"I Have Been Blessed to be a Blessing!"

The special Christmas 2011 issue of the "Saved by Grace Alone" newsletter introduced  Yirgalem Ketema from Eritrea, East Africa, and detailed how she has kept her Christian faith throughout her difficult journey (sometimes even on foot!) to be a part of POBLO-TX. Many of our partners in the Gospel reached out to Ketema after hearing her story, putting into action God's word to us in Romans 12:13, "Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality" (NIV). St. Paul Lutheran Church in Groves, TX, shared with Ketema by collecting kitchen and clothing items for her. In addition, Ketema spent Christmas weekend with dear friends of hers (and all of the POBLO-TX team) and even attended their church with them at Our Redeemer in Longview, TX.

But the biggest change in Ketema's daily life is a new home! At the time of the recent article, Ketema was thankful to have a place to stay--even though it wasn't very safe or comfortable. However, the Holy Spirit opened the eyes and heart of a wonderful Christian woman who worked with Ketema while volunteering at POBLO-TX during December, especially working on the Christmas Tree of All Nations project, and she knew she had to do something about Ketema's need and practice hospitality.  

JoAnn Grissom, who is a member of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, invited Ketema to live in her home that is very near the POBLO-TX location at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Dallas. According to JoAnn, she invited Ketema to share her home because she "couldn't stand someone living like that-like having to sleep on a box-when I have the room." She said, "I didn't think twice; I knew I needed to share since I have the things to offer." JoAnn added, "I give God all the glory; I have been blessed to be a blessing!" As The Message says, "The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped" (Proverbs 11:25).

Ketema now has a very safe home including her own bedroom and bathroom and shared laundry facilities. In addition, she recently began using a home computer provided by POBLO-TX and set up for her by Dennis Delzer; he and his wife Linda are members of Our Redeemer-Dallas and POBLO-TX volunteers who teaches ESL computer classes. Dennis and Linda are also arranging for Ketema to receive care from their eye doctor as she has been experiencing vision trouble, headaches, and eye strain.

Besides her missionary and other work for POBLO-TX, Ketema stays very busy taking classes to learn English and American culture. She also regularly visits her Muslim friends in order to share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. Right now, JoAnn provides transportation for her as often as she is able, and Ketema has recently gotten her driver's permit. In addition to not having to pay rent for her new home, Ketema is even able to earn money by doing housekeeping. According to JoAnn, she does an excellent job at this and would like to find more cleaning jobs to earn money. [NOTE: If anyone knows about any available housecleaning jobs in the Our Redeemer area of Dallas, please contact the POBLO-TX office.]

Ketema loves her new home with JoAnn and is very thankful to God for providing for her in this way. She said, "JoAnn is a sweetheart, and living with her is going very well. She gives me for free so much of what I need!"

A God by Any Other Name

By Rev. Scott Murray of Memorial Lutheran Church in Houston, TX (by permission)

 

  

In the fourth century, the Arians controversy over the divinity of the Son was not simply a debate between those who thought that the Son was fully God and those who denied it, by saying that He was a mere creature. The radical Arians were saying that Christ was not of the same substance with the Father. The defenders of the Nicene faith, of course, confessed that the Son was of the same substance as the Father. Many ancient churchmen attempted to split the difference, so spinelessness was not invented by our contemporary churchmen. There were several grades of compromisers who attempted to split the difference. They supported one shade or another of the concept that the Son was neither   unlike nor identical to the Father in substance, but was similar in substance with the Father. This wishy-washy compromise satisfied no one over the long haul and did not properly reflect the divine teaching of the divinity of Christ according to Scripture, but it helped to muddy the waters in the middle of the fourth century.

Those who were uncertain about the full divinity of the Son of God, were then good candidates to be uncertain about the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. They, even after accepting the Nicene confession that Christ is of the same substance with the Father, sometimes found it difficult to make the same confession about the person of the Holy Spirit, refusing to see that the confession of the first obligated the confessor to the second. Having given in on the first point, they wanted to dig in their heals about the second. How typical of us humans! But such an attempt was ill-fated. To accept the full divinity of the Son, but to deny the full divinity of the Holy Spirit, is a bit like being a bit dead or a little pregnant. One either is dead or not dead, pregnant or not pregnant, not a little of both. Either both the Son and the Holy Spirit are fully God or neither is. It took some time for everyone to see this.

The fully Arian position was called "complete ungodliness." However, those who accepted the full divinity of the Son but declined to call the Holy Spirit fully God were also in need of admonishment. Gregory Nazianzus, one of the ancient church fathers, mocks them by calling them "not quite dead": half this and half that. God has been perfectly clear about the revelation of His Son as God of God; only those who cannot make a decisive statement will beat around the bush about the divinity of the Holy Spirit. They are neither here nor there-- mealy-mouthed leaders of the confused. From such "leadership," Lord, protect us. Each of the persons of the Trinity is fully and completely God.

Nor is this a problem only in the ancient church. We must defend the teaching of the holy Trinity always. Christians have always struggled to explain the deep theology of the holy Trinity to those who are not insiders. Recently, there has been a flap over the unwillingness of some Bible translators to describe God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, especially if those translations are targeted for a Muslim audience. [NOTE from POBLO-TX: This is the issue addressed by Rev. Baidaoui's article - Click here for the link]. It is thought that Muslims will be offended by reading the baptismal formula of "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19). So there has been an effort to call the Son of God "the beloved of God" in some translations. Can we re-image the divine name in such a way that it will be less offensive to our Muslim readers without putting at risk the content of the divine revelation and the substance of the divinity?

What kind of Christianity would be less offensive to the Muslim (or for that matter, anyone else outside the Christian community)? It would be one that is more like Islam. What is a Christianity that is more like Islam? It isn't Christianity. Why would Christians seek to soft-peddle the distinctive teaching of the holy Trinity? It must be taught and explained to the Islamic listener sooner or later. To hide this distinctive Christian teaching is to play theological bait-and-switch, by which we may try interest Muslims in Christianity on false grounds, only later to lay on them the doctrine of the Trinity. What difference is between this and lying is, I do not know. We may not play fast and loose with the divine names. The first and second commandments do not include exceptions for translations for Muslims. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God!

Since when have we had the idea that the gospel can be shared risk free? What makes us think that we ought to be able to share Christ without riling up those who hear His teaching? Our Lord Himself has told us what true blessedness consists of: "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt 5:11-12). So when we stir up persecution because we speak the gospel and name God as He has names Himself to us, we can call ourselves the truly blessed of God. Where is the downside in that?

The ancient heretics of the church tried to undo the names of God over a millennium and a half ago. Some false teachers performed baptisms "in the name of the Creator, the Co-operator, and the Servant," which sounds suspiciously like the progressive feminist baptismal formula: "in the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier." This formula was intended to remove the offense of the masculine names for God. I seriously doubt that this renaming of God caused a groundswell of feminist conversions to Christianity of any kind. Neither will soft-peddling to Muslims the name of the blessed holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A god by any other name is not God.

Yes, we struggle with the inter-Trinitarian relations. How can the Spirit proceed from the Father and the Son, while the Son does not proceed from the Father, but is begotten, and both remain fully and completely divine? In other words, if the Spirit is not also a Son in relation to the Father, can He be said to be lesser than Christ who is the Son? If Christ is God and is also the Son, then would it not be necessary for all three persons to be "Son," so as to be co-equal? Yikes! This is getting deep! But we may not ignore these issues of the meaning of the holy Trinity. These problems must be considered again (and should be in every generation), especially because of the challenge we face in evangelizing Muslims. Their views of the holy Trinity are very much like the views of Christian heretics of the ancient church. And perhaps the aberrant views of the Trinity held by Islam arose from contact with Christian heretics separated from the church. Arius and his many followers laid the theological groundwork for Islam. Ah, so studying church history is valuable after all! Again: there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl 1:9).

Let us consider the differences in internal relations among the persons of the holy Trinity. The Son is Son because He is begotten of His Father, and the Father is the one who begets and is for that reason Father. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. Is the Son deficient because He is not the Father and does not beget, but is begotten? Is the Father deficient because He is not the Son and is not begotten, but begets? Let's consider the case of human generation. Who would argue that a person who is not a son to him is any less fully, completely and equally human? The point is that differences in relation do not imply deficiency in essence, or an inequality of essence.  

This is why in Western societies, where Christianity still provides some moral grounding, however weak, we would give equal protection under the law to those who are incapable of generating children because of a serious developmental handicap. Such persons, although they will never be fathers or mothers, are fully and completely human and are fully and completely sons and daughters of their fathers. The same could be said of those who are capable of being fathers, but choose to be celibate for the sake of the kingdom. They are no less human for that choice, despite the fact that the liberal purveyors of the sexual identity trade would call this into question. Thus we would conclude differences in relation do not require differences in essence. The Spirit is no less fully God because He is not the Son of the Father, but rather proceeds from the Father and the Son.

How the church sorted out some of these ancient theological squabbles is not insignificant, because the same battles are being fought today, as Christians confess their faith in the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to their Muslim friends. The faith must be believed and shared in every generation, or the faith will die. Let us confess the unity of the Godhead and the divinity of all three persons of the holy Trinity.

Memorial Moments is an email devotion produced every weekday by Pastor Scott Murray of Memorial Lutheran Church, Houston, Texas. You can join a growing family of subscribers at: www.memorialmoments.org