Interesting Article - TONY BLAIR AND OBAMA TALK FAITH

BREAKFAST Feb-5-2009 (820 words) With photos. xxxnObama, Blair talk about the roots of their faith, its influenceBy Patricia ZaporCatholic News ServiceWASHINGTON (CNS) -- President Barack Obama and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair struck similar themes in remarks to the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 5, telling of their own faith roots and noting that the world's major religions all hold a core doctrine of caring for others.Obama also used the occasion to say that later in the day he would formally announce the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, a reworking of the faith-based office established by President George W. Bush.Later that morning Obama signed an executive order creating the new office and a new council of advisers.Looking around the Washington hotel ballroom with thousands of guests from around the world, Obama said at the breakfast, "It strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and good will."Noting that by their very nature the beliefs of various faiths "will never be the same," Obama said, "No matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. ... There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know."Blair, who became a Catholic a few months after he left office in June 2007, made similar observations about the world's religions and their teachings about peace. He also said that "religion is under attack from without and from within. From within it is corroded by extremists who use their faith as a means of excluding the other. ... If you do not believe as I believe, you are a lesser human being."From without, religious faith is assailed by an increasingly aggressive secularism, which derides faith as contrary to reason and defines faith by conflict," said Blair, according to a text provided by his office. "Thus do the extreme believers and the aggressive nonbelievers come together in unholy alliance."Both Blair and Obama told of how their experiences with people of faith helped inspire their own search for God.Blair explained how a teacher knelt and prayed with him as he worried about his ailing father."Now my father was a militant atheist," he said. "Before we prayed, I thought I should confess this. 'I'm afraid my father doesn't believe in God,' I said. 'That doesn't matter,' my teacher replied. 'God believes in him. He loves him without demanding or needing love in return.'""That is what inspires," Blair said, "the unconditional nature of God's love. A promise perpetually kept. A covenant never broken."Obama explained that he was not raised with strong religious traditions."I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were nonpracticing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known," the president said."She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done," he said.He explained that he became a Christian after he moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. In his work as a community organizer, his office was in a Catholic church."It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck -- no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to," Obama said."It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard God's spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose -- his purpose," he said.Obama said that sense of a higher purpose is what led many in the audience of varied faiths and nations to the annual prayer breakfast."We come to break bread and give thanks and seek guidance, but also to rededicate ourselves to the mission of love and service that lies at the heart of all humanity," he said. "As St. Augustine once said, 'Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.'"The National Prayer Breakfast is a privately organized annual event that draws participants from around the world to several days' worth of events. Participation by the sitting president dates back to President Dwight Eisenhower.Among world leaders who reportedly attended this year were Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Haitian President Rene Preval and the prime ministers of Albania, Macedonia and Mauritius. Current and past members of Congress, governors, Cabinet members and Supreme Court justices also are typically among the guests.The event is closed to press coverage, except for a small group admitted with the president.END

Faith and Works.....or Just Faith?

Recent conversations with a spiritual acolyte got me to dive further more in on my understanding of Sola Fide, the doctrine which says that only faith in Jesus' Christ will get someone in heaven and its juxtaposition to that of the "faith and works" doctrine of the Catholic Church. My main purpose is not disputing one or the other but merely exposing the misunderstandings that should be factored out when approaching such rich and God-breathed topics.

Do You believe in the Incarnation of the Word.

Do You believe in the Trinity.

Do You believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

All Christians would undoubtedly and unanimously respond "I do."

These three statements, in and of themselves are three pillars of the christian faith. They are so coherent for the christian, and their truth is so indisputable that they actually become facts, data (not scientific) but divine data that each and every christian assents to with their intellect. In other words they possess a "tell me something i do not know" connotation to them.

The ensemble of truths that guides the Christian is therefore summed up as his faith, the christian faith. Assenting to that knowledge by saying I do, I proclaim my belief that they are true just as true as water boils at 100 C, although not necessarily presented with scientific facts as the latter. Such is faith. For example the resurrection, the incarnation and the trinity is unique only to the christian faith in that a muslim or a jew might respectfully disagree with you. In the same token, the mere fact that you accept those words as truth and reality is what makes you christian and not anything else. It would be very theologically impossible for one to explain his consentment to christianity and Islam at the same time, for the simple fact whils both being monotheistic that the former is trinitarian , the latter is unitarian.

Well Where am i going with this?

Catholics believe in salvation (heaven/eternal life) by faith and works, whereas the doctrine of Sola Fide, which eventually sparked the protestant reformation, teaches that one is saved by faith alone, Seems like a whole lot of contradiction, wait a minute, not so fast. And i want you to follow me very carefully. Two verses: Both

Ephesians 2:8 (New International Version)

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹not by works, so that no one can boast.

Well seems as though .........and then there is this verse

James 2:24 (New International Version)

²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

Is the bible contradicting itself? NO BY NO MEANS.

To show that i must introduce two words : Ascentia and Fiducia

Ascentia is the mental ascent to a divine truth. Fiducia is more than mental acknowledgment. It involves a trust in something, a giving over to it, a complete believing and acceptance of something to the point of "denying the self". They can be summed up as "I know the faith vs. I have faith in."

Both Ascentia and Fiducia have been interchanged too often in this discussion of Justification, that leads to tremendous confusion, and this has been fairly easy to accomplish in common English because they both termed/translated as "faith". HAVING SAID THAT, WHAT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE, IS THE FACT THAT CHRISTIANITY IS THE ONLY RELIGION WHERE ASCENTIA (of Jesus) and FIDUCIA (in Jesus) ARE POSSIBLE, SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. WE BELIEVE JESUS, His Story (christian faith-ascentia) and ALSO WE BELIEVE IN JESUS (faith in his way requiring total surrendering of the self-fiducia)

Paul in most of his epistles is speaking about fiducia. Writing to the Ephesian community, early christians that have changed their lives to realign with that of Christ, he reiterates to them the presence of God's Saving grace that lives within....

Whilst James is referring to Ascentia. James recognizes the notion of talking the talk and walking the walk without necessarily conjoining them inside of the word "faith" [Ascentia-talking the talk vs. Do the Do (works)].

BEAR WITH ME as i propose A little Mathematical formula to describe this dynamic will go as follow:

Ascentia+Works ===> (should translate to ) Fiducia ===> (should translate) Ascentia+Works

and FALLABLY and even mathematically untrue in the English Language when both meanings are conjoined within one Word.

faith +Works = faith.

Here is the big PROBLEM. Paul even makes note of this.

Fiducia is A GIFT FROM God. And you the reader, and I MUST both agree on that.

-How can that be?, since We know that everyone doesn't get the gift.....mmmmh?

-Is the Gift just random? Nothing about God is Random.

-Does that mean some are doomed from the beginning, deprived of a clear chance at the gift of faith? certainly not, how cruel is it to even possibly fathom that idea. Predestination doesn't fit into christian theology, pure and simple?

-Is there a criteria, a checklist for obtaining this gift? We could do nothing of our own to deserve it!!

-How then do we turn God's Eyes our way to have mercy on our soul and to entrust us with this special Fiducia gift? ? ?

HE HIMSELF GAVE US THAT ANSWER:

1-You must seek God and you shall find Him, by seeking the truth.

2-If you assent to His existence (Ascentia) and desire to partake in his kingdom, you ought to love Him. How do you Love God, you Follow his commandments by obeying the ten commandments (works).

3-Not just love him but also love your neighbour, because whatever you do for the least ones ( poor, naked, hungry), you will be doing it for him. (works)

4- You read the bible daily (works)

How does GRACE, an indiscutable total result of the mercy relate to Ascentia/Fiducia?

Well Everyone gets mail. The excitement that comes with getting a package, everyone felt that before. Every piece of mail we get from God, is delivered by the Holy Spirit. One of the biggest one comes in a hugerific box has the stamp GRACE (From the Salvation Department). When you open that package, literally, it's a flame, and if you look carefully there is also a return enveloppe called Fiducia, and the special intructions in the card says "keep alive, more to come"!

What Does that mean?

1-Well all that simply means is you have received a gift that says "keep alive", simply translates to don't put out the flame. How does one put out the flame??, by thinking mail with a Grace stamp is junk mail, use the return enveloppe that says Fiducia for scratch paper or to do something else. In other words we must make use of this gift daily for the greater purpose of God's Kingdom.

"More to come", means you ought to expect a lot more mail with the stamp Grace as a header (Write a journal article shedding light about the faith- Ascentia, start a radio show on the faith -Ascentia, Go to pilgrimage, join the seminary to learn more about the ascentia, habitat for humanity, AIDS Patient assistance program and so on ...) They are all acts of faith-Fiducia and to every single one of them there is a fiducia return mail to which you shall respond, lest the flame attenuates.

Ascentia+Works ===> (should translate) Fiducia ===> (should translate) Ascentia+Works

Two Phases -"SEEK Phase" followed by "RESPONSE Phase" essential for Salvation. 

You can never have enough ascentia because God is infinite, the more you know him, the better you serve and love him. "Love God with all your mind"

You can never do enough works, because once you serve and love him, the happiness you get from that will not let you Stop from serving and loving all that is HIS (neighbours as well). "Love God with all your might"

To assist you with enthusiasm and wisdom and everlasting love in Seek Phase , he grants you grace (a gift ) -in a way to materialize this dynamic relationship of the RESPONSE phase!

So far this seems clear.

Here comes the disagreement.

Catholics believe that a formula that has worked time and time again to receive this gift (with the Grace package which has a Fiducia return mail), most often goes to the ones who please God...How Do they Know? They see that Flame shining in those people... is by learning HIS WORD (Ascentia) AND doing HIS WILL (Works).

Sola Fide teaches that one of these two

-one can receive this gift (a Grace package which has a Fiducia return mail within) by having Ascentia ALONE.

-one can receive this gift (a Grace package which has a Fiducia return mail within) by having Fiducia ALONE.

The latter is not feasable. Must be the Former. Catholics however disagree with the Former saying that.... Just the mental ascent to Jesus will not get someone in Heaven. Must follow it up with Works as James Asserted.

This is what i realized over my talk with my spiritual acolyte, whom i clearly thank God for is:.... Sola Fide, teaches and means Fiducia, but since you cannot get the gift of faith by having faith, it intellectually sounds like Ascentia (accepting Jesus as the savior) but I have realized that it is clearly more to it than just mental knowledge.

Moreover Sola Fide reconciles more with phase 2....THE RESPONSE but provides no formula for the seek PHASE. But the Catholic Church sees fits that its primary function is to lead people to Christ in order for them to receive the gift of Grace and start their

So to Accomodate that, we now have faith (the faith -Ascentia) and Faith (Faith in- Fiducia).

But that seemed to complicate things even further. Hence that was my last debate.

"Fiduciately" Yielding to The Spirit