Letter to My Child: On Your Frustration With the Protestant Church

My Dearest Child,

            Oh, how I struggle!  My struggle is for you and others like you.  I struggle so that you may not have to!  I write to you because I know that you will hear the wisdom behind my words and understand.  And, where you fail to understand me, I know you will seek to understand me.  For, the pursuit of wisdom is a heavy thing and not to be taken lightly, and you know this.

            Let us talk about that feeling you get whenever you go to church.  You know the feeling that I am talking about.  I truly believe that all Protestants…all Protestants that have a passion for God as you do…have this feeling deep down.  Many are simply afraid to admit it.

            The feeling that I am describing goes something like this: that, although the worship that you are participating in is a good thing, there is something “off.”  There is something off and you can’t quite put your finger on it.  Although things are good, you feel like there should be something more. 

            Now, let’s talk about the frustration that stems from that.  You also know this feeling that I am talking about: the frustration that you feel over the way that the Church neuters itself and its mission in our world.  You are also frustrated over the fact that, although all Protestant denominations supposedly profess the same Lord, we are utterly divided amongst ourselves.  Where is the value of the "oneness" that Jesus prayed to the Father for in our thinking at large and our way of being? 

            Now you see why I struggle as I attempt to address these things!  Again, my struggle is for you and others like you so that you may not have to experience the burden that I have been forced to experience in all of this. 

            Allow me to tell you why your feelings are accurate and why the church that you go to is the way that it is.  Do not fret, my child, but understand and move immediately into action.  You feel the way you do because, as Protestants, we have completely cut ourselves off from the Way and practices of the ancient Church.  At best we have a 500 year old faith (from the Reformation), not a faith that was established from the beginning.  Does this surprise you?  I must say to you though; do we not live in the light of a 500 year old Church as opposed to a 2,000 year old Church?  Actually, the Church is truly older than this, even. 

            Protestantism is so fractured because we have abandoned and not made room for the tradition that preceded its origin; the tradition of the ancient-apostolic Church.  We, as Protestants, view tradition only in terms of confessional ancestry and not in terms of habit and practice.  In other words, our only connection to the Christians who came before us are the confessions that have been written in the last 500 years.  We don’t seek to live as they did.  We don’t seek to worship as they did.  We just seek to believe what they believed as if that alone is enough to suffice. 

            So, for us Protestants, there is a way to believe, but not a Way to worship, evangelize, pray and even plant churches.  These are all up for grabs.  All of these things, these Ways, are optional for us as long as we believe the correct things doctrinally.  All that matters is confessional heritage, not methodological heritage, to us Protestants. 

            Do you understand the immense importance in what I am telling you, my child?  That, all throughout the Scriptures God taught His people how to worship, how to pray, how to witness and how to spread His Kingdom.  To reject the apostolic tradition, then, is to reject the teachings and Way of God.  My child, do not fret and do not be angered.  Come back to the church fathers.  Read them, learn from them.  They will teach you how to come back to the Way so you can learn how to truly worship and revere God.  Come back to the Christ and learn from Him how to pray and witness in this world.  Come back to the tradition the apostles left behind that we have utterly forsaken. 

           

            “Where is this teaching of yours on tradition found in the Scriptures?” you may ask of me.  Well, I am glad you asked.

            “So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the tradition (not “teachings”) we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”

                                                                                                -2 Thessalonians 2:15

            Even though this verse is often renders the Greek word paradosis as “teaching,” that is entirely incorrect.  The Greek word for “teaching” is didaskalia.  Paradosis means, “that which is handed over,” or “tradition.”

            Paul is telling his readers to hold fast to the tradition that he and others have passed on to us, not just to simply hold fast to Paul’s theological doctrine. 

            Lastly, and this is an important note: not all of the tradition was passed on in written-Scriptural form.  Some of it, according to Paul, came by word of mouth.  This means that there were some parts of the “tradition” that were not written down and, thus, not placed in the Scriptures.  There will be some things that the apostolic Church practices and that the church fathers discuss that will not be found in the Bible.  Why?  Again, some of the tradition was passed on by word of mouth.  So, it is Biblical that not everything is Biblical, if you see what I mean.  I tell you all of this, my child, so that you will not be concerned whenever you fail to find aspects of the tradition that the fathers talk about in the Scriptures.  It is Biblical for some of their teaching not to be there.