On the Babylonian Captivity of the Episcopal Church

Update: Al Mohler has written an insightful comment, to which I'd like to draw your attention, on the irony-cum-tragedy of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church discovering the notion of heresy.

But what saith it [sc. the Scripture]? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:8-9 AV).

Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, has recently labelled the notion "that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God" as "the great Western heresy". The sad thing is I'm not at all shocked that she (or several other bishops of that church) would say something like this. The Episcopal Church has been going down this road for some time. That it has now arrived at this point is hardly a surprise. Now lest I be accused of taking her words out of context, here they are in their immediate context (you can read the entire speech here):

The crisis of this moment has several parts, and like Episcopalians, particularly ones in Mississippi, they’re all related. The overarching connection in all of these crises has to do with the great Western heresy – that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center [sic] of existence, as the ground of all being. (emphasis mine)

I honestly wasn't sure to begin with this one. I could have taken the view that what she said is so obviously wrong and that any response I could offer would seem so basic that it would hardly be worth responding. Or I could have taken the view that since a statement like this is just another example of a modernist theologian denying historic Christian orthodoxy that it's hardly worth singling out from among the rest of the modernist theological doublespeak. Although simple, such approaches would be as mistaken as Dr. Jefferts Schori's views. This is not a theological debate on the periphery of the Christian faith (eg traditional versus modernist views on authorship of the individual books of the Bible) but goes to the heart of the Christian faith. What does it mean to be a Christian? Who is (and importantly who is not) one? And how does one become a Christian? We can't treat this issue as inconsequential.

If Dr. Jefferts Schori were merely arguing that in living out their faith many Western Christians neglect the corporate and communal nature of Christianity then there would be nothing objectionable in that. I would agree that much of modern Western Protestantism (and Western Christianity more generally) is overly individualistic. Or if she were making the more abstract theological point that it is impossible to be individually saved but not a member of the Church (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus) again this would be unobjectionable. But that is manifestly not what she was saying. She specifically talked about individual salvation being a heresy. Moreover she argues that the 'individualist focus' is a form of idolatry!

For those of you familiar with the Bible and church history the title of this post should resonate with you as alluding not only to the "Babylonian Captivity" of Israel in the Bible and the so-called "Babylonian captivity" of the papacy (1305-77) but also to Martin Luther's great work On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520). Luther's argument was that the Church of his day was in captivity and was desperately in need of liberation. The parallels with the current state of the Episcopal Church in the United States are striking. Luther's tract focused on the seven sacraments of the Roman Church, examining them in light of the Bible. Although important, the problem Luther faced in his day seems to pale into insignificance compared to the current problem facing the Episcopal Church in the United States (and Western Christianity more generally) at the present moment. In brief, the Episcopal Church has lost sight of the gospel of salvation -- yea, even individual salvation (something the Roman Church of the 16th Century did not deny). The Episcopal Church has lost sight of its mission.

This is what the apostle Paul says:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.' (Romans 1:16-17 ESV; emphasis added)

That word 'everyone' combines the concept of 'the one' and 'the many'. It is simultaneously both universal and individual. And so is the gospel (and salvation). It is universal in the sense that it is good news for all human beings at all times and in all places. Salvation is not for the Jew alone or for the Gentile alone but for everyone. And elsewhere (Matthew 28:19) Jesus explicitly says that the gospel is to be preached to all nations. Not just to individuals from different nations but to all nations. So yes it is a mistake to view the gospel and salvation through a purely individualist lens. But the Bible is clear that not everyone will be saved. The gospel is the power of salvation for everyone who believes (or 'puts his trust therein'). The gospel offer of salvation demands an individual response. In other words, the Bible clearly talks about individual salvation as the following passages make clear:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I [the Greek pronoun is singular] do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you [the Greek pronoun is singular] will be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. (Acts 16:25-32 ESV; emphasis added)

And:

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you [the Gk. pronoun is singular], in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you [the Gk. pronoun is singular] confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you [the Gk. pronoun is singular] will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:4-13 ESV; emphasis added)

I have made reference to but a handful of passages of Scripture, but the Scriptures are full of similar examples. Of course, as I have already said -- and as the passage cited from Acts intimates -- an individualist paradigm is far from exhaustive. God is not just interested in the salvation and transformation of individuals but also of families, communities, nations and ultimately the entire world. Moreover, the Christian life is not just a life of individual salvation but a life of fellowship with God and with brothers and sisters in Christ. But none of this detracts from the simple truths that salvation is individual and that as a result of the finished work of Christ and the promises made to us in Christ Jesus we as individuals can humbly but confidently lay hold of that salvation.

Far from being "heretical", the notion of "individual" salvation is at the heart of the gospel. Of course like any revealed divine truth it can be misunderstood and distorted. Dr. Jefferts Schori is right to point out the danger in insisting on a particular formulation of words. But far from being "idolatrous" by putting "me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center [sic] of existence, as the ground of all being", rightly understood and applied the notion of individual salvation is essential to true worship (i.e. the opposite of idolatry). God "commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Again, this is both universal and individual. It is universal in the sense that all are under the obligation to repent. But it is individual in the sense that it is a command for every single human being (Gk. ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos) in an individual capacity. When an individual repents and believes the gospel she is not engaging in idolatry but in an act of true worship for this is exactly what God requires. And for an individual humbly but confidently to acknowledge that he is "saved" not by the works of his own hands but by the finished work of Christ on the cross and and the promises of salvation made to him in Christ Jesus is not to engage in idolatry but an act of true worship.

The views of Dr. Jefferts Schori cannot be countenanced. They are a denunciation of the gospel which is the power of salvation for everyone who believes.