The following short answers are given to clarify orthodox Biblical teaching compared to some of the prevailing heterodox or not complete orthodox teaching that are prevalent in our world today. Longer answers to these questions can be found in other writings in this blog.
There is only one God, we simply call Him by different names. There are many religions in the world.
Basically these are one heterological misstatements. In the first place, the attempt to ecumenise the world into one religion by suggesting that we all worship the same god, we simply call him by different names fails at the most important point. At no time do those who suggest we all worship the same god talk about or discuss the fact that the God of Holy Scripture, the one and only true God died and rose. Even those in the cults of the Jehovah’s Witness and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fail at this point. The fact of the matter is that the one true God declares in His Word that He took on human flesh, human sin, suffered, died and rose. As John relates his vision, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18).
So, actually there are basically two religions in the world, the religion of man and the religion of Holy Scripture. The religion of man is a religion based on one’s character, on one’s good works, that is a person does good and is saved. The other religion is the religion of Holy Scripture which is a religion of grace, of God doing and man being done to, of God giving and man being given to. God gives faith, forgiveness and life. God gives and stirs a response of faith.
Children cannot believe.
To say that children cannot believe is akin to saying that people who speak a language you do not understand do not believe simply because you cannot understand what they are saying. Children can and do believe and this fact can be seen from infancy. When a nursing mother puts her child on her breast, the child knows and believes that mother is giving it something good to eat or If you ever put a bottle to an infants mouth it shows its faith by sucking on the bottle. As a child grows a little older and is spoon fed, the child shows its faith by its opening its mouth when the spoon is put to its mouth, expressing faith that it believes it will be getting good food to eat. Even if a parent is looking the other way, a child will leap into its parents arms believing the parent will catch it. Children can and do believe but they simply do not express this faith in the same way as an adult, primarily because they do not speak the same language, however, their body language and their words prove otherwise. Why do you think Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Luke 18:17). The inference being believing as a little child.
One must understand what is happening in order to make a valid Baptism.
When a person takes a pill, say an aspirin, do they always know how it works? Usually not, yet, the medicine works anyway. How much more does God’s medicine work, even if and especially if we do not understand how it works. Baptism works, because it is God’s work. Peter tells us, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). His comparison is to the Ark in which God saved eight people through the flood, yet the words are clear, “Baptism saves you.” Baptism is running the show. Baptism is doing the doing. No one can baptize themself. One is baptized and in one’s baptism God is saving the person being baptized.
Yet, the next objection is the objection of how much water must be used. When one looks up the definition of baptize (in the Greek) it means to wash, in any way, either a ceremonial washing such as simply a dripping over of water on the fingers, to an actual emersion of the body to wash it. Interestingly enough, Mark, speaking of the ceremonial washings of the Pharisees, not always were things immersed, just look at what he says, “and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches)” (Mark 7:4). Are we to believe the immersed their dining couches?
The fact of the matter it that Holy Baptism is a gift from God which corresponds with circumcision of the Old Testament. Holy Baptism is that sacred act through which God washes a person and gives them faith. It is God’s doing and so we may be confident that He does it right and He gives what He gives to save us.
Grace is something we do for God.
“Grace is God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.” That statement is true! “Grace is what God gives us because . . .” That statement, no matter how you fill in the rest, is false, because grace does not carry any conditions. If there are conditions, there is no grace. Grace is what God is doing, what God is giving. Grace is God running the show. Grace is God running the verbs. Grace is what God does for us while we are sinners and His enemies (Romans 5:8, 10).
One must choose God or accept Him as their Savior.
One analogy that is very fitting is the following. When you were a child in grade school and you went out to recess with your friends, suppose you decided to choose teams in order to play kickball. Suppose, also, that your best friend was one of the captains and you chose to be on their team. Did it really matter that you chose to be on their team? No, what mattered was that they chose you to be on their team. Likewise, it does not matter if we choose Jesus, but that He has chosen us. Even Paul reminds us, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). Now, a lot of people would agree, that it is Jesus who is choosing us, but then go on to tell you how they have chosen Jesus, dedicated their lives to Him and made Him Lord of their lives, by being obedient to Him. Which moves back to our attempting to take credit for what God has already done, given us faith, forgiveness and life. Why can we not simply let God be God and give Him glory for what He gives?
Holy Communion is an ordinance or a symbol.
Is Holy Communion an ordinance, that is simply a religious rite, or is it a symbol, that is a symbolic act, or is it more, a sacrament, a mystery? Does something happen in Holy Communion? Does God do or give something through the means of Holy Communion, or is this simply a right in which we do something for God, act out what He did some 2000 years ago.
First, let us ask, what does God need from us? Does God need for us to act out what He did some 2000 years ago? And if He would need for us to do this, why? Does God need anything from us, as if we would have anything to give to Him, that He did not first give to us. Here we might remind ourselves that the reason God created us was to love us and give to us.
So, if this is not something we are doing for God, then certainly it must be something He is doing for us and giving to us, even if we may not understand how He does it, see Holy Baptism above.
Now we have been referring to this meal as Holy Communion, which implies that this is a unionizing meal. Perhaps we would do better to call it the Lord’s Supper emphasizing that it is the Lord’s meal, that He is the Host and the meal and that the main thing is not a communion, but the main thing is the eating and drinking and the forgiveness of sins which He gives.
In His words of institution our Lord took bread and said He was giving His body. He took the cup of wine and said He was giving His blood. So, what we believe is that there is bread and body and wine and blood. How? Because He says so. And when He gives us this meal, He says we are to do this, eat and drink so that it is a remembrance, that is, not simply something that comes to mind, but is truly a participation. In other words, when we partake of the Lord’s body and blood, in, with and under the bread and wine, firmly believe that we are being given His body and blood, we participate in His life so that His life becomes our live, His perfect life is accounted as our having lived perfectly; His death becomes our death so that His eternal spiritual death penalty in hell is accounted as our suffering; and His resurrection becomes ours so that we know that we too will rise again.
Again, the main thing is the eating, the drinking and the forgiveness of sins. And extra benefit is this communion, that is that we confess that we truly believe the same thing.
God created us to do something for Him.
Really? What does God need from us? Really? God who created all things out of nothing, God who created us and gave us life? God who has everything and given us everything, what does He need from us. Now, if god were an idol, we would need to do for him, because he would not be able to do for himself. But, our God is the Creator God who has created us and given everything to us. God created us to love us, to give to us, to do for us.
God needs us to worship him.
Really? Again with the thoughts of our greatness and God’s lack of self esteem. Let us look at this logically and realistically. God created all things out of nothing. God create me. God give me life, faith, forgiveness, salvation, etc. God gives me gifts, talents and abilities. God give me a job, and all that I need. I am born with nothing and I take nothing from this world. Really, what does God need from me, nothing. I need everything from God.
But what about worship? When we define worship as what we are doing for God, God’s worthship of our exalting Him, does God really need or desire us to worship Him? God neither needs nor demands our worship. As a matter of fact, worship is not the best word to describe what God desires on Sunday morning. God’s desire is to love us and to give to us, to do for us. And so the best way to describe what happens on Sunday morning is “divine service.” God serves us on our Sunday morning. First and foremost God does for us and gives to us. He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. And He does this giving through the means He has given to give us, His means of grace, His Word, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution and His Holy Supper. And the great thing is that He even stirs in us to respond by living lives of faith. And this living a life of faith is the best worship of our Lord.
We are all ministers.
The heart of this thought is that for me to be important, I need a title or role, especially some spiritual title or role. The problem with this is the focus, from God doing the doing to our belief that God needs something from us, or that we need to do something to gain God grace and favor. The fact of the matter is that there is only one office of Holy Ministry and that is okay.
Better than being ministers is the fact that we are all priests in the priesthood of all believers. The pastor or minister is not a priest. A priest offers sacrifices and the pastor or minister does not. As priest, we offer our lives on a daily basis as living sacrifices to the Lord and this fact is what stirs in us great joy in our response of faith to our Lord and all that He has done, does and continues to do for us.
There is only one God, we simply call Him by different names. There are many religions in the world.
Basically these are one heterological misstatements. In the first place, the attempt to ecumenise the world into one religion by suggesting that we all worship the same god, we simply call him by different names fails at the most important point. At no time do those who suggest we all worship the same god talk about or discuss the fact that the God of Holy Scripture, the one and only true God died and rose. Even those in the cults of the Jehovah’s Witness and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fail at this point. The fact of the matter is that the one true God declares in His Word that He took on human flesh, human sin, suffered, died and rose. As John relates his vision, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18).
So, actually there are basically two religions in the world, the religion of man and the religion of Holy Scripture. The religion of man is a religion based on one’s character, on one’s good works, that is a person does good and is saved. The other religion is the religion of Holy Scripture which is a religion of grace, of God doing and man being done to, of God giving and man being given to. God gives faith, forgiveness and life. God gives and stirs a response of faith.
Children cannot believe.
To say that children cannot believe is akin to saying that people who speak a language you do not understand do not believe simply because you cannot understand what they are saying. Children can and do believe and this fact can be seen from infancy. When a nursing mother puts her child on her breast, the child knows and believes that mother is giving it something good to eat or If you ever put a bottle to an infants mouth it shows its faith by sucking on the bottle. As a child grows a little older and is spoon fed, the child shows its faith by its opening its mouth when the spoon is put to its mouth, expressing faith that it believes it will be getting good food to eat. Even if a parent is looking the other way, a child will leap into its parents arms believing the parent will catch it. Children can and do believe but they simply do not express this faith in the same way as an adult, primarily because they do not speak the same language, however, their body language and their words prove otherwise. Why do you think Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Luke 18:17). The inference being believing as a little child.
One must understand what is happening in order to make a valid Baptism.
When a person takes a pill, say an aspirin, do they always know how it works? Usually not, yet, the medicine works anyway. How much more does God’s medicine work, even if and especially if we do not understand how it works. Baptism works, because it is God’s work. Peter tells us, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). His comparison is to the Ark in which God saved eight people through the flood, yet the words are clear, “Baptism saves you.” Baptism is running the show. Baptism is doing the doing. No one can baptize themself. One is baptized and in one’s baptism God is saving the person being baptized.
Yet, the next objection is the objection of how much water must be used. When one looks up the definition of baptize (in the Greek) it means to wash, in any way, either a ceremonial washing such as simply a dripping over of water on the fingers, to an actual emersion of the body to wash it. Interestingly enough, Mark, speaking of the ceremonial washings of the Pharisees, not always were things immersed, just look at what he says, “and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches)” (Mark 7:4). Are we to believe the immersed their dining couches?
The fact of the matter it that Holy Baptism is a gift from God which corresponds with circumcision of the Old Testament. Holy Baptism is that sacred act through which God washes a person and gives them faith. It is God’s doing and so we may be confident that He does it right and He gives what He gives to save us.
Grace is something we do for God.
“Grace is God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.” That statement is true! “Grace is what God gives us because . . .” That statement, no matter how you fill in the rest, is false, because grace does not carry any conditions. If there are conditions, there is no grace. Grace is what God is doing, what God is giving. Grace is God running the show. Grace is God running the verbs. Grace is what God does for us while we are sinners and His enemies (Romans 5:8, 10).
One must choose God or accept Him as their Savior.
One analogy that is very fitting is the following. When you were a child in grade school and you went out to recess with your friends, suppose you decided to choose teams in order to play kickball. Suppose, also, that your best friend was one of the captains and you chose to be on their team. Did it really matter that you chose to be on their team? No, what mattered was that they chose you to be on their team. Likewise, it does not matter if we choose Jesus, but that He has chosen us. Even Paul reminds us, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). Now, a lot of people would agree, that it is Jesus who is choosing us, but then go on to tell you how they have chosen Jesus, dedicated their lives to Him and made Him Lord of their lives, by being obedient to Him. Which moves back to our attempting to take credit for what God has already done, given us faith, forgiveness and life. Why can we not simply let God be God and give Him glory for what He gives?
Holy Communion is an ordinance or a symbol.
Is Holy Communion an ordinance, that is simply a religious rite, or is it a symbol, that is a symbolic act, or is it more, a sacrament, a mystery? Does something happen in Holy Communion? Does God do or give something through the means of Holy Communion, or is this simply a right in which we do something for God, act out what He did some 2000 years ago.
First, let us ask, what does God need from us? Does God need for us to act out what He did some 2000 years ago? And if He would need for us to do this, why? Does God need anything from us, as if we would have anything to give to Him, that He did not first give to us. Here we might remind ourselves that the reason God created us was to love us and give to us.
So, if this is not something we are doing for God, then certainly it must be something He is doing for us and giving to us, even if we may not understand how He does it, see Holy Baptism above.
Now we have been referring to this meal as Holy Communion, which implies that this is a unionizing meal. Perhaps we would do better to call it the Lord’s Supper emphasizing that it is the Lord’s meal, that He is the Host and the meal and that the main thing is not a communion, but the main thing is the eating and drinking and the forgiveness of sins which He gives.
In His words of institution our Lord took bread and said He was giving His body. He took the cup of wine and said He was giving His blood. So, what we believe is that there is bread and body and wine and blood. How? Because He says so. And when He gives us this meal, He says we are to do this, eat and drink so that it is a remembrance, that is, not simply something that comes to mind, but is truly a participation. In other words, when we partake of the Lord’s body and blood, in, with and under the bread and wine, firmly believe that we are being given His body and blood, we participate in His life so that His life becomes our live, His perfect life is accounted as our having lived perfectly; His death becomes our death so that His eternal spiritual death penalty in hell is accounted as our suffering; and His resurrection becomes ours so that we know that we too will rise again.
Again, the main thing is the eating, the drinking and the forgiveness of sins. And extra benefit is this communion, that is that we confess that we truly believe the same thing.
God created us to do something for Him.
Really? What does God need from us? Really? God who created all things out of nothing, God who created us and gave us life? God who has everything and given us everything, what does He need from us. Now, if god were an idol, we would need to do for him, because he would not be able to do for himself. But, our God is the Creator God who has created us and given everything to us. God created us to love us, to give to us, to do for us.
God needs us to worship him.
Really? Again with the thoughts of our greatness and God’s lack of self esteem. Let us look at this logically and realistically. God created all things out of nothing. God create me. God give me life, faith, forgiveness, salvation, etc. God gives me gifts, talents and abilities. God give me a job, and all that I need. I am born with nothing and I take nothing from this world. Really, what does God need from me, nothing. I need everything from God.
But what about worship? When we define worship as what we are doing for God, God’s worthship of our exalting Him, does God really need or desire us to worship Him? God neither needs nor demands our worship. As a matter of fact, worship is not the best word to describe what God desires on Sunday morning. God’s desire is to love us and to give to us, to do for us. And so the best way to describe what happens on Sunday morning is “divine service.” God serves us on our Sunday morning. First and foremost God does for us and gives to us. He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith. And He does this giving through the means He has given to give us, His means of grace, His Word, Holy Baptism, Confession and Absolution and His Holy Supper. And the great thing is that He even stirs in us to respond by living lives of faith. And this living a life of faith is the best worship of our Lord.
We are all ministers.
The heart of this thought is that for me to be important, I need a title or role, especially some spiritual title or role. The problem with this is the focus, from God doing the doing to our belief that God needs something from us, or that we need to do something to gain God grace and favor. The fact of the matter is that there is only one office of Holy Ministry and that is okay.
Better than being ministers is the fact that we are all priests in the priesthood of all believers. The pastor or minister is not a priest. A priest offers sacrifices and the pastor or minister does not. As priest, we offer our lives on a daily basis as living sacrifices to the Lord and this fact is what stirs in us great joy in our response of faith to our Lord and all that He has done, does and continues to do for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.