Progressivism ≠ Evolution

I’ve been very busy and emotionally taxed and so I have not expanded the discussion from the post immediately preceding this one: “Progressivism in Churches”. However, two very pointed comments were offered, both of which are worthy of further evaluation.

My atheist Internet acquaintance and perhaps even friend gave an opposing comment while my brother in Christ gave a supporting comment.  In order to make this further examination of the issue easier, I will include the two comments here.

Canadian Atheist said...

     NA, religion either evolves with society or it dies. Christianity is dying. Young people are leaving the church in droves, women are as well. Pretty much every Christian sect is losing numbers well below the increase in population. Mormonism is a significant exception. Atheism and agnosticism are growing at a phenomenal rate and has already engulfed most of Europe.

     My latest blog post looks into this in a bit more detail. I invite you over to have a look. :)

Gary Cepek said...

Paul,

     Your post's presupposition is that a person's faith is personal, yet it's origin and maintenance is not of the person himself, but through and only through the Means employed by YHWH Theos. No individual is capable of Christian faith, even though every individual is capable of reason. Therefore faith exists only where YHWH Theos' Means are taught and applied as He has given them. You observe that the exercise of human reason in understanding and applying what faith believes moves them further from the faith.
This presupposition is unreasonable but totally Biblical.

     Canadian Atheist observes that religion either evolves with society or it dies; particularly this is true of Christianity. His observation is reasonable but totally un-biblical. He correctly stands by his reason. That's because faith is not reasonable.

I have points of clarification and correction to declare in response to both comments, even though I am actually in agreement with Gary, even full agreement.  I do have points of clarification, however, for Gary’s points.  I also have some friendly points for my Canadian friend’s comment.

Gary’s point that faith is not reasonable, is true from the perspective of the fallen and corrupt reason with which we approach what we observe and try to examine these things.  But faith is not truly unreasonable.  It is actually reasonable to the very highest degree.  For the first two people, those who were created in the image and likeness of God and walked in the fullness of knowing Him in His Holy Communion, faith made perfect sense.  Faith and trust in their loving Father was the only reasonable perception.  Before the couple chose to enter into the knowledge of Good and Evil, they knew only the goodness of their Father and His will.  They had no false notions of free will, because their wills were truly one with God’s will.  And so they were truly happy and content.  They basked in the true freedom of the unity of their wills with the perfect will of God.  They knew no deviant ways.  For them there was only the one way, and it was perfectly good.

But then came the tempter to them and they turned from the faith in which they had been created to look to a deviant way of thinking.  They looked to the way of Evil.  They then became one with Evil and became separated from Good, for Good is of God.  Their response was unreasonable.  They chose to walk away from the freedom and light into the bondage and shadows of darkness and confusion.  Never again would they be free to live without having to consider whether their actions and choices are good or evil.  Never again would they be free to look to their reflections and see themselves as God had created them.  Now they experienced shame.  Now they experienced self-doubt.  Now they experienced fear of every sort.  Now they tried to hide from themselves and especially from the One who is truly Good.

But even now, faith is still genuinely reasonable.  Even the pseudoscientists have to admit that faith is good, although they know not where faith originates nor upon what it clings.  But faith is entirely reasonable.  It makes perfect sense, that is, when one encounters that which is to be believed and trusted.

For example of the use of reason regarding faith:

     And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.  (Acts 17:10-12)

It is this reasoning that is regenerated in the heart from above that becomes the new will and the new mind and the new life of the regenerated believer and of the believers together as the Church.  They embrace one Way.  They hear the one Truth.  They share in the one Life.  They know of one Baptism, one Lord, one Faith.  They partake of one holy meal together.  They are inhabited by the one Spirit.  They are made to be one body together, the body of Christ, the Church.

My Canadian friend speaks from a perspective of atheism and agnosticism.  Agnosticism is a-knowing, or without knowledge.  Atheism is a-goded, or without god.  These are really one in the same, the religion of the world.  These actually include all of the religions of the world, save the true knowledge and Communion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Canadian speaks from the perspective of the world, which includes most who imagine themselves to be Christians.  Sadly, there have never been very many true Christians in the world.  The Scriptures always speak of the true Church as a remnant and a tiny flock.  Thus, the witness that is observed in the world is usually a corrupt and false witness.  Therefore, the observation that religion must evolve to survive is falsely presumed.  After all, this is what is observed in most of the churches and church bodies.

But this notion of surviving through evolving is entirely untrue, even for the worldly religions.  This can be seen most clearly when one realizes the fact that what is really described is not evolution but devolution.  When a religion is compromised to conform to society, that religion devolves until it completely disintegrates and is absorbed into the ways of the society.  The identity that was once clearly proclaimed and professed and lived is eventually lost.

This notion of setting aside the things that differentiate the religion from the rest of society as a move toward survival is like saying that a planet that breaks up into smaller pieces when colliding with an asteroid is survival.  Far from survival of the planet, what occurs is total disintegration into an asteroid belt.  It is no longer a planet.  The planet has ceased to exist.  It works the same way with religions.

This is even more pronounced with regard to those who profess to be the Church.  When churches and church bodies surrender their doctrine and practice, breaking up the unity of the faith and communion, they cease to be the Church.  The true Church, the true body of Christ, does not die.  However, the pieces that become separated from the body do die.  They are no longer untied with and alive in Christ.

Sadly, very few people ever even recognize the true Church on earth.  This is as the Lord Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John 3, when He says that no one can perceive the kingdom of God unless he be generated from above.  Faith is that through which the kingdom of God is perceived.  How can one who has not been regenerated recognize the kingdom of God?  How can such an unregenerate person speak concerning things of the kingdom of God, the body of Christ?

This is made worse by the fact that there are many churches and church bodies that falsely represent the true faith.  They do not hold to the pure Word and the pure Sacraments.  Thus they turn the life of the Church into a life of seeking to follow rules and regulations.  The freedom of living by grace through faith is never taught or embraced.  The God of mercy and grace is presented as a God of judgment and condemnation.  Even His great sacrifice of His own life on the cross is presented as something other than an act of grace.  The Sacraments are made to be demands for commitments and decisions and obedience.  Prayers are perverted to be means of obtaining favor rather than the communication of favor.  Works of every kind are piled up as requirements for acceptance by God, even though He has declared that His works are what bring us near to Him and keep us united with Him.

As this legalism becomes more and more prevalent, those who claim to represent the Lord and the true Church become more and more obsessed with control.  The Gospel becomes discounted as the power of God unto salvation, and various traditions and rules become the safeguards.  Then these “leaders” seek to have the power to enforce these.  They grasp after power, including secular power.  Then they enact atrocities like have occurred under the papacy, and under the Calvinists and Puritans and others.  Witch hunts and heretic trials are enacted.  People are tortured and murdered, all supposedly in the name of Jesus, even though He strictly condemned such ways.

How through these things would anyone looking on even begin to perceive the true Church, the true kingdom of God?  Who would learn of the God of grace from such monstrous actions?

This is not the way of the true Church.  The true Church is gathered by the Holy Spirit to the pure Word and the pure Sacraments.  The saints congregate with the sole intention of hearing the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ proclaimed and the absolution pronounced and the Holy Communion to be administered.  These saints seek no glory or power for themselves.  They gather to examine themselves, to confess their own personal miserable condition, so that they may hear again God’s gracious answer.  They have no desire to cast judgment at others, for they are concerned with receiving remittance of their own guilt and sins.  They rise up rejoicing and praising God for His goodness.  They come as one to the Holy Table to receive the very means of their salvation and new life, the body and blood of their Savior God.  They share together in this gracious life and they go home and to work displaying this in their daily lives.  They seek the good of their neighbors and countrymen, not from obligation, but from love.  They share the good news through which they have been regenerated to this new life.  They seek to protect the helpless in whatever ways that they can.  They obey the laws of the land out of love for their fellow man, knowing that good order benefits everyone.  They endure ridicule without returning evil for evil.  They love and bless those who persecute them.  In as much as is in their power, they live in peace with all men.  All of this flows freely from hearts filled with the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

But this is not the way when the churches compromise the doctrine and practice that has been handed down by the apostles.  When the churches look away from the pure means of grace and begin to modify themselves to be more like what people seek in the worldly circles, this peace that is provided through the pure means of grace disintegrates.  As the unity disintegrates the life and identity of the churches disintegrate.

Throughout history, such unity and communion has been rare.  Compromise is the prevailing way.   But where the saints count the pure means of grace to be more important than anything else in the world, there the true Church still thrives.  There God still is with His beloved and they share together in the Communion of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Whether it be a gathering of two or three, or a gathering of thousands, there the Church thrives and enjoys all the blessings of heaven and everlasting life and hope and joy.

Thus I grieve to observe the many who turn away to the ways of compromise and disintegration of the life and faith of the true Church.  Yet I also remain confident and unmoved and filled with ceaseless joy in knowing the faithfulness of the Lord in preserving His Church on earth until the day of the final consummation.

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Sad Sign

My next door neighbor, who was ninety-one years old, died. The memorial service was conducted. The family came for the precious memories attached to some of his possessions. Tuesday the auctioneer came to tote away the rest. All that remains is this sign:

Everyday this sign reminds me that my old friend is no longer to be found next door. Everyday I walk out to prepare for the day’s work and look to his back yard where he sat and called to me to visit, but his chair is no longer there. Every night I come home and see the same.

Death is not kind. It is a thief. But it is not the master thief, Satan is, who used God’s own words with just the tiniest change to trick our first parents so that they exchanged God’s gift of life for the delusion of free will, and with it, the choice of separation from God, that is, Sin. And the wages of Sin is death. Death is what so-called free will accomplishes. It is not free at all, but people imagine that it is.

Upon listening to the serpent, Adam immediately discovered the trap that the devil had set with the delusion of free will. Previously mankind lived in perfect freedom, the freedom of the communion of God’s holy and perfect will. All things were possible. All things were free. All things were good! But with the choice to “be like God” freedom was cast away for the bondage of “the knowledge of good and evil.” Now everything was corrupted and Adam had no freedom, no ability, to restore what he had destroyed. Now all of his offspring would be in bondage to this delusion, to this hopeless corruption of understanding and knowledge and will. Never again would mankind have the freedom of knowing only good.

This is why we dare not allow the Gospel to be compromised in even the tiniest degree. Any change, any compromise, has the same result as the tiny change that the serpent presented to the woman and through her to Adam. The Gospel is pure. The pure Gospel is life. A corrupted or compromised or adulterated Gospel is death.

Truly, the “For Sale” sign that has been placed over the churches and their preaching and practices is a very sad sign. But the true Church shall stand by the Lord’s promise and decree, and even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Wherever the Holy Spirit gathers the few to the Pure Gospel and Sacraments, there the Church still stands, offering the pure water of Life and freedom to all who gladly receive it.

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Free Will versus Freed Will

A recent conversation with one of my very dear customers demonstrates the difference between what we deludingly label as Free Will and what the Lord establishes as Freed Will. What we count as free will is actually our will that has been placed under the bondage of sinfulness. It is our will that rebels against God’s holy will. Thus it is will that is in need of being freed by God’s gracious intervention, freed by having its bondage to our sinfulness broken so as to be bound again in the freedom to enjoy the life of holiness that is found only in the Lord’s Holy Communion.

The truth is that our will is either in bondage to sinful rebellion or in bondage to holiness. The one way makes the way of holiness impossible while the other way sets us free to enjoy the way of holiness once more. This contrast of binding forces could be compared to the gravity experienced while in the proximity of earth versus the sense of weightlessness experienced apart from being bound to any large body. What could be perceived as freedom of existence apart from the binding force of gravity is the freedom to drift off into the nothingness of space. What sometimes is thought of as a restrictive bondage by gravity actually allows a person to move about freely, running and even jumping, without fear of drifting away into oblivion. Astronauts employ a tether to insure this freedom while working outside of their spacecraft.

The conversation in which we shared concerned the matters of the financial bondage that the government, which is owned by the Federal Reserve, continues to create for us. As we discussed this, the last several Presidents and the current President were brought forward. As we spoke especially of President Obama, I shared my deep and heartfelt appreciation for the Our Father and the General Prayer of the Church. I shared how these override my rebellious desire to pray against Obama and the other wicked leaders so that I am led to pray for them as God has decreed to be in accord with His holy will.

My friend, however, could only hear my rebellion. The sound of my admission of the power of my sinful nature drowned out the sound of my thanksgiving for the power of these prayers to work repentance in me so that by God’s gracious design I pray contrary to my will and in accord with His will. And so, while I would pray that God punish and get rid of these evil doers, instead, I am led to pray for their forgiveness and conversion, for their everlasting salvation, and even for their current good health and blessing of every sort.

Yet what we count as free will is what my friend heard so that I had to explain the meaning that I intended to convey. He asked me to make a copy of the General Prayer so that he could examine it. It seems to me to be good to display it here as well.

The General Prayer of the Church

Almighty and most merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give Thee thanks for all Thy goodness and tender mercies, especially for the gift of Thy dear Son and for the revelation of Thy will and grace; and we beseech Thee so to implant Thy Word in on us that in good and honest hearts we may keep it and bring forth fruit by patient continuance in welldoing.

Most heartily we beseech Thee so to rule and govern Thy Church Universal, with all its pastors and ministers, that we may be preserved in the pure doctrine of Thy saving Word, whereby faith toward Thee may be strengthened, charity increased in us toward all mankind, and Thy kingdom extended. Send forth laborers into Thy harvest, and sustain those whom Thou hast sent, that the Word of Reconciliation may be proclaimed to all people and the Gospel preached in all the world.

Grant also health and prosperity to all that are in authority, especially to the President and Congress of the United States, the Governor and Legislature of this Commonwealth, and to all our Judges and Magistrates, and endue them with grace to rule after Thy good pleasure, to the maintenance of righteousness and to the hindrance and punishment of wickedness, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

May it please Thee also to turn the hearts of our enemies and adversaries that they may cease their enmity and be inclined to walk with us in meekness and in peace.

All who are in trouble, want, sickness, anguish of labor, peril of death, or any other adversity, especially those who are in suffering for Thy name’s and for Thy truth’s sake, comfort, O God, with Thy Holy Spirit, that they may receive and acknowledge their afflictions as the manifestation of Thy fatherly will.

And although we have deserved Thy righteous wrath and manifold punishments, yet, we entreat Thee, O most merciful Father, remember not the sins of our youth nor our many transgressions, but out of Thine unspeakable goodness, grace, and mercy defend us from all harm and danger of body and soul. Preserve us from false and pernicious doctrine, from war and bloodshed, from plague and pestilence, from all calamity by fire and water, from hail and tempest, from failure of harvest and from famine, from anguish of heart and despair of Thy mercy, and from an evil death. And in every time of trouble show Thyself a very present Help, the Savior of all men, and especially of them that believe.

Cause all needful fruits of the earth to prosper, that we may enjoy them in due season. Give success to the Christian training of the young, to all lawful occupations on land, [air], and sea, and to all pure arts and useful knowledge; and crown them with Thy blessing.

Receive, O God, our bodies and souls and all our talents, together with the offerings we bring before Thee, for Thou hast purchased us to be Thine own, that we may live unto Thee.

Here special Supplications, Intercessions, and Prayers may be made

These and whatsoever other things Thou wouldst have us ask of Thee, O God, grant unto us for the sake of the bitter sufferings in death of Jesus Christ, Thine only Son, our Lord and Savior, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Free Will and Sin

One of the temptations over which we sinful humans frequently stumble is the temptation to argue that free will is the cause of sin. By this we are looking for an excuse for our sinfulness, while simultaneously seeking a way to put the blame for our sin upon God.

We like to argue that God must have in some way built into His creation the capacity for sin. We like to imagine that God did not really create all things truly good, but mostly good, with the potential for bad lying dormant within the substance of the creation. We like to imagine and argue that if God had created us as truly good and without any evil, that we, and our father, Adam, and the angels, including Satan, must have had some flaw deep within that God allowed to exist within us. We argue that sin could not have happened otherwise.

In line with this linear sense of logic is the notion that we have free will, and that this free will had the power to choose either good or evil. But this notion of free will is fallacious.

God did not create us with a free will according to this false notion of freedom. He created us with a will that was free. Adam was created with a will, but that will knew nothing of evil. His will was one with God’s will. Adam was created as a son of God. He was generated by God from the soil and made to be a living soul when God breathed into him the breath of life. Adam knew only the goodness of God. His will was not capable of choosing evil, for no evil existed in the world. No evil was known in the world. Adam was free to live the good life, free to live without choices. All that was good was already available. God had given all things to Adam and authorized Adam to enjoy all things.

Moreover, Adam was created in a relationship of trust. Adam knew nothing of doubting God and His goodness. Adam knew only good, and all good things are of God. Adam had been created with true faith, and faith does not question but simply says, “Amen.” Thus Adam was truly free. He had no worries. Why? He had no worries because he had no doubts. He simply heard what God said and walked in the confidence of God’s Word. Faith is not a choice, but a fact. Faith does not choose; it simply is. Faith, after all, is from God. Faith knows only to look to God and to believe Him.

This did not change until the serpent tempted the woman to doubt. She was tempted to doubt whether God was faithful. She was tempted to doubt that the Man whom God had placed over her had actually preached the Word faithfully. In this connection, she also was tempted to doubt the very Word of God. This temptation did not come from her, but from the devil.

So then, what about the devil? And what about the tree? First the tree. The tree was a good tree. It was lovely to behold. It provided opportunity to see the faithfulness of God. For not all things were to be eaten. This tree’s fruit was not for human consumption. There are many things in God’s creation that are not for human consumption, but are nevertheless very good. Likewise, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a good tree, but produced a fruit that was not for humans to eat.

What then, about the devil? If he was created good and perfect and holy and without sin, what happened? He looked for good beyond its source. He looked for good, but not from God. In doing so evil entered into the angel who had been named Lucifer, that is, Light-bringer or Light-bearer.

Evil, however, is terribly misunderstood. We tend to think of evil as a substance or an essence. But evil is actually the lack of something. It is like the darkness. Darkness is merely the absence of light. An angel is a messenger of God. An angel is one who brings the light of God’s Word. Thus, Lucifer was a light-bearer, a ministering spirit, full of good. But when Lucifer looked beyond God for good, his communion with God was broken, and he became emptied of the goodness of God. He became one who no longer saw and carried in him the light of God’s Word and love, but now was vacuous. As a vacuum is an emptiness that pulls away and damages that which is around it, so Lucifer became dark and void of goodness, grasping after and taking away from everything good. Yet no matter how much he steals from others, he can never be filled again because he will always look beyond God for his fulfillment. Since all good is from God, the devil will only grasp after brokenness; he will break and destroy and gather to himself only brokenness.

Yet we cannot answer why Lucifer looked beyond. We cannot answer why Lucifer stopped living the life of faith in which God had created him. Then we begin to look for ways again to put the blame on God.

God knows that this is beyond our ability to understand. Thus He simply tells us the truth that this is what happened. But since we are sinful rather than faithful, since we doubt rather than trust, God has stepped up on our behalf. He tells us that we don’t need to bother with trying to put the blame on Him, because He has already done it for us.

He says, “So, you do not want to carry the blame for your sin. Good! I don’t want you to carry it either! That is why I sent My Son to take it for you. You want to put the blame on Me. Don’t bother, for I have already done that. I have carried the blame for sin. I have taken the sin of the world into My own body and I suffered the guilt and the blame and the punishment and the death for you. Now you have absolutely no reason to concern yourself with the blame of sin and of evil. I have taken it all. Now you are free to receive the life of faith for which I created you. Now, through the Gospel and through the Sacraments of the Gospel I regenerate faith within you. This is My will for you. This is My will by which I set you free. Through these means I restore the freedom to live again in the communion of My goodness and love.”

Now there is no one left to blame. This is good news. This is really good news!