Bowling with the Religious

Last night I was invited to go bowling at a Lutheran church in the area because I know someone who goes there. Apparently it's common for Lutheran churches to have bowling lanes in their basements. This particular building was erected in the mid 1930's and was originally a bowling alley now converted into a church. The design of the lanes and the parts behind them were all original strangely enough. An interesting concept. Only a handful of stairs though separated the bowling lanes from a sign by the church front door. The sign said loudly proclaimed "NO GUM" in the building (I had a brand new pack in my pocket). Underneath it read something like, "Not pockets, backpacks, pants, etc." I couldn't help but notice the grammar problem. It didn't say "No gum IN pockets, backpacks..." It was as if the NO GUM was primary but secondarily pants weren't allowed either. I made the pastor aware of my observation.

Legalism. You don't have to spend too much time searching outside of biblical Christianity to find it. It may be in plain view in the church sanctuary, posted by the front door, or tucked into a drawer in the office of the leadership, but it will be there. I didn't do too good in bowling, but I got one strike and was happy with that. We also had flat bread pizza. I even got a discount being a college student. As I've already given away, the pastor eventually showed up. When he did I had this strange sensation of having a connection with someone, yet in another sense being totally separate from them (in what mattered). Between turns I spoke with him about entering a church as pastor and the differences between the Lutheran process and my own. He said there would be a point where they sent you a doctrinal list covering certain things. I took this as an opportunity to get to the issue I wanted to discuss. I asked, "do they ask about baptism?" I knew the Lutheran church believes in baptismal regeneration (the idea that water baptism plays a key role in salvation). So I admitted up front and assumed he knew we disagreed on this issue, but asked him what the arguments were from his end. He tried to steer it in the direction of communion or infant baptism at times, but those issues while they have implications... weren't as vital in my mind as the baptism discussion. He quoted a few texts for support (the ones I expected from him). The most popular of these is 1 Peter 3:21-22,

"21(F)Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--(G)not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a (H)good conscience--through (I)the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22(J)who is at the right hand of God, (K)having gone into heaven, (L)after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him."

I must ask how someone can read something so clear and ignore what it plainly says? the only answer I can come up with is that there's spiritual blindness at work here. The "baptism" here is clarified in the same verse as NOT "removal of dirt from the body." Salvation doesn't come from water running over your body. Taking a bath doesn't wash away your sins. Beyond this the emphasis is not "baptism." The emphasis is Jesus Christ. This is simple to notice even without an in-depth analysis of these two verses. We know from Ephesians 2 "we are saved by grace through faith and this not of works, lest anyone should boast." Titus 3:5 tells us "5(DA)He saved us, (DB)not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but (DC)according to His mercy, by the (DD)washing of regeneration and (DE)renewing by the Holy Spirit," They usually point to the "washing" in this verse but ignore once again the "deeds." Their very own proof texts destroy their theology. The washing here can be compared the John 3 where Jesus tells Nicodemus to be born of "water and Spirit." The idea is that the Holy Spirit when He baptizes you (something different than water baptism) spiritually there will be an invisible internal cleansing. A divine heart change cannot happen by outward washing. This DOES happen during salvation, but not during water baptism. Notice also Titus doesn't say it's the washing "of baptism," but "of regeneration." The regeneration is doing the cleansing. A similar idea is found in Acts with the baptism of the Holy Spirit "and fire." Is this literal fire? Do we all become the Human Torch when we're saved? Surely not.

So I discussed some of this with him, though not nearly in the depth at which I've done here. I pray God uses that conversation to at the very least force that man to examine the context of Scripture which so easily complicates Lutheran theology and hopefully lead him to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and not his baptism. Among these religious men was found profanity and senseless complaints alongside this conviction that baptism plays a part in salvation. They were religious men, but still lost without Christ and destined for a literal hell. Lord, please change their hearts and use your Word to do it.