Reformed Theology is Left Behind

During seminary I began to move slowly away from Reformed theology. I began to see that there are more than two views of predestination. In most Reformed circles it is believed that a person is either a Calvinist or an Arminian. What I discovered through my own reading is that there are many, many different views of predestination. There is the Augustinian view, the St. Maximus view, the Scotist view, the Thomist view, the Molinist view, the Lutheran view, the open theism view and on it goes. My initial doubts of Calvinistic predestination began while I was translating Romans 9 from the Greek. I discovered that the context of Romans 9 is not about individual election but corporate election. St. Paul in Romans 8 is answering the Jews who are asking why God has abandoned His people for the Christian Church, the new Israel. The Jews were claiming that this is not fair. Romans 9 is St. Paul's answer to the complaint of the Jews. Also, I was reading a commentary on the 39 Articles of Religion by Edward Harold Brown who called this corporate view of election, "ecclesiastical election". This was amazing to me since I had come to the same conclusion in my own study of predestination. Peter Kreeft's commentary on Aquinas' Summa was helpful in understanding predestination in the context of providence which includes free will. I think this is also the view of Richard Hooker. I began to see God's love for all mankind in a richer way. Another book by Peter Kreeft that was helpful in seeing a more loving God than the Calvinist God was Knowing the Truth of God's Love. The updated version is now titled The God Who Loves You. If God is love (agape) then how can He not desire all to be saved? St. Maximus the Confessor brings more light to predestination when he says that God predestines natures not persons. In Him, in Christ, we are saved by joining our nature to His. St. Athanasius said, "God became man that man might become god." That is what God has predestined before the foundation of the world. The Love of God is strongly emphasized in the Orthodox Church.

From Presbyterian to Anglican

One of my music professors at Huntingdon College was an organist at St. John's Episcopal Church in Montgomery, AL which was the parish Jefferson Davis, the president of the confederacy, attended. I attended a service at St. John's so I could hear my professor play the organ. I was blown away by the beauty and reverence of the service and thought, "This is what is missing in the Presbyterian church." I knew that most of the theology being taught in the Episcopal church was either watered-down Christianity or liberal theology, from which I had just escaped in the Methodist Church. I did not want to go back to a weak theology, but I thought the worship to be an appropriate way to approach a holy God. I wanted a church that was Reformed in her theology and used the Book of Common Prayer for worship. I moved to Escondido, CA to go to Westminster Theological Seminary and while searching for a church to attend in California I heard about a denomination called the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) and I decided to go and see what it was like. It was just what I was looking for. The priest was Reformed in his theology and they used the Book of Common Prayer in worship. Finally, I found a church that was both reformed and liturgical. (I found out later that "Reformed" in Reformed Episcopal refers not to Reformed theology but to the reforming of the Episcopal Church from the Anglo-Catholic tractarian movement - though many in the REC are reformed in their theology.) After joining the REC, I found out about their seminary, Cranmer Theological House, in Shreveport, LA and decided to transfer and pursue an Anglican education. It was at Cranmer Theological House that I was first introduced to anything Orthodox.

Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

From Methodist to Presbyterian

When I went to college I had a growing desire to gain a deeper understanding of Holy Scripture and Christian theology. I began to realize that the Christian depth that I was seeking was not going to be found in the watered down version of Christianity that was being communicated to me in the Methodist church. One day I was introduced to an elder in a Presbyterian church(PCA)who began to tell me about the Protestant Reformation and Reformed theology which is basically the theology of John Calvin. I later started attending the Presbyterian church where I found a place that studied Holy Scripture in a more in-depth way and even talked a little about church history. I learned about the controversies of the Reformation as well as theologians like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. We studied the book of Romans verse by verse and even looked at the meaning of some of the words in Greek. I learned about the sovereignty of God and the doctrine of predestination but the worship of the Presbyterian church did not seem to match the sovereign God we talked about. There did not seem to be any reverence and fear of God like I saw demonstrated in Holy Scripture. I had discovered a theological tradition that took Holy Scripture and history more seriously than the United Methodist but I was frustrated because the worship was so inconsistent with the God we studied. The Presbyterians seem to put a lot of emphasis on the mind but very little on worship. I also began to wonder why we did not talk very much about the first 1500 years of church history. God used the Presbyterians to start me on the path of studying the history of the church and worship which would later lead me down the road to the Orthodox church.

Practical Tips for Orthodox Living

Click the title above and go to Fr. Joseph's blog for a good summary of practical Orthodox living.

My Evangelical Beginning

I was raised in the United Methodist Church. As a child I was taught by word and example to value Holy Scripture and prayer. I remember seeing my mother read the Open Bible at the kitchen table while sipping on a cup of coffee. My father would occasionally sit down with me and read his favorite Psalm 23. Every time I would visit my grandparents we would begin every morning before breakfast with a reading from a Methodist devotional guide called The Upper Room which included readings from Scripture. In my teenage years I would listen to a local Christian radio station with the likes of John MacArthur and Charles Stanley who took Holy Scripture very seriously. Early on, God was laying a foundation for me in Holy Scripture and prayer that would later lead me to the Orthodox Church .

Head in the Heart Faith

"The head seeks God but it is the heart that finds Him. 'For man believes in his heart and so is justified...' writes St. Paul (Romans 10:10). When the head descends into the heart, the head faith becomes a heart faith. It becomes not just a head faith or just a heart faith but a 'head-in-the -heart-faith'." Confronting Controlling Thoughts by Fr. Anthony Coniaris