Coming Home

Some amazing things are happening and I have no doubt that God is behind it all. The Evangelical Theological Society was formed in 1949 to "foster conservative Biblical scholarship by providing a medium for the oral exchange and written expression of thought and research in the general field of the theological disciplines as centered in the Scriptures". Yet sometimes truth gets in the way.

I have long stood my ground when it comes to my faith. Yet I could only do that after much prayer, study and consideration. I answer questions when asked and leave the rest up to God. I'm seeing God work more and more when we are humble enough to get out of the way.

Frank Beckwith, who until this week was president of the Evangelical Theological Society has left that post to become Roman Catholic. He writes in his blog:

During the last week of March 2007, after much prayer, counsel and consideration, my wife and I decided to seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. My wife, a baptized Presbyterian, is going through the process of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). This will culminate with her receiving the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. For me, because I had received the sacraments of Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation all before the age of 14, I need only go to confession, request forgiveness for my sins, ask to be received back into the Church, and receive absolution.

The cries of apostasy abound from those who can't comprehend that the Holy Spirit might lead a person in another direction. One blogger wrote: "This kind of thing is occurring with alarming regularity these days, due in large part to the post-modern, post-Christian abandonment of fidelity to truth." It is happening regularly, but for much different reasons. People are starving for truth. Not a customised version of truth but that beautiful truth that has endured for over 2000 years.

If we all put emotions and the "my team vs. your team" mentality aside there are things that can be learned here. As Frank writes: "There is a conversation in ETS that must take place, a conversation about the relationship between Evangelicalism and what is called the “Great Tradition,” a tradition from which all Christians can trace their spiritual and ecclesiastical paternity."

Yes. We need that conversation but we must do it in a loving and respectful manner. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our self that we are more invested in our own ideas than God's plan.

Frank continues: "I would have never predicted that I would return to the Church, for there seemed to me too many theological and ecclesiastical issues that appeared insurmountable. However, in January, at the suggestion of a dear friend, I began reading the Early Church Fathers as well as some of the more sophisticated works on justification by Catholic authors. I became convinced that the Early Church is more Catholic than Protestant and that the Catholic view of justification, correctly understood, is biblically and historically defensible. Even though I also believe that the Reformed view is biblically and historically defensible, I think the Catholic view has more explanatory power to account for both all the biblical texts on justification as well as the church’s historical understanding of salvation prior to the Reformation all the way back to the ancient church of the first few centuries. Moreover, much of what I have taken for granted as a Protestant—e.g., the catholic creeds, the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Christian understanding of man, and the canon of Scripture—is the result of a Church that made judgments about these matters and on which non-Catholics, including Evangelicals, have declared and grounded their Christian orthodoxy in a world hostile to it. Given these considerations, I thought it wise for me to err on the side of the Church with historical and theological continuity with the first generations of Christians that followed Christ’s Apostles."

I commend Frank Beckwith for his courage and honesty. I pray the God will continue to use this man in a mighty way. Welcome home Frank.