Nostr

Thank you for this, I do see what you mean and I didn’t know that there were Protestants who considered “the Word” in John 1:1 to be the Bible. Though I shouldn’t be surprised because I think that’s how it is with many Christian-adjacent groups like Mormons. I guess I don’t have an issue with hearing the phrase “the word of the Lord” referring to scripture because I got used to hearing it as a Catholic during the Liturgy of the Word after the epistle reading and responding “thanks be to God!”

I attend Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom at Orthodox Churches now though where you’re right, we dont say “the word of the Lord” after the epistle or “the gospel of the Lord” after the gospel reading either actually. Much to think about. Thank you for the discussion, sorry if I was annoying I can be very passionate about these things

James A Lewis 1y ago

We may simply have different experiences with protestants.

My family of origin are protestant, and when they say "the Word" (you can hear the capitalized "W") and when they hear "Word of God," they think the Bible. You may hear something like, "I was in the Word yesterday morning, and the Lord put it on my heart to tell you..." They think that reading the Scriptures **is** worship in a similar way we believe that consuming and imbibing the body and blood of Christ in the Mass is, because you are taking Him into yourself through "The Word."

I counter and ask, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became Flesh, indeed, but when did the Word then become written and cease being flesh?" True worship of God is to become one with Him, but that doesn't happen by reading the Bible.

Now, "The word of the Lord, etc." and "the gospel of the Lord, etc." are totally fine (I would be the one with the problem if I has a problem with that), but it requires some specification and distinctions

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Discussion

†𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙖 1y ago

Tbh I have very little experience with Protestantism and what experience I do have with it has been high church Anglicans. You’re correct that I haven’t come across “I was in the Word” as a way of saying that they were reading scripture. To me it almost seems parallel to something like Lectio Divina? Is it like that?

My background is Catholic so I was raised with reading scriptures literally being worship as well but in this sense (screenshot from the GIRM) rather than like being the same thing as the real presence of the Eucharist though.

Very interesting!! I guess the low church Protestant tradition came from the high church prot/Catholic tradition but without having the real presence in the sacrament of communion so this really would maybe be the next closest thing for them 🤔

James A Lewis 1y ago

100%! Low church Protestantism is so far removed from Catholicism that they have lost the meaning of worship and now see Bible study and prayer as worship, as in latria, whereas we see latria as basically sacrifice, and most notably the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Because of this, and the fact that they still want to claim to be "worshiping" has motivated them to see Bible study, singing, and prayer as such. This is also why they see prayer to the saints as blasphemous, and, similarly but to a much lesser degree, so is reading their books in a spirit of deference and reverence.

†𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙖 1y ago

Thank you for the insight!