Why I Stand as an Ecumenical Christian

I am writing this article as an expression of my passion in the ministry God has entrusted to me. There really are questions that challenged me and my faith, my works and my thoughts, my life and my service that brought me in front of this word document. A conversation with a pastor friend from a Baptist church initially gave me the impulse of my writing. I’m in a Full Gospel church but ecumenical in belief by the way. And that’s the issue. He said, “It’s not possible for me to be ecumenical as a pastor.” Getting some display medicine from his pharmacy he continued, “You cannot be generic, you should have a brand.” He meant that I should be identified as Pentecostal or Evangelical. At the back of my mind, I was answering. First, I am a Christian. Second, that’s the reason why I just want to teach in a seminary and do not want to succeed our pastor anyway. Haha, silly answers!! But seriously I’m a Christian who’s so much inclined to ecumenicity. (And I’m thankful my church mates love me the way I am and still respect me as one of their leaders.) Maybe it’s time that I try to express myself and explain my inclination. One reason maybe is that I’m affected by the situation of my family having a Catholic father and a Christian mother. I may have been raised wanting to reconcile both worlds. Another reason, I would say that I’m so influenced by my mentors: my professors and the books I read authored by C.S. Lewis, J.I. Packer, Alister McGrath, Timothy George and other evangelical leaders who believe in the continuous main stream of the Christian faith. However, I decided to give some reasons of my own. There are many reasons of my belief in this reconciliation but I would just give the immediate thoughts I have right now.

1. I am convinced that there is nothing wrong with the word ‘Catholic’

In the Theology class I recently attended, we would usually recite the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed before the class would go on (actually we still do, now that I’m under a new professor). I remember one of my classmates, who was intimidated by the line in the creed “We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church”, asked the question “Why do we have to say the term ‘Catholic’, is it not a compromise?” Honestly, I’m not sure if I stated his question accurately, but the essence is there. For me it was not a stupid question, it was only naive. I had that question before until I decided to unlearn my bias for my growth in understanding my own faith. Presuppositions are inevitable; however, we may opt to challenge it. The sad reality is that most of us known to be ‘born-again believers’ are: raised to condemn Catholics, encouraged to refuse the Catholic faith and even instructed to avoid using the term ‘Catholic’ as our identity. But if we want to understand why it is just so fine to mark ourselves Catholics, we may ask, “How was the term used before by the person who said it in the first place?” Context gives meaning as we know it well. We have to consider its concept before it progressed in its distortion (if there really has been – which I believe to be true as history passed by). It is true that though the universality of Christianity is a common idea, the word ‘Catholic’ never appears in the New Testament. It was apparently Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch in the early second century, who used the word in its original meaning. It was the time of great persecution of Christians. They were in the curtain of being rejected as a shoot of Judaism by the prominent three worlds – Jewish, Greek and Roman – yet Christianity was relentless to spread rapidly. It was then that Ignatius, to exclude those who reject the message of Christ and to emphasize the role of the bishops’ guiding authority, declared that, “Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”[1] Therefore, ‘Catholic’ was more than an organization of faith; it was a spiritual vision, a conviction that all Christians should be in one body under one head, the Lord Jesus.[2] Though they were literally scattered they are one in Christ. That’s Catholicity! This idea enlightened me that there’s nothing wrong with it. Whenever we are asked to recite the creed, especially in the last part, gratefulness is what I feel – grateful that I’m in the body who believes in the orthodoxy that Jesus himself revealed and passed on by his faithful disciples.

We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead

And the life of the age to come. Amen.[3]

In the progression of thought, the term became vague especially in the Medieval Period and in this contemporary era. The Catholic faith has been associated with man-ordained principles. I certainly do not agree with the Catholic Church’s Marianology and their promotion of images and the doctrine of merit which seem so unbiblical. But the question is, “Haven’t all we?” Even Protestant traditions tend to be non-Biblical in some ways, nowadays. You’re getting me wrong if you think I’m saying that being unbiblical is justifiable. As for me, I’m proud to be called a Christian, a ‘born-again believer’ and if someone would call me ‘Catholic’, there shouldn’t be any problem because I affirm the orthodox teachings of the Living Church with Christ as the Head.

1. I cannot accept that the first 1500 years of Christianity is a total fraud

Tracing roots of my belief has been my passion since I engaged myself in the study of Historical Theology and Church History. Bruce Shelley’s story in the Prologue of his book couldn’t escape my mind.

On my study door is a cartoon. Students who stop to read it often step into my office smiling. It encourages easy conversation. It is a Peanuts strip. Charlie brown’s little sister Sally is writing a theme for school titled, “Church History.” Charlie, who is at her side, notices her introduction, “When writing about church history, we have to go back to the very beginning. Our pastor was born in 1930.” Charlie can only roll his eyes toward the ceiling.[4]

It’s funny that we do not have a sense of Christian history. Not so many appreciate it because we are so ignorant of our past, even Christian ministers. We are so much weighed to our Evangelical, Pentecostal or whatever traditions we may have which are rooted from the Reformation and the Protestant movements that birthed in the 16^th century when Martin Luther radically aspired to straighten up the crooked Catholicism in his day. Yet because of the massive protests we neglected our main stream. All we started to think of are our denominational stands and we considered the initiating church to have lost its vision (which was true to some but not all). If we only know how the Church Fathers – Apostolic, Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene – worked hard for the establishment of Christianity, we would be so much indebted to them. Of course it was the work of the Holy Spirit. But God used these great men (who were claimed Catholics by the way) to organize the teachings that we hold onto today. Just think of how the Christian martyrs and Apologists gave their lives for the spread of our belief in Jesus in the first centuries of the Church, or how many times was Athanasius exiled for his obstinate belief in the divinity of Christ, or how Augustine courageously initiated the teaching on human depravity and salvation by grace, or how the Cappadocian Fathers (Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus) defended the doctrine of the Trinity, or the councils who worked hard and examined the canonization of the compiled books we now use as our Bible, or the brilliant treatises of Thomas Aquinas, Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux and others who in some way nourished (aware and mostly unaware) our spirituality; all I can say is that I really am indebted to them as a Christian. Whether we agree or not, these are the things passed on to us and we now profess it to be the Christian way in our specific denominations and Catholic Christianity deserves the credit for God’s greater glory because He was at work ever since.

Most of all, as I always say to others, I do not believe that Catholic Christianity led people to their eternal damnation for approximately 1000 years and so forth up to this time. They may have gone astray especially in the Middle Ages (I really despise Bernard of Clairvaux this time in his veneration of Mary) faithfulness to the truth prevailed to some. I’m confident that when I get to heaven, I will see many Catholics there and surprisingly not see some claimed Protestant Christians. Again, when we think of our faith we are not just to consider the roots of our pastors and their denominations, we should consider our main stream. It is so perilous not to, having the cults in mind, each claiming to be the only true church to have succeeded the apostles.

1. I believe that the prayer of the Lord Jesus is that we may be one

Let me use the words of Jesus himself when He prayed for His disciples in John 17, NASB. He said, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which you have given Me, that they may be one even as We are” (verse 11) and “that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (verse 21). Let me share some brief points regarding these texts.

a. Jesus prayed for the unity of His disciples just as He and the Holy Father are one. It is quite obvious in the statements. This applies to His immediate disciples and even to those who would be His followers. We are all Jesus’ believers, sectarianism aside.

b. In verse 11, Jesus was speaking of the name which has been given to Him. He was given the name Jesus for “He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and more importantly, He was the awaited Christ foretold in the Old Testament (english for the Greek word ‘Christos’ which means Anointed One and for the Hebrew word transliterated as Messiah). Therefore, ‘Christ’ was the name given by God through the words of the prophets. Come to think of it we are branded in that name; we are called ‘Christ’ians. We are kept in His name, that we may be one.

c. Lastly, in verse 21, Jesus emphasized unity in a way that even we are united to the Father and the Son. And what’s the reason? …“that the world may believe that You sent Me,” Jesus said. Another sad reality is, because of our disunity the world cannot comprehend the message of the Savior. The world is confused whether Jesus was really sent by God because we are not united. How can we convince the world upon learning that Christians themselves kill each other, Protestants against Catholics yet bearing the name of Christ? Where is the love Paul emphasized in his epistle (1 Corinthians 13) that is the foundation of every Christian teaching? I remember a statement in the movie Da Vinci Code addressing the issue of a chaotic world, “as long as there is a God who has killings in his name.” Imagine!! The name of Christ associated with killings and not of true discipleship in love. Well, we made that history. Church and World History would both affirm that. No wonder, we became the stumbling block for the world in their quest to know God “who desires all men to know the knowledge of truth and be saved” as Paul’s first letter to Timothy 2:4 stated.

Why engage in some non-sense debates on the non-essentials of the Christian faith? Timothy George quoted in his video series the ecumenical principle, “In essentials – unity, in non-essentials – liberty, and in all things – charity.”[5] The world out there is dying apart from Jesus Christ. Why don’t we just unite and do the works of Christ and let Him be known to all? Is it not possible? I believe it is possible having in mind Mother Theresa, William Wilberforce, William Carey, and others who set aside denominationalism for greater cause.

Before I end this article, I just want to clarify things up. I’m ecumenical in a sense that I strongly affirm the orthodox teachings of the church but not their faulty claims. I’m just writing with my unprofessional mind. I’m not even a brilliant theologian. Let me share what I want my stand to be such molded. Here are the profound words of C.S. Lewis when he wrote the preface of Mere Christianity:

Even since I became a Christian I have thought that the best, perhaps the only, service I could do for my unbelieving neighbors was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times. I had more than one reason for thinking this. In the first place, the questions which divide Christians from one another often involve points of high Theology or even ecclesiastical history, which ought never to be treated except by real experts. I should have been out of my depth in such waters: more in need of help myself than able to help others. And secondly, I think we must admit that the discussion of these disputed points has no tendency at all to bring an outsider into the Christian fold. So long as we write and talk about them we are much more likely to deter him from entering any Christian communion than to draw him into our own. Our divisions should never be discussed except in the presence of those who have already come to believe that there is one God and that Jesus Christ is His only Son… …For I am not writing to expound something I could call ‘my religion’, but to expound ‘mere’ Christianity, which is what it is and what it was long before I was born…[6]

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[1] Ignatius, Letter to Smyrnaeans, 8.

[2] Shelley, Bruce, Church History in Plain Language, Phil. ed. (Kansas: Beacon Hill Press, 1994), 42.

[3] Excerpt from The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

[4] Shelley, Church History, 9.

[5] Carey, William as quoted by Timothy George, History of Christianity: 6-part video series, (Beeson Divinity School of Samford University – Program Scripts, 2000), 42. The modern quest for Christian unity was born on the mission field. Those who followed in his footsteps, such as Henry Martyn, David Livingstone, Lottie Moon, and Hudson Taylor

[6] Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1952), 6.