Musings of a Bystander

That's the surprising contention Heiko Oberman makes in his wonderful biography of Martin Luther. Thinking about the post below reminded me of a couple paragraphs in the book where Oberman describes Luther's view of Scripture and how it impacted the Reformation:

...The Reformation reached the people because of a surprising conclusion Luther drew from the scriptural principle he had known for so long: the Scriptures must be preached! Because heresies threatened the living apostolic message, it had to be recorded in a book to protect it from falsification. Preaching reverses this process of conservation again, allowing the Scriptures of the past to become the tidings of the present.

So the Bible is a necessary evil! It is necessary because without it man's spirit will claim to be holy and there will be no way of proving him wrong. Scripture becomes "evil" when, as a hollow pontifical document, it petrifies in holiness instead of being publicly proclaimed in the Church as the living Word. The Gospel has been committed to lifeless paper; fresh words can transform it into glad tidings again.

Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, pp. 173-174

There is a lot that is provocative in those two paragraphs.

But what is especially striking to me is the last sentence. We hear a lot about how important the printing press was to the spread of the Protestant Reformation and the ideas written down on paper by Luther and others, and then copied all over Europe. This is no doubt true.

Nevertheless, I think Oberman is right in ascribing much of the "energy" behind the Reformation to the preaching of the Word. Men, some supremely gifted by the Spirit and some just determined to preach Christ and whose names we'll probably never know, opened up God's Word to a world of dead, dry bones and the Spirit took that preached Word and brought those bones to life. The "fresh words" of the preachers proclaimed the living Word, and it did not return to God empty, but instead accomplished a truly great thing in bringing true revival to so much of Europe.

Today we get all excited about the internet and its remakable ability to communicate with people, and the amazing avenues of communication that are opened up to regular folks (like me!). Some churches are all energized about the latest sound and video equipment in their services, drama presentations and "relevant" music.

The internet truly is an incredible tool, and I think it has and will have a positive impact. But neither it nor AV equipment nor drama nor music nor Powerpoint and movie clips can replace the simple, yet powerful, preaching of God's Word.

I hope and pray that the current mini-revival of Reformed theology is not merely an intellectual recovery of these Biblical truths (with the Bible as an "evil," hollow theological document?), but that it is the kind of movement like that of almost 500 years ago, where faithful preachers captured the exciting, amazing, saving grace of the Word and through such ordinary means the Spirit brought new life to a dying world.

Labels: Calvinism, Church History, Ordinary Means

Posted by Martin at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

I was in a local bookstore the other day looking to pick up a couple books I need for seminary this semester. Didn't find them, but the store also has a pretty good section of used books, where I found something titled, Earliest Christian Hymns.

Since I love hymns (I have a collection of hymnbooks) and early church history I bought the book.

It starts out with examples of hymns or poetic texts from the New Testament, and then has chapters on everything from Gnostic hymns (ugh!) to early hymns from the Greek and Latin fathers.

Here's a nice, simple hymn by Prudentius:

The clouds, the shadows, and the night
Long held in gloom both earth and sky,
Light enters, and the heavens grow bright,
Christ comes, and lo, the shadows fly.

The blinding fog is pierced amain,
By shining arrows of the sun,
Earth's golden rays return again,
The glory of the morn is won.

The light is thine, O Christ! we see
Thy glory in the open day;
With tears and songs we come to thee;
Lift up and guide our souls, we pray.

Cleanse us from stain of sinful pride,
And warm us in thy living light;
Thou art our heavenly lamp, our guide;
Shine in thy sweetness, clear and bright.

To God the Father, glory be,
And equal glory to the Son,
The same, O Paraclete, to thee,
Forever reigning, three in one.

Labels: Church History, Music

Posted by Martin at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments

Dr. Scott Clark over at The Heidelblog has a very, very, very, very, very, very important post on faith and how seriously the Federal Vision theology gets it wrong.

Read it.

Don't have time? Make time.

Labels: Calvinism, Church History, PCA

Posted by Martin at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments

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.

Labels: Church Growth, Church History

Posted by Martin at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments

The second principle from the Reformed University Ministries campus ministry conference was that "justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ."

I thought I might be able to cover this in one post. Silly me. I'll simply try to introduce the topic now.

Here's how they outlined this second principle to be understood and committed to:

1. Justification is God's declaring the believer forgiven of all his sins on the basis of Christ's bearing the guilt and penalty of his sins on the cross.
2. Justification is God's declaring the believer righteous on the basis of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to him.
3. Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone.
4. A proper understanding of justification leads to:
• A Christian's continual acknowledgment that his acceptance by God is based totally on the work of Christ.
• A Christian's understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience.
• A Christian's knowledge that sanctification necessarily flows from justification.

That's a little more detailed than "just as if I never sinned."

There are two quotes that I love in connection with this doctrine:

So, making a happy change with us, He took upon Himself our sinful person, and gave unto us His innocent and victorious Person; wherewith we being now clothed are freed from the curse of the law.

From Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians

and

But when our iniquity was fulfilled and it had become fully manifest, that its reward of punishment and death waited for it, and the time came which God had appointed to manifest henceforth his kindliness and power (O the excellence of the kindness and love of God!) he did not hate us nor reject us nor remember us for evil, but was long-suffering, endured us, himself in pity took our sin, himself gave his own Son as ransom for us, the Holy for the wicked, the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else could cover our sins but his righteousness? In whom was it possible for us, in our wickedness and impiety, to be made just, except in the son of God alone? O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits, that the wickedness of many should be concealed in the one righteous, and the righteousness of the one should make righteous many wicked!

From the Epistle to Diognetus, 2nd/3rd century

Justification is at the heart of Reformed theology - not election, not predestination, not the five points of Calvinism (TULIP). It was emphasized as the heart of campus ministry, and so also it is the heart of church planting. The good news of the Gospel is this happy change, this sweet exchange, and so it should be front and center.

Labels: Calvinism, Church History, Church Planting, RUF

Posted by Martin at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

My dad sent me an e-mail with updated family history information in it - we're hoping for a big family reunion next summer. It reminded me of some other research I've done where I've come across links to actual places my ancestors lived. One of the things that I enjoy about learning my family history is how it so often connects with "real" history. But the following is more along the line of fun connections.

First are some pictures from Sweden. My great-grandfather (direct paternal line) came to America from the region called Bohuslan. From the records that I have, most of my relatives were baptized and married in this church, Krokstad parish:





However, when my great-grandfather came to America he changed his last name from Svensson to Hedman. He wanted something that sounded more American. When I asked my grandfather about this once he said the name his dad picked had something to do with where the family is from. Nearby Krokstad is the town/parish of Hede, which could be where the name came from. So it's possible many ancestors went to this church:





I love the older pictures of both.

Speaking of old...on my mom's side we're connected to the Birnie family, a branch that left Scotland and settled in Holland. Though remembering their Scottish heritage they also thought of themselves as Dutch, or Dutch-Indonesian. The name Birnie is associated with a now disappeared, small castle in Scotland, and also the Birnie kirk, one of the oldest continually functioning churches in Scotland.



My dad is Scandinavian (or as we like to put it: Viking-American); my mom is more Scottish than anything (probably). There's a link on the right to Highland Theological College, where I'd like to someday do doctoral work. HTC is not too far from Birnie kirk, just north of Inverness in the town of Dingwall, aka the Viking Capital of Scotland.

How appropriate!

Labels: Church History, Family

Posted by Martin at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Another Druckerism stuck in my brain: "It's better to get the wrong answer to the right question than get the right answer to the wrong question."

I was reminded of this by Carl Trueman's post at Reformation21.

I originally wanted to attend seminary to get a theological degree that might lead eventually to Ph.D. studies on the early church. I decided to get an M.Div. because in the early church fathers I saw men who, with only a few exceptions, were both gifted scholars and pastors. I figured an M.Div. degree rather than an MA in theology or historical theology would give me better insight into the world and thought processes of the church fathers.

I didn't really know what I'd do after all that education. I reckoned I could figure that out later. Pastoral ministry and teaching seemed equally possible - or even better, both!

But as time has passed and, ironically, the M.Div. gone to the wayside as I try to complete an MA, I have become convinced that my call is to pastoral ministry, in particular to planting a church. A big part of that realization has been the work I've had the opportunity to do with some of our church plants in our presbytery. Another big part is the realization that the historic truths of the Christian faith are valid for any generation in any age, even this squishy post-modern or post-foundational age. The quote Carl Trueman gives reinforces that belief. Those truths need to be preached with boldness, rather than seeking after new language or forms simply so that they might appeal to the post-modern spiritual consumer.

Rather than asking how do attract postmoderns into our churches, we should be asking how those ancient spiritual, biblical, truths answer the questions raised by postmoderns. Will they listen if we don't "package" the answers just right? I think they will. Who doesn't want to hear the answer to their question?

Whether it's The City of God by Augustine or Machen's Christianity and Liberalism, Christian truth is valid and relevant, and speaks to the world around it. How can anyone read either of those works and not see how applicable they are for today?

Labels: Church History, Church Planting, Peter Drucker

Posted by Martin at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments