Whether its leaders see it or not, Federal Vision has always been a pilgrimage to Rome. Objectivity of the covenant, covenant succession, paedocommunion, celebrations of the Lord's Supper without preaching of the Word, patriarchal fathers communing their wives and children; taken together, we have a path of greased lightning to Rome's sacramentalism, but you'll never get Federal Vision leaders to admit it.
What is Federal Vision? Murkiness and imprecision.
Over a decade ago, I asked my friend Vern Poythress what he thought of Federal Vision and he responded, "You know, I don't think I understand it."
If you know anything about Vern, the one thing certain is that...
if he doesn't understand your hundreds of thousands of words articulating your glorious insights bringing new light into Reformational theology, the problem isn't Vern, but you. Vern's Biblical knowledge and insight are second to none. Give him a Gordian knot and he'll find the right place to pull and untangle it. Give him a mishmash originating in the dreams of autodidacts and cranks, and he'll go cross-eyed. Being a gentleman, though, he'll assure you he's the problem.
After a decade of Federal Vision mists and vapors, the F-V men grew bolder and began assembling some Rome-pride parades. Auburn Avenue's Peter Leithart called his followers to make peace with Rome while his buddy, Presbyterian Church in America pastor Rich Bledsoe, went online to condemn the immaturity of Reformed Protestants who, even after five centuries of adolescent rebellion against the mother church, remained unwilling to become adults and make their peace with her. Yes of course, the mother-church he spoke of was Rome.
Men whose highest aspirations are aesthetic and philosophical can't help but hanker after Rome. Oh, the wonder of it! Oh, the glory of it! Michelangelo! Erasmus! How beautiful! How profound! How transcendent! Just look at me here among them! Smell the bells. Listen to the incense! Maybe my son can become a cardinal and actually be there when the smoke is sent up the chimney!
I've said the only way a cradle Baptist can ever rid himself of this embarrassment is to go Roman. Many guys who convert to Roman Catholicism from Presbyterianism didn't start Presbyterian. They started Baptist and can't seem to stop slip-sliding-away. Smiling.
And the host—the glorious host; my spine tingles and my eyebrows shake every time I hear the bell ring. And praying to Mary; I never knew how tender prayers could feel. And masses for the dead; I never felt this close to my departed loved ones. And the popes' rejection of super-cessionism; I didn't even have to give up the dispensationalism I was raised in. Of course there's a separate path for the Jews. Didn't the Apostle Paul say all Israel is Israel? Just like covenant succession explains how all my children are God's children!
Now then, what of the homoerotic art being commissioned by Vatican churchmen? Does this make Peter, Rich, or any of their Auburn Avenue Romanists stop to reconsider? Do they even pause? Are they even aware of the pervasiveness of the sodomitic perversion surrounding the Vatican?
The man on the right in the black cap is Vatican Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia who heads up the Pontifical Academy for Life and was recently appointed by Pope Francis to lead the Pontifical Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. He commissioned this massive mural (above, with detail to right) which decorates the cathedral church of the Diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia he formerly served.
Nevermind the facts, you say? Boys will be boys?
Read the article linked above. The face is his hairdresser.
Tim serves Clearnote Church, Bloomington, Indiana. He and Mary Lee have five children and big lots of grandchildren.
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