Memorial Moment - Truth, mission and salvation

 Memorial Moment.

Truth, mission and salvation

"One of the false dichotomies that floats around the church is that those who are concerned about the purity of doctrine cannot be interested in the mission of the church. On the face of it, this is an ad hominem argument against those who think that pure teaching is a divine command; resting as it does on a false either/or. The Bible never sets purity of teaching against the mission imperative as competing opposites (Mt 28:19-20). Instead, the Bible clearly teaches that the truth saves and that falsehood is not saving. For example, Paul attributes saving power to the doctrine, which must be closely watched: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1Ti 4:16). Persistent watchfulness is required of the stewards of the divine Word for the sake of salvation.

 The contention that those who are interested in faithfully teaching the truth must be opposed to doing mission is also false as a matter of historical fact. The ancient church’s faithful teachers exhibited an almost fanatical devotion to the preservation and promulgation of the divine truth. The church grew exponentially in the early days of the church’s life; during the first four centuries after Christ. Yet her bishops were passionate about sustaining the truth and they themselves sometimes confessed to the death rather than forsake the truth. They confessed before kings and emperors at the councils of the church (Ps 119:46), as the church was freed from official persecution by the Roman government about 311 A.D. These were also the days when the church grew explosively, spreading throughout the known world in a couple of centuries. The church was only stopped in her triumphal and non-violent advance when the lack of a clear confession divided Christians before the armed incursion of Islam beginning in the seventh century. In any case, the time when Christians were extremely concerned with purity of teaching was also the time when the church grew by leaps and bounds; far more than any time since, despite all the hype to the contrary.

 The teachers of the ancient church were not unacquainted with the devil’s attacks on the divine truth by the false teachers of their day. Just as the devil can try to lead us to renounce our faith, he can also use what appears to be a confession of the faith to mislead others and to betray the truth. The battle over the person of Christ following the Nicene Council was intensely waged for at least a couple of centuries, because those who desired to diminish Christ to be the greatest of creatures, and nothing more, tried to hide their blasphemous teaching under the Creed and its language. In the late fourth century, Augustine of Hippo saw heretics trying to hide their false teaching under the Apostles’ Creed, the simplest summary of the faith, which was confessed by Augustine when he was baptized by Ambrose of Milan in 387. This Creed, although a simple summary of the faith, was also to be commented on by theologians so that the true meaning could be made clear and the false teaching refuted. This was a worthwhile effort because the truth thus preserved saved the people who heard it."

Rev. Dr. Scott R. Murray

Memorial Lutheran Church

1 Peter 3:15-22 (ESV)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%203%3A15-22&version=ESV

Augustine of Hippo:

“Inasmuch as it is a position written and established on the most solid foundation of apostolic teaching, ‘the righteous shall live by faith;’ (Rm 1:17) and inasmuch also as this faith demands of us the duty at once of heart and tongue, for the Apostle says, ‘With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.’ (Rm 10:10), it becomes us to be mindful of righteousness and salvation. For, destined as we are to reign hereafter in everlasting righteousness, we certainly cannot secure our salvation from the present evil world, unless at the same time, while laboring for the salvation of our neighbor, we likewise with the mouth make our own confession of the faith that we carry in our heart. It must be our aim, by pious and careful watchfulness, to provide against the possibility of the faith sustaining any injury in us, on any side, through the cunning fraud of the heretics.

 “We have, however, the catholic faith in the Apostles’ Creed, known to the faithful and committed to memory, contained in a form of expression as concise as has been rendered admissible by the circumstances of the case. The purpose for this concise expression was that individuals who are but beginners and nursing infants among those who have been born again in Christ, and who have not yet been strengthened by most diligent and spiritual handling and understanding of the divine Scriptures, might be furnished with a summary, expressed in a few words, of those matters of necessary belief which were subsequently to be explained to them in many words, as they made progress and grew in divine doctrine, on the assured and steadfast basis of humility and love. It is beneath these few words which are thus set in order in the Creed, that most heretics have endeavored to conceal their poisons; whom divine mercy has withstood, and still withstands, by the instrumentality of spiritual men, who have been counted worthy not only to accept and believe the catholic faith as expounded in those terms, but also thoroughly to understand and apprehend it by the enlightenment imparted by the Lord.

 “For it is written, ‘Unless you believe, neither shall you understand’ (Is 7:9 LXX). The proper handling of the faith serves to protect the Creed. However, not that this expression of the faith should be given in place of the Creed, to be committed to memory and repeated by those who are receiving the grace of God, but that it may guard the matters which are retained in the Creed against the insidious assaults of the heretics by means of catholic authority and a more entrenched defense."

Augustine, A Treatise on Faith and the Creed, 1

Prayer:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Your church has always summarized Your faith on the lips of her children in her creeds and confessions. Grant us in our day to confess faithfully these expressions of the saving faith. Give us theologians that can defend well what is vouchedsafe to us in these little summaries. Free us with Your truth to deliver Your faith to those living in the darkness around us that they might be brought into Your marvelous light. Amen."

Memorial Moment

Monday of Lent 4

15 March 2021