Gadfly's Muse

The Objective Reality of a True Church: Part II The Role of Love

In Part I, I attempted to answer Steve's first question concerning how a "genuine" or "true" church is recognized.  In this post I will try to build on what I have said before and approach an answer to his second question.

If these criteria ("rightly preaching the Gospel, righly administering the Sacraments, and rightly exercising discipline" ), are the real criteria we should be looking at, why does the Scripture not state that more plainly?  .... we have the reality that Jesus gave the commandment to love.  .... John reiterates this in his first epistle very clearly.  Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 13 -- right in the context of a discussion about the purpose/role/function of the Body within the Body -- that love is the key element.  Likewise, when Paul says "Bear one another's burdens, for in so doing you fulfill the law of Christ", what law is he talking about?  I submit that it is the law to love.

The Objective Reality of a True Church: Part I

In an earlier comment on a previous post, Steve requests a more detailed defense of the position I had taken concerning how the "minimum" requirements for recognizing a "genuine" Church of Christ can be understood.
Steve says: What I would specifically like to see you talk about more deeply are the criteria that you propose (Gospel, sacraments, discipline) as they relate to the following questions:

1. You stated in your post (response to Mike Russell) that "love" was too subjective, and gave an example of how only 10% of the congregation may be loving in a true way.  But then you proposed the criteria I mentioned above by saying they a) stood the test of time, and b) are more objective.  How are they more objective?  What if only 10% of the congregation are taking communion with pure motives?

Paralyzed by Grace: Why Are We Not Being Transformed By The Gospel?

Cross posted at Theologica
In most churches we're not only saved by grace, we're paralyzed by it.  We're afraid to do anything that might be a "work."  The funny thing is we will preach to people for an hour that they can't do anything to be saved, and then sing to them for a half an hour trying to get them to do something.... People need to see that action is a receptacle for grace, not a substitute for it.  Grace is God acting in our lives to do things we can't do on our own.  Grace is not opposed to effort; it's opposed to earning."(Dallas Willard, Interview, Leadership Magazine, Summer 2005, pge 23)

Get's your attention doesn't it

Daryl Charles Reflecting on "Just War"

Cross posted at Theologica

J. Daryl Charles, Assoc. Professor of Ethics and Culture at Union University, is something more than an acquaintance although we have not kept in close contact over the years.  We have many things in common and many things on which we differ, but he is one of the few original thinkers I have met in my life.  He never fails to intrigue me with the almost casual manner in which he advances ideas that open up alternate vistas from which to view important questions.  As a true scholar he is more sympathetic to ideas from other traditions that I and that is both a strength and weakness in each of us.  I seriously seek to understand how people arrive at other differing view points from mine, but do so with the idea of analysis and rebuttal always hovering in the back ground.  Daryl seeks to discover new facets of truth and tends to be content with that.  I love interacting with him on just about any subject.

Daryl has a wonderful essay in the current Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society reflecting on the ethical framework Christians should adopt toward the idea of "war" in general and specifically whether there are any occasions in which pursuing war is a Christian imperative.

A Belated Post on the Reformation: A Primer on Justification, Righteousness and Salvation

I doubt that any one event was more important to the progress of Western Civilization than that of the Reformation.  Apart from the Reformation the bounding vitality which has characterized Western Europe and the United States would have been at least long delayed and possibly never born at all.

It was probably the Reformers' unyielding insistence upon with the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers that had the most extensive social impact.  For a thousand years the idea of rigid, hierarchical distinctions among men had held back the creative energy that exists in large portions of the social order. The Reformers broke through the chains of that thinking and many of the freedoms we enjoy today, between races, genders and social classes can be traced directly to the social revolution that came out of the Reformation.

Therefore - I will state, without any large reservations, that the Protestant Reformation was probably the most important event in the history of Western Civilization in the last 1500 years, and no single individual is more recognizably responsible for this great upheaval than Martin Luther.