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Letters to the editor
Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to:
Letters, MB Herald
3-169 Riverton Ave.
Winnipeg, Man. R2L 2E5
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or by e-mail to mbherald@mbconf.ca. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.) |
Another side to the story
Re “Whole story needed” by Jennifer Thiessen (Letters, March 17). As a retired professional having spent numerous years abroad and in many postings across Canada, I find it difficult to accept legalized sin at whatever level, colour or camouflage. No one can live in deliberate sin, flaunt it and call themselves a born-again Christian. Christian means a follower of Christ, living in obedience to the Holy Spirit’s leading, Jesus’ example and the Bible. A true believer not only professes Christ, but possesses Him in heart, soul, mind and spirit.
God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve or Eve and Beatrice. Sin initially is exciting. It reminds me of the chocolate-coated anti-malaria nivoquine pill. Initially it tastes wonderful, till the outer coating wears off and extreme bitterness is encountered. The consequences of a sinful lifestyle remain the same. Satan is a hard taskmaster. Once he has an individual firmly trapped, he leads the individual down the broad way to his kingdom of damnation.
A lifetime of exposure to those living deliberately sinful lives does not show me the fruits of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, etc. More frequently I’ve encountered that sin of whatever nature promotes health deterioration and often speeds up the dying process. My dealing with those living a deliberate gay and lesbian lifestyle does not correspond with Thiessen’s views. Proverbs 14:12: There is a way that seems right to a man (woman), but its end is the way of death.
I do not hate gays or lesbians. Jesus loves the sinner but hates sin. That’s what the Easter story is all about: forgiveness, redemption, salvation, eternal hope and everlasting life. Jesus loves all sinners. Because of Jesus, I can do no less.
Jake Penner,
Winnipeg, Man.
Great article
Thank you for Jim Coggins’s very well written, thoughtful and much needed article, “Church Conflicts” (April 14). Not only does it challenge each of us to examine ourselves in the light of Scripture and with the goal of building in love but it ends with a message of encouragement and inspiration. The church is made up of many imperfect people, so sin is not absent, but it also is made up of many godly, loving and precious saints. I’ve seen many fine examples to follow. Too often we focus on the negative, which is not inspirational.
Pam Robertson,
Yarrow, B.C.
The grace of God changes us
Justin Klassen (Letters, Mar. 31) correctly declares that, “through Christ (and only through Him) we can be reconciled to God’s standard of perfection” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He holds strongly to the Reformed understanding that salvation is by grace alone. For this I commend him.
However, I question Klassen’s statement in the final paragraph: “A practising homosexual who ‘becomes a Christian’ and yet has no desire to change his or her behaviour has probably not grasped the debt owed to God for the infinite forgiveness he or she has received.” It is shocking that one who holds so strongly to the doctrine of grace alone, could have such a poor understanding of it. Those who are reconciled to God cannot be lacking in their desire to change. I agree with Isaak Eitzen (Letters, Feb. 18) that “a practising homosexual cannot be a child of God until he lives by the will of God.” Eitzen is not proposing salvation by works; rather, he correctly sees that those whom God saves, God changes. Salvation encompasses the entirety of one’s being (mind, emotions and will). When God regenerates us, we realize our sinfulness and cast ourselves on the mercy of God. God, in His infinite grace not only accepts us as we are, but also enables us to be “conformed to the image of Christ”. Those who claim to be “in Christ” have died to their old nature (Romans 6). Those who have no desire to change their behaviour have not failed to grasp their debt owed to Christ; rather, they are not even saved.
I agree with Klassen (in his first letter, Dec. 17) that “homosexuality as a sin is not different from the sin of our heterosexual non-Christian neighbours”. My criticism is not of those who believe as Klassen rightfully does, that “both parties (homosexual and heterosexual) need Christ and should be desired guests in our places of worship”. My criticism is rather of those who move beyond this (as Klassen seemingly does) and state that they may be members of the body of Christ. Nobody, unless they display a repentant heart and a desire to change, has truly experienced the grace of Christ. “Show me your faith without your deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 2:18). “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2).
Thomas Friesen,
St. Catharines, Ont.
Action not biblical
“A story of restoration” (March 17) ends on a positive note with a young woman joining a Baptist congregation. However, the means by which her reclamation was accomplished are truly harrowing.
This girl was a baptized Christian teenager. We cannot doubt her conversion, as only God can see into a person’s heart. She had backslidden shortly after baptism. Perhaps her actions were the result of spiritual warfare and could have been remedied by the unconditional love, compassion, patience and prayers of her family and church. At this time, she was little more than a child. Although the discipline was severe, I can understand the first step her church took, excommunication.
What disturbs me greatly is the next step, the removal of the protection of the Holy Spirit and the angels of God. I looked up the references that the leadership used to justify her discipline, and nowhere did they speak of this action. I checked reference texts and concordances and could find no reference to or precedent for this action. What I did find was Hebrews 13:5 (“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”) and Romans 8:38-39 (“Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”)
In John 14:16 Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit who would “be with you forever”. Ephesians 1:13-14 tell us, “Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.” The Holy Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on His children.
In The Holy Spirit, Billy Graham states that “to grieve the Holy Spirit is not to lose Him in my life. He does not cease to seal me; He does not remove Himself from me. Indeed a believer cannot grieve Him so that He goes away totally” (p. 188); “Once we have been baptized into the body of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit we will never be abandoned by the Spirit again. We are sealed forever.”
A backslider will grieve the Holy Spirit and have Him withdraw, but He will never abandon His child. The holy seal of the Spirit cannot be removed by a third party whose actions are based on human understanding. The church’s leadership team prayed to God that He restore this girl, but they themselves removed the agent of change. They handed her over to Satan without the protection of the Spirit, so how did they think this change would occur? Only the Spirit can do this (Romans 8:26-27). The Holy Spirit and God’s angels didn’t leave this girl. Her return to the church is proof of this.
Lori Dyck,
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.
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