“Philip Jude” and the fullness of corruption

Someone named “Philip Jude” showed up in the comments box of my Mark Shea post yesterday, and we had what he called “a mighty discussion”. He first talked about “Wisdom/Word Christology” being “greatly anticipated in the Old Testament”; he said “The early Church used the Wisdom/Word Christology of Scripture to relate to the Platonism of the pagan world. This is clear and reasonable enough, and I believe it is all Shea was driving at.”

So right away we have someone who seems to know something that most people don’t know about, and right away we have an attempt to minimize the disagreeable nature of Mark Shea’s motives. He also questions my motives for challenging Shea. “Don't you think you're overdoing this a bit much?”

The conversation continued a bit, but I knew I was dealing with “a professional” when he dropped the little quip, “Could you give me your favorite anticipations of Wisdom/Word Christology in the Old Testament (outside Proverbs and Psalms)? Just interested. This is one of my favorite topics. I just finished reading Skarsaune’s ‘Incarnation: Myth or Fact.’”

Oskar Skarsaune is a Norwegian New Testament scholar, the author of several works on early Christianity. I’ve not read him, but I’ve seen his name in Larry Hurtado’s work, “Lord Jesus Christ”. Hurtado noted that Skarsaune had surveyed “the Christian use of the Old Testament in the second and third centuries”. His work has also appeared in the theological journal Themelios, for example. Skarsaune’s name was dropped in such a casual way that it seemed to have been an effort to try to impress me or maybe catch me off guard.

The disingenuous nature of “Philip Jude’s” motivations became fully clear to me, however, when I got home last night, and followed his “electron trail”. His immediate profile link goes to a blog entitled A Heart of Flesh. There he quotes liberally from Augustine and Aquinas, as well as Charles Spurgeon and Charles Wesley.

At the bottom of some earlier posts is the signature @ Catholic Lane. A click to the link takes you to a reprint of an article by Philip Primeau. Another click on his name takes you to an Author Archive, and at the bottom is the following attribution: “Philip Primeau is an associate editor at Catholic Lane. He also blogs at a-heart-of-flesh.blogspot.com. So there’s our man Philip Jude.  

Normally, I don’t go out of my way to find out who anonymous commenters are. I know folks who prefer to remain anonymous, and I respect their privacy. But this individual clearly tried to throw me off the trail when he said “I am particularly fascinated by Logos Christology because it piques the philosophical (or wannabe philosophical) dimensions of my intellect.”

He is clearly someone who has studied philosophy. The “wannabe” comment is an example not only of false humility but of mental reservation, which was defined in a court document as “a concept developed and much discussed over the centuries, which permits a churchman knowingly to convey a misleading impression to another person without being guilty of lying”. Maybe he did this reflexively, maybe intentionally, but the effect was to try to persuade me he was some kind of student and no real threat.

But he is a threat. A self-styled “Augustinian” (he also posted a comment in Steve’s post Judging God’s Morality), here is the central thrust of his message, which came far down the comment thread:

I am catholic, by the way. (Probably obvious by this point.) I certainly hold Scripture in high regard. Certainly, this is not the case for all of us. Mark Shea seems like a good enough guy to me, if a little self-righteous.

The Bible might not receive as much attention among Catholics, but that is because we have a fuller sense of God's activity among men. The Word did not only become Flesh and Book, but Eucharist and Sacrament and Church, too.

We trust and love the Bible because of the Church, which is Christ's body (Colossians 1:24), the communion of saints (I Corinthians 12), a spiritual house of living stones (I Peter 2:5), holy Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:22), the "pillar and ground of the truth" (I Timothy 3:15). Christ did not bother to write down so much as a single word, but He took the time to establish His church and bequeath it with the power to represent Him (Matthew 10:40) and judge for Him (John 20:23).

The Bible is not enough. God’s word to man is not enough for us. We can’t “trust and love the Bible” because it is God’s word spoken to us. We have to “trust and love the Bible” because of the Roman Catholic Church.

Look at the method here that he uses. It’s pure bait-and-switch. I’ve accused Roman Catholics of being dishonest with their approach among Protestants, and here we have a very clear, living example of that. “Philip Jude” came here with the unspoken agenda of perhaps “reaching out” and giving us “Prots” a taste of God’s “fuller” calling – which is something we reject, by the way. Though Philip can show “Prots” how truly magnanimous he is – doing exactly what Shea was talking about, “taking the best of whatever we humans come up with and pressing it into the worship of God” – only Philip Jude is able to present these wise “Prots”, with a wink and a nod that, even though they were smart, talented men, they did not possess “the fullness of the faith”.  

Philip Jude is feeding us a line. He is trying to sell Christians all that they already have, plus, throw in Rome for “fullness”.

In truth, Philip Jude, the church is Christ’s body – but Rome is no part of that. True saints may boast of union with Christ. We believe in the communion of saints – but we are united in Christ, and not through some artificial structure or Roman-imposed hierarchy. The church indeed is a spiritual house of living stones, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The church is Mount Zion. The church preaches the truth.

In truth, Philip Jude, Christ’s true church has all of those things, minus the corrupt doctrines of Rome. In no wise did Christ “establish” or “bequeath” anything in Rome to represent him. But the wolf in sheep’s clothing would impose himself upon Christ’s sheep. It is the wolf who will, contrary to Christ’s commands sit himself down in a place of honor, and then fabricate elaborate stories to try to persuade the church that he had been invited all along. Roman Catholicism, in fact, does not offer “the fullness of the faith”, but “the fullness of corruption”.

I don’t know if Philip Jude will come back and explain these things here, or interact with some of the challenges we’ve presented him with, or if he’ll go back to his own blog and write about how unreasonable some converts might be. I guess we’ll see.