Baptists Recovering Lost Catholic Treasure of Lent

In yet another demonstration of Christ continuing to unify His Church, I read that a number of Baptist churches have begun Ash Wednesday services and are encouraging their congregations to prepare for Easter by keeping the liturgical season of Lent.

Most Baptists churches continued their tradition of focusing on scripture by starting special Lenten scripture studies:

"This year for lent we held an Ash Weds here at our Baptist Church (not a normal thing for a ‘free church’). The other unusual thing was that we held it Shrove Tues for a number of logistical reasons. It was most of our groups first experiece of ash weds and we did some further thinking around lent."

"We started a Wednesday Night Bible Study series on Ash Wednesday called Eyeing Easter. Former Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Denton Lotz wrote the material and invited his readers to take a journey of personal reflection during this "in between time" called Lent."

A few Baptist Churches went further and imposed ashes on their congregations:

"Last night during our Wednesday evening service this author introduced Ash Wednesday to our church. We first talked about the history of Lent and of Ash Wednesday and how we can use these times to strengthen our own faith and resolve to stand against Satan and the world. ...

...We talked about how other churches have priests administer the ashes, but how since we are all priests we can do this for ourselves. ...

That is what is so wonderful about being a Baptist, we are free to find a celebrate lost treasures from our Christian past and give them new meaning and life to a new generation."

Actually, what our Baptist friend, who is new to Ash Wednesday, doesn't realize is that imposition of ashes is not restricted to Catholic priests alone. Deacons and lay persons also may impose ashes on any baptised Christian. Personally, I hope our fellow Baptists will continue to recover the lost treasures thrown out by the Reformers.

My favorite quote by a Baptist minister is this one by Rev. Jeremy Rutledge of Covenant Baptist Church:

"I put my thumb into a bowl of ashes and I put the ashes on someone's forehead and tell him he is going to die," Rutledge told the Chronicle. "It is incredibly powerful."

Dude! With a quote like that, it shouldn't be too long before all Baptists ministers take up imposing ashes. Of course, not all Baptists like the idea of Ash Wednesday and Lent, as Michael at The Boar's Head Tavern can attest:

"Of course, doing the service early meant the ashes were visible all day. This prompted one of the deacons of the local Baptist church that I’ve been attending to take the opportunity to ridicule some men wearing the ashes and to ask where the priest was who did that? I’m trying to give up denominational bigotry for Lent, so no comment. Or was it dessert?"

Please feel free to share any similar happenings in your non-Catholic place of worship. Comments will be open through February.

Sources:
Weird Hippy
Danny Chisholm
Spiritual Samurai
The Boar's Head Tavern
moldova.org

Robert Webber Has Gone Before Us Marked With The Sign of Faith

Christianity Today reports that Robert Webber, a Bob Jones University graduate and leader in the Ancient-Future Church movement, has died of cancer. Robert is the founder of the Institute for Worship Studies in Jacksonville, Florida.

As a theologian, Robert wrote over 40 books focusing on worship and the early church. Robert is credited with being the catalyst for a renewal of patristics among non-Catholic Christians. He is reknown for The Call, a portion of which is posted below:

We call for public worship that sings, preaches and enacts God's story. We call for a renewed consideration of how God ministers to us in baptism, eucharist, confession, the laying on of hands, marriage, healing and through the charisms of the Spirit, for these actions shape our lives and signify the meaning of the world.

Thus, we call Evangelicals to turn away from forms of worship that focus on God as a mere object of the intellect, or that assert the self as the source of worship. Such worship has resulted in lecture-oriented, music-driven, performance-centered and program-controlled models that do not adequately proclaim God's cosmic redemption.

Therefore, we call Evangelicals to recover the historic substance of worship of Word and Table and to attend to the Christian year, which marks time according to God's saving acts.

The Call

We should have every hope and expectation that Robert is now worshipping God in the most ancient of ways, and how we will also one day worship God together, as described in the Revelation of John:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

"Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!"

Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,

"they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
He will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Revelation 7:9-17

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. And may perpetual light shine upon him.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell; lead all souls into Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.

Amen.

Source: Christianity Today International

Apologetics - Holy Eucharist

A Christian group blog that I monitor once a month has started a podcast series on the Seven Sacraments. Segment 2, entitled Holy Eucharist, recently went up, so I decided to listen to the whole episode.

This group of devout Christians had accessed a catechism on the Eucharist from an Episcopal website. The group would read a question from the catechism, read the written answer, and then discuss both.

It was clear in the first few moments that what promised to be a honest, open look at the Eucharist was doomed from the start. One of the first errors, which set the tone for the evening, was the attempt at defining the Eucharist by one of the non-Episcopal Christians, who used the terms "symbol" and "rememberance". These two words served as flags that selective filtering was already in place. In apologetics, this is often referred to as looking through the "glasses" or "lens" of your faith tradition. A Baptist wears Baptist lenses and sees things in a Baptist light. Similarly, a Muslim sees things through an Islamic lens.

It was also clear from listening that the group was attempting to understand the Episcopal catechism. The group knew that early Church writers had long written that the Eucharist was considered to be the actual body and blood of Christ, but the group didn't know why the early Church fathers had consistently taught that doctrine.

Passages on the Last Supper in Mark and Luke were read. Unfortunately, the discussion focused on the word "rememberance" and the conversation returned to the earlier theme of the Eucharist being a symbol. The group failed to recognize the significance of the words "Jesus said"

If you've spent any time watching the scripture memorization feature at the top of the CAS blog, you've read:

"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11)

If you flip through Genesis you'll find numerous examples of the truth of Isaiah 55:11. Among many others, you'll find:

"Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light." (Gen 1:3)

"So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life." Gen 3:14

Note that "God said" and it happened. God spoke and things considered "impossible" happened. Planets were created. Life was created. Man was created. All because God said. Christians, including our podcast group, believe that all these impossibilities occured because "God said." Our God is an awesome God.

We also find examples of Isaiah 55:11 throughout the four Gospels. Among them are these well known verses:

"For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!" Mark 5:8

"Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." Luke 7:50

Note that "Jesus said" and it happened. Jesus spoke and things considered "impossible" happened. The lame cured. People raised from the dead. Sins forgiven. All because Jesus said. Christians, including our podcast group, believe that all these impossibilities occured because "Jesus said." Our God is an awesome God.

But for some reason, when our group of podcasting Christians read...

"And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body" Mark 14:22

"And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19

...they failed to note that the Lord God, in the second person of Jesus, was holding bread in His hands and SAID the words "This is my body".

Knowing that God's Word does not return void, what awesome thing, according to Isaiah 55:11 and dozens of Old and New Testament precedents, happened?

This is the reason why this particular group of Christians, and many other Christians, fail to understand the Eucharist and its centrality in Christ's Church.

A classic case of being "... in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." (Matthew 22:29)

UPDATE (4/25/07): Its looks like Bible Truth Online is interested in anything but Bible truth. Checking the status of my comment, largely the above text, I found the following:

Comment deleted
This post has been removed by the blog administrator.
6:52 PM

Teaching Children the Bible

TitusOneNine has a very good post on "Teaching Children the Bible." Basically, the article describes the detrimental effect that "children's church" is having on future generations. By being separated from the main worship service, our future generations are not being sufficiently exposed to the Word.

This is rather foreign to me as I usually had either religion classes during school or attended Sunday school. Our family always worshipped together as a family. I heard what my parents heard. I saw what my parents saw.

When raising my two girls, they were in the pew beside us. They had to face forward. They heard what I heard. They saw what I saw. I and the Church passed on what we heard from the Lord (1 Cor 11:23-26).

I also find "Children's Church" to be unbiblical. We know from Luke 2:41-43 that Jesus accompanied his parents on their annual pilgrmage to Jerusalem for Passover. A few sentences later we find the Child in the temple discussing scripture with the rabbi's, not attending "children's temple."

Source: titusonenine.classicalanglican.net