Now my world makes more sense...

Robert says:
September 17, 2016 at 8:08 am
Mermaid,

Can an omniscient God communicate truth such that His child can know with certitude that Jesus Christ rose from the dead?

Robert:
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.>>>>

You and I believe that Jesus Christian [I mean Jesus Christ] rose from the dead not because it is falsifiable. Your epistemology had nothing to do with it. You believe it because God enabled you to have faith. Faith is a gift of God. 

If God had not revealed the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, using – as you would agree – sinful, weak, flawed human beings making up His Church *, you would have no idea that Christ rose from the dead. That truth has been passed down through the Church such that you and I can hear and believe by the grace of God.

You know the facts because God revealed them and faithful men passed those facts down through the millennia until they reached your ears and mine. You and I believe them to salvation because God enabled us to believe. Justification is by faith, and faith is a gift of God. You know the Scriptures. Eph. 2 lays it out. 

There are those who believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, but do not believe that He is Messiah, their Savior. Remember the testimony of the Jewish man who accepted the fact that Christ rose from the dead, but did not have faith in Him as Messiah? 

Robert:
And He has done that using infallible revelation (the Word of God) mediated to us by fallible individuals and churches (preachers, etc.).>>>>

Agreed. See above. The Church recognizes that there are many Christian congregations where the Holy Spirit is active. Read the CCC to see that. The Church recognizes the fact that there are many true brethren who are not in full communion with her. 

That offends you. I understand how it could. You don’t feel any less Christian than the Called to Communion guys. You don’t need no stinkin’, apostate Catholic Church to make you a real Christian. Something like that? “Why did they leave us? Do they think we [are]  that terrible?” you seem to be asking. 

These guys left Protestantism. Some of them were Reformed, even PCA and OPC. Now they sit on their blog and call you guys to communion. Yes, it would annoy me. Can’t help you there. 

What am I doing here? I’m not Called to Communion. I followed TVD here. I have followed him on his American Creation blog for awhile. I like what he has to say. 

He got himself kicked off here. For some reason that even I cannot explain fully, I am still here. Maybe I am perverse, as Jeff seems to think. 

Maybe I just wanted to hear you say that you really do believe that God communicated infallible truth to you. You have certitude about the resurrection. I knew you did. Now maybe I can leave you dear brothers alone. 

Maybe I like to see what goofy comment Brother Hart will make to me, and how I can respond in kind. It’s like a game we play. I think I win. 

Jeff is still mad at me, but oh well. I don’t believe he really follows his epistemology when it comes to truth that can only be known through revelation. I mean come on. The Trinity is not falsifiable, yet you guys believe it to be true. 

Sure. Faith in the Divinity of the Trinity involves our human rationality. However, we don’t believe it because somehow we can falsify it. Now if you try to, I will laugh and laugh! …and know you don’t mean it. 

Robert:
You are the one saying that fallible mediators are insufficient even though you have never once had direct contact with an organ of infallibility. Hence Jeff’s point.>>>>

It seems you are focusing on those who are delivering the message. The idea of infallibility is that in spite of how human beings have messed up, the message of the Gospel is communicated accurately. 

It is all about God’s ability to communicate truth to fallen mankind. He does that through His Word, the Bible, and His Church. The Holy Spirit breathed out God’s Word and we have it in written form. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church on the day of Pentecost. He led and is leading her into all truth. Not just her as a whole, but each individual within the Church.

[I should have added that it is the Holy Spirit who enables someone to believe in Christ, and it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the believer. He is active in the Church* and in the individual Christian.]

Not even Pope Francis believes himself to be infallible on everything he says. He is infallible to the degree that he is faithful to the deposit of truth that has been entrusted to the Church. He certainly does not claim sinless perfection. 

So, maybe I’ll stick around, or not. Your affirmation, without qualification, of the ress. is what I wanted to hear from you. Not to prove you wrong somehow, but to prove what I suspected about you all along. 

You have unshakable faith in the basic fact[s] of the Gospel. Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead, and appeared to many, according to the Scriptures. You believe that by grace through faith. So do I. 

You don’t believe it because it is falsifiable. 

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* [Robert would not capitalize “church”, but he holds to the Nicene and Apostles’ creeds.]