Two lost souls, who found each other. But no soul remains lost. Perhaps misplaced or hidden is a better term. Nothing is forever, apart from ourselves, as part of the infinite or God or whatever name is attached to the all that defies naming.
You have tackled in your story the very real paradoxes of which I have inwardly pondered on in regards to the church. Quite astonishing. Actually, I think this story truly encapsulates your Title. Holy is He Who Wrestles. I will sit on this one for some time.
Well, I will spare you a fire hose of scriptures. But a simple “I believe in you, Jesus” yields the inward Holy Spirit in the here and now, the Spirit of power, love, and self control, and eternal life to come. Go to https://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/ put in “believe” as the search term in the NIV version, limiting the search to the New Testament and see for yourself. The leading German autist, Martin Luther said the scriptures are an intertwined weave of the Gospel (believe in the Lord Jesus) and the Law. The yeast of the Pharisee and Sadducee infects is and blinds us to the simplicity of Christ and thus the weave confuses us. Our only work is to believe in the one God sent. John 6. So good it must be true.
Picking and choosing Bible verses doesn't really solve the problem though. I just can't understand the protestant claim that simply stating 'I believe in you Jesus' constitutes a Christian life, let alone leads to 'salvation.' It is impossible to take that message from the gospels when taken as a whole.
I believe in you, Jesus - You receive the Holy Spirit, become a child of God and begin to learn how to walk in the Spirit. Paul simply said in response to the question - “What must I do to be saved” was “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” Acts 16:30-31, and then you “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” 1 Peter3:18 Jesus as the Way and the Door connects you to God. “ But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name” John 1:12 You become a child of God and then proceed to learn some difficult lessons along the way growing in the faith as you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. But the simple belief in Jesus is the bass note sustaining and underlying everything. The word “believe” in Greek, pisteuo, means to “trust in, rely on and adhere to” not mere intellectual holding of a proposition. Pistis, faith, is the noun form of the word. Paul also said “ I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” and “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
I’d add some nuance there that of course Protestants are not unified in their beliefs, either now or in the past, and it’s just one some Protestants that veer towards grace without sanctification or works (in Protestant terms). Other Protestants emphasize works and don’t understand or forget about sanctification and grace. My favorite Protestants I used to lean towards when I was a Protestant teach that grace is necessary but true grace necessarily leads to sanctification and that sanctification leads to works. It’s been a divide brewing since the beginning of Protestantism, see for example Edward Fisher’s Marrow of Modern Divinity or the works of John Wesley.
Personally I think it’s a little off target to say that Grace alone is the answer to Yoshi’s thought experiment. For me there’s a question in speed of sanctification not being weighed by the priest, plus a certain disregard of the mystery of God. I mean someone seeking out the mercy of God despite being in obvious bondage to sin, perhaps they have a mustard seed germinating there. I don’t have an answer, it just makes me doubt the priest’s conclusion.
There’s also purgatory, which seems like it might fit in somewhere as a potential source of hope, perhaps explaining some of the characteristic disregard among historic Catholic people for their more unsavory neighbors.
That's a fair point. But it is hard to know what 'protestant' means in reality, now that the protestant 'movement', if that's the right word, is so fragmented. Which of course is the problem with a protest movement of any kind. I'm Orthodox, so in many ways these questions don't arise. Personally I always default to the parable of the Prodigal Son. I hope that is the right default.
Yes I hope so. And yes that’s probably always been true of Protestantism from my reading of history, and what I’ve seen in the Protestant branches of my family. Ever dividing.
It's possible even for Autists to get around that mortal sin rule by referencing the myriad biblical accounts of the LORD relenting from exacting justice.
Somehow He gets His mercy done for the repentant, (which seens particularly needed during the conditions of severe, clerical manpower shortage).
But the tale of this clock watching priest is cool, and full of the stereotypes that make life interesting.
A very good short story, if you follow it only to the fictional Vladimir and Estragon in Existential Earth/Hell end point. But that's not the ultimate "for all Eternity" time frame implied throughout the narration.
That's also the "Demons Win, Demons Win, Yay Demons" outcome. In which the Only real character in the story is the ratiocinative "autistic" (Asbergers end of the spectrum?) German cleric, Father Stephens and the flawed but beautiful boy, Gabriel, only exists to serve out his role as the vaguely homoerotic projection and vicarious doppelganger for the temptations Father Stephens himself faces. Which, in the Eternity is Everything divine plan, must ultimately be "rejected." With a .38 bullet fired directly into the center of that over-ratiocinative cerrebrum. (It's a lonely calling, sometimes, being a priest and a monk and we're all only too vulnerable, too often; as human beings requiring some form of emotional and physical "release.")
But it's so-oo bleeding hard to physically, emotionally or spiritually connect when you're on the (genetically or environmental toxin induced?) autism spectrum. So the forward progress in your life always feels like you're the turtle in Zeno's mathematical paradox. That calculus where you are always approaching but never quite connecting to the finish line. So no wonder you not only feel isolated and lost in time but exceptionally in tune with the heavenly vibrations of Infinity and the Music of the Spheres. To borrow an Elizabethan construct that was already ancient in Shakespeare's day.
Two lost souls, who found each other. But no soul remains lost. Perhaps misplaced or hidden is a better term. Nothing is forever, apart from ourselves, as part of the infinite or God or whatever name is attached to the all that defies naming.
If you really believe, what else can you do for such a young man?
You have tackled in your story the very real paradoxes of which I have inwardly pondered on in regards to the church. Quite astonishing. Actually, I think this story truly encapsulates your Title. Holy is He Who Wrestles. I will sit on this one for some time.
Of Mice and Men.
Well done.
Holy crap! What a smack in the face with logical consistency.
Well, I will spare you a fire hose of scriptures. But a simple “I believe in you, Jesus” yields the inward Holy Spirit in the here and now, the Spirit of power, love, and self control, and eternal life to come. Go to https://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/ put in “believe” as the search term in the NIV version, limiting the search to the New Testament and see for yourself. The leading German autist, Martin Luther said the scriptures are an intertwined weave of the Gospel (believe in the Lord Jesus) and the Law. The yeast of the Pharisee and Sadducee infects is and blinds us to the simplicity of Christ and thus the weave confuses us. Our only work is to believe in the one God sent. John 6. So good it must be true.
The devil believes in Christ. Will he be saved?
Please read John 7:37-39, that believing in Jesus yields the gift of the Holy Spirit inwardly which the devil doesn’t have.
Picking and choosing Bible verses doesn't really solve the problem though. I just can't understand the protestant claim that simply stating 'I believe in you Jesus' constitutes a Christian life, let alone leads to 'salvation.' It is impossible to take that message from the gospels when taken as a whole.
I believe in you, Jesus - You receive the Holy Spirit, become a child of God and begin to learn how to walk in the Spirit. Paul simply said in response to the question - “What must I do to be saved” was “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” Acts 16:30-31, and then you “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” 1 Peter3:18 Jesus as the Way and the Door connects you to God. “ But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name” John 1:12 You become a child of God and then proceed to learn some difficult lessons along the way growing in the faith as you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. But the simple belief in Jesus is the bass note sustaining and underlying everything. The word “believe” in Greek, pisteuo, means to “trust in, rely on and adhere to” not mere intellectual holding of a proposition. Pistis, faith, is the noun form of the word. Paul also said “ I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” and “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
I’d add some nuance there that of course Protestants are not unified in their beliefs, either now or in the past, and it’s just one some Protestants that veer towards grace without sanctification or works (in Protestant terms). Other Protestants emphasize works and don’t understand or forget about sanctification and grace. My favorite Protestants I used to lean towards when I was a Protestant teach that grace is necessary but true grace necessarily leads to sanctification and that sanctification leads to works. It’s been a divide brewing since the beginning of Protestantism, see for example Edward Fisher’s Marrow of Modern Divinity or the works of John Wesley.
Personally I think it’s a little off target to say that Grace alone is the answer to Yoshi’s thought experiment. For me there’s a question in speed of sanctification not being weighed by the priest, plus a certain disregard of the mystery of God. I mean someone seeking out the mercy of God despite being in obvious bondage to sin, perhaps they have a mustard seed germinating there. I don’t have an answer, it just makes me doubt the priest’s conclusion.
There’s also purgatory, which seems like it might fit in somewhere as a potential source of hope, perhaps explaining some of the characteristic disregard among historic Catholic people for their more unsavory neighbors.
That's a fair point. But it is hard to know what 'protestant' means in reality, now that the protestant 'movement', if that's the right word, is so fragmented. Which of course is the problem with a protest movement of any kind. I'm Orthodox, so in many ways these questions don't arise. Personally I always default to the parable of the Prodigal Son. I hope that is the right default.
Yes I hope so. And yes that’s probably always been true of Protestantism from my reading of history, and what I’ve seen in the Protestant branches of my family. Ever dividing.
It's possible even for Autists to get around that mortal sin rule by referencing the myriad biblical accounts of the LORD relenting from exacting justice.
Somehow He gets His mercy done for the repentant, (which seens particularly needed during the conditions of severe, clerical manpower shortage).
But the tale of this clock watching priest is cool, and full of the stereotypes that make life interesting.
A very good short story, if you follow it only to the fictional Vladimir and Estragon in Existential Earth/Hell end point. But that's not the ultimate "for all Eternity" time frame implied throughout the narration.
That's also the "Demons Win, Demons Win, Yay Demons" outcome. In which the Only real character in the story is the ratiocinative "autistic" (Asbergers end of the spectrum?) German cleric, Father Stephens and the flawed but beautiful boy, Gabriel, only exists to serve out his role as the vaguely homoerotic projection and vicarious doppelganger for the temptations Father Stephens himself faces. Which, in the Eternity is Everything divine plan, must ultimately be "rejected." With a .38 bullet fired directly into the center of that over-ratiocinative cerrebrum. (It's a lonely calling, sometimes, being a priest and a monk and we're all only too vulnerable, too often; as human beings requiring some form of emotional and physical "release.")
But it's so-oo bleeding hard to physically, emotionally or spiritually connect when you're on the (genetically or environmental toxin induced?) autism spectrum. So the forward progress in your life always feels like you're the turtle in Zeno's mathematical paradox. That calculus where you are always approaching but never quite connecting to the finish line. So no wonder you not only feel isolated and lost in time but exceptionally in tune with the heavenly vibrations of Infinity and the Music of the Spheres. To borrow an Elizabethan construct that was already ancient in Shakespeare's day.