I made a comment yesterday that the church was fallible. One of my commentators, who thinks Catholic, said that an article of faith was taught that the church was infallible. Then Will reminded me it was reformation day.

One of the most offensive parts of the reformation — and in my view the thing that drove Luther out of the Catholic church — was that he criticised the selling of indulgences. Luther’s theology of salvation was not new. Augustine had preached similarly. But the church will always make errors. There will always be heretics. The church will always attract the power hungry and the exploitative.

I Corinthians 10:6-12

6Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.

via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.

I’m reformed. and the reformers position is one of radical doubt. All thoughts we have are flawed. We have to test everything against scripture. In this position, we ignore the truth hidden in infallibility. The church is not ours, it is God’s and he guides us out of error. For every generation of appeasers and liberals, there is a remnant that teach the gospel when it is out of season and set the next generation afire.

In this time, when the church is shattered (The tendency to say we are pure and right leads to multiple splits among those who have fallen into the errors of the holiness doctrine and the associated protestant version of seeing pastors as without error) it is fair to say that God does not play favourites with churches. He works where the people are faithful. In most places there is a group who are faithful — and they club together.

My denomination is a fairly typical split. There is a liberal eilte, concentrated in Dunedin and Wellington… who are very well educated but not that good at preaching the gospel and prone to falling into the errors of their generation.

If you want good, classical music, go to the elite churches. But the teaching stinks.

Then there are the non elite plodders with their simple faith. They tend to not make changes as quickly. From them, not the elite, springs the next generation of leaders — and I pray they resist the temptations (for power comes from being non confrontational to this generation) to become part of the elite.