The Ohio Independent Baptist, March 1972

Saint Patricl{ by Dr. Earl G. Griffith Very soon St. Patrick' Day will con1e again. In ome p laces it will pa unnoticed. Not so in the ci ty of magic, the world 's greatest city, New York. Once again on the 17th of March, a for decade pa t, the " on of the emerald i le,, wi ll convert Fifth Avenue into the most colorful and alluring treet in the nation . Ten of thousand will hare in a parade of pageantry that wi ll attract many hun– dreds of thousands. In popular thi nking Patrick , or it diminutive Pat , has come to be a Irish and as exclusively o as the city of Dublin . It all goes to show how a hoax, when given a religiou veneer if spread fa r enough, fast enough, and long enough is unquestionabJy received by all , both the religious and irreligious. So wholeheartedly have the Catholics accepted what their writers and teachers have said re– spect ing St . Patrick that it seems per– fectly apropos to all of them that the world's richest Roman parish, situated on Fifth Avenue, should be called St. Patrick's Cathedral. Likely, millions of Bapti sts would get something of a shock were they to read the sixth chapter of "''A Short History of the Baptists'' by Henry C. - Vedder. In this chapter he refers to the elevations of Simon Peter to the headship of the Romish system, like– wise, the seizure of St . Patrick and hi s projection in literature as an eminent Catholic divine, as the church's most audacious thefts. As with many other Romi sh delu– sions, we need to be clarified respect– ing this one. In the first place, Patrick was not a saint in any extra-Biblical sense. He was a Christian and a foreign missionary of rugged convic– tion, artless simplicity, irreproachable character, and very effective in his work. In the second place, he was not an Irishman at all. He was born in Dum– barton, Scotland , as Mr . Vedder indi– cates, probably near the middle of the ourth Century. Ireland did not give him birth. In fact , he was a slave in Ireland . He managed to extricate him– self from hi s captors, or slave masters , and later proved to be, having become a hristian , of such depth of hri stian devotion and love as to return to the J)eople ar11ong whon1 l1e had worked THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST as a lave, as a minister of the Gospel. He wa a preacher and a writer. Things set do,vn regarding his writ– ing and his ministry as a Scotsman in Ireland add up to anything but loyalty to the papacy. " Patrick also pays great reverence to Scripture, as the supreme authority in religion. He neve r appeals to the authority of church, or counci l, or prelate, or creed, but to the Word of God; and in his extant writings, brief as they are, no fewer than l l 3 pa age of Scripture are referred to or quoted. There i no trace of hi s letters of purgatory, Mariol atry, or submi ion to the authority of the pope. It is written of hi di rect in– fluen ce and the churches that ulti– mately came into being as a result of hi s mini stry that the theology of these churches, up to the Ninth Century, continued to be remarkably sound and piritual. They taught or iginal in and the impossibility of sa lvation by hu– man merits or efforts, hri st alone being the sinner's righteousness. They taught the vicarious atonement, the agency of the Hol y Spirit in the con– version of men , justification by fa ith the intercession of Chri st alone for the saints, and held firmly to the admi n– istration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds. These churches, too, knew nothing of the doctrine of purgatory, but from Patrick onward for centuries taught that the soul s of the saints immediately after death enter para– dise and are with God." Though Patrick died in the Fifth Century , "i t wa not until the Twelfth Century that the papacy succeeded in establishing, with tolerable com– pleteness, its jurisdiction over the churches of Great Britain and Ire– land." In the light of modern research, it would be claiming too much to say that Patrick would make of all men the model spiritual Baptist shepherd . His views of church government and inclination toward monasticism pull him a tep or two away from real Baptist ecc le iology and life. But Patrick wa in no sense a papist. To claim him as a patron aint of Ro– manism with a view to cap turing Irish 1n1agination ancl loyal ty is a colo sa l fraud and forgery. He was one of the true evange lical of his day, and n1uch closer to Baptist faith and prac– tice than he ever was to that of the ' atholics. It 1s not ottt of order l1crc to r 111ark that 'a tholics are not the only people who dip into history, seize unusual personalities marked by <;pecial de– votion, revamp them, rebuild them, and make them objects of emulation and devotion . Distance lends enchantment. The Sunday School and youth literature used by many of our churches abounds with portrayal s of servants of Christ in ot her lands that place a halo around their heads. Those per– so ns were quite sufficiently honored in thei r own judgment just to be the bond laves of Him by whom they were redeemed. Paul said we preach not ourse lves, but hrist Jesu the Lord and ourselves hi servants. AVAILABLE FOR ... Pulpit Supply-Special Meeting:– Weekend Meetings Rev. Charles R. Arthur 1412 Franklin Ave. Portsmouth, Ohio 45662 Phone (614) 354-2383 ----.,.,,.._,\/v A "' ,_____......,. YOUTH ASSOCIATION WEEKDAY BIBLE CLUBS Bible Centered Evangelistic Unified material Area Missionary W.DENTON REILLY 528 W Park Ave L i bert y v 111 e, 111 60048 - INTRODUCTORY FOLIO, ea. $5.00 GIRLS CLUB Cl BOYS CLUB I 1 _.i}__ I THE POCKET TESTAMENT LEAGUE JI I 49 Honeck Street , Eng lewood , N J . 07631 0 I I I Name J I Address I I City St. Zip I L------~-------~-- MARCH, 1972 5