- Mar 17, 2015
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Another challenge is the influence of decision theology (Arminianism) in most Christian branches. I have many issues with Calvinists, but one area where Luths and Calvs agree is that we don't inherently "choose" to follow God, God chooses us. This mindset is completely foreign to most other American Protestants, who think you choose God and that you need to be running into every street corner to make converts pick God. The difference between the Lutheran view of monergism and, say, the independent fundamental Baptist view of getting everyone to do the Romans road, "win souls," and make a public proclamation to faith, is immense (I always found it funny that the IFB were naive enough to think they could win massive multitudes to faith with the right gimmicks, and yet their churches seldom grew -- they are oblivious to the fact that most Americans are heading secular, and few secular men want to lead, while few women want to dress in ankle-length skirts -- you can't be separate from the world, while thinking you are also converting the world en masse; there is no Biblical or contextual precedent for this, and it also violates basic empirical logic!).
Different wording (not necessarily a different meaning!) that seems more true to me personally (since I have been in so many churches in my life) is that we have faith because God made us able to have faith or even intervenes to help us -- "graciously enabled". And then another wording that makes sense with the totality of scripture (taken together as a whole) is that we are cooperating with Him, and He is working in us, accomplishing all that we never could, and helping us all along, as we rely on Him.
So, the distinctions some try to make in theology about whether we 'cooperate' or not seems moot to me, in that simply Christ tells us to do, and tells us we can only do if we abide in Him, remaining in Him, have His words remain in us, remain on the Vine (John chapter 15), and that's it. Further distinctions are just likely to only confuse, and miscommunicate, more than anything. Put another way, I'm thinking most people in church A will flourish just as well in church B, even if to a few it appears superficially as if the two churches have differences in theology, because people are not quite understanding precisely what everyone means by the wordings they use (often), though of course some are merely ideological (and then we could pray for them individually).
This might help some -- in our Lutheran church we several times a year will be encouraged to evangelize, though in a variety of ways (not preaching on street corners necessarily! ), including for instance to simply show Christ in our actions, as one example (but not the only one).
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