After last weekÕs article and following up on our fruit
of the Spirit article, I was struck that something should be said on the nature
of the fruit of piety. Piety is probably the most visible fruit of American
Evangelicalism. While it is pleasant to behold, many times it quickly rots from
the core outward, causing division and stress within individual believers as
well as the rest of the community. ItÕs taste is also the most prominent
outward criticism of the church by worldly persons, and it is made all the more
unpalatable by the spoken or unspoken remarks something to the effect of, Òwe
are being criticized for our walk with the Lord.Ó This criticism truly focuses
not on a God centered relationship, but in pietyÕs man centered nature.
In one of my moments of daily contemplation last week,
the Lord spoke to me and said, ÒJerry, piety is what you do when you should be
waiting on Me, but are too impatient for results. So you set out to do great
things for the Lord and eventually end up doing your own thing far from My
desired goal.Ó
While religious piety is as old as mankind, we can trace
its modern Protestant roots to Lutheran Germans of the 17th and 18th century.
The following brief description from Encarta gives us an idea how that early
movement has been adopted and adapted pretty much unchanged into our present
day, as the substance of American Evangelism:
Pietism, originally, a German Lutheran reform movement of
the 17th and 18th centuries which emphasized individual conversion, Òliving
faith,Ó and the fruits of faith in daily life. The name Pietism is derived from
the collegia pietatis (informal
devotional meetings) organized by Philipp Jakob Spener while he was a pastor in
Frankfurt. First held in Spener's home on Sunday afternoons, these meetings
soon became popular across Germany. Participants did not separate from the
established church and its worship but tried to change the church from within.
They held prayer meetings, studied the Bible individually and in small groups,
and led a disciplined Christian life. Claiming that faith is not the acceptance
of correct theological propositions but trust in Christ, they insisted that
pastors should have such faith in addition to their theological learning.
Convinced that the world could be won for Christ through the conversion and
Christian training of individuals, Pietists stressed the importance of
education.
August Hermann Francke (1663-1727), whom Spener
recruited, was a brilliant organizer and teacher who made the newly founded
University of Halle the intellectual center of Pietism. The university and
other institutions organized by Francke in Halle sent out lay and clerical
leaders to influence the ruling class of Protestant Germany and the younger
generation of pastors. They also prepared missionaries for service around the
world. Many of the Lutheran pastors in colonial America were Pietists educated
at Halle, and so were most of the early Protestant missionaries in Africa and
Asia. One of the most renowned students at Halle was Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von
Zinzendorf, who eventually became bishop of the Renewed Church of the Unity of
the Brethren (Moravian church).
Pietism was influenced by English Puritanism through
German translations of the works of Richard Baxter, Lewis Bayly (died 1631),
and John Bunyan, and in turn it affected religious development in England and
America, especially through its influence on John and Charles Wesley and
Methodism. In the Scandinavian countries, Pietism, with the support of the
nobility and the monarchy, revitalized the church. Eclipsed for a time by the
Enlightenment, Pietism reappeared in the 19th century and became an important
influence in the Christian church. Modern Pietists place emphasis on an ecumenical
spirit, the Òkingdom of GodÓ and its realization in history, ethics, and
personal Christian experience.
Sounds pretty good to me, how about you? This description
written for secular information, does correctly point to the nature of doing
great things for God and the zeal for Christian service. It however, states
nothing about God doing great things through His people,because many are
content to accomplish it on their own, without complete reliance on GodÕs help
or His word. But for religious piety to become true piety, there must be a
construct by which to move beyond self righteous reliance into God reliance
alone, to carry out the works we enthusiastically embrace and love to take
credit for.
One portion of one sentence above is something we all read
over and took little note because it has been lost in most of American
Evangelicalism. Ò Claiming that faith is not the acceptance of correct
theological propositions but trust in Christ, they insisted that pastors should
have such faith in addition to their theological learning.Ó We have emphasized
such faith so long, that we have lost the tension between Òtheological
learningÓ and the conversion experience. And this leads to the shallowness that
limits our true effectiveness in ministry at this time.
The Bible calls the church the ÒBody of Christ.Ó This is
used in our pietistic way to demonize denominations as we place emphasis upon
our ecumenical spirit. But in order to become a denomination you at least have
to have some doctrines or theological learning that separates you from others.
Rightly or wrongly! But to truly be the body of Christ the church must become
the body of God, not just the kingdom of God.
This of course makes no sense if one truly is uneducated
in Christian doctrine. Propitiation, justification are just big words as I move
through this world enlightened by the inner light of my own righteousness and
my own piety. The standards of true Biblical piety being replaced by a list of
do and donÕts that while I do not keep perfectly, IÕm getting better. But what
we donÕt see, outside a Biblical standard of absolute righteousness, I can
sanitize the rules until I have something I think I can live with. Except in
the process, I am left without the absolute nature of ChristÕs imputed righteousness
to me, that truly frees me from my sin.
On the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ, the sinless son of
God, took the transgressions of my sin upon Himself, imputing to me His
righteousness in a propitiatory sacrifice. That sacrifice being accepted by the
Father, is what justifies me in faith. His resurrection from the dead being the
visible manifestation that death that accompanies sin has been conquered. All
this is a sovereign act of GodÕs grace alone. This is what separates historic
Protestant doctrine from Roman Catholicism and much of pietistic Evangelicalism.
It is that doctrine of Christ alone, that truly gives us the religious freedom
that we seek, and it is available in no other source.
So with just of minuscule bit of simple doctrine we are
freed from the power of sin an death, why should we continue in the poverty of
our own piety. In Christ the incredible wonder of God richly dwells, but in
myself and my own works, I am stuck with nothing but quickly perishing
religious fruit. My Bible Dictionary lists the attributes of God as:
spirituality, infinity, eternity, immutability, sell-sufficiency, perfection,
freedom, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, justice, truth, love, mercy
and grace. Through the Cross of Christ, I can begin to understand these
attributes for the first time as not only written doctrine, but also first
fruits of my progressive sanctification as I am being transformed into the
image of Christ. This transforming process is not something that I can
accomplish through religious piety, even though I hope it will make me feel
secure. It is only accomplished by GodÕs sovereign work in the individual and
my waiting for His direction and not my impulsive religious behavior.
The true restoration or reformation of the church that
many of us seek is then rooted in the sovereign grace of God and my (our) faith
to live beyond the areas of our own understanding, trusting only upon the
provisions of the Bible as the infallible Word of God. Christians have a choice
greater than that offered by Joshua in Chapter 24:14,15. We have been given the
grace to understand and to serve the LORD either in the limited power of our
own godliness, or to begin to understand the magnificent opportunity to be
conformed by God into the first fruits of the image of Christ. This is the path
chosen by Paul, and it is the obligation of Christian leadership to understand
the doctrinal differences of this choice and to make peityÕs price and the
opportunity of true Christain freedom clear to their followers. The choice is
truly between the poverty of piety and the wealth of GodÕs eternal love promise
for his people.
Our hymn for this week by John Wesley, truly shows not
only the merit but also the limitations of our piety. HOW HAPPY IS THE
PILGRIMÕS LOT based upon ÒLay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earthÉBut lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven.Ó Matthew 6:19-20 available at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/i/hispilot.htm
There is a serious problem in trying to serve the LORD in
the attributes of God. That being nothing you try to do on your own works.
Also, for reasons completely unknown to my pious individuality, you have to
live out your teaching, way, way too often.
Last Wednesday I got a call from Bob Moore, one of our
radio siting guruÕs, wondering if I was interested in a low power FM station. I
had not thought about this possibility since we talked briefly late last
fall. The filing period for the
State of Washington opened Monday and the application must be filed by June
11th, or wait until the next filing period in a year or two. Not actually being
physically located now in the area, will make the application much more
difficult. But there will probably be no other applications for the number of
channels available, so if we would go ahead with it, there is a good chance of
securing a license. Considering the whole concept, the station would allow us
to reach the area in a significant way and with a properly sited tower, and
with GodÕs blessing we might be able to sneak some of the signal into Canada.
One problem would be siting the tower within 2.5 km. The location of the little
Dalles itself sits on the valley floor with limited exposure down the valley,
no access to the north at all (the direction we would like to broadcast), but
there is a great building that could serve as a studio. Possible solutions
would be to site the tower on the hillside across the river, or on one of two
rock hills on our side with no power, and not knowing who might own any of the
land. Should it all work out, I plan, as the Lord wills to go over Wednesday,
to offer on the property and try to find a location for the tower.
Please intercede for both the endeavors, as well as continue to pray for
financial provisions and personnel.