St. Anthony of the Desert
When I first started this website five years ago, I had a more negative view of Protestants. I still do hold to a very negative view of the reformation as it was a state sponsored looting operation but there are Protestants out there that have a deep love for Jesus Christ and the sacred Scriptures. Now, I don’t believe in fake unity at the expense of truth, however in this day and age I think there is reason for us to team up in combating the constant evil that is taking over North and South America, Western Europe and other parts of the world. I want to offer some advice to Protestants to help them with their spiritual lives. I have five pieces of advice.
The first is to read the Bible for 15 minutes a day. Fifteen minutes a day is a good starting point because it’s not excessive. An hour a day is unrealistic, at least to start. Reading the Bible helps one leave the Western rationalistic, and post-enlightenment mindset. Remember that the Bible was written mostly by ancient Israelites, not post-enlightenment thinkers. Christians need to find ways to kill the enlightenment. The enlightenment essentially thrusted fake science and fake philosophy onto humanity. It’s worse than medieval Nominalism. This has to be combatted. Reading the Bible is the ultimate solution. Of all five points, Protestants will agree with this one with most.
The second piece of advice to Protestants is to read the lives of the Saints. I know that post-reformation and medieval saints might turn them off but the early Church is full of ones that would scare them less. St. Anthony of Egypt is obviously a great choice and his biography is written by St. Athanasius, another holy man of God. Pope Gregory the Great wrote a biography of St. Benedict of Nursia which will also help Protestants out. Venerable Bede talks about many saints as well.
The third piece of advice is fasting on Friday. Catholics don’t have a monopoly on fasting on Friday. Anyone can do it. Make Friday the day that you don’t eat meat. Replace it with fish or go pure vegetarian. This isn’t too hard. Just think, a modern day Orthodox Jew or anyone living under the Old Covenant could never eat lobster or shrimp. Just think, not only can we eat that, we can also eat that when we’re fasting as it isn’t meat according to traditional customs.
The fourth piece of advice is to set up icons in your room. If you have some problems with this theology, I’d recommend the writings of St. John of Damascus or St. Theodore the Studite to put your mind at ease. The concept is entirely Biblical and patristic. Put icons of Christ and his Blessed Mother for sure. Maybe add a few more of important saints. St. George slaying the dragon has always been one of my favourites.
The last piece of advice is the most controversial. In fact, I would try the first four pieces of advice before moving onto this one. The last piece of advice is praying the rosary. The rosary wasn’t given just for Catholics. It was given for all humanity so anyone can pray it. Rosaries aren’t hard to find and by chance if you can’t find one you can use your fingers. Start with five mysteries per day and maybe do fifteen one or two days of the week. As Taylor Marshall likes to say, if you don’t pray the rosary you’re not on the team. I also know of Protestants who pray the rosary. I’m not talking about high church Protestants but low church ones as well. We Catholics don’t have a monopoly on it.
These five pieces of advice are at least worth trying out. We need all the grace we can to fight the George Soros funded hacks who are destroying America and elsewhere. Try them out. Maybe try to fit them into your routine one at a time. Either way, you’ll receive abundant blessings.
# 1 – completely already agreed.
# 2 – agreed. Especially early church and Reformation saints.
# 3 – good, but not so programmatic etc. and it is a strange tradition IMO of thinking fish is not flesh or meat, etc. We should fast at times, with deeper times in prayer and the Word (Scripture) (Matthew 9:15) – but not so legalistic as the RC Friday thing. Also, it does no good to fast from food if you don’t fill that time in with Scripture and prayer.)
# 4 and 5 – most Protestants will demure on those –
All the Mary statues and icons are a turn off – too gawdy and goofy.
The Rosary is too associated with the wrong Marian doctrines and dogmas. The website below about the Rosary is a great turn-off because of all the Mary non-Biblical stuff.
She was a great Biblical, godly woman in the NT. That is all. You cannot pray to her and you should not have icons and statues of her.
Very gawdy and plasticy:
https://www.theholyrosary.org/
I won’t put icons up in my house, but having them in church history books, archeological areas, churches, etc. is great for historical purposes and teaching.
However, I actually like the historical icons discovered in ancient churches, like in the Hagia Sophia, because of the historical significance, but not for worship contexts.
Lives of the saints, esp. early church, agreed:
Athanasius was a great man – he is my favorite early church father. Polycarp, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Ignatius, Cyprian also. John Chrysostom and the Cappodocian fathers – all very good to know. Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome – Protestants need to know more of these men and their writings, agreed.
Happy Sunday Ken,
So we at least agree on 3 out of 5. Question for you on the rosary because there is more than one Protestant objection. I’m assuming that you think talking to Mary or another saint no longer on this earth is idolatry? Also, do you have the “how can Mary hear you?” type objection? Or both? Or another one specifically?
Also who would the “reformation saints” be? While you believe that they may have stumbled on some theological truths I don’t think that any of them were known for personal sanctity(same root word for saint). Zwingli and Cranmer engaged in fornication with women they weren’t married to. Calvin ran a terror state in Geneva. Luther had views on the Jews rivalled only by St. John Chrysostom, not to mention he endorsed bigamy in the case of Philip of Hesse. I mean, I don’t know much about Tyndale? Maybe him? I would say he disobeyed Church authority but you would say that because of heresy that authority was lost. Henry VIII…I hope I don’t need to explain this one to you lol.
God bless,
Allan
Zwingli and Cranmer engaged in fornication with women they weren’t married to.
Really? I did not know that. Do you have good references on that?
Calvin ran a terror state in Geneva.
he was strict, but applied church discipline to the norms of the time. A lot of what was done was inherited from Roman Catholic practice and culture. (Inquisitions, Crusades, etc.) The Roman Catholic church was hunting Servetus and they would have burned him first, if he did not try to find refuge in Geneva.
Luther had views on the Jews rivalled only by St. John Chrysostom,
Yeah, I know; they were so wrong on that; but some have argued that it was racial, but was related to salvation issues. Yeah, Luther “lost it” as a grumpy old man towards the end of his life, agreed.
not to mention he endorsed bigamy in the case of Philip of Hesse.
yeah, I remember learning about that from Dave Armstrong – true, we were not told about those details. Luther seemed to argue from the OT polygamy that existed.
I mean, I don’t know much about Tyndale? Maybe him? I would say he disobeyed Church authority but you would say that because of heresy that authority was lost.
indeed; the RCC had and had no authority to tell people to disobey God and His word. It was a matter of evangelism and missions – not everyone could read or understand Latin.
Henry VIII…I hope I don’t need to explain this one to you lol.
yeah, agreed. He was not even a true Protestant – he was RC in his theology. He just rebelled against the Pope because the Pope would not give him an annulment / “divorce”. Certainly I did not have him in mind.
“saint” in the NT meaning is a true believer (1 Cor. 1:1-2; 1:30; 6:9-11; 2 Cor. 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1-2; Philippians 1:1; Hebrews 10:10-14), not someone who is extra-ordinarily holy in every area of their lives.
So, I would consider Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and Tyndale and Cranmer in that category, as true believers who did extra-ordinary heroic deeds for the faith, warts and flaws and all, but definitely not Henry VIII ( I don’t think he was a truly converted man).
oops, typo:
should have been:
Yeah, I know; they were so wrong on that; but some scholars have argued that it was NOT racial, but was related to salvation issues.
Okay, I’ll respond to bits.
“Zwingli and Cranmer engaged in fornication with women they weren’t married to.
Really? I did not know that. Do you have good references on that?”
With Cranmer he actually had a woman he was with but he couldn’t officially get married because clerical marriage was forbidden, even after the split with Rome(at least under Henry). When Henry continued to persecute Protestants Cranmer secretly sent his family to the continent for safety. Zwingli is similar. He had a woman that he wanted to marry but clerical marriage was still outlawed at that time. As you know in the Zurich reformation, reforms were one at a time and slow and I think he was more focused on abolishing the mass and union with Rome before he tackled clerical celibacy. So I would say this is fornication though I wouldn’t put this in the category of wanting to sleep with every woman they could which is often implied with fornication. I would say that with Henry VIII though lol.
We essentially agree on the rest. Obviously I believe that Tyndale disobeyed church authority, you disagree. However he wasn’t burned for translating the Bible according to popular belief. That was a crime but not a capital crime. He was executed for teaching Protestantism.
Of course the clerical rule is wrong and unBiblical, (1 Corinthians 9; 1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; 1 Peter 5:1 – Peter is married and a fellow-elder, etc.) so if they (Cranmer and Zwingli) got married in a private ceremony with vows and a few witnesses, then that is not fornication, according to Biblical definitions. (Genesis 1-2; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; John 2:1-12)
I’m assuming that you think talking to Mary or another saint no longer on this earth is idolatry? Also, do you have the “how can Mary hear you?” type objection? Or both? Or another one specifically?
Yes, prayer is part of worship to God, so we should only pray to God.
I disagree that prayer is worship. Worship in an ancient context is in terms of sacrifice. That is why the mass(which is a sacrifice) is offered only to God, not to Mary, angels, or Saints.
If I may add something to your advises, I would suggest fasting on Wednesdays too. That is the rule with the Orthodox (I do not suggest keeping the four fasts, because I know that people would recoil in horror, that should come later). Also to keep the fast as the Orthodox do: no meat, fish -shellfish is allowed-, eggs, dairy, oil, wine, and no sex).
One would derive much benefit from reading the ‘Bible’ according to the liturgical cycle.
Reading the commentaries of the Church Fathers is an enormous help. Saint Basil, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Maximus the Confessor, to name a few.
Hello Seraphim,
Well, as you probably figured out, my list was a starting point. Obviously additional fasting can come later. I most certainly wouldn’t recommend the intense and noble fasting that the Orthodox churches engage in. I studied Russian for 5 years and my teacher was an EO from Belarus and she did the full fast.
It’s true. The Bible must be studied in the context of the Church. I actually have an appreciation for the Ancient Christian Commentaries series. Even though it’s Protestant it provides the ancient commentaries. I just finished reading two sets of ancient commentaries on revelation, one Latin and one Greek, both from the ACC series.
This is the first time I’ve noticed you on my website. Are you Eastern Orthodox?
Feel free to comment here anytime.
God bless,
Allan
It is the first time indeed because it was the first time that I noticed this site. Yes, I am Orthodox.
God bless.
Dear Mr Ruhl and Mr Temple, May I thank you sincerely for your insightful comments, it is wonderful that two members of different Christian traditions are able have civil and respectful conversations. Secondly I understand that our old friends Adnan Rashid and Sir Anthony Buzzard are to have a YouTube program together in the near future. We must keep and eye upon them, and critique them, since the online Islamic polemicists certainly shall endorse any form of Christianity that denied the full Godhead of Our Blessed Lord Christ.