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I just reread a periodical from one of our Missouri Synod colleges. The entire issue is dedicated to "Ablaze!", our synod's mission initiative to touch 100 million people with the Gospel by means of this program by the year 2017, the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation.
Pardon me, but merely "touching" people with the Gospel reminds me of the glib advertising slogan of a certain telecommunications company some years back, "Reach out and touch someone!" It's all a bit too touchy-feely for my taste.
And, if you don't mind my saying so and if I'm not mistaken, I believe the Reformation, the anniversary of which this campaign purports to celebrate, was about something more substantive than merely touching the great unwashed hordes with the Gospel--and about doing so by divine not human means!
The articles, for the most part, were written by synod and district mission executives, individuals with a vested interest in the program, an ax to grind, to be sure (and a dull one at that)! No matter how well-meaning, however, "Ablaze!" is a human initiative not a divine one.
The question is, how can a human initiative, no matter how well-intended, reach anyone, to say nothing of 100 million people, with the Gospel? One writer talks about "Ablaze!" igniting human hearts for the Gospel.
When it comes to ignition, Biblically speaking--and especially if there is to be liftoff--I thought it was God who ignites hearts. And that He does so by the Gospel not for the Gospel (except for God-infused evangelical fervor for its dissemination)--that the Gospel, not a human initiative, furnishes both the spark for the ignition and the kindling and the wood for the fire, and that the wood is not the dead wood of man-made programs but the living wood of the cross which fuels all hearts that are ablaze with the Gospel and on fire for Christ.
Another writer, a synod mission executive, speaks of "Ablaze!" this way. "The vision of igniting a world wide Lutheran mission movement to share the Gospel with 100 million people is being expressed by the word 'Ablaze!'" Besides doing the igniting--and that, through the Gospel not via a spark of human origin--I thought God furnishes the vision for any Biblical missions--and that, via the same Gospel, not by way of any human movement, regardless of how well-intended.
Listen to this zealous administrator as he attributes to "Ablaze!", this well-intended human movement, what Scripture attributes to God alone working solely through His Gospel. "The 'Ablaze!' goal is to kindle the spirit of Paul and Barnabas and the first century Church to share the Good News with 100 million people by the year 2017. 'Ablaze!' is a renewed and long over-due call to return to the world mission of the Church. 'Ablaze!' has ignited a fire on the foreign mission fields. ÖI for one feel the powerÖ."
The trouble is, if it's not a fire of God's igniting, if it's a man-made fire, it's a bonfire of vanities. And vain human fire-starters are bound to be burned! This is shameless synergism, the human aberration of taking credit for doing what only God can do and does do, such as igniting human hearts with the Gospel, not with man-made accelerators, and fueling the resulting fire--no bonfire of vanities but a life-giving fire fed by the life-saving wood of Christ's cross.
The question remains. How can a human program, initiative or movement, no matter how well-meaning, reach anyone for Christ, much less touch 100 million people with His love, or share the Gospel with them, when the Bible insists that God alone does this, through His Self-appointed human agents, to be sure, solely by means of His Gospel for Christ's sake alone?
And is reaching and touching and sharing, all this touchy-feely business, this glib advertising and these spin doctors and their spin, finally, the chief thing God commands? To listen to these good fellows, you might think so. But listen to this.
"All authority in heaven and on earth," Jesus declares, "is given to me." The word "authority" signifies the active power, not latent or potential but active power, to do as Jesus wills, all that He wills, whatever He wills, whenever He wills, in heaven as on earth; in other words, everywhere for all time universally. All authority and power and jurisdiction, not most of it, not just the most important part, but the whole kit and caboodle!
That doesn't leave any for us aberrant humans to take credit for with our well-intentioned initiatives and movements. This divine authority, power and jurisdiction, Jesus' own, His disciples--also His ablaze ones--are to realize and share as He sends them forth, not as they go off half-cocked on their own.
They will need this all-availing dominion, not man-made methods and means, if God is to ignite even one smoldering wick, not to mention 100 million souls, by way of His Gospel, which He sends them forth to administer on His behalf. For by His name and under His standard and in His might and main they will do far more than merely reach or touch folks or share the Gospel with them.
Since they go as Christ sends them, at His beck and call, under His authority and in His power with His means of grace, they will disciple people of all nations, baptizing and teaching them--and teaching them to keep--everything Christ commands.
And by this means, Christ won't only ignite people. He will make disciples of them. He will do it, not well-meaning human beings, except at His behest. He'll do it by way of the well-meaning human beings He calls and equips. He will do it, not by their well-meaning programs but through His Gospel which they administer in His name.
And the world will be ablaze with His Spirit and His truth and His faith, not with man-made infernos. And we won't go to blazes after all! Amen.
- Pastor Erickson