Theology and division in the church.

ok so in my walk thus far i have been faced with much opposition, but all stemming from one source. that source is over six centuries old. most likely it is obvious from the title of this post  that the conflict is in the theology of the different groups i am affiliated with. The Church of the Nazarene is interestingly enough one of the protestant denominations that is close to the RCC in theology. I find is utterly redickulous that the body of Christ should be so fragmented that we can hardly ever work together. It is aggravating beyond all belief to know that i can not serve the people of God as a Catholic priest, and a Nazarene minister, but rather must chose one, and forsake the other. I have long sense decided that if it came down to it i would choose the RCC, and become a monk because i could hide in the cloisters from the hoard of protestants that would inevitably attempt to pull me back... jkjk.. but in all honesty i would chose the Catholic church because it is such a beautiful, and rich tradition. but I pray that I will never have to make that decision.
Malachi, Blaze, Peter, Holmes.

woman pastors.............. ugh.

okay so i have a feeling i'm not going to get any good reviews to this post. I do not share the popular opinion that woman can be pastors/ priests. it is not that they do not posses the abilities, but rather it is not a calling given to them either in scripture, or at any point in the history, or tradition of the church. there are many arguments i have encountered in m path, and i will address the most common of them. number one "what about the blessed virgin? don't you think she was a priest?" no no i dont. the blessed virgin was the mother of Christ, and there here earthly perpous ended. she was never given the ability to administer the sacraments in the way that the apostles were. the second most common is "why would you deny a person who has a call on their life?" I am not. there are many other ministries in which woman can be involved without being ordained. just for some examples there are Children's ministries, out reach ministries, prison ministries, etc...
the third most common is "i bet you don't think woman can handle holding positions of power." that is not it at all. woman have been a leading force in shaping our current world, and they are still fighting for a better world. however as i have stated before the ordained ministry is not a calling given to them. these are my responses to the arguments for ordained woman minsters.

yours in Christ~ Malachi B, P, Holmes.

Theology.

Okay I am going to start off with an apology to you all, It has been too long since I posted. I am going through my theology course for my local license, and find what is said in the first two lessons very interesting, it says first of all that academic theology, and applied theology should not, and indeed can Not be separated. this is very true, and there are many reasons for this but the most important of these is that if a theological idea can not be applied to the lives of the faithful it is useless and thus should be rejected.

Latin.

                                                                             `+JMJ+
ok so as we all know aside from being Nazarene i am a devout Catholic. one of the things in the Catholic Church i have been most blessed by is the Traditional Latin Mass. I believe that a service option for the CotN should be given in Latin. there are arguments that one can not properly worship in a language that is not native to them, but this confuses me. I am commonly told it is not the words that matter, but rather the state of your heart. now this is a contradiction on the part of the CotN, personally I agree with the heart argument. while i am not saying that people should not learn Latin if they celebrate the mysteries in the language, but rather that is exactly what should happen. the point is that I and may people like be believe that Latin fosters a love for our blessed lord, and a reverence for his body, blood, soul, and divinity in the lord's supper.

The Holy Eucharist.

the Holy Eucharist is one of the two sacraments fully recognized by the Church of the Nazarene. while there is no fully established teaching for the Church as a whole I believe that base off the teaching of Jesus Christ as interpreted by John Wesley there should be a "True presence" teaching for the Church at large. The reason for this is being an ex member of the Church of England he would have been taught such a system of theology when it came to the Holy Eucharist. This is one of the most important teachings of the Church because it is the first and only sacrament that there is a full order for the rite from our lord. i will not go into the different disputes, or rationalizations for the different variations of the true presence theology, but i will say that i encourage you to leaarn more about them, and urge your pastors to begin to consider this teaching.

make not for thy selves grave images.

so in my journey one of the difficulties which I have faced is the idea of statues, and icons being used in worship. being raised a protestant I was taught that there should be no images (such as crucifixes, or icons) in the sanctuary, the most adornment was of course a simple wood cross above the pulpit and i suspect this was only out of some sense of tradition. but as I walked through my theological formation I found that it was indeed acceptable to use such items in worship. the only unacceptable thing to use was an image claiming to be that of God the Father. the reason for this is because all the saints, the angels (some any way), Mary, and even Jesus him self had an earthly form. the reason it is unacceptable to make an image of God the Father is because he has and never had no earthly form. If we attempted to give God an earthly form we are saying we have a power over him. There for I say to my protestant brothers and sisters look into the tradition of most importantly to me icons and iconography, but also statuary.        


yours in Christ Jesus our risen savior~ Malachi Blaze Peter Holmes.

all things necessary for salvation?

Okay that is it! I have had it with people saying it is not possible to be Catholic and protestant! Today i am here to say yes it is possible, so deal with it!!!  in truth every Christian who confesses the Apostles Creed, or any other creed proclaimed by a Christian concle is already doing it.  what i mean by this is that when we confess the basics of our faith we join together with the Christian saints, and holy souls throughout the entirety of history.  
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell. [See Calvin]

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

This is the Christian faith, this is our unity, and our salvation. if i hear one more person say it is not possible to be protestant, an Catholic i will.... do nothing, and forgive then becaus that is what God would will me to do.

Prayers to saints heresy, or useful for growth in faith.

     well my friends this is one of those times my Catholic colors show through. I believe that prayers to saints are a very good thing. before we can address the actual issue of prayers we must first address the issue of weather our prayers simply fall on deaf ears. this is a major issue and is a very common hang up for protestants. while in my studies of the Holy Scriptures I have found no concrete evidence for either side my personal belief is that we are not cut off from our loved ones on Earth after we die. but rather we are in a better position to pray for our friends and family in that we are fully aliened to God's holy perfect will, and this will only support with prayer that which is within His will.  now we can address the actual prayers and trust m this was a hard thing for me to come to terms with my self. The idea is that we pray to the saints who in turn pray To Christ who goes to God the Father. where people get mixed up is that it gets to the idea that the saints have some form of power in and of them selves, this is in no way true. the saints have no more power than us on Earth. the only difference is that they have finished the race set before them in a fully faithful  way some were faithful even to giving their lives for Christ. the only thing the saints can do for us is to pray. this is why i believe it is a useful tool in the box of Christianity.
 yours in Christ~ Malachi Blaze Peter Holmes.

A minister's protest.

I have been reading a lot of Nazarene blogs, and web articles lately. I must say that I am deeply disturbed, and saddened by all the anti Catholic slander coming for so called pastors. Every where I keep reading "I became a Nazarene, and was saved" and "we should not be intentional exposing our students to Catholic people, practices, and teachings", As any one can tell by the name of this blog I admittedly oppose these views. While at the time of the Great reformation the Catholic Church had become corrupt, and filled with greed and envy, it has greatly changed in the following centuries. Martin Luther was a great man with the courage to stand up to the Holy Father when he had lead the Church into sin, however the way that the church reacted is, was, and will be heart breaking. the chasm caused in the church may never be fully healed untill the second coming. to those of you who say things like "after i left the Catholic Church I found salvation", and "I hope all those poor Catholics find salvation" I say to you if you did not find salvation in the Catholic Church perhaps it was not the fault of the Church. and do not assume that just because a man or woman is Catholic they are damned, or just because a man or woman is Nazarene he or she is redeemed. the fact is that we can not know another man's heart there will be those Catholics, and Nazarene s who will be taken up to the eternal kingdom, and those Catholics, and Nazarene s who will be damned, that goes for every denomination. this is my protest to the intolerance for the Holy Mother Church in our humble denomination. We owe our respect to this church because if not for here we would not exist, if not for her the gospels would have been lost, and millions, and billions of souls would have been lost.


yours a servant of Christ~ Malachi, Peter, Blaze, Holmes.

the Church of the Nazarene in relation to the liturgy.

today we are going to talk about the use of liturgical practice in the Church of the Nazarene. first off i would like to say that I have heard a lot of people say that "the Nazarene Church is in no way a liturgical church", this is only partly true. if you are a member of the low church then you most likely do not practice any sort of liturgy. however if you are a member of a high church congregation you will have been practicing a liturgical style of worship. at this time I am attending a low church congregation as it is the only Nazarene Church in my area, but I, along with the vicar am attempting to bring in an element of the liturgy. To establish a strong liturgy in a church one must first understand what liturgy is. the word "liturgy" comes from the Greek word "λειτουργία" or "liturgia" meaning function. this in it's planets forum this is what liturgy is a function of worship. the idea of liturgy began in the book of Leviticus when our lord gave the laws for worship to the aaronic priests. this style of worship was based around a "cycle of sacrifice", and remembrance of freedom. in a way the liturgy of our Christian faith is the same, where the Jewish liturgy had a sacrifice of a lamb our sacrifice is a continuation of that of Christ on Calvary, where the Jews commemorated their freedom form slaver to faro we celebrate our freedom from the slavery of sin, and death. this is the heart of liturgy and must be kept in mind in instating a liturgy. my recommendation for any congregation attempting to instate a liturgical aspect is to move slowly! if you try to change things too quickly then your church family will become uncomfortable and shut out this beautiful opportunity. another suggestion I have is to establish two separate services,one for contemporary one for traditional or liturgical worship.     


I am sorry for not posting last week but things went totally insane in my world. i will do my best to bring you all new content each week, but things may not always work out that way.


yours a servant of Christ~ Malachi Peter Blaze Holmes.     

set scheduled.

so i have decided that i am going to post an Sundays come rain or shine. 

the creeds.

so i need to get better at having a scheduled for posting on here, but se la vi. anyway today i am going to talk about the creeds. these are documents that were drawn up by the early church to combat the ever growing danger of err in teaching by individual clerics, and spreading heresy.  these documents spell out in irrefutable dental our faith in it's purest form. the first creed that was published is the apostle's creed, and it reads thus.

We believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell. 

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

now this is of course the first,and most important because it has not changed in literal 2000 years. it has helped us recognize heresy, and just gives us a basic understanding of our faith. now there are a few things that are commonly changed i christian theology even thought they are spelled out in the creed.i am not going to go into all of these, but i am going to say that when a pastor of any church decides to start saying this creed with his congregation he should not change "one holy Catholic Church" to "one holy Christian Church". this is simply an attempt to force"reformation theology" (which don't get me wrong is not a bad thing in many respects) on the apostles.  when we say "Catholic" we do not miserableness mean the Catholic Church, but rather the universal Church that is the bride of Christ our king. 



the second creed to be published is the creed of  Chalcedon.

Creed of Chalcedon

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the unity, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.



this creed was released to fight the heresy's that taught that Christ our lord was either only a man, or only God, such as Arianism. 


the third creed to be released was the Nicene creed.

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen. 
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen. 



this was simply a reiteration of the information it the previous two creeds. 






I hope you have all been enjoying my posts, and i would only ask one thing of you. drop me a comment every now and again just so i know that people are reading.  if you have any topics you would like me to address then let me know.

yours in Christ the king Malachi Holmes.















  

Wesleyan quadrilateral.

Hello again my friends.
     so the first thing im gonna do i explain one of the most important things in Wesleyan theology, the Wesleyan quadrilateral, the first part of this theological device is Scripture. this is the most easily explained portion of this tool, and its not easy at all. We as Wesleyan Christians believe that the scriptures are the devinly inspired  words of God. they are our soul source of authority. we believe that there are 66 books that can be proven to be to be the divine word of God, but we also believe that the Canonical books are useful for teaching, but doctrine should not be based on them.

the second portion is Tradition, now I know that this is going to shock a lot of Nazarene s and protestants in general, but it's true a big part of our theology is based on tradition. our celebration of Christmas is a tradition, and is a hold over form the Catholic Church. most of the time we are taught (as protestants)  that tradition is a doctrine of the Catholic Church, and is there for to be despised, this is wrong. Tradition is not only useful, but also a biblical idea. (II Thessalonians 2: 15- Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold to the traditions which ye have been taught, weather by our word, or our epistle, this is obvious proof for tradition.


the third portion is experience, this is to say that each person is guided, and taught in our journey. each person's experiences MUST NOT in any way contradict the holy word of God. this is the most i will say for this particular subject.


the fourth and final portion is reason. we have been given a working mind, and the ability to use reason. for this reason we have an obligation to reason through our faith. if something does not fit with the authentic teachings  handed down from the apostles then it must be excluded from all Church doctrine, and understanding.

ok so i know i have not posted in quite a while, but there is a good reason as of March, 26th, 2013 i was approved by the New Beginnings Nazarene Church bored to be licensed, and begin my journey to becoming  a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. this was an extremely difficult poses because the men and women on my local Church bored were not thrilled at the idea of having a person who identifies with a far more ecclesiastical  and traditional view of the Wesleyan theology, and tradition than the currently predominant fundamentalism in the Church. How ever i was approved under the condition that for the time being i would keep my liturgical, and traditionalist views under the radar. I hope, and pray that one day it will be fundamentalism that is made to stay under the radar  and an authentic, and traditional faith  and witness may be presented to the world at large.

my first lesson is i believe the most important, do not cause discord by your decision! if you think that people will be challenged by your decision do not tell them. it is better that only the people you know can handle the news should know.

now I know that most of you do not believe that it is possible to be both Nazarene, and Catholic. well let me tell you it is. it may seem odd, but i love both Churches and the scriptures don't speak against it. in  this blog i will be giving ideas on how others can navigate the tricky waters of this religious decision.