by Donald Philip Veitch
13 November 354 --Augustine: Authority of Scripture
Lest we forget
Lest we forget
Aurelius Augustus was born on 13 November 354. He was born in the fertile province Numidia in Northern Africa. He was passionate, intellectual, widely read, with neo-Platonic streaks, pious, and devoted to God. He is widely known for his famous statement, “Fecisti nos ad Ted, et insquietum est cor nostrum, donced requiescat in Te.” “You has made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” (Augustine’s Confessions, 1.1)
No Christian has finished his reading or may claim literacy unless he has read this.
A pagan educator and rhetorician, Augustine was influenced by the Ambrose of Milan in terms of the literary quality of the sermons. Soon, Augustine was near conversion, but his neo-Platonic corruptions about marriage prevented him from converting. Finally, he convinced his long-time concubine, or common-law wife, to conjugally separate. Both agreed. Regrettably, this was never corrected but fostered and anti-Biblical diminishments of the honor of marriage (Heb.13.4).
Augustine would in time become famous for his involvements with Donatists, Pelagians, and a host of other issues. With Pelagius, he engaged the issues of the Fall, Original Sin, and Predestination, issues that remain alive especially in the unreflective and un-thoughtful times in which we live. Augustine was quiet-spoken, but his words would ring for centuries. As a result of Augustine’s engagements, his works take a polemic cast.
We would certainly recommend the Confessions, City of God, and his numerous writings against Pelagius and the Donatists. Some can be found at http://www.ccel.org/. Certain modifications and syntheses of Augustine were made by Romanists to protect their power.
Augustine would say that doctrines may be rejected freely without offense to those under whose name they are presented. This comports with Jerome who said, what does not agree with Scripture may as easily scorned as it may be proved. Or from the early period, Tertullian in De Resurrectione carnis where he calls people lucifugas, that is, people who flee the light of Scriptures.
Augustine would say:
“…No rigged balances, where we can weigh out what we please and as we please, saying according to our own will: `This is heavy; that is light.’ Rather let us bring forward the divine balance from the Holy Scripture, from the treasuries of the Lord, and on it let us weight what is heavier, or rather, let us not weigh but recognize what has been weighed by the Lord.” (De baptismo contra Donatistas, Bk.2, ch.9).
Or again:
“But now I ought not to quote the Nicean, nor you the Ariminesian Council, as if to judge beforehand. I will not be bound by the authority of this, nor you by the authority of that. On the authority of Scriptures and not on any one’s own, but on the common witnesses of both, let matters contend with matter, cause with cause, reason with reason.” (Contra Maximinum, Bk.3, ch.14).
Or in Augustine’s comments on Psalm 57:
“Let our books be taken away from the midst, and let the Book of God enter there. Listen to Christ speaking. Listen to truth talking”.
It is fascinating to read Augustine’s Homilies on various biblical books. He stays close to the text without reference to papal decrees, bulls, or even other books. The same may be said of Chrysostom’s Homilies. We shall keep our eyes open as we continue to sift the panorama of Augustine’s corpus.
Or Augustine’s quite damning statement about man-made religions within and without the stream of Christendom:
“Let us not hear: This I say, this you say; but thus says the Lord. Surely it is the books of the Lord on whose authority we both agree and which we both believe. There let us seek the church, there let us discuss our case…Let those things be removed from our midst which we quote against each other not from divine canonical books but from elsewhere. Someone may perhaps ask: Why do you want to remove these things from our midst? Because I do not want the holy church proved by human documents but by divine oracles…Whatever they may adduce, and wherever they may quote from, let us rather, if we are His sheep, hear the voice of our Shepherd. Therefore let us search for the church in the sacred canonical Scriptures.” (De unitate ecclesiae, ch.3).
Or damningly,
“Neither dare one agree with catholic bishops if by chance they err in anything, with the result that their opinion if against the canonical Scriptures of God.” (De unitate ecclesiae, ch.10)
Or censoriously re: the Ich-theologie of Constantinople, Rome and Tractarians:
“He who preaches another gospel, let him be cursed, or let him read it to me in the Holy Scriptures, and he shall not be cursed.”
Or with exquisite and polemical condemnation of all Ego-religions:
“Let them show their church if they can, not by the speeches and mumblings of the Africans, not by the councils of their bishops, not by the writings of any of their champions, not by fraudulent signs and wonders, because we have been prepared and made cautious also against these things by the Word of the Lord, but by a command of the Law, by the predictions of the Prophets, by songs from the Psalms, by the words of the Shepherd Himself, by the preaching and labors of the evangelists, that is, by all the canonical authorities of the sacred books….let him not say it is true because this one or that one performed such and such marvelous things, or because me pray at the memorials of our dead and are heard, or because such an such things are taking place there, 9r because this one or that one has been such and such a vision either awake or dreamed it while asleep. Let these things be removed because they are either inventions of lying men or signs of deceiving spirits. For we also do not say that we should be believed because we are in the church of Christ, because innumerable bishops of our communion have commended this church to which we adhere, or because it has been praised by the councils of our colleagues, or because such great miracles both of answer to prayer and of healing take place throughout the world in the holy places which have our communion frequents…The Lord Jesus Himself, when after His resurrection He present His body to the eyes of His disciples that they might see and to their hands that they might tough it, lest they should think they were experiencing some deceit, nevertheless judged that He must strengthen them with the testimonies from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms…These are the documents of our cause, these the foundations, these the pillars….Demand of them that they show some clear testimonies from the canonical books. Remember that they Lord said: `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them’”. (De Unitate ecclesiaie, chapters 6, 10, 12, 16, 20)
In summary, it is best brought together by this principle of believing and living:
Read this to us from the Law, from the Prophets, from the Psalms, from the Gospels, read it from the apostolic writings, and we shall believe” (De unitate ecclesiae, ch.20).
Lest we forget Augustine, whom Luther called that “Blessed Augustine.” Lest we be misled by Ego-religions of Law-righteousness.
All religions are man-made or God-made, Law-righteousness or Grace, Anti-Christian or Christian.
No Christian has finished his reading or may claim literacy unless he has read this.
A pagan educator and rhetorician, Augustine was influenced by the Ambrose of Milan in terms of the literary quality of the sermons. Soon, Augustine was near conversion, but his neo-Platonic corruptions about marriage prevented him from converting. Finally, he convinced his long-time concubine, or common-law wife, to conjugally separate. Both agreed. Regrettably, this was never corrected but fostered and anti-Biblical diminishments of the honor of marriage (Heb.13.4).
Augustine would in time become famous for his involvements with Donatists, Pelagians, and a host of other issues. With Pelagius, he engaged the issues of the Fall, Original Sin, and Predestination, issues that remain alive especially in the unreflective and un-thoughtful times in which we live. Augustine was quiet-spoken, but his words would ring for centuries. As a result of Augustine’s engagements, his works take a polemic cast.
We would certainly recommend the Confessions, City of God, and his numerous writings against Pelagius and the Donatists. Some can be found at http://www.ccel.org/. Certain modifications and syntheses of Augustine were made by Romanists to protect their power.
Augustine would say that doctrines may be rejected freely without offense to those under whose name they are presented. This comports with Jerome who said, what does not agree with Scripture may as easily scorned as it may be proved. Or from the early period, Tertullian in De Resurrectione carnis where he calls people lucifugas, that is, people who flee the light of Scriptures.
Augustine would say:
“…No rigged balances, where we can weigh out what we please and as we please, saying according to our own will: `This is heavy; that is light.’ Rather let us bring forward the divine balance from the Holy Scripture, from the treasuries of the Lord, and on it let us weight what is heavier, or rather, let us not weigh but recognize what has been weighed by the Lord.” (De baptismo contra Donatistas, Bk.2, ch.9).
Or again:
“But now I ought not to quote the Nicean, nor you the Ariminesian Council, as if to judge beforehand. I will not be bound by the authority of this, nor you by the authority of that. On the authority of Scriptures and not on any one’s own, but on the common witnesses of both, let matters contend with matter, cause with cause, reason with reason.” (Contra Maximinum, Bk.3, ch.14).
Or in Augustine’s comments on Psalm 57:
“Let our books be taken away from the midst, and let the Book of God enter there. Listen to Christ speaking. Listen to truth talking”.
It is fascinating to read Augustine’s Homilies on various biblical books. He stays close to the text without reference to papal decrees, bulls, or even other books. The same may be said of Chrysostom’s Homilies. We shall keep our eyes open as we continue to sift the panorama of Augustine’s corpus.
Or Augustine’s quite damning statement about man-made religions within and without the stream of Christendom:
“Let us not hear: This I say, this you say; but thus says the Lord. Surely it is the books of the Lord on whose authority we both agree and which we both believe. There let us seek the church, there let us discuss our case…Let those things be removed from our midst which we quote against each other not from divine canonical books but from elsewhere. Someone may perhaps ask: Why do you want to remove these things from our midst? Because I do not want the holy church proved by human documents but by divine oracles…Whatever they may adduce, and wherever they may quote from, let us rather, if we are His sheep, hear the voice of our Shepherd. Therefore let us search for the church in the sacred canonical Scriptures.” (De unitate ecclesiae, ch.3).
Or damningly,
“Neither dare one agree with catholic bishops if by chance they err in anything, with the result that their opinion if against the canonical Scriptures of God.” (De unitate ecclesiae, ch.10)
Or censoriously re: the Ich-theologie of Constantinople, Rome and Tractarians:
“He who preaches another gospel, let him be cursed, or let him read it to me in the Holy Scriptures, and he shall not be cursed.”
Or with exquisite and polemical condemnation of all Ego-religions:
“Let them show their church if they can, not by the speeches and mumblings of the Africans, not by the councils of their bishops, not by the writings of any of their champions, not by fraudulent signs and wonders, because we have been prepared and made cautious also against these things by the Word of the Lord, but by a command of the Law, by the predictions of the Prophets, by songs from the Psalms, by the words of the Shepherd Himself, by the preaching and labors of the evangelists, that is, by all the canonical authorities of the sacred books….let him not say it is true because this one or that one performed such and such marvelous things, or because me pray at the memorials of our dead and are heard, or because such an such things are taking place there, 9r because this one or that one has been such and such a vision either awake or dreamed it while asleep. Let these things be removed because they are either inventions of lying men or signs of deceiving spirits. For we also do not say that we should be believed because we are in the church of Christ, because innumerable bishops of our communion have commended this church to which we adhere, or because it has been praised by the councils of our colleagues, or because such great miracles both of answer to prayer and of healing take place throughout the world in the holy places which have our communion frequents…The Lord Jesus Himself, when after His resurrection He present His body to the eyes of His disciples that they might see and to their hands that they might tough it, lest they should think they were experiencing some deceit, nevertheless judged that He must strengthen them with the testimonies from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms…These are the documents of our cause, these the foundations, these the pillars….Demand of them that they show some clear testimonies from the canonical books. Remember that they Lord said: `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them’”. (De Unitate ecclesiaie, chapters 6, 10, 12, 16, 20)
In summary, it is best brought together by this principle of believing and living:
Read this to us from the Law, from the Prophets, from the Psalms, from the Gospels, read it from the apostolic writings, and we shall believe” (De unitate ecclesiae, ch.20).
Lest we forget Augustine, whom Luther called that “Blessed Augustine.” Lest we be misled by Ego-religions of Law-righteousness.
All religions are man-made or God-made, Law-righteousness or Grace, Anti-Christian or Christian.
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