#388 Embracing Our Foolishness

There are so many good passages in William J. Abraham's The Logic of Evangelism.  Evangelism, defined as all activities undertaken with the goal of initiating one into the kingdom of God, is more than just simply a proclamation, a quick altar call, the sinner's prayer, and a recognition of our salvation by grace.  As vital as those elements are, the good news, the evangel, is so much more comprehensive than that.  And that is very good news indeed.  And yet it cannot not be taken lightly.  The decision to become a Christian should not happen without counting the cost.  Here's why (italics are mine):

"... a profound intellectual conversion constitutes entry into the kingdom of God.  From the beginning the gospel has appeared as foolishness.  Belief entails a spiritual appreciation for certain events in history that lie way beyond the plausibility structures of the modern mindset insofar as these structures rule out talk about the agency of human persons and of the supreme agent of all, the Lord God.  It engenders a comprehensive and searching understanding of oneself as a child of God who has fallen into sin and rebellion , and into corruption and self-delusion.  It calls for a radical reversal of ones vision and values as evoked by a narrative of mercy and love that will forever appear astonishing and incredible.  And it evokes a longing for fellowship and community that can be satisfied only by worship and adoration among the saints and martyrs.  These beliefs cannot be packaged and marketed like soap and cornflakes.  We should be astonished if they are embraced quickly without struggle and without intellectual sweat."

In practical terms, this means that seeing thousands stream forward at a Billy Graham crusade should give us pause.  Later, reflecting on Jesus exclusive claim in John 14 that he is the only way to God, Abraham comments,

"Taken in a prima facie manner and in isolation, this claim is absurd.  It is surely extraordinary to insist that people can come to God only through a first-century Jewish day-laborer who was sentenced to death and crucified by the conventional legal processes of the Roman judiciary in Palestine.  The claim is an obvious scandal, and Christians who make it without reflecting on this can scarcely profess to understand in any deep sense what they are saying.  Consider a contrary claim to the effect that the world can be saved only through Johnny Megaw, an Irish house-decorator who was killed by terrorists in Enniskillen on November 8, 1987.  No one would take this seriously, yet, stated in a bald fashion, this is what classical Christianity wants to uphold."

So, taking the two passages together, until we admit and even embrace the absurdity of our claims about the action of God in the life, death, and life again of Jesus Christ, we have not truly known what it means to enter into the kingdom of the God to whom we have pledged our allegiance.  We have not been fully evangelized.

#387 Come Thou Ecumenism

There are traditions with a regional emphasis such as the Roman Catholics, the Moravian Brethren, and the Nebraska Amish; and similarly inclined, those with a directional emphasis such as the Eastern Orthodox, and the Southern Baptists.  There are those who pride themselves in numbers: First United Methodist or Tenth Presbyterian; but also those whose numbers have so dwindled that they extinct or nearly extinct: the Huguenots and the Waldensians.  There are those with a specific theological emphasis: Missionary Baptists, Evangelical Lutherans, Full Gospel churches, and Holiness churches; while others think of themselves as movements: the Jesus Movement, the Restoration Movement, the Grace Movement.  There are even blended denominations: the African Methodist Episcopalians, the Anglican Catholics.  I came across what may be the most surprising blend of all in the story of the origins of a hymn that Christian hipsters like to sing.  It is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and it was written by Robert Robinson in 1758.

After a rough beginning in life due to his father's death while Robert was still young and his mother's sending him away to London where he lived the life of a gangster for a short time, he was converted while listening to a convicting George Whitfield sermon.  Well, Robert sobered up and soon found himself in ministry serving at, wait for it... the Calvinist Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England.  That doesn't even roll off the tongue right.  It has a halting sound to it.


But it was there at the age of 23 that Robinson wrote his now famous hymn.  I imagine that if he had proposed his hymn today in either a Calvinist or Methodist chapel, but not a blend of both, he would not receive such a warm reception as he has posthumously.  Where he writes that he is prone to leave God and says, "Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it," the doctrinaire Calvinist might say, "Robert, asking God to seal us against our wanderings implies that we are not already sealed before the foundation of the world."  Where he writes, "Tune my heart" and "By Thy Help I Come," the rigid Methodist might sense a thought-crime: "This gives our parishioners a false sense that they don't have a responsibility to make a decision for Christ."  Both might say, "It's good, evocative even, but let's not have it in our official hymn book."


Interestingly, the 1832 Confession of Faith of the Calvinistic Methodists (also known as the Presbyterians of Wales) states the following under article 36: "It is the duty of those who profess godliness to maintain fellowship and communion with each other in the public worship of God, to love each other as brethren, and to do good especially unto them who are of the household of faith."  Calvinists and Methodists do good to each other?  Sure, we can do that.  Love each other?  Yes, of course.  But to maintain fellowship and communion with each other in the public worship of God?  In the words of another hymn-writer, "Oh the bliss of this glorious thought!"

#386 Quotes from Communist Sympathizers

These men would get booed off the stage at today's GOP debates:


"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion." -- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations


"Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision.  Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance - where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks - the case for the state's helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong... Wherever communal action can mitigate disasters against which the individual can neither attempt to guard himself nor make the provision for the consequences, such communal action should undoubtedly be taken," - F.A. Hayek, The Road To Serfdom


"It can be argued that private charity is insufficient... I am distressed by the sight of poverty; I am benefited by its alleviation; but I am benefited equally by whether I or someone else pays for its alleviation... In small communities, public pressure can suffice to realize the proviso even with private charity.  In the large impersonal communities that are increasingly coming to dominate our society, it is much more difficult for it to do so.  Suppose one accepts, as I do, this line of reasoning as justifying governmental action to alleviate poverty; to set, as it were, a floor under the standard of life of every person in the community... First, if the objective is to alleviate poverty, we should have a program directed at helping the poor and so far as possible the program should, while operating through the market, not distort the market.  The arrangement that recommends itself on purely mechanical grounds is a negative income tax [i.e. a subsidy]. In this way, it would be possible to set a floor below which no man's net income could fall... The precise floor set would depend on what the community could afford." - Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom