Faith Factor 4 – Only Faith

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The powerhouse of “faith” gives Christianity a potency and presence that is simply not available in any other religious context. Non-Christian religions rely on the strength of human will or the spiritual capacities of demons. Christians can put their faith directly in the Creator of all things; the most powerful entity in all of eternity.

However, faith is not a toy or some mystical power tool which ignorant people can use, independently of God’s existence or God’s will. Faith, as we have seen in the previous “Faith Factor” posts, is anchored in God and is directly connected with God’s pleasure. I am discuss with you, in yet a later post, the wonderful “Double Delight” which faith brings to bear. But for now, I want to seal with you the primacy of faith.

The Primacy of Faith

The human experience of Christianity is based on faith, and faith alone. Faith is the trump card. Faith is the supreme dimension. Faith is the only platform on which our new life rests.

While that fact is clearly supported in the Bible, people persist in expectation that other things are significant contributing factors.

Of particular natural interest to people is the notion of duty and dedication. Religious duties and acts of devotion seem naturally to be important expressions of spiritual life. And so Christians can easily be distracted by those things, in place of walking in faith.

People tend to think that duty, sacrifice or other religious processes are necessary to please God. They readily expect that people of supreme dedication and sacrifice have attained an elevated place in God’s reference books.

Only Faith

However, what is it that Hebrews 11:6 says about faith? This is my favourite defining text for understanding faith. And Hebrews 11:6 clearly states that ONLY faith pleases God. All other actions will fail to please God unless faith is involved in them.

“But without faith it is impossible to please him (God): for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Only faith pleases God. Sacrifice, duty, dedication and the like will not displace, replace or supersede faith.

Duty and Diligence

Ignatius Loyola, writing back in 1553, extolled the virtues of blind obedience. In his letter he pointed to Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac as a model for subordinates to blindly follow the instructions of his superior. He parallels Abraham’s obedience with that of an Abbot John who dutifully obeyed when instructed to water a dry stick.

“presuppose and believe that what the Superior enjoins is the command of God our Lord, and His holy Will; and to proceed blindly without enquiry of any kind, to the carrying out of the command, with the prompt impulse of the will desirous of obeying. So it is to be thought Abraham did when commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac; and likewise in the New Testament, some of those holy Fathers, to whom Cassian refers, as the Abbot John, who did not question whether he was commanded was profitable or not, as when with such great labor he watered a dry stick throughout a year”

Loyola’s elevation of duty and diligence falls flat against Hebrews 11:6. Only faith will please God, not blind obedience and dogged duty.

Luther’s Faith

As Martin Luther struggled to find peace with God and to reconcile the Bible with what he saw in the Catholic church of his day, he engaged in many acts of devotion and piety. One which the Pope commended was to kiss the 28 marble steps of the Scala Sanctum in Rome. These Holy Stairs are claimed to be the same ones which Jesus ascended when He was sentenced by Pilate. It is claimed that angels magically transported the steps to Rome.

Catholics were encouraged to kiss each of the steps. But as Luther did so he heard the words, “the just shall live by faith”, and that stopped him in his tracks.

“One day, among others, wishing to gain an indulgence which he Pope had promised to every one who should on his knees climb up what is called Pilate’s Stair, the Saxon monk was humbly crawling up the steps, which he was told had been miraculously transported to Rome from Jerusalem. But while he was engaged in this meritorious act, he thought he heard a voice of thunder which cried at the bottom of his heart, as at Wittenberg and Bologna, ‘The just shall live by faith.‘ These words, which had already on two different occasions struck him like the voice of an angel of God, resounded loudly and incessantly within him. He rises up in amazement from the steps along which he was dragging his body. Horrified at himself, and ashamed to see how far superstition had abased him, he flies far from the scene of his folly.”

Duty or Faith

At the moment Luther stood to his feet and walked away from the steps he had been kissing, other devotees would have looked at him and been glad that they were not giving up. To those bound to duty Luther was about to miss his blessing.

Luther would have been seen as the loser and the dutiful as the ones pleasing God. Yet it was the other way around. It is Faith that pleases God, not duty. The just will live by Faith, not diligent duty.

Yet many Christians readily fall into religious duty and routine, forgetting that it is faith and only faith that God is looking for.

Luther pleased God when he stopped kissing the steps and walked away. Those who remained diligent at the task of physical devotion were not pleasing God. The one who walked away and determined to worship God according to the Bible was the one who pleased God. Devotees may embrace any manner of discipline with whole-hearted devotion, but they cannot please God by their religious service.

Hindu Devotees

I have been to the Batu Caves, north of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, where Hindu devotees inflict pain upon themselves to prove their devotion to their gods. The tortuous ways in which these devotees show their devotion have become legendary.

Moslems engaged in their pilgrimage or attending to their fast may think that their religious obedience makes an impression on God.

Yet religious sacrifice and devotion is all in vain. The true and living God is not impressed with acts of physical endurance or personal sacrifice. God is looking for faith, and only faith will please Him.

A tiny child who has faith brings far more delight to God than any acts of devotion. A man who is an invalid and incapable of performing religious acts, can please God more than any other, by his faith, not by his physical achievements.

God Enjoys the Impossible

In Otto Koening‘s message, “God Enjoys the Impossible”, he tells of a young boy who trusts God do restore boiled eggs which have broken open during cooking. The boy’s father, a non-Christian, personally told Otto of the miracle that happened when the boy trusted God to restore the eggs.

That boy, poor and powerless, pleased God. The boy trusted God. The boy walked in faith.

That’s what it’s all about. Faith is the thing. And only faith will please God.

Katherina Von Bora Creates Luther’s Family

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Katherina Von Bora escaped on April 14!  It was 1523.

The Protestant Reformation was under way, and a letter reached Martin Luther that nine nuns wanted to leave the convent in Torgau, Germany – could he help them?  So Luther arranged for his friend, Leonard Koppe, to deliver smoked herrings to the cloister … and according to W Peterson, those nuns hid themselves in the empty barrels (Martin Luther Had a Wife, page 21).   JH Alexander might be more accurate when he says the escapees were hiding behind the barrels.

In any case, three of the nuns returned to their parents, Luther found husbands for the others … except Katherina Von Bora.  He married her himself – on 13 June, 1525.  She was 26 and he was 42.

By this unexpected development, pressed upon Luther by his father and friends, the once celibate monk became a keen advocate of married life. The family which Katie created for Luther became a model for German households for centuries to follow.

She transformed the Augustinian monastery at Wittenberg where Luther had been given place to base his ministry. She cleaned up the monastery and brought some order to Luther’s daily life.

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“Before I married,” Luther later wrote, “no-one had made my bed up for a year.  The straw was rotting from my sweat.” Now that had to change.  Katie, he tells us, even gave him a pillow!

It was a happy marriage – though the Reformer did say on one occasion that if he ever married again, “I would hew me an obedient wife out of stone”.  But when he spoke of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians he called it “my Katherina Von Bora”, for it was the portion of Scripture closest to his heart.

Six children were born in the Luther household and they adopted four more.

Among Luther’s quoted comments on marriage are the following: “My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus.” “There is no bond on earth so sweet, nor any separation so bitter, as that which occurs in a good marriage.” Luther viewed marriage as a school for character. Family life helped train Christians in the virtues of fortitude, patience, charity, and humility.

Katie managed the family finances and released Luther’s mind for his writing, teaching, and ministering. Luther called her the “morning star of Wittenberg” since she rose at 4 a.m. to care for her many responsibilities: vegetable garden, orchard, fishpond, and barnyard animals, even butchering them herself. She brewed beer, bred cattle and leased land for cultivation. During Luther’s frequent illnesses Katie helped him with great medical skill.

And Katherina (“Kitty, my Rib”, he sometimes called her) died in 1552, having survived her famous husband. She had fled to Torgau, to escape a plague in Wittenberg.

Her last words were, “I will stick to Christ as a burr to a top coat”.

More information about Katherina and Luther can be found at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/ministry/church-history/katherine-von-bora

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This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

Philip Melanchthon Anchors Reformation Theology

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Philip Melanchthon was born February 16, 1497 in Bretten, Western Germany. His birth name was Philip Schwartzerd, meaning ‘black earth’, but he changed his surname to Melanchthon, the Greek equivalent, during his education.

He was a brilliant student who excelled in his humanist studies so well (here humanist means – non-theological) that he entered Heidelberg University at age 13 and was deemed too young to receive the B.A. degree he earned in just 2 years. He went on to earn an M.A. at Tuebingen University by age 17, whereupon he was put to lecturing to the students, much to the displeasure of his peers.

He considered humanistic learning to be a “wonderful gift of God” and went on to lecture at the new university in Wittenberg. This brought him into contact with Martin Luther.

Europe’s Renaissance humanists were offended by Luther’s suggestion that human achievement plays no part in salvation, but Melanchthon embraced both the reality of faith and the value of secular understanding.

In 1524 Melanchthon began establishing public schools, reorganising Universities, organising teacher training and writing multiple textbooks.

Both colleague and companion of the impetuous Martin Luther, the gentle and scholarly spirit of Melanchthon did much to keep the Reformation true to its theological moorings.

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It was he who drew up the “Confession of Augsburg”, a modified version now being the creed of the Lutheran faith, and it was his commentary on Romans that was held in such high regard that it soon found its way onto the Romish index of banned books.

This commentary, with its ‘divisions and arrangements, became the stereo-typed method followed by all Protestant writers on doctrine’ (Cyclopaedia of Modern Religious Biographies, page 336).

One writer describes Melanchthon as being the only Reformer “who had the scraggy look of an intellectual” (Bamber Gascoigne, in The Christians, page 167).

After Luther’s death, Melanchthon became the acknowledged leader of the Lutheran cause.

His workday started at 2am and continued, tirelessly until 9pm. He and his wife, Katharine, adopted the orphaned children of his sister-in-law, then later added five more children when his daughter died. Katharine died when Melanchthon was 60.

14 years after Luther’s death Melanchthon came to his end. He cut short a lecture on April 9, after staggering to the class. He then languished for another ten days and died on 19 April, 1560.

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Katherine Von Bora the Model Wife

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“There is a lot to get used to in the first year of marriage,” wrote Martin Luther. “One wakes up in the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow that were not there before…” Those pigtails belonged to ex-nun, Katherine Von Bora.

Katherine Von Bora was born, in Lippendorf, Germany on January 29, 1499. Her mother died when she was only three so her father placed her in the convent school in Brehna where she was raised to become a nun.

When she was 19 Martin Luther’s 95 theses were expounded at Wittenberg. At that time she would have had no expectation of ever becoming his wife. But she and eleven other nuns believed in the principles which he taught. When Luther heard of this some four years later he arranged for a merchant friend to help them escape from the Nimbschen Convent, hidden in empty fish barrels, on April 4, 1522.

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Some of the nuns returned to their homes and Luther helped find homes, husbands or placements for the rest, over a two year period.

When Katherine was the only nun not successfully placed Luther was encouraged by his father and friends to marry her himself. Thus on June 13, 1525, 41 year-old Luther became engaged to 26 year-old Katherine Von Bora and married her 12 days later!

She has been called the “Patron saint of Ministers’ Wives”!

Luther’s love for “Kitty, my rib”, as he affectionately called her, continued to grow. “When he spoke of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, he called it, ‘My Katherine Von Bora’. It was the epistle that was closest to his heart” (Martin Luther Had a Wife, by W. Peterson, page 35).

After just a year of marriage the former celibate monk said of marriage, “There is no bond on earth so sweet, nor any separation so bitter, as that which occurs in a good marriage”.

Six children were born, four of which survived to adulthood. And the couple also adopted four extra children. Katie brought order to Luther’s life, managed his finances and freed him to concentrate on his important work. She also managed the domestic operation of the former Augustinian monastery at Wittenberg, which had been given to Luther. She managed the gardens, orchard, fishery and barnyard, and she purchased a farm property to expand their animal holdings. She even butchered animals herself.

Luther referred to Katie as “the morning star of Wittenberg”, since she rose each day at 4am to start her many tasks.

What is remarkable about Katherine and the marriage which she achieved with Luther is how unqualified they both were to be the role-models they became. For several centuries this family became a model for German families, yet Katherine had not been raised in a family. She had been prepared for a life of celibacy and service to the church. Luther had been a celibate monk until he was 41. Yet this couple demonstrated the joy of marriage and the importance of family.

Luther, from his own experience, was able to recognise marriage as a school of character, where the relationships prompted the development of Christian virtues such as fortitude, patience, charity, and humility.

Katie outlived her controversial husband by six years – her dying words being, “I will stick to Christ as a burr to a top coat”.

She died on 20 December, 1552.

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Aurelius Augustine Sets the Course of Christian Doctrine

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Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was born on November 13 in Togaste, North Africa, in AD 354.

His father, Patricius was burgess of the town and a pagan, which set young Augustine toward a self-indulgent lifestyle. However his mother, Monica, was a Christian who devoted herself to prayer for both her husband and son. In years to come she saw both come to faith.

From his earliest days Monica instructed her son in the truth of Jesus Christ and initially her efforts appeared effective. When he fell ill he asked to be baptized, but he put the matter off once he recovered. He then threw aside all Christian principles and followed in his father’s sensual values. He had several mistresses, one which bore him a son, Adeodatus, whom he dearly loved.

While his mother prayed for him his ambition for knowledge led him eventually under the influence of Abrose in Milan. But not before he had become keenly devoted to several philosophies and heresies of the day. His demand for intellectual satisfaction saw his sour with each new hope of philosophic resolution. Meanwhile, however, he had gained a reputation as a teacher of rhetoric and was in some demand.

Thus Augustine came to Milan and came under the influence of Ambrose, of whom he said, “I was led to him unknowingly by God, that I might knowingly be led to God by him.” The main text that Ambrose pressed in those days was 2 Corinthians 3:6, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” This deeply impressed Augustine who was still questing for truth that liberated.

The testimony of Victorinus, a fellow teacher of rhetoric who converted to Christianity, shook Augustine. He told God, “I burned to imitate him. .… He appeared to me not so much brave as happy, because he had discovered an opportunity of waiting on You only. For this was what I was longing for, thus bound, not with the irons of another, but my own iron will.”

Augustine had given in to sensual desires and they now ruled him. He every attempt to transcend sin was defeated and he knew he was a slave to the chains of his own immoral choices. Desperate to come to faith he kept being pulled back by the fear of death to self and the total loss of all sensual addictions.

This is how Augustine described his slavery to evil self will. “The enemy held fast my will, and had made of it a chain, and had bound me tight with it. For out of the perverse will was lust made, and lust indulged in became habit, and habit not resisted became necessity. By these links, as it were, joined together (which is why I called it a ‘chain’), a hard bondage held me enthralled .… made strong by long indulgence.”

Unable to break free from his own evil choices Augustine ran into the garden and flung himself to the ground beneath a fig tree and there wept himself through repentance before God. He was then prompted by a voice telling him to “Take up and read” the Bible, which led him to Romans 8:13,14. “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof” He adds, “I had neither desire nor need to read farther. As I finished the sentence, as though the light of peace had been poured into my heart, all the shadows of doubt dispersed. Thus hast Thou converted me to Thee, so as no longer to seek either for wife or other hope of the world, standing fast in that rule of faith in which Thou so many years before hadst revealed me to my mother” (Confess., viii. 30).

Following his conversion Augustine sought a life of retirement and solitude. This became the basis for the monastic life which he later prescribed and which grew into the Augustinian order. After three years he went to Hippo to visit a friend and was there pressed by overwhelming popular demand to take the position of presbyter. He took the post and progressed from that to the position of Bishop of Hippo.

In that role he wrote extensively, contending with the popular heresies of the day, including some he had previously been devoted to. His writings and his piety set the course for future development of Christian theology and thought.

Augustine’s impact on church history cannot be estimated. Benjamin Warfield says “he transfigured the Christian faith for those who would follow”.

Kenneth Scott Latourette wrote “without Augustine’s massive intellect Western theology would never have taken the shape in which it is familiar to us”.

His autobiography, Confessions, is regarded as a classic of Christian literature.

Roman Catholics canonised him … and a young Martin Luther belonged to the Augustinian order of monks.

His treatises against the heresies of his day reveal him to be the church’s most able apologist. One statistician claims that Augustine – in his writings – quoted the Old Testament 13,276 times, and the New Testament 29,540 times! (Treasury of Evangelical Writings, by D.O. Fuller, page 51).

But not everybody sings the praises of this famous Bishop of Hippo.

Arminius disputes his teaching on election. Baptists question his paedo-baptist stance, pre-millennialists take issue with his prophetic views, and his emphasis that the church should “compel her erring sons to return to the fold” led to the deaths of thousands when baptism or the sword became a matter of ‘conversion’. His passionate insistence that infants need baptism to protect them from their sins is not a belief that is commonly held today.

At the end of Augustine’s life the Vandals, who had been gradually enclosing the Roman empire, laid siege to the city of Hippo. Being ill, Augustine only pray for his fellow-citizens. He passed away during the progress of the siege, on the 28th of August 430, at the age of seventy-five. Thus he was spared the distress of seeing the city all into enemy hands.

This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History, which I previously considered to be a little stuffy and of little practical value. I find in the process of updating Don’s Christian Diary that I am being constantly refreshed, illuminated or challenged by the lives of those who have gone before.