Note to Peter Leithart: The Reformation was the Rescue

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. – Jesus of Nazareth

We must never forget this. It is Christ Himself who does the unifying in the church.

There is pious-sounding tripe all over the place, and we live in an era when people don’t, by and large, think. They skim, they skip, they form impressions based on the most superficial of considerations. That’s one of the reasons why I try to be as blunt as I can. I know it’s a Presbyterian tradition to try to see things in their most “charitable” light.

But there is such a thing as going too far in the wrong direction.

It is Christ who draws all people to himself. The universality of the church comes from the fact that there are Christians who are united to Christ from all parts of the earth. There are churches all over the earth. The unity of “the Church” is the unity that comes from following Christ, from each of them being in “union with Christ”. It is not a kind of unity that our meager efforts can effect. It is certainly not the kind of unity that comes from pious-sounding drivel of the kind that we hear from Peter Leithart.

Here’s an article by Leithart, where he stumbles all over himself, trying to drum up some “Protestant street cred”. But Leithart contradicts himself all over the place. He says:

I agree with the standard Protestant objections to Catholicism and Orthodoxy: Certain Catholic teachings and practices obscure the free grace of God in Jesus Christ; prayers through Mary and the saints are not encouraged or permitted by Scripture, and they distract from the one Mediator, Jesus; I do not accept the Papal claims of Vatican I; I believe iconodules violate the second commandment by engaging in liturgical idolatry; venerating the Host is also liturgical idolatry; in both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, tradition muzzles the word of God.

Let’s see, “obscuring free grace”, “distracting from the Mediator”, “Papal claims of Vatican I”, “violate the second commandment”, “engage in idolatry”, “muzzle the word of God” …

Those who are against us are against us.

These are not people who, by and large, one ought to be seeking “unity” with. If we are “divided” from them, they are the cause of the divisions. Catering to them, pandering to them, is not going to help them avoid making those errors. Rather, Leithart is encouraging them in their errors. He gives them cover for their errors.

How many evangelicals have started reading someone like Leithart, only to start losing their Protestant identity, and eventually wander off into Rome or Constantinople? Leithart’s pious-sounding messaging is playing havoc with some people.

Leithart says:

The division of the church, especially since the Reformation, has largely been a story of horror and tragedy, with the occasional act of faithful separation thrown in.  I regard the division of the church as one of the great evils of the modern world, which has seen more than its share of evils (many of which are, I believe, quite closely related to the division of the church).  What more horrific sight can we imagine than to see Christ again crucified?  Christ is not divided.  I think our main response to this half-millennium of Western division, and millennium-plus of East-West division should be deep mourning and repentance.

Note to Peter Leithart: The trouble and division already existed, thanks to your Catholic and Orthodox friends. It was the Roman church that was “one of the great evils in the world”. The Reformation was nothing less than the Triumph of the Gospel, re-asserting itself over the actual “horror and tragedy” that the Medieval Roman Church had become. The Reformation was the rescue.

Christ is NOT again crucified in the Reformation. More than at any time perhaps since the Apostolic era, Christ Crucified is proclaimed as He should be in the Reformation. It is the Roman Catholic Church today which, by its very doctrines, denies that Christ crucified is the only source of our grace.

Catholicism and Orthodoxy are impressive for their heritage, the seriousness of much of their theology, the seriousness with which they take Christian cultural engagement.  Both, especially the Catholic church, are impressive for their sheer size. 

The seriousness of their theology? Let’s see, “obscuring grace”, “distracting from the Mediator”, “Papal claims of Vatican I”, “violate the second commandment”, “engage in idolatry”, “muzzle the word of God” …

Not much to take seriously there. And by and large, Roman Catholics, especially in America, simply ignore all that “serious theology” most of them being merely “cultural Catholics”, most of them ignoring “Papal teaching” on contraception. They pay lip service to Rome. In many ways, their attitude toward Rome is more commendable than your own. 

As for their impressive heritage, the church was naked and persecuted before it inherited the Roman Empire. And what did they do with it? See the Dark Ages. See the schisms and the boasting of the Medieval Roman Church.

But when I attend Mass and am denied access to the table of my Lord Jesus together with my Catholic brothers, I can’t help wondering what really is the difference between Catholics and the Wisconsin Synod Lutherans or the Continental Reformed who practice closed communion.  My Catholic friends take offense at this, but I can’t escape it: Size and history apart, how is Catholicism different from a gigantic sect? 

Note to Peter Leithart: Do you really think the Roman Catholic Mass is “the table of the Lord”? What about the “liturgical idolatry” you spoke of? Does that factor in any way into your statement? 

                       

To become Catholic I would [have] to contract my ecclesial world.  I would have to become less catholic – less catholic than Jesus is.  Which is why I will continue to say: I’m too catholic to become Catholic.

In one sense, the word “catholic” means “universal”. But again, this “universal” nature is because of the greatness and largeness of Christ, not because we try to be nice to those who obscure free grace, distract from the Mediator, make grandiose claims, violate the second commandment, engage in idolatry, and otherwise, in many other ways, muzzle the word of God …

What about simply calling a thing what it is?