New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:
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Thank you for this.
If I understand what you mean by ‘culture,’ I have often called that ‘experience’ which seems to be hard to argue with, because how can you argue with something that happened to someone? Scott Hann, for instance, talking about a time he couldn’t find a book in his (truly impressive) library, so he prayed to St Anthony and found it. Guess praying to saints works then? Or, as you spoke of, the RTS professor going to mass until finally it dawns on him: it is Jesus!
But what about the experiences/culture of reformed protestants or broad evangelicals? Do we not have real spiritual experiences? And aren’t our experiences even more real since we have God’s clear Word sanctioning and proving our experiences to be true, holy, and really spiritual? Jesus answers my prayers all the time, and I know it is Him answering them because I pray in His name as He told me to. I have nothing from Scripture to give me infallible assurance that so-and-so saint has heard and answered my prayer, even if it came true. I could always doubt it as mere coincidence, or worse, a false spirit answering the prayer. This is precisely why when we experience the sacraments we can do so with total assurance that God meets us in them, the whole Christ and all His benefits are truly given to us, sealed to us, and spiritually present ‘no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to our outward senses’ (WLC 170). Always comes down to the Word of God.
I didn’t know you were friends with Paul Quay. I recently got his Christian Meaning of Human Sexuality. Looking forward to reading it.
One question: Why do you think reformed/presbys have been so bad on ethics/sexuality, especially when compared to RCs?
My initial guess was antinomian/cheap grace cancer hit sometime ago and made us lazy, because we just don’t fear God. But ethics/sexuality has everything to do with caring for the sheep who are physically standing right there in front of you. Either something else is the problem or antinomian/cheap grace is really THAT bad: to make a shepherd completely drop all his responsibilities and duties to the detriment of the poor lambs.
Then again, Rome has it’s sexual abuse crisis just as the reformed do… Lord Jesus have mercy.
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Pastor Bayly,
Thank you. So helpful.
I can attest CRW men do seem to idolize the mass…
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I listened to this podcast, and was surprised, and also not surprised, to hear that Kamilla Ludwig had gone to Rome.
Remembering her comments from the Bayly Blog days and her own personal blog, I decided to she what she was up to. I learned that she passed away 2 years ago. She had been living in a nursing home. It was sobering to think about how much time had really gone by since I had seen one of her comments. She was only 3 years younger than my parents. R.I.P.
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Sad to say, after she converted to Roman Catholicism, she moved to Minnesota and didn’t hear from her again. Mary Lee and I had been privileged with a visit from her here in our home. R.I.P indeed.
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