Tuesday, November 21, 2006

RUF at Brown University

As readers know, I have tremendous respect for Reformed University Ministries (RUM) and the Reformed University Fellowships (RUF) they have established at many college campuses.

This news about the RUF at Brown University is both disturbing and surprising. In addition to the three principles I've been writing about, one of the requirements for any RUF to be established is that it must be invited on campus. A campus minister may initiate a request to set up a RUF organization, but will not move forward without the school's permission. RUM does not do guerilla campus ministry. So for the RUF at Brown to move from welcome to unwelcome so quickly is surprising.

It is also disturbing in that it may be part of a mini trend that includes Georgetown University, according to this report.

Of course, in another sense it is neither surprising nor disturbing, as the New Testament is quite clear that Christians will suffer persecution for their faith. Pray for the RUF team and students at Brown.

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Posted by Martin at 12:12 PM | | Comments

Monday, November 20, 2006

Theological Pointillism

In the art world there is a fascinating painting technique called Pointillism. Founded and popularized by Georges Seurat, it uses small points or dots of paint to create the larger image. Color TV's and printers use a similar approach to create an image. Probably the most famous of all Pointillist paintings is Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Here's some detail from the painting La Parade by Seurat:

(Click on the image to see the full painting.)

Notice how the colors and overall image change as you view the full painting.

Why I thought of this I don't know, but I think there is something similar that happens in theology.

I've met folks who passed through the doors of Reformed churches and left for Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. Their reasons vary, but a common theme is that Reformed theology doesn't capture "X" aspect of Biblical teaching well. The corollary is that Reformed theology focuses too much on "Y."

While I might disagree with these folks' reactions, analysis and understanding of Reformed theology, there is something to what they say.

Reformed theology loves its Pointillist dots. Seurat the painter was fascinated by theories of light and color. Each dot in his paintings had precision and a purpose. We in Reformed circles also love our dots. We're fascinated by theological precision and accuracy. We want to know not only that we are justified sinners, but also in detail what justification is -- and isn't. It's important to us that salvation is sola fide, but also that sola fide is sola fide.

But we can't lose the overall picture. I don't think we intend to, and more than that I don't think a full and careful reading of Calvin or any other Reformed theologian can miss the big picture that is there.

Nevertheless when new believers, or believers new to Reformed theology come into our midst, we often - maybe far too often - give the impression that all we care about are picky little details. We need to remind ourselves, and especially remind those new to our ranks, that there is a bigger picture, that when you step back from all the wonderfully detailed dots that make up Reformed theology what you get is an amazing picture of the work that God has accomplished for and applied to us poor sinners.

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Posted by Martin at 10:44 AM | | Comments

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Big Brother Brag

My little sister, a violinist, will be playing as one of the backup musicians for singer Josh Groban on the Tonight Show this evening. Check it out!

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Posted by Martin at 8:01 AM | | Comments

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Grandma Was A Commie

I turn to my maternal grandmother, Grandma Birnie, last. Though she had the shortest life of any of my grandparents, dying when I was just 12 years old (more than 12 years before my next grandparent died), she had more of an influence on me growing up than anyone but my two parents. She was a remarkable woman.

In 1932 at the age of 21 she joined the Communist Party - or as she put it, the Communist Party joined her. She had met and become friends with the mother of Tom Mooney and Richard Moore of the International Labor Defense, a Communist front organization that was integral in the defense of the Scottsboro Boys. Later that year she was "tutored" in Communist dogma by William Z. Foster, the party leader who was running for U.S. president. They saw in her an energetic, opinionated woman who hated Capitalism and understood what class struggle was all about. Even though she was very green she was made a district organizer for the IDL.

Now, I put all those links in because very few people remember the very significant threat that Communism was in and to the United States, who the players were and what their strategy was. My grandmother was mixed up right in the middle of it all, and worked with the tireless enthusiasm of a fanatic throughout the Midwest and Rocky Mountain areas on behalf of the Party, even at the expense of her own health and well-being.

What led her away from the Communist Party was the realization that they really weren't about helping people like they said they were. Grandma had been discriminated against as a girl growing up, and seen others - Native Indians and Blacks - mistreated as well. As a result she was both terribly bitter about the world around her, and passionate about helping the less fortunate in society. During her time with the Communist Party she spent much, maybe most, of her time with and for black people. This was an era of lynchings and virtual show trials where young black men were often charged with crimes they did not commit. The Communist Party tried to take advantage of that by coming to their legal defense. But my grandmother found that their heart was not in it. The Party was also trying to organize and rally farmers and other blue collar workers to its cause, many of whom were white. Grandma Birnie was very good at what she did for the Party, but this also caused jealousy.

Eventually she was brought up on charges by the Party. Her crime? Fraternizing with black people and upsetting the Party's efforts to reach out to white folks who were, quite frankly, racist. So, because she rode streetcars with blacks, ate at restaurants with blacks, stayed at the homes of blacks, she was brought up on charges. Before they could officially kick her out of the Party she tore up her Communist Party book in front of them all and effectively declared war. She followed through on that war.

In the meantime, she drifted from Marxism/Socialism to nominal Christianity (my mom was baptized in the Catholic Church with a due complement of saints' names - five of them!). But she didn't really become a believer until a man, who would become her second husband, literally stuck his foot in her front door and wouldn't leave until she heard the Gospel. He was a pastor, and built a church in Riverside County that I think is still there. My grandmother readily saw that the answer to Communism was not another political ideology, but rather Christianity itself.

She became as tireless a spokeswoman for Christianity as she had been for Communism. For many years she traveled throughout the Western and Midwestern U.S. and up into Canada, speaking at churches, community centers, anywhere she could get an audience, to warn them about the dangers of Communism and the answer in Jesus Christ. She testified before Congress and had her life story dramatized on national radio (she played herself - I can't imagine anyone else doing it).

Grandma had a knack for meeting people. She remained active in the black community, knew Nat King Cole when he was a young man and loved his music for years afterward. Somehow she got to know people like James Arness (of Gunsmoke fame) and George Putnam (a radio/TV commentator who is still at it out here in SoCal). Merlin Olson, while a member of the L.A. Rams was going door to door for his Mormon faith. He knocked on Grandma's door, and since she was never one to back down from a good debate, she let him in. He was so intrigued by her he came back, but neither one converted the other.

By the time I came along Grandma was along in years and her health was suffering. She was no longer speaking, so I only knew her - at least at first - as my grandmother. She was an amazing story teller, would knit stuffed animals of her own creation, liked to draw and paint, and made some mean popcorn balls. She was fascinated by American Indian culture and nature in general, and would read to me from various books she owned or that she bought for me. She taught me a bit on how to draw, and also taught me how to identify birds as we sat in the porch at the back of Grandpa and Grandma's house. The porch looked out into a back yard that was like a mini Garden of Eden, full of an amazing variety of flowers and plants, and so it attracted a wide variety of birds.

Grandma Birnie had a very compelling personality. When I was young, and we would visit in Long Beach with my grandparents, invariably we'd receive a visit, or go and visit, a man (and his family) that she and everyone else called Uncle Jesse. Because she called him that - and no one seemed to contradict her - I believed he was my uncle. He was black. I almost got into a fight with a kid when I was about 9 or 10 who wouldn't believe me that I had an uncle who was black. But I believed it, even though there was some sort of cognitive dissonance that informed my kid brain that black babies don't come out of white women. But that's how persuasive she could be, just by the force of her personality.

I only saw my Birnie grandparents about once a year. But during the summers when I was 10 and 11 we spent several weeks visiting. During that time my grandmother began to tell me stories about her life, and about her family. The stories about her life, many of them, were quite disturbing. She would tell of some of her activities as a Communist, almost all of them with great regret. Grandma would sleep in a recliner on the porch with me, my brother and sister in sleeping bags on the floor. Late into the night she would talk and tell stories. Every now and then she'd ask me if I was still awake and if I wanted to hear more. I always did. Because for every story about her regret in riling up a mob of people (one mob she was convinced had caused an innocent bystander's death), and how sorry she was and how terrible a person she had been, there was at least one story about her life growing up in Minnesota, or about her extended family and her latest visit with or letter from them.

I learned a lot from Grandma Birnie. She taught me how to draw, how to identify birds, to love nature (besides birds, especially animals and trees), about Indians, and introduced me to stories that I still love today, like the delightful Thornton Burgess animal stories that beat Beatrix Potter by a good American mile. Her stories about her family piqued my interest in my family history and genealogy. She gave an old family piano to my parents so that I could learn to play the piano. That is one of the things I am most thankful for, because music is a big part of what I did growing up, and who I am today.

More than those, however, I learned to hate bigotry and racism. I also learned to despise those who use race for political gain. I learned that the real answer to, not just Communism, but every other "ism" in this life is Christianity. Whether political, philosophical, psychological or some other false religion, these all have one thing in common: they are devised by man to make himself feel better about himself. They all deny the one truth that Christianity alone admits, not only admits but proclaims: man cannot save himself. God must do it for us.

Finally, I learned that no one is beyond the mercy, grace and love of God in Jesus Christ. From those late night conversations on the back porch, I know that my Grandma Birnie lived with deep sorrow and pain for what she had done earlier in her life. Her tears and cries of sorrow were real. But I also know from those late night talks that she had a deep and abiding love of Jesus and thanksgiving for what He had done for her. Her tears of joy were also real.

I wrote above that Grandma Birnie was a talented storyteller. She was also a gifted writer. Toward the end of her life she wrote this poem, which seems an appropriate close:
Dear Lord Jesus:

I copied a poem,
I bought a song
For each did seem to say
Something that has been
In the depths of my heart
For many and many a day.

But as I walked back
On yesterday's road
As memory led me along
I found myself loving
Each shadow there
And thankful for each wrong
So long endured in pain and tears
Which somehow enriched life's song.

For that long, long road
I walked alone
Led to this glad new day.
For I found in the rays
Of morning light
Emerging out of my night
A bright new life
Standing straight and tall
With eager hands to grasp and hold
None of the chaff but all of the gold
To be mined from unselfish service
To the untarnished dream
Of Freedom's Light that began
When God in a far away guileless world
First breathed His breath into man.

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Posted by Martin at 10:22 PM | | Comments

PCA Standing Judicial Commission & Steve Wilkins

The Standing Judicial Commission of the PCA has responded to a request (formally a "memorial") from Central Carolina Presbytery to take action relative to Louisiana Presbytery's investigation of the teaching of Pastor Steve Wilkins of Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA.

Those of you who have been following and/or concerned about the "Auburn Avenue" or "Federal Vision" theology will understand what Central Carolina's request was all about. Many of us in the PCA see this teaching as inconsistent with Presbyterian doctrine in particular, and ultimately with the Evangelical doctrine of justification that came out of the Protestant Reformation.

While the SJC response doesn't take immediate action, it does move things in the right direction. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, as it is important that the PCA take a definitive stand on this issue.

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Posted by Martin at 1:10 PM | | Comments

Student Life

Here are a couple fun links that came through the Westminster Seminary student e-mail list:
  1. FoxTrot is one of my favorite comic strips. This one from a couple days ago is fun.
  2. Check out the art by one student's wife. Very nice - and you can buy it!

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Posted by Martin at 1:00 PM | | Comments

Friday, November 10, 2006

Divorce - Britney & K-Fed style

Greg of Crowhill Manor makes some excellent points about divorce. As usual, he is concise and right on target.

I would propose an amendment to his solution: if the spouse walking away from the marriage without reason is the primary income source, he or she should pay through the nose for the "privilege" of walking away. Similarly, if the spouse walking away without cause is not the primary income earner, he or she should not be rewarded with monetary payments.

I'm amazed that the religious right is so worked up about gay marriage, and yet Christians and the Church in general treat heterosexual marriage and divorce so cavalierly. You want to protect marriage in America? Begin with reforming your attitude about divorce. I'm against gay marriage because it's a spiritual slap in the face of God who ordained marriage to be between a man and a woman. But gay marriage is a piddling threat to society compared to what rampant divorce and remarriage has done in the last 30 years.

There is now no shame associated with divorce, and celebrity marriages and divorces illustrate that all too well. Britney is barely an adult, and yet she's already married and divorced twice, and now she's depriving her very, very young children of a full-time relationship with their father. He may be a slob, but she's no princess either. Selfish. Immature. Disgusting. And it's the children who ultimately suffer.

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Posted by Martin at 7:40 AM | | Comments

Election Reflection

I will probably seldom post about politics here. Not that I don't follow politics or have an opinion. I follow quite closely and am pretty conservative in my opinions. Rather, it is that I don't see the purpose of this blog as being political. There are tons of good sites that cover politics, much more ably than I ever could.

I've read a number of columns by people on both the left and right of the political spectrum since Tuesday's smackdown of the Republicans in Congress. One column has stayed with me: Chuck Colson's "Why Conservatives Lost."

His reason? Because they deserved to: "They failed to live up to the high standards of personal behavior they preach about. And that's what brought them down."

I think he's got a good point in general about the election. And I think there's a lesson or two there for those of us Christians who also are more conservative in our politics.

One lesson is the danger for Christians in linking themselves too closely to a political movement or party. There can be an all too seductive temptation to overlook moral weaknesses for the sake of political gain. Where were the Christian conservatives, especially those members of Congress, when moral shenanigans were going on? Christians of whatever political party ought to be willing to be the moral conscience of that party.

Another lesson is that politics ultimately isn't the answer. That's a hard lesson for those of us, me included, who love to follow politics. Rather, God is sovereign, even in elections that don't make sense to the religious right. It is God who both governs the affairs of men and changes the hearts of men. When "the people spoke" and swept the Democratic party into power in both houses of Congress, ultimately it was God speaking, for it is ultimately He who sets leaders in power to govern. What was He saying or doing?

I don't know. Who can know the mind of God? Who is His counselor? Not me.

One of the things I try to teach myself and to others in Bible studies is that when you come across a difficult question or passage in the Bible, go back to what you know. Build from there.

What kinds of things do we know in this situation? God is sovereign. Political rulers are in that position by God's sovereign rule. God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It is the Gospel that is the power of God to salvation.

Ultimately, what will make a difference in our society? Political victory? I don't think so. But the Gospel will. If Christians will speak the Gospel and all of biblical truth to society then, maybe then, God will change our society for the better. It's how He promises to work. And it allows believers to speak the same truth to all political parties, calling them to repentance, faith and obedience.

I'm politically conservative because I believe that most closely matches biblical truth (see Colson's second paragraph for an excellent summary). But first and foremost I am a Christian, and the way I see it neither Democrats nor Republicans have behaved very consistently with Christian values lately.

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Posted by Martin at 7:08 AM | | Comments

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Strategic Hoping

I'd like to riff a little on a quote from John Piper posted by Pastorshaun.

Piper, preaching on Ruth chapter 3, says that "only hopeful churches plan and strategize." He claims that churches without hope "develop a maintenance mentality and just go through the motions year in and year out."

In my MBA studies my emphasis was business planning, or as they put it in the school catalog, "Strategic Management." I spent several years of my aerospace career as a financial/business analyst, putting together annual business plans, working on the strategic plan, doing capital planning, project business planning, and working on business plans for new airplanes and products.

Typical church planning is intriguing at best, amusing or frustrating at worst. Churches and Christian ministries love to apply "business" models and come up with mission or vision statements and action plans for how to get there. More often than not it strikes me as a glorious waste of time. John Piper's comments above are very thought provoking in that regard.

I think he's essentially right. What is missing from most church "planning" is hope, hope in the promises of God.

Most church and ministry planning is driven by asking what should be done, or what needs to be done, to accomplish the vision and/or mission statement. This is all too purpose driven, too much focused on "ought" or "should." It is bare, dry and ulimately hopeless. The plans become all too mechanistic, the tasks often burdensome. Buried inside them is the assumption that if we don't faithfully keep to our tasks and plans we will fail in our mission, even if that mission has some expectation for something different or better in the future. Even if that expectation is connected to some valid biblical principle or idea.

This kind of planning is law driven, not promise driven or gospel driven.

Michael Horton, in his article The Purpose-Driven Life, writes:

Law tells us what we should do, whether we’re faced with the wrath of God (full-strength law) or by the fear of not reaching our full potential (the watered-down version). God’s promise, by contrast, creates true faith, which creates true works.
True faith is accompanied by true hope, hope in the promises of God. The works that result, and the plans that accompany them, are driven by the promises of God, grounded in the sure assurance that Christ will build His church. We do what we do, we plan what we plan, knowing that what results is not dependent upon us, but upon God who works through us. We preach and teach God's Word, we make use of the ordinary means of grace given to us by God - the Word, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship - trusting that, as God says of His Word, this work will not return void, but will go out and accomplish what God purposes for it.

We also know that God has prepared beforehand those works that we should do. Each Christian has a calling, or more appropriately callings, from God. Effective church planning and strategizing looks to discover the gifts and callings of the members of the church, so that God's people may be effectively equipped to do what God has called them to do. If this is what we strive for then we can have hope that God will work through us. These kinds of plans are anything but bare, dry and hopeless, mechanistic or burdensome.

When Piper talks of righteousness that is active and strategic, this is what I think of: righteousness that seeks to do what God has called us to do, in hope and in joy, each member of the body discovering his or her gift and using it to God's glory, empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit.

I now work at a Christian organization that thinks of each employee as a divine appointment, someone God has brought to fulfill a particular role and purpose that only he or she can fill. Would that our churches would do the same. What if our churches treated every person who walked through their doors as a divine appointment, someone God brought to them to play a particular role in the life and ministry of that church? Would people feel wanted? Would they feel an appreciated part of that church or just a pew-sitter? And what if each church thought of itself as a divine appointment, chosen and called by God to fulfill a particular purpose in His plans? Would that not provide hope, purpose and "mission?" In this context churches can come up with plans and strategies that actually have worthwhile meaning.

Wouldn't that be just a little bit more fun and worthwhile than sitting around word-smithing vision and mission statements to be published with fanfare only to be forgotten within weeks? Better than planning meetings that list projects and ideas that either drive people with purpose-drive cattle prods, or that result in projects and ideas that will likely never see the light of day?

It would be to me...

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Posted by Martin at 11:34 PM | | Comments

Right With God by Grace Through Faith

Continuing discusion of the second principle: justification.

Previous posts:

Three Principles
God at Work
Scripture is Enough
A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange
Justification - So What?

My first post emphasized the realities expressed in the first two sub-points on justification, that God declares believers forgiven of all their sins because Jesus bore their guilt and penalty on the cross, and that God also declares believers righteous on the basis of having Christ's righteousness credited, or imputed, to their account. This is the sweet exchange of the good news of the Gospel.

The second post on justifiction was a short reflection on the fourth sub-point's two first two sub-points, that understanding justification properly helps us understand and live in the knowledge that God accepts us based on Christ's work, not our own, and that this is the foundation for all the believer's life. A sound understanding of justification helps us avoid both pride and despair; pride in our own "superior" works (or "superior" knowledge of theology), or despair flowing from our accute sense of our own inadequacy.

Here I will try to briefly wrap up the remaining ideas outlined under this second principle.

A key point is that, "Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone." The Reformed University Ministries instructors emphasized that this principle is foundational for the teaching and preaching of the campus ministries. Young Christians, especially in the South where PCA churches are most numerous, have often been raised in an environment of "do and do and do" (to quote John Wesley Weasel from Walter Wangerin's Dun Cow books). Their spirituality was measured by how active they were in their local church and youth group. The better, more "spiritual" students were the ones who went to Sunday School, Sunday worship, Sunday evening youth group, choir practice, mid-week youth group, prayer group, Friday night outreach, Saturday prayer meeting, etc., etc., etc. This kind of Christian lifestyle leads to the wrong idea: that those who are right with God are the ones most active in spiritual activities and tasks.

Scripture, on the other hand, tells us that salvation is by grace through faith, the free gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.

Nothing we can do, nothing we fail to do, can add or takeaway one whit from our right standing with God. What matters is faith, faith in the work of God's Son Jesus Christ on our behalf. That work, His work, is offered to us as a free gift - we simply receive it by faith. O sweet exchange...!

However, this does not mean that works are irrelevant to the Christian life. They are necessary. To forget them is to fall back into one of the consequences of forgetting what justification is all about. We may understand what justification is, intellecually, and so forgetting pride and rejecting despair we conclude that works don't matter at all. The false conclusion is that works are completely unnecessary. And so the believer wrongly falls into anti-nomianism, the idea that he or she can do anything he or she wants, because their sin has been imputed to Christ and His righteousness imputed to their account.

However, those who know they are right with God based on His grace received through faith are rightly equipped to understand the commands of God in Scripture. They are necessary. They are required. They are imperative. They are what God has called us to do, what He prepared beforehand for us to do, now that we have received the free gift of grace by faith. And they are eager to do them, not to earn God's favor, but to express their love and gratitude to Him for what He had done for them.

These are simple truths, but the kind that need to be taught and re-taught, emphasized and re-emphasized. They are too easy to forget, too easy to drift away from, as we try to justify ourselves before God by our good works, our "superior" spirituality. Campus groups or new churches do well to emphasize these truths, and I'm convinced that if they do they set themselves apart from the mainstream of contemporary Christianity.

The kind of spirituality that God desires flows from justification and leads to sanctification, the third principle to be understood and committed to.

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Posted by Martin at 10:43 PM | | Comments

Friday, November 03, 2006

Grandma Was A Lady

See my previous posts about my paternal and maternal grandfathers.

My Grandma Hedman lived longer than any of my other grandparents, which is not what I would have expected while growing up. She had seemed rather frail at the time: she would fall and break an arm, or seemed constantly to be fighting a nagging cough. As the years went on she became hunched over as the bones in her hip and back gave way.

And yet I learned as I got older that she was really quite a strong woman. Her strength was not so much physical as spiritual.

I remember from sleeping over at their house, that Grandma got up very early every morning. She would bake bread made from scratch, and the aroma (and the bread) was wonderful. She would also often make homemade custard, which I loved. Overall she was a wonderful cook; her roasts and mashed potatoes were, I think, legendary in our extended family. As a kid I liked her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, not just for the homemade bread they were made with, but also because she would pile on super generous helpings of PB&J - yum!

Grandma was also the most even-tempered person I think I've ever known. I used to think that if I went to her with the wonderful news that I was just elected president of the United States her response would be, "Isn't that nice?" Or, if I were to bring some terrible, horrible news her reaction would be, "My...tsk, tsk." She was the female embodiment of Kipling's "If" poem, keeping her head while all about her were losing theirs.

I also remember that Grandma would take a nap just about every day - not a long one, but just enough to recharge her batteries. As she got older these naps became more frequent or longer, as needed. After I moved to California and my children got older, one of the highlights of every trip to Seattle was a visit with Grandma who, right up until close to the end of her life, had a firm handshake and a ready mind.

Looking back, the lessons I think I learned most from Grandma Hedman were the value of knowing when to rest, and the value of keeping an even keel about life.

I've tried to learn to listen to my body and rest or sleep when it's telling me to. In the hectic life most of us live today that is a forgotten lesson. It is biblical as well, since God has commanded us to rest one day in seven, and this for our good. There is an element of faith in being willing to stop when everything around is saying "go." As my pastor puts it, resting one day in seven is trusting that God will give seven days of provision out of six days of work. The world will not stop - more importantly God will not stop - while we stop and rest.

I don't know how much of it is nature vs. nurture, but in some sense I've inherited my grandmother's even temper. It used to bother me that I didn't get more outwardly excited about different things. But then over the years, both from seeing Grandma Hedman and from experience, I realized that this is the way God made me. There is value in it, and I think it relates to what Paul writes about himself, that he had learned to be content in whatever situation God placed him in. I can't claim to be as content as Paul, but I think there is a connection. It's not that there is no internal passion, but that it is expressed differently, and with an underlying sense that God is in control, and being willing to accept that. Underlying everything for my Grandma Hedman was a deep faith in God, and trust in what He was doing in her life and the lives of those around her.

My Grandma Birnie was a mercurial personality. Grandma Hedman was much quieter and restrained. But of the latter it was the former who called her a lady. And she was right.



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Posted by Martin at 7:09 AM | | Comments

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

95 Theses for Today

I don't have 95 theses for today (I'd be lucky to pump out 9.5 theses, much less 95), but wonder if we don't need an update of Brother Martin's 489-year-old classic.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the day that Luther nailed his theses on indulgences to the church door in Wittenberg, inviting scholarly debate. I re-read them as a reminder of what his arguments were. Vikinglord, my sister and I also watched the recent Luther film this weekend; Vikinglord's been studying the Reformation for his AP Euro History class and wanted to watch the movie.

It struck me as I watched the movie's scenes where Tetzel is selling indulgences, that much of the church today is selling indulgences - albeit of a different sort - with just as much slickness as Tetzel did 500 years ago: plant a seed of faith and watch it return to you; just have faith and God will reward you with a good life, with success, with happiness; just have a good attitude, be positive and God will bless you.

The church today isn't all that concerned with the afterlife; the church today is concerned with life now. Not many today are worried about the trials and sufferings of purgatory, and trying to buy their way out of it. Today's people are worried about the trials and sufferings of this life, and trying to buy their way out of it.

In Luther's time it was the pope trying to raise money to build a big church. In our time it is televangelists and megachurch popes trying to build up a big church empire.

Both prey on poor souls, turning their eyes away from the good news of the Gospel toward false hopes of salvation, prosperity, happiness, etc.

It was disgusting then. It's disgusting now.

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Posted by Martin at 7:28 AM | | Comments

About me

  • Martin
  • From Orange, CA
  • Husband; Father; Son; Brother. Ruling elder at church. Loan Officer for Christian lending institution. Seminary student. I hope to be a pastor and plant a church in the near future.
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