Page 10 - THE CHURCH BEFORE THE MOCKING WORLD

Notitiais facts that are embodied, not in propositions, but in symbols and models of faith in a Christian community.
Assensusis when the subjective heart engages with these symbols at the existential level in ways that can best be described as a ?spiritual experience?.
Fiduciais when some kind of kinaesthetic action is employed as a rite-of-passage.
On the surface, this may create unease or caution, but in real terms this is not so much modern news but rather a return to early Church news.
We read about this in the early Church writings when we are introduced to the new convert in three stages. We get a glimpse into this three stage form with both St. Clement of Rome and Justin Martyr, but expanded more fully in the Didache, which was the earliest document of belief and practice as the Church moved from the first to the second century.
The unbeliever is introduced to the beliefs of the Christian Church. These beliefs, though, were not simply ideas, they were ideas embodied in all kinds of known symbols. Truth was often seen in pictures on walls, signs of the Cross, a cup, bread, bowing, kneeling, and symbolic rituals. More than anything else, the Truth was observed in the character of the community of God?s people.
The facts existed but were embodied and defined metaphorically through the symbols. The core Truth remains propositional but it is employed at the symbolic level. There was intensive training and teaching of Truth that was then expressed within the corporate body.
The corporate model that was observed, gave no other indication other than the fact that to become a Christian was making a decision to live for Christ; to possibly, and in some cases probably, to die for Christ.
The unbeliever, when they saw and heard these truths embodied in the Church, was then invited to pray and fast for two days before making a decision concerning his or her relationship to the Truth as it had been revealed.
The Evangelist would then join with them in this two day period of prayer and fasting.
The seeker and the Evangelist now entered into the experiential stage through the deep inward reflection of prayer and fasting concerning what the seeker had encountered. Fasting was a spiritual experience for the seeker prior to conversion.
It is hard to imagine sharing with a person ?The Gospel?today and not allowing the person to respond until they had spent two days fasting and praying.
Then, after the seeker had experienced these truths as real in the period of prayer and fasting, he or she then acted on this reality by going into the waters of Baptism. This act and ritual of Baptism was the proclamation to the on-looking world that the seeker had become a Christian, and was now willing to live or die for Christ.