Return to the M.B. Herald Vol. 35, No. 13
Home Page
It is true that "dancing can lead to sin"--as nearly any activity can lead to sin. Drinking coffee with friends could lead to sin if it causes one to gossip, but this does not mean that we should ban coffee drinking! The same is true of social drinking, watching movies and listening to various types of "non-Christian" music. These are not wrong in themselves but can all be sinful if they damage one's relationship with Jesus.
The real issue seems to be whether we Mennonites intend to live by faith as the Bible tells us, or we would rather build rules around our faith to keep us "safe from sinning", as the Pharisees did. Perhaps following all the rules that have been constructed around the gospel is a cause of the spiritual pride in some Mennonite churches.
Christ has called us to freedom, not freedom to sin or to tempt others, but freedom to live out God's joy and love. Individual Christians must be free to earnestly seek God's will for their lives in every area, not by legalism, but through Scripture and the Holy Spirit.
Ramona Wiebe,
Exeter, England
Thank you for your ministry. When you scratch your head wondering what you are doing, be assured you have ministered to this missionary family.
Jerrold and Jean Paetkau,
Klaipeda, Lithuania
Peters wasn't in Russia on the occasion mentioned by Ewert, and therefore he ought to be careful about asserting that they "understood that Ewert doesn't know what he's talking about".
Fehr's suggestion that Ewert should "leave prophecy to those who have the gift of prophecy" is out of keeping with the biblical approach to prophecy: "Do not despise the words of the prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good" (I Thessalonians 5:20-21, NRSV). Prophecy should be tested by the gift of critical discernment.
Phyllis A. Loewen (Letters, May 31) should know that Ewert has been "digging into God's Word" more than anyone I know, and is fully aware of current research. She should be careful about suggesting lack of integrity in Ewert's research.
And R. C. Lovett (Letters, May 31) suggests that we ought not try "to make the world a better place". This view runs counter to biblical eschatology, which has a place for judgement but which also holds out the hopeful vision that God wants to make all things new (including people), and wants to begin sooner rather than later.
Now for a few constructive suggestions. Much benefit could be gained from biblical eschatology if we paid more attention to the intention of such texts. (1) Apocalyptic visions were intended first of all to encourage believers who were suffering oppression and to offer them hope; their experience didn't define God's reality. (2) Biblical eschatology, therefore, has a theological purpose: to assure believers that the promise of a restored creation and resurrection is not a vain hope. The primary goal of biblical eschatology is not so much to tell believers what the future holds as it is to assure them about "who" holds the future. (3) Biblical eschatology has a moral purpose: to encourage believers to endure, to live faithfully according to their calling and to be engaged in mission until the end. (4) Biblical eschatology has an instructional purpose: to warn about the power of evil and to encourage believers not to be deluded by its seductive power, which comes in many guises (even in our culture). (5) Biblical eschatology offers us a vision by which to orient our lives in the present: We shape our lives now in the light of the coming kingdom.
For these reasons biblical eschatology is truly at the heart of biblical faith. According to Paul, we are living in the end time. The real question has always been how to live hopefully.
Gordon Matties, (E)
Winnipeg, Man.
I thank God for the education we have the opportunity to receive. But I am grieved at the value we have placed upon our intellect over against a biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit, His work and His gifts. They were given for our comfort, encouragement, empowering and instruction so that we would lack no spiritual thing to accomplish His kingdom's work. Thanks to John Redekop (Personal Opinion, May 3) for noticing and for asking an appropriate question.
Gareth J Goossen, (E)
Kitchener, Ont.
Since then, my wife and I have experienced a great deal more of the reality of the things described in the Gospels. We could beat ourselves up for neglecting some of the realities that we encounter in the Word; perhaps we have been neglectful, and perhaps we have also been victims of a special purpose of the enemy. However, we also live in an unusual season of grace! So, if we find ourselves asking important questions about the Holy Spirit, let's rejoice! A good question takes us half way to the answer.
My experience of the Holy Spirit in the past three years has given me a deeper love for God, a deeper love for His people, a deeper longing to see His kingdom come, a deeper awareness of the lostness of the lost and a new experience of God's power and presence, especially through words of knowledge, dreams and visions.
I'm becoming a pragmatist where it comes to gifts of the Spirit. It is amazing what impact signs and wonders have on unbelievers, and how significant a personal word from the Lord can be for a struggling believer. As for the theological questions, it seems to me that the New Testament doesn't give us clear answers. We know that we need the Spirit, but whether there is "one baptism, many fillings" or two baptisms, I'm really not sure! Experiences differ, and maybe God is too big to be nailed down on this one.
John Howard Yoder in 1967 asserted that the charismatic movement was "in our century the closest parallel to what Anabaptism was in the 16th". The 16th-century Anabaptist, Pilgrim Marpeck, affirmed the continuity in the church of apostles, prophets, teachers and miracles. The Swiss Anabaptists insisted that it is possible for a believer to have direct illumination from the Spirit, as in I Corinthians 14. While special leaders were recognized, the ministry belonged to the whole congregation, as the Spirit willed. A description of their congregational polity is found in the booklet of 1533-34, An Answer of Some Who Are Called Baptists to the Question Why They Do Not Attend the Churches: "When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking, and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will regard or confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess according to I Corinthians 14 that God is dwelling and operating in them through His Holy Spirit with His gifts, impelling them one after the other in the above mentioned order of speaking and prophesying?".
Len Hjalmarsson, (E)
Cranbrook, B.C.
I noticed in the two issues on death and dying there was an omission. Perhaps because it still isn't regarded as a "true" loss, miscarriage was overlooked.
Kathleen Klassen,
Black Creek, B.C.
A Herald issue on miscarriage is planned for 1997. Ed.
That God has cast Israel aside and we are now God's chosen people instead of Israel. To believe that, you have to discount a large portion of the Old Testament prophecies, or change them to mean something they were not intended to mean.
Three basic rules apply to prophecy: 1. Scripture is to be taken the way it is written, literally. 2. Prophecy pertaining to the Jews applies to the Jews, not the church. 3. Prophecy pertaining to the church applies to the church only.
All prophecy in the New and Old Testaments will be fulfilled as written. God has not cast Israel aside permanently. Leviticus 26:43-45 says: "The land shall be abandoned by them. . . . Yet . . . I will not reject them . . . but will remember for them my covenant with their ancestors."
All prophecy pertaining to the first coming of Jesus was fulfilled to the last detail, none allegorically. None will be fulfilled allegorically at His second coming.
The above myth originated with the new state church around the 5th century. The Church Fathers in the first to third centuries believed that Jesus would return for the church before the great tribulation, ending the church age, that at the close of the seven years of God's wrath, Jesus would come to earth, stand on the Mount of Olives and defeat the antichrist and his army; and that, after this, Christ would judge the nations and establish the throne of David in Jerusalem (Matthew 25).
Jesus gave us no indication when He would come for the church. But He gave us signs as to when the tribulation was in the offing. He told us that "this generation would not pass until all these things have come to pass". All indications are that we are well into "that generation". We do not know the length of a generation. It could be 40, 55, 70 years or even more. One thing is certain, the Lord's coming is nigh, and it will all happen the way He said it would.
Peter Hamm,
Kelowna, B.C.
I commend Encounter (Feb. 23). In the articles by Jim Newton and James Toews, I do not disagree with the message, only with the term, "a freak of nature or the big bang". The big bang is called a "singularity" by believers in a Creator. Evangelical astronomers believe that the big bang is the only idea that explains God's act of creation. Contrary to common Christian perception, 80% of scientists believe in God, though many do not have a personal relationship with Him. Emmanuel Kant has influenced part of the scientific community to try to find a model of the formation of the universe without a Creator. Many models are proposed, though none of them result in a satisfactory solution.
Many Christians have rejected all scientific research as atheistic. We should, however, not throw the baby out with the bath water. What gives some individuals a feeling of security in rejecting science, alienates others from the church. My heart goes out to those who have left the church because of its lack of openmindedness. In Galileo's time, church officials would not even look through his telescope just in case it would prove he was right. They believed the earth was the centre of the universe.
There is no evidence for evolution. In fossils there are no transitional forms. No life could have come by chance in the time period since the singularity. The universe has existed for a very long time, while man has inhabited the earth for a relatively short time. Man has not evolved.
I agree heartily with James Toews on the atheistic fallacies of Carl Sagan. I would like, however, to see exposure to great scientists like Hugh Ross, who has done research in astronomy. He has organized a contingent of Christian scientists who put out creation material. His periodical Reasons to Believe is free for the asking (Box 5978, Pasadena, CA 91117).
Most of my adult life has been involved in teaching the sciences. God has become very precious to me through the observation of His consistent laws. He has never lied to me.
J.E. Cornelsen,
Kelowna, B.C.
Clearly, salvational regeneration, for which baptism is the external confession, only occurs in those judicially culpable for their sin (Titus 3:3-5, Ephesians 2:1), those beyond the "age of accountability". No child experiences the deep "godly sorrow producing repentance" involved in genuine conversion. Adam and Eve sinned as adults (Genesis 3:6-8,22), their culpability representing our own age of culpability, which occurs sometime following the onset of adolescence. The Jewish bar mitzvah and our society's laws reflect an instinctive understanding of this reality.
Dahl's view of Matthew 19:14 misses the point. This comment by Jesus deals primarily with justification before God and is conveyed to adults. Jesus refers to the innocence of childhood as an analogy for the justified state of the redeemed (Mark 10:15). The imputed "innocence" due to Christ's work compels believers into trusting dependence on God, similar to children's trusting dependence on their parents.
Jesus intimates that we should help prepare children for meeting Him in future conversion. However, no warrant exists to view Matthew 19:14 as ordaining child baptism.
Dwight Ropp,
Kitchener, Ont.
Return to the M.B. Herald Vol. 35, No. 13
Home Page