Purify Your Bride

Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.
Mt 24:35 Mk 13:31 Lk 21:33

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Mt 16:18

Progress requires us to build on what previous generations have done. We need to discard what they did that was bad and develop what they did that was good. But to do that we need to be able to tell the good from the bad. Jesus gives us some clues in these verses.

First of all, I am not a Greek scholar but I have heard preachers talk about how the verb tense in the first verse refers to an ongoing process that will complete in the future. So it is not strictly a future event Jesus is talking about but a process of degradation and decay and eventual collapse of this world. Similarly the reference to building the church is not a one time event. Creation is instantaneous. Building takes time. It is a process. So we are living in an era where we should expect to see the church being built by Jesus while the world should show more and more signs of the destruction it is headed for.

We see many Christians acting as if the opposite is true. That truth they find in the church is ever shrinking. Sola Scriptura says that Jesus cannot build the church beyond what is explicitly in scripture. But new opinions on scripture come out all the time. So things that seemed clear 100 years ago are now seen as questionable. So rather than Jesus building His church you have a bunch of people chipping away at the faith.

What about the world? Do Christians see it as passing away? Some do and some don’t. There is liberal Christianity in both the protestant and Catholic worlds that does look to the world as a source of progress. The thinking tends to damn Christianity with faint praise. It is about the individual. It provides comfort to people to believe some things about God. But it does not matter if they don’t add up logically. Real truth is to be found in science. Real progress includes everyone from all world views.

Of course conservative protestants reject this but often offer no alternative vision of progress. Conserving is a negative thing. We want to avoid losing something. Building a church is a positive thing. Jesus wants to raise humanity up to new levels. But it requires a vision of church that can grow and develop over time. People can see that the world is changing fast. It will either be great or it will be a disaster. But it will need the word of God to be living and active.

Only the catholic church offers a true alternative view of progress. When Jesus said His words would not pass away he wasn’t just talking about something that would cease with the ascension. Jesus continues to speak through His body, the church. So we have a developing understanding of God and man. Jesus builds His church higher and higher so each generation can discover new things. God knows our need to explore frontiers.