Love?  Peace?  Unity?

Norman P. Olsen

 

   Those who want to revise scriptural teachings and church standards by approving gay-lesbian unions and ordaining non-celibate homosexuals, argue:  "Well, Jesus loved everyone.”  True!  But Jesus never left people where he found them.  If they were sick, He healed.  If they were demon possessed, He exorcized.  If in need of forgiveness, He forgave.  We want to "love" as Jesus loved.  It's not enough to say to gays-lesbians, "We love you.  Enjoy your lifestyle.  Goodbye."  Any EX-gay or EX-lesbian will tell you how grateful they are that Christian witnesses did not leave them where they found them, but instead introduced them to the life transforming power of Jesus Christ, through repentance and faith.

   Again we hear:  "Jesus was heralded as the Prince of Peace.”  Again, true!  But His full name in Isaiah 9:6 is, "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  "Peace" can be a false idol, if it is something we "fear, love, trust" more than God Himself.  If we want "peace" we'll find it only in Him who is "Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.”  This is a first commandment vs. false idol, issue.

   Are we to forget that the very sign of the FALSE prophets was their message:  "Peace, peace, when there is no peace,” (Jer 8:11)?  In other words, their message was a band-aid on a festering boil:  There WAS NO peace such as they fancied.

   Peace is a gift only Christ can give:  "MY peace I give to you," (John14:27).  The peace of Christ is something you have in your heart when you're in the valley of the shadow of death – and God spreads a table before you in the presence of your ENEMIES.  Some people's idea of peace sounds more like Rodney King's plea:  "Folks, can't we just all get along?"  Let's go-along (with the gay agenda), so we can get-along.  Is this the peace we want?

   Again we're told that as Christians we are to be "Peace makers.”  True.  But why did Jesus say in the next verse (Matt 5:8-9), "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake (for what's right!)... when you are reviled and have all manner of evil spoken against you falsely ON MY ACCOUNT."  Peace is not the absence of conflict, the cessation of struggle, but a quality of life in the MIDST of the conflict and struggle.  "Blessed are you when reviled and persecuted."  There is a "peace" apart from being reviled.  It's called compromise, surrender; and there is no cross.  It's what the tempter wanted Jesus to do, but He chose the way of the cross.  Praise God!

   If not "love" and "peace" we are lectured about "Unity."  "Jesus prayed for the unity of the church!” we're told.  He certainly did.  But in that high priestly prayer (John 17), was Jesus praying for the ELCA's socio-political-anti-war agenda at Higgins Road, Chicago?  Or was He praying for the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (with a capital "C") which we confess, every Sunday, ALREADY exists, already is "one"?

   The Church has her unity in  Christ alone... ALREADY.  Unity is the gift of the Holy Spirit, not something WE accomplish by concordats, voting consensus, or ecumenical agreements.  That's uniformity.  What's the difference?  Unity is like a basketball team where all 5 players play difference positions, have different jobs, but all work in a united way to get the ball in the basket.  Uniformity is like a drill squad, where all dress the same, walk the same, act the same, ARE the same.

   Some pastors are saying, "Unity of the church must come first!  There must be no division, no schism!"  Christ never asked us to be "united" above all else.  He called us to be faithful:  To follow, to take up our cross.  The Bride of Christ must first of all be faithful, holy, sanctified.  And to be His holy Bride, scripture teaches us that we MUST expel;   separate; come out from among them; "…let him be as a gentile & tax-collector" when there is false teaching, or immorality, or apostasy.  Judgment separation  begins with the household of God!  There are times when, like Luther, we must take our stand because our conscience is captive to the Word of God.  It's called "discipleship," "teaching them to OBEY all that I have commanded you," (Matt 28).  And it comes before a humanly engineered organizational "unity".

   Finally we're often told to wait, “...for the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth about any controversial matter instead of prematurely taking action,” (presumably based on the Gamaliel principle in Acts 5:33-39).  It's dangerous to look for the "spirit" apart from the Word.  Yet some, even pastors, speak of the "spirit" as bringing a new message apart from the Word.  Jesus said, "Sanctify them in truth, your Word is truth," (John 17:17).  Again, "He, the Holy Spirit, will take what is mine and declare it to you."  God is not "doing a new thing" apart from His Word!  This is an old gnostic heresy, rampant today in the church.  The idea is, that you have your own private spirit within you, (Look within yourself for the truth!) and this spirit IN YOU is the true spirit, even when it contradicts Scripture!  So YOUR "feelings" (and "experiences") trump Scripture, Confession, and the Church's Great Tradition.  The triumph of subjectivism.

   "...Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you,” (I Peter 3:15).  Especially when others want to win you to accepting homosexual behavior as God's will.  What love?  What peace?  What unity, are we talking about?

 

Norman Olsen is a retired pastor who served  35 years at various parish settings in the SW MN

Synod, including 14 months as a part-time minister on the synod staff

 

 

 

 

 

Heresy of

“Gnosticism” defined:

 

From the Greek word,

gnosis, for “knowledge”

 

Gnostics were a sect among early Christians in which its advocates claimed, among other  issues, to have

superior spiritual knowledge, apart from scripture, which could be known only by properly “enlightened”

persons.