Grace and Mercy for You

Accepting Orthodoxy: It’s not just refusing to think about it.

I wouldn’t suggest anyone have disrespect for St. Peter. But as we think it through, we have the following evidence regarding the possibility St. Peter was capable developing an errant doctrine: Peter had to be corrected (as did most if not all the disciples) by our Lord on more than one occasion. Examples being: suffer the little children to come to me and St. Peter’s attempt to convince our Lord to avoid the cross. These corrections were necessary, and were made by our Lord before his ascension, and before the granting of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – The Spirit who would lead them into all truth. We can see other examples of ‘mistakes’ made by God-loving, truth-seeking men. Moses really shouldn’t have thrown down the tablets (and God let him know it; He did not permit him into the physical Promised Land). Interestingly, we see St. Peter make another misjudgment many years after Pentecost. Galatians 2:12 “But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to [the] face, because he was to be condemned:” Did St. Peter repent? We don’t exactly know. And if he wasn’t in the wrong, then St. Paul was. At any rate, it is a GIFT of God that it is recorded in Scripture that early church fathers can be wrong on a point. They actually can be. That is a great relief because it means that any church father, or council, may have been in error. So when we reconsider their teachings, we don’t have to conclude that we are either just too sinful or just too dense if we are unable to see agreement between them, and other principles in God’s Word or the tradition of the Church. I believe such errors exist when doctrine was ever formulated apart from the Grace of our Lord – or when it was influenced by a human desire for control or the preservation of human power or reputation. Scripture clearly indicates many examples of such, and that eventually, God brings about a correction. That is why, although I don’t go crazy “throwing out dogma” just because its dogma, I firmly believe we must know why we believe. And I believe we must compare every teaching of the Church with every other teaching, checking for anything contradictory to Grace, or purporting “another” gospel.

Carefully study to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Tim 2:15

gratia Domini nostri Iesu Christi vobiscum