scriptura.

When you do that for a long time, you are bound to discover things like “Please be patient. God is not finished with me yet.” What does that sentiment really mean? It means “”Salvation is sacramental, transformational, communal, and eschatological.” And if that perfectly reasonable and biblical take on reality sounds good, then guess what? You’ve just assented to the Catholic Council of Trent.

That’s why I coined the word eupocrisy. Catholics do well to take a glass half full to Evangelicals many times, since they are already much farther toward Catholic thinking than they themselves realize. Of course, there is often much hostility there too, as well as a lot that still doesn’t grok the Catholic sacramental and liturgical worldview. But you’d also be surprised at how quickly Evangelicals who arent’ hostile to the Church catch on. Hunger for the sacraments can be a fast teacher.