I was just chatting with a good friend who had just taken part in an online pastors chat forum. Someone had asked whether there is a need to draw near to God since we are joined to Him spiritually, 2 Pet 1:4; and if we can and should do this (which I think is very important, not to mention the array of scriptures about prayer), then, how is this possible? Of course, the depths and the mind of God are such that we shall spend eternity exploring Him, and this has begun for those in Christ! Notwithstanding, the poor images of heaven that we seem to have been given. (John Eldridge does a great job of describing heaven in his books).
One thing underlying this question, provided you accept the interpretation of that passage from Peter, is that there is a famine of historical perspective in so many areas of Protestantism and Evangelicalism. This sorry state of affairs is another part of the ignorance of our common Christian heritage, and not just a few misconceptions that are left behind as vestiges of a wider collective memory. Compounding the situation is a smoldering anti-Catholicism, which some don’t even realize is present. Yet there is a massive corpus of writing on Christian Spirituality, which can be tapped. It is as though the Church (the "True Church", not the Roman one, or rather, the 26,000 that are part of this True Church!) had sprung from the loins of Martin Luther. Please don’t think that I am underestimating his importance, or the need for reform, then as now.
Protestants lack of historical perspective is a great handicap when it comes to dealing with all sorts of questions. We can overlook this tremendous wealth of spirituality and theology all too easily. In fact, we, or they, may be guilty of trying to re-invent the wheel, when in reality, life and ministry are not coming out of a vacuum - with the very text of the bible in hand, with us as its best interpreters! Certainly, we have to be cautious in taking on-board any opinions from the past, as well as the present, but there is at least a need to acknowledge, and even more so, to draw from, what is actually available to us (2000 years worth, not merely 500), which will certainly help to anchor and inform our questioning.
There is no such thing as a new heresy; the same old ones crop up again and again, and the Councils and the Church Universal have provided ample evidence and correctives to help us avoid such a great source of cruelty. Only today, my wife was telling me about a small local Church that is mired in the most awful legalism and resulting bondage, and family carnage to its adherents. Lies always tie us up and leave is for dead, under a cloud of demonic shame and confusion. It is so sad that so many little groups spring up, declaring loudly their purity and commitment to the Gospel, when in actual fact, they have gone off half-cocked, with little or no practical accountability, and profound ignorance with respect to the wisdom of the ages that might have forestalled such mayhem. Certainly, Western individualism and hubris does not help much either!
Some of us, with no sense of superiority, have started to search out our ecclesiastical birth parents, so to speak, as so many real adoptees feel compelled to do. We have a great legacy of Doctors of the Church, Mystics, and other Godly people with which to discourse. We might come to some differing opinions on things, but surely there are choice pearls of wisdom to be had – as Luther might also encourage us to do himself.
See, he writes, though not without criticism later on:
“I will not presume to criticize too closely the writings of the Fathers, seeing they are received at the church, and have great applause, for then I should be held an apostate;”
and again he writes,
“We must read the Fathers cautiously, and lay them in the gold balance,”
The Table Talk of Martin Luther,
http://www.reformed.org/documents/Table_talk/table_talk_4.html#Heading24
May we take advantage of just such a Gold Balance. As Jesus said, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old."” Matt 13:52; NKJV
More resources here: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/
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