Author: W. Keith Brenton

A Neglected Spiritual Discipline

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

I really like Pilgrim Heart by Darryl Tippens. If I haven’t mentioned it before, or you haven’t been able to gather that from the fact that Angi and I and some other folks wrote a Group Guide to it, let me just come right out and say it:

I really like Darryl Tippens’ Pilgrim Heart. It introduces the community aspects of the spiritual disciplines that other terrific works – like Richard Foster’s classic Celebration of Discipline only touch upon, concentrating on the vertical relationship between the individual and Creator.

Darryl’s 17-week study explores these disciplines:

  • Emptying
  • Welcoming (Hospitality)
  • Resting (a two-part study, because of our need for it and neglect of it)
  • Befriending
  • Confessing
  • Forgiving
  • Listening
  • Discerning
  • Singing
  • Creating
  • Feasting
  • Reading and Storytelling
  • Suffering
  • Seeking

I mean no criticism – in fact, look at how many of those disciplines are community-based! – but if I could add one more discipline and unbalance a perfectly wonderful 17-week, 1-quarter adult education study work …

… I would add “Giving.”

It is the back half of Thanksgiving, the spirit of which inspires this national day of rest, friendship, feasting and maybe four or five of the other disciplines bulleted above. (Including “suffering,” after that 5,000-7,000 calorie meal. But that’s a whole different kind of suffering!)

Let me just share a few scriptures without comment, and you decide if my suggestion would be a worthy addition:

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. – Matthew 5:42

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ~ Luke 6:38

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. – Matthew 6:2-4

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ~ Luke 12:33 (but you knew I’d include this one!)

Freely you have received, freely give. ~ Matthew 10:8b

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. ~ Matthew 10:42

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. ~ Matthew 23:23

I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. ~ Mark 9:41

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him. ~ Mark 12:17

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” ~ Luke 19:8

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. ~ Luke 14:33

To quote a blog comment I often see (and sometimes leave):

“Ouch!”

Hymnal for the 21st Century

/ W. Keith Brenton / 8 Comments

You know, some of our great old hymns just don’t connect with the children of this century. Or the past century. The “thee’s” and “thou’s” and “shalt’s” and especially the “shalt not’s” just aren’t easy to identify with for the new generation.

But even more off-putting than the outdated language are those insistent themes of dedication, self-sacrifice, and so forth.

So I’ve thought about updating some of those grand classic hymns – if not with more contemporary language – at least with a more realistic outlook. You know, titles like:

  • Living By Fate

  • Take My Life and Let it Alone

  • I Need Thee Every Week

  • It is Well With My Bankroll

  • Joyful, Joyful We Ignore Thee

  • Lord, I Want to Like You More

  • O Master, Let Me Balk With Thee

  • ‘Tis The Blessed Minute of Prayer

  • We’ll Wait ‘Til Jesus Comes

  • Let Jesus Bear The Cross Alone

    • and

  • Come Let Us Worship and Sit Down

I just think we’d all be more comfortable with some hymns like these.

Reader’s Digest Christianity

/ W. Keith Brenton / 6 Comments

I woke up with this phrase in my head this morning.

I Googled it this evening and found only one use of the phrase on the ‘Net, on a Baptist discussion board among the other five answers to the question “What does ‘ecumenical’ mean?” That answer was: “It seems the Ecumenical movement does in fact seek to merge all under one banner of agreement. But this is often done at the cost of watering down the true Gospel so that it is “acceptable” to all…I think of it as Reader’s Digest Christianity…” – from a poster signed “Keith M.”

But before I Googled it, the phrase rattled around in the head of this Keith all day, who came to a similar conclusion, pretty much unrelated to ecumenicism.

I realized that during a large portion of my life, I was satisfied with Reader’s Digest Christianity. Someone else had already read and studied all the hard stuff for me and boiled it down to a length and language that I could quickly and easily absorb without spending too much time or too many brain cells on it. I missed the nuances of the original work, but I didn’t know or care.

I went to church. I listened. I absorbed. I read a verse or two along with someone reciting it.

And that was all.

And I thought it was enough.

I didn’t try to dive more deeply into the Word. I didn’t try to comprehend the fulness of Christ. I didn’t try to draw closer to God through His Son.

I sat. I swallowed the pre-chewed, pre-digested pablum that some mothering birdly teacher or preacher had prepared for me and all the other flightless hatchlings in the nest with me.

it’s not a bad way to begin your new life after being freshly born again. But we’re talking twenty- thirty-sometimes-more years into my spiritual life, and I was still finding myself at times just squatting in the nest.

It sorta calls to mind how the writer to the Hebrews upbraided their immaturity:

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

And what “this” is that the writer had much to say about was how Christ prayed and was heard because of His reverent submission; how He learned obedience through suffering.

I still have a lot to learn about that “this.”

I won’t learn it by just hearing the Reader’s Digest version; by sitting in the pew; by waiting passively for mothering birdly teacher or preacher to drop it into my craw.

It’s time to fly.

The GraceFaithWorks Sandwich – A Second Bite

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

See previous post, The GraceFaithWorks Sandwich, if you like to take the second bite after the first. Long after!

I’m really not sure how to explain what I believe on the subject of salvation by grace, faith and/or works because I’m not sure that my language supports it. English is a very rational language, and speaks very easily of things logical and of things that are oppositional and therefore mutually exclusive because one is true and the other is false.

Maybe that’s because the cultures which speak it tend to think that way.

But the way scripture speaks on the subject puts the lie to salvation by grace through faith being totally oppositional to salvation through works.

My previous post, linked above, insists that it takes all three. That they are all integral to the process. That salvation is a process, rather than a one-time event. That faith without works is dead.

I alternate between two ways of looking at that perception:

  • That salvation is a binary thing: the here-and-now and the hereafter; what we do here-and-now is integral to our salvation in this life by giving us purpose and serving God and testifying daily to our faith; what Jesus has done on the cross and in exiting from the tomb is irreplaceable to our salvation in the next life.

  • That whatever a Christian does in this life is really not his or her own work, but God’s work through her or him. It is no longer we who live, but Christ in us. He created us for good works. We’re partners in the good works He does through us. He gives us the eyes to see them and the ears to hear of the need for them. He gives us the bodies, hands and feet to accomplish them. They become His hands, His feet. He gives us the energy and time with which to do them. He gives us His own example to show us how and why. He gives us His own Spirit to empower us to do those good works. If we don’t do them, we don’t really believe. If we know to do good and don’t do it, it’s sin to us. And if others judge our gospel by the way we live it or don’t, by whether we do it or not – why should God judge us any differently?

I don’t know which, if either way at looking at the subject is correct, or better, or even if they are mutually exclusive.

But I remain convinced that my old aphorism is still true: “Faith becomes fact when we act.”

No, not real fact; not fact that you can put in an encyclopedia. But functional fact. Something you believe so strongly that you act upon it as if it were true, every time, all the time.

Do you remember that great moment in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Indy has his instructions to cross a nearly-bottomless underground chasm on faith in order to reach the chamber where the holy grail resides? He steps out in the darkness, as instructed, unable to see the invisible stone bridge – camouflaged to look like the chasm! – until his foot rests on its solidity. Then, as he moves forward, his perspective changes; he can see it as clearly as can be.

Faith is still faith. It does not literally become fact.

But it does save us, like stone under our feet, to get us where we need to go in this life and the next.

If we’re willing to act on it.

Okay, that’s a big chunk to bite off and chew – expressed in as few words as I could write.

What do you think?

Next in this series: The GraceFaithWorks Sandwich – A Third Bite.

You May Not Believe This, But …

/ W. Keith Brenton / 14 Comments

… I just finished reading a book titled Behold the Pattern by Goebel Music night before last.

It’s not a book you’ll likely find advertised on the Web pages of New Wineskins, to be sure. It’s not a book you’d see on a recommended reading list on my blog, if I had such a list.

I wanted to read it because it espouses a point of view I find difficult to understand, and I thought it might help me understand that point of view better. I’ve tried a couple of times before, but kept getting bogged down in it. This time, I’ve completed reading it.

It was an eye-opener – when I wasn’t cringing.

I grew up attending at a church in Indianapolis that was considered liberal and lost by at least a couple of other congregations in the same fellowship, you see. I heard sermons about grace from the time I was old enough to pay attention. I also heard sermons about obedience there, and those sermons were one and the same. But grace was the complete gift of God, including the faith that was its catalyst and the works that channeled its power. It all balanced out.

In fact, I think that balance in what I heard was a strong factor in my decision to put on Christ at the tender age of nine – a time when Edmund Gwenn’s Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street might have observed that I was “too young to be guilty of much of anything.”

I find that balance to be something the author seeks to claim, if not to achieve, but cannot get over his own extremism and certainty of belief in order to do so. That he is an extraordinary Biblical scholar, I could never deny – but neither could I deny that his work is riddled with logical fallacies which arise from his predispositions. They call into question his judgment in other areas of the book which, in another work, would appear quite sound.

And I have no doubt that at least some of the “false prophets” he is eager to call out five chapters into the 660-page volume are guilty of some extremism in their views as well. It’s been my experience that when the pendulum has swung way too far in one direction, it often swings way too far in the opposite – and the folks that the author “marks” for their “uncertain sounds” are reacting to years of unyielding legalism.

Uncertainty is not something that characterizes the author. He is certain of every conclusion he has reached, no matter how tenuously rooted in scripture or the very nature of God, from the very title and concept of the book to each speaker or author he decries. Patternism, you see, is simply a way of creating a new term for the practice of regarding everything in scripture as law, (p. 627) requiring authority for every action a Christian might pursue, and weighing each possible action as intrinsically right or wrong, pleasing or displeasing to God (p. 358, p. 450).

On that same page, for example, he can confidently state that “The world is not divided over what the Bible says, but over what it does not say (cf. Exod. 3:1-3; John 8:1-11; John 3:1-3; 2 Cor. 12:7-10).” Though none of the scriptures he cites, for the life of me, can I in any way see as helping support his statement. People have always divided over what the Bible says as well as what it does not say. Citing a number of apparently unrelated scriptures is as common to this author as is not using one word where five or six synonyms will do.

Unity, he maintains, can only be achieved by “speaking the same thing” (p. 568) – but to those scriptures he cites you apparently must read in the words “about every possible question or issue.” And that becomes a problematical addition by the time you get to Romans 14 and there are issues man has raised that God doesn’t consider issues. The author simply doesn’t deal with it.

This is not a book in which you will often read of God’s love, mercy or kindness – except in transcriptions of “strange and uncertain” presentations derided by the author – but you will find a constant undertone of His righteousness, jealousy, wrath, displeasure, and justice. Few words are devoted to Christlikeness, devotion, spiritual growth, benevolence, sacrifice and day-to-day discipleship in the explicit decryption of scripture in this volume. There is a short chapter about grace (chapter 15, page 499), but it is a grace that is paired co-equally with law and the author’s logic differentiates between saving works and non-saving works. The next chapter explicitly puts women in their place (p. 516).

In it you will find the classic foundations of patternism: detailed descriptions of the gopher wood argument (p. 368), the Nadab and Abihu argument (p. 101), and the only authoritative hermeneutic (explicit statement, implicit statement, approved example, expediency – pp. 356-358).

I must credit the author with attempting to contact many of those with whom he disagrees before publishing his work … though not necessarily all; he maintains that Matthew 18:15-17 describes only private conflicts (p. 216), pending heavily on the presence of the words “against you,” which your footnote will tell you is not in all original manuscripts. At the same time, I am not sure that some of the methods of contact he endorses are especially effective. Is an invitation to a public debate – with the affirmative and negative positions already phrased to be accepted or rejected, but not revised (p. 335, 627) – the best way to approach someone with whom you disagree? I think not. Nor is sending them a questionnaire on doctrinal soundness (pp. 210-212). Nor is heavy sarcasm (p. 135, pp. 220-221, pp. 234-244) a gently persuasive tactic, in my opinion. (I would tempt sarcasm to point out that on page 447, the author maintains “I am in the pulpit of God, not to … (a long list of items, then) be a comedian” and one sentence later relates a preacher story with a mildly humorous punch line. Okay, now I’ve tempted sarcasm and fallen prey to it. So sue me.)

The fact that the author takes on Rubel Shelly in three different sections of the text indicates to me how deeply betrayed he must have felt at Shelly’s transition in belief.

Al Maxey has said that the author’s book never really does reveal the “pattern” – but I think you can deduce a pretty accurate picture of it from this passage from Behold the Pattern:

But I often have made this challenge, it is only in the New Testament church, the Church of Christ, that a person can believe and practice all these things at the same time. I know of no other group where you can believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, understand the complete difference in the Old and New Testaments (law, rules and regulations), worship in song without mechanical instruments of music, commune upon the first day of every week, practice baptism in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, an immersion into Christ for the remission of sins, be organized by the scriptural government as the New Testament has outlined, have the scriptural name for both the church and the members, having Christ as the only head (no earthly hierarchy or headquarters except in heaven), teaching the relation of the church to the world, being benevolent and evangelistic, etc., etc. As I said before, some may practice one, two or more, but only in The Church of The New Testament, The Church of Christ, can you believe and practice all of the pattern at the same time! (pp. 425-6)

The better side of my nature nudges me to try to contact the author with my observations, as Al has unsuccessfully attempted to do, but I suspect that anyone who publishes a book would naturally expect it to be reviewed from time to time. There was a time many years ago, you see, when he preached for the congregation I now attend. (The two copies I have are gifts from fellow members who respected his scholarship.) I mail a copy of my church’s weekly bulletin to him at the address on the inside back fly of the dust cover. At one point in the book, he fondly recalls a minister whose daughter I married. Despite all of our differences, I feel a kinship in Christ to this often-militant defender of the faith-as-he-sees-it.

And I do owe him a great debt of appreciation for helping me better understand a mindset that I did not often encounter in the environment that reared me. I respect the zeal for scripture and God’s pleasure that so many proponents of patternism display. I wish it found more productive avenues for expression than constructing arguments, denouncing opponents, attempting debates and insisting on its own way.

But the innate self-righteousness and compulsion to attack any dissenting view – both of which seem to accompany patternism in quantity – have the same effect on me as that moment in Miracle on 34th Street when Kris Kringle pops Mr. Shellhammer on the forehead with his cane, hard enough to raise a lump: I cringe. Assault is assault, whether physical or verbal; whether the assaulted is willing to listen first – or not.

The title of the book comes from an obscure passage, Joshua 22:28, in which the two-and-a-half tribes that were distant from the rest built an altar that was a replica of the one at the tabernacle, and it almost caused internecine war. This strikes me as sadly ironic, for the author of Behold the Pattern and those who share his view of scripture would almost certainly have to admit that God never authorized that altar.

Would He have authorized such a book and a way of viewing His Word which sees only His justice, but not His mercy?

Whom to Pray For?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

For someone else:

Job prays for God to forgive his friends; Abraham prays for Abimelech; his servant prays for a wife for Isaac; Isaac prays for Rebekah to have the baby she yearns for; Moses prays for relief from the plague of frogs upon Egypt; then for relief from the flies; from the hail and thunder; for relief from the fire raining down on Israel; from the snakes plaguing Israel; for God’s mercy on many occasions; for God’s mercy on the people generally; Manoah prays for guidance to rear Samson; Samuel prays for rain, for forgiveness on behalf of Israel; David prays against his enemies; and again; and again; and again; and again; and again; and again; and again; and again; and yet again; and for the peace of Jerusalem; Asaph prays for the restoration of the people; David prays thanksgiving on behalf of the people, and a blessing on Solomon to build God’s temple; Solomon prays a blessing on the temple and on Israel; a man of God prays against, then for, King Jereboam; Elijah prays for a sign that will turn Israel’s heart back to God; Elisha prays at the bedside of a dead child; Elisha prays for his servant’s eyes to see what he sees; then for blindness upon their adversaries; Hezekiah prays for deliverance for Israel; Isaiah prays for reassurance for Hezekiah; Hezekiah prays on behalf of the unconsecrated; priests and Levites pray a blessing on the people; Hezekiah and Isaiah pray for Israel’s deliverance from Sennacherib; and for the remnant which survives; for God’s forgiveness of them; Jeremiah prays against the enemies of Israel; and for the remnant; Daniel prays for God’s forgiveness on the remnant, confessing his sins and theirs; Micah prays for God to shepherd His people; Jesus teaches prayer for one’s enemies; prayer in secret; to pray for blessings physical and spiritual; He prays for little children; He prays for Simon Peter; and for His followers as His end draws near; the disciples pray for God to show them His choice; the apostles pray for seven chosen servants; Simon the magician asks the disciples to pray for God’s forgiveness of him; Peter prays for Tabitha to be restored to life; the church prays for Peter’s release from prison; Paul prays for all present to become followers of Christ; Peter prays for Publius’ father to be healed; Paul prays to be able to go to Rome; that the Israelites might be saved; asks those in Rome to pray for him; those in Corinth, too; predicts that others would pray for Corinth because of their generosity; he prays for the Corinthians to persevere; Paul prays for Ephesus; and again; and asks them to pray for him; he thanks God for the believers in Philippi; and thanks them for their prayers on his behalf; Paul prays for believers in Colossae; and begs their prayers for himself and others; for believers in Thessalonica; and again; and again; and again; and requests their prayers; and at the end of his second letter as well; Paul encourages Timothy to teach praying for others; and again; and prays for Timothy constantly; as well as Philemon; as Philemon has been praying for him; the writer to the Hebrews begs their prayers for him; James teaches prayer for others; and so does John, even for forgiveness for them.

For one’s self:

Jacob prays for deliverance from Esau; Samson prays for strength to avenge himself; Hannah prays for a child for herself (but dedicates him to the Lord); Hannah prays a song of thanksgiving; Samuel prays, presumably about Israel rejecting him as a leader; David prays a blessing on himself and his house; that Ahithophel’s counsel to Absalom would be turned into foolishness; Elijah prays for himself … to die!; Hezekiah prays for his life; three tribes prayed for victory; Isaiah prays for God to correct him in justice; Ezra and the returnees pray for safe passage for themselves and the temple’s riches; Ezra confesses the intermarriage sins of the remnant; Nehemiah prays for the king’s favor to his request; and that the king will grant his request; and that the Lord would srengthen his hands; Daniel prays for God’s help; David prays God’s favor on himself; and again; and again; and again; for forgiveness for himself (possibly referring to the incident in Psalm 51); and again; and again; for long life and a long reign; for mercy; Solomon prays for a blessed reign; Heman prays for mercy; Jonah prays for deliverance from the belly of the fish – as if it has already happened; and then he prays to die, seeing Ninevah’s deliverance; Zechariah prays for a child for his wife, Elizabeth; in a story Jesus tells, a Pharisee and a tax collector pray for themselves; He advises praying for strength when persecuted; for Himself as His death draws near; Jesus prays for deliverance from death for Himself – but also for God’s will to be done; and again; and advises His friends to pray not to fall into temptation; and again; Stephen prays to Jesus to receive his spirit as he is martyred; and James teaches to pray when in trouble.

That’s what I found, anyway. It is, as always, not a complete nor exhaustive list. There are lot of prayers mentioned but not described in scripture, which might have been for self or others or some combination (as many of the above are, and are listed twice as a result). Much of Lamentations is a prayer of mourning and penitence, and among many prayers that are on behalf of the writer and all of God’s people. And there are a lot of prayers – especially in the Psalms – that are simply paeans of praise and expressions of people desiring for God to work His will. Jesus’ few recorded prayers often contain that expression, “Thy will be done.”

Many of the Psalms, especially David’s, and some other Old Testament prayers and prophecies call for God’s wrath to fall on the enemies of Israel, and that somewhat weights the number of prayers “for someone else” – although they are actually “against others.” Ultimately, I grouped them there because they are tacitly “for Israel” in their intent.

We could quibble about a few – especially men praying for children for their wives as prayers “for someone else,” and I wouldn’t argue that those prayers are also “for one’s self” as well.

Conclusions?

I estimate that, in scripture, prayers for others outnumber prayers for one’s self about two to one at most … maybe five to three at least. (That’s why the left column is bigger than the right.)

I would have to say that I do not find God uniformly disregarding prayer for one’s self and preferring/answering prayer for others. Numbers of examples and exhortations-about-how-to-pray do not, by themselves, tell the whole story. It would be interesting – and very time consuming! – to fully research prayer in scripture and note which prayers are described as having been answered by God – and how. It might be even more revealing to connect those specific instances to penitence expressed in those prayers.

I wish I knew what Jesus prayed about those many times when He went out to lonely places to pray. Scripture does not tell us.

I know whom I picture Him praying about, given His nature; His character; His focus in life.

Even if numbers are no indicator, I still feel that prayer in community has extraordinary power – whether it is one person praying for the common good of the community, or the community praying for each other. It is an expression of concern for others above self to God.

And, to me, there is something sad about someone who has no one to pray for him or for her; or someone who does not pray for others as a general rule – or someone whose prayers are characterized by concerns for self, rather than for others and for what God wants.

So I also suspect that there is an innate power in praying for God’s will to be done … being willing to conform our will to His, even if His immediate will is not presently clear to us; being willing to accept that will and live it and praise Him for it.

The power I see in those prayers-for-others and prayers-for-God’s-will-carried-out is the power in them to change our hearts, drawing us out of self and ever closer to God through His Christ and His children.

As followers of Christ, do our prayers for others outnumber our prayers for ourselves?

Warning: Long Post Ahead

/ W. Keith Brenton / 7 Comments

Wait for it!

Wait for it!

It’s a little more – okay, a lot more – about prayer. For one’s self. For others. For what God wants.

I’ve got a good start on it, but I need some time to do it right, and I don’t have a lot of time right now. I need to finish re-naming and posting new pictures to my church’s online database, post a couple or three New Wineskins articles, and I’ve got a full weekend of getting my son to an out-of-town chess tournament and back, plus two back-to-back reception events for friends Saturday night.

So, visit some other blogs and speculate about what I might turn up in my post.

Since I’m still doing the research, I have no idea myself.

Numbers

/ W. Keith Brenton / 13 Comments

Sometime during the next 24-48 hours it looks like my little counter will tick off my 50,000th unique visitor.

That’s kind of a misnomer. It really means that the same handful of people have logged in to the internet 50,000 times and have visited my site in the last 22 months. And while each of them is unique, there aren’t 50,000 of them.

I’m not much into stats and origins of visitors, numbers of lurkers, etc. – so I don’t have a fancy package to tell me all those things.

I’m just glad to have been ticking off people since 2005.

I don’t really have in mind any kind of prize or celebration.

Does that tick you off?

Pray For Your Enemies

/ W. Keith Brenton / 1 Comment

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. – Jesus, Matthew 5:43-45

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ” – Jesus, Luke 6:27-28

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” – Paul, the apostle; Romans 12:14

In a scathing rebuke of those who claim to follow Christ but do not pray for their enemies, Mark Twain wrote a short piece – unpublished during his lifetime – called “The War Prayer.” In it, a man claiming to be a messenger of God re-prays the prayer of support for a war that a congregation has just heard, the unuttered but implied prayer:

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

A little over six years ago, late in the day September 11, 2001, I heard a very different prayer pour forth from the heart of a brother asked to lead a prayer for our enemies as our church family gathered to mourn the dead and pray for safety. He is an elected official, as American as you can be; as Republican as you can get. He humbled himself and the rest of us before God and prayed for our enemies. He confessed that he would rather pray like David did about his enemies and God’s enemies, but that the love of Christ constrained him otherwise and that he was determined to feel that love only. He prayed that our enemies’ hearts would be turned. But he prayed that our hearts would be turned, too; opened to others who see themselves as our enemies.

I wonder if – among all the accusing and correcting and reproving and rebuking that we Christians do, within and among our various fellowships – I wonder if there are even a few of us who pray for the brothers and sisters whom they regard as enemies of their conviction and enemies of God.

Doctrine Is Important

/ W. Keith Brenton / 6 Comments

I think it is both intellectually and spiritually dishonest to level the charge against anyone who disagrees with your interpretation of scripture, “Then you must not believe that doctrine is important.”

“Doctrine” means “teachings, beliefs.” Doctrine is vital. Scripture could not be clearer on the matter. What we may disagree upon is whether your interpretation of scripture – or mine or anyone else’s – is doctrine, or not.

I find these items to be doctrinal:

  • “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

  • “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6

  • “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” – Mark 16:16

  • Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.” – John 2:22

  • Jesus came from God incarnationally: “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” – 2 John 1:7

  • “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” – John 1:21

  • “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” – Galatians 5:6

  • “As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.” – Romans 14:14

These are in no particular order; nor are they intended to be comprehensive. There are, for instance, a good number of imperatives Jesus shared, most of which are applicable to His followers today. But I believe the items cited above represent foundational principles of the apostles’ doctrine – and the points of departure for the heresies of the first few centuries of Christendom.

You will not find most of those items in current debate among followers of Christ today, except perhaps the last one – which is terribly inconvenient to the mindset which preaches that everything is an issue; everything one can do is either intrinsically right or wrong; pleasing or displeasing to God; commendable by heaven or condemnable to hell.

There are simply some things we can do – choices we make and actions we take – about which God says nothing.

They are matters of conscience.

We get into trouble when we elevate matters of conscience to something else; try to superimpose scripture upon them and make them look like God’s law. That’s what Jesus took the Pharisees and teachers of the law to task for, over and over again. Matters of conscience are opinions, not doctrine.

So you can believe what you want to about a good number of items which simply are not doctrinal. And the context of the Romans passage above indicates that it is wrong for you to judge your sibling in Christ regarding an item of conscience as surely as it is wrong for that sibling to flaunt his or her freedom from conscience in the matter in order to make you violate yours.

We can disagree about matters of conscience – even teach what we disagree about – but there are limits.

One limit is calling them “doctrine.”

There are matters about which we are to be “of one mind.” There are others which are not.

Honestly, I think that if God had taught that we must worship while standing on one foot, Satan would find a way to split us into right-footers and left-footers, leaners and non-leaners, hoppers and non-hoppers, plus those who would disfellowship all the people who have had to have their feet amputated.

And a few who would cut off one foot to prove how “right” they are.

In a few short words, matters of conscience are never to become a game of “I’m right; you’re wrong.”

That’s doctrine, as I see it, folks. And it is important.

So I close with the most dangerous challenge of all: Think for yourself. Study scripture for yourself. Don’t accept what I say – what anyone says – as automatically right or wrong. Go to the Source. Prove all things. Hold fast what’s good.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17