Works aren't evil

In Candy's last post in her series on the Law, she writes that Born Again Christians are not under the Law.

Candy writes: Remember what we saw in the above Scripture - "But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." When we walk in the spirit, we produce good FRUITS. Meanwhile, walking in the flesh produces WORKS. Notice in the above Scripture, I bolded fruits and works so that you could more clearly see the distinction. When we walk in the spirit we keep and fulfill the law, but not of ourselves. It is a fruit - it happens automatically. An apple tree does not need to work to produce apples - it happens naturally.

For Candy a work=works of the flesh, which is always bad.
A fruit=fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is always good.

However, not all works are works of the flesh.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 4:11-13 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: ill we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ

James 2:14-26 What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.

Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith. Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?

Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

Molly left a comment which I think gets right to the point. She wrote: Works are things that do
not involve staying at homne to KEEP the home as you teach, and I'm sorry too but the word 'works' always reminds me of catholicism too.

I think Candy's main concern in stressing fruits over works, is that works are what Catholics do.

I have asked Candy very politely on more than one occasion how she sees producing good fruits automatically as fitting in with free will. She has not yet posted my question (I guess she feels it is a "foolish and unlearned question" per her comment policy), much less answered it.

I'm not sure Paul found it so easy, as he wrote in Romans 7:15 "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."

Related posts:
Fruits of the Spirit
The Famous Fruit Test

Mini Home Tour

Over the weekend, I decided to clean out my pantry. It was a huge mess. You know, buy baking soda because you're out and then find three boxes of it behind some expired marshmallows kind of mess. Anyway, while I was organizing my pantry, I was thinking of how much Candy loves organizing her pantry, and how much fun she's having in her lovely new home. She is always asking readers of her blog to share home tours, but neither Elena nor I ever have.

So, while I'm not going to post a whole home tour, I thought I'd post pictures of the areas that Candy and I have in common. First, the newly cleaned pantry. You can see aprons hanging on the back of the door.



In the kitchen, laundry room, or other areas, I have little bits of religious artwork here and there. The idea is that it reminds me to pray and offer my work to God, but it doesn't always work out that way. I got this tile of Our Lady of Guadalupe when I traveled out West to visit my Aunt.



I haven't noticed that Candy likes to dry her clothing outside, but maybe she will start at this new house. I love hanging the clothing outside to dry because I get a few minutes of quiet outside by myself. I often forget to go outdoors and enjoy the beautiful day otherwise. I miss that during the winter.



Candy hopes to homestead, and while we don't dream of animals, we are doing some suburban gardening. I will have three teenage boys someday, so the first thing we did when we moved in was plant several apple trees and some kiwi vines.



Even when you aren't homesteading, you have to watch out or the animals will take over.



Here is our little homeschooling corner. My oldest child uses the larger desk, and the two middle children use the smaller table.



Candy loves her library, and so do I!



I also have a large bathtub, but I can't say that I'm the sort to go soak in the tub.




Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour!

Dominican Sisters on Oprah

Aggie Catholics: Video of Dominican Sisters on Oprah

Don't take Candy's view of the sisterhood- here are some real nuns and their voices!







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Catholic Clips (weekly)

• St. Bernadette

  tags: Catholic, Saints, feast, St.Bernadette

  • Eventually six brothers and two sisters arrived as gifts from God. Only three
    lived beyond the age of ten. Justin died when he was nine, four others died as
    infants. Such comings and goings from Heaven to earth, and earth to Heaven
    welded our family together in fortitude and love. I never heard my parents
    quarrel. They were always at peace.

  • A golden cloud came out of the cave and flooded the niche with radiance. Then
    a lady, young and beautiful, exceedingly beautiful, the like of whom I had never
    seen, stood on the edge of the niche. She smiled and smiled at me, beckoning me
    to come closer as though she were my mother, and she gave me to understand in my
    soul that I was not mistaken.

    
    

    The Lady was dressed in white, with a white veil on her head, and a blue sash
    at her waist. A Rosary of white beads on a golden chain was on her right arm. On
    that cold winter's day, her feet were bare, but on each foot was a golden rose
    radiant with the warmth of summer.

    
    

    I went upon my knees and took my Rosary from my pocket The Lady took the
    Rosary from her arm and I began to cross myself. My arm could not move until the
    Lady herself made a beautiful Sign of the Cross.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Noble Bereans

We're getting a bit long in the comments on the prior post, so I thought I would post a new one up for continuing discussion.

Jennie wrote: The Lord didn't GIVE us the church, we ARE the church. He gave us the Holy Spirit and His word and the Spirit gifts each of us in different ways, including men who can teach and lead others. We all have the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us, however, and have the responsibility to compare teachings to scripture, as those often cited Bereans did.

Barbara replied: Never mind that in the context of Acts 17 the Bereans were obviously comparing Paul's teachings to the Hebrew Scriptures (not the NT). Secondly the Bereans are being held up as nice guys because they are willing to listen to give Paul's story a fair chance instead of rising up against him like those in Thessalonica. Third, no where does it say that to be a like a Berean one must compare teachings to scripture on a regular basis to make sure they are true or that everyone should be like the Bereans to be a Christian.

If anything, the Berean story reflects fair-minded tolerance for listening to another's viewpoint and giving it fair consideration instead of just striking out at those who say things you don't want to hear.

I understand that "being a Berean" has become some sort of rallying cry for some sola scriptura Christians, but I think it has been blown way out of Biblical context.


Barbara reminded me privately of an article written by Steve Ray for Catholic apologetics magazine This Rock, back in 1997. It is available online here.

When Protestants use this passage as a proof text for the doctrine of sola scriptura, they should realize that those in question were not Christians; they were Hellenistic Jews. There was no doctrine of sola scriptura within Jewish communities, but the Scriptures were held as sacred. Although the Jews are frequently referred to as "the people of the book," in reality they had a strong oral tradition that accompanied their Scriptures, along with an authoritative teaching authority, as represented by the "seat of Moses" in the synagogues (Matt. 23:2). The Jews had no reason to accept Paul’s teaching as "divinely inspired," since they had just met him. When new teachings sprang up that claimed to be a development of Judaism, the rabbis researched to see if they could be verified from the Torah.

If one of the two groups could be tagged as believers in sola scriptura, who would it be, the Thessalonians or the Bereans? The Thessalonians, obviously. They, like the Bereans, examined the Scriptures with Paul in the synagogue, yet they rejected his teaching. They rejected the new teaching, deciding after three weeks of deliberation that Paul’s word contradicted the Torah. Their decision was not completely unjustified from their scriptural perspective. How could the Messiah of God be cursed by hanging on a tree like a common criminal, publicly displayed as one who bore the judgment of God? What kind of king and Messiah would that be? This seemed irreconcilable to them (see Simon J. Kistemaker, Acts [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1990], 614).

When some of the Greeks and prominent citizens did accept Jesus as Messiah, the Jews became jealous—and rightfully so, from their perspective, since the new believers separated themselves from the synagogue and began meeting elsewhere, at Jason’s house. The Jews naturally considered themselves the authoritative interpreters of the Torah. Who were the Gentiles to interpret Scripture and decide important theological issues or accept additional revelation? They were the "dogs," not the chosen custodians of the oracles of God (see William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press, 1976], 128).

We can see, then, that if anyone could be classified as adherents to sola scriptura it was the Thessalonian Jews. They reasoned from the Scriptures alone and concluded that Paul’s new teaching was "unbiblical."

The Bereans, on the other hand, were not adherents of sola scriptura, for they were willing to accept Paul’s new oral teaching as the word of God (as Paul claimed his oral teaching was; see 1 Thess. 2:13). The Bereans, before accepting the oral word of God from Paul, a tradition as even Paul himself refers to it (see 2 Thess. 2:15), examined the Scriptures to see if these things were so. They were noble-minded precisely because they "received the word with all eagerness." Were the Bereans commended primarily for searching the Scriptures? No. Their open-minded willingness to listen was the primary reason they are referred to as noble-minded—not that they searched the Scriptures. A perusal of grammars and commentaries makes it clear that they were "noble-minded" not for studying Scripture, but for treating Paul more civilly than did the Thessalonians—with an open mind and generous courtesy (see I. Howard Marshall, "The Acts of the Apostles" in the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1981], 5:280).

Sanctified for the Lord

Candy wishes to assure us that she is not preoccupied with outward appearances because she feels they are important, but because she wishes to be sanctified for the Lord.

As for me, I am going to continue to sanctify myself for the Lord, in
whatever manner He sees fit. It's all written in His precious Word.
All Glory goes to God.

Is this a slip, or does she really believe this? Sounds like works salvation to me. I did submit a comment asking her about this, but she neither printed the comment, nor changed the wording so I will assume it is what she meant to say.

While Jesus did sanctify himself (John 17:19) I was under the impression that it is God who sanctifies us, through the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

1 Cor 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Candy also writes: Such Scriptures are to be followed as well, such as
Ephesians 5, where it tells wives to submit to their husbands, and 1
Timothy 2, where it discusses how women should dress and wear their
hair, in addition to their heart and behavior, and then there's 1 Cor.
11, where the head covering is discussed.

1 Tim 2:9-10 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

1 Timothy says that we should be dressed modestly, and not be so concerned with our outward appearances, such as spending a lot of time doing our hair, wearing expensive jewelry, or designer clothing. Instead, we should be dressed with good deeds. Our actions speak of our faith more than our clothing.

Which is what I said in the post below where I was concerned that breaking with family would send a loud negative message about Christianity.

The Feast of Candlemas

Nature Table Candles Lit
Originally uploaded by Pictures by Ann