My Paradigm Shift: Part II

My first paradigm shift had to do with losing my politics, after that it was time to lose my religion. Not lose my faith but rather those things that we use to help hold up or faith. In my case I would say that it was modern conservative protestant evangelicalism. It all started with a simple question. I remember the conversation clearly, sitting around our dining room table talking with a friend who was seriously looking into Eastern Orthodoxy (he has since joined the Eastern Orthodox Church). The question that we discussed in our conversation was, "Why is it that we accept the canon of scripture, the 66 books in the protestant Bible (I say protestant because the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include the Apocrypha so they have a few more Old Testament books), so why do we accept this canon of scripture decided by a Church council in AD 393, yet reject so many of the traditions handed down by these same church leaders?"

I have to admit that this question threw a wrench in so many "givens" that I had accepted and believed to be true or false my entire life. For example, these same church leaders prayed to the saints of old, baptized their infants, believed that the bread and wine were more than just a symbol of Christ, they used icons and liturgies in their worship, they had a strict hierarchy of Church structure... all things that I had grown up rejecting. In this new light it seemed like great arrogance to throw off the traditions of your forefathers who were godly and intelligent men.

So was I wrong to not only ignore these 1700 year old traditions but hold some of them with contempt? This kicked off a year long journey of studying the Eastern Orthodox faith and traditions. It was actually a very difficult time spiritually for me. I felt that if I continued down this path, a large part of the faith of my youth could be proven wrong. It wasn't like I was considering converting to Islam or Buddhism or something, it was essentially the same faith, but yet very different.

I started meeting with 3 other guys every Monday night, not as a Bible study, but simply with the purpose of discussing spiritual ideas. One of them was already Orthodox and had in fact lived as a monk in California for a year, the other was my friend I mentioned earlier who was at the time pursing Orthodoxy and another guy who was protestant, but not attending a specific church at the time.

The group, which I still attend, has since grown to about 8 regulars and maybe 6 or so other guys who come semi-regularly. One of the reasons I love this group so much is because we discuss things that after 25 years of Bible studies, Sunday school, sermons, youth groups and Bible College I have never talked about before. We talked about things like: the "River of Fire" (which I hope to discuss in a later post), the nature of Salvation (it is much broader than I ever imagined), justification & sanctification, saints of old, monasticism, veneration of saints, the contrast of American Christendom with Eastern Orthodoxy, etc...

For me it was and is a place of fellowship and learning. I was there to broaden my horizons and see my faith in a new light. I wasn't there to debate them. I would ask questions until I understood and we would discuss things but I never argued with them, that wasn't what it was about for me.

Just to name a few topics... it has deconstructed my idea of Salvation, a topic which I think tends to be shallow here in America. It has completely redefined my view of Hell and Justification and in so doing completely changed my view of Gods wrath, which in itself has had great practical implications upon my life. It has also opened my eyes to the importance of the incarnation.

I have now worked on this post on 4 separate occasions in about as many weeks and I am afraid I am loosing my focus, soooo to sum it up: One of the main reasons I was attracted to Eastern Orthodoxy was that it had so much depth, and I felt like modern evangelicalism was so shallow. Evangelicalism itself is only limited to about 100 years, and protestantism to around 500, everything between the book of Revelation and Martin Luther is largely overlooked, because they prayed to Mary. Eastern Orthodoxy has a full 2000 years of deep contemplation, reflection and tradition. It is very sad how so much of Christianity ignores that. Instead we are concerned about the latest trends and the newest books. Even though most of us would mock the gospel of "Health and Wealth", this lie of a doctrine has infiltrated most of Evangelicalism to one point or another. We have books like The Prayer of Jabez and How to be a Better You. We ignore deep and moving prayers of the past because "prayer should be from the heart", but instead we are stuck praying to "Father Weejus". You know, "Father, we jus' ask you to bless us today. And we jus' pray that you will be with us..."

Anyway, I am starting to rant and get preachy. Please don't take any of that the wrong way. I have been there and I am still struggling to get out of it. I am so thankful for The Wheatland Mission. It is amazing how God brought us to a group of people who are all somewhere along the same path, who also are tired of shallowness. God has brought us to a place where "Deep calls to deep". Not that I am there, but I think that is part of the point, at least now I know I am not there.