Mitchell Traver

“A Roman emperor…presided over EVERY one of the first seven ecumenical councils” (around 27 minutes). This is just one of numerous completely false statements made in this video, as in so many others. Anyone in the sources would find such a claim ridiculous. Yet he makes it with conviction. Gavin seems to interact overwhelmingly with secondary assessments of the sources, rather than the sources themselves (which is tragically common among academics). As a friend of mine who converted from protestantism and obtained theological degrees from some of their finest institutions (Wheaton, etc.) observed: “Gavin presents as the nice Baptist guy next door when he’s actually the online Baptist troll we’ve seen a million times already. His scholarship is first semester graduate level, and because that is above 70% of the Christian population’s education level, he’s able to build a little “hedge of protection” around half-informed Protestants who would have otherwise already become Catholic.” Gavin also misses the framework everywhere present in Church history for working through the various issues he claims somehow disprove the Catholic Church: namely, the Church is governed by the successors of the Apostles, the bishops. Period. This is unanimous. This is how Christ governs His Church on earth. It is by their solemn judgments (“binding and loosing”) that He guides the Church into all truth, through the power of the Holy Spirit (which is spoken about quite often by many Church Fathers), precisely in order to address new issues throughout Church history. It has happened countless times. That is WHY, for example, the authority of the Church to “bind and loose” with the authority of God exists—the very authority Gavin denies. This is why the “Nicene” creed we say today is actually primarily from the Council of Constantinople I in 381, and includes additional details the original creed in 325 did not—because new issues, new heresies, new upstarts had popped up contradicting the Catholic Faith of the Catholic Church, and they needed to be addressed—by the visible successors of the Apostles who had the authority to “bind and loose.” Yet Gavin denies the monarchical episcopate everywhere appealed to is even apostolic. So essentially all Christians, all Fathers, everywhere, are wrong, if Gavin is right. But don’t worry, he says near the end that “you can trust in the Gospel and the Holy Spirit will SEAL this on your heart,” appealing not to the universal consensus of anything (the testimony of our ancient ancestors, saints, and martyrs), not to a history of ANYTHING, not to a Scripture citation of ANYTHING, but to a purely individual and subjective claim of being “sealed” by the Holy Spirit (who can’t make this claim?). He claims he is being “honest” about Church history, but what he’s actually doing is doubting God’s providential guidance of His Church into all truth, which Christ promised. That self-evidently didn’t happen if Gavin is correct. This is why protestantism is the seedbed of much of modern skepticism. There’s ALWAYS some other reassessment some individual or sect can claim to be making, under the guise of being “honest” about history, and “faithful” to Scripture (again, who can’t claim this?). It’s a never ending and fruitful source of chaos, uncertainty, and ensuring no issue is ever finally and dogmatically resolved, forever. But it relies on denying the ancient, everywhere affirmed, everywhere obvious reality that the Church ALWAYS understood itself as governed by the successors of the Apostles who possessed the authority to “bind and loose” from Christ Himself. (Conclusion below)

Uncharted territory for Green Bay 😳 The Packers are the first team since the 1970 merger to lose 3 games when leading by 10+ points in the final 5 minutes of the game, including playoffs.

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

Round 2️⃣

The College Football Playoff bracket is set. Each selected team receives $4 million for making the playoff. Here’s the breakdown by conference: 💰5 SEC Teams - $20M 💰3 Big Ten Teams - $12M 💰1 Big 12 Team - $4M 💰1 ACC Team - $4M 💰1 American - $4M 💰1 Sun Belt - $4M