The Baptist Pietist Clarion, September 2006

7/28/2019 The Baptist Pietist Clarion, September 2006

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The Baptist Pietist CLARIONVol. 5, No. 1 In essentials unity in non-essentials liberty in everything charity September 2006

Published by the C ommitted P astors and L ay L eaders d ediCated to P reserving P ietism , e vangeLism , and C iviLity in the BgC Edited by g. W iLLiam C arLson , Professor of History and Political Science at Bethel University;r on s aari , Senior Pastor at Central Baptist Church.

Contents1 The Cost o Not Forgiving |

Wayne Roberts Forgiveness:Truly Divine! |Terri Hansen

2 Inside this Issue o the Clarion |G. William Carlson

2 Pietist Values: A Summary |Chris Armstrong

3 Ubuntu and Forgiveness: Lessonsrom South A rica |Laura Gilbertson

4 On the Sea o Li e | John Alexis Edgren Introduction by G. William Carlson and Diana Magnuson

6 Forgive: The Pietist Poetry o SigneOlson Peterson

7 On the Lords Prayer: Living asForgiven People | Karl Karlson

9 Christian Freedoms Baptist Value:Religious Liberty and Soul Liberty |Ron Saari

11 Prayers o Gordon Johnson: Livingas Forgiven People

13 Living as Forgiven People: TenPrinciples o Authentic Forgiveness |G. William Carlson

15 Selective Bibliography onForgiveness

16 Books by Bethel and BGC Authors |G. William Carlson

continued on p. 15

continued on p. 14

The Cost of Not Forgiving Jonah which next came to my attention when,as a high school student very interested inreconciling science and what I had learnedin Sunday School, I read all I could pro andcon about the possibility o a sh swallowinga man. I knew several accounts o people andanimals surviving such an adventure.

I had read several accounts, or example,by a Dr. Harry Rimmer who wrote o meet-ing a man who, while trying to harpoon alarge shark, ell overboard, was swallowed bythe shark, and was pulled out alive by ship-mates when they caught the sh 48 hourslater. Rimmer reported that the man sub-sequently appeared in reak shows, devoido all body hair and having a pasty, blotchyskin, evidently the result o the stomach acid

W a y n e R o b e R t s ,

former professor of mathematics at Ma-calester College and advisor to Intervarsity student organization.Sermon given at Cen-

tral Baptist Church,| A Sunday School paper illustration ledme as a child to envision Jonah sitting at atable in a quite com ortable looking space;a picture hung rom the lining o the shsbelly. I think or years the mention o Jonahconjured up in my mind the promise thatGod prepares a table be ore us in the pres-ence o our enemies.

So began a li elong interest in the story o

Forgiveness: Truly Divine!t erri L. h ansen , for-mer Childrens and Spiritual Develop-ment Pastor at Central Baptist Church | Herhair was disheveledand she barely had achance to pull her thinrobe up over her bare

shoulders. She squinted and stumbled asher rough captors muscled her through thedoor into the early light o dawn. She hadalways been so care ul, keeping her nightly activities secretive and hidden. There was noquestion she had been set up. She knew itthe second her customer was allowed to slipout the back door.

The group maintained its tight grip onher as they entered the temple court andapproached the Galilean. He was there

once again addressing a growing crowd opeople. She had seen him be ore. He hadcaused quite a stir as he had gone about do-ing amazing miracles and healing the sick.They were scared to death o him, these re-ligious leaders. He was upsetting the system,inciting the people - such was the power andmystery that surrounded him. Now she wasbait in their trap.

We have caught this woman in the very act o adultery. It is written in the Law thatsuch a woman be stoned. We were just won-dering what you thought. The Galilean bentdown, taking the posture o a teacher. Hewrote on the ground with his nger as theirimpatience mounted. What say you?

His eyes were unsettling as he straightenedup and scanned the aces o her accusers. say whoever amongst you has never sinned he is the one who gets to throw the rst

For more information about the C ommitted P astors & L ay L eaders d ediCated to P reserving P ietism , e vangeLism ,

and C iviLity in the BgC, contact:

r on s aari Senior Pastor at Central Baptist Church

420 N Roy Street, St. Paul, MN 55104P hone : 651-646-2751 F ax : 651-646-0372 e maiL : [email protected]

or [email protected]


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In essentialsUNITY

In non-essentialsLIBERTY In everythingCHARITY

Inside this Issue of theBaptist Pietist C larion Living and Forgiven and Forgiving People G. W illiam C aRlson , Professor of History and Political Science, Bethel University |This is the sixth issue o the Baptist Pi-etist Clarion. The primary mission o this journal is to a rm the core values o theBGC pietist heritage and allow them to be

part o the discourse o todays Christianwitness. We have ocused recently on issueso Baptist Spirituality through the li e andwitness o Dr. Carl H. Lundquist andReligious Liberty through Wal-

red Petersons and C. EmanuelCarlsons work with the Bap-tist Joint Committee.

Last all, Terri Hansenand I co-led a SpiritualRetreat, including parishio-ners rom Central and ElimBaptist churches, entitledLiving as Forgiven and Forgiv-ing People. The theme suggestedthat orgiveness and reconciliation arepractices that give concrete expression o our calling as disciples o Jesus.

As one explores the history o the Bap-tist pietist heritage o the Con erence, twothemes are extremely important. First, thereis a need or all to have a new birth experi-

ence. This is well expressed in our a rmationo aith which states that God saves rom sinand death all who come to Him through JesusChrist. We can live as orgiven people. I wecon ess our sins, he is aith ul and just andwill orgive us our sins and puri y us rom

all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)Adol Olson, Pro essor o Church his-

tory at Bethel Seminary rom 1919-1955,wrote an essay entitled Faith o Our Fa-

thers. He strongly emphasized thecommitment o early Swedish

Baptists to preach the gospelo redemption through theshed blood o Jesus Christ.Olson wrote: As Paul, whenhe came to Corinth, deter-

mined to know nothing saveJesus Christ and Him cruci ed,

in like manner also the SwedishBaptist pioneers made the cruci ed

and risen Lord the central theme o theirpreaching and their testimony. Listen toGusta Palmquist, writing rom New York to his riends in Rock Island: Jesus died inour stead, Jesus our Savior. I would like toraise my voice to be heard rom New York toRock Island, and cry out, Jesus died in our

stead, Jesus rose or our justi cation isnot this su cient? And rom thousandso humble hearts o Swedish Baptists onthe American rontier we seem to hear, as itwere ascending to the very gates o heaven,a loud Amen!

Second, one o the characteristics o Christian disciples is that we are orgivingpeople. The Lords prayer reads orgiveus our debts, as we also have orgiven ourdebtorsFor i you orgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father willalso orgive you. But i you do not orgivemen their sins, your Father will not orgive your sins. (Matthew 6) What does it meanto say this prayer? What does it mean to be a

orgiving people? Why is this an importantcharacteristic o Christian discipleship?

I trust you will enjoy reading thesearticles. The next issue will publish theaddresses given by Chris Armstrong andVirgil Olson at the pietist heritage seminarduring the June 2006 BGC meetings atBethel University.

Previous issues o the Baptist PietistClarion can be ound at the ollowingwebsite: http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/his-tory/Baptist_Pietist_Clarion

Pietist Values: A Summary D R . C h R i s a R m -stRonG , Associate Professor of Church History, Bethel Sem-inary | On June28, 2006 Dr. VirgilOlson and Dr. ChrisArmstrong gave

presentations concerning the pietist heritageand its infuence on the Baptist General Con-

erence. Chris created a one-page handout

on the core values o pietism. It is a use ulsummary and help ul to understanding theroots o our spiritual heritage.

Spener and the Pietist Tradition In response to the theologia spinosa

(prickly theology)o the Protestant ortho-dox heritage, Philipp Jakob Spener and hisPietists stressed the ollowing theologicaland spiritual oundations:1. the personal dimension o our relation-

ship to god begun in the experience o theNew Birth;2. the need, and the spiritual power, that wehave to improve our Christian li e in bothinner and outer ways that is, sancti cationor holiness;3. the oundational status o the Bible in

aith and practice over against the ortho-dox Protestants near-exclusive ocus onsystematics; and4. the need to see the church re ormed that

is, pulled out o its cultural and theologicalruts to better live and spread the gospel.

In pursuit o a living orthodoxy, the Pietistsalso created new practices. These innova-tions seem commonplace today but thatsbecause they worked so well they changedthe Protestant church orever:1. small-group Bible studies,2. practical ecumenism that joins handsacross denominational boundaries in thecause o the gospel,

3. lay engagement in spiritual disciplines,and indeed, in4. active Protestant missions long be oreWilliam Carey.

All o these came rom the Pietists.The Pietists also modeled:

5. a heart religion with a social conscience.Their works o mercy, including inner-city ministries, orphanages, and hospitals, gavepublic orm to their devotion.

And nally, the Pietists

6. insisted that Protestant seminaries insti-tute programs o spiritual ormation.They didnt use that modern catchphrase, o course. But Spener argued in his book PiaDesideria that spiritual ormation standswith care ul biblical scholarship and livelytheological study as a pillar o seminaryeducation. And that was centuries be oretodays initiatives in holistic or integra-tive ministerial training.


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Ubuntu and Forgiveness: Lessons from South Africal auRa G ilbeRtson ,Adjunct Instructor of Theology and Assis-tant Director of Dis-cipleship Ministries,Bethel University

Ive just returnedhome rom SouthA rica as part o a

delegation o 25 Bethel University aculty,sta , and students. The purpose o our tripwas to learn about the process o racial rec-onciliation that is occurring in that country since the dismantling o apartheid in theearly 1990s. The politics o apartheid enabledthe white, Dutch minority to oppressively rule persons o color by creating systems o segregation, economic disparity, ear, and

even imprisonment, torture, or death. SouthA rica has become an example to the worldo what orgiveness and redemption may look like on a socio-political scale whereseparation, hatred, and violence once heldpower. Whether I was in a home, school,or government o ce, I was inspired by thehope ul vision or a rainbow nation whereall persons are equal members o society.

This climate o orgiveness and hopehas emerged a ter decades o struggle or

liberation. South A ricans active ght or justice must not be overlooked in a discus-sion o reconciliation. Yet, once reedomwas obtained, the country had to decidewhether to seek revenge or o er orgivenessto those who had so long abused their power.According to Archbishop Desmond Tutu,South A ricans have committed to corporate

orgiveness because o the A rican concept o ubuntu : my humanity is caught up, is inex-tricably bound up, in yours. 1 A person withubuntu senses that we are inter-dependentand that dehumanization is not an isolatedact o violence, but rather a ects the entirecommunity.

Although the A rican word ubuntu (pro-nounced oo-boon-too ) may be un amiliarto Baptists in the United States, the concepthas parallels in historic Christian tradition.These concepts o interdependence and lov-ing unity are essential to the relational natureo the Triune God. Isnt our experience asmembers o the Body o Christ meant to be

a refection o the loving, personal commu-nion o the Triune God? Sin, which requires

orgiveness, is the breaking o communionwith God and others. According to BethelSeminary pro essors Steve Sandage and Le-Ron Shults, sin does not re er to an abstractsubstance; it indicates ways o relating toourselves, others, and God that prevent us

rom acing one another in love.2 Forgive-ness o sin, there ore, is the act o restoringrelationship, understanding ourselves to beintricately linked with one another, even ourenemies.

It was in the spirit o ubuntu that the Truthand Reconciliation Commission (TRC) wasestablished as a temporary system o justicein South A rica during the transition intodemocracy, and the central concern [was]

the healing o breaches, the redressing o imbalances, the restoration o broken rela-tionships, a seeking to rehabilitate both thevictim and the perpetrator 3 The TRCheard 22,000 cases and o ered compensa-tion to victims and amnesty to perpetratorswho were willing to publicly state theirinvolvement in violence. While the TRCdid not attempt to legislate orgiveness, itsgoal o recording truth or the purpose o

ostering reconciliation has become a symbol

o the quest or healing and orgiveness inSouth A rica. Certainly, it has inspired theglobal community to consider the power o socio-political orgiveness. I would like too er two observations based on the work o the TRC and other theological refection onsocio-political orgiveness.

First, orgiveness must be grounded inhonest remembrance o the past in wayswhich compel trans ormation. The practiceo orgiveness is inadequate i disengaged

rom the process o rebuilding unjust rela-tionships and systems. 4 We must avoid theinjury o prematurely coercing orgiveness,particularly i we hold positions o power,because this urther devalues the voices o those who su er injustices. South A ricantheologian Allan Boesak calls or the churchto unction with prophetic memory thatallows the works o Gods justice and powerin history to in orm current e orts towardsocial trans ormation. 5

We remember the li e, death, and resurrec-

tion o Christ or the purpose o trans orming ourselves and the world. So, too, we arecalled to remember the experiences o ourbrothers and sisters around the world to helpus become what we were designed to be: acommunity reconciled to God and one an-other. In the case o the TRC, orgiveness andamnesty were granted only a ter history wasacknowledged, power became shared, andvictimization was ended. One o the goalso the TRC was to ensure that truth wouldbe uncovered or the purpose o healing andprotecting the uture rom similar events.

Second, orgiveness must also be inspired byour hope or reconciliation. In his award-win-ning book, Exclusion and Embrace , MiroslavVol suggests that a simple notion o a trucecannot be an adequate biblical understanding

o orgiveness. According to Vol , orgivenis the boundary between exclusion and em-brace. It heals the wounds that the power-actso exclusion have inficted and breaks downthe dividing wall o hostility. Yet it leaves adistance between people, an empty space oneutrality, that allows them either to go theirseparate ways in what is sometimes calledpeace or to all into each others arms andrestore broken communion.Forgivenessis there ore not the culmination o Christs

relation to the o ending other; it is a passageleading to embrace. 6 Only when we keep the biblical vision o

reconciled humanity be ore us will we be ableto ully orgive and embrace our enemies. Passive indi erence cannot be our goal. Rather, aswe are inspired by the love o the Triune God,we must seek to restore our interdependencein light o ubuntu . In John 17: 21, Jesus prayed,As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,may they also be in us.

1 Desmond Tutu , No Future Without Forgiveness (NewYork: Doubleday, 1999) 31.

2 F. LeRon Shults and Steven J. Sandage, The Faces oForgiveness: Searching for Wholeness and Salvatio(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003) 194.

3 Tutu, 55.4 Flora Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories: A Theology

o Healing and Trans ormation (Nashville: Abing-don, 2000) 195.

5 Allan Boesak, The Tenderness of Conscience: AfricaRenaissance and the Spirituality of Politics (Stellenbosch: SunPress, 2005) 128.

6 Miroslav Vol ,Exclusion and Embrace: A TheologicExploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996) 125-126.


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Introduction g. W iLLiam C arLson and d iana L. m agnuson |John Alexis Edgren, ounder o Bethel Semi-nary, spent much o his early li e on the sea.He became a mariner when he was a teen-ager and traveled widely to England, Egypt,

Cape Horn and the United States. In 1859Edgren nishedhis schoolingat the naviga-t i o n s c h o o lat Stockholmand becamea captain. A -ter signing upwith the UnionNavy duringthe AmericanCivil War, he

developed a distinguished naval career, acareer that o ered great promise or the

uture.In February o 1862, Edgren encountered

Rev. Anders Wiberg one o the most sig-ni cant leaders o the Baptist movementin Sweden and the United States. Wibergurged Edgren to leave his mariner vocationand devote himsel totally to the spread o the Gospel. Although he declined to do so

at that time, a ter the Civil War was over heentered ull time Christian service. Whenasked to continue his naval career Edgrenresponded Woe unto me i I preach not thegospel. He became a student at Colgate Uni-versity, was ordained at the Mariners BaptistChurch, was elected a member o the BaptistSeminary in Stockholm, Sweden and becamea pastor in the church at Gothenburg.

In the 1870s Edgren moved to the UnitedStates to serve the Swedish immigrant popu-

lation and settled in Chicago. Eventually hecame to the conclusion that the immigrantchurches needed an educated clergy toprotect the congregation rom heresy andprovide or a more articulate communica-tion o the Gospel. In 1871 Edgren wasinvited to open a school at the Baptist UnionTheological Seminary in conjunction withthe University o Chicago.

On the Sea o Li e was delivered as anillustrated sermon in Kiron, Iowa in 1884.

The ship is the world, ravaged by re. How shall the person on the burning boat besaved? Is there a hope or rescue? A ship iscoming rom the Gloryland to rescue theshipwrecked with a symbol o the cross onthe fag. On behal o the King it signals orthe person to look at the God who can savethe world rom re. The li eboat o atone-ment is sent to the burning ship and theperson drops into the boat and is saved. Thetract ends by the singing o the song o therescued which says that nothing is capable o separating the rescued person rom the loveo God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The illustrations are comparable withEdgrens previous sketches o sea li e. Hereceived some instruction rom EdwardMoran, a amous American maritime art-ist. His talents are evidentin his work on the Ameri-can Civil War, especially his portrait o the battlebetween the Monitor andthe Merrimac. Althoughthe drawings or On theSea o Li e are quite good,they best refect Edgrensdesire to use art as a way to assist in understand-

ing the message.This tract is ollowed

by an extended essay which outlines the pit-

alls in Christian liv-ing as the rescued onemoves rom salvationto heaven. Although,not included, it is asomewhat meander-ing saga as the rescuedone moves throughthe temptations o li eand continues to needGod to assist him in remaining aith ul to theGospel.

Edgren never orgot his mariner past.It is interesting to note that several o themajor gures in the early Swedish Baptistmovement in Sweden and the United States,Anders Wiberg, G. W. Shroeder and F. O.Nilsson, all had experiences at sea and were

actively involved in the Mariners BaptistChurch in New York City.

For Edgren, the li e on the sea was animportant component in his spiritual journey. It provided him with a number o the experiences that brought him to aith.Several times when there were storms at sea,Edgren promised God that he would give hisli e to gospel service i God would abate thstorm. He began to realize that only divineintervention would salvage the ate o themen o his ill- ated ship.

Edgren loved to tell the story o how ona voyage in the Atlantic near the BermudaIslands, a terri c storm whipped up. Theship was threatened and many sailors earedthe worse. A ter a giant wave threw Edgreninto the spars and beams, the sailors released

him and carried him tothe cabin. The ollowing morning,a ter the s tormhad subsided; thewhole crew hon-ored Edgrens aithin God and its stabi-lizing infuence dur-ing the turmoil.

F o r E d g r e n

human beings wereenslaved by sin andwould be summonedbe ore the judgmentseat o God and an-swer or their lives oservitude to sin. TheSon o God came toredeem humans romtheir sins through theshedding o his bloodThe church is a orgivenpeople who have accept-ed the salvation message.

One must choose to accept the hand o Godthrough Christ or not. What would it pro t aman i he were to gain the whole world andlose his own soul?

What must a person do to be saved? Thiseternal question remains as important intodays world. Each person must still answerit.

Gods Gift of Forgiveness: An Evangelistic Tract of John Alexis Edgre


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o n the S ea of l ife John a lexis e DGRen , Founder of Bethel Semi-nary | In my younger years I ollowed the sea,and that long enough to advance rom cabinboy to the Captain. Having thus had ampleexperience o both the practical and theoreti-cal side o a seamans calling, I thought oncein years o Gospel work I might prepare some

address, illustrated by images rom the sea.The ollowing is substantially that address. Itis hereby committed to print, i perchance inthat orm it may be o some use to immortalsouls.

As will be seen, it deals especially with thesubjective side o salvation, with mans ownexperiences in being saved, but not withoutallusion also to the objective side, to Godspurpose and method in saving souls. Indeed,in any treatment o the way o salvation thatside could not be le t out o view, or romit fows to us the power by which we aresaved, and without which salvation wouldbe impossible.

Let us then learn at least something romthe Bible, but in images rom the sea, concern-ing the way o salvation. Here we see a burningvessel on the ocean. A man is standing on thedeck, perplexed about what to do to be saved.Such is the sinners position. Fire shall one day devour this earth. This material re shall bebut the emblem o the more terrible fame that

shall sweepthrough thesinners soulunder the justcondemna-tion o God.When Christ

comes again, he shall come in faming re,rendering vengeance to them that know notGod, and to them that obey not the Gospel o our Lord Jesus, who shall su er punishment,even eternal destruction rom the ace o the

Lord and rom the glory o his might. (IIThess. 1: 8,9)How shall this man, you see on the vessel,

escape? Delay will make him a sure prey o the fames. Thoughtlessly to continue in sin iswith certainty to meet the judgment. To castonesel overboard is the sooner to meet death.Behold, there is also the shark o the sea, await-ing the un ortunate to swallow him up. To doas many, in despair to take ones own li e, is tocast onesel at once and or ever into the powero Satan. Behold, oh sinner, in this image your

own position! What will youdo?

Could that man be savedby tearing the fesh rom hisbones? No. That would nothelp him. And yet, how many in this position

seek salvation by sel torture. But the tortureo the body does not remove the guilt o sin,and does not create a new heart.

Or could this man be saved by putting onhis best clothes? Impossible? Yet how many,when they are without peace with God, seek to build up a righteousness o their own asa ground o justi cation with God. But invain! For by works o the law shall no feshbe justi ed. (Romans 3:20) It is well andnecessary to seek righteousness o li e, andto make restitution or sin, as ar as that lies

in mans power; but in all this the ground o salvation is not to be ound. (Romans 10:3)Something else is necessary to constitute thisground. What shall the man do? There is noboat. That is already destroyed. Since the all,man has no means o his own, by which hecould restore his lost good relation to God.

Is there no hope o salvation? Yes, or behold,a ship is coming yonder! Its name is the Gospel.Many a storm has it experienced, but not a sailis blown away, not a spar is broken! Heavenand earth shall pass away, but my words shallnot pass away, saith the Lord. (Luke 21:33)By the King in the Land o Glory this ship hasbeen sent out, just in order to seek and save theshipwrecked. In the symbol o the cross on itsfag we already perceive that God is love. (IJohn 4:8) And it signals in behal o the King:Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the endso the earth; or I am God, and there is noneelse. (Isaiah 45:22)

But how shall the man come over to theship? Shall he put on wings and fy thither?That he cannot do. And so he might perish,although the ship is in sight. Gods gentlenessand ones own virtue, so think many, willsurely lead to salvation. These are the twowings by which they would fy; but the Bibleknows o no salvation without atonement.

Now the ship has arrived. The li eboato atonement has been sent, and is closeto the burning ship. Now the man can besaved. To do this is so simple, that it needsno description. He only leaves the vessel onwhich he stands, and eeling assured, that the

boat is able to carry him,he lets himsel down intoit. Act in a similar manner.Con ess and orsake yousins, orsake also all depen

dence on any righteousness o your own or

justi cation and acceptance with God; andcast yoursel as an unworthy and altogetherneedy sinner upon Christ, or whose meritssake alone God can and does justi y and saveall who repentently and trustworthy turnunto Him, even the most ungodly. (I John2:1,2; Romans 4:5; Luke 23:42,43)

This boat will carry you - Christ or youwith God - Christ your representative havingsu ered or your sins and paid the penaltin your behal , and having in your behal

ul lled the law and presented to God his

own absolute righteousness. This is theGod given ground o the Sinners justi ca-tion. Trust then in Jesus, and God will notimpute to you your sins, because they havebeen imputed to him, and he will impute to you his righteousness or his acceptance o you, and you shall be restored to his avor.(John 3:16; Isaiah 53; Matthew 26:28; Exo-dus 28:36,38; Jeremiah 23:6; Romans 3:21;Romans 4:6-8; Luke 15:20-24) Then willalso ollow the gi t o the new li e, whichits nature is righteousness, peace, and joy inthe Holy Spirit.

A ter the man is in the boat, it is pulled orthe Gospel ship, and we hear him gladly ex-claim, asthe boatp a s s e sa w a y

rom theburningv e s s e l :There isthere ore now no condemnation to themthat are in Christ Jesus...Who is he thatcondemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yes,rather, that was raised rom the dead, who isat the right hand o God, who also makethintercession or us...For I am persuaded, thatneither death, nor li e, nor angels, nor prin-cipalities, nor things present, nor things tocome, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, norany other creature shall be able to separateus rom the love o God, which is in ChrisJesus, our Lord. (Romans 8:1, 34-39)


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The Pietist Poetry of Signe Olson PetersonG. W illiam C aRlson , Profes-sor of History and Political Science, Bethel University |In recent issues o the BaptistPietist Clarion we have pub-lished the poetry o Signe

Olson Peterson. She wroteunder the name Signe andwas joined, in various Mid-west Swedish newspapersand journals in the rst hal o the twentieth century, by other Swedish poets suchas David Nygren, C. R. Osbeck, and C. O.Dahlen. Recently she was honored in the

Swedes in Canada Newsletter (#5 December 2005) that isedited by Elinor Barr.

More than eighty o herearly Swedish poems werewritten while she lived in

Canada between 1911-18.She worked as a domesticor a widow in one o Port

Arthurs grand homes (now part o Thunder Bay, On-tario). Just recently ElinorBarr located a history o the

Baptist Church in Port Arthur rom 1930 andound a copy o a poem written by Signe in

celebration o her experiences in the PortArthur church.

Signe was born in Upper Ullerud, Vrm-land. A ter moving to Minnesota she marriedRev. E.B. Peterson and raised six children.She published around 300 poems and essays.Many were ound in Swedish newspapersand journals located at the Baptist GeneralCon erence History Center in St. Paul, Min-nesota.

A major theme was her deep Christianaith as an active member o the Swedish

Baptist church. She also wrote about the im-migrant experience. Her poems requently

de ne characteristics o the pietist tradition.Such include a need or a born again expe-rience, a delight in prayer and Bible study,a celebration o the community o aith,a desire or holy living and a hope or thepromise o heaven.

The immigrant experience was a hard one.Her poems refect a sense o loneliness andisolation. She laments over the immigrantsinability to be with amily members andthanks God or the prayer ul lives o her

mother and ather. There is a sense that li eis hard and only God can provide strengthand support in time o need. There is a con-stant refection on the pillars o strength shewas able to access: the support o the aithcommunity, the realization that ultimately this li e is not all there is, and the necessity o Gods presence.

For Signe the poets muse was a creativeway o thinking about alienation, the mes-sages ound in Gods creation, and the value

17. Lead the Children to Jesus(Sndagsskolan och Hemmet,Vol. XXI, No. 6, February 6, 1916, p. 4)(Mel. 184 Psalmisten).(translated by Tom Coleman)

Lead the small to Jesus,Be ore sin succeeds,In the elds o their hearts,There to sow its seeds.

Chorus: Heaven belongs to them,Do not let them stray,Why not there ore start them,On the homeward way.

Direct them to Jesus,Tell them tenderly,

His love goes out to all,Though they wayward be.Chorus: Heaven belongs to them.

Carry them to Jesus,Upon prayers strong armsHide them beside his heart,From the worlds alarms.Chorus: Heaven belongs to them.

Follow them to Jesus,Show them that they here,In all li es storms may be,Calm and ree rom care.Chorus: Heaven belongs to them.

o holy living. She loved children and wantedto ensure that all heard the Gospel o JesusChrist, received adequate care and nurture,and delighted in their creative activities.Signe had a strong commitment to Kling-bergs Childrens home and John Klingberg,its ounder, was a strong supporter o her

poetry. The poems on this page are writtento emphasize a call to live as orgiven and

orgiving people.Some o her poems have been translated

rom the Swedish by Tom Coleman, a retiredBaptist Con erence missionary to Ethiopiaand Cameroons. He is not only a gi tedtranslator, but also a gi ted poet.

233. ForgiveThere is a word we have on earth,Which Heaven does not know.Where per ect joy is not disturbed,By sorrows here below.And yet, by Heavens very gate,Its mighty power abound,For no one ever enters there,That does not know its sound.

This word was placed on mortal tongue,Because o sin and woe,When man had wandered rom the way,His maker bade him go.And then it did become a guide,How dying souls may live,And reunite them with their God.This glorious word FORGIVE.

When hearts each other nd anew,And hope and aith restore,When tender love within oer fow,Where bitter memories o the past,With tears are washed away.

No word is sweeter than FORGIVE,We ever learn to say.

Here is the will I aim to leave,To all, Ive learned to know.It matters not i it be known,A while be ore I go.With open arms I plead with all,While yet our lives we live.Unbound eternity is near,FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE!


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continued on p.

Introduction g. W iLLiam C arLson , Professor of History and Political Science, Bethel University | Dr.Karl Karlson was dean o Bethel Seminary

r o m 1 9 2 5unti l 1948.He was bornin Sweden in1877. He en-countered acommunity o baptizedbelievers in1 8 9 4 a n dthere came to

know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He wasbaptized in 1894 and almost immediately elta call to ministry.

A ter graduating rom Bethel Seminary inSweden he began a li e o church ministry.He emigrated to the United States in 1904,where he served Baptist churches in Con-necticut, Massachusetts and Maine. Whileserving in ministry he completed his educa-tion, nally receiving a Doctorate at ClarkeUniversity.

Karlson came to Bethel Seminary in 1922to teach historic theology, a post vacated by Pro essor Emmanuel Schmidt. When Arvid

Gordh resigned as Dean o the Seminary in 1925, Dr. Karlson became the Seminary Dean. He was deeply committed to evange-lism and missions. One o the major tasks

or the new Dean was to help transition theSeminary rom Swedish to English.

He was deeply committed student o theBible and developed an extensive set o noteson the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Li e o Christ and Book o Ezekial. The article onthe Lords prayer was published a ter hisdeath in 1948 in the Bethel Seminary Quar-terly . It refects Dr. Karlsons commitment toBiblical scholarship as well as a need to be a

aith ul disciple o Jesus Christ. It illustrateshis view on the value o orgiveness as aBiblical principle.

Dean Edwin Omark wrote the ollowingabout Dr. Karlson:

Christian both in doctrine and li e. Tohim the sacred Scriptures were the solesource o authority and guidance. The

crucible o his trained mind had testedother purported authorities and ound themwanting: only the divinely inspired Bible wasadequate or aith and li e.

a l eSSon in P rayer :

l uke 11:1-13 d r . K arL J. K arLson , Dean of Bethel Seminary,1925-1948 | Bethel Seminary Quarterly Vol.VI, No. 1, November 1957.

Jesus was praying. Itmust have been a wonder ulprayer or the disciples eltthe impact o it. This is the

kind o prayer that comesa ter much praying. Andone o His disciples gaveexpression to this eelingo the need among the

disciples to be able to pray as the Master prayed Jesus

gave them a prayer.

A Model Prayer Jesus granted the request and urnished

the disciples with a model prayer. It was notJesus intention that they should learn thisprayer by heart and repeat it thoughtlessly

or that is contrary to the intent and purposeo prayer. The prayer is brie but it containsthe elements which should be included inevery prayer.

But the di erence between the prayer inMatthew and Luke, whether they are two

prayers or one, indicates that the disciplesdid not understand it as a prayer to belearned and repeated as a ormula but asindicating the elements o true prayer. I thetwo evangelists report the same instructionin prayer, Matthews is probably the moreoriginal or it has in it certain elements thatgive added touch to an actual prayer

A ter this manner there ore pray ye. TheGentiles may have their orms o prayer andJohn the Baptist may have had his but ye shall

have this. Vain repetitions and useless wordshave no place in prayer to God. This prayercontains neither.

The prayer contains the ollowing acts:1. The address:Our Father who art in

heaven. It was Jesus who brought the Father-hood o God to men. He called God His Fa-ther; He was His Son. He associates Himselwith the disciples and says: Our Father. InHim we become children o God. Everyonewho has identi ed himsel with Jesus Christis a child o God, and can address God asOur Father.

This Father is o another world, the heav-enly, the spiritual: I dwell in the high andholy place, with him also that is o a contriteand humble spirit. (Isaiah 57:15) Heavenis my throne and the earth is my ootstool.

(Isaiah 66:1) He is exalted, majestic, and holy,still accessible to and connected with thechildren o men through the Son o Man.

2. Then follows three petitions whpertain to Gods glory, Gods dominioand Gods respect.

a.Hallowed be thy name. Gods nameis holy in itsel because o Him who bearit; but this holiness must be asserted anddisplayed in the whole being and charactero the believers, inwardly and outwardly, so

that disposition, word, and deed are regu-lated by the acknowledged per ection o Godand brought into harmony with it. (MeyerCommentary on Matthew )

There is an identi ication between thename and the person that bears the name;the name stands or the person. That whichis impure and repugnant to God brings dis-honor to His name; it pro anes His name.Let thy name be kept sacred. May it alwaysbe worshipped and revered. b. Thy kingdom come. This was animportant prayer or all the Jews. It meantthe Messianic kingdom. Jesus makes this theprayer o his disciples. Whether Jesus meantit so or not, the disciples understood it tomean the Messianic kingdom. When thatkingdom would come, the political worldevents would be wound up and a new ordero things be inaugurated. It was Gods king-dom among men.

The petition has to do more with the

Christians as Forgiven People: Karl Karlson onThe Lords Prayer


8/16

Karl Karlson, from p.

~ 8 ~

condition under which the kingdom cancome than with the kingdom itsel . The ideaexpressed here is the same as Peter voices:Waiting or and hastening the day o God.(II Peter 3:12) There is a way in which we canhasten the day, that is the condition o thecoming, not the kingdom itsel exactly. Themissionary work that the disciples are to dois thus indirectly included in the prayer.

c.Thy will be done, as in heaven, so onearth. Luke omits this petition. Hence, someexegetes have maintained that it is not a peti-tion itsel but an un olding o the meaningo the preceding. There is here, an emphasisupon something else: The angels in heaven doGods will; men on earth should do the same,even i Gods kingdom has not come. Believ-ers should be anxious to realize Gods purposein their lives. This is a prerequisite or admis-

sion into the kingdom o God. The prayer isnot or God to exert His will in heaven and onearth, but or the production o a conditionin which Gods will is realized.

3. The next three petitions pertain moreintimately and directly to man, to him whois praying.

a.Give us this day our daily bread. Thispetition concerns temporal goods, the only one that does. There seems to be a contra-diction between Jesus teaching here and His

teaching in the Sermon on the Mount con-cerning cares or tomorrow: Be not anxious

or tomorrow. But the contradiction is not areal one. I there be any in the mind o anyoneit is due to a misunderstanding o what Jesussaid and the situation in which He said it. Thisis a morning prayer. In the morning Jesustaught His disciples: Give us our sustainingbread or the approaching day. The wordwhich is translated daily is epiousion whichis o uncertain meaning and is used only twicein the New Testament, in the two editionso the Lords prayer and nowhere else in theGreek language. It is apparently composed o epi and ousious , epi - upon and ousios beingor substance, and so it might mean sustain-ing or or the present, i.e. the approachingday. And so He teaches them to pray orenough bread each day or the approachingday, i.e., the day that is just beginning and notbe anxious or the morrow. It is a reminder o the manna in the wilderness which ell every morning just or the day

The meaning o the prayer is abundantly plain. We are enjoined to present to God ourneeds or this li e and trust Him or them.I we ask or our daily bread today there isstill some uturity but we have no right to gobeyond tomorrows need. The idea that weshould receive today our bread or tomorrow is absurd and still a good many Christiansthink that would be all right.

b.The second petition o this group per-tains to our social relationship; we are taughtto pray or orgiveness o sin because we havealso orgiven, i.e. our relation to our ellow beings is the condition on which we base ourrequest. It we do not orgive we pray thatGod shall not orgive us.

we are taught to pray ororgiveness o sin because

we have also orgiven

The son o Sirach had written: Forgivethy neighbor the hurt that he hath donethee; and then thy sins shall be pardonedwhen thou prayest, (Ecclesiastes 28:1) andthe Son o Man said: I ye orgive men theirtrespasses, your heavenly Father will also

orgive you. But i ye orgive not men their

trespasses, neither will your Father orgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15) And itis so important that i you art o ering thy gi t at the alter and there rememberest thatthy brother hath aught against thee, leavethere thy gi t be ore the altar, and go thy way;

rst be reconciled to thy brother, and thencome and o er thy gi t. (Matthew 5:23-24)Mark has recorded another saying o Jesussimilar to this one: And whensover ye standpraying, orgive i ye have aught against any-

one; that your Father, who is in heaven, may orgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:25)

The religious unction cannot be per ormedunless the social relation is right.

Matthew presents the case as i the peti-tioner had already orgiven his debtor whenhe asked God to orgive him; Mark and Lukeas i he did it at the same time.

The importance o the situation is plainenough. We should probably not take it tomean that our orgiving our debtors wouldmerit our orgiveness, although that would

probably be maintained, but rather that ourorgiving is the necessary moral condition

upon which we could be orgiven; it wouldproduce in us the necessary attitude or

orgivenessc.James writes: Let no man say when he

is tempted, I am tempted o God; or Godcannot be tempted with evil and he himsel tempteth no man. (James 1:13) The only way in which He can bring us into tempta-tion is, as Meyer points out, to produce, orbring about, situations and circumstancesthat urnish the occasion or sinning. Thesubjective cause, the active principle, intemptation is when he is drawn away by hisown lust and enticed.

For this reason Jesus can instruct His dis-ciples to pray that God, in His providentialcare, should not permit such situations to

arise that might lead them to sinning: Bringus not into temptation.

Moreover, the word or temptation hasalso the meaning o trial. This does not,however, t into the meaning and purposeo the petition, which is to assure againstsinning and a trial is not or that purpose.Still trials are o doubt ul issue. A strongcharacter, a hero in the aith overcomes in itand grows stronger every time. Such a heromay welcome a trial, even a temptation, and

can do as James says: count it all joy, mybrethren, when ye all into mani old tempta-tion; knowing that the proving o your aithworketh patience. (James 1:2,3)

But all the disciples are not o that kind.Some o them are weak and timid. Hence,they are instructed to pray this prayer andto add: Deliver us rom the evil one. It ishe that tempts to sin. When God withholdsHis hand Satan has a ree hand with us andwe have not much chance.

The Greek word or deliver is taken rommilitary li e and re ers to a soldier who habeen captured by the enemy and is delivered,liberated, rom the enemys hands. Thepicture is so vivid that we are almost ready to say that he is in the hands o the evil one.Well, the danger might be close.

There is a question whether we shouldtranslate evil or evil one. The Greek wordhas the article and may be either masculine orneuter. The evil is a more inclusive word andmay really be pre erred to the evil one


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continued on p. 10 ~ 9 ~

Christian Freedoms Baptists Value:Religious Liberty and Soul Liberty Galatians 5:1, 13-14

D R . R on W. s aaRi , Cen-tral Baptist Church July 2, 2006 | One o thestories rom my child-hood comes rom atime when I was three years old. I have norecollection o the

event, but have heard my mother tell thestory enough that it has become reality tome. When I was three I was outside play-ing and my mother lost track o me. Idisappeared rom sight. Im not sure how nervous she was or i she thought eventually I would show up. Obviously, even though Ididnt understand the term, I was ree o my

mothers control. Such reedom is cherishedby all three year olds alike.

Im not sure how long it was be ore Ishowed up at our backdoor. I was accom-panied by a stranger. He was a neighbor,one with whom we didnt associate. Hewas angry that I had gotten ree rom my mothers control. Evidently as the story goes,I had entered his house and gone down hisbasement, all without his permission. I hadclimbed onto his train table and was pushing

his train cars along the tracks. He was greatly disturbed that I was enjoying such activity without his permission.

The incident reminds me that our livesare always experiencing the tension betweenorder and control and the exercise o ree-dom. Freedom is cherished by our country.Over this 4 th o July holiday weekend weare reminded o the core value o reedom:

reedom o religion; reedom o speech; ree-dom o the press; and reedom o assembly.However, as I said earlier, reedom alwayslives in tension with order and control.

Freedom has not always been a cherished value or the Christian church

It might come as a surprise to us to hearthat in the history o the Christian church

reedom has not been widely and uni ormly championed. Dr. Je rey Rogers, pastor o First Baptist Church in Greenville, South

Carolina comments in a sermon entitledOn Christian Freedom:

In none o the dominant theologies o theChristian aith down through the ages has

reedom played a central and indispensablerole. In spite o that great saying o Jesus inthe gospel o John, You will know the truth,and the truth will make you ree (8:32),

reedom is merely a note in the margins o Christian theology. In spite o Pauls liberat-ing assertion to the church at Corinth, wherethe Spirit o the Lord is, there is reedom (1Cor 3:17), reedom is only a ootnote in mostChristian theologies.

Freedom has always been a Baptist valueover the years. It is not something that we

take lightly. Freedom is one o the de n-ing elements o Baptists place in the longand storied history o Christian aith and

Church and State must be kept separate ashaving di erent unctions, each ul lling duties ree rom dictation or patronage o theother.

What does reedom mean to Baptists?

The Baptist movement began in the1600s. Baptists, like those o the BaptisGeneral Con erence, are part o the rechurch tradition. Many Baptist churchesand their denominations began as perse-cuted church communities, either becausethey challenged the supremacy o the statechurch or because they were o ten critical othe social, economic or political norms o

the mainstream institutions and policies o the civil order. There ore, among Baptists,

reedom is o ten a higher value than order.

1968 BGC Resolution on Religious Liberty We believe that God created man in His own image and endowed him with the ree-

dom to respond to His redemptive love; that man is responsible to God or his Christianconvictions and practices; and that Christian commitment and participation must bevoluntary to be real.

There ore we maintain that it is a human right as well as a prerogative o Divine gracethat man be ree to worship God; that the state should guarantee the right o all citizens

to believe, to worship, to teach, to evangelize, to change their religious a liations, andto serve their God as their consciences dictate; that this is best e ected when state andchurch are separate in program, administration and support.

Furthermore we believe that the Christian citizen has a responsibility to his govern-ment in de ending and promoting human liberties and rights by opposing discrimina-tory practices based on religion, race, economic or social status; by resisting any ormso totalitarianism, such as communism or ascism, that deny these basic rights; and by positively ul lling the goals o religious liberty by being obedient to the rst and greatcommandment: To love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, andour neighbor as ourselves.

theology. It is important to me that one o the major principles o the Baptist GeneralCon erences A rmation o Faith includesa statement about religious liberty. It readsas ollows:

Religious Liberty : We believe that every human being has direct relations with God,and is responsible to God alone in all matterso aith; that each church is independent andmust be ree rom inter erence by any eccle-siastical or political authority; that there ore

Baptists, like John Leland and Isaac Back-us, were instrumental in the establishmento the rst amendment to the AmericanConstitution and the later establishment o religious reedoms at the state level. Theyo ten supported the work o James Madisonand Thomas Je erson on these issues. Baptists wanted to ensure that they would not bediscriminated against at either the nationalor the state levels.

Baptist history records that on October


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Christian Freedoms, from p. 9

continued on p. 12

~ 10 ~

7, 1801, the Danbury Baptist Associationin Danbury, Connecticut, su ering rompersecution because they werent part o theCongregational Church, the o cial churcho that state, wrote a letter to PresidentThomas Je erson asking him to assure themo their right to religious liberty. Heres what

Je erson wrote back:Believing with you that religion is amatter which lies solely between manand his GodI contemplate with sov-ereign reverence that act o the wholeAmerican people which declared thattheir legislature should make no law respecting an establishment o reli-gion, or prohibiting the ree exercisethereo , thus building a wall o separa-tion between church and State.From that point on, that phrase separa-

tion o church and state became the partand parcel o the lexicon o our nation. Bap-tists played a huge role in the establishmento this concept. Baptists have long ought

or the value o religious reedom and theability to be di erent and worship accordingto their own conscience.

On Wednesday, June 28, 2006, I had theprivilege to listen to a presentation by Dr.Virgil Olson, well-known to many o youand a Baptist scholar in his own right. He

described the lay movement called Lasaremeaning readers or students o the wordin Sweden, who separated themselves romthe national church and its hierarchy. Whenthese pioneers came to this country and inparticular to Minnesota, they carried withthem this spirit o independent separatism.These pioneers are the ore athers and moth-ers o what is now known as Central BaptistChurch and the Baptist General Con erence.In other words, they viewed reedom as a

higher value than order.

Freedom is our Baptist legacy, our obligation, and our identity as a people o God.A distinguished Baptist historian Dr. Wal-ter Shurden has summed up the Baptistperspective on reedom in a superb littlebook titled The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms. Shurden highlights our essential

reedoms that Baptists value:

a. Bible reedom (the authority o the wordover creeds) b. Soul reedom (the right to deal directly with God)c. Church reedom (autonomous rom any hierarchical mandates or directives)d. Religious reedom (autonomous rom

government intervention).These reedoms, Shurden argued, are

rooted in the nature o God and how hemade us. They are rooted in a belie thatthere can be no authenticity o belie withoutautonomy. Most recently Dr. Shurden madethese comments:

The biblical image that comes tomind when I think o the BJC (Bap-tist Joint Committee) is that Flaming Sword that God xed on that wall inGenesis 3. I like to think o the BJCnot as sword, a weapon o war, butas a kind o Flaming Torch , a Flaming Torch o Freedom and Liberty. ThisFlaming Torch is positioned on theWall o Separation, guarding the way to the garden o religious liberty andto the tree o separation o churchand state.There is a drumbeat in evangelicalism

today that somehow our only hope to saveAmerica is to make it a Christian nation

again. The methodology o such a move-ment is to utilize the political process andmake everyone believe the way we believe.That methodology is not any di erent thanthe State church movement o Sweden o acouple o centuries ago. Just as they triedto use power and control to make everyonebelieve the same so we today want to usepower and control to have everyone pray in schools and put the Ten Commandments back in the public square.

Friends, our hope is not in the use o po-litical power. Our hope is not in requiringeveryone believe the same way we do. Free-dom requires reedom to believe accordingto our own conscience. Our hope is in Christand His Kingdom. We, as Baptists, rejectedthe State church methodology in the 1800swhen it orced us to believe a certain way and we ought to reject such use o powerand control today.

I am pleased we live in a country that pro-

vides the wall o separation between churchand state. We are a religious nation becauseo this protection and because we re use toadopt a state church approach. Religiouspower and identity is strongest when it isnot related to the State or its identity and

unction. These are the truths o religous and

soul reedom. It is also why Baptists stronglysupport the separation o church and state.Baptists always ear the rise o a theocraticstate and its oppressive nature. There ore Bap-tists need to assert the ollowing principles:1) Our own religious reedom is best pro-tected when we grant religious reedom orall and not a select ew.2) Separation o Church and State does notmean acquiescing to secularism.3) Believing in separation does not meanour voice is silenced in the public square.We have always been and will always be acountercultural movement.4) Our views are best expressed when werespect the ethnic, religious and politicalpluralism o our nation.

Baptists and Religious and Soul Liberty: Relevance or Todays Christians

First, our commitment to religious free-dom is grounded in the nature of God and

in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Theapostle Paul, in Galatians chapter 5, providesus with some understandings o how todaysBaptists ought to understand the meaning o religious liberty and soul liberty . Christ hasset us ree, he says, in Galatians 5:1. WalterShurden recently argued in a speech entitledHow We Got that Way: Baptists on ReligiousLiberty and the Separation o Church andState that or Baptists religious reedom isrooted in the nature o God. He argued:

A Sovereign God who dared to createpeople as ree beings is portrayed in the Bibleas a liberating Diety. Throughout the OldTestament, God is set against persons andinstitutions that restricted the reedom o Gods people. And the complete thrust o Jesus ministry was to ree people rom athat would hold them back rom obedienceto God. Freedom or Baptists was ar morethan a constitutional right or a governmentgi t. God, not nations or courts or human


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G. W illiam C aRlson , Professor of History and Political Science, Bethel University | GordonJohnson was Dean o Bethel Seminary rom1964-1984. He is author o the book My Church which has been a standard resourceon the Baptist heritage or members o theBaptist General Con erence.He was active in the BaptistWorld Alliance and a strongarticulator o our pietisttradition.

Recently, Marie Schultzpresented to me a copy o the Prayers o GordonJohnson put together by Edna Schultz. Edna workedat Bethel College and Semi-nary rom 1951-1985. From

1964 to 1978 she was secre-tary to the Dean o Bethel Seminary and Reg-istrar. From 1978 to 1985 she was Registrar o the Seminary. This collection is a cherishedexpression o the Dean o Bethel Seminary who modeled a li e built around Bible read-ing, prayer, evangelism and service.

Dr. Johnson was also a gi ted preacher andwonder ul storyteller. Recently, he publisheda new work entitled Making God Known Through Story. He supports the principle that

the Christian li e is the creating o ones ownunique story, shaped and understood by thestory o Christ.

Gordon Johnson suggests that preachersmust address two audiences: those who areseeking to know God and those who, havingknown God, desire to experience a dynamic,vital relationship with God. There ore,Gods story must arise out o the biblical textthat shows its relevance to the contemporary world.

To be an e ectivce communicator o thegospel, Dr. Johnson argues, we need to seehow God reveals himsel through story inthe Bible. Revelation is God making himsel known. He takes the initiative. He wants theseeker to nd him. He desires the churchmember to vitally know Him. God has takenthe initiative throughout the ages by hisencounters with men and women in vitalexperiences o knowing Him.

The Bible, states Dr. Johnson, is not asystematic theology. One does not nd the

teaching o abstract doctrines in a philo-sophical ramework in the Bible. The dis-covery o teachings about God is observedin the stories o women and men as they are con ronted by God in the midst o theirhuman activity. What is seen are truths

coming through the humansituation.

I had the opportunity togrow up in the Montclair Bap-tist Church in New Jersey. Dr.Johnson was a pastor o thatchurch early in his ministry.Our amily experienced rsthand his commitments toevangelism, spiritual develop-ment and holy living.

Gordon Johnson has al-

ways been rmly committedto the Baptist pietist heritage. All peopleneed to respond Gods call o salvationthrough Jesus Christ, to allow the Holy Spiritto work in our lives, to develop an intentionalspiritual development through Bible readingand prayer and to reach out to people inneed.

The ollowing two prayers are GordonJohnsons expression o the need or believersto live as orgiven people.

We are Great ul or Your Forgiveness: A Chapel Prayer Our Father,You are worthy o our adoration.Your power as creator and sustainer o all

that exists makes us bow in awe and ear.Your love so clearly exhibited in your Son,

Jesus Christ, makes us respond withrepentance or our sin and ailure.

We are grate ul or your orgiveness, or

Your renewal in our lives, and orYour enabling us to better use the gi tsYou have given.

Grant, Lord, that this chapel will bringhonor to Your name as we re-think ourresponsibility o mission in our worldtoday.

In the name o Jesus Christ, our Lord,we pray, Amen.

We Trust You or the Forgiveness You Have Promised: A Chapel Prayer Our Father,We bow in humble adoration be ore You

because we have discovered no moreadequate manner to be in Your presence.

We con ess our sin, ailure and neglect.And we trust You or the orgivenessYou have promised.

We live in a world ull o want and despairAnd we have done so little to right thewrongs which in every corner o theworld cry out to be righted.

In this land o plenty we have thought toomuch in terms o our privileges and ourrights, and all too little in terms o our

duty.All o us have duties as Your children.

Duties which we dare not neglect.We know that we are prone to substitute

pious words and lo ty phrases orper ormance o Christian duty.

We talk glibly o love and do so little tomake a world where love can have achance to exert its power among men.

Make us aware o our own helplessness toso live and infuence our world apart

rom Your work within us.In this moment we submit to Your

Lordship in our individual lives so ourlives can make a di erence in awounded, troubled world.

In the name o Jesus Christ, our Lordwe ask this. Amen.

Living as Forgiven People: Prayers of Gordon Johnson


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Christian Freedoms, from p. 10

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law, is the ultimate source o liberty.Second, religious liberty necessitates a

commitment to soul liberty. Baptists arecommitted to the belie that aith must be

ree. Isaac Backus, a major contributor to theBaptist commitments to religious liberty inthe United States, wrote that true religionis a voluntary obedience to God.

Shurden quotes Dr. Martin Marty whenhe de nes a concept called the Baptisti ca-tion o the aith. This includes such phrasesas where there is not autonomy, there is noauthenticity; i aith is to be valid, it mustbe voluntary; to cram a creed down apersons throat is rape o the soul; and theonly conversion that counts is conversion by conviction.

The Baptist General Con erence emergedas an immigrant church which was commit-

ment to maintaining religious liberty andsoul liberty. We came rom Sweden whichsuppressed Baptist believers because they were opposed to the state church. We came

rom a community which was committed toevangelism, believers Baptism, holy living,world missions and the irenic spirit.

Believers were individuals who respondedvoluntarily to the saving work o JesusChrist. We were believers who suggestedthat holy living meant a commitment to

a discipleship li estyle that o ten challengedthe norms o the larger community.

Third, Christian freedom is not an op-portunity for self-indulgence. Paul saysthis in v 13 o Galatians 5, You, my brothers,were called to be ree. But do not use your

reedom to indulge the sin ul nature; rather,serve one another in love.

Recently, I read about the story o Pas-tor Larry Shotwell who sat down with astranger who had come in or help. WhenLarry asked how he could help, the strangerexplained that his mother had died and they were holding up the uneral until he couldget there. He said, he was down on his luck and he didnt have any money. All I need isa bus ticket and I can get to the uneral.

Larry said he would see what he could do.He asked, Could you give me your name?Names Lee, Johnnie Lee. Thank you John-nie, Ill be right back. Pastor Larry said. Hele t the stranger and went to the o ce toreview the list o drop-ins or help.

He returned to the stranger and said, Imsorry about your mother. Ive just checkedour book and you were in six months ago.Your mother had also died then. To lose your mother twice in one year must be really pain ul.

Johnnie got up and le t without saying aword. Johnnie had not ound the reedom

rom behaviors that were destructive tohimsel and others. He used his reedom

or sel -indulgence.Driving back on Wednesday with Pastor

John Anderson rom the Baptist GeneralCon erence sessions at Bethel, we talkedabout several things. One o the things wetalked about was the Achilles Heal o ourcapitalistic system. Now we arent always sophilosophical. The Achilles Heal is greed. Itis the sel -indulgence here described. What

is the greatest check against greed? It is thebalance o the Gospel. It is in the gospel thatwe discover the love o God and that it is alove or us and others. It is in the power o the gospel that greed is held in check. Fourth, Baptists need to be champions of religious liberty in todays America and thelarger global community. We should valuea nation that is committed to religious plu-ralism and be skeptical o those who wishto create a 21 st century Christian America.

Baptists believe that people o aith shouldstrongly infuence the values and norms o our society in the public square. However,we are not supportive o e orts to encouragethe government to use religion or politicalpurposes, choose one aith as having morelegitimacy over another and provide speci creligions a avored status. Baptists rmly be-lieve that our job in evangelism and disciple-ship best takes place in a pluralist religiouscommunity which encourages and valuesvoluntary church reedoms and a strongbelie in religious liberty.

Baptist e orts to support the separationo church and state is not an e ort to createa secular America but to sustain a vitalreligiously infuenced America. C. EmanuelCarlson, a major Baptist General Con er-ence contributor to the li e and witness o the Baptist Joint Committee, stated thatwhat ever the state touches it secularizes.He was concerned with the emergence o anew civil religion that equated the gospel o

Jesus Christ with American nationalism.Baptists are a Christocentric and Biblio-

centric people. As Baptist historian LeonMcBeth wrote: In no areas has Baptistswitness proved clearer and more consistentthan in the struggle or the right o personsto answer to God and not to government orreligious belie s. C. Emanuel Carlson con-cluded that he had the eeling that i weever clearly identi y the Baptist genius we wil

nd it very closely related to religious liberty.We will nd it related to an understandingo the gospel which sees the person as calledo God in Christ to a li e o responsivenesand obedience to the mind o God, which inturn sends him into service as a ree man. Ouremphasis has been on responsiveness to God,a responsiveness which springs normally outo ull aith and con dence in His word, i

His redemption, in His power, in His love.Isnt this a Baptist distinctive to celebrate?

I encourage you to celebrate the greatAmerican reedoms o religion, speech, thepress, and assembly. And celebrate as wellthose distinctive Baptist reedoms o Biblesoul, church and religion. Yes, reedom isa hallmark o our country and we thank God or it. Freedom is also a hallmark oour Baptist heritage and we must protect it.Lets celebrate as well, the universal reedom

o the Christian aith that is built into thevery structure o the universe and humanexistence, the reedom to re rain rom selindulgence that leads to slavery and destruc-tion, and the reedom to love, even as wehave been loved. when we gather around thecommunion table, we celebrate the reedomthat Christ brings to our lives!


13/16

continued on p. 16

~ 13 ~

G. W illiam C aRlson , Professor of History and Political Science,Bethel University |In October 2005Terri Hansen and I

had the opportunity to conduct a Day o Spiritual Renewal on the topic o Living asForgiven and Forgiving People. The retreatwas co-sponsored by Central and Elim Bap-tist Churches. The core assumption was that orgiveness and reconciliation are practicesthat give concrete expression to our calling asdisciples o Jesus Christ. It is a theme that isderived rom our pietist heritage and needsto be emphasized in a world that too o tenvalues revenge and triumphalism.

Each o us has experienced times wherebeing a orgiving person has been di cult i not impossible. A student once asked me how one could orgive a amily member who hasbeen abusive, slanderous and irresponsible?A aculty colleague once asked me how onecan orgive the leaders o the ormer apart-heid regime in South A rica who have killedhis riends and made it di cult or him togain an education? How do you minister ina Baptist church in Croatia in a manner that

allows or Serbs and Croats to worship andserve the Lord Jesus Christ together? How does a society ask or orgiveness or ailingto stop the lynching o A rican-Americans inthe 20 th century? How do you ask orgiveness

rom a student who received an irresponsibletongue lashing during the classroom experi-ence? Can pastors orgive church memberswho have intentionally undermined a sig-ni cant church ministry?

Jesus ministry suggested that a orgiving

disposition was a characteristic o disciple-ship. (Matthew 18) The Living as ForgivingPeople section o the retreat ocused onthree stories in Christs li e and three illustra-tions o orgiveness ound on the Journey Toward Forgiveness video. Participantswere encouraged, through small group dis-cussion, to develop a set o principles or theachievement o authentic orgiveness. The

ollowing were the results o the participantsconversations.

Living as Forgiven People: Ten Principles of Authentic ForgivenessA. Seeking authentic orgiveness: recognizing and defning the issues

In John 8:1-12, Jesus engages in a dialoguewith the religious leaders concerning a womancaught in adultery. A ter some discussion aboutthe impact o the law on adultery cases, Jesus

queried: I any one o you is without sin, lethim be the rst to throw a stone at her. Whenthe elders went away leaving Jesus with theadulterous woman, he said to her, neither doI condemn youGo now and leave your li eo sin. Jesus o ered the woman a resh start.She was to commence a new li e because o herencounter with Jesus Christ.

Walter Wangerin, a distinguished Christianwriter, tells the story o Elijah, a well-loved A -rican-American school principal and his wi e,Mary, a bright, thought ul and determinedthird grade school teacher. Elijah tragically died o cancer. He had o ten asked Wangerinto pray the Lords Prayer at his bedside.

When his last death rattle passed, Mary continued to be angry with a God who al-lowed her husband to die too soon and tooquick and through too much pain. Wangerinpreached about the merci ul God that Elijahconsistently saw as the God o the whole uni-verse and the God who held kindness and loveand orgiveness or all the people.

One Sunday, just about the time o thesaying o the Lords Prayer, Mary stood up,without anger in her eyes, looked at the mem-bers o the congregation and said Our Father,who art in Heaven, hallowed be they name.Thy Kingdom come. The congregation raisedtheir arms and prayed with her. Wangerin saw a woman who sang us sweetly home, past hergrie to amen, to amen and to orgiveness.

What do these two stories tell us aboutthe nature o orgiveness and how it can be

achieved? What core principles can one reachabout the authentic orgiveness that Godwishes us to have and to share with others?

1. Forgiveness allows each party to a con-fict the possibility o a resh start.

2. Forgiveness is a choice that one mustmake. It is an intentional response to di cultand pain ul issues.

3. Forgiveness allows one to understandand take responsibility or ones part in thedevelopment o the confict.

B. Seeking authentic orgiveness: learning to let go/learning to let God work in your li e.

In Luke 19:1-9 Jesus engages in a dialoguewith the tax collector Zacchaeus. Jesus brokesocio-religious boundaries to commune with

Zacchaeus at his home. The encounter encour-aged Zacchaeus to con ess his misuse o powerHe gave hal o his possessions to the poor andrestored our old the taxes that he had stolen.Jesus stated that salvation has come to thishouse. What a trans ormation! Zacchaeusencounter with Jesus brought about a desireto seek restoration and restitution.

In the video, Journey toward Forgive-ness, John Perkins tells the story o his journey rom anger to reconciliation. Hetells the story o how his brother, returninghome rom military service in World War II,is shot by a white marshal at a movie theater.John was himsel beaten when serving timein prison protesting the ills o segregation.John eventually moved to Cali ornia, came togrips with the orgiving God and returned toMississippi to develop a Christian commu-nity known as Voice o Calvary Ministries.

John now works with law en orcement toprovide support or young people in trouble.The Community provides educational,economic and leadership development,low-income housing options, and a tutoringprogram. John lives as a orgiving Christian:I say all the time, the saddest people that Iknow are people who are not able to or-giveand so orgiveness rees me.

What does it mean that orgiveness reesme? How do reconciliation and restitutionrelate to one another? What does it mean totake the initiative? Is reconciliation possibleand under what circumstances?

4. Forgiveness demands that peopleseek restitution with those who have beenharmed.

5. Forgiveness requires people to take theinitiative to break the cycles o animosity andhatred.

6. Forgiveness has as its ultimate goal thepossibility o reconciliation.

C. Seeking authentic orgiveness: a journey that has no guarantees.


14/16~ 14 ~

stone at her. He returned thought ully tohis position near the ground. The tight gripon her arm began to ease o . One by one,those who had plotted against her, againstthe Galilean, began to disappear into thecrowd. Suddenly, she was aware that only she remained.

The Galileans gaze locked on hers. Shesuddenly became pain ully aware o herunkempt appearance. Shame enveloped herbody and roze in the pit o her stomach,cutting o her air. She blinked back the tearsthat were welling up like a volcano in hersoul. She searched his ace or a clueto his thoughts. She bracedhersel or his condemnationand judgment. But she saw none o that in his eyes eyesthat saw right through her

knew everything about her.Where are they that brought you here? They brought youhere to condemn you and now none are le t to accuse you?No one, Sir. Her voice wasshaky and tentative.

Then I dont accuse you ei-ther. Go and do not commit thissin anymore. Such tendernessand kindness no man had ever

extended to her. Her breathingrelaxed and her heartbeat slowedas relie swept over her rightened

rame.One encounter one brie exchange, and

a li e o shame was erased rom the record.Nothing was requested by or required o this woman as a condition o her pardon.Only a prompting to walk away new to

nd her eet headed in a di erent directionaway rom a li e o sin, born anew to reshinnocence and reedom.

Forgiveness both the acceptance o itor us and the meting out o it to others

is only possible in the shadow o divineorgiveness. We must know unsolicited,

unmerited orgiveness i we can ever hope too er unconditional orgiveness to another.

In the gospels, there are many other inci-dents and teachings o Jesus that deal withthe theme o orgiveness. This particularencounter is ound in John 8. It is obscure inthat it exists only in Johns account. It is well

known because o its redemptive message. Itprovides a power ul glimpse at the plan o God to restore humankind to himsel .

First we learn that divine orgiveness is un-solicited. The woman did not come to Jesusbegging or mercy. She was a pawn in a plot.She had no intention o seeking orgiveness

or her activities. Something happens whenwe encounter Jesus Christ. An ordinary ex-change becomes extraordinary. Zacchaeuswas just looking or a better view. Jesus didnot wait or Zacchaeus to con ess or evenspeak to him he just invited himsel over.

Jesus initiated the discussionand created an opportunity tobe gracious. God did not sendJesus to die in our place a terwe repented and turned romour sin. He opened the food-

gates and let his grace showerdown on a sin ul world whilewe were yet sinners.

Secondly, we learn thatorgiveness does not have to

be accusatory. Because he isrighteous, Jesus stands asthe only one with the rightto condemn and judge.Yet his response time andagain is one o mercy and

kindness. He lives to or-give and not to judge. He

had every right to make a public example o the sin ul woman. The Law was clear as towhat her punishment should be. She shouldhave had to beg or orgiveness and no onewould have thought it out o line to see hersentence carried out right then and there.

Last, we learn that repentance is the resulto orgiveness and not the condition. Thereis a moment o recognition. We encounterChrist and our hearts begin to break. Jesusstatement to the woman to go and do notsin again, was about proo o the orgivenessthat had already taken place. He was askingthat her li e become a living testimony tohis loving grace and orgiveness. Under thecircumstances, she could have consideredhersel as good as dead. Now, in light o Christs mercy, the least she could do waswalk di erently into the uture. Forgivenessis an occasion or true remorse a brokenheart over our sin. It also is the motivation

or joy ul obedience. There is a huge di eence between ul lling a requirementpay-ing penance, i you willand respondingout o love and a desire to give back or pay

orward the mercy shown to us.The question now becomes, Will I, in light

o Christs merci ul love and orgiveness, bable to o er unsolicited, non-judgmental,unconditional orgiveness to my ellowhumans? Not only are we able, but we arecommanded. Eph. 4:32 tells us to be kindand compassionate to one another, orgiv-ing each other just as in Christ God orgave you. In Col. 3:13, we are told to bear witheach other and orgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgiveas the Lord orgave you.

As Christ shows us, we must initiateorgiveness. We cannot always wait o

a con ession or an acknowledgement owrongdoing by our o ender. We also mustheartily resist the temptation and desire toaccuse and judge, to make an example o the one who has hurt us. Even though theiracts are despicable and undeserved, we arenot to serve as judge or jury only God hasthat role.

We live in a cultural system that promotesgetting even at all costs. We are born victimsalways waiting and living or the other guy to

make a mistake so we can prove how per ectwe are by comparison. In the paradoxicalkingdom o Christendom, Jesus Christ hasonce again held up the only truly per ectstandard. Our very lives depend on his ac-tion o orgiveness. As we are trans ormeby his gracious actions toward us, how revolutionary it would be to o er unsolic-ited orgiveness and then be able to watch inwonder as our kindness melts and breaks thehearts o those who have sinned against us.

To err is human, but orgiveness truly isa divine gi t. Open yoursel to the true un-conditional orgiveness that God o ers an you will nd your heart o stone melting to afowing stream ed rom springs o reedomand strength. O er this divine orgivenesto your brother or sister and experience theopening o a rare fower o hope ulness andlove in the one who has hurt you. Witnessthe power o Jesus words, I dont condemn you either. Go and sin no more.

Forgiveness:Truly Divine!, from p. 1


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The Cost of Not Forgiving, from p. 1

to which he had been subjected.Later, when my interest turned to theology,

I was much taken with J. Vernon McGeesbook , Jonah, Dead or Alive , in which heargued that the miracle o Jonah was notthat he lived through his ordeal, but that hedied (the earth with its bars closed roundme orever), cried to God out o the belly o Sheol, and was raised again. Jonah thusprovides, argued McGee, an Old Testament

oreshadowing o the death and resurrectiono Jesus Christ, to which Jesus himsel calledattention in Matthew 12.

I am no longer much interested in whetherwe know o a sh that could swallow a manwhole. I I can believe that God could raiseJesus rom the depths o the grave, it is notrick to believe that God could raise Jonah

rom the depths o the sea when the sh

could no longer stomach him.My interest now is drawn to Jonah, sitting

at a table, not in a shs belly, but in a sheltero his own construction, thank ul or a plantthat has sprung up to shade his (possibly bald) head. Is he retired, like I am? Certainly he is immobilized. He is angry because theNinevites are not going to be destroyed. Hegets more angry when the plant that shadeshim withers (here today, gone tomorrow).He is angry enough to shout at God. At

this point in his li e, he is stewing in his own juices, and they are corrosive not to his skinbut to his soul. What Jonah needs most todo, he cannot do. He cannot orgive.

But this ailure to orgive, over time, proveshard on Jonah. At rst he couldnt respondto the question, Is it right or you to be an-gry? but as his bitterness estered, he couldlater re back to the same question that hewould stay angry till the day he died; and so

ar as we know rom this sad record, he didexactly that!

Be ore we are too harsh on Jonah, however,we need to be clear about what was beingasked. Ninevah had been an aggressive,power ul, cruel enemy. He had his reasons

or being dismayed at their being shownmercy. Those o us old enough to rememberWorld War II remember that many Americanshad trouble supporting the Marshall Planthat generously rebuilt the nations that hadplunged the world into that bloody confict.

On a personal level, how good are we

at orgiving someone who has cheatedus, caused us pain, made real trouble orus or or someone close to us? The heroeso our literature and media entertainmentdont orgive; they get even. And that is ourinclination, even in small things. Let yourspouse accuse you o mislaying something,and then discover that your accuser is theone who mislaid the item. Are we quickly

orgiving o our spouses unjust accusation?It is a time when or most o us, it would bemagni cent to say nothing.

We even have trouble, o course, orgivingourselves. The right kind o person has highsel -expectations, and ailure to live up tothem can lead to harsh sel -judgment. Thelesson is clear. Failure to orgive at any level isdestructive, and it is most destructive to theone who holds on to the hurt. I heard once

that bitterness is a poison we take, hopingsomeone else will get sick.

Sometimes o course, it is incumbent uponus, not to give but to ask or orgiveness. I we have spoken sharply, or acted unwisely ina t o anger, we should ask or someones

orgiveness. We nd it hard to do. Do we notall know long-time riends who are on theouts because neither can manage to orgivesome sleight that has come between them?

The consequences o re using to admit

error, and to ask or orgiveness is easily seenwhen we look at others. Would not bothNixon and Clinton have avoided impeach-ment proceedings i they had quickly admit-ted their errors and asked or orgiveness?

When was the last time you went to yourspouse, or to a co-worker to ask orgiveness

or some a ront o which you were guiltyFailure to ask orgiveness rom someone

we have wronged is as destructive to our wellbeing as is ailure to orgive others. Jameadmonishes us to con ess our trespasses toone another so that we may be healed.

Finally, i we can bring ourselves to ask oorgiveness, there is yet one more di culty

which is to accept the orgiveness extended tous. The writer o Psalm 130, overwhelmed byhis iniquities and writing rom the depths odespair, recognizes that with the Lord, thereis orgiveness. Thats what our theology saysbut what trouble we have eeling orgiven.

We con ess our sins; we explain to our-selves and others that we are but human, a

rail human, who did our best. But alone,

sleepless at night, we wonder i a marriagecouldnt have been saved, i we are somehowresponsible or the bad choices o an errantchild. We understand the Psalmists sleeplessnight, his long watch or the morning.

Ah, orgiveness. Grant it when you havebeen wronged; ask or it when you have beenwrong; accept it when it is o ered.

I should not ask i Jonah, like I am, was re-tired. I should ask i I, retired, am like Jonah.Am I orgiving o those who have hurt me?

Am I quick to ask orgiveness o those whomI have hurt? Am I learning to accept orgive-ness that has been extended to me? Only inthis way, I am convinced, can I enjoy sittingat the table that God has prepared or me.

Forgiven and Forgiving People: A Selective Bibliography G. W illiam C aRlson anD t eRRi h ansen

Arnold, Johann Christoph Forgiving is Not ForgettingBruderhof Forgiveness Guide (http://www. orgiveness-guide.org/articles/jca/ForgiveNotForget.htm)

Arnold, Johann Christoph Why Forgive? Farmington, Pa.:Plough Publishing House, 2000.

Augsburger, David The F Word: Forgiveness and ItsImitations pp. 1-9. (http://www.nacronline.com/dox/library/ orgive.shthl)

Augsburger, David The New Freedom of Forgiveness Chi-cago: Moody Press, 2000.

Augsburger, David Then What is Forgiveness? (http://www.third way.com/rad/ or/theology.asp)

Augsburger, David Should Forgiveness Be Uncon-ditional? March 2004 (ht tp://websi telineone.net/~andrewhdknock/Unconditional.htm)

Forgiveness Waco, Texas: Center or Christian Ethics BaylorUniversity, 2001.

The Forgiveness Web (http:// orgiveness web.com)Journey to Forgiveness (Mennonite Media Productions,

58 minutes)

McCullough, M. E., S. J. Sandage, and E. L. Worthington Jr.To Forgive is Human: How to Put Your Past in the PastDowners Grove, Illinois : Intervarsity Press, 1997.

Robinson, Diana The Top 10 Steps to Forgiveness No-vember 20, 1997 (http://topten.org/content/tt.BEl.

htm)Shults, G. LeRon and Steven J. Sandage The Faces of Forgivness Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2003.

Smedes, Lewis B. The Art of Forgiving: When You Neeto Forgive and Dont Know How New York: BallantineBooks, 1997.

Smedes, Lewis B. Five Things Everyone Should KnowAbout Forgiving (ht tp://www.30goodminutes.org/csec/sermon/smedes_4101.htm)

Smedes, Lewis B. Forgiveness - The Power to Change thePast Christianity Today January 7, 1983.

Vol , Miroslav To Embrace the Enemy Christianity TodaySeptember 21, 2001.

Vol , Miroslav Exclusion and Embrace Nashville, TennesseeAbington, 1996.

Vol , Miroslav First Justice, Then Reconciliation? (http://www.belie net.com/story/88/story_8810.html)


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Living as Forgiven People, from p. 13

In John 13:31-38, 18:15-26, and 21:15-25Jesus engages in a dialogue with Peter con-cerning the need or aith ul disciples. Peter,the overly zealous and excitable disciple,eagerly pledges to be that aith ul ollowerwho would lay down his li e or Jesus. Jesuspredicted that Peter would deny him threetimes be ore the rooster crowed.

A ter Jesus death, three times Peter chosenot be known as Christs ollower. Peterseemed to misunderstand the politicalnature o the Kingdom o God and probably sought or a more success ul political trans-

ormation o the current political order.The good news o Jesus Christ is that he

did not give up on Peter. A ter the resurrec-tion, Jesus had break ast with the disciplesand he particularly singled out Peter. Heasked Peter three times i Peter loved Jesus.

Peter replied Lord, you know all things; youknow that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. Receiving Gods gi t o orgiveness,Peter was given the assignment o evangelismand teaching. (Acts 2)

Bud Welch in the video, Journey TowardForgiveness, tells the story o how his daugh-ter, Julie Marie, was killed in the April 1995bombing o the Murrah Federal Building inOklahoma City. In his anger he would havekilled Timothy McVeigh himsel i given the

chance. He turned to alcohol and became asecond victim to the Oklahoma tragedy. Hishangovers lasted all day. In January 1996 hecame to the bombsite, as he had done every day, and sought to do something di erentwith his li e.

He decided to visit Tim McVeighs parentsand show them that he did not blame them.As he le t their home he hugged Tims sisterJenni er who was

The Baptist Pietist Clarion, September 2006

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Transcript of The Baptist Pietist Clarion, September 2006