Are We
Born As Adults, Or As Babies?
This question sounds simple enough for everyone to answer
correctly,... well almost everyone. Some..., believe it or not, say there were
cases in which some were never babies and they had to have started as
adults.
Jesus Christ, who we all know to be, the Son of GOD, and
therefore a divine person, began His humble life in His human form, His human
nature, as a little helpless baby, just like the rest of us. He needed his
mother and his foster father, St. Joseph, just like we needed our mother and
father, to feed us and tend to our needs. Jesus grew and advanced in wisdom and
age (Luke 2:52) just like we all do. It is said that the 'Creator of the
Universe' was taught how to make furniture by St. Joseph, as Jesus became a
carpenter too. Jesus later became the 'Bridegroom' (Matt 9:15) and the Church
which He founded in Matt 16:18 became His 'Bride'. Jesus had shown us the
humble, infant beginning of the Bridegroom, the facts that He matured in growth,
learned, and gained in wisdom. But what about the Bride?
Now, some try to show that the 'Bride' started as an adult
from birth. They look at the Catholic Church of today and try to equate it to
the 'infant' Church which Jesus Christ founded, by looking at the 'Bride' as
fully grown and matured from the very beginning. I actually received an inquiry
as to why Peter cannot be found in the book of Revelation, named as the first
Pope. Another asked me to show him the Immaculate Conception (defined in 1854)
in Scripture (the last book of Scripture was written about 95-100 A.D.).
Questions like this abound and few fundamentalists can accept the fact that the
Church actually had an infancy.
By the way, who or what is the Church? The Church is all
of us. We are the body, and Jesus Christ is the head (Eph 1:22-23, Col 1:24).
Like any body we grow and increase in wisdom, and must be fed, both bodily and
spiritually.
A newborn baby, being not ready for solid food as of yet, has to be fed with
milk. So too, the infant 'Bride' Church, had to be fed with milk..."I fed you
with milk, not with solid food, for you were not yet ready for it (1Cor 3:2)."
It takes awhile for the mind and the body to become accustomed to this new
Christian environment. The Bride had to advance in age and wisdom by taking one
step at a time, just like the Bridegroom, or like a little baby learning to
walk.
It is much easier for the baby to mature than it was for the
'baby Church'. After all, most babies do not have to be concerned with mere
survival as the Church did. Remember, from the very beginning, the Church was
persecuted by both the Jews and the Romans (and others as well), all vowing to
eradicate this 'dangerous' new religion. The Church had to 'go underground' and
practice in secret in catacombs, and use codes such as the fish symbol, as a
sign of recognition to one another. The Apostles and Bishops were under constant
fear of being persecuted and martyred, and they had to move in secrecy. In fact,
most of the Apostles were caught and martyred, as well as most of the early
Bishops and Popes (Bishop of Rome then). I would say this tremendous persecution
slowed the progress of growth for the fledgling Church, but by no means stopped
it. This persecution lasted for hundreds of years for the early Church, and it
did not end until 313, when the Roman Emperor Constantine signed the 'Edict of Milan' allowing
tolerance of Christianity.
After 313, the Church emerged from the underground and
practiced openly. The very early Church consisted of Bishoprics or Sees, a
Bishop would have his own domain in various cities such as Antioch, or
Jerusalem, or Ephesus. The two main cities were Constantinople, called the
Eastern Church, and Rome, called the Western Church. It was obvious from the
beginning that there had to be one authority, so Rome was given preference as to
be the authority from which all other Churches would follow. The Church was now
no longer an infant but a child. And as a child there was a lot to
learn.
What! A lot to learn? Jesus Christ is the head of the
Church, so what is there to learn? We should have known it all from the very
beginning! Aha, that is where fundamentalists err. "And I
will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to dwell with you
forever, the Spirit of Truth whom the WORLD cannot receive, because it neither
sees Him nor knows Him. But YOU shall know Him, because He will dwell with YOU,
and be in YOU. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to YOU." John 14:16-18. So Jesus Christ will send His Spirit of Truth, not
to the world, but to the Church He founded. He will not abandon it as parents
would a child. He would care for His Church and not leave it orphaned, and He
would do this forever, Matt 28:20.
This was foretold in Isaiah 59:21,
"My Spirit that is in you, and My words that I have
put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of
your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, said the Lord, from
henceforth and forever."
So now that the Church
is guaranteed the Spirit of Truth forever, what is next?
Next we have John 14:25-26, "These
things I have spoken to you while yet dwelling with you. But the Advocate, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He WILL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS,
and bring to your mind whatever I have said to you." Hmmm, He will teach you ALL things... Future tense, 'He WILL'. He
did not say, He 'has taught' you all things did He? So, over a period of time
the Holy Spirit will teach ALL things to the Church which Jesus Christ founded.
Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the Church, will build His Church, brick by
brick, over a period of time, and do it slowly, as a child grows from infancy to
adulthood.
Now, if we take a look at Church history, isn't this
exactly what has happened? The fledgling Church had its first worldwide council
at Nicea in 325, only 12 years after being freed from the yoke of Roman tyranny.
Now the Church went to work, fulfilling the teaching of the Holy Spirit, just as
Jesus Christ had said. The first thing the Bishops did at Nicea, was to decree
that Jesus Christ is GOD, that He is equal to the Father and to the Holy Spirit,
and they declared the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as expressed in the Nicene
Creed. Truly, the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church which Jesus
Christ founded. What a marvelous beginning to a Church approaching
puberty.
Another truth was revealed to the young Church by the
Holy Spirit in 397, at the Council of Carthage. The Council finalized the Canons
of both the Old and New Testaments. The Old would have 46 books, including the
Deuterocanonicals, and the New would have the 27 books that all Bibles have
today. The Bible was born by an infallible decision of the Catholic
Church.
At the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Blessed Virgin
Mary was declared the Mother of GOD, as revealed by the teaching of the Holy
Spirit.
At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Jesus Christ was declared to
be one person with two natures, one divine and one human.
In the second
Council of Nicea in 787, it was revealed by the Holy Spirit, and decreed by the
Council, to preserve and protect Holy Tradition.
At the Council of Lyons
in 1245, it was decreed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the
Son.
In 1545, at the Council of Trent, the Bishops reaffirmed the Canons
of both testaments of the Bible as set forth by the Council of Carthage, and
declared that the official Bible of the Church to be the Latin Vulgate, which
was completed by St. Jerome in 404. This Council also decreed that the Bishops
are the direct descendants of the Apostles, something that had to have been
revealed by the Holy Spirit.
In 1854, the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception was announced. At Vatican I in 1870, the infallibility of the Pope
was decreed, and in 1950 the doctrine of the Assumption was
revealed.
There you have it. To this day, the Bride is growing and
maturing, and is gaining in wisdom as revealed by the Holy Spirit. The Bride is
far from defining all truth as promised by Jesus Christ, but a great deal has
been revealed to her over the last 1900 plus years. The Church is an adult now,
and the Holy Spirit is still speaking, and is still teaching, and will continue
to do so until the end of time.
�
Written by Bob Stanley on October
17, 1997
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