Tuesday, May 16, 2006
So What Am I Supposed To Do?
Reformation Theology links to this article - an article with which I agree with every word, but don't like the way it is presented. Consider the concluding paragraphs
I have to say this - I have seen a lot of "engineered revivals" in churches, I have seen them work and I have seen them fail and the difference has absolutely nothing to do with the what the planners and executers do - what could it be but the Holy Spirit? But consider this, if those planners and executers had not put in the effort, even the successful ones would not have happened. The Holy Spirit makes it work, and we may not know when He is going to show, but we have to assume He will.
However, when it really comes to this issue, I think it is one of attitude, more than action. In the fourteenth letter in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters I think Lewis has Screwtape hit precisely the right tone
You see, if we are indeed focused outward, focused on God, we can rely on the fact that He will guide us to do that which He will support and that which He would have us do. No more, when properly focused on God we will become His tools - it won't really be a matter of us doing the right thing, it will be a matter of God using us.
Come to think of it, maybe Jesus hit a somewhat better tone than Lewis had Screwtape hit:
We began this article discussing engineered revivals based on stirring up some innate ability in sinners by man-made means. Boice comments on this tendency in his chapter on Glory to God alone: "Spiritual work must be accomplished through God?s Spirit. So it is not you or I who stir up a revival, build a church, or convert even a single soul. Rather, it is as we are blessed in the work by God that God by the power of his Holy Spirit converts and sanctifies those he chooses to call to faith." No one who believed what Boice wrote would accept the designation, "inventor of perpetual revival." This gives glory to man, not God.What I don't like is, I hope, painfully obvious. This make it sounds like Calvinists don't do anything but sit around and wait for God to act - that we are bad evangelists.
There likely are complex reasons that the contemporary evangelical movement has for the most part left behind Reformation theology. The one that seems most apparent is the success of certain people in building huge churches and movements through man-centered theology and man-made techniques. We can build institutions and movements through human effort, but the true church of Jesus Christ is built by God's work through Christ. It is built as sinners are saved. Whether Christians believe Reformation doctrine or not, if they are truly regenerate, they are so because God alone saved them and He did so monergistically. How much better it would be for the church and the preaching of the gospel if we would return to the solas of the Reformation and give God all of the glory.
I have to say this - I have seen a lot of "engineered revivals" in churches, I have seen them work and I have seen them fail and the difference has absolutely nothing to do with the what the planners and executers do - what could it be but the Holy Spirit? But consider this, if those planners and executers had not put in the effort, even the successful ones would not have happened. The Holy Spirit makes it work, and we may not know when He is going to show, but we have to assume He will.
However, when it really comes to this issue, I think it is one of attitude, more than action. In the fourteenth letter in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters I think Lewis has Screwtape hit precisely the right tone
By this virture, as by all others, our Enemy wants to turn the man's attention away from self to Him and to the man's neighbors.The most impotant conclusion to draw from Calvinism is not "wait" but instead "look outward," particularly at God Himself.
[...]
Even of his sins the Enemy does not want him to think too much: once they are reprented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better the Enemy is pleased."
You see, if we are indeed focused outward, focused on God, we can rely on the fact that He will guide us to do that which He will support and that which He would have us do. No more, when properly focused on God we will become His tools - it won't really be a matter of us doing the right thing, it will be a matter of God using us.
Come to think of it, maybe Jesus hit a somewhat better tone than Lewis had Screwtape hit:
Luke 22:42b - yet not My will, but Thine be done."Related Tags: reformed, Calvinism, His will, Screwtape Letters, looking outward
