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This is a very easy class to listen to. Just like you were discussing it with a friend:
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Thanks, Pastor Mark.
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Thanks to clipartbest.com, for the photo.
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Thank you, Pastor Mark!
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It’s connected to Chapter 10 in Paulson’s book.
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Filed under: Free will, Paulson's book | 2 Comments »
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We have to do something …don’t we?
I hear this on all manner of Christian radio stations and Christian blog sites and from Joe and Mary Christian that I encounter in daily life.
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Are they right?
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and Doggie Diner, for the photo.
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Filed under: "What must I do?", Free will, Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon | Leave a comment »
Pastor Mark’s first class of 2014 lays it out.
Sure, many won’t like it. What else is new?
But some of us love it!
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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Thanks also to flickr and ce_barbato, for the photo.
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Filed under: Baptism, Free will, Freedom, Our Lutheran Theology, Pastor Mark Anderson, Pastor's class, The Lord's Supper | 7 Comments »
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A portion of Pastor Mark’s class this past Sunday. He dealt with “free-will”, faith, and manipulating God to fit in with how “we do things”, down here.
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– – –17 min.
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…or the downloadable file:
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr, and zenitmanaic, for the photo.
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Filed under: Faith, Free will, Pastor Mark Anderson, Pastor's class, The Book of Hebrews | 4 Comments »
Pastor Mark teaches on the sacramentarian view, the sacramental view, and the symbolic view of Baptism.
“Free-will”, also enters into the class.
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We’ve put this one up before, but there are some new folks to the blog and this one should not be missed.
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Thanks again, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and St._Matts, for the photo.
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Are you ready for this one?
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It’ll take all of about 2 minutes to hear it. But the hard part (for many) will be realizing that it is true.
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audio clip
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and Mary Jo, for the photo.
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Filed under: Free will, Pastor Mark Anderson, The single biggest troublemaker in churches | 3 Comments »
from Pastor Mark Anderson’s Daily Devotional blog site
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…”who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
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The holy trinity of American evangelicalism were Moody, Finney and Sunday. You can Google them and learn more if you wish. These three were the original purveyors of mass revivalism, mass evangelism and “Big Box” tents, the forerunners of “Big Box” churches. The actual peak of this form of evangelism was in the decade prior to World war I. Well over a thousand itinerant evangelists plowed the country, while hundreds of others, in established communities, developed that unique American version of showmanship religion which made the ministries in neighborhood and country churches seem dull in comparison. Sheep stealing was rampant as these free-will purveyors railed against established churches and their meaningless sacraments. During the height of it’s lather, from about 1910 to 1913, church membership in America actually declined slightly. Go figure.
For many people, confrontational revivalism (the gospel at gunpoint, as one called it) is assumed to be the default way in which the church does evangelism. Give people a choice; heaven or hell, which will it be? Everyone must make a decision. First, accept Jesus as savior, then you must make Him Lord of your life. Salvation and this life are in some strange way unrelated, separated. Salvation becomes adherence to an ideology. The Christian life becomes a morality project, a striving after perfection.
What we have going on here, it seems to me, is the religious equivalent of a sales pitch for a consumer decision about a product, rather than the proclamation of the decision God has made about sinners. And it is no accident that what has characterized these ministries from the 19th century up to the present is a reliance on the end justifies the means. All that matters is closing the deal. No method or gimmick is too outrageous, provided we can bring people to the point of decision. Then, once the decision has been made, the job is to keep the whip of spiritual growth on their backs so that Jesus will really become their Lord.
But since when does the manipulation of a sales pitch play a part in the open and free proclamation of God’s grace? The only possible way to find any of this in the New testament is to ‘cherry pick’ verses and bend them out of all shape and context.
The New Testament witness does not separate the saving work of Christ, His will to save from His will to be Lord. His Lordship and salvation are inseparable because He is the one who has done the deciding and He is the one whose life now defines the life of the Christian and Christian community. The only will that is free to do any choosing where God is concerned is God’s will. For us to claim such freedom is not the key to salvation, it is blasphemy. For it is claiming something for ourselves that belongs to God alone.
Evangelism, therefore, is being brought by God’s grace – through Word and sacrament – to be with those whose great need is God’s concern. To trust God, to believe the Gospel, is not a consequence of my decision, it is the form God’s decision takes for me.
“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and O, for the photo.
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Filed under: Free will, Pastor Mark Anderson's blog | 2 Comments »
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Many do.
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If you do, there’s probably not a lot to sway you from that course. At least for the time being.
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But if you see yourself starting to despair a bit because you just can’t quite cut the mustard in keeping up with all that you should be doing, and or you are still doing those things that you know you shouldn’t be doing…or you are starting to notice (in your most honest moments and reflections) that you might be becoming a bit prideful, because you delude yourself into believing that you really aren’t doing so badly at all this ‘Christian progression/self-sanctification’ stuff….then maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
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If you’re in the latter category (see world’s 2nd longest sentence above) then this might mean something to you:
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Thanks, Pastor Mark.
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And thanks to flickr and chawayipiran, for the photo.
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Filed under: Free will, Freedom, Pastor Mark Anderson, Sacraments, Sermon | 3 Comments »
Here’s a clue:
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“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,…”
Colossians 2:13
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I can just see Jesus standing at the tomb of Lazarus hands folded and silent, surrounded by the weeping entourage as one of the exasperated, grieving sisters tugs at His sleeve;
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‘Jesus why don’t you do something?’
“I’m waiting’, He replies.
‘Waiting for what?’
‘I’m waiting for Lazarus to make a decision.’
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The trouble with Jesus was that He refused to play by the rules of conventional, religious wisdom. That wisdom stated that God rewards the good and punishes the sinner. But Jesus unsettled the conventional wisdom. He forgave people who by their obvious misconduct revealed themselves to be truly wicked. And, to add insult to injury, He blasted the good religious folks who by their obvious outward conduct appeared to be godly. With Jesus on the loose nobody knew what would happen next. Sort of like grace. Jesus spoke and acted as if He were actually in charge, as if He had the final authority over life and death.
That, of course, is our problem with God.
We too have a conventional religious wisdom. And that wisdom tells us that we have a free will that must choose God. God may be the Creator of the universe, the One who is beyond time and space, eternal and almighty, but where we are concerned, God stands with His hat in His hand waiting for us to decide.
We like this conventional, free-will view of God because it keeps us in the center of the action, where we can work on our variously defined programs of godliness and success, showing God how serious we. This is precisely what Jesus ran into among the religious of his own time. Claiming to be all about God, they were actually all about themselves, even if their intentions were good. That, in the final analysis, is what free will religion comes down to. It’s not about God, it’s about me. And the insistence on hanging on to even a little bit of freedom where God is concerned, reveals that the will has already made its decision. It has decided for the self, and that leads not to life, but death.
Jesus came to the grave of Lazarus to say something and to do something full of grace – free, unmerited grace. He came in His own time and on His own terms. And when He arrived He took control of the funeral. He commanded the grave to be opened and he called Lazarus out of the cold grip of death by a word.
Hanging on to the illusion of free will is about as useful as the dead hand of Lazarus clutching his burial shroud. So,that same Word of death-defeating grace and power must be spoken to you. God saves you by His grace. God chooses you.
In the absolution and your baptism, this same Jesus who was plunged into death, wades into death’s deep waters to find you – and does some free-will choosing of His own.
“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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From Pastor Mark Anderson’s Daily Devotional blog site.
Thank you, Pastor Mark.
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Filed under: Free will, Pastor Mark Anderson | 8 Comments »
The Old Adam Lives! 