Thursday, July 12, 2012

BTW, Remember...

In light of my last post I thought a reminder was in order.
Remember...hell is NOT a witnessing tool.  It is motivation to witness.  (Thus says Chemnitz in Formula of Concord.  And "this is most certainly true.")

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Free for All?

"It is God's will that men should hear his Word and not stop their ears."  Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article 2, Free Will.

"(N)amely...in his purpose and counsel God has ordained the following: 4. That he would justify and graciously accept into the adoption of children and into the inheritance of eternal life all who in sincere repentance and true faith accept Christ.

"On the contrary, as God has ordained in his counsel that the Holy Spirit would call, enlighten, and convert the elect through the Word and that he would justify and save all who accept Christ through true faith, so he has also ordained in his counsel that he would harden, reject, and condemn all who, when they are called through the Word, spurn the Word and persistently resist the Word."

"The reason why all who hear the Word do not come to faith and therefore receive the greater damnation is not that God did not want them to be saved.  It is their own fault because they heard the Word of God not to learn but only to despise, blaspheme, and ridicule it, and they resisted the Holy Spirit who wanted to work within them, as was the case with the Pharisees and their party at the time of Christ."
Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article 6, Election.  (emphasis added)

When I was in seminary I learned early on that there was a strong strain of universalism (universal salvation) running through the student body.  This concerned me; so much so that I chose to write a Master's Thesis to graduate.  It was not required for graduation and my degree - I chose it.  I wrote 80 page on the human role in justification from a Lutheran perspective as an argument against the doctrine of universal salvation.  The chapter on the Book of Concord teachings I entitled, "To Accept Him."  The thesis itself was entitled, "Free for All?"  Is salvation free for all, or is it only a free for all?

I have noticed two related tendencies in Lutheran circles lately.  I think maybe they are related.  As I have mentioned below, there is a tendency to minimize or even wipe away any distinctiveness in the Christian faith vis a vis other religions in the name of tolerance, or open-mindedness, or even niceness.  The other tendency is to minimize the human role in receiving salvation, thereby minimizing the human role in sharing the message of salvation.  If there is no eternal significance to whether anyone will ACCEPT CHRIST (the words of The Formula), then there is no real sense of urgency as to whether anyone believes or not (or in what anyone believes). 

But if what we believe, or do not believe, does have eternal significance, then the sense of urgency that sent the Apostles to their deaths to tell the truth about Jesus and share the true and full Gospel Message is also pressed upon us.  As I mentioned earlier, the Apostles were willing to die to share the truth about Jesus because they were totally convinced that the people to whom the Holy Spirit sent them were NOT OK.  They needed to hear the truth about Jesus.  People still do.

Of course we cannot save anyone; nor can we make anyone believe. The Holy Spirit does that.
"I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him.  But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in truth faith...."  Small Catechism, Creed, Third Article.

But God spreads the Good News through US. 
If it mattered eternally whether someone "confessed with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believed in their heart that God raised him from the dead" (Romans 10), how would we share the Good News?  And how often?

In my reading on leadership in The Church of the 21st Century (not as extensive as many), I have come across four traits that seem to be key for being who God has called us to be in this current cultural climate: HOPE, TRUST, COURAGE and TRUTH.  As a disciple of the writings of C. S. Lewis ("disciple" really means student - but active student), I am reminded that the question we need to be asking "in such a time as this" (Esther) is not: Is it popular?  Is it progressive (or emergent)?  Is it hip or trendy? The question we need to be asking is: IS IT TRUE? 

Our Mission Statement at St. John's is a good one: With glad and generous hearts we bring the Good News to all, in gratitude for God's grace.
In general, while joy and generosity are great, as is gratitude, there needs to be a whole lot more bringing of the Good News.  It matters.