conversations-for-a-modern-reformation-september-october-2012

20

YEARS OF

Modern Reformation

VOL.21 | NO.5 | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2012 | $6.50

CONVERSATIONS for a MODERN REFORMATION

KNOW

WHAT YOU BELIEVE AND WHY YOU BELIEVE IT. BRINGING THE RICH RESOURCES OF THE REFORMATION TO THE HALLWAY OF MERE CHRISTIANITY. C. S. Lewis famously remarked that “mere Christianity” is like a hallway where real conversations between Christians of different convictions can begin and develop over time, as we emerge from our various rooms to speak of Christ and his gospel to one another. For twenty years, White Horse Inn has hosted this conversation both on our radio show, White Horse Inn, and in our magazine, Modern Reformation.

TO L E A R N MO R E, O R TO BR OW SE O UR R AD I O AN D M AGAZI NE ARCHI VE S, VISIT US AT W H ITEH O RSE I NN.ORG.

features VOL.21 | NO.5 | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2012

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Conversations for Modern Reformation

BY MICHAEL S. HORTON

34

Reforming a Local Church

40

What Drove Luther's Hammer

46

Short Term, Long Term: Youth Discipleship in Albania

50 COVER PHOTO BY JOSH MEISTER

BY KEN JONES

BY ROD ROSENBLADT

BY MARIE NOTCHEVA

The Church after the Parachurch

BY MICHAEL S. HORTON

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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MICHAEL HORTON’S INFLUENTIAL

TRILOGY MODERN REFORMATION RECOMMENDS THIS SOBERING YET HOPEFUL TRILOGY BY MICHAEL HORTON.

Christless Christianity diagnoses the problem facing our churches, The Gospel-Driven Life offers a solution, and The Gospel Commission charts the way forward. Together they provoke Christians to rediscover God’s promises for our time.

P UR CH ASE TH EM TO DAY AT W H ITE HORSE I N N.ORG/STORE .

departments 06 07 12

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

BY RYAN GLOMSRUD

INTERVIEW ›› The Conversation Is Global MICHAEL S. HORTON Q & A WITH A CHINESE CHRISTIAN LEADER

FROM THE HALLWAY ›› The Celebrity

Funeral and Modern Priestcraft

BY JAMES EGLINTON

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THEOLOGY ›› Is Reformation

Christianity Just for Eggheads?

BY BRIAN LEE

55 64

BOOK REVIEWS HART, BAUDER, MOHLER, STACKHOUSE, AND OLSON, FESKO, BEEKE AND BEEKE

GEEK SQUAD ››

The Lost Art of Conversation

BY SHANE ROSENTHAL

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BACK PAGE ››

Praying for the Persecuted Church Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Horton Executive Editor Ryan Glomsrud Managing Editor Patricia Anders Marketing Director Michele Tedrick Design Director José Reyes for Metaleap Creative, metaleapcreative.com Department Editors Ryan Glomsrud (Letter from the Editor & Reviews), Michael S. Horton Designer Tiffany Forrester Copy Editor Elizabeth Isaac Proofreader Ann Smith Modern Reformation © 2012 All rights reserved. ISSN-1076-7169 1725 Bear Valley Parkway Escondido, CA 92027 (800) 890-7556 info@modernreformation.org www.modernreformation.org Subscription Information US 1 YR $32 2 YR $58 Digital Only 1 YR $25 US Student 1 YR $26 Canada 1 YR $39 2 YR $70 Europe 1 YR $58 2 YR $104 Other 1 YR $65 2 YR $118

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LETTER from the EDITOR

RYAN GLOMSRUD executive editor

This issue of Modern Reformation is about conversation starters. We publish the magazine with the goal of suggesting conversations that are challenging, encouraging, and sometimes provocative— right at the point where the theology and spiritual life of the Protestant Reformation intersects with Christian life in the modern world. To lead off, Editor-in-Chief Michael Horton lays out our “manifesto.” These are our conversation starters—the six or so topics we consider central to all serious conversations about church reform.

Also in this issue, Baptist pastor and White Horse Inn cohost Ken Jones shares valuable advice for pastors and laypeople about reforming a local church. Don’t lose the trees for the forest: pray, learn, strive for clarity, tread carefully—these are a few of his tips. Along those lines, Reformation Christianity is not just for eggheads, so Reformed minister Brian Lee reminds us. The impulse to catechize and teach, to know what you believe and why you believe it, is above all things grounded in the character of our covenant-making God who has given us written documents and, through his Word and by his Holy Spirit, instructs us in the way we should go. This conviction is how the Reformation started in the first place,

as WHI cohost Rod Rosenbladt explains in his article, “What Drove Luther’s Hammer.”

This issue also features a fascinating interview with a Chinese Christian leader to remind us that we’re part of a global conversation. We also provide a brief article by Marie Notcheva about digital discipleship in difficult countries, such as Albania.

The Internet is making the world a smaller place, but as persecution of the global church continues, we also include a prayer guide on the back page.

The conversational buzz in evangelicalism is frequently pierced by loud and angry voices rising above the din where small talk otherwise rules the day. We’ve lost the art of conversation, it would seem, in part because highly volatile shouting matches on cable news shows are about the only discussion models available. Pushing against this trend, WHI producer Shane Rosenthal reminds us of the how-to basics: humility is the first characteristic of good listening, while love, charity, and benevolence are necessary coolants to keep a conversation’s engine from overheating.

The sixteenth-century Reformation unleashed a social and educational revolution. For all of our knowledge about the agencies that brought about these changes, we sometimes forget the role that person-to-person conversation played in such massive shifts. Yes, organizations were founded. But the real catalysts were clergy and laypeople talking about the ideas that mattered most for the church around dinner tables and in village squares. Visitors came from across Europe to enjoy “table talk” with Martin Luther, and young Reformed theologians stayed as house guests of the Reformers in Wittenberg and Geneva. In these ways, the reform of the church lurched forward as Christians of all kinds listened to a discussion in one place and then started a similar conversation in another. We hope you'll take seriously that Modern Reformation is more than our name—it’s our mission.

“MODERN REFORMATION IS MORE THAN OUR NAME— IT’S OUR MISSION.”

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INTERVIEW

THE

CONVERSATION IS GLOBAL

MICHAEL S. HORTON Q & A WITH A CHINESE CHRISTIAN LEADER

INTERVIEW

T H E C O N V E R S AT I O N I S G L O B A L

F

Q & A with A CHINESE CHRISTIAN LEADER (TRANSLATED BY DAVID CHEN)

resh from teaching an intensive course at an underground seminary in China, Editor-in-Chief Michael Horton brought back the following conversation with a Chinese Christian leader. Neither the seminary nor the pastor can be identified, but we can say that he is the leader of a more than one-million-member “denomination” spread across China that is embracing Reformed Christianity.

In your twenty-one years of ministry, have you seen any freedom for Christians to practice their faith in China?

a.

There are many ups and downs. In some places, there is more freedom and our churches have been left alone for many years. Just today, however, some of the pastors of our association in another part of China were arrested and the government has shut down most of the church gatherings. So China is really dynamic and different. In every locale the government treats the local house churches differently.

What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of being a church under decades of persecution?

a. In terms of strengths, it has made us clear

about what we preach and believe. If we are to be persecuted for these truths, then we need to know why they are so important. It binds us closer together and makes us consider every day what it means to belong to Jesus Christ. In terms of weaknesses, we are often closed off to the rest of the world and we yearn for the theological tradition of the West. We realize we have much to learn from your traditions.

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That’s an interesting point. At a time when China seems to be opening up to the rest of the world as an economic superpower, you speak of churches being closed off to the rest of the world.

a.

Yes, economic and political changes do not mean changes with respect to the churches. Whoever is in power, and whatever policies are pursued, there is still a consistent wariness of allowing churches in China to be connected with churches in other parts of the world. Because China is not “ruleof-law” but “rule-of-man,” whoever is in power decides how he will rule and how he will treat any particular group. Therefore, every time there’s a leadership change, the best we can do is take a wait-and-see attitude. You never know who he is and how he will rule until he’s in the position to exercise that authority.

Many missionaries came to China from Reformed, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches in the West. Why does there seem to be so little influence today?

a.

When the Communists came to power, they drove out all foreign interests and attempted to eradicate these churches. Many leaders of these churches planted by foreign missionaries were never heard from again, and the missionaries’ teachings were wiped out when these early church leaders were persecuted and killed.

Who then were the main influences on churches since the Maoist regime?

a.

Four come easily to mind. Zhao Zhi-Cheng studied liberal theology in the United States and brought it back to China, and his teachings became the foundation of the state-run church known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM).

Wang Mingdao was a great leader in the hearts of Christians in Chinese house churches because he remained firm under persecution and suffering.

He called for the Chinese house churches to do the same and to never compromise the gospel for the sake of safety. Watchman Nee also had a great influence through his mysticism-oriented teachings of the “spiritual connection with God.” Song Shang-Jie caused great revivals in the coastal cities in China and emphasized the role of the Holy Spirit, which is why today’s house churches in the coastal area are open to the West’s charismatic movement.

“WE ARE READY TO PAY ANY PRICE” Wang Mingdao (1900–1991) Mingdao was an independent Chinese Protestant pastor and evangelist. In 1949 when the Communists came to power, he refused to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement: “We are ready to pay any price to preserve the Word of God. . . .Don’t give way, don’t compromise!” In 1955, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for “resistance to the government.”

After three years under duress, he signed a “confession” and was released. Not long afterwards, he recanted his “confession” and spent the next twenty-two years in prison. He and his wife were tortured repeatedly during their years in prison and in labor camps. Mrs. Wang was released in

With its global and domestic obligations to occupy its concerns, why is the government so worried about Christian churches?

1973, blind in one eye, and Wang in 1979, old,

a. There is a fear of Christianity more than

ings with Christians in their small apartment until

any other force in our society. The state-run (Three-Self Patriotic Movement) “church” replaces the gospel with Communist dogma.

We in the house churches strongly affirm the separation of church and state. Nevertheless, we are considered the most dangerous force in China to the political powers. It is not because we are actively attacking the government, but because we refuse to believe that there is nothing higher or greater than the state and nation.

When we worship Christ as Lord, we deny everything they have tried to indoctrinate in us about atheism. The Chinese government is threatened by true Christianity and, in fact, is trying to create a neo-Confucianism to compete with Christianity.

toothless, and nearly blind and deaf. They lived in Shanghai with their son, and regularly held meetWang died in 1991.

Watchman Nee (1903–1972) Nee was a Chinese Christian author and church leader who founded The Church Assembly Hall (later known as “local churches”) with Song Shang-Jie and others. During his thirty years of ministry, Nee traveled throughout China planting churches among the rural communities and holding Christian conferences and trainings in Shanghai. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith. He died twenty years later in jail.

Song Shang-Jie (1901–1944) Also known as John Sung, he was a renowned Chinese Christian evangelist who played an instrumental role in the revival movement among the Chinese

So, ironically, where Marx thought religion was the “opiate of the people,” Christianity at least is a force of resistance to totalitarianism, while the government’s Three-Self substitute for Christianity is actually the drug to retain the obedience of the people?

in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s. It is believed that by 1936 more than 100,000 Chinese were converted through his ministry. He died in 1944 from intestinal tuberculosis.

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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INTERVIEW

a. Yes, I think that’s true. But in China there’s

DEFINING OUR TERMS

a distinction in how Chinese politicians think.

To them, all “schools” are thought to be “political in nature.” In China, therefore, the government sees the church as a potentially dangerous political group; it does not consider us in purely religious terms.

House Churches, known also as “underground,” are unregistered churches that refuse to belong to the state-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and often meet

What neo-Confucian ideas does the government think Christianity threatens?

in homes. However, many house churches are

a. Confucianism is oriented toward totali-

inations. Although most are evangelical in

actually more like what we know as denomorientation, there are a variety of beliefs and

tarian thinking. It’s the whole people, not individuals, that matter. The people are therefore organized in a hierarchical way, with obedience to superiors as a principal value. There is no theology in it, and certainly no gospel. It is a way of ethics, to keep people pliable and obedient to their leaders. Find your place in society and be glad in it.

Are there any prospects for religious freedom in the near future?

a. It is in the Lord’s hands, but there is some

concern that the next leader will be even more aggressive in persecuting the church. It is always hard to tell, because in China’s political atmosphere “obeying your superior” is a virtue, even if you disagree with him—until you get promoted and become the authority, and then you can act according to your will. This is why it’s always a wait-and-see attitude when there’s a leadership change, and any predictions before that are nothing more than blind guesses.

People in politics usually “hide themselves,” because showing off your individual insights or independent thinking is not considered a true value in the Chinese political atmosphere.

You spoke about a growing interest in Reformation theology among Christians, especially younger ones. It’s been wonderful to hear how

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practices in this movement. In some areas, unregistered congregations meet freely. In other areas, Christians are harassed, humiliated, fined, tortured, imprisoned, and subjected to forced labor.

Information from Christian Solidary Worldwide (www.csw.org.uk).

many leaders, such as yourself, came to these truths simply by reading Scripture when there was no access to Christians abroad. Do you see this interest growing in the years to come?

a.

There is a growing interest in theology and in the history of the church. Many younger pastors and believers want to know the traditions, where things originated; we sometimes feel so isolated from this wider and older church history. There is especially much interest in Reformed theology; although there are some who move too quickly and unwisely, dividing house churches without first giving careful instruction. You must understand that a lot of this is new, and we keep learning and growing. As the house churches became bigger, we realized we needed church governance, church order, a better understanding of shepherding, ecclesiology, and theology. We hope the West can help us as we wrestle with these issues, and we pray that God continues to bless his work.

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F R O M t h e H A L LW AY

THE

CELEBRITY FUNERAL

AND MODERN PRIESTCRAFT

by JAMES EGLINTON

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O

n both sides of the Atlantic, the last few years have been marked by celebrity funerals. In the recent passing of Whitney Houston—and before that the English reality TV star Jade Goody, the king of pop Michael Jackson, and the Irish pop star Stephen Gatley (and, if we go far enough back, Diana’s celebrity funeral par excellence)—we have faced headlong the age-old human problem that death comes to us all. Even celebrity status is powerless before it. Indeed, that very status, for one in death, the celebrity remains at the center of the narrative constructed around his life, although the reason or another, seems narrative is now carried forward by everyone but the celebrity himself. inextricably linked to The way in which the celebrity funeral has accepted a degree of standardization is fascinatdeath before one’s “time.” ing. Bearing in mind that where the celebs go the

Although all death is tragic and should be mourned, pop culture in the contemporary West views the death of a celebrity as a particularly troubling event. Speaking theologically, something within us is inherently inclined to the old Hebraic dictum on idols: “Those who worship them will become like them.” However much we emulate our icons in life, the celebrity funeral provides a stark reminder that we will also follow them into the grave.

Death pays little heed to social status or wealth.

The death of a celebrity combines with the sense of faux intimacy projected by that celebrity in life to produce a curious effect: regardless of whether one knew the person in question, his or her death is seemingly enough to leave us personally bereft. As a hysterical bystander cried following Jackson’s death: “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who to trust.”

The rituals associated with celebrity death thus emotionally involve the mourning followers. Even PHOTO BY NICK TZOLOV

masses are sure to follow, such trends are well worth observing. Two points stand out. First, it seems that the celebrity funeral is an inherently religious event. This fact has considerable social implications. Second, one cannot help notice that for all its involvement with established religion, its theological drive actually comes from other celebrities as they exercise their newfound priestly office.

They try to fill the sociological roles previously fulfilled by clerics, monarchs, aristocrats, saints, and, ultimately, the Almighty himself. Particularly within the context of postmortem rites, celebrities have become the new mediators of folk religion in the post-Christian West.

From the strange Jehovah’s Witness-ChristianMuslim mishmash of Jackson’s death, his funeral and memorial concert (an event watched by an estimated one billion people), to the Anglican and Catholic services held for Goody and Gatley, the celebrity death rite is undeniably religious. In Whitney Houston’s case, the religious element of MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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F R O M t h e H A L LW AY

her postmortem rites could not be contained by her (Baptist) funeral: it also spilled over into the Grammys, as LL Cool J assumed the role of lead celebrity supplicant.

THE FAILURE OF NEO -ATHEISM The level of theological orthodoxy on display at the now generic celebrity funeral may be low, but the religiosity of the celebrity funeral nonetheless remains distinctly out of step with the general drive of the Western world’s professed godless secularism. When we remember those we “love” (whatever that term has come to mean in our relationship with those we never met and who had no personal knowledge of us), we are simply unwilling to act consistently with the principles of our modern age. For all that Richard Dawkins and his angry troupe of misotheists are currently en vogue, we flatly refuse to follow their worldview to its logical conclusion and honestly state that our beloved icon has died, no longer exists, and has lived a life void of absolute meaning. The celebrity funeral testifies to the failure of neo-atheism in that regard.

Fascinatingly, we are even unwilling to maintain a dignified, quiet agnosticism in the face of celebrity death. In fact, the reality of death makes us return to that most derided and heady of concepts: metaphysics. When a celebrity passes away, our instinctive need is to use nonphysical terms to ascribe meaning and ongoing existence to this person. Our departed idol is now “the brightest star watching over us from heaven.”

He or she “has now become the perfect angel.” In Jackson’s case, a messianic narrative was constructed: to cite another post-MJ vox pop, “It was like he died for us all.”

Narrative fashioned in a cut-and-paste manner is generally unreadable and incoherent, and the pseudo-theological eulogies told at celebrity funerals are no exception. Tragically, we turn to something that comforts only insofar as we refuse to think seriously about it. Do humans really become angels when they die? Upon which

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truth-claim can we base the rationale that the departed is now a celestial body? Made-up metaphysics trivializes death and robs the bereaved family and friends of their right to mourn deeply.

However inadequately our selective folk religion comforts us, it remains far preferable to the masses than anything offered by neo-atheism.

Writing from a British perspective, it seems fair to say that the celebrity funeral, in its liturgical elements, is essentially the normal British funeral on a grand scale. (The major difference is that the celeb equivalent has the real Mariah Carey and Robbie Williams to perform, whereas the common equivalent makes do with their prerecorded versions). Humankind’s basic desire for spiritual meaning is reflected across the strata of society. It is perhaps the extensive media focus on the celebrity funeral that highlights that when the going gets tough, neo-atheism fails to convince.

THE FAILURE OF THE CHURCH Equally interesting, though, is how this phenomenon highlights a major failing on the part of the church. As already said, the celebrity funeral is a religious event officiated by religious people.

Their role at best, however, is all too often a token one. One ought to ask, whom do we find leading

“TRAGICALLY, WE TURN TO SOMETHING THAT COMFORTS ONLY INSOFAR AS WE REFUSE TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT IT.”

the celebrity funeral in its sad, metaphysical grasping at straws? It is rarely the officiating minister.

Rather, the theological input is largely provided by other celebrities as they exercise their assumed priestly role. At the funerals of Princess Diana, Jade Goody, and Stephen Gatley, the metaphysical direction was provided by Elton John, Jack Tweed, and Ronan Keating. The clergy, in effect, sat by glibly as celebrities made strange forays into the realms of angelology and cosmology to comfort legions of devastated fans.

Not only does it now fall on the eulogizing celebrity to pronounce absolution of the deceased’s sin (“Now you belong to heaven, and the stars spell out your name”; “We know you have found peace, perfect peace”) and lead the congregation in prayer to the fallen starlet (“We now pray for his guidance and spirit to show us the way”), it has also become standard that celebrities, by their number and place in the celeb hierarchy, make the funeral rites efficacious. Indeed, a typical feature of press reportage on celebrity funerals is to note how many celebrities were present. It seems that such inventive metaphysics and pseudo-priestly pronouncements are more effective when surrounded and proclaimed by a great cloud of A-list witnesses. Shortly after his death, a Michael Jackson memorial event in Vienna was cancelled due to its failure to attract enough big name stars—after Madonna and U2 declined to come, the B-listers pulled out. It appears the king of pop was worth a memorial only if celebrity high priests and priestesses would be there. This is almost the post-Christian equivalent of the Scottish Presbyterian congregation unable to celebrate Communion because the visiting minister did not arrive (and the minister who happened to be present was not wearing a clerical collar).

LESS ON FOR THE CHURCH How little confidence must a church have in its own message when its ministers stand back and let celebrities provide the theology to comfort those who stare death in the face? The more pertinent question also arises: What exactly is the message of churches content to let boy-band members, crooners, and Z-list models preach incoherent, fabricated theologies to those (literally) contemplating the

“THE CELEBRITY FUNERAL, THEN, MUST SERVE AS A POWERFUL CALL TO CHURCHES GROUNDED IN BIBLICAL TRUTH TO RESPOND TO HUMAN TRAGEDY WITH A PRIESTLY AND PROPHETIC MESSAGE FROM SCRIPTURE.” issues of life and death? Is a minister’s contentment with a vaguely comforting but unreal metaphysical message (one that no one actually believes) a fair reflection of his own theology and message? Does it imply that he has nothing more worthwhile to say?

The celebrity trend is rarely marked by a turning to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for comfort in death. Sadly, this invariably takes effect among the legions who inherit their postmortem norms from the pages of glossy magazines rather than Scripture and historic church practice. The celebrity funeral, then, must serve as a powerful call to churches grounded in biblical truth to respond to human tragedy with a priestly and prophetic message from Scripture. From its inception, orthodox Christianity has been a movement in which transformation triumphs over conformation (Rom. 12:1). This call permeates every area of life. In post-Christian Western culture, it even requires nonconformity in how one faces up to mortality.

Stated simply, our vocation is to reach the masses in life, that they might be countercultural unto and even in death.

Dr. James Eglinton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Theologische Universiteit Kampe in The Netherlands.

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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ITNHTEEORLVOI E GW Y

Is Reformation Christianity Just for Eggheads?

by BRIAN LEE

16

At lunch with a prospective church member, I described the process of joining our church: a sixto ten-week membership class that introduces our church’s teaching in its confessions, its worship and life together, and an extensive interview to examine a candidate’s profession of faith and knowledge of the catechism. He shook his head and said, “Man, this is a lot of stuff. Do you ever worry that the Reformed church is just for smart people?”

I

was slow to answer. I hear this question a lot, and I do have this worry. As a pastor and church planter, I don’t want to divide the body of Christ, to minister to one part and not the other. I don’t want to preach a white-collar Christ in merely an intellectually satisfying way. Yet this stereotype is pervasive.

Sometimes Reformation theology is presented as “solid meat,” a high-octane version of the faith that you graduate to when you outgrow—or burn out from—the shallow evangelicalism of your youth.

Worse yet, and probably more widespread, is the view that the intellectual substance of confessional Christianity appeals only to a certain subset of believers—those who are wired more toward the head than the heart.

Both of these views are elitist, yet perfectly reasonable in our restless age, when more people are probably “converting” to Reformation churches than growing up and being catechized within them.

We have graduated. Why us and not our friends and family? Maybe it just appeals to our type. Even White Horse Inn, that venerable popularizer of Reformation theology, recently encouraged visitors to its website to “feed [their] inner theological geek.”

That may be a successful ad—especially with the PHOTO BY JOE CICAK

kind of folks that frequent the website of White Horse Inn—but I wonder whether it feeds the pervasive and problematic stereotype that Reformation theology is just for eggheads.

THE ANSWER Back to the prospective member’s question, and my hesitation. As a card-carrying theological geek with a pile of degrees and eight years of graduate study under my belt, I wasn’t in the best position to dispel the “Reformation is for eggheads” myth.

I was also slow to answer, because in one sense it is undeniable that confessional Christianity demands a greater engagement with one’s brain. The four spiritual laws can be conveyed in handy pictograms; a catechism requires words, lots of them, arranged in a series of questions and answers.

My first thought was to decry the anti-intellectualism of our age and the church’s capitulation to it. This is true enough, and it is always useful to attack the premises of a question. Reformation Christianity may seem overly intellectual, but compared to what? The problem with this approach is that it also attacks the questioner: “I’m not too intellectual; MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

17

THEOLOGY

you’re too ignorant.” It attacks and it doesn’t answer the question. The justification for a robustly confessional Christianity must be grounded first in the character of our covenant-making God, a God who speaks truth into a world under the sway of the deceiver.

A LITERATE GOD So I began with the fact of the Bible—not the facts contained in the Bible, but the very fact of its existence. I often ask people, who wrote the first words of Holy Scripture and when? Most people correctly answer, “Moses.” But we must recall that Moses wrote only after he received from the Lord two tablets of testimony, written with the finger of God. The Bible exists because our God speaks, and because he not only speaks, he also writes. This is a profound fact at the very core of Christianity, and all the more profound for its historical context. In the ancient world, in which literacy was a newly discovered innovation of the most exclusive caste, Yahweh was an elitist. At the very dawn of alphabetic writing, he carved words in a rock and conveyed them to a royal-bred messenger (probably one of the few people who could actually read them): “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the house of Egypt.” Our God is a covenant-making God, literally. And the people he took for his own were outliers in a religious world of ecstatic visions and idolatrous revelry.

There is no way to know the literacy rates of the Hebrews, but it is likely only a tiny fraction could read the “Ten Words” given to them at Sinai. Yet they were commanded to learn these words, recite them, and teach them to their children. During the ensuing forty years, Moses wrote five books explaining the historical background and details of God’s covenant revelation for the following generations—one of the great literary productions of the ancient world.

He probably spent even more of his time during these forty years teaching the people to read so these books could be put to use.

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Practical Christianity? Think of all the potential converts and adherents of Yahweh who were “ruled out” due to their illiteracy. We commonly speak about Jews and Christians as “people of the book.” But Jews were a “people of the book” before there were books. The relative value of a Torah scroll in the ancient world made it a priceless treasure. Even today, a Torah scroll produced in the rabbinical method can cost millions of dollars and is one of the single greatest expenses in establishing a synagogue—yet you can’t have a true synagogue without one. Even in the prophetic age, the true restoration of the people depended upon the reading and instruction of this word.

God’s revelation demands literacy of his people. Growing up, I remember thinking that my Jewish next-door neighbors had it really rough.

Every Saturday, after a week of public school, they had to go to Sabbath school, where they learned, among other things, how to read the Torah in a “foreign” language. Protestants may rightly reject the superstitious tying of God’s revelation to a particular language, but the modern Jewish intertwining of language, culture, and faith probably captures more accurately the concept of biblical religion in its original context.

There is a steep learning curve to biblical faith.

INSTRUMENTS OF REFORM Beyond the fact of the Bible’s existence, we read in it that God raised up learned leaders in his church to instruct his people in the faith. After Moses, the Lord raised up David, whose literary production in the Psalter portrays poetry and learning of the royal court well beyond his rustic origins, not to mention the royal imperative to meditate day and night on the Torah as the Lord’s anointed. Similarly, Solomon was wise in the ways of worldly wisdom, and the prophets were trained not only as covenant lawyers, but as poets and historians of the first class.

The New Testament has perhaps given us a bias in our faith toward the unlearned and against the intellect. It can be difficult to balance the steep

“THE JUSTIFICATION FOR A ROBUSTLY CONFESSIONAL CHRISTIANITY MUST BE GROUNDED FIRST IN THE CHARACTER OF OUR COVENANT-MAKING GOD, A GOD WHO SPEAKS TRUTH INTO A WORLD UNDER THE SWAY OF THE DECEIVER.” learning curve of Old Testament religion against the evangelistic faith spread by the twelve apostles. The elders and scribes were astonished by the boldness of Peter and John, who appeared to them as “uneducated and common men” (Acts 4:13). If the waters of baptism could not be denied to the Ethiopian eunuch, what justification do we have to require extended catechesis for church membership?

Counter to these popularizing motifs run the intellect and learning of the Word made flesh. The child Jesus grew strong and was filled with wisdom, and at the age of twelve he was in the temple sitting among the teachers of Israel, listening to them and asking questions. The authority with which he debated the Pharisees flowed not only from his person, but also from his superior knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures. Luke’s account of the resurrection suggests that imparting this scriptural knowledge was the primary occupation of the risen Christ during his forty days on earth (Luke 24:27, 45).

Then there are the instruments chosen by the Lord to record the Scriptures of new covenant revelation and to lay the foundation of the faith. Many Christians marvel that the profundity of the writings of crude fishermen demonstrates their inspiration, and to a point this is true in the writings of Peter,

John, and James. Yet the vast majority of the New Testament was written by highly educated men: Paul was a Pharisee and Luke a physician (Luke and Acts make up a large portion of New Testament literature). Even Matthew, a tax collector, likely received some training. Apollos was an “eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures,” who powerfully refuted the Jews in public and greatly helped those in Corinth who believed by grace (Acts 18:24, 28).

In practice, Paul clearly knew how to proclaim the gospel in a manner suitable to elicit faith from the broadest spectrum of audiences—from philosophers and merchants to jailers and slaves. Yet he insisted that faith came by hearing, and hearing by those preachers who proclaimed the good news.

The great exertion of Paul’s labors, his travel and writing, shows his concern that there were only so many men competent to bring these tidings of great joy. While faith came rapidly to the cities he visited, he labored for years, often returning in person or by messenger, to build a foundation that would stand the test of time. In passing the baton to men such as Timothy, he urged them to continue in what they had learned and not to depart from the sacred writings known since childhood (2 Tim. 3:14–15).

CATECHESIS IN THE CHURCH In the early church, the period of catechesis often lasted up to three years. Was this a departure from the faith of Jesus and the apostles, or a faithful application and preservation of it? In answering this question, we must note that in many respects the ministry of Christ is not the best model for us. Jesus was calling God’s own to repentance, urging a catechized and literate—though backslidden—church to return to its first love. As Christ’s disciples took the gospel beyond Jerusalem and Judea to the very ends of the earth, they pursued the twin imperatives of the Great Commission with equal vigor—not only baptizing disciples into the church, but also teaching them to observe all he had commanded.

The foundation-laying era of the church is therefore instructive, showing us that we can and must hold these poles together, maintaining vigorous outreach to all people everywhere, while also laboring to take every thought captive to Christ. The worship of the risen Christ—patterned after the MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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THEOLOGY

synagogue worship with the reading of Scripture, the proclamation of the Word, and the breaking of bread—was as anomalous in the Roman world as Judaism was in Babylon. Gnostic and ecstatic interpretations of Christianity were quickly ruled out of bounds, as John’s Epistles make clear. The worshipers of Jesus were just as much a people of the book as were the worshipers of Yahweh.

The church, with its sacred text and distinctive language and learning, has remained a literate outpost over two millennia of changes in culture.

The rise of the church as a cultural institution and preservative in the Middle Ages is due in large part to the ebb of Roman culture. While the darkness of the “Dark Ages” is often overplayed (it’s more a verdict from its “Enlightened” successors than an accurate description), there is great truth to the preservative power of text-based monastic culture. “Scholastic” theology is often derided for its abstract irrelevance, but its name simply reflects the theology of the schools. Schools were associated with theology, because the primary reason for their existence was for the copying and reading of the Word of God. REFORMATION LIGHT While we may decry our anti-intellectual culture, this is nothing new. The light of the Reformation dawned at a time of even greater ignorance and illiteracy. It was a movement led by brilliant humanists and scholars trained in the most advanced learning of their day, but its central thrust was popular, radiating out to the priesthood of all believers. Luther’s ideas of church reform were first received by a literate band of fellow

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academics and merchants. But the movement of reform just as quickly became a movement of education. If faith came by hearing and the Scriptures were the possession of all believers, then it was incumbent upon the church to educate its members.

We may well still be riding a wave of cultural literacy with its roots in the Protestant Reformation.

The churches of the Reformation bore fruit in the form of well-catechized and educated laity. For generations, simple farmers and tradesman were versed in the Scriptures and catechized to a degree that would make today’s college graduates blush.

While a great deal of this education took place at home, much occurred on the Lord’s Day through the reading and preaching of Scripture, the singing of Psalms, and instruction in the catechism.

Reformation Christianity and worship—properly understood—shouldn’t appeal only to smart people. We are all sinners, and sinners need the gospel in its clarity. Rather, it should make them smart, or more precisely, make them wise in the things of the Lord, kindling in them a hunger and thirst for the true food of God’s Word.

Rev. Dr. Brian Lee is pastor of Christ United Reformed Church in Washington, D.C.

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THE CHURCH AFTER THE PARACHURCH MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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CONVERSATIONS for a

MODERN REFORMATION

by MICHAEL S. HORTON

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E D I T O R’ S N O T E Over a decade ago, the U.S. military entered Somalia on a peace-keeping mission, but threats to troops and other factors gradually transformed it into a vague enterprise. A Washington Post writer working on that story coined the phrase “mission creep,” which is a good analo analogy for what is happening in the church today. Just as we’ve taken our eye off the ball when it comes to getting the gospel right, we have expanded the church’s mission to include anything and everything we think might have a transforming impact on the world. Our goal is to call churches back to a discussion of the following themes. We want to get you talking, so here are some conversation starters we think will help create a modern reformation.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY TIFFANY FORRESTER

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O U R M I S S I O N C R E E P T O D AY TA K E S M A N Y F O R M S , B U T T H E Y S H A R E O N E T H I N G I N C O M M O N : A D I S T R A C T I O N F R O M T H E V I S I O N , M I S S I O N , A N D S T R AT E G I C P L A N T H AT C H R I S T M A N D AT E D I N FAV O R O F O U R O W N . I N S H O R T , W E A R E “ O F F P O I N T ” I N O U R MESSAGE AND CONFUSED ABOUT OUR MISSION AND ITS METHODS. WITH EACH OF T H E F O L L O W I N G S I X “ C O N V E R S A T I O N S ,” W E E X P L O R E T H E C O R E C O N V I C T I O N S T H AT H AV E B R O U G H T R E F O R M AT I O N A N D R E N E WA L T O T H E C H U R C H I N A L L A G E S .

O U R G O A L I S N O T O N LY T O I N C L U D E Y O U I N T H E C O N V E R S A T I O N , B U T A L S O T O S PA R K YO U R O W N R E F O R M I N G C O N V E R S AT I O N S W I T H YO U R E X T E N D E D N E T W O R K S .

RECOVER THE “SOLAS ” T H E F I R S T TO P I C O F C O N V E R S AT I O N A I M S AT A R E C OV E RY O F T H E S O L A S I N THE CHURCH’S MESSAGE, MINISTRY, AND MISSION. THE FIVE SOLAS OF THE R E FO R M AT I O N A R E M O R E T H A N S L O G A N S TO B E R E C OV E R E D ; T H E Y A R E T H E M E S S A G E S T H AT W I L L R E N E W T H E C H U R C H ’ S M I S S I O N I N O U R A G E .

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he Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century was an important effort to recover the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. It was marked by a focused attempt to understand the doctrines that comprise the gospel message. Salvation is revealed in Scripture alone (sola scriptura), accomplished by Christ alone (solo Christo) by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide), to God’s glory alone (soli Deo gloria). Just as the medieval church obscured God’s Word and work by inventing new

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doctrines and practices that lacked biblical warrant, today’s Protestants are just as likely to turn to other sources—marketing principles, psychology, pop culture, sociology, and other disciplines—not merely to inform but to determine the content and methods of preaching, worship, outreach, and discipleship. The truth of Scripture can’t be reduced to a few slogans, of course, but these solas are still helpful for our narcissistic age because they redirect our attention away from us and our work to God and his work of redemption in Christ.

LAW & GOSPEL G O S P E L - C E N T E R E D P R E A C H I N G T H A T R I G H T LY D I S T I N G U I S H E S B E T W E E N L A W AND GOSPEL RES CUES THE CHURCH FROM “CHRISTLESS CHRISTIANITY” WHILE ENABLING CHRISTIANS TO GROW IN GRACE.

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n God’s Word we hear both law (commands to be obeyed) and gospel (good news to be believed). The perennial temptation of the church in every age is to confuse these two words. Sometimes the law is dissolved into the gospel; more frequently, the gospel becomes absorbed into the law. We often hear calls to “live the gospel” or even to “be the gospel.” In effect, this means that our own conformity to the righteousness that God demands becomes the message, rather than Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. When God speaks his law, we finally have a true measure of our lives. There is no room for excuses. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, not only in what we have done but in what we have failed to do.

Yet when God speaks his gospel, it is a strange and surprising announcement. Although God could justly condemn all of us, he has planned and executed our redemption at the greatest personal cost: the suffering of his own Son. In the fullness of time, the Son became flesh. He fulfilled all righteousness during his life, in our place, and then bore our curse and was raised on the third day as the glorified head of his body, the church. All of our righteousness, holiness, and redemption are found in Christ alone; and because he lives, we too will be raised in glory beyond the reach of sin and death. The law promises life on the condition of perfect obedience; the gospel promises life in Christ alone, through faith alone. Only in Christ can any sinner dare to stand unashamed before the face of God.

The sixteenth-century Reformers recognized that this distinction lies at the heart of all true preaching, teaching, ministry, and discipleship.

Martin Luther said that making this distinction clear is the highest and most difficult mark of a sound preacher, and Calvin’s successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza, warned that “confusion of the law and the gospel lies at the heart of all the errors that have corrupted the church.”

Much of the emphasis in Christian circles today is on imperatives: commands and exhortations, spiritual workout plans, and agendas for personal and social transformation. In many cases, consciences are bound not to God’s law but to individual agendas. In this way, the gospel’s indicatives (announcing what the Triune God has accomplished for our salvation) are taken for granted and left behind, as if the gospel itself were not the source of all numerical and spiritual growth. The gospel is not merely a message that people need to hear to become converted; it is “the power of God unto salvation” in every moment of the Christian life. The commands of Scripture

“THE SIXTEENTHCENTURY REFORMERS RECOGNIZED THAT THIS DISTINCTION LIES AT THE HEART OF ALL TRUE PREACHING, TEACHING, MINISTRY, AND DISCIPLESHIP.”

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continue to direct, but only the gospel gives. As we mature in the Christian life, the goal is not to move beyond the gospel but to grow deeper in it, understanding more and more what it means to be part of God’s new creation: justified, sanctified, and one day glorified.

As Christians from different denominations and confessions, we plead with all churches to maintain a clearer distinction between the law and the gospel: (1) in preaching, so that God’s holy claim and will may be known, and that his grace in Christ rather than our inner experience or holiness will be our confidence; (2) in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, so that we will no longer reduce God’s means of grace

to our means of commitment or expressions of our own piety and inner sanctity; (3) in worship, so that God’s speech takes priority over our speech, and God’s service to us has priority over our pious intentions, expressions, and activity; (4) in evangelistic outreach, so that we no longer substitute our own ascending “steps to victory” in our own lives for the announcement of God’s descent to us in mercy and the life, death, and resurrection of Christ; and (5) in preparing believers for works of love and service to their neighbors in their callings, not as a selfish concern to satisfy God but as the free embrace of others simply for their own benefit as forgiven and renewed people.

MISSIONAL & VOCATIONAL A P R O P E R LY M I S S I O N A L M I N D - S E T W I L L I D E N T I F Y T H E C H U R C H A S D I S T I N C T FROM BUT ENGAGED WITH THE WORLD , ENCOURAGING INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIANS TO P U R S U E T H E I R G O D - H O N O R I N G V O C AT I O N S .

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he church is a visible society, a new humanity “called out of darkness into [God’s] marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Living in exile, much like Israel in Babylon, believers are called to gather regularly in the public assembly and to conduct themselves with love and service to one another, their families, and their non-Christian neighbors. Having been baptized into a new citizenship in the age to come, we live as “strangers and exiles” in the empires of this fading age, longing for “a better country—that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13, 16).

The visible church has always been tempted by the lure of secular power and glory, confusing the

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kingdom of Christ with the kingdoms of this age.

No part of the world is independent of God’s lordship: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Ps. 24:1). Nevertheless, the Triune God exercises his sovereignty in different ways in each kingdom, by providence and common grace in the civil realm, and by miracle and saving grace through the ministry of Word and Sacrament.

Unlike the church in the Old Testament, the new covenant church is not identified with a particular race or nation. It is “a kingdom of priests” that has been “purchased for God” by Christ’s blood “from every race, nation, and tongue” (Rev. 5:9). In this time between Christ’s two advents, the church does not exercise a temporal dominion, driving the

ungodly out of God’s holy land (Matt. 5:38–48). All lands are common; only the temple consisting of Christ and his people is holy. This new international people, made one by Christ’s Word and Spirit, is never to be confused with any nation, culture, race, or civil order. The ministry that Christ exercises through his church’s officers is restricted to proclaiming his Word, baptizing, teaching, administering Communion, prayer, and caring for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the saints.

At the same time, the whole body of Christ— served by this ministry—is “salt” and “light” in the world, dispersed throughout the week to love and serve our neighbors in the world. Believers are called to godliness in the fellowship of the saints and to witness to God’s grace by word and deed.

They are exhorted to spread the fragrance of Christ

also in their families, neighborhoods, and vocations.

They are called to pray for their secular rulers and to obey the laws of the land and “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind [their] own affairs, and to work with [their] hands…so that [they] may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (1 Thess. 4:11–12).

There are many things that believers are called to do in the world that go beyond the mandate Christ has given to his visible church. Where Scripture is silent, believers are free to exercise their Christian liberty in judgments concerning temporal af affairs. Therefore, in every neighborhood and nation, Christians should exercise their earthly citizenship with concern for the common welfare of their neighbors—especially those who are vulnerable to injustice, poverty, and sickness.

WORD & SACRAMENT W O R D A N D S A C R A M E N T M I N I S T RY R E A L I G N S T H E C H U R C H ’ S M I S S I O N A N D I D E N T I T Y F R O M P R O G R A M - D R I V E N P R A G M AT I S M T O T H E M E A N S O F G R A C E T H AT C H R I S T H A S O R D A I N E D F O R T H E C R E AT I O N , S U S T E N A N C E , A N D E X PA N S I O N O F H I S K I N G D O M .

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t is often said today that Christ gave his church an unchanging message with ever-changing methods of delivery. This assumption, however, fails to reckon with the fact that in his Great Commission, Jesus gave us both as inseparable aspects of a single mandate. We are bound to his Word not only in terms of what we say but also in our strategies, which our Lord identifies as proclamation of the gospel, the sacraments, and “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” These

are therefore the marks of a true church. Where these marks are present, Christ is exercising his saving reign.

Perennially tempted with “mission creep,” churches are easily drawn to pragmatism in their methods of evangelism, worship, and outreach.

There are myriad resources for personal spiritual development, yet the means of grace that Christ identifies explicitly as essential for his embassy in the world are often marginalized or ignored.

Even in public worship, human creativity (which MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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always leads to idolatry) is often prized over faithfulness to our Lord’s commands. Instead of the means of God’s grace, preaching often collapses into moralism, baptism becomes a testimony to our commitment, and the Supper becomes another opportunity for us to do something: to feel, reflect, remember, experience, and rededicate ourselves. Of course, there is an important place for our response in the covenant, but it is just that: a response to what God has done and to what he has delivered to us through his means of grace.

Attracting our own converts (or consumers) is not the same thing as making disciples of Jesus Christ. Our prayer for all of our churches is that they will recover their confidence in the ministry that Christ has ordained for the expansion of his kingdom, gathering regularly “for the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). This is not only the description of public worship for those who are already converted, but also the means of making and sustaining disciples throughout the world.

CATECHESIS IN ORDER TO KNOW WHAT THEY BELIEVE AND WHY THEY BELIEVE IT , CHRISTIANS NEED TO B E W E L L CAT E C H I Z E D A N D G R O U N D E D I N T H E C E N T R A L D O CT R I N E S O F T H E FA I T H .

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n his pastoral visits to the homes of parishioners, Martin Luther was astounded to find that few knew the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, or the Apostles’ Creed. He therefore wrote his Small Catechism. Other Reformers followed suit, and generations of Christian families have been saturated with biblical teaching through catechisms to this day. Studies show, however, a staggering ignorance of the basic teachings of the Christian faith even among professing evangelicals. We need to get beyond shallow slogans and movements, grounding ourselves and our children in “the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.”

Given the statistics we regularly encounter, Luther’s description of the desperate need for serious doctrinal instruction (catechesis) in his day sounds eerily relevant. In the preface to his Small Catechism, the Reformer explains,

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The deplorable, miserable condition which I discovered lately when I, too, was a visitor, has forced and urged me to prepare [publish] this Catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form. Mercy! Good God! what manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach. Nevertheless, all maintain that they are Christians, have been baptized and receive the holy Sacraments. Yet they do not understand and cannot even recite either the Lord’s Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments; they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs; and yet, now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all liberty like experts.…O ye bishops! to whom this charge has been

““THE THE CATECHISM WAS ALSO TAUGHT IN THE HOME, USUALLY AFTER DINNER, AS PARENTS—ESPECIALLY FATHERS—TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ‘LITTLE PARISH,’ AS LUTHER CALLED THE FAMILY.”

committed by God, what will ye ever answer to Christ for having so shamefully neglected the people and never for a moment discharged your office?

Luther implores pastors “to have pity on the people who are entrusted to you, and to help us inculcate the Catechism upon the people, and especially upon the young.”

Following the example of the ancient church, the Reformation restored catechesis. So crucial was catechesis to the Reformers that they personally assumed responsibility for teaching it to their youth.

The catechism was also taught in the home, usually after dinner, as parents—especially fathers—took responsibility for their “little parish,” as Luther called the family. Instead of lazily accommodating superficial and nominal profession, pastors and parents accepted responsibility for raising God’s people to the standard of honest Christian conviction.

It is often said today that Christians, at least evangelicals, know the truth but do not live it. Numerous surveys, however, contradict the first premise. In a recent Pew study, for example, evangelical Christians trailed atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Mormons in knowing what Christianity teaches. And as far as

knowing why they believe it, most cannot articulate anything beyond their personal experience.

Many pastors, teachers, elders, and parents are preoccupied with pragmatic success and fail to take seriously the cry of their own parishioners for deeper, fuller, richer teaching. Participating in the more general cultural distractions, youth groups often fail to connect heirs of the covenant with the wider communion of saints. Not surprisingly, now well over half of those raised in evangelical churches are unchurched by their sophomore year in college.

“How could they be otherwise than slothful if you sleep and are silent?” Luther’s indictment should ring in our ears today.

Therefore look to it, ye pastors and preachers.

Our office is now become a different thing from what it was under the Pope; it is now become serious and salutary. Accordingly, it now involves much more trouble and labor, danger and trials, and, in addition thereto, little reward and gratitude in the world. But Christ Himself will be our reward if we labor faithfully. To this end may the Father of all grace help us, to whom be praise and thanks forever through Christ, our Lord! Amen.

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CONFESSIONAL S CRIP TURE NOT ONLY SPEAKS OF THE PERS ONAL FAITH OF EVERY BELIEVER IN CHRIST , B U T A L S O O F “ T H E FA I T H O N C E A N D F O R A L L D E L I V E R E D T O T H E S A I N T S ” ( J U D E 3).

PAUL GIVES US THE PROPER COORDINATES IN 2 TIMOTHY . AFTER RECITING THE GOSPEL O F C H R I S T ’ S I N C A R N AT I O N , D E AT H , A N D R E S U R R E C T I O N , H E E X H O R T S H I S Y O U N G A P P R E N T I C E TO

“HOLD

FA S T T H E PAT T E R N O F S O U N D WO R D S W H I C H YO U H AV E H E A R D

FROM ME , IN FAITH AND LOVE WHICH ARE IN CHRIST JESUS . THAT GOOD THING WHICH WA S C O M M I T T E D TO YO U , K E E P BY T H E H O LY S P I R I T W H O DW E L L S I N U S ” (2 T I M . 1:8–

14). W E C O N F E S S T H E FA I T H TO G ET H E R , AC R O S S A L L T I M E S A N D P L AC E S .

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rom the beginning, the early Christians summarized the faith together in creedal formulas. Paul speaks of such a formula in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 as something that was passed on to him and, through him, to the whole church. These are the things “of first importance: that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day.”

The magisterial Reformers preached, taught, and defended the catholic faith defined in the ecumenical symbols of Nicaea, Chalcedon, and the Apostles’ Creed. At the same time, they interpreted this common faith according to the evangelical insights and emphases rediscovered in the Reformation. Lutheran and Reformed churches bore witness to this faith in confessions and catechisms. Instead of reducing the Christian faith to a few fundamentals or private opinions, these rich statements offer a systematic way of understanding, experiencing, and living God’s truth. This evangelical interpretation of catholic Christianity is confessed by Lutherans in the documents included in the Book of Concord. Continental Reformed churches adopted the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and

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the Canons of the Synod of Dort, while the Church of England adopted the Thirty-Nine Articles, and Presbyterians adopted the Westminster Confession and Small and Larger Catechisms. Calvinistic Baptists also drew up confessions and catechisms, while Arminian Baptists generally refused to subscribe to any common creed.

As is especially evident in today’s context, it’s one thing to adopt a confession and quite another to be confessional—to think, witness, live, and worship consistently with our profession. A confession can be a historical document that we leave in the vault most of the time, or it can be a living witness to God’s unchanging gospel from generation to generation. Furthermore, a confession can be reduced to a legal contract we use to exclude brothers and sisters, or it can be a family covenant

“EVERY GENERATION NEEDS TO RETURN TO THE WELL OF GOD’S WORD, NOT MERELY NODDING TO THE CONFESSION OF OTHERS BUT MAKING IT THEIR OWN.”

that unites us, a hymn the saints sing to lure othoth ers to the feast. In the first use, a confession threatthreat ens to usurp Scripture’s normative authority; in the second approach, it is the “amen” of Christ’s body to the Word of its Living Head.

Although it places boundaries on what we affirm and reject, being confessional liberates us from the peculiar teachings, rules, and forms of worship that are promoted by charismatic leaders and powerful personalities. There are many things the confesconfes sions do not settle that are left to Christian liberty.

We are not at the whim of persons or movements; no less than the rest of us, our leaders are bound to the Scriptures as they are confessed according to the settled judgment of many churches across didi verse times and places.

The gospel has a particular form for its faithful repetition in the life of God’s people. In Paul’s advice in 2 Timothy 1, the church today hears its own imperative: “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.” There are sound ways of stating our common faith. “Hold fast” is a command to preserve, not to innovate. “Guard Guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit

DEFINING OUR TERMS Modern Reformation is a bimonthly magazine discussing theology, apologetics, and cultural issues. Since 1992, we have been helping Christians “know what they believe and why they believe it.” We intentionally include voices from across the Reformational spectrum: Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Reformed. Modern Reformation is more than just our name—it’s our mission.

who dwells within us,” he concludes (v. 14). The truth must be guarded so that it may be dispensed to others in ever-widening circles as the life-giving Word that it always is in its very essence. Every generation needs to return to the well of God’s Word, not merely nodding to the confession of others but making it their own. Far from exhibiting sectarianism, the “form of sound words” serves the unity and mission of the church in the world.

FOR A MODERN REFORMATION White Horse Inn doesn’t exist just to publish a magazine, produce an international theological talk show, or run a website. These are only delivery mechanisms. What we’re really about is a new reformation of our churches. We are asking our readers and listeners to become more involved: to spread the conversation in their own circles at home, at church, in schools, with friends, relatives, and coworkers. A good way to begin is with

resources. So I hope you subscribe to Modern Reformation, share this current issue with a friend, become a partner of White Horse Inn radio, and visit our website today. Get a jump on the next phase of knowing—and sharing—what you believe and why you believe it!

Michael S. Horton is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation.

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REF RMING A LOCAL CHURCH

by KEN JONES

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Reforming your local church is no easy task. Let me begin by stating that the substance of what follows is advice based on personal experience in three pastorates, as well as my interaction with pastors from across the country who have come to embrace Reformation theology and attempted to incorporate that theology into the life of their respective churches.

FIRST THINGS FIRST Two preliminary observations are in order. First, it must be understood that there is no guarantee that what has worked in one place will achieve the same results elsewhere. What follows is an overview of what I and others have done and should not be viewed as a sure-fire formula. If anything, I pray that this summary will be used as a guideline for pastors as they think through the comprehensive challenges of reforming a local church.

Second, reforming a church ordinarily begins with the pastor. This is only right because it is through the preaching and teaching of this biblically ordained office that the doctrinal direction is established. If the pastor and elders are not convinced that Reformational theology is the proper theological framework, not much progress will be made.

Any effort on the part of the laity (no matter how noble the intention) to teach contrary to the doctrine of the pastor and elders is disruptive to church order. Once laypeople have become convinced of Reformational theology, however, they can be instrumental in bringing these truths to bear in the life of their local church if: (1) they have access to

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the pastor and elders; (2) they have the confidence and support of the pastor and elders; and (3) they proceed with permission and caution. I will begin with advice for pastors and conclude with a reflection for lay reformers.

THE GROUND ON WHICH YOU STAND Pastors, know your context. There is a huge difference between reforming an existing church that stands within the Reformed tradition but has drifted from its standards, and bringing Reformational theology into a new context where it has never been intentionally or formally held. My experience has been of the latter sort; and while I have had conversations with pastors who are reforming onceReformed churches, the direction of my discussion here concerns bringing Reformational theology to churches that may know little of it. As such, I suggest that a first and necessary step would be to examine your denominational affiliation. Is your denomination historically anti-Calvinistic, or are you bound to a denomination whose statement of faith or articles of faith are decidedly anti-Calvinist? If you

are Baptist, with what type of Baptist is your congregation affiliated: Arminian or Calvinistic, free will or particular? There are some denominations whose very foundations are antithetical to historic Protestantism, and any effort to bring in Reformational theology within those confines may bring ethical challenges.

Examine the ground on which you stand to see whether a Reformational emphasis violates your ordination and communion’s commitments. In this regard, revisit your church’s articles of faith or statement of faith. In the last church I served, I thoroughly examined the articles of faith printed in our National Baptist Hymnal. I found that the doctrines of the fall of man, the way of salvation, justification, God’s purpose of grace, and the law and gospel were in harmony with historic confessions of faith, such as the 1689 Baptist Confession. This allowed me to begin the process of reform without bringing in any outside material; I merely fleshed out what was already expressed (at least in print) by denominational convictions.

FIND YOUR PLACE IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY

to also revisit historical shifts that have occurred since the Reformation and discuss their impact on Protestant doctrine and practice. For instance, I encountered questions on the wording and use of some of the creeds as they were introduced into the church, and I was severely challenged and criticized for discontinuing the altar call. I responded by tracing creedal formulas back to the Scriptures, while showing that the altar call as we know it has roots not in the Bible but in revivalism. By making these historical connections, we show our people that what needs to be reformed may simply be departures from historic Protestantism. The aim is to get our people to evaluate what we see and hear in our churches against the history of Christian faith and life.

WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD If this reform gains traction among the congregation, the most important aspect then is to flesh out a healthy, nuanced understanding of the Bible and church life.

THE BIG PICTURE

It is important for pastors and teachers to make historical connections. Two disturbing characteristics of contemporary Christianity prompted this heading. First, many “Protestant” Christians have no clue what makes them Protestant. In fact, some are Protestants by default, simply because they are not Roman Catholic. Second, there is such an obsession with being contemporary and culturally relevant that there is little concern for, or knowledge of, church history. That being the case, I have found it necessary to establish our distinctive Protestant theology. This included not only Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, but also the solas, and even the Protestant confessions of faith. This provided an opportunity to introduce the ecumenical creeds, and their purpose and importance in the life of the church. Reformational theology has both biblical and historical roots, and its rejection by contemporary Christians is due in some part to ignorance of both.

Having provided a historical overview of Protestantism, in my experience it has become necessary

Although most evangelicals acknowledge that the Bible is ultimately about Christ, this is not always practiced in preaching and teaching. It is important to impress on your people that there is one plotline that runs through Scripture from start to finish: God’s saving purposes and power in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Staying the course of this singular plotline should be the aim of Bible studies and sermons. If reformation is going to occur, I believe it will be the fruit of a Christ-centered understanding of Scripture.

There is much emphasis today on the need for expository preaching, and I agree that the exposition of the biblical text is the proper model or style of preaching. Our greatest need in preaching, however, is not in the area of a particular style, but rather the substance of what we preach. If the big story of Scripture is the gospel of Jesus Christ, then the person and work of Christ must be the sum and substance of our instruction and proclamation of Scripture. This is the testimony of Jesus himself (John 5:39; Luke 4:17–21, 24:19–27, 44–45), and this MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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seems to be the apostolic pattern as well (1 Cor. 2:1– 5; Acts 2:17–36, 8:30–35; Col. 1:25–29).

Fleshing out the doctrines of grace includes a big-picture, Christ-centered approach to preaching. But it also means being clear in our delineation between law and gospel. Law (which corresponds to the commands of Scripture) is what God demands of his image bearers, and gospel (which corresponds to the gospel declarations of Scripture as it relates to the person and work of Christ) is what God gives freely out of sheer grace. What God gives in the gospel is what he has commanded in the law. Keeping these two clear and distinct is a large part in keeping the big picture straight.

COVENANT LIFE

For Reformation theology to affect the life of a local church, it needs to be fleshed out in new perceptions of the dynamics of the corporate life of the local church. While there has been much talk about recovering biblical churchmanship over the last twenty years, and even efforts to recapture the simplicity of the first-century house church, what we have actually seen is the rise of the following: (1) consumer churchmanship (meeting felt needs); (2) commercial churchmanship (marketing religious enterprises or entities); and (3) cultural/countercultural churchmanship (church life that mimics patterns in the broader culture or Christian versions of the counterculture). What seems to be on the decline is the sort of vibrant, vital churchmanship described in the New Testament (1 Cor. 10:16– 17; Eph. 4:11–16; Col. 1:3–14, 3:12–17). Reformed theology casts our churchmanship in a light that might be unfamiliar to us, but seems to be more consistent with the actions and dispositions found in the New Testament.

In our corporate worship, Reformed liturgies that include creedal and confessional readings remind us that we stand with others in the same body of truth, professing one faith in the one mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The fleshing out of Reformed theology reminds us of our accountability and responsibility toward others. It reminds us that neither our presence in corporate worship nor our acts of worship are just a matter of us and God in the garden alone. Reformed theology not only emphasizes our union with Christ, but also our communion with one another.

Reforming at the level of the local church is not

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an easy task, especially when we consider that the most “reformed” of Reformed churches is always still being reformed by the Word of God. This is true for all churches, old and new. For those you are challenging to change, this pace will seem like breakneck speed. It’s a transformation, a reformation. At the same time, however, it will seem like a snail’s pace for those who see the need for change (especially those on the outside comfortably situated in well-established Reformed churches). Again, there is no sure-fire formula that will produce the same results across the board. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, so when we preach let us preach Christ and him crucified so that those who hear us may have faith in the power of God and not men.

LAY REFORMERS If you are reading this and are not a pastor or elder, here is an important question you probably want to ask: At what point should a layperson approach the ordained leadership about a potential theological shift for the church?

I suggest it is when what you hear (whether it be from radio, a conference, the Internet, or other media) conflicts with what you ordinarily encounter in your church. In other words, when you are convinced that what you are learning from other sources is biblically accurate but is in conflict with positions held in your church, it may be time to talk to the leadership. This is to be done

“THE FLESHING OUT OF REFORMED THEOLOGY REMINDS US OF OUR ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY TOWARD OTHERS.”

4. BE SPECIFIC!

When you speak with your pastor and/ or elders, be as specific as possible. Make sure your concerns are a matter of substance and not style or personality. If what your pastor preaches conflicts with what you are now learning, be specific in your conversation on these issues.

5. TREAD CAREFULLY!

soberly and seriously; but if it is the situation in which you find yourself, here are five concluding suggestions.

1. PRAY!

Thank God for the new light he has brought to your understanding. Pray for patience as the conflict between what you now understand and what you previously held becomes more evident. Pray for wisdom and grace as you prepare to give voice to your concerns. Pray for humility that you will not be unnecessarily abrasive, combative, or harsh.

Pray that God will prepare your pastor and elders for your conversation.

2. LEARN!

Research the “new” teaching that now resonates with you. If what you have discovered has unsettled what you previously believed, it is worth looking into with greater depth. You don’t want to upset your own belief system or challenge the theological foundation of your church with only a surface understanding of something you heard but may not fully or adequately understand.

3. CLARIFY!

Codify your concerns. If you are coming out of a tradition that does not have a confession of faith, then take a long look at whatever doctrinal statement there is and see if your new convictions are of primary or secondary importance.

Beware of the myth of influence. This is the notion that your presence in a church, which you have come to realize is no longer compatible with your doctrinal convictions, is necessary for the well-being of others in that church.

This may be in spite of the fact that the leadership in the church does not share your newfound convictions. You may be so determined to bring others into the light, however, that you remain and use whatever influence you have to persuade them. Regardless of how good your intentions are, remaining in a place where you are in fundamental disagreement with the preaching and teaching is an unhealthy and unwise posture.

It neither glorifies God nor edifies the body.

CONCLUSION If you have the support of the pastor and/or elders of your church and a shared commitment to implementing the doctrines of grace in that church, this is a partnership of great importance. Pray for the wisdom and patience of your leaders and that God would prepare the hearts of the hearers. In the end it is God who illumines the mind to see his grace in the person and work of Christ, but he allows us to participate in getting that message out.

Do not allow whatever frustrations you may encounter to obscure the endgame, which is the edification of our brothers and sisters and the glory of the Triune God.

Ken Jones is pastor of Glendale Baptist Church in Miami, Florida, and a cohost on the White Horse Inn radio program. He has taught seminary extension courses on Galatians and church history, and has contributed articles to Modern Reformation and Tabletalk.

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WHAT DROVE LUTHER'S HAMMER

by ROD ROSENBLADT

The following is a Reader's Digest version of what led Martin Luther to the discovery of the gospel. It introduces Luther’s upbringing, education, and life as a monk before turning to the nature of the gospel he discovered in the writings of St. Paul.

LUTHER’S UPBRINGING Luther was the second son in a family of eight children. His father and mother were sturdy German Bauern (peasants): coarse, credulous, and devout.

Often in the beliefs of these untutored folk, elements of old German paganism blended with the Christian story: woods, winds, and water were peopled by elves, gnomes, fairies, mermen and mermaids, sprites and witches; and witchcraft was taken for granted throughout Europe. Young Luther had ample opportunity to witness the mischief and grief of evil spirits, soon learning the marvelous power of the church to control the demons.

As a result, Luther carried over many typical German peasant superstitions of his day.

Scholars tell us that there was nothing remarkable about Luther’s home life. His parents were God-fearing but not unusually devout, and the children were subjected to a stern upbringing. Typical of the age, the switch and beatings were the most common way to raise a family, and young Martin received his share. But as Luther began to show academic promise, he became highly esteemed at home.

In his classic book, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Abingdon Press, 1987), Yale University historian Dr. Roland Bainton summarizes these early years: “We know this much. Luther imbibed a religion in which one had to strive for future salvation, just as one had to work for material survival.”

LUTHER’S EDUCATION School education reinforced the training of the home. Children were instructed in sacred song, singing Psalms and hymns, and they attended Mass and Vespers. Bainton writes that “the entire training of home, school, and university was designed to instill fear of God and reverence for the church.”

Schools of that day were not tender, but neither were they brutal. Teaching was by drill and punctuated by the rod. Luther remembered being soundly beaten for failing to conjugate a Latin verb he had not yet learned! But he knew Latin was useful: it was the language of MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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the church, of law, of diplomacy, of international relations, of scholarship, even of travel. Luther was therefore devoted to his studies and became highly proficient in Latin and German grammar.

By age seventeen, Luther was a student at the University of Erfurt. As the university was yet untouched by the Renaissance, Luther remarked that the most popular courses were those offered in the inns and taverns (many students, including Luther, referred to the university as “a bawdy house and a beer house”). Luther’s first year was nothing special. In 1505, however, he was one of seventeen students (out of an original three hundred) who graduated as a “master” of arts. During that time, he built a reputation among his fellow students as one of the finest disputants, and they dubbed him “the philosopher.”

In many ways, Luther as a young man was an ordinary, although gifted, student: sociable, musical, popular, pious. He was rollicking, fond of music, proficient on the lute, and enamored of the German landscape.

LUTHER’S ANFECTUNGEN In one respect, however, Luther stood apart from his fellows: his inner bouts with the Anfectungen that plagued him throughout his life. The word has no English equivalent, but it is stronger than “temptation” or “trial.” Closer would be “assault” or “attack”—terrifying ordeals, bouts of depression, despair, perhaps what people of earlier centuries called “melancholia.”

Luther often wondered if God held good intentions toward him or not—his anxieties stemming from late medieval Roman Church theology. Luther feared God and everlasting condemnation; he sensed deeply the stare of Christ the Judge standing over him, demanding of him an impossible level of inner purity. At times, he could not help fearing that these feelings were evidence that he was not one of God’s elect, but rather among those destined to be damned.

After two months of attending lectures in law, Luther went home for a visit. We don’t know why, but he later wrote that it was because of fear over the condition of his soul. During his return to university, a sudden storm arose, lightning flashed, and the air pressure of a bolt suddenly knocked him to the ground. In terror, he cried out, “St. Anne, save me! I

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“LUTHER SENSED DEEPLY THE STARE OF CHRIST THE JUDGE STANDING OVER HIM, DEMANDING OF HIM AN IMPOSSIBLE LEVEL OF INNER PURITY.” will become a monk!” The thought of sudden, unexpected death terrified every medieval Christian, because it would not allow a last confession to a priest.

It was no easy vow to keep, and Luther carefully considered his obligation to it. Though his father was angry and several of his teachers thought his vow was not binding, Luther could not avoid keeping his promise. He threw a farewell party for his friends and gave away his musical instruments and Roman law books. Then, in the fall of 1505, with heaviness of heart, he arrived at the Augustinian Order’s monastery in Erfurt—the most rigorous of the local monastic groups.

Like everyone else in the Middle Ages, Luther knew what to do about his plight. The wise and secure course was to “take the cowl.” But why did Luther drop out of law school and join a monastery?

For exactly the same reason thousands of others did—to save his soul!

LUTHER THE MONK Medieval monasticism reflected the deepest insight of the Roman Church concerning the relation of the holy God to man the sinner. In the last analysis, a holy, righteous, and just God could have fellowship with and could accept only a holy, just, and good man. But how could such a God of perfection accept a sinful man as his own? The real problem was to make a man sufficiently holy, so that his

acceptance by God, if not certain, was at least highly probable. As Bainton explains, “[Luther] set himself to the pursuit of holiness. Monasticism constituted such a quest; Luther looked upon the cloister as the higher righteousness.”

His teachers, following the Bible, taught that God demanded absolute righteousness (as in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye perfect”). People needed to love God absolutely and their neighbors as themselves; and they should have the unshakable faith of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son—hence the demand that the monk fulfill all the laws and commands of God, including poverty, chastity, and obedience.

The life of a monk was terribly hard, but people of Luther’s day “knew” that it was pleasing to God. Its benefits were “certain.” Were the monastics aware of the great gulf between God and man? Absolutely!

LUTHER THE PENITENT MONK

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They also knew that the fluctuation between despair and hope, between unbearable demand and partial fulfillment, would produce doubts and spiritual torment in many of the good brothers— but this served to keep them from complacency and self-righteousness. Once their sinfulness was fully exposed, there were ample ways to reassure the weak in times of trouble. At the center of this assurance was the sacrament of penance.

The sinner confessed to a priest, was forgiven (absolved), and then performed penitential acts that completed the process. People were to repent in a fully contrite manner—not for the purpose of saving themselves. But Luther knew that in the midst of this most crucial act, he was at his most selfish. He confessed his sins and performed his penance out of the intensely human instinct to save

of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake

eformation historian Roland Bainton de-

of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss be-

scribes Luther’s efforts in the penitential life.

cause of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ

“He fasted, sometimes three days on end with-

Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the

out a crumb. The seasons of fasting were more consol-

loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in or-

ing to him than Easter. He laid upon himself vigils and

der that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not

prayers in excess of those stipulated by the Rule. He

having a righteousness of my own that comes

cast off the blankets permitted him and well-nigh froze

from the law, but that which comes through

himself to death.”

faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that

Even Luther felt on some level that he measured

depends on faith—that I may know him and the

up to the standards of the Augustinian order. “I was a

power of his resurrection, and may share his suf-

good monk, and I kept the [R]ule of my order so strict-

ferings, becoming like him in his death, that by

ly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by

any means possible I may attain the resurrection

his monkery, it was I. All my brothers in the monastery

from the dead. (Phil. 3:4–11)

who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work.”

And yet he despaired of the spiritual benefits of so much “self-made religion.” In the end, Luther’s account of monastic life is the same as the apostle Paul’s explanation to the Philippians of life under the law: If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe

ENGRAVING OF MARTIN LUTHER AS AN AUGUSTINIAN MONK, LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER, 1520, HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE, KUPFERSTICHKABINETT.

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his own skin. Yet because of the human tendency to sin, one could hardly confess enough. This critical issue remained vivid in Luther’s mind. He later commented, “If one were to confess his sins in a timely manner, he would have to carry a confessor in his pocket!”

When Luther tried to avail himself of this comfort, it failed to produce the desired results: “Yet my conscience would never give me assurance, but I was always doubting and said ‘You did not perform that correctly. You were not contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.’” How then could he stand before God?

Monasticism provided a variety of ways in which man could wash away his sin and improve his spiritual estate. The monk could fast, pray, meditate, perform Mass, beat his body, and engage in other physical/spiritual exercises. Through this, the body and pride would be defeated.

In addition to an acute sense of the holiness of God, Luther had a brutally honest picture of himself as a creature. He knew all too well that it is easy for man to see himself “in the best possible light.” Man is usually willing to forgive himself and then rest assured that God has also forgiven him. “So long as one does the best that is in him,” man is sure it is enough.

But Luther was too sensitive to be satisfied with such “answers.” What Luther saw was a self-centered sinful man holding sway under the pretense of monastic holiness. So serious were the mounting struggles that Luther began to think he may be one of those greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Ropredestined for damnation. mans and nothing stood in the way but that one exA critical moment came when Lupression, ‘the justice of God,’ because I took it to mean ther’s superiors ordered him to take that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the his doctorate and become a professor unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I of Bible at Wittenberg University. Alstood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no though he initially resisted going—“It confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore, I did not will be the death of me!”—he finally love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured relented. As one historian famousagainst him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning ly notes, this command that Luther to know what he meant. pursue theological study “was one of “Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the most brilliant or stupid decisions the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by his in the history of Latin Christianity.” faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness Although Luther’s fears and anxiby which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through eties drove him into the cloister, they faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone only intensified during his time as a through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on monk. But the command to study aca new meaning, and whereas before the ‘justice of God’ had filled ademic theology meant he could now me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater also investigate his struggles intellove. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. . . . lectually. He soon acquired his ma“If you have a true faith that Christ is your Saviour, then at once ture self-identity as a professor and a you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s doctor of Sacred Scripture.

IN LUTHER'S OWN WORDS

“I

heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love.

This is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly,

THE “TURN”

friendly heart, in which there is no anger nor unrighteousness. He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face.”

MARTIN LUTHER, FROM HERE I STAND: A LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER BY ROLAND BAINTON (NASHVILLE: ABINGDON PRESS, 1987), 65.

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Luther’s early doctrine of justification was a form of self-torture. The problem was how to love God unselfishly, to reach a state of pure love of God for God’s own sake—which

he learned from St. Augustine and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Still, Luther knew that we children of Adam are “curved in on ourselves” and that we seek only ourselves. For Luther, the remedy for the evil self-love was self-hatred. This was the essential road to salvation: agree with God’s verdict and the rightness of his wrath against us, even be willing to be damned. (Justification is the opposite: we agree with God’s wrath against us, feeling that in our hearts; the just man always accuses himself.)

This thinking, however, led Luther to a deeper fear of God rather than greater love for him, thus setting up a vicious cycle of fear, resentment, and despair, which led to anger and a hatred of God. What was missing was the gospel as God’s kind Word of promise.

Luther felt compelled to turn to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, particularly to wrestle with the phrase “the righteousness of God”: “The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16–17 and Hab. 2:4). Luther’s first understanding of the verse was that the gospel merely confirmed the dreaded juridical interpretation of “God’s righteousness” as demand—a revelation of the punitive righteousness of God, God’s means of further tormenting men who are already fearfully burdened with original sin and the Ten Commandments. Still, he would not let go of the passage. He struggled and raged against the demands of a God who kept demanding that which man cannot give and then damns him for not giving it!

Then the breakthrough came. God by the Holy Spirit finally cracked open the passage to Luther’s understanding. In my paraphrase: “The one who gives up on his or her supposed, but really icky ‘righteousness,’ who shifts instead to trusting only in the Messiah’s righteousness freely given or imputed to him, that sinner will live.” Gratuitously (freely) that sinner is forgiven all of his sin, reconciled to God, adopted into the family of God as his child and heir, and given eternal life. “Being turned away from” obsession with our “icky” righteousness to Jesus Christ’s (genuine but “alien”) righteousness as the only hope we have is, what Paul calls, “faith.” (Think of the old King James translation of the verse in Jeremiah: “Turn Thou me and I shall be turned.”) So we get no credit for saving

faith whatsoever. Like Peter’s confession as to who Jesus was, it is a gift to us from heaven: “Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.” As a result, the sinner is made alive to God and begins to walk in his way.

THE GOSPEL BREAKTHROUGH In grasping the meaning of “justification,” Luther saw that the heart of the gospel has to do not with what God demands but with what he gives to man in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here Luther leaned heavily on St. Paul. The “righteousness of God” that saves sinners is not an active one (something man does), but is rather entirely passive. A man is not righteous because of what he achieves, but because of what Jesus Christ did for him in his death and resurrection. Man simply trusts God at his Word and hopes in the inscripturated promise of God. He trusts that God in Christ has completely accepted him while he was still a sinner, has forgiven his sin, instantly judged the sinner as completely acquitted, and given him eternal life—and all this based solely on what Christ has done outside of him and for him, not “in him.”

For the first time in his life, Luther discovered what “peace” meant. It was not some self-induced tranquility of mind or even a profound resting secure in an ancient and hallowed tradition, but rather a childlike trust in God’s own promises in Scripture, in texts that spoke of God’s saving action in Jesus Christ. It rested not on personal vision or ecstasy, a miracle, or on the adjustment of Luther’s personality to the tensions he experienced. Finally, the gospel is not about man at all (except in the sense of the God-man, Jesus Christ); it is not about merit or effort, but about Jesus’ struggle with wrath and judgment, and with Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the devil. This is what drove Luther’s hammer.

Rod Rosenbladt is professor of theology at Concordia University in Irvine, California, an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and a cohost on the White Horse Inn radio program. He has contributed to several books, including Christianity for the Tough Minded, The Agony of Deceit, and Christ the Lord.

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Short Term, Long Term: Youth Discipleship in Albania

by MARIE NOTCHEVA

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T H E O T H E R N I G H T, I C A L L E D M Y S I X T H GRADE SON FROM WORK TO CHECK UP ON H I M . “ U M , A C T U A L LY I ’ M C H A T T I N G O N S K Y P E R I G H T N O W, ” H E C O N F E S S E D , “ W I T H O N E O F YOUR ALBANIAN FRIENDS, MARKO.”

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nowing fifteen-year-old Marko, I realized he was probably witnessing to my son. Nevertheless, maternal concern won out: “Miro, it’s midnight in Albania. Marko has school tomorrow. Tell him I said to get offline and go to sleep.” While such exchanges in my home are commonplace, just a few years ago they would have been unthinkable. It has only been in the past three to five years that most homes in Albania have Internet connection, partly due to the growing popularity of online games and social networking sites. Today, electronic media is also greatly increasing the longterm impact of short-term missions.

While most in the West are familiar with Albania’s recent history as an isolated, atheistic state, fewer are aware of the country’s early ties to the gospel. Romans 15:19 records Paul’s preaching ministry in Illyricum, and Byzantium established Christianity as the official religion until the fourteenth century. Five centuries under Turkish rule left the vast majority Muslim, yet Albanians generally have never associated national identity with an “official” faith as do their Balkan neighbors. “In some ways,” notes one American missionary, “this makes evangelism easier.” Nominal Muslim teens ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT HILLMAN

freely share Christian music links on Facebook— unlikely in a truly Islamic nation.

The Protestant movement began while Albania was still under the Ottoman Empire, during a period historians refer to as “The Balkan Reformation.” In 1890, Gjersaim Qiriazi, considered the father of Protestantism in Albania, began his evangelistic ministry and founded a school and church in Korce. In 1892, the Evangelical Brotherhood began, with the primary purpose of spreading the gospel and developing literature in the Albanian language. But Protestantism was driven deep underground, even after Albania’s liberation from Turkey in 1912. Missionaries were expelled during the Fascist occupation of World War II, after which the Enver Hoxha regime (1944–85) plunged Albania into a dark period of religious repression and isolation from the rest of the world. Then, in 1991, Western missionaries of every stripe began flooding the country.

BIBLE CAMP BALKAN- STYLE Paul Davies, director of Albania Evangelical Mission (AEM), a UK-based ministry formed in MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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1986, says there are relatively few conservative or Reformed congregations in Albania. His team’s Gjirokaster church plant has close and supportive relationships with two churches (in Tepelene and Delvine) formed by Dutch Reformed missionaries. During their summer camp program, teens from several towns spend a week improving their English, hearing the gospel, and having fun—under the leadership of Albanian and AEM ministry and a team of short-term volunteers. Staff lead small group discussions on real-world topics designed to introduce biblical truth. Evening programs include gospel presentations and films on Reformation heroes such as Luther and Tyndale. Recreation leaves ample time for interested teens to pursue private conversations with the staff (although impromptu folk dancing is also not uncommon!).

Camp director Shaun Thompson, who has served in Albania for twenty-one years, notes that cultural differences demand a different approach to evangelism and discipleship: “I have seen missionaries try to do Bible camp here just like they would at home (in the U.S. or the U.K.), and it doesn’t work.”

Few in Albania own Bibles or are familiar with Christian terminology.

For many, camp is their first exposure to the gospel, and some respond with the same enthusiasm they show on the volleyball court. Eight months after conversion, seventeen-year-old “Dritan” was working his way through the Reformation Study Bible. “It’s a huge book,” he said. The AEM team, along with Albanian pastors, teaches year round at their weekly English club, but many campers are unable to attend due either to geographic reasons or parental disapproval. Their only follow-up comes via electronic media, often by staying in touch with short-term missionaries.

“TEACH ME TO PRAY!” When “Alma” turns eighteen, she has a goal: to read the Bible. Several weeks after attending camp, she begged, “Would you teach me to pray? I really want to belong to Jesus.…I want to believe, and I will!”

Following an explanation of the person and work of Christ, she made a profession of faith—via Facebook chat. Like many Albanians of their generation, her parents disapprove of religion; anything that could interfere with studying and a lucrative career

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path can often be seen as a distraction, says AEM missionary James Clarke. Forbidden to attend church or read a Bible, Alma’s only source of edification comes via phone and online. “My parents can stop me from going to church, but they can’t stop me from believing,” she types. She reads Scriptures from her phone—thanks to Biblegateway.com’s online Albanian translation.

Her friend “Arjeta” tells a similar story. A week at camp left her with questions, but with the help of a Facebook friend and a multilingual apologetics website, she learned about the gospel of grace. Two days later, Arjeta declared that Christ was now her Lord; but barred from Christian activities, she is now growing in faith through semiweekly Bible lessons online with a pastor in Wales. She says, When I first told my parents, they strongly disagreed with me. But Jesus was calling me from the bottom of my heart, inside me, so I kept believing in Him without letting them know. One day I wanted to go to church and also take Bible lessons. They behaved so badly with me; I tried to explain what I felt, but they were afraid.…I asked if I could take a Bible home at least, but they denied that, too. I try to read the Bible online but I have to do it carefully.

“The Internet age is definitely facilitating evangelism and discipleship,” says Besiana Rajta, an Albanian Christian worker. “Keeping in touch with people from short-term mission trips has influenced me and helped me grow in my faith.” In November 2011, her ministry completed an online interactive quiz for students. Although there are still not many online resources available in Albanian, most teens are fluent in English. Sermon transcripts and podcasts can be downloaded within minutes, although personal conversations benefit students more than simply being sent a website link. Nevertheless, when teaching from behind a computer, I appreciate being able to send the applicable verses in Albanian with just a few keystrokes.

Missionary Jennifer Thompson tells of an Albanian woman who text-messaged Scriptures to neighbors: “One man (a non-church attender) told her he really appreciated it—he felt very encouraged and challenged.”

Marko was also drawn to the Lord at summer camp several years ago. At fifteen, he has never

“MY PARENTS CAN STOP ME FROM GOING TO CHURCH, BUT THEY CAN’T STOP ME FROM BELIEVING.” been outside of Albania, but he and his friend Xhoi remain close friends with the teenage missionaries who brought the gospel to their predominantly Muslim town. For these Christian youth, Skype and social networking sites provide fellowship and a global perspective. His friend Tea agrees, noting that there are few Christians in their community and even fewer in their school. Living for Christ is “difficult, but not impossible,” she says. “I’m just glad that God chose me.” Their group takes evangelism seriously. “Our pastor got permission for us to visit a hospital and share the gospel with patients,” she said. She was surprised to learn from online friends that such an activity would be highly unlikely in the United States.

THE LIMITATIONS OF “ONLINE DIS CIPLESHIP” Using electronic media for teaching and discipleship is convenient, but there are some drawbacks.

Relationships cannot develop naturally, since interaction is usually limited to small talk and answering specific doctrinal questions. Even when using a webcam, body language and tone are hard to read.

When personal problems arise in a youth’s life, cultural differences and the limited amount of data one can gather make specific counsel extremely difficult—explaining the broad biblical principles that apply to the situation, in the simplest terms possible, is advisable.

For short-termers returning home, the temptation to assume too much too quickly exists; for

young truth-seekers, it might be to tell these new friends what they think they want to hear. Clarke warns that in Albania “if you ask someone, ‘Do you trust in Christ?’ ‘Are you a believer?’ or ‘Are you following Christ?’ they might just say ‘Of course I am’ even though they don’t have the slightest idea what these terms really mean.” Thoroughly explaining key doctrines is crucial. Just because a teen may have attended a picnic with Reformed ministers or spent a week at camp does not mean he is regenerate.

The most important lesson of “online discipleship” for short-term missionaries is keeping in close contact with the local church staff. Those on the field have already built close relationships with the teens and their parents, and are best able to gauge what kind of interaction is appropriate.

The biblical model for teaching and discipleship is through the local church. When a teen’s contact with ministry personnel is curtailed, however, an online connection may be his only source of encouragement. Local ministry leaders and correspondents abroad can work symbiotically by keeping one another updated on the youth’s progress, struggles, and significant developments.

Short-term missions are impacting lives like never before, and nowhere is this more apparent than in rural Albania. An entire generation has been born, grown up, and become techno-savvy since the end of the Hoxha/Alia regime in 1991. Although it is no replacement for face-to-face contact, discipleship and conversation via the Internet is one way to help new believers grow spiritually after a one-week mission ends. Arjeta now writes, “I keep believing and praying each night. In Jesus I found true love. He loved me before I was born. He never lets me down.”

For more information about Albanian Evangelical Mission, visit www.aemission.org.

Marie Notcheva (BA, print journalism, Syracuse University) is a writer and biblical counselor in Massachusetts. She served at AEM’s summer camp in Bunec, Albania, for a week in 2011 and returned this year to the teenagers she loves so much. She is the author of Redeemed from the Pit: Biblical Repentance and Restoration from the Bondage of Eating Disorders (Calvary Press, 2011).

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the

CHURCH

after the

PARACHURCH

by MICHAEL S. HORTON

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The 2007 Pixar movie WALL-E is set in a ruined Earth of the future. As the planet has become an uninhabitable trash heap from human excess, many Earthlings drift randomly through space on a massive spaceship created by an entrepreneurial mogul. Lifelong tourists, the ship’s passengers enjoy daily shopping, entertainment, meals, and snacks. Slurping their Big Gulps from a straw, they watch their favorite television shows while chatting with friends via video conferencing. And, having lost the ability to walk, they do all of this from their floating lounges.

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his scenario may seem almost as farfetched as the application I will make of it. For many Christians, the great mainline churches have become like the uninhabitable Earth. Whatever is left of the gospel seems often to lie buried beneath heaps of ecclesiastical waste. By contrast, this evangelical starship seems to be thriving with activity, offering a seemingly infinite variety of personal choices and activities from its panoply of cruise directors. In my version of WALL-E, I will name the seemingly dead Earth “Ecclesia” and the spaceship Paraclesia.

In The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Markers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World (Eerdmans, 2008), David F. Wells observes that parachurch ministries are increasingly replacing the church itself (see pages 10–12 and 209–225).

However, in American evangelicalism, the “parachurching ” (and ultimately “unchurching ”) of American Protestants has a fairly long tale.

PARACHURCH Greek for “alongside,” para gets itself attached to all sorts of things, good and bad: paramilitary, paralegal, paranormal. At its best, everything “para” is not quite the thing itself; its role is to come alongside, like a tugboat leading the real ship out to sea through the harbor. Parachurch organizations can be traced ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES STEINBERG

back to the monastic communities and movements that sought either physical isolation from the world (including a worldly church) or renewal of both.

When a fair number of people deemed the church to be less faithful in fulfilling its mission, a new order would emerge. Before long, it took its place on the broader ecclesiastical map, receiving official sanction as a support network for various missions and emphases. In many cases, new orders were founded out of concern that the others had somehow failed.

When some in the thirteenth century thought that their order had drifted from the mission of their founder, Francis of Assisi, they broke away to start a new one: the Spiritual Franciscans.

Looking back, a lot can be said for these renewal movements. It was mostly in the monasteries where the light in the much-caricatured “Dark Ages” was kept aflame. Many of the Protestant Reformers had been monks, or at least on that path, in Augustinian, Cistercian, Dominican, and Franciscan orders. This was true also of Anabaptist groups, who were in one sense less radical ( justification by faith never quite caught on and many rejected it sharply), and in another sense more so (they separated from the institutional church and the world in isolated communities).

Yet one of the striking differences about the Reformation was that it was not just another monastic renewal movement. It did not leave behind a new order; in fact, it had no intention of creating a new MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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church or starting a new organization or “ministry.”

Rather, the whole purpose was to reform the church itself. There is something selfish about jumping ship, as it were, still belonging officially to the church but building your own “shining city” beyond its borders. Furthermore, the Reformation was not just another attempt to renew piety in the face of the church’s worldly corruptions—rather, it went to the heart of the doctrine.

Though arising within Lutheran and Reformed bodies, original Pietism did not advocate separating from host churches as Anabaptists did. In the context of churches that were often compromised by their alliance with the state, Pietists typically formed “conventicles” or “holy clubs” where the truly committed gained access to a “church-withina-church.” Here the living kernel of genuine believers could be found (the invisible church) within the supposedly dead husk of the regular churchgoers (the visible church). A Pietist may still have attended public services, but the real action of Spirit-filled devotion happened outside the bounds of the ordinary means of grace.

Henceforth, Protestantism had its own “monasticism”: a network of parachurch organizations that increasingly assumed some of the official responsibilities that Christ delivered to his church.

Pietism, too, did much good. It contributed significantly to the modern missionary movement and founded a vast network of benevolent institutions: orphanages, hospitals, poor houses, and schools.

It also built Bible societies and a host of voluntary organizations for social and political causes to improve the lot of their neighbors. When it came to core doctrinal convictions related to how sinners are reconciled to God, many of these leaders were still Lutheran or Calvinistic. They were also convinced, however, that evangelical faith leads to good works: both a disciplined life of personal godliness, and a concern to relieve human suffering.

How can one profess faith in Christ and approve of, much less participate in, systematic oppression such as slavery and the exploitation of children in the sweatshops of rising industrialization?

MADE IN AMERICA A haven for religious experimentation, American Protestantism became shaped less by the distinct

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“THE NEW TESTAMENT SPEAKS OF THE CHURCH AS THE PLACE WHERE CHRIST HAS PROMISED TO DELIVER HIMSELF TO SINNERS THROUGH HIS MEANS OF GRACE.” confessions of each denomination than by the “evangelical essentials” (basically, the Reformation solas plus Pietism). Cofounders of Methodism, George Whitefield and John Wesley, disagreed bitterly over Calvinism and Arminianism. Yet both drew fire from established Anglican and Presbyterian clerics for undermining the regular ministry wherever they went, drawing away followers who preferred extraordinary excitements (revivals).

Before long, American Protestantism was defined more by parachurch associations than by the distinctive confessions, worship, discipline, and order of various churches. The church became secondary to the parachurch. The Sunday School movement gradually replaced the teaching of the catechism in many Lutheran and Reformed churches. With the Second Great Awakening, revivalists divided over slavery but were united in their effort to reform the morals of American society. The vast network of parachurch agencies was now far more powerful in gaining the interest and allegiance of church members than were the churches.

The New Testament speaks of the church as the place where Christ has promised to deliver himself to sinners through his means of grace, as well as the people who are united to Christ and scattered into the world as salt and light. Evangelicals (following their Pietist heritage), however, usually assume

that “the church’s mission” has little to do with the visible church; “the church” is primarily the people doing good, rather than the place where the Triune God is doing good to sinners.

Given this history, I’m somewhat ambivalent about parachurch organizations, including White Horse Inn radio and Modern Reformation magazine. Wearing my church hat, I wonder sometimes if reformation in the churches is furthered or undermined by putting zealous and thoughtful reformers to work in parachurch efforts. What would happen if all of the energies of Reformation-minded organizations were employed entirely within the ordinary ministry of Word and Sacrament? Would there be so many competing programs vying for attention— and finances—if all of our spiritual nurture came from churches alone? Parachurch organizations always justify their existence by the failure of the church to do its job. Youth ministries were formed because many young people weren’t allegedly “connecting” with the regular ministry of the church, and a host of evangelistic ministries mushroomed out of concern that the church was not really reaching the lost. But how might the landscape have been improved if churches encouraged zealous reformers, and the latter were satisfied doing their work as ministers and elders?

That is where I cheer up about the value of some parachurch work. We have never justified the existence of White Horse Inn and Modern Reformation as alternatives to the church. On the contrary, for over two decades we have emphasized that everything we do is oriented toward helping Christians find churches where they can be recipients of God’s good gifts and reformers of their churches in healthy and humble ways. We even refuse the label “ministry,” reserving that hallowed noun for the church. What I hear regularly are comments like this from believers: “By knowing better what I believe and why, I now know what questions I need to ask in joining a church”; “I was vague in my beliefs and commitments, but I ‘get’ the gospel in a richer way and now I’m an elder, helping others discover these truths.” I hear pastors relate moving stories of their being transformed by these truths and changing the whole focus of their ministry.

I do think there is still a place—an important place—for parachurch efforts. For example, while “making disciples” and “teaching everything ”

are part of the Great Commission, I don’t believe that churches have any New Testament mandate for operating secondary schools or publishing houses. Although they are called to care for the temporal needs of the sheep, the diaconate has no commission to establish hospitals. Christians are free to form associations for loving and serving their neighbors, which can be avenues for voluntary activity that may or may not be specifically Christian. There are organizations like these that definitely come alongside the churches in helpful ways—even drawing together Christians from different traditions. Many activities that serve the church’s official mandate do not have to be done by churches themselves, and may in fact weigh churches down with details that are peripheral to its distinct mission.

But where does one draw the line? I draw it at that point where parachurch efforts arrogate to themselves specific elements of the Great Commission that are entrusted to the church. For example, when a parachurch organization says that its mission is to make disciples, to baptize, or to teach authoritatively in Christ’s name, it is usurping Christ’s organized reign of grace through his church. All of us who are involved in parachurch organizations need to ask ourselves periodically whether such efforts truly come alongside actual churches, or draw away disciples after themselves.

My problem is not that the ship Paraclesia exists, but that it has become the home rather than the periodical gathering place for people who belong to different churches. “Ecclesia” is not a dead planet.

For all of its weeds, it is this field that Christ has purchased and in which he has planted his wheat that even now is growing into a worldwide harvest.

And it is to this real world that we must return for our own life as well as our corporate witness. For all her failures, the church is the mother of the faithful, and only under her care can we flourish as part of the new creation that Christ has inaugurated by his resurrection from the dead. There is life in the real church, however devastated the landscape may be.

There are fertile valleys and rivers. Her pools are not a mirage but are fountains where the dead are raised and the thirsty drink to their heart’s content.

Michael S. Horton is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism

BY KEVIN BAUDER, R. ALBERT MOHLER JR., JOHN G. STACKHOUSE JR., AND ROGER E. OLSON EDITED BY ANDREW DAVID NASELLI AND COLLIN HANSEN Zondervan, 2011 224 pages (paperback), $16.99

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vangelicals take their name from the koine Greek word euangelion, translated into English as “good news” and also known as “the evangel.” It is from the evangel or gospel that evangelicals derive their identity. In the past fifty or so years, cracks have appeared in the definition of what it means to be an evangelical, which is why The Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism was written to help its readers understand “evangelicalism’s diverse spectrum” (216).

Kevin Bauder, the first contributor, is a “fundamentalist” who believes that evangelicalism should be defined by minimal and maximal Christian fellowship. Minimal Christian fellowship is based on the fundamentals of the faith. Maximal Christian fellowship focuses on the fact that while Christians are united by the Word of God and can fel fellowship with other Christians on a minimal level, they must “limit their cooperation” on other levels and separate “from Christian leaders who will not separate from apostates” (37, 40).

Albert Mohler, the second contributor, argues that evangelicalism should be “confessional,” because it can be defined as a “coherent movement only if it is also known for what it is not, because these boundaries help one to be clear about what the gospel is and is not” (95–96). This will help Christians avoid divisiveness over issues secondary to the gospel. Reformed or Presbyterian

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readers may wonder why a Reformed or Presbyterian theologian wasn’t asked to articulate the “confessional” view of evangelicalism. As a Southern Baptist, Dr. Mohler adheres to the confession of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention, namely, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.

In order to teach at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, professors have to adhere to the "Abstract of Principles,” a document written in 1858

by John A. Broadus, James Petigru Boyce, and Basil Manly, Jr. "The Abstract of Principles" is based on the Second London Confession, which is a Baptist revision of the Westminster Confession.

Mohler’s confessional view of evangelicalism may not satisfy Presbyterians entirely, but his position is representative of a growing number of Calvinistic Baptists who want to recover a more vigorous theology for the evangelical movement.

The third contributor is John Stackhouse whose chapter is on “generic evangelicalism.”

He states that evangelicalism cannot be defined, because “the definition of authentic and healthy Christian is in inherently contestable” (141).

The final contributor, Roger Olson, argues for what some call “ big tent evangelicalism,” because he sees the movement as having “no definable boundaries” (163).

While each view attempts to provide support for its respective positions, I was prompted to consider the importance of “Calvinism” to what it means to be evangelical. The Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield once asserted that evangelicalism “stands or falls with Calvinism” (quoted in Arthur C. Custance, The Sovereignty of Grace [Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1979], 83–84).

By evangelicalism, he meant the term as used during the Protestant Reformation: a church founded on the gospel, the good news of salvation

through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The “Calvinism” in view referred to the insistence on justification by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone. Evangelicalism stands for the gospel, and Calvinism stands for grace. Warfield was pointing out what every Christian should and must believe: the gospel stands or falls by grace.

Warfield recognized that “the gospel” is not really the gospel unless it is a gospel of grace, which means the gospel is only good news if it announces what God has done to save sinners. If that is true, then the gospel of grace stands or falls with the doctrines of grace.

Turning to additional sources, the most helpful way to think through what it means to be an evangelical is to understand the theological categories of catholic, evangelical, and Reformed. In For Calvinism (Zondervan, 2011), Michael Horton points out that “there is only the Christian faith, which is founded on the teachings of the prophets and apostles, with Jesus Christ as its cornerstone” (25).

First, “all Christians are catholic—that is, a living expression of Christ’s visible church that affirms the ecumenical creeds on the basis of Scripture” (27). Second, evangelicals are those who “believe, confess, and spread the good news of God’s saving

work in Jesus Christ” (27). Finally, the keys of the Reformation are Scripture alone (sola scriptura), salvation by grace alone (sola gratia) in Christ alone (solo Christo), through faith alone (sola fide). Consequently, all of the glory goes to God alone (soli Deo gloria). “Every distinctive feature of Reformed theology or Calvinism is aimed at clarifying and defending this evangelical core of Christianity, with the goal of reconciling sinners to God in Christ for true worship of the triune God” (28). This is what led Dr. Thomas Nettles to claim that “the purest and most consistent expression of evangelicalism resides within the halls of Calvinism.”

Regardless of how one views the evangelical movement, Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism will help its readers think through which version of evangelicalism they relate to: fundamentalism, baptistic confessionalism, generic evangelicalism, or postconservative evangelicalism. This debate is not trivial, nor is it merely academic. As all evangelicals will give an account for how we respond to the evangel, we need to heed Paul’s teaching in Philippians 1:27: “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

Dave Jenkins is a pastoral intern at Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Nampa, Idaho. He is also director of Servants of Grace Minis-

“BY EVANGELICALISM, WARFIELD MEANT THE TERM AS USED DURING THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION: A CHURCH FOUNDED ON THE GOSPEL, THE GOOD NEWS OF SALVATION THROUGH THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS.”

tries, a resource serving the local and global church (www.servantsofgrace.org).

Developing a Healthy Prayer Life: 31 Meditations on Communing with God

BY JAMES W. BEEKE AND JOEL R. BEEKE Reformation Heritage Books, 2011 99 pages (paperback), $10.00

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here are many favorite prayer books people like to recommend, such as the following: Matthew Henry in A Method for Prayer models for us how to use the Scriptures in prayer; B. M. Palmer in Theology of Prayer sets the theological foundations for prayer in an unprecedented manner; Austin Phelps in The Still Hour unfolds the psychological and internal struggles we face in prayer; and John Owen (in various works) addresses the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer.

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BOOK REVIEWS

What makes Developing a Healthy Prayer Life stand out is that it presents all of the above in one small volume, which is truly a remarkable accomplishment. Divided into thirty-one chapters of three pages each, it is designed to be read in one month—which is helpful for those who do not have much time for reading. Our congregation is currently using this book for short meditations in conjunction with our midweek prayer meeting.

It is rare to find a book that is simultaneously clear, simple, concise, and substantive on such a vital topic. It is a unique work that will profit your soul greatly and that you will want to pass on to others.

Ryan M. McGraw is pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Conway, South Carolina.

Galatians

BY J. V. FESKO Tolle Lege Press, 2012 214 pages (hard cover), $22.95

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t was a distinct pleasure to read John Fesko’s contribution to a body of new commentaries in Tolle Lege Press’s Lectio Continua series. The introduction reminds the reader that “the greatest need of the church today is the recovery of sound biblical preaching that faithfully explains and applies the text, courageously confronts sin, and boldly trumpets forth the sovereign majesty, Law, and promises of God” (xv).

Fesko’s commentary is aimed precisely at accomplishing these goals.

The commentary is divided into twenty-two chapters, each dealing with a specific pericope in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. The author’s

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introduction is brief but provides a good outline of the book. It also provides the reader with a helpful timeline, which is taken from the book of Acts. From there, Fesko launches into his explanation of this important New Testament letter.

As I read, I observed a helpful balance of exposition and footnote references. The sources cited were solid scholars, and yet the footnotes were not overly scholarly, making the commentary accessible to pastor and layperson alike. It should be noted that Fes Fesko uses footnotes sparingly, which gives him ample op opportunity to explain the text within its context.

In addition, the com mentary is interspersed with timely, contemporary ecclesiastical events. For example, at the outset where Fesko comments on Paul regarding the exclu exclusivity of the gospel, he cites Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, who was asked, “Is belief in Jesus the only way to heaven?” Her response was sad but not sur surprising: “We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine.

But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.”

Such a reference allows the pastor to draw a contemporary illustration about liberalism in Christianity, or what I like to call the New Religious Left. Schori’s explanation does not mention faith, only practicing the Christian tradition— whatever that means. Moreover, Scripture teaches explicitly that Jesus is more than a “vehicle to the divine.” Clearly, the bishop wants to open the door of salvation to those in different faiths who preach a “different gospel.” Like some in the Galatian church of Paul’s day, many in our own day

shy away from Paul’s anathema in order to posit a “kinder, gentler, more tolerant” Christianity.

Fesko’s style flows and is easy to read, which enhances his commentary and makes it a pleasure to study. He makes ample use of both Old and New Testament texts to support his comments throughout. The reader is engaged by pertinent questions such as what is the message of the gospel (25)? Having already written a good book on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, Fesko uses his knowledge on that subject to write on what Galatians clearly teaches concerning this essential biblical truth, yet he does so in a way that makes the biblical concept easily understood.

Fesko also briefly explores some important topics that are controver controversial in present-day discussions about covenant theology and the uses of the law. For example, he is convinced that the Mosaic covenant was a republication of the covenant of works. When dealing with Galatians 3:19–22 (why the law?), he comments that “God gave the law at Sinai indirectly,, through mediators, through angels and through Moses, specifically to the nation of Israel, and he did this 430 years after he made the promise to Abraham” (72). In his view then, this means that “the Mosaic covenant was revocable, mediated through angels and Moses, and powerless to save” (73).

In a review this short, it is impossible to touch on all the chapters and comments. Let me just say that as a pastor I found the commentary helpful, containing insights I will definitely use in sermon preparation.

Dr. Ron Gleason is senior pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Yorba Linda, California.

The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories

BY DAVID BENTLEY HART Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2012 176 pages (paperback), $25.00

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o someone for whom the twentieth-century philosophers Martin Heidegger and Jean-Luc Marion are unknown gods, reading D. B. Hart can be a bit daunting. My mother called it the intellectual equivalent of riding a seatless mountain bike. Convinced as I am that there is every bit as much pleasure as there is pain in the travail through Hart’s body of work (I make no such claim for the mountain-bike analogy), it is incumbent upon me to offer a helpful hint for the novice embarking on reading his work. fore Hart is first and foremost an aesthete. In his estimation, the greatest commit crimes are those committed against art; ugliness and sin are (in his Platonic coter mind) categorically coterpro minous. For Hart, the profundity and gravitas of his en subjects merit and are enhanced by the most elegant and particular language. dis His work may appear diste jointedly grandiose and tedious, but it does serve his in narrative and artistic end. Reading Hart is labor intensive to be sure, but a little mental gymnastics every now and then is good for us. (Consider the reali people who refuse to engage in them, such as reality-television personalities, and persevere!)

The Devil and Pierre Gernet is Hart’s first published collection of short stories, though “stories” is a rather misleading term. In the “Author’s Apologia,” he confesses that they more appropriately fall within the category of “fiction of ideas” rather than “ripping good yarns.” His intention isn’t to write a resounding affirmation of the human experience, but rather to explore some of our common philosophical/theological ideas and examine the MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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BOOK REVIEWS

emotions and senses that inform the experiences that shape them.

“The Devil and Pierre Gernet” is the longest and most entertaining of the stories: a demon recounts to his human companion the romantic history and poetry of a French fin de siècle writer named Pierre Gernet as an example of one who almost attained (what the demon considers to be) a full realization of his humanity. “The House of Apollo” is historical fiction involving the young Roman Emperor Julian, who arrives in Antioch for the feast of Apollo to find the temple deserted. Antioch has become a cradle of “the Galilean superstition,” and the Greeks have forsaken their patron (and his moral imperatives) for Christ and his gospel. The remaining hierophant of the temple has been assured of the futility of continued worship by the visions he’s received of the gods’ natural recession into eternity because of the incarnation of the one true God. “A Voice from the Emerald World” is a collection of a father’s poignant reminiscences of his dead child, born from his solitary reflections in the garden where they played and from conversations with his detested colleague (a Dominican friar) on the fate of unbaptized children. “The Ivory Gate” is an exposition of the nature of dreams, told through the voice of a dying man who has never married, for love of the woman who has constantly visited him in his dreams since his youth. “The Other” is the story of a sophisticated, learned dilettante yearning for companionship.

Although the stories bear no connection to one another, they are united in their singular beauty of depth and expression, the unparalleled elegance of Hart’s prose, and their crystallization

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of some of the most poignant emotions born from the protagonists’ confrontations with life’s most difficult questions. What does it mean to be “alive”? If the moral imperatives of natural religion are universal in their affirmations and rejections, is the fate of their arbiters universal as well? How does one reconcile the beneficence of God (who will not spare his own Son for his people) with his justice, which will not permit the ubiquitous stain of rebellion in Adam’s sons (even the smallest and most defenseless) in his presence? What is the nature of the world to which we are called—are our dreams its minor intrusions, the flashes of dawn’s rays into the ever-darkening twilight?

How can sensual experience continue to hold such sway over us when our yearning for intimate communion with kindred souls is ever present and its satiation never fully achieved?

For Hart, the primacy of these questions demands an elegance of style and preci precision of expression that is both exhilarating and infuriating (I was one-third of the way through the book before I caved in and bought the dictionary.com app for my iPhone). His prose is sui generis, incomparable in its beauty and un unparalleled in form and diction. His characters (except the father in “A Voice from the Emerald World”) are not likable, smacking of arrogant intellectual pretension and making gods of their bellies. But their experiences resound with our own, and we may be inclined to greater empathy as we see how even the most sublime philosophers are (in a very loose sense) speechless before the great mysteries of human life.

Brooke Mintun (BA, University of California San Diego) is Social Media Director for Modern Reformation.

GEEK S QUAD

T H E L O ST A RT O F C O N V E R S AT I O N

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by SHANE ROSENTHAL

ccording to Mortimer Adler, “Of all things that human beings do, conversing with one another is the most characteristically human.” Unfortunately, the art of conversation has fallen on hard times in our day. Virtual conversations abound— we watch talking heads on television or listen to people debate the issues of the day on talk radio— but how often do any of us really get the chance to converse with other human beings about the truly significant things pertaining to life and eternity? Too often, when we do have the opportunity for actual face-to-face interaction, we steer away from controversial subjects such as politics and religion, since we know those exchanges are likely to produce more heat than light. And as a result, small talk rules the day.

When important issues are addressed by today’s media professionals, they are usually presented in brief segments, often with commercial interruptions. Advocates of various positions are chosen to make the segments more compelling and the more fireworks the more entertaining! This is why guests often talk (and sometimes shout) over one another, and why it is rare to observe a participant actually listening. In order to get in his or her point, a talking head on radio or television will frequently sidestep by responding, “Well, that’s not the important question. The real issue is...”

Whether we realize it or not, we have all been mentored and catechized by the “conversation surrogates” we regularly observe in today’s media. So when issues do eventually come up with friends or relatives, we raise our voices, ridicule

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the opposing side, offer caricatures, and lob bombs.

And if we’re honest with ourselves, we might even admit that we never really give much thought to the points that we try to get across, but simply parrot the prepackaged ideas we heard from our favorite media personality that week. The result of all this is that not only have we lost the art of conversation, but as a culture it appears we are actively sowing the seeds for its complete obliteration.

How are we to recover this lost art? The first thing to consider is caritas. You may disagree with your opponent, you may even be in the right, but your opponent is a human being created in the image of God, and he is more valuable than the sum total of his ideas (good or bad). Caritas is the Latin word for love, charity, or benevolence. This charitable posture (on each side) provides the necessary coolant that keeps the conversation’s engine from overheating. Along with caritas, we also need humilitas. Are you willing to be a learner, or do you just want to get your talking points in? Humility is an essential ingredient for good listening.

It’s a posture that says, “I will submit myself to be taught.” You may or may not agree with a position once you’ve learned it, but adopting this posture often helps to keep you from building straw-men caricatures and false assumptions. Clarity rather than unity is your chief concern. Agreement can come only once all the issues and hidden assumptions have been brought out into the open.

Another idea to consider is the trivium. Used primarily in the world of classical education, this word refers to the three stages of learning: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Since you have already

committed yourself to a posture of caritas et humilitas, you are now willing to be taught things from your opponent’s perspective. First, since words are the conveyors of ideas, you need to pay special attention to the basic grammar and vocabulary being presented to you. Second, if you have really listened, questions will naturally follow. This is the logic stage. Finally, once the issue has been clarified by careful listening and questions, you should then consider the implications and formulate a thoughtful response (the rhetoric stage).

Aristotle argued that there are three essential ingredients of effective rhetoric: logos, pathos, and ethos. The substance of your argument is the logos.

It’s a thesis statement such as “Christ is risen,” along with the logic of the words used to back up that claim.

Pathos is the passion and emotion you put into the words. In other words, it’s not what you say, but how you say it. You might have the facts on your side, but if you find yourself talking in a monotone voice like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you’re probably not being persuasive. Ethos has to do with your

own character. Are you a trustworthy person? Do you have an agenda, a history of lying, or a penchant for spinning the truth? Do you use ad hominem attacks?

Have you been willing to humbly accept correction?

If you have proven yourself to be untrustworthy in these areas or others, even if the facts are on your side, and you speak with the perfect amount of passion for the occasion, you will most likely fail to persuade your opponent who has learned to keep his guard up whenever you speak. This is why Aristotle argued that ethos was “almost as important” as logos.

When people no longer talk with one another about the really important things in life, when they cease to truly listen and engage with alternative points of view in a spirit of graciousness and humility, then they will begin to act like beasts.

What is to become of man? What is the fate of civil society? Discuss.

Shane Rosenthal is executive producer of the White Horse Inn national radio broadcast.

SUFFERING FROM COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN? TRY THESE CLASSICAL REMEDIES.

CARITAS Be kind: Don’t throw bombs or ridicule the other side.

HUMILITAS Listen with humility: Be willing to learn.

TRIVIUM The Three Stages of Learning Applied to the Art of Conversation

ARISTOTLE’S RULES OF PERSUASION

1. Grammar: What is the person saying?

Think carefully about the meaning of the words and ideas being presented to you.

2. Logic: What are the implications of these words and ideas? Do they make sense? Why should you believe them?

Are there better alternatives?

3. Rhetoric: After thinking through the logic of a particular position, formulate a clear and thoughtful response.

1. Logos: The words and ideas of your argument. Questions to ask: Is my argument valid? Am I presenting it clearly and concisely?

2. Pathos: The level of emotion you include with your words. Questions to ask: Am I speaking with conviction? Am I boring my audience?

3. Ethos: The character of the speaker.

Questions to ask: Am I a trustworthy person? How can I assure my audience I should be trusted on this issue?

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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B A C K PA G E

P R AY I N G FO R T H E PERSECUTED CHURCH “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

(Heb. 13:3)

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lthough we should always remember our persecuted brethren around the world, many Christians will be specifically praying on Sunday, November 11—the International Day of Prayer for the

Persecuted Church (IDOP). Not only should we pray, but we can also be advocates through letters to appropriate government officials. To get involved either personally or through your church, IDOP packets are available through www.persecutedchurch.org, as well as a comprehensive list of organizations actively serving the persecuted church. Open Doors lists the following fifty countries on their “Watch List” (www.worldwatchlist.us). Please pray!

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North Korea Afghanistan Saudi Arabia Somalia Iran Maldives Uzbekistan Yemen Iraq Pakistan Eritrea

12. Laos 13. Northern Nigeria 14. Mauritania 15. Egypt 16. Sudan 17. Bhutan 18. Turkmenistan 19. Vietnam 20. Chechnya 21. China

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Qatar Algeria Comoros Azerbaijan Libya Oman Brunei Morocco Kuwait Turkey India

33. Burma (Myanmar) 34. Tajikistan 35. Tunisia 36. Syria 37. United Arab Emirates 38. Ethiopia 39. Djibouti 40. Jordan 41. Cuba

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT PERSECUTEDCHURCH.ORG

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42. Belarus 43. Indonesia 44. Palestinian Territories 45. Kazakhstan 46. Bahrain 47. Colombia 48. Kyrgyzstan 49. Bangladesh 50. Malaysia

RADIO, O O,

ANYTIME DID YOU KNOW THAT WHITE HORSE INN RADIO ARCHIVES ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE? RECENT TOPICS INCLUDE: Understanding Islam (Parts 1 & 2), Grace Liberates, Worship in Spirit and Truth Listen for free at your convenience. Comment, ask questions, and share the link with others.

TO LISTEN TO DAY, VISIT W H ITEH ORSE I N N.ORG/ARCHI VE .