Fall of the Rebel Angels

Pieter Bruegel "The Fall of the Rebel Angels", circa 1562

...he it was whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I

From Conflict to Communion

The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity has recently released a comprehensive report entitled “From Conflict to Communion:  Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017":

In 2017, Lutheran and Catholic Christians will commemorate together the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. Lutherans and Catholics today enjoy a growth in mutual understanding, cooperation and respect. They have come to acknowledge that more unites than divides them:  above all, common faith in the Triune God and the revelation in Jesus Christ, as well as recognition of the basic truths of the doctrine of justification...

What happened in the past cannot be changed but what is remembered of the past and how it is remembered can, with the passage of time, indeed change. Remembrance makes the past present. While the past itself is unalterable, the presence of the past in the present is alterable. In view of 2017, the point is not to tell a different history, but to tell that history differently.

The report gives an overview of the history of Lutheran-Catholic relations and identifies five ecumenical imperatives:

1. Catholics and Lutherans should always begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division in order to strengthen what is held in common even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced
2. Lutherans and Catholics must let themselves continuously be transformed by the encounter with the other and by the mutual witness of faith
3. Catholics and Lutherans should again commit themselves to seek visible unity, to elaborate together what this means in concrete steps, and to strive repeatedly toward this goal
4. Lutherans and Catholics should jointly rediscover the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for our time
5. Catholics and Lutherans should witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world

Click here to view the report

Christianity in Canada

The 2011 National Household Survey was recently released in Canada. The tables below show key trends in religious affiliation over the last 20 years.

Although the total Christian population has declined only slightly, the share of the population identifying as Christian has dropped by 10% in the last ten years due to immigration and growth in those with no religious affiliation.

Table 1: Religious affiliation - total population

Affiliation	1991 (000)	2001 (000)	2011 (000)	1991 (%)	2001 (%)	2011 (%)
Christian	22,503	22,852	22,103	83%	77%	67%
Muslim	253	580	1,054	1%	2%	3%
Hindu	157	297	498	<1%	1%	2%
Sikh	147	278	455	<1%	1%	1%
Buddhist	163	300	367	<1%	1%	1%
Jewish	318	330	330	1%	1%	1%
No religion	3,397	4,900	7,851	13%	17%	24%
Other	6	102	194	-	<1%	<1%
Total	26,944	29,639	32,852	100%	100%	100%

The second table shows the breakdown of Christian respondents by major denomination:

Table 2: Religious affiliation - Christian denominations

Affiliation	1991 (000)	2001 (000)	2011 (000)	1991 (%)	2001 (%)	2011 (%)
Catholic	12,204	12,793	12,729	54%	56%	58%
United	3,093	2,839	2,008	14%	12%	9%
Anglican	2,188	2,035	1,632	9%	9%	7%
Baptist	663	729	636	3%	3%	3%
Orthodox	387	480	551	2%	2%	2%
Pentecostal	436	369	479	2%	2%	2%
Lutheran	636	607	478	3%	3%	2%
Presbyterian	636	409	472	3%	2%	2%
Other	2,260	2,591	3,118	10%	11%	14%
Total	22,503	22,852	22,103	100%	100%	100%

Catholics significantly outnumber Protestants in Canada due to a large Catholic community in Quebec. Anglicans represent 7% of all Christians in Canada (vs. 28% in Australia), while Lutherans represent 2% (similar to Australia).

Doing the math on same sex marriage

In Australia 53% of adults are living in a registered marriage and 11% are in heterosexual de facto relationships, while less than 0.3% of adults are in a same sex de facto relationship.  Even if all of these couples were to marry they would still represent less than 1% of all marriages. In Canada, a decade after introduction, same sex marriages account for only 0.33% of all marriages.

Given the tiny numbers involved, and the fact that same sex de facto couples effectively already enjoy all the legal benefits of marriage in Australia, the motives behind the current push for “marriage equality" look suspect.

However, even if the definition of civil marriage shifts this does not change the definition of Christian marriage (see my previous post).

The Priesthood of All Believers

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9 ESV)

Luther formulated the doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers" in the early years of the Reformation. In To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) he wrote that all Christians are equal before God regardless of whether they are clergy or laity:

The Pope, bishops, priests, monks and nuns are called the “spiritual class" while princes, lords, artisans and peasants are called the “secular class". This is a deceptive invention but no one should be concerned, for all Christians are truly of the spiritual class and there is no difference among them except in the work they do... for baptism, the gospel and faith alone make a spiritual and Christian people

Luther also reinforced the view that Christians exist in community and that the power to call individuals to ministry resides in this community:

Because we are all priests of equal standing, no one must push himself forward and take it upon himself, without our consent and election, to do that for which we all have equal authority. For no one dare take upon himself what is common to all without the authority and consent of the community

For a more detailed overview see “The Early Luther on Priesthood of All Believers, Office of the Ministry and Ordination" by Cameron MacKenzie of Concordia Theological Seminary.

Prayer for ANZAC Day

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the landings at Gallipoli in the First World War.  Here is a prayer for the day from the Anglican Prayer Book for Australia:

God of love and liberty,
We bring our thanks today for the peace and security we enjoy,
We remember those who in time of war faithfully serve their country.
We pray for their families, and for ourselves whose freedom was won at such a cost.
Make us a people zealous for peace, and hasten that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither learn war any more.
This we pray in the name of the one who gave his life for the sake of the world: Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.

Funeral of Margaret Thatcher

The funeral of Baroness and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has just concluded at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Here is the final blessing by the Archbishop of Canterbury:

Support us, O Lord, all the day long of this troublous life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over and our work is done. Then, Lord, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Christ our Lord.

Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you this day and always.

For her views on Christianity and politics I strongly recommend her 1978 speech at St. Lawrence Jewry “I Believe" (click here) which is as relevant today as ever.

Additional links:
-  Text of funeral address by the Bishop of London Richard Chartres
-  Full order of service including readings and hymns

Let There Be Light

The Planck space telescope of the European Space Agency has made the most detailed observations yet of the first light in the universe (see full details here).

Elementary particles cooled enough to form hydrogen atoms 380,000 years after creation, rendering the universe transparent to light for the first time.  Amazingly this light still permeates the universe, albeit shifted into the microwave spectrum due to the expansion of space since that time.

This cosmic microwave background represents the most ancient image that will ever be seen, a map that points to the subsequent development of all structure in the universe.

The Reconciliation of All Things

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all
(Romans 11:32 ESV)

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the ancient idea of universal salvation.  As a starting point I recommend an essay by Bishop Kallistos Ware, an Orthodox bishop in Great Britain, entitled “Dare We Hope for the Salvation of All?"

Luther did not subscribe to a “universalist" view that all men would definitely be saved, or that there were multiple pathways to God.  At one point he even lectured against a straightforward interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:4 “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".

On the other hand, Luther holds open the possibility of salvation after death in a letter to Hans Von Rechenberg when he says:

It would be quite a different question whether God can impart faith to some in the hour of death or after death so that these people could be saved through faith.  Who would doubt God's ability to do that?

Above all Luther stressed that salvation, whenever offered, would be through faith in Christ and not through any other means.

I believe that a perspective on this issue in modern context would include the following key points:

1. As Lutherans we do not believe in a predestination to damnation
2. God is an infinitely loving and just God - it follows that his ultimate plan for salvation (which has not been revealed to us and cannot be ascertained by human reasoning) is not arbitrary or unjust
3. It is within the power of God to offer his grace and love to those who have not accepted it during this life - this is a matter for Him alone however it could be a means by which His grace may operate in ways we don't know about
4. Finally, it is through Christ that we are saved - God may continue to extend his grace after death but “the way, the truth and the life" remain the same

In his essay, Bishop Ware points to an alternative to universal salvation called “conditional immortality" which is worth considering:

“I am He who is," says God to Moses at the burning bush in the Septuagint version of Exodus 3:14; “I am the Existing One" (ego eimi ho on). God is Being and Reality, and He is the sole source of all existence. Evil, on the other hand, is in the strict sense non-being and unreality. Evil and sin have no substantive existence, for they are not a “thing  that God has made; they are a distortion of the good, a parasite - not a noun but an adjective...

Existence, then, is good, for it is gift from God; and everything that exists, by the very fact of existing, retains some link with God, who is the only source of existence. From this it follows that nothing that exists can be entirely and utterly evil. To posit something totally evil would be a nonsense, a contradiction in terms; for such a thing would be altogether unreal and could not actually exist. Even the devil, because he exists, still has a continuing relationship with God. Thus where there is existence, there is hope - even for the devil.

A possible conclusion from this line of argument is not universal salvation but conditional immortality. At the end God will indeed be “all in all", not because all rational creatures have been saved but because at a certain point the radically wicked have simply ceased to be. Cut off from God, the unique source of existence, they have lapsed into non-being. At the end-time, that is to say, there will be a resurrection to eternal life, but no resurrection to eternal death; or, rather, there will be resurrection to a death that is final but not continuing, for it will entail annihilation.

This seems to me to resolve many of the issues involved.  As Christians we do not believe in a Manichean universe where good and evil are balanced and offsetting. Rather everything exists in relation to the ultimate good and eventually all things will either be reconciled to God or cease to exist.

Newtown

It saddens me to see how the LCMS President and ultraconservative legalists within the synod have overreacted to the participation of a LCMS minister in a prayer service for the young victims of the Newtown school shooting.

See here for a good response from a former president, who was caught up in a similar controversy when a LCMS minister participated in a prayer service following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Fortress Madonna

Seventy years ago the Soviets encircled the German Sixth Army outside Stalingrad. More than 100,000 men were cut off as the winter closed in.  

One of these was Lieutenant Kurt Reuber, a doctor and Lutheran minister before the war. As Christmas 1942 approached he completed a large charcoal drawing, now known as the Fortress Madonna, as he described in a final letter to his family:

“Christmas week has come and gone. It has been a week of watching and waiting, of deliberate resignation and confidence. The days were filled with the noise of battle and there were many wounded to be attended to. I wondered for a long while what I should paint, and in the end I decided on a Madonna, or mother and child. I have turned my hole in the frozen mud into a studio. The space is too small for me to be able to see the picture properly, so I climb on to a stool and look down at it from above, to get the perspective right. Everything is repeatedly knocked over, and my pencils vanish into the mud. There is nothing to lean my big picture of the madonna against, except a sloping, home-made table past which I can just manage to squeeze. There are no proper materials and I have used a Russian map for paper. But I wish I could tell you how absorbed I have been painting my madonna, and how much it means to me.

“The picture looks like this: the mother's head and the child's lean toward each other, and a large cloak enfolds them both. It is intended to symbolise security and motherly love. I remembered the words of St. John: light, life and love. What more can I add? I wanted to suggest these three things in the homely and common vision of a mother with her child and the security that they represent. When we opened the Christmas Door, as we used to do on other Christmases (only now it was the wooden door of our dug-out), my comrades stood spellbound and reverent, silent before the picture that hung on the clay wall. A lamp was burning on a board stuck into the clay beneath the picture. Our celebrations in the shelter were dominated by this picture, and it was with full hearts that my comrades read the words: light, life and love.

“I spent Christmas evening with the other doctors and the sick. The Commanding Officer had presented the letter with his last bottle of Champagne. We raised our mugs and drank to those we love, but before we had had a chance to taste the wine we had to throw ourselves flat on the ground as bombs fell outside. I seized my doctor's bag and ran to the scene of the explosions, where there were dead and wounded. My shelter with its lovely Christmas decorations became a dressing station. One of the dying men had been hit in the head and there was nothing more I could do for him. He had been with us at our celebration, and had only that moment left to go on duty, but before he went he had said: 'I'll finish the carol first. O du Frohliche!' A few moments later he was dead. There was plenty of hard and sad work to do in our Christmas shelter. It is late now, but it is Christmas night still. And so much sadness everywhere." 

The letter and drawing were flown out on the last transport plane from Stalingrad. It now is displayed in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.

Kurt Reuber was taken prisoner when the Sixth Army surrendered in February 1943. He created a similar drawing, known as the “Suffering Madonna" (Leidens-Madonna) in captivity for Christmas 1943 before he died in January 1944 in a Soviet prisoner of war camp. Only 6,000 men from the Sixth Army survived the war.

Star of Bethlehem

Colin Humphreys, a physicist from the UK, has authored several papers on the dating of Biblical events.  In the spirit of the season here is his classic article which argues that the “Star of Bethlehem" was a comet which dates the birth of Christ to the spring of 5BC.  This is consistent with a range of evidence, including the death of Herod in 4BC.

Click here to view the paper