Private Property

November 4, 2019 - Monday after Trinity 20

The earth is the LORD’S, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters (Psalm 24:1-2).

The ownership of private property is an important concept to Americans. It might even be argued that they concept of private property ownership is fundamental to the development of Western Civilization. Property, and the money and currency we have developed to help us keep and dispose of our property, represents our time and effort, our work. A certain school of economists are fond of describing money as “frozen work”. We trade our time and effort doing a job and we receive money in compensation. We can then trade that money for other property we need or want, property some other person owned or created. God is the author of the idea of private property ownership; He commands us through Moses not to steal. In order to steal something from someone else, that other person must first have a legitimate claim on that property. He may have produced it, or he has the power to dispose of it as he wishes. To steal is to deprive the property owner, then, of a piece of their time; of something they gave up a portion of their time either making, or working to get money so that they could buy.

Socialism, what the dictionary calls the transition phase between capitalism and communism (though Karl Marx used the terms “socialism” and “communism” interchangeably),[1] subverts private property ownership. Indeed, it must. The goal of socialism is the collective, or governmental, control of the means of production. The means of production is just a fancy way of saying factories - the way “property” is produced. In this system, the State (the government, the “collective”) would decide what things were produced, how many of these things were produced, who has access to those things, and how those things could be used. As Marx wrote, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

This isn’t intended to be a lecture on economics. It is, however, important to understand, at least broadly, these two ideas of capitalism and socialism, and their relationship to the concept of private property. In real capitalism, individuals, through their voluntary interactions and commerce with each other in the market, decide what property is produced, how, and to what degree; in a socialist system, the government does all that. The economy is centrally planned. 

Why the economics lesson? It is important to understand that God created the world. It is His property. He may dispose of it as He likes. As the psalmist writes, “The earth is the LORD’s and all it’s fullness.” The “fullness” would be us. We are also His creatures, whom He made out of the dust of the earth, into which He breathed the breath of life. We confess the creation in the words of the Venite:

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth, the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.[2]

This means He can dispose of us and this world as He sees fit, since it is His property which He, through His Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ Created:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.[3]

If this is not true, then God does not own us. If God and the creation are the fairy stories that modern atheists say they are, no one owns us or the world, which means that we own ourselves. It means that the things we have learned called Christian morality, do unto others as you would have others do unto you, is not a divine creation given to us, an absolute moral system written on our hearts by God, but rather a creation of man. If morality is not absolute, not created by God, but relative to man, then there is no reason, except a personal desire to submit to it, or compulsion by a stronger human force. Right and wrong, rather than being concrete and unchangeable things, become abstract ideas, relative to the dominant culture. Every culture dictates their own “right”, the one that is appropriate for them. Different cultures, with different ideas of “right” might come into conflict, but the stronger will prevail, and whatever is synthesized out of the clash of those two opposing ideas is “right”. 

Modern atheists, living in the afterglow of Christendom, where Christian values are still widely known and kept, even by people who are not Christians, think they like this idea. They like the idea of owning themselves. It means that they don’t have to answer to anyone except themselves, which is quite convenient, since they are in charge of making up all the rules now. In an interview, comedian Stephen Fry was asked what he would say to God if he were called before God’s judgement seat in order to get into heaven. He answered that he would turn the judgement back on God. To Mr. Fry, God was the one who was sinful and immoral:

“I’ll say: bone cancer in children, what’s that about? How dare you create a world where there is such misery that’s not our fault? It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid god who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain? The god who created this universe, if he created this universe, is quite clearly a maniac, an utter maniac, totally selfish. We have to spend our lives on our knees thanking him. What kind of god would do that? Yes, the world is very splendid, but it also has in it insects whose life cycle is to burrow into the eyes of children and make them blind...I wouldn’t want to [get into heaven]. I wouldn’t want to get in on his terms. They are wrong.”[4]

There is a lot to digest in Mr. Fry’s statement, and not at all entirely unreasonable questions to raise. 

Of course, the fact of the matter is that Mr. Fry does not believe that there can be a God, because of the existence of evil. We get into trouble when we assume that the misery isn’t our fault. In reality, God, sin, death, and the state of the universe do not have their existence based on whether or not we humans approve of them. God does not cease to exist because we selfish people, who worship ourselves, don’t understand Him, and subsequently reject Him, much as a petulant child doesn’t understand that the doctor who wants to vaccinate him is working for the child’s good. The doctor doesn’t disappear because the child hates him and, in the end, the child gets the shot.

Or, to put it another way, just because we don’t like what God says or does, how He disposes of His property, doesn’t change anything. It isn’t as though we get let out of the judgement because we don’t like the rules. When Job asked similar questions of God, God showed up in a whirlwind and answered Him:

Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.[5]

Job’s response, his speechlessness and subsequent repentance, is the reality of what will come of any man standing before the Almighty God.

I suspect it is for this reason atheism and evolutionary theory go together so well. It takes away ownership of the earth and it’s fullness from the Creator, and gives it to the creation. More importantly, it removes any obligation for man to abide by God’s morality - Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind...You shall love your neighbor as yourself - and allows man to make up his own. But we all know this is nonsense. Creation itself bears witness to it’s creator; God’s law, written on our hearts bears witness to the fact that we are evil, fallen and sinful creatures. 

There is also another way in which God has claim of ownership over the earth and all it’s fullness: through Jesus, God in human flesh, second person of the Holy Trinity, Redeemer of the world. Jesus bought back the property that He created, after it had been stolen from Him. Adam and Eve plunged mankind, and all of creation, into sin by their disobedience to God, and their selfish desire to become like Him. The entire creation was put under the curse, now utterly corrupted, and subject to sin, death, and Satan, who was responsible for introducing sin into the world. But God knew that, before it’s foundation, He would redeem the world through the blood of Jesus. God promised Adam and Eve that they would be redeemed, and that Satan’s head would be crushed by the woman’s offspring, even as He sent them out of the earthly paradise. He spent hundreds and hundreds of years preparing and gathering to Himself a people, whom He would set apart from all the other peoples of the earth, through whom this offspring - this Seed - would one day come. He gave them peculiar civil laws and religious worship, so that they would be reminded of the Seed to come, and keep them set apart from the rest of the world; He hammered into their collective heads just what kind of a God He was, as C. S. Lewis wrote:

Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process. Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time.[6]

Jesus, God in human flesh, took on human nature and lived the sinless life that it was impossible for man to live. Born of the Virgin Mary, born sinless, He was born under the Law. And He kept the Law perfectly, as mankind could not do. Then, He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, as the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice to take away the sins of the world. He was executed as a criminal and a blasphemer in our place, taking the punishment the world deserved, according to the scriptures. He rose again from the dead on the third day, again, as written in the scriptures. He is the propitiation for our sins, the ransom for many. And He will come again with glory, to judge the quick and the dead, and to take possession of His creation as King, once and for all; He will remake it, purging it of sin and death forever. 

It makes no difference if we like this or not. In fact, we don’t like it, none of us. He has to prepare us. He sends His servants, pastors, into the world to preach His Word; they call people to repentance for their sins, and announce to them the forgiveness Christ has won for them on the cross. He connects us to His death and His resurrection in Holy Baptism, where He saves us and washes away our sin. He feeds us with His very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, nourishing, sustaining, and increasing our faith, so that no matter what misery and injustice we must endure while we live in this fallen creation, it will be for our good. Even the ultimate evil, death, will ultimately be for our good, if we are in Christ. The worst thing that the devil can do to us is kill our bodies. But Jesus tells us not to fear the one who can kill the body, but rather the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell - God Almighty. So, even though we may not understand or like the things that happen to us in this life, we strive to live according to the new creation, His own possession, that He has made us in our Baptism; we love the Lord with all our hearts and we love our neighbors as ourselves, showing our faith by our works. And when we sin, we repent, knowing that we have been baptized into Christ, and that He died for the forgiveness of our sin, and rose for our justification. He also gives us gifts to possess. His death and His resurrection are ours. His life is our life. Because He lives, we shall live. In this world there is trouble and injustice. Christ has overcome the world. He is the ultimate justice.

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1. “Socialism: Definition of Socialism by Lexico.” Lexico Dictionaries | English. Lexico Dictionaries. Accessed November 12, 2019. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/socialism.

2. Lutheran Intersynodical Hymnal Committee, and Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. 1941. The Lutheran hymnal: authorized by the synods constituting the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America. Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House.

3. Colossians 1:15-18

4. Independent Staff. “Stephen Fry 'Blasphemy': Comedian's Remarks about God That Prompted Police Investigation in Full.” The Independent, May 7, 2017. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/stephen-fry-blasphemy-god-ireland-police-investigation-quotes-in-full-a7722256.html.

5. Job 40:2

6. Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity (version alt.binaries.e-book 2002), 1953. https://www.dacc.edu/assets/pdfs/PCM/merechristianitylewis.pdf.

The Name of Jesus Forbidden

Icon of the Resurrection

June 18, 2019 - Tuesday after Trinity 

Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand... Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it... So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done (Acts 4:1-4, 13-14, 18-21).

Read Acts 4 here.

The Sadducees were offended that the Apostles were teaching the resurrection of the dead. They were the ones whom Jesus silenced, along with the Pharisees and the Scribes, the account of which is recorded in Matthew 22. The Sadducees come up with this ridiculous illustration of a married man who dies, leaving his wife to be married to his succession of brothers. The brothers also die, each leaving the woman a widow. They ask the sarcastic question,

“Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”[1]

The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection, and may have even denied the immortality of the soul; unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees only accepted the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, known as the Books of Moses) as authoritative scripture.[2] Matthew records Jesus silencing the Sadducees saying,

“You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”[3]

In arguing with Jesus about the resurrection, the Sadducees treat it as an absurd idea. Jesus, using scripture only from the Torah, interestingly enough, asserts the resurrection as a fact: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. He quotes Moses, an authority the Sadducees recognize, to make the point that,

Though at Moses’ time the patriarchs were long dead, God identifies Himself as being their God. Only living people can have a God; therefore, if He is their God, they are alive, their souls are with Him, and their bodies will be raised.[4]

We live in the same world Peter and John lived in. We like to think ours is different and better than theirs, but it isn’t. In terms of hostility to the Gospel, things remain the same. We do not have the Sadducees to mock the resurrection, but there are plenty of others who are just as triggered by any such preaching, and forbid the name of Jesus. 

We tend to think that the ancients were less intelligent than we modern folk; if we are being charitable, we might say they were limited in their understanding of the natural world. The word primitive comes to mind. Our modern life certainly looks different from the life of the 1^st Century Roman Empire; I like my air conditioning and my internet, and don’t want to trade them for life in that society. But modern technology, while it makes life more comfortable and convenient, does not change the nature of man. The Sadducees rejected the resurrection because they didn’t believe the scriptures; they rejected Christ, just like people who are faithless and resist the Holy Spirit today. Peter and John weren’t preaching the resurrection because they had a primitive understanding of science, or were superstitious, or were uneducated. They proclaimed Christ crucified and risen from the dead because they saw Him alive after He died on the cross. They knew it to be true. They knew it was true for them, and for the whole world, that Jesus paid the ransom for sin, and in Christ they would have forgiveness and eternal life. No amount of ridicule, persecution, no threat of beatings, imprisonment, or death by the most horrific means, could dissuade them from making disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching all that Jesus commanded.

That is precisely what happened. The Apostles were all murdered for their faith, with the exception of John, who suffered imprisonment and exile. This is a profound piece of information that strengthens the credibility of Christianity. The fact that a person who believes a religion may be willing to die for that religion doesn’t prove that that religion is true. There are plenty of Muslims who are willing to seek out death for Islam. The Apostles, however, were either first-hand witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, or perpetrators of the biggest hoax in history. I have not met the man who was willing to die for something he knew to be a lie. If the Apostles had stolen Jesus’ body and made up the resurrection, that would be them. Men have been willing to die for causes and ideas in which they believed that were later discredited, like National Socialism, or which way the toilet paper should be put on the roll (the proper way is over the front, as this link will decisively prove once and for all). I have never heard of a man who was willing to submit to a gruesome death by torture for a claim they knew to be false, rather than to renounce it and live.

The Apostles went joyfully to their beheadings, crucifixions, stoning, and burnings. They were tortured and fed to wild animals for the entertainment of the pagan masses. To avoid it, all they had to do was say they were lying, that they made it all up. Sure, they would be ridiculed and ostracized, but if this life is all that there is, wouldn’t that be preferable to a painful death? But they couldn’t deny Jesus. They saw Him, the one who lives, and was dead, and is alive forevermore, the one who has the keys of death and the grave, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.[5] Jesus had conquered sin and death, and promised them eternal life. In the grand scheme of things, for the sake of eternity in a new and perfect creation without sin or death, with a new and perfect body, living in relation to God as man was intended, what is a little bodily suffering here in this veil of tears?

This is the faith created in the Apostles through the Word, by the working of the Holy Spirit. It is the same faith that lives in us by the same means. We look forward to the same things they looked forward to. They saw and believed. We have heard their account, attested to by their signs and wonders, and believed: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”[6]

The world is sorely grieved

Whenever it is slighted

Or when its hollow fame

And honor have been blighted.

Christ, Thy reproach I bear

Long as it pleaseth Thee;

I’m honored by my Lord - What is the world to me![7]

The world with wanton pride

Exalts its sinful pleasures

And for them foolishly

Gives up the heavenly treasures.

Let others love the world

With all its vanity;

I love the Lord, my God - What is the world to me![8]

---

[1] Matthew 22:28

[2] Harrison, Everett F, Geoffrey W Bromiley, and Carl F Henry,. Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1990.

[3] Matthew 22:29-32

[4] Engelbrecht, Rev. Edward A., ed. The Lutheran Study Bible. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009.

[5] Revelation 1:18, 8

[6] John 20:29

[7] Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. The Lutheran Hymnal. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941. Hymn #430, stz. 5

[8] Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. The Lutheran Hymnal. Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941. Hymn #430, stz. 6

He is Risen!

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:1-15).

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Matthew tells us that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to Jesus’ tomb after the Sabbath. They went to finish their work of caring for Jesus’ body, which they had cut short because of the Sabbath. To their surprise, there is an earthquake, and an angel descends from heaven. He rolls away the stone from the tomb. The guards stationed there by Pilate to satisfy the Jews were terrified, as were the women, not doubt. The angel tells the women not to be afraid; Jesus is risen. This is the Gospel. There is no need to be afraid of sin, death, and the devil anymore. Jesus has defeated them once and for all. The proof is in His resurrection. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.[1]

St. Paul calls Jesus the first fruits: But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep... For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.[2] The resurrection is our ultimate goal. We have been united together in the likeness of Christ’s death through our baptism; we are also united together to His resurrection. Christ Himself promises, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”[3] The unbelieving world scoffs at such a notion. How can the dead come back to life? Because science and their own personal experience tells them that it is impossible, the world rejects the testimony of the Apostles, and denies that even Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection, however, is the most important part of Christianity. Without it, Christianity is just another man-made philosophy, with an invented set of moral rules, designed to make ourselves feel better, despite the fact that we know something is very seriously wrong with us. It becomes for us a wax nose to twist into any shape we wish, to justify whatever deviant, sinful desires we want to do.

But Jesus’ resurrection is no fairy tale; it isn’t some kind of metaphor for some man-defined “good” overcoming “evil”. It is a fact of history. He appeared alive to hundreds of people. A great crowd saw Him ascend into heaven. If the disciples had invented Jesus’ resurrection, would they be eager to proclaim Christ as God and man, crucified and risen, even on pain of torture and death? Would Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, the great persecutor of the Church, reject the religion of his people, the Jews, and endure a life of hardship, persecution, and finally a gruesome death, for something he knew to be false? Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity:

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up - if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable.[4]

But our hope in Christ isn’t merely for this world. It is also for the world to come. Because He lives, we will live also.[5] He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead: For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.[6] Then those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. We will then be free from sin, free from death, free from all mourning and sorrow. All tears shall be wiped away. With a perfect resurrection body, like that of Our Lord, we will live with Him forever in the new creation.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

---

[1] Romans 4:25

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:20, 22

[3] John 11:25-26

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

[5] John 14:19

[6] 1 Thessalonians 4:16

We are not wrong, but we should apologize...

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed (1 Peter 3:14-16).

Another new year, another new article telling the Church to abandon God’s Word. We shouldn’t be surprised. We have been told that, rather than getting better and better, things would get worse and worse for the Christian Church. I’m not sure what Mark Wingfield, author of “3 words for the church in 2019: ‘we were wrong’”[1] thinks he’s doing. One suspects he is trying to sound modern and enlightened in order to entice “young” people into the Church. Perhaps he just wants to show everyone how woke he is. One thing that is certain, no matter what he seems to say to the contrary, he does not believe that the Word of God is divinely inspired, inerrant, and efficacious; the means by which God creates faith and works forgiveness of sins.

Mr. Wingfield wants the Church to “admit we were wrong” about a host of things. Some of the issues he raises, such as protecting pedophiles, measuring the success of the Church by attendance numbers, and putting our trust in politics to fix all our problems, are legitimate, though there are some straw men lurking in his arguments about these things as well. (Youmay read the entire article here, and I encourage you to do so.) But, fundamentally, Mr. Wingfield’s argument about our wrongness and alleged misuse and idolatrous worship of the Bible are flawed. I don’t know this man personally, but in his article Mr. Wingfield seems to look at Scripture as something men have created to use as a tool to subjugate minority groups. It simply is not. Christianity teaches that Scripture is God-breathed.[2] It has a divine nature as well as a human nature, just as Our Lord Jesus does, who is the Word made flesh who dwelt among us.[3] So, I think Mr. Wingfield is pointed in the wrong direction. We don’t need to say that we were wrong. We do, however, need to apologize. We need to give a defense, as Peter writes in his first letter, of our hope. That hope is, in the words of the hymn, built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

We also need to repent. We must understand that we live in a fallen creation, and that we must contend with a corrupt nature; we must understand that all of the inclinations of our heart, because of that corrupt nature, are away from God and inward toward ourselves. The inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. We don’t make mistakes. We sin. We transgress God’s law. We miss the mark. We don’t love God with our whole heart, nor can we of our own will.

Sometimes our sin manifests itself in some of the ways Mr. Wingfield lists. We defy the authorities over us, we hurt and kill our neighbor, we misuse the gift of sex that God has given us, we steal, we slander our neighbor, and we jealously desire the things our neighbor has to the point that we scheme to get them. In short, we do not love our neighbors as ourselves. The call to us from God through His Word is to repentance.

Mr. Wingfield, however, says we are wrong about what God says sin is. He says that we have interpreted God’s Word to say things are sinful and evil which are not; he is saying that we have, because of our worship of the Bible rather than of Jesus Himself, held on to our outdated social standards and prejudices. Society has evolved upward away from the subjugation of women, the exploitation of people of different races, and the marginalization of people of different sexual orientations and gender identifications. Mr. Wingfield’s call, in the end, is not so much a call to renounce the devil, and all his works and ways, but for us to repent from believing that Scripture is the inerrant, infallible, efficacious word of God.

We are not the problem, God and His Word is the problem. And so are those people who believe what God has said. Rather than repenting of our sin and receiving forgiveness, his fix is for us to admit we were wrong about taking God’s Word seriously in it’s condemnation of sin! The second part in this bastardized confession and absolution is for us to redefine sin and reinterpret God’s Word through our current social and cultural context. What you get when you do that is a definition of sin that says anything that makes me feel bad or uncomfortable is wrong; anything that makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside is right.

Rather than expend a lot of unnecessary ink rebutting each mischaracterization in detail here, I thought it would be better to give a brief summary of how Scripture addresses the three points on which Mr. Wingfield and orthodox Christianity most profoundly diverge: Slavery and racism, the subjugation of women and misogyny, and the oppression of homosexuals.

Slavery and Racism

Mr. Wingfield says, “The church has been unable to confess America’s original sin – perhaps in part because it was a faith handed down without question from parents and grandparents…” One must wonder if he says this because he is taken in by black liberation theology[4], or if he is really just unfamiliar with slavery in the Bible.

The type of slavery described in the Bible is not the same type of slavery that a 21^st century American social justice warrior has in mind. It wasn’t pleasant, to be sure, but it did not have the same connotations as what we think of regarding slavery today. Each slave kept his divinity as a human being, as demonstrated in the Law of Moses.[5] It was a temporary institution, unless the slave wished to remain with his master after the seven year period of servitude. Lacking social welfare safety nets in antiquity, this type of slavery was a mechanism by which the poor could pay a debt to a creditor; a slave could also buy his freedom.[6] Again, it wasn’t necessarily pleasant; neither is bankruptcy.

This was much different from the type of slavery Americans think of when that word is used today. We think of the western slave trade, which I will refer to as American slavery. Slaves were property. They were exploited indefinitely by their owners for profit. American slavery, rather than being a type of indentured servitude[7], was racist. It was based on the idea that people with dark skin were inferior to those with light skin. It was ended only because of the efforts of Christian men and women, who worked tirelessly to that end in both the British Empire and the United States. In Britain it was legislated out of existence; in America, between 650,000 and 820,000 people had to die in a civil war end it.

Nowhere in Scripture is this type of racism condoned. God makes no racial distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Either we are slaves to sin, death, and the devil, or we are slaves to righteousness.[8] We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves;[9] race is not a mitigating factor, for all who have been baptized have clothed themselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.[10] Therefore, anyone who attempted, or attempts to justify racism and slavery by using Scripture is sinning by twisting it to say something it does not.

Women and Misogyny

Mr. Wingfield says that the Biblical evidence against women as co-equals is scant. He’s correct, but not in the way he means. Men and women were created by God as equals, counterparts designed by Him to compliment each other even as they serve as an illustration of the relationship that God has with His Church. He goes on to say, however, that the Church’s bias against women is strong. Scripture, however, nowhere advocates the sinful idea that women are essentially inferior to men. Scripture does give a very clear prohibition on women being pastors, i.e. publicly proclaiming the Word in the regular worship service:[11]

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant…And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.[12]

Paul gives this prohibition by the divine influence of the Holy Spirit, and for good reasons. From a cultural perspective, the women of Corinth were accustomed to female priestesses leading pagan worship. As there had been priestesses in the adulterous and idolatrous worship of the sex goddess it was quite natural for them to assume leadership roles in the Christian congregation.[13] From a theological perspective, however, the Holy Spirit leads the Apostle Paul to the creation, and the order established by God in it. In the Garden of Eden, when Eve spoke with the serpent, she took on a role for herself which God had not delegated to her. David Scaer writes:

Adam was given the command and promise and he was responsible for all “theological negotiations.” Thus the woman’s assuming the man’s role and his assenting to this incursion are part of the first sin.[14]

The problem is not that Scripture is vague regarding the status of women, or that there is some question of outdated cultural standards. That question of whether this was just a cultural taboo is easily and definitely answered for anyone willing to investigate the Greek used in the passages, and the surrounding context of the passages themselves. The problem is that we don’t like what Scripture tells us here: Men and women, while equal in terms of their humanity, serve in different roles within the Church. So, rather than repent of our sin, we attempt to cover it over with the fig leaves of social justice and liberal theology.

As for divorce, Jesus tells us that Moses allowed divorce and regulated it because the Israelites were hard-hearted.[15] Wives were not to be simply abandoned on a whim. There were rules to be followed, and responsibilities to be taken by the husband. As for Jesus, He gives us the divine guideline that what God has joined together, let no man tear apart;[16] Jesus tells us that the only legitimate ground for divorce is adultery.[17] Inside the marriage relationship spouses are called to mutual submission and respect; husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, and wives are called to respect and submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ.[18] That means that men should love their wives as they love their own selves, and should be willing to die for them, and wives should love, respect, and obey their husbands.

Homosexuality

Certainly Mr. Wingfield is correct when he says that the issue of sexual orientation/gender identity is the most divisive of our time. We must not, however, allow him to misdirect us. The issue in question is not whether we “expel faithful followers of Christ when they reveal who God has made them to be” or not. The issue is whether or not God calls homosexuality a sin, and what is the solution He gives us for it?

We don’t need to spend a lot of time here trying to prove that the Scriptures call homosexuality a sin (they do), or if that that categorization still apples to us today (itdoes). We need to refute the notion that the Church rejects homosexuals and excludes them simply because they are homosexual[19]. This is not the case. As with any sinful human being, regardless of what their particular sin might be, there is one criterion used to decide whether or not they are excluded (read excommunicated). That criterion is faith.  Or more specifically, faith in Christ showing itself, as the person bears fruit in keeping with repentance.

But how can you tell someone to repent (turn away from) who they are? This is crueler than simply kicking them out, is it not? I happen to agree with the author that homosexual desire, and perhaps other dysphorias, have a genetic component, though I would not say that God has “made them to be” that way. We are fallen and corrupt creatures living in a fallen and corrupt creation. We should not be surprised when our defectiveness manifests itself. While I do not know what it is like to be a homosexual, I do understand what it is like to feel overwhelming desire for a behavior which is sinful. Every person deals with this struggle, though we all have different sins.

We have been taught that homosexuals are just born that way and do not choose their lifestyle. Science may have even identified the gene responsible for same sex attraction.[20] But science also tells us that alcoholism is genetic. Yet society recognizes alcoholism as unnatural and destructive. We support groups with tax dollars and tax incentives whose entire purpose is to council alcoholics not to engage in such behavior. Is this cruel and bigoted? Is it alco-phobic? Should we not, applying the same standards to this as we do to homosexuality, encourage alcoholics in their lifestyle, since it is who God made them to be? And, before arguing that alcoholism is detrimental to mental and physical health and homosexuality is not, proponents of it’s acceptance would do well to consider the scientific data to the contrary.[21]

Just because people are sinful doesn’t mean society in general, but the Church in particular, should accept and celebrate sinful behavior. That isn’t being loving or inclusive. It is to reject Christ and to embrace the world. To accept a person into your midst as the Church while embracing and celebrating their sin, whatever that sin may be, is the opposite of love, though it may make people feel good in the short term. It is to withhold the means by which God creates faith in the hearts of men, and by which they receive the forgiveness Christ won for them by His death and resurrection – the efficacious Word of God. Without hearing the Law, they will not know their sin; without hearing the Gospel, they will not know what God has done for them, forgiving their sin, cleansing them by the blood of Christ. Alternately, those who hear the proclamation of Law and Gospel and reject it are excluded from the Church, not to harm or punish them, but to show them the magnitude of their situation and, hopefully, bring them to repentance. The congregation which embraces the impenitent sinner is not the Church.

What Mr. Wingfield is really calling for is abandoning an interpretation of Scripture which takes seriously the fact that it has both a human and divine nature. He is trading that for the more intellectual human-centric higher critical approach. He is also, perhaps without realizing it (though I suspect he does realize it), calling for gospel reductionism, a Christianity that says all you need is love.

The love of God is indeed what man needs. That love comes to us in the Word made flesh, Jesus. He won salvation for mankind by dying on the cross, and conquered death by rising from the grave. He comes to create faith in us by the power of His Spirit through the means of His Word, whether preached, read, or coupled with the physical elements of water, bread and wine in the sacraments. He calls us to repent of our sins, to turn away from them. A Christianity that tries to redefine sin out of existence and make God’s Law nothing more than some outdated customs which are no longer applicable because culture has evolved isn’t honest or sincere. It isn’t woke. It isn’t being loving, or socially conscious, or even doing anyone any good. It is simply a Christianity that no longer believes in God’s Word. That Christianity does not hold God’s Word sacred, no matter how much it gives lip service to the contrary. It is no Christianity at all.

If the Church is to be “relevant in its mission and agents of God’s reconciling love,” to quote Mr. Wingfield, the solution is not to be found in preaching social justice. The solution is to preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead. It was for the forgiveness of all our sins that He died, and it was for our justification that He rose from the dead. The solution is to repent, and believe the Gospel. The problem is, preaching Christ will not make us relevant; it will make the world hate us more. To all those who find themselves in such relevant church bodies, where the heretical social gospel masquerades as the Word of God, I am so sorry.

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[1] Wingfield, Mark. "3 Words for the Church in 2019: 'We Were Wrong' – Baptist News Global." Baptist News Global. January 04, 2019. Accessed January 10, 2019. https://baptistnews.com/article/3-words-for-the-church-in-2019-we-were-wrong/?fbclid=IwAR2Pb-2V78qBwnvPVrvWH0_GlNORjPFlne4AVuzgfhaTIKSBGy5-BKwXwXo#.XDcRoIpMHmr.

[2] 2 Timothy 3:16

[3] John 1:1-14

[4] "Black Theology." Wikipedia. September 30, 2018. Accessed January 10, 2019. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_theology. Black theology seeks to liberate non-white people from multiple forms of political, social, economic, and religious subjugation and views Christian theology as a theology of liberation—"a rational study of the being of God in the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the Gospel, which is Jesus Christ," writes James H. Cone, one of the original advocates of the perspective. Black theology mixes Christianity with questions of civil rights, particularly raised by the Black Power movement and the Black Consciousness Movement. Further, Black theology has led the way and contributed to the discussion, and conclusion, that all theology is contextual - even what is known as systematic theology.

[5] Klotz, Joseph. "The Hodgkins Lutheran." Slavery in the Bible. March 13, 2016. Accessed January 10, 2019. http://hodgkinslutheran.blogspot.com/2016/03/slavery-and-thin-blue-line.html. This section on slavery in the Bible is condensed from an earlier article which dealt with the topic in more detail.

[6] Ibid.

[7] An indentured servant was a person who signs and is bound by indentures to work for another for a specified time especially in return for payment of travel expenses and maintenance. "Indentured Servant." Merriam-Webster. Accessed January 10, 2019. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indenturedservant.

[8] Romans 6:15-23

[9] Mark 12:30-31

[10] Galatians 3:27-28

[11] Scaer, David P. "May Women Be Ordained as Pastors?" In Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, 227-52. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009.

[12] 1 Corinthians 14:33-38; 1 Timothy 2:12-14

[13] Scaer, David P. "May Women Be Ordained as Pastors?" In Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, 227-52. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Matthew 19:8

[16] Mark 10:9

[17] Matthew 19:7-9

[18] Ephesians 5:21-33

[19] Throughout the article I use the term “homosexual” to refer to everyone who identifies as some gender or sexual orientation, other than their biological sex. In popular culture today, this is most commonly referred to as LGBTQ, or more recently QUILTBAG. Since the acronym seems to constantly change, I have chosen to use the term homosexual as shorthand to standardize the language in this article; it is not intended as a sign of disrespect. I have tried, rather, to be as inoffensive as possible when speaking of people who are struggling with a particular sin, such as homosexuality. This task which becomes more precarious each day when discussing these topics, no matter what precautions one might take.

[20] Knapton, Sarah. "Being homosexual is only partly due to gay gene, research finds." 13 02 2014. The Telegraph. 12 06 2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10637532/Being-homosexual-is-only-partly-due-to-gay-gene-research-finds.html. A study found that, while gay men shared similar genetic make-up, it only accounted for 40 per cent of the chance of a man being homosexual. But scientists say it could still be possible to develop a test to find out if a baby was more likely to be gay (Knapton).

[21] It is increasingly acknowledged inside the LGBTQ community that there are strong indications of elevated risk of suicidal behavior in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and there is an increasing problem with domestic violence as well. Additionally, homosexuals of both genders, as well as bisexual men, are at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. LGBTQ activists tend to blame these problems on the facts that they are marginalized in society and discriminated against by the mainstream.

Haas, Ann P et al. “Suicide and suicide risk in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations: review and recommendations” Journal of homosexuality vol. 58,1 (2011): 10-51.

Shwayder, Maya. "A Same-Sex Domestic Violence Epidemic Is Silent." The Atlantic. November 05, 2013. Accessed January 10, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/a-same-sex-domestic-violence-epidemic-is-silent/281131/.

"Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2017." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. July 24, 2018. Accessed January 10, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats17/toc.htm.  A fact sheet summarizing the relevant data may be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/factsheets/std-trends-508.pdf.

Hodges, Mark. "Government: STD Rates among Homosexuals 'alarming,' 'troubling'." LifeSiteNews. November 23, 2015. Accessed January 10, 2019. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/government-std-rates-among-homosexuals-alarming-troubling. This article quotes the 2017 Centers for Disease Control report on sexually transmitted diseases previously cited.