Christian Monks...!

Yesterday at 08:34 PM Wolseley said this in Post #15

If the major tenant of Christianity is The Great Commission, then why are you all sitting at home right now posting on this bulletin board?

Why aren't you standing on a corner in Beijing, preaching to the lost?

There are a lot of ways of spreading the Gospel. Life witness is one of them. Do you not think that a group of people who devote themselves entirely to Christ, and eschew worldly dealings, who spend their time trying to perfect holiness and charity, are good witnesses to Christ?

You can set up a monastery in the middle of pagan territory and simply live there, letting the inhabitants see how you live. They can observe how you act, and if they notice your charity, generosity, and kindliness, holiness, and wisdom, they may decide that it's something they want for themselves, so they come to you and ask for what you have.

That, too, is a way of spreading the Gospel. As somebody once said, "Preach without ceasing; use words if you have to."

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 Sure you can set up a nice little Christian cofee shop in the middle of LA and it will effect someone.

 

 But I have never met anyone who was saved in a wordless sermon.

I have.

It was a fellow who never attended church services as a child because his family was hostile to organized religion; but he used to visit a Catholic church on his way to school and would spend several minutes a day gazing at the stained glass windows, which depicted scenes from the Gospels. Then he would walk around the inside and look at the Stations of the Cross mounted on the walls, depicting the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ.

He said he was fascinated with these things......and it so affected him that later, after he left home, he started buying books about Christianity to learn more. Eventually he joined a church (not a Catholic church either, BTW) and made his profession of faith. He told me he probably never would have considered an interest in Christianity if it hadn't been for some stained glass windows and some statues inside a Catholic church that got him wondering what it was all about.

The artwork planted the seed; the rest grew from there.

he started buying books about Christianity to learn more.

he joined a church

Salvation is a process. You gotta start somewhere.

Besides which, he told me he was a saved person, and I am not arrogant enough to second-guess God concerning somebody's else's salvation. That's God's job and I am content to leave it to Him.

I think that anyone today has to be real careful when saying that they are a christian because the next question is what religion.
The polls on tis site clearly denote that most people are seeking an intimate relationship with the creator $02

In belgium thier abbyists make beer
In snowmass Colorado honey and books

James servant to all

I am not trying to doubt his salvation, but how it came to be.

KATAKRINO BTW is the GREEK word used in the NT for "ultimate condemnation"...!

You can find it in the STRONGS Concordance....Greek word 2632...Used in ROM 8:1....judge against..sentence ....condemn...!

IT was NOT an attack by me...on "catholics"...OR anyone else...!

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You're quite right, Eph; I was mistaken in my earlier post, and I'm sorry. Due to the somewhat antagonistic tone of the thread, I overreacted. Please accept my humble apologies for the error.

Gosh this thread is full of irony, not the least of which is that monks evangelized England, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, northern Italy.

Our whole civiliation has Alzheimers.  Many European cities grew up around Catholic monasteries and drew spiritual and intellectual sustenance from them.  Even the reformers owe their faith to the monks who originally converted their countries. The scriptures they quoted were not churned out by Tyndale Press or Thomas Nelson, but were laboriously handcopied by monks. 

 In other words, several posters here are spitting in the face of the very men and institutions through whom faith in Christ came to them. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child."  If your ancestors came from Europe,  monks, especially Benedictine monks, are your fathers in Christ!

What return can you make to them for what has come down to you through them? At the very least, you could familarize yourself with the facts of how the Christian faith came down to you. As Paul says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," but if no one preaches, how can anyone hear? So, the word of God came to you, not from the sky, but through living men, who wore the robes of monks, lived very austere lives and gave their lives up to spreading and living the word of God. Look at the lives of Augustine of Canterbury,  Boniface, and Columba, to take a few examples.

On these men you, in your lack of knowledge, heap disgrace! Yet, in the divine economy even this redounds to the glory of the very men you vilify.  If you think you know something about evangelism, what in your life, or in any evangelist you know or have even heard of can compare with what Boniface did in Germany, hmm?

Thank you Patriarch. I was going to bring this up, and include the monks who evangelized California and Central America, the Orthodox monks who evangelized Alaska, and how about Mother Teresa for Pete's sake. Read "How the Irish Saved Civilization".

In other words, get a clue.

Oops. I saw monk and assumed that it meant total seclusion.

I would like to look into it.

26th February 2003 at 02:32 AM patriarch said this in Post #29


On these men you, in your lack of knowledge, heap disgrace! Yet, in the divine economy even this redounds to the glory of the very men you vilify.  If you think you know something about evangelism, what in your life, or in any evangelist you know or have even heard of can compare with what Boniface did in Germany, hmm?

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No doubt what he did was great. But, how is it any less or more important than the evangelism I do while at school? No one I speak to has been converted yet(to my knowledge) am I failing?

 

 

I don't think the point was to insult your effort, but Columba, Patrick, Boniface, et al gave their entire lives just to Christ and to spread the Gospel. They went into barbarian lands (some of them) and risked their lives (and sometimes gave their lives). Why take it personally if we are not as successful? Just stop trashing them.

Well first I want to say that I am very thankful for the monks of the middle ages who took the time to copy many early Christian manuscripts so that we have copies of them today. I do not agree with everything that they taught and did but I can say that about almost any branch of Christendom.

I think it is myoptic to take the great Commission and say this is how one must fullfill that command. Some people's , although they are called to witness, gifts are of teaching and not of the evangelist. I have learned much from the writings of Medieval monks and friars such as Benard of Clairvaux and St. Francis of Assisi. One of the main things I have learned from the monastics is that many (if not all) are called to simplify their lives so that they can focus on what is truly important. One should simplify the things that although they are not evil in themselves take away time and attention from prayer and God himself. Too many of us go from one thing to another and then we find out we have no time for God. Monastics have taught me that I should limit the "things" in my life so I can spend good amounts of time in solitude and prayer so I can be refreshed with new zeal and purpose for the Lord. Jesus did this at times when he left the crowd and went either alone or with his faithful few to place of refreshment and prayer. So no I do not want to pattern my life 100% around what the medieval monastics did but I can learn much from them. I think that in 500 years people will be saying the same things about us as we are about them. That is if Christ has not come back by then.