Once upon a time there was a king who had a treasury filled with precious gemstones. And in order to glorify himself, the king promised his subjects that, if they worked hard enough, he might one day give them something from his vault as a reward for their obedience.
There was a man in this kingdom who desperately wanted to hold one of those gemstones in his hand and know that he had earned the king's favor. So for years, he tried his hardest to impress the king. He broke his back tilling the earth and hunting game to put delicious food on the king's table. He wore out his fingers sewing fine clothing for him. He bowed in the king's direction several times a day and sang his praises until his voice went hoarse. He fought the king's wars, expanded the king's borders, and hoisted the king's flag on mountaintops so that the other nations of the world would cower at his name. But despite all his hard work, the king never called the man into his presence and never gave him any of his treasure.
Then, one night, the man was walking home from a hard day of labor and saw a young thief sneaking out of the king's palace, his hands filled with countless rubies and diamonds and emeralds. The man approached the child to ask what he was doing.
"I'm going to give these gemstones to everyone I can find," the little thief said. "I'm going to make sure that everyone in the kingdom has a share of the royal wealth."
So the man took out his sword, cut off the thief's head, carried it into the king's chambers, and dropped it at his feet. When the king asked what this was all about, the man told the king, "this thief broke into your vault and was trying to give away for free what you've insisted we work hard to earn. But don't worry. I stopped him. The treasury is safe and your glory is preserved."
The king looked at the man, smiled, and placed an enormous gemstone in his hands. "Well done, good and faithful servant," he said. "Here's a little something for your trouble."
As incomprehensible as their actions seem, this is why ISIS is beheading Christian children in Iraq. Muslims teach that we must earn the love of Allah through our obedience and submission to him. Christians teach that Jesus has already earned the love of God and freely given us every piece of that heavenly treasure. To the radical Muslim, Christians are the little thief raiding the king's vault. And surely there can be no greater way to attain the love of the king than to offer him the heads of those who tried to give away for free the love we all must earn.
"They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me."
~John 16:2
May God turn the hearts of all who are abusing, raping, terrorizing,
and killing our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May God bring
them to faith in Christ, who has put away their murderous sins and
won
every gemstone of His Father's love for them. May God fill our enemies
with the Holy Spirit, that they may put down their swords and share the treasure of Christ's kingdom with those whom they once sought to destroy.
I recently read a blog post about marriage that's gone quite viral.
The author beautifully addresses the notion that a husband's
vocation is to serve his wife, and that a wife's vocation is to serve her
husband, rather than the self-serving model where we get married
because the other person makes us happy and stay married only as long
as that happiness is preserved. He says, in part:
"No, a true marriage (and true love) is never about you. It's about the
person you love--their wants, their needs, their hopes, and their
dreams. Selfishness demands, 'What's in it for me?' while Love asks, 'What can I give?'"
I'm glad to see people considering this
wisdom, but also find it sad that so many never heard it before, in
particular from the pen of Saint Paul in Ephesians 5:
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."
~Ephesians 5:22-27
Strange as it may seem to some, the Bible actually has some really
great stuff to teach us about being husbands and wives, fathers and
mothers, presented to us in the greatest love story of all, that of Christ's crucified love for his bride the Church, that of a Father's love given to his children through their mother, the Jerusalem above.
One was named Robert Preus. Robert Preus was a dual-doctorate sporting Lutheran pastor, professor, and seminary president who was instrumental in preserving the theological integrity of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod during our "Battle for the Bible" in the 1970's. His books are still devoured by young seminarians who never met him. He's still regarded as the English language's leading scholar on seventeenth century Lutheranism. And while he's certainly not as well known a theologian as St. Augustine or Martin Luther, Robert Preus is greatly revered and fondly remembered by many today, both inside and outside the LCMS.
My other grandfather was named William Fiene. William Fiene didn't write books, didn't translate theological treatises. There are no collections of his sermons because he never preached any. He wasn't a pastor. He was a mortician from small town in Minnesota. So, outside of his family and friends, nobody in the LCMS remembers his name.
But I am a pastor today because of him. My seemingly less-theologically-significant grandfather is equally as responsible for the clerical collar around my neck as my grandfather with a wikipedia page. I say this not because I had countless theological conversations with Grandpa Fiene. He died a few months before my twelfth birthday, and in the years before, Parkinson's disease had already torn his central nervous system apart so much that I don't recall ever hearing him say my name or making eye contact with me. But the theological influence of my paternal grandfather is still in my bones, and it's come to me through what he taught his son, my father, in both word and deed.
When William Fiene was 27 years old, he contracted polio and never walked again. But he didn't despair, didn't curse the Lord who lets his legs be taken from him. Instead, he kept believing, kept trusting Christ's promises, kept praying with his children, kept teaching them Bible stories, and kept taking them to church every week. Often, during the harsh Minnesota winters, my grandfather's crutches would slip on the icy pavement while packing his family in the car on Sunday mornings. For many, that would have provided a very easy justification for staying home, sleeping in, and slowly falling away. But my grandfather kept braving the cold, kept slipping, kept falling, and kept picking himself back up and taking his family to St. Paul's Lutheran Church.
From my father's youngest days, he saw, in his father, a man who would endure pain and humiliation in order to bring his children the Word of God. William Fiene taught his son John that the pure Gospel found in the Lutheran Church was more important than anything else in this world. That's what my father taught me. And that's what I pray I will teach my sons, John, August, and Anders.
Today is All Saints' Day, a day when we commemorate all Christians, all those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And while we certainly thank God for the famous saints known the world round, we should also thank God for the forgotten saints, for the congregation of faceless believers whose names will never be written in history books, even as those names are written in the Book of Life.
So I thank God for both of my grandfathers today. Like many other pastors, today I thank God for Robert Preus, for his faithfulness, his wisdom, his writings, his lectures, and his life devoted to the Word. But even if my father and I are the only pastors in the world to remember the life of William Fiene today, I do so with equal parts thanksgiving. I thank God that, as a child, my father didn't have to look at icons of Peter and Paul to see the image of a saint. He saw one in the face of the man dusting the Minnesota snow off of his bloody knees and picking himself back up in order to bring his children to Jesus.
When I was in college, I met a couple of girls who had boyfriends that were mean to them.
These boyfriends would say unkind things to their respective girlfriends. They would belittle them in mixed company. They would break plans at the last minute to hang out with their sideburn sporting bros. At parties, they would shout across the room to their girlfriends, "hey babe, get me a beer." And when these young ladies returned with a foaming cup of watery brew, they often found their boyfriends flirting with other girls.
Sometimes these girls would complain to me about their mean boyfriends. I would ask why they were dating them, and each girl would respond, "Deep down, I know he's a really great person. He just needs someone to bring that out in him."
At the risk of sounding judgmental, I don't think these girls had a genuine Christian desire to lift another person out of the pit of his sinful and self-destructive ways. If that were the case, they would have visited prisoners or volunteered with at-risk youth. Rather, I think they were filled with pride. I think they just wanted to believe that they were more amazing and special and spectacular than every other girl in the world because they could accomplish something that no other girl could-making a mean boy nice through the power of their love.
When I became a pastor, I met a couple of pastors who were convinced that they could convert people who, quite vocally, didn't want anything to do with Christianity.
These people would say unkind things about Jesus. They would belittle their believing aunts and uncles at family reunions. They would refuse to attend baptisms of friends' children. And on the rare occasion that they attended a service, they would roll their eyes during the liturgy and play on their smart phones during the sermon.
At the risk of sounding judgmental, I don't think these these pastors had a genuine desire to see people converted. If that were the case, instead of making their own personalities the center of worship and preaching, they would have made Christ crucified the center, as it is only through the proclamation of that bloody Word that Christians are made. Rather, I think these pastors were filled with pride. I think they wanted to believe that they were more amazing and gifted communicators than every other pastor in the world because they could accomplish something that no other pastor could-making hardened hearts believe through the power of their love.
Whatever happened to those college girls with mean boyfriends? I'm sure that some probably have mean husbands now. But I hope that all of them saw the folly of their pride and grew up. I hope the same thing for every pastor convinced that "God can do all things through me who strengthens Him."
Five years ago today I was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry.
That number is, of course, paltry in comparison to the time many shepherds have spent tending Christ's flock. And my wisdom, if it can even be labeled as such, is nothing compared to that of those men. But, in honor of this anniversary, I thought I would share five observations I've made during the last half-decade, especially for those seminary graduates who will be entering the pastoral office this summer.
1. "Change then teach" works much better than "teach then change." If you want people to embrace the right practice, institute the right practice, then praise them for doing the right practice when you teach about said practice. If you try to teach them to abandon the bad practice while they're still practicing the bad practice, they won't think the bad practice is bad enough to stop practicing because you're still letting them practice it.
2. When people get angry at you, 80% of the time it has nothing to do with you. They're just mad at God. But that still leaves 20%.
3. Sin makes pastors angry, which tempts us to structure our sermons like this: Proclaim the Law, then figure out how to make the Gospel fit. Unless the text commands this, do the inverse.
4. People who don't think they need a pastor will never care about you, even if they like you. But when people have desperately needed you to be a pastor to them, and you have been, they will never stop loving you.
Americans weren't always this good at learning lessons from acts of violence and murder. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 put a long term paralyzant in our blood. It was weeks before we were able to look away from the images of smoke and sorrow long enough to ask ourselves, "what can we learn from this? How can we better ourselves and the world in response to this tragedy?"
But now we're seasoned lesson-learning veterans. The day after the shootings in Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT, we asked what we could do to reduce gun violence and to treat mental illness. As ambulances were still rushing people to Boston hospitals, we could already see silver linings in the smoke clouds as we praised the helpers, the brave ones who rushed into the carnage to aid their neighbors. Even before we knew how many people died in this evil act, we had focused our eyes on the good acts of humanity, desiring to make more of that goodness manifest in our lives.
We've been well trained since September 11, 2001. Now, when tragedy strikes, we only look at the violence and murder for a moment. Then we move on to the more important thing-making the world a better place in response.
I think this is how American Pop-Christianity views the cross. The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a tragic event. It's just so utterly sad and shameful that Jesus had to die for our sins. But now that we've spent a moment looking at all that violence and murder, now it's time to move on to the more important thing. So how do we make our lives better in response to that tragedy?
As evidence, I submit the mission statement of one of the country's largest congregations:
"As a community, we’re devoted to building an engaged, passionate,
spiritually healthy community of people that makes up [our congregation]. We’re
also devoted to engaging and impacting one another and others, believing
that Jesus himself set an example of service and that we’ve been given
the responsibility to follow it."
And if you'd like the point illustrated in picture form, here's the same thing from another mega-church:
These aren't egregious examples. Hop on the webbernet, check out the mission statement of the congregation down the road from you, and you will probably find something exactly like this, something that basically states your journey starts with Jesus. First look at his cross. Then move on to figuring out how you should live in response to that cross. Our congregation is here to help you do that.
So do these congregations deny that Jesus died for
their sins? No. But that death, that bloodshed, it's not the epicenter of the faith. It's not the substance of their preaching and teaching. Rather, the cross was that tragic event that should set you on the path of self-discovery. The cross was that brutal act of violence meant to inspire you to better yourself and the world. Stare at the carnage for a day, maybe two, but then move on. Because, just like the children of Sandy Hook, Jesus will have died in vain if we don't learn the right lessons.
But the cross is its own lesson And we don't move on from it. Jesus didn't die so that we could better the world. Jesus died to save the world. Jesus died to give us life, to give us the love of God.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1-2
"And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:1-2
The cross is not 9/11. It's not the Sandy Hook shooting or the Boston Marathon bombing. There is no moving on from the cross. Because, unlike the death of everyone else, the death of Jesus Christ is life.
Once upon a time, Hazel sewed her family's clothes. She lived in an era when there were no department stores or major clothing labels. And Hazel's family couldn't afford the services of the nearest tailor, so Hazel sewed because that's what was necessary to survive. And because it was necessary to survive, Hazel taught this skill to her daughter Sarah.
When Sarah grew up and had her own family, she found that this skill was no longer a necessity. For a reasonable cost, and with the aid of a department store or a catalog, she could contract someone else to do the hard work of measuring and cutting and stitching. But even though she didn't need to sew anymore, Sarah still pulled out the Singer from time to time. She'd sit down with her daughter Kimberly in her lap and make a garment or two around Christmas. Sarah did this because the feel of the thread on her fingertips and the vibrations of the sewing machine on her palms reminded her of her mother, and she wanted to give some of those memories to her child.
But Kimberly couldn't even tell you how to thread a needle anymore. Her grandmother sewed out of necessity. Her mother sewed out of nostalgia. But Kimberly doesn't sew at all because, without necessity, nostalgia rarely makes it to the second generation.
The Christian faith is necessary. You are dead without it and nothing in this world can replace the salvation that Jesus gives to those who hear and believe His Word. But when your pastor doesn't see you for months at a time, when you let every conflict bump the Divine Service off your Sunday schedule, when you never talk theology with your children, you teach them that the Word of God is nothing more than a trinket we pull out of the closet whenever we want to taste the sweetness of our familial heritage. And when you teach that to your children, your children will not grow up to be Christians. They will not believe anymore than Kimberly sews.
Virginia woke one morning to the sound
of thunder and church bells. "Oh, that's right," she
thought. "It's Sunday. But the weather sounds terrible, and I
have a lot of things to do around the house this morning. So maybe next
week." Seven days later, the bells sounded
again, their metallic clang ricocheting off the growling thunder and the drum
roll of fat raindrops slapping the pavement. "I know, I know,"
she told herself. "It's been awhile since I've been to church.
But it's really nasty out there, so I'll just wait until things clear up."
But things didn't clear up. With each passing season, the bells never rang
without an accompanying rain shower. For weeks and months and years,
Virginia's Sunday morning windows rattled from the one-two punch of the bells
and thunderclaps. As she graduated and got married, as her children grew
from infants to toddlers to teens, the roads remained far too slick to hazard a
trip to the church.
Then, one Sunday morning, the rain
stopped and the sun began to shine. A soft heat began to radiate on
Virginia's Sunday morning windows. And even though the bells didn't clang
that morning, Virginia told herself, "ok, now I'm ready. Now that
the rain is done, I'll go back to church."
But when she pulled into the lot of
that old building, she didn't have to fight anyone for a parking spot.
She was the only one there. Getting out of her car, Virginia saw that the
church doors were locked and the windows were boarded. Peering in through a crack, she saw that the
font where she'd been baptized was dry, the altar where she communed was bare,
and the pulpit where she heard the word was empty. Then, stepping onto the same grass where
she'd done cartwheels while her parents shook the pastor's hand on the Sundays
of her youth, Virginia saw that the ground was now pierced with the shards of
that bell she'd heard calling her for so many years.
So Virginia sat down and wept. "There used to be so many people
here. What happened?" she asked
herself aloud.
"They got old and died," a
voice responded.
Virginia looked up and saw the
gardener standing in front of her.
"And the younger generation,
people like you, they didn't come back, at least not in time."
"But if God wanted me to be here,
if he wanted me to come back to Church, why did he make it so difficult? If he wanted me to follow the bells on Sunday
mornings, why did he keep allowing all those thunderstorms?"
"O you of little faith," the
gardener replied. "It was the rain
that made the bells ring."
God’s Word and grace is a passing downpour, which does not return to
where it has already been. It has been with the Jews; but what’s lost is lost,
and they now have nothing. Paul brought it to Greece; what’s lost is lost, and
they now have the Turks. Rome and Latin-speaking regions have also had it;
what’s lost is lost, and they now have the pope. And you Germans dare not think
that you will have it forever, for the ingratitude and disdain will not let it
remain. Therefore take hold and hang on tightly, while you are able to grab and
to hold. Lazy hands are bound to have a hard year.
And the Lord sent Nathan to the District President.He came to him and said, "A rich man had
a daughter with tuberculosis.He married
her to a man, but the man fell sick with her disease and died.So the rich man married her to another man,
who also contracted her infection and he died.Five times this happened until the rich man could find no other suitors willing
to marry his daughter.So the rich man
went to one of his servants and said to him, 'Marry my daughter or you will starve."The servant protested, saying, "But
master, surely if I do this, I will be like those men before me, falling ill
and dying in my youth.The rich man
responded, “Surely not!I give my word
that, if you love her enough and be patient with her, my daughter’s disease
will not take your life as it did those men before you.”
The District President’s anger was greatly kindled against
the rich man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, this man will never
arrange another marriage because he showed no mercy or wisdom.”
Nathan said to the District President, “You are the man.”
These words are not aimed at all men who wear the title "LCMS District
President." I thank the Lord for those men who have defended the
shepherds under their care when they were attacked. And I pray that He may grant us many more men to join the ranks of the faithful.
After reading some more at the request of a commenter, it appears that Tim Tebow has not sought a trademark on the Tebow pose itself, but merely on the phrase "Tebowing."
So, just to clarify, I still stand by the following words:
Tebow's legal action is annoying for three reasons. First, because Matthew 6
commands Christians not to pray to be seen by others. And even if you
weren't originally praying in your signature style to be seen in a
pharisaical manner, the fact that the masses have named your prayer
posture after you should make it fairly clear that it's time to take it
out of the public eye and into the privacy of your room.
I also stand by these words:
Second, when
the world mocks you for your faith, the Bible tells us to rejoice that we've been counted worthy, not to threaten legal action against anyone who imitates the way you display your faith without authorized written consent.
If altered to say:
Second, when
the world mocks you for your faith, the Bible tells us to rejoice that we've been counted worthy, not to threaten legal action against anyone who attaches your name to the mocking imitation of the way you display your faith.
However, in light of this clarification, I retract and apologize for my claim that Tim Tebow's attempt to trademark genuflection is a great example of the ignorance and arrogance often found in Ahistorical Christianity. Seeing that this was not what happened, the Tebow example simply doesn't fit and I was wrong to make it based off of the rather misleading article I linked in the original post.
I do not, however, retract my statements concerning this widespread problem of ignorance and arrogance in Evangelicalism and Ahistorical Christianity. Certainly a better example could have been used, but the problem is very real, as the examples of dispensationalism, pentecostalism, and anabaptism certainly illustrate.
People like to divide things in half. Two categories. Black and white. Republicans and Democrats. Team Edward and Team Jacob (although both of these teams are dweebs).
When it comes to Christianity, people try to do likewise. But when they do so, they usually do it wrong. The categories of Catholics and Protestants don't work because that leaves out all of those in the Orthodox tradition. (Also, Lutherans don't really like being called protestants.) And Bible Believing Christians vs Non-Bible Believers, the preferred designations of your more fundamentalisty crowd, aren't terribly accurate. Because while Episcopalians may not believe what God says in Genesis 1, Baptists don't believe what God says in Romans 6.
Rather, I would suggest (and have, in fact, already suggested in a comedic form) that, if one is inclined to cleave Christendom in twain, the best way to do it is to make Church history the dividing line.
So despite our manifold differences, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and a handful of other traditions (FYI: I hate that term) are united in the sense that church history shapes the way we think and teach and worship and have fellowship. Historical Christians tend to ask themselves questions like, "how have Christians in previous generations done these things? What have Christians from the past written on these subjects? What can we learn from those who were taught by the Church Fathers and the Apostles? What valuable traditions of theirs should we continue?" Even if we don't get the answers right, these questions are still swimming around in our minds, generally speaking. And by asking them, we show respect to those Christians before us by assuming that we can learn something from them.
Among Ahistorical Christians, however, such respect is not shown. It doesn't bother Dispensationalists that nobody believed in the Rapture until the mid 1800's because they don't think their faith mattered. Baptists seem perfectly unperturbed that no Christians denied infant baptism until the 1500's because they were obviously too foolish to cast off the shackles of Catholic Paganism. And if you want an example of how Evangelicals also show their disdain for those Christians who have struggled and learned and taught and worshiped before us, you'll find a great one in New York Jets' backup quarterback, Tim Tebow, who has now trademarked his prayer posture, often referred to as "Tebowing".
Tebow's legal action is annoying for three reasons. First, because Matthew 6 commands Christians not to pray to be seen by others. And even if you weren't originally praying in your signature style to be seen in a pharisaical manner, the fact that the masses have named your prayer posture after you should make it fairly clear that it's time to take it out of the public eye and into the privacy of your room. Second, when the world mocks you for your faith, the Bible tells us to rejoice that we've been counted worthy, not to threaten legal action against anyone who imitates the way you display your faith without authorized written consent.
But most of all, Tebow's legal action is annoying for this reason. He's not "Tebowing." He's genuflecting, something that many Historical Christians have been doing as an act of worship for a really, really long time. Check it out:
Here are some genuflecting Orthodox folks.
Here's are some genuflecting Anglicans.
Here's a sweet little genuflecting Catholic girl.
Even Lutherans genuflect. Not me personally, but a guy I know.
Oh, and lest you think that all these Christians were just jumping on the Timmy Time bandwagon, here's the Angel Gabriel tebowing before the Virgin Mary in a painting from 1490:
Clearly Tim Tebow wasn't the first person to pray or worship on one knee with arm(s) extended forward. In fact, bagillions of Christians have been doing his schtick for centuries. And Tebow not knowing that is a pretty excellent example of the ignorance of Evangelicalism that drives other Christians nuts. Furthermore, Tebow presuming, via this trademark, that genuflecting is his intellectual property is an excellent example of the equally irritating arrogance that comes when you don't think you'd have anything to learn by asking, "How have other Christians done stuff prior to last Tuesday?"
So to my Evangelical friends, I highly recommend asking yourselves that question. I highly recommend diving into Church history, into the traditions and practices and teachings of Christians who lived a long time ago, long before Mark Driscoll or even Billy Graham. Do that and you will find a faith that is far richer and stronger than anything you've ever tasted before, a faith that isn't subject to the whims of fads or societal mindsets, a faith that will still be standing when American culture has crumbled to dust.
And to my friends who have already discovered the joys of Historical Christianity, I highly recommend holding the Scriptures in even higher regard than tradition. Do that and you might just find Lutheranism:-)
When advocates of historic Lutheran worship argue against the widespread use of contemporary worship, in particular the use of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) in the Divine Service, they often do so using a syllogism that looks something like this:
Major Premise: Music that focuses on the objective work of Christ is beneficial for use in worship, whereas music that focuses on the subjective feelings of Christians is not.
Minor Premise: Most historic Lutheran hymns focus on the objective work of Christ, whereas most CCM songs focus on the subjective feelings of Christians.
Conclusion: Therefore historic Lutheran hymns are beneficial for use in worship, whereas CCM songs are not.
In my experience, most Lutheran advocates of contemporary worship do not argue against the major premise. So we all seem to agree that it's better for a hymn to tell me about Jesus than to tell me how great the hymn writer feels about Jesus. And that's good. Rather, the response I have seen most often from contemporary worship advocates is an argument against the minor premise, the assertion that "historic Lutheran" equals good and "CCM" equals bad. Quite simply, they counter this syllogism by arguing that there are plenty of bad Lutheran hymns and plenty of good CCM songs.
But, interestingly enough, when it comes to defending their counter-argument through the use of examples, things get very one-sided. Are these Lutheran advocates of contemporary worship ready to hand us a big fat list of our most cherished compositions that fail to meet the rigorous standards we require of CCM songs (standards such as this)? Yes, they are. Do they have countless examples of rather bad "good, Lutheran hymns?" Absolutely.
But do they also have any examples of really good CCM songs? In fact, forget "any." I'll settle for one. Do they have even one example of a CCM song that is as deeply and doctrinally and poetically focused on the Cross as the best of what we have in our hymnal? Can they give us just one example?
Can they? Maybe. But have they? No, at least not that I've ever seen. And that's not good. Because when Christ calls us to be one body, and when you're using music that has been and still is causing division in that body, I think your fellow believers deserve to have their criticisms met with a better response than, "well, you use stuff that's just as bad."
Since I couldn't fit them into the YouTube video description box, here are the quotes captioned into my latest video, A Latter Day Re-Gift, where I note the striking similarities between Islam and Mormonism.
Islam and
Mormonism Citation Captions:
1.Names
a.Muhammad
b.Joseph Smith
2.Alone place
a.Cave
b.Woods
3.Name of angel
a.Gabriel
b.Moroni
4.Reestablishing the one true religion
a."Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a
Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was
not of the idolaters." -Surah 3.67
"There is no reproach for the Prophet in that which Allah maketh his due.
That was Allah's way with those who passed away of old - and the commandment of
Allah is certain destiny - Who delivered the messages of Allah and feared Him,
and feared none save Allah. Allah keepeth good account. Muhammad is not the
father of any man among you, but he is the messenger of Allah and the Seal of
the Prophets; and Allah is ever aware of all things. -Surah 33.38-40"
b."My object in going to inquire of
the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which
to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able
to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of
all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart
that all were wrong)—and which I should join. I was answered that I must join
none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said
that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors
were all corrupt; that: 'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts
are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a
form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.'” -Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith-History,
pars. 18-19.
5.Unverifiable
a.Revelation from an angel that no one
else gets to see/hear
b.Revelation from golden plates that
nobody else gets to see
6.Christians changed the Bible
a."And because of their saying: We
slew the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, Allah's messenger - they slew him not
norcrucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree
concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit
of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain." -Surah 4:157
b.John 1:1 (ESV, KJV) In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Meaning: Jesus is God)
vs.
John 1:1 (Joseph Smith Translation)In
the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel
was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the
Son was of God. (Meaning: Jesus is not God)
7.The Trinity
a."And when Allah saith: O Jesus,
son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods
beside Allah? He saith: Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I
had no right." -Surah 5.116
b."We
declare it is self-evident from the scriptures that the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost are separate persons." -The Only True God and Jesus
Christ Whom He Hath Sent Jeffery R. Holland Of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles
8.Justification by grace through faith
a."They surely disbelieve who say:
Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary.
The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord
and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath
forbidden paradise. His abode is the Fire." -Surah 5:72
b."The sectarian dogma of
justification by faith alone has exercised an influence for evil." -Articles of Faith, JamesTalmage, (LDS
apostle, 1911-33), pg. 432
9.Good works
a."To those who believe and do
deeds of righteousness hath Allah promised forgiveness and a great
reward." -Surah 5.9
b."We
believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by
obedience to the laws and ordinances of
the Gospel." -Joseph Smith's 13
Articles of Faith,Art.
3
11.Higher levels of heaven based on
perfect obedience
a."Those who spend (benevolently)
in ease as well as in straightness, and those who restrain (their) anger and
pardon men; and Allah loves the doers of good (to others). And those who when they commit an indecency
or do injustice to their souls remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their
faults-- and who forgives the faults but Allah, and (who) do not knowingly
persist in what they have done. (As for)
these-- their reward is forgiveness from their Lord, and gardens beneath which
rivers flow, to abide in them, and excellent is the reward of the
laborers." -Surah 3.134-136
b."They are they who received the testimony of
Jesus, andbelieved on his name and
were baptized after the manner of his burial,
being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the
commandment which he has given—That by keeping the commandments they
might be washed andcleansed from all their sins, and
receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who
is ordained and sealed unto this power; And who overcome by
faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the
Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true. They are
they who are the church of the Firstborn...These are they whose
bodies arecelestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the
highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being
typical." -Doctrines and Covenants 76:51-54, 70
c.Pro-polygamy
i."And if ye fear
that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans, marry of the women, who seem good
to you, two or three or four." -Surah
4:3
ii."And again, as pertaining
to the law of the priesthoodif any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse
another, and the first give her consent,
and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other
man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto
him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no
one else." -Doctrines and
Covenants, Section 132.61
12.Division in followers after prophet's death
a.Sunnis/Shiites
b.Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints
13.Change in theology based on political environment
a.Politically weak in Mecca: Let's be friends, Christians and Jews!
("And do not argue with the People of the Scripture except in a way that
is best, except for those who commit injustice among them, and say, We believe
in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you. And our God and your
God is one; and we are Muslims [in submission] to Him.'" -Surah 29.46)
Politically strong in Medina: Die, Christians and Jews, die! ("And kill
them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled
you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al-
Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such
is the recompense of the disbelievers."-Surah 2.191)
b.Before wanting statehood for Utah: God says we must practice
polygamy! (1843 revelation to Joseph Smith)
After wanting statehood for Utah: God says we can't practice polygamy! (1890
Manifesto of LDS president Wilford Woodruff)
14.Pre-eternity of souls
a."And when your Lord brought forth from the children of
Adam, from their backs, their descendants, and made them bear witness against
their own souls: Am I not your Lord? They said: Yes! we bear witness. Lest you
should say on the day of resurrection: Surely we were heedless of
this."-Surah 7.172
b."And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in
the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among
those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me:
Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like
unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there
is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth
whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will
do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; And they who
keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first
estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first
estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their
heads forever and ever."-The Book of Abraham 4:23-26
15.Mormonism's explanation for why some people are black:
"There is a reason why one man is born black and
with other disadvantages, while another is born white with
great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before
we came here, and were obedient; more or less, to the laws that were given us
there. Those who were faithful in all things there [pre-existence] received
greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less. . . .
There were no neutrals in the war in Heaven. All took sides either with Christ
or with Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here
based upon their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for
deeds done in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits."
-Joseph Fielding Smith, 10th LDS President, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:61,
65-66
