Bringing simplicity out of theological and historical complexity through in-depth, diverse conversations.
Gospel Simplicity began as a KZread channel in a Moody Bible Institute dorm. It was born out of the central conviction that the gospel is really good news, and I wanted to share that with as many people as possible. The channel has grown and changed over time, but that central conviction has never changed. Today, we make content around biblical and theological topics, often interacting with people from across the Christian tradition with the hope of seeking greater unity and introducing people to the beautiful simplicity and transformative power of the gospel, the good news about Jesus.
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This episode was so good.
I'm so glad I can subscribe to Gospel Simplicity! Some of the most edifying content on the Interwebs ...
I notice that the gospel doesn't seem to be a big factor in your thinking.
I refuse to listen to this guy!
Soooooooo street smarts. Such s waste of a platflorm
For me it's two things. One, I have a real problem with some of things that have been done in the past, and some of the things being done in the present. The latter are clearly wrong, and the former do not appear to be biblical. Two, I don't see either really pushing the boundaries of human knowledge as it relates to the gospel. They have a tendency, in the past and present, to not want to move forward seeking knowledge. It may turn out this is a wise decision. But I take scripture at it's word when it says seek and you shall find. I don't want to take anything away from the many glorious things all three of these groups have done and I believe they're many.
I am going through the same thing. I am talking with people who have phd's in church history, I am reading church fathers books.. so far I am conflicted. The statements the orthodox make seem true, but the problem for me is the many traditions that have developed over time. I stumble especially when I see how political the orthodox church is at the moment. An example right now is the Russian and Ukranian church.
This is a great video. I love that you share the anxieties and struggles and biases we encounter when we contemplate conversion from one denomination/church to another. I felt the same way simply moving from being a Dispensational Evangelical to Lutheranism. Even though they are both protestant the issues surrounding confession and baptismal regeneration and non premillennial eschatology made for some very uncomfortable conversations and circumstances in my social and family life. I can imagine how much more of a struggle it could be for those moving between protestant and non protestant churches. Great video.
It's not that complicated. If you want to be your own interpretative authority then go protestant. If you want a supreme court to settle matters of dogma and faith then go catholic.
"The case for Anglican orders is strong" Meanwhile, Anglicans ordain women and marry same-sex couples.
God loves all denominations equally
That's alright Austin. It's so brave of you for telling what you feel on Catholicism. I know one day, Mama Mary will touch you. God bless you always.
Forget about the papacy. I’m sick of this topic. The squabbles on this is junk.
Never trust this guy. 35 years a believer and I'm just seeing him pop up in the last year???
I just scroll through the comments and tally how many times someone claimed a side got destroyed, then I make up my mind that way.
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@@GospelSimplicity 😂 God bless you brother!
I know this may sound over-simplistic but my faith journey brought me out of Protestantism into apostolic Christianity and finally into Catholicism. Orthodoxy has a relativistic ecclesiastical problem and Protestantism has a relativistic biblical problem.
To be fair the Catholic Church has a heart problem. :/
Militant and haughty Romans in the comment section.
A couple things. First, this can also apply to the Bible. I've started reading without a strict amount I'm supposed to read, and it is great. I'm taking more notes, learning and being reminded of lessons better. Second, I've been reading more classic fiction books, and they're honestly better paced and more engaging than more recent books I've read. This is with the exception of War and Peace, but let's not get into that. Anyway, use your reading time well, whether it's to learn or help you relax.
Faith plus what? That's the problem. I might be called naive but since James we are not saved by faith alone and Ephesians tells us by grace thru faith and not of works. The solution or one of them is what is taught in several different passages sprinkled thru the Bible passages which require obedience to the word of God and the teachings of the Word Ephesians 2.10 shows us what I believed is the proper balance between faith works and obedience it reads: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, created before hand by God, so that may live doing them
Well said and summarized. However, I think you've left out two massive areas that are much more important. Conversion isn't primarily an intellectual activity. It is primarily an emotional and/or spiritual activity. I don't discount the role of rational learning and thinking, they just play much much smaller role in conversion than we like to think. A third approach would be participation. This is the way one should approach Orthodoxy. Not with lists and by reading lots of books but by participation. Orthodoxy teaches that true knowledge does not come through our rational capacity but through our noetic/spiritual-heart capacity. Thus one can't know God or His Church by reading or analyzing with our rational minds but through our "nous", and this means we must repent and find a new way of knowing altogether!
I don't understand how he could say, "I can't say absolutely for certain that I will be among the saved at the end of time." This is a very concerning comment. He seems to be one that practices Orthodoxy pretty religiously. However, it appears from his statement, one cannot have assurance that Orthodox Christianity can provide the needed assurance of salvation. If so, why belong to it? Did the Apostle Paul, just to point out one, have that mindset of doubt? I don't think so. I believe one can be assured, but it will never be through particular rituals, deeds, religious processes or aesthetics. That assurance comes from the Holy Spirit, who guides through conviction and having knowledge of HIs presence in your praying and worship. It is not just knowing about the Holy Spirit, but knowing the Holy Spirit, which when you do, He will give that assurance letting you know that you are His. I feel that Orthodoxy does not foster that true knowledgeable relationship with Him. Therefore, the doubt. It is as God said through Isaiah in Is. 30:21 "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the righthand or when ye turn to the left." If we are taught that we "will know others by their fruit," how is it that we will not be able to discern ourselves, especially with His help?
Awesome video, it is something that has gone through my mind in my conversion journey to the Catholic Church but I never had the words to describe it. I really appreciate your videos, keep the thoughts coming! I found a lot of rest in your channel when I was discerning all the claims of the Christian faiths and couldn’t seem to land perfectly anywhere.
Thanks for the encouragement!
You ‘nuanced’ me into the Catholic Church, lol. Thank you!
Good presentation but note that in life someone has to make a decision rather than siting on the fence in search of the hidden treasury which is the divinely inspired Truth of God because God is not any percent Truth but COMPLETELY WHOLE Truth. My personal experience in converting to Catholicism is that the first STEP is to study and prove that Sola Scriptura is unbiblical and unworkable. If you can not prove it, then you remain non Catholic. Second try to imagine the continuity of God's Economy of Salvation in some forms or extents for instance: if God chosed to create a creature to accomplish His mission of Incarceration through her, would He erase her from His Saving Work or give her a continuity of intercessory role to bring sinners to Him? If God would have incarcerated from a dog rather than from a human female or never incarcerated at all but came as a 33 year old messiah to accomplish His mission of Redemption, what would be the Evangelical summary of conclusion in line with the Catholic Teaching and that of non catholic? Or if one says no to herbs in the need of medication since plants are evil and thus only take manufactured drugs for their healing when in fact the drugs are extracted from herbal plants, would this be a continuity or discontinuity of the Economy of Salvation? It would be only when you accomplish this two factors (agree or disagree), then you can consider one of the ways presented by Gospel Simplicity here. However, both ways my friend Austin, your presentation reveals what is inside of yourself since you are in this delemma. Sometimes it is better to give solutions and not options. Would you take one of the two or both or none of them? Thank you for your presentation and to my Catholic brothers and sisters here, I wish a Happy Feast Day of The Holy Trinity. May God bless everyone here!!!
Demons are all angels that went against YHWH that were casted out with the devil from their Heavenly Estate.
As an old fart catholic my individual identity and issues were overwhelmed by my attempts at deep prayer. When the love of Christ on the cross becomes more apparent to me and the lives of these human creatures by the millions become paramount my individual stuff stinks to nothing. The love Christ has is too overwhelming in its dimensions. My petty shelf is so feeble it’s embarrassing. I have a small devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. If I add. For me the Holy Eucharist is very real and alive.
Good thoughts. Thank you for continuing to pursue productive discourse between different traditions .
Thank you Austin, for always being respectful to all of us. I am Catholic and have used the “does this make sense to me” method when it comes to the assumption of Mary. I think of how God the Father chose her out of all the people on earth to carry Him in human form, to love Him, to raise Him, to go against her human motherly instincts and ALLOW herself to let go of Him to save the world. I have no definitive proof that Mary was assumed, but I simply can not believe that Our Lord would allow her blessed body -the vessel that carried Jesus Christ- to remain on earth and decompose like every other human. She was way too special for that. So the Assumption makes SO much sense to me. I believe it is true…that the Lord lifted her body and soul to Heaven. And although I pray to God, I do ask Mary to pray to her Son for me . It wouldn’t be the first time she asked Jesus to help someone, right? Hope you have understood my thought process. Thank you again Austin.
Christs Church is the Catholic Church and obviously of divine origin. We believe because of our love for Christ. Protestants are the doubting seed of Luther. Protetants doubt everything because their founder also doubted and where they have doubts Catholics have faith. And if Protestants did their homework on Luther who seemed to have started with good intentions for reforming the Church at the start , but his coarse personality won out especially at the end of his career with his book "On Jews and Their Lies " ... Listen to the audio of the book and Luthers evilness is so apparent as he berates the Jews and all because he couldnt convert them says much of Luthers personality even to the point where you see he has a disorder. A good vine produces good fruit, but a vine grown from a disordered seed will produce disordered fruit. And it seems to me that the whole premise of Protestant (came from protest to any who dont know) movement was and still is just an arguement against Catholicism. And the Protestant/evangelical/baptist/pentacostal, etc. of today are just so watered down forms of Christianity that even Luther himself would not approve of. Protestants are the disciplesthat fell away after Jesus said you must eat my flesh and drink my blood to have eternal life. Like history repeating itself Protestants refuse (because of pridefullness because they believe that they are the only ones who interpret scripture correctly) refuse the eucharist , refuse to believe that God has the ability to transform Himself into a thin wafer for the good of His people. They say they have faith, but all (including their preachers whom many are millionaires) refuse the notion of good works done for the love of Christ , they see scts of charity even as a way of buying ones way into heaven and call it sin. When good works are brought up many,many times in the bible and how we will be judged by them. Especially in the book of revelation.
Hey Austin. Great video! Toward the end, you mentioned Chrysostom and Augustine. I would encourage you and your viewers to focus on the Orthodox Church Fathers and give them priority since they lived in pre-modernity and spoke the native language, more or less. Here are a few minds that have commentaries: St. Augustine St. Bede St. Cassiodorus St. John Chrysostom St. Basil the Great St. Gregory of Nyssa St. Athanasius of Alexandria St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Ephrem the Syrian St. Gregory the Great St. Theophylact of Ohrid St. Maximus the Confessor St. Symeon the New Theologian I recall Hartley’s The Go-Between line: The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
Great Video ☦️
Blessings to you both, I am Metropolitan Vittorio (Victor) Western Orthodox come and explore this Beautiful Liturgy, being Western but Orthodox feel free to contact me. Keep up your spiritual journey. Christ is among Us
Was concerned about you for a time.
WHEN did Jesus give Peter the keys to the kingdom? In Matthew 16, Jesus says he will (FUTURE tense) give Peter the keys to the kingdom, and then he says what those keys will be able to do (bind and loose). He gives ALL the apostles the keys in Matthew 18. There is ZERO evidence that ONLY Peter gets the keys. After giving them the keys in Matthew 18, Jesus specifically emphasizes the need for a *plurality* of leaders! ⬇️ “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if *two* of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where *two* or *three* are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:18-20) What is NEVER said is that one singular authority will be able to bind and loose, but rather our togetherness brings with it the presence of Christ and his authority reigns supreme! Also when it comes to your line of succession ⬇️ “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and *endless* *genealogies,* which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” - 1 Timothy 1:3-5
This priest is amazing, i mean when we speaks his voice touches the heart.
While this may apply to reformed folk it certainly doesn't apply to confessional Lutherans. Our understanding of sola Scriptura is not as rigid as the reformed understanding. We would say that if something is spiritually edifying and not in contrast or opposition to the scripture, then it is ok. Many apostolic traditions are upheld by confessional Lutherans and serve as valuable tools for the Christian life. The line basically gets drawn at Nicaea II. That's where the EOC went off the rails, compelling the consciences of the faithful to do things that are contrary to scripture. The EOC is in desperate need of a reformation!
We study all this history and somehow ascribe church history and origins to Rome. This is wild.
Be a skeptic. Is more fun. :D
I am Christian because it's the only religion whose founder claims to be God (and backs it beyond reasonable doubt). I'm Catholic because it's the only Christian church that claims to hold an authority to decide infallibly directly delegated by God (and backs it with Scripture, irreducible logical consistency, and historical coherence). I see authority as a non- negotiable because obedience is the only way we have to know that we love God. If I can pick and choose what to submit to and what not, I am obeying no one but myself. In the final analysis, I must be able to not agree or not understand, and still say: "not my will, but Thy will be done."
BECOME.
I’m a 3rd party, there was a fundamentalist catholic couple who were pressuring me to become catholic and I was on fast track to become one because I’d loved to actually fully enjoy the Eucharist but I realized there were issues or doubts that I had but I was told “ why but”? I slowed way down and found conservative Catholics stopped talking to me because I didn’t convert. I try to go to mass every week, I can’t do communion and most conservative Catholics would prefer I not even attend mass if I won’t become one. I think folks have to realize it’s incredibly difficult to turn away from the religion you were born into. Catholicism is so much easier if your born into it because your a baby when your baptized already. So discouraged that I haven’t found a church home. I so wish people would welcome you just because you want to seek god not because you aren’t an official name if a religion. In all fairness it’s the moderate Catholics and Protestants who are the kindest on my journey!
Also Pope Francis being a massive moron keeps people away too lol.......
24:34 useful
on defense of orders
If you want a biblical theology that is actually Divine Revelation, without human inventions or mere opinions, you're looking for Sacred Tradition by means of Magisterium. (Sacred Scripture is itself written Tradition, anyway.) "The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?" (Luke 20:4)
You take issue with the Assumption of Mary but dont take issue with the idea that God is a real estate agent.
It's the principle of haeresis, that is heresy. Protestantism is all about "soul competency" and picking and choosing what to believe. To become Orthodox or Catholic means ceding control of your choices. It's like dating vs marriage. Some individuals always want an "out" or to keep their options open by dating and never marrying. Marriage is commitment and not for the commitment phobic.
You are a gentle soul. A saying I live by: if one wishes to live in the light there is evidence to do so. If one wishes to live in darkness there is evidence to do so. As a lifelong Catholic I have learned over years that many Roman dogmas are untenable. Rome never reasons. It declares and anathematizes anyone who disagrees to hell. That is a big deal for me.
To "know" something in Orthodox Christianity is to experience. It's like the semi-dirty joke reference about getting to "know someone in the Biblical sense" (cf. Genesis). If we "know" something about the Faith then we have experienced it. Protestants like to talk about "head" and "heart" knowledge, so even they know that head knowledge, that is, the intellectual apprehension is only a part of real spiritual knowledge. But I'm "Deep in History" doth the Protestant protests. So what? Jaroslav Pelikan was a Lutheran "deep in history" when he wrote his seminal "Christian History" series of books. He converted to Orthodox Christianity, seven months before I did. In the 1990s, the guy in charge of writing apologetics for the Mormons boasted a PhD in Early Church History from Princeton. He was "deep in history" and tore into the ahistorical Evangelicals (archenemies of the Mormons) with a vengeance. He was deep in history, but embraced 19th Mormonism for other reasons aside from Christian historical continuity. Being deep in Christian history brought Pelikan and Cardinal Newman out of Protestantism, but for others it may actually lead them away. If you want to experience, "know" something outside of Protestantism, then you have to take a leap of faith and just do it. Try it. Otherwise, being Protestant is kind of cool, especially a Protestant who knows a lot about Catholicism or Orthodox Christianity. Hey I'm a Protestant on the leading edge, the cutting edge! Cool for Protestants, but kind of dull for Orthodox Christians. What good is it to be on the cutting edge if one never does any cutting? A sword may ring true, but it still has to pass the cutting test.