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Dead in Trespasses?

John Piper quotes John Newton as saying:

If I were not a Calvinist, I think I should have no more hope in preaching to men, than to horses or cows.

Ian Bowler explains the above quote as:

I believe he means that without the efficacious call of God, man could no more respond to the Gospel than a horse or a cow. As a Calvinist, Newton believed that salvation was by the power of God and not reliant in any way on a man’s ability to, of his own accord, acquire saving faith (saving faith being a gift from God – the result of his efficacious call). Newton’s confidence was in God alone and was a result of his understanding of God’s sovereignty. If he had held a different view of God’s sovereignty, he felt that he would lack the same confidence.

Was man dead on arrival? As i explain Ephesians 2:1 in the article, “Entering and Remaining in the Kingdom of God”, Paul was merely alluding to John 3:18 (paraphrased) where our Lord Jesus says:

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged (or condemned to death) already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

In other words, he is on the broad road on the way to hell, but surely not dead spiritually. He is not totally depraved. There maybe some goodness in him, namely humility of trusting in a good person, which when exercised will lead to life. But that is not to discount the fact that we will die out of despair after beholding our depraved sin condition in the face of a holy God who will not tolerate sin in His presence. We will then have to be resuscitated to life by the Word/Spirit of God, which tells us of one Savior.

This aspect of dying is not for God to execute but we need to die ourselves. In other words we need to become so humble or so small by our own self will that it is like becoming a nothing…a zero…dead. See “Be Born Again!” No doubt this can happen only after the Good News is presented to us by the minister of the Spirit–Word of God.

We will then get a hope of a tomorrow (life), but the burial as well as the resuscitation itself is carried out in the Waters of Baptism, which is administered by a duly appointed member of a church characterized by agape love. It is only then that we get the assurance of salvation (moksha).

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A Dichotomy for ChurchState?

Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est (“God is Love”) of 2006 teaches that justice is the defining concern of the state and the central concern of politics, and not of the church, which has charity as its central social concern. The laity has the specific responsibility of pursuing social justice in civil society. The church’s active role in social justice should be to inform the debate, using reason and natural law, and also by providing moral and spiritual formation for those involved in politics. (Source: Social Justice, Wikipedia)

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California quotes Martin Luther King Jr. as saying: “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.”

I respectfully disagree with them. First off, because Justice (which is attributed to the state) and Charity (which is attributed to the Church) are poles apart. Therefore, in order that there be no compromise on either (justice or love), both should operate in a single system—the ChurchState. In other words, in a single Court officiated by a single Judge, where there will always be a strong tension between both the Defender (charitable) and the Prosecutor (condemning). A church that settles for polemics remains a babe.

This very Court, in the absence of a neutral Judge (being that he is nominated and impeached at will by the state today), is in the hands of Media private enterprise, which can sway any side with money power. We should not give ourselves into such a resignation.