If all church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied! Charles Hodges (1797-1878) Charles was an American Theologian. His father Hugh was a military surgeon during the Revolutionary War! Charles married Sarah Bache the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. Comment: No organization ever saved anyone! Only Christ saves! Organizations are as imperfect as the people who make them up! Sadly politics is alive and well in the church! Many denomination and church splits are due to politics! On the other side of the issue people who do not want to submit to authority go out and start their own church. Abuse by the clergy and rebellion by the congregation are both destructive! Theology interpretations are also basis for divisions! However the Reformation came out of this! So it can be positive! Suggestion here is whatever your gifting is try to find a leader with the same gifting! Iron sharpens iron! If you are an Evangelist you may be uncomfortable with a leader who is a teacher? However you will still benefit from that gifting! Also find a leader who is open and transparent and not a politician who is manipulating people for his own gain! When I sense a leader is deceptive, manipulative and hides his real intensions I run like Hell! The Holy Spirit will give you discernment to be in the right place where you belong in the Body of Christ! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: theologian
Christmas and Purpose!
To be a Christian means you become a part of the most significant story the World has ever heard! You don’t become part of that without an ongoing questioning of what it means to become part of that! Theologian Stanley Hauerwas
The Folly of Politics!
At least one reason for trying to live lives that make a difference is that by so living, we hope we will not be forgotten by those who benefit from our trying to make a difference. Yet to try to insure we will not be forgotten too often results in desperate manipulation strategies that are doomed to fail! Theologian Stanley Hauerwas (Author of Resident Aliens) Comment: As we enter the Christmas season let us remember the reason Jesus will never be forgotten is that He was more than a man He was God and no man can do for us what He has done for us! He also will never forget those in Him! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Heaven or Hell is Your Choice!
No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it! Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903) He was a British Theologian born in Bombay India. One of his daughter’s Maud was the mother of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
Pray For Our Leaders 1Timothy2:2 2Peter2:17
Did Paul and Peter pray for their leaders? I assume they did yet they were executed by Caesar! Some of their best works were written from prison! The authorities did not like to keep Martin Luther King Jr. in jail too long because he was working on his next speech! During the civil war Pastor’s and their congregations north of the Mason-Dixon line were praying for the north to win while Pastor’s and congregations south of the line were praying for the south to win! They were both praying for their leaders! A famous German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by Hitler but I assume he prayed for Hitler. Some of our famous reformation leaders were burned at the stake by their King! I assume they prayed for them! Jesus called his political leader Herod a fox but prayed for him! He called the religious rulers of his day a generation of vipers but prayed for them! Do we pray for ISIS leaders? What would be your prayers to those who were about to behead you! Father forgive them for they know not what they do! Different from prayers of the west? Father give me a big house, big auto, big money and fame and fortune! Jesus taught us how to pray! I love this prayer because it is not a political prayer! I personally have one leader or ruler and Savior and His name is Jesus Christ! I am loyal to one Kingdom and that is the Kingdom of God and His Christ! It is so funny I have a friend in Colorado Springs who was my military boss back in the 1970’s. We are both retired and meet once a month and tell old war stories! I told Kenny we were praying that our house would sell so we could move back to Georgia. Kenny told me he was praying that our house not sell and we stay in Colorado! I told Kenny you are my friend but not my prayer partner! Our prayers should be in agreement with God! We usually pray for an outcome. Do we always get it? God’s will is often different from our will! To deliver us from evil means not to partake in promoting evil! We pray for our leaders but also knowing it is vanity to trust in man! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Love Requires Trouble! Trouble Requires Love!
If love dwelleth not in trouble, it could have nothing to love! But its substance which it loves, namely the poor soul, being in trouble and pain, it has thence cause to love this its own substance and to deliver it from pain, that so itself may by it be again beloved! Jakob Bohme (1575-1624) Comment: Jakob Bohme was a theologian but was also sometimes considered a mystic! He wrote a lot of books but was sometimes disciplined by the Lutheran Church in Germany. Any theology has to be compared against scripture. His writings do invoke thought! My first thought was did God love us more after salvation than before? No! What happens is we love Him more after salvation! God loved Adam and Eve before sin! God’s love was the first cause for everything and I believe did not require sin to initiate His love! If you have any thoughts about this please contact us. Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Which One Are You?
There are only two kinds of men in this world! The righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous! Blaise Pascal (1623-1662 A.D.) Mr. Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and theologian.