Cross or "Torture Stake"? / The Case for Exit Interviews / The Troublesome Phrase "Faith Alone"

For the audiovisual version of the bulletin (YouTube, about 3 minutes, read by Chase Mackintosh), click here. 

Good morning!

Vicki and I had a wonderful time in Watford (not far from London), sharing in lieu of a sermon spiritual themes that have kept us motivated through the decades. We were interviewed by Malcolm Cox, the powerhouse of Watford. Our conversation is posted here.

At the moment I’m in Luxembourg, catching my breath for a few days—a spiritual retreat. On Friday Vicki will join me in Geneva, where we’ll address young people’s questions about “Purity Culture.” On Sunday I’ll deliver a sermon reviewing many of the amazing things I’ve seen the Lord do since I became a Christian (1977). And Monday a real treat will be addressing the CEO and executives of Transmutex, a company using thorium (element 90) in nuclear reactors. My topic: “Resilience, Grace & the Journey.”

In this bulletin:

• The Case for Exit Interviews: Learning from the People who Leave Church

• A new Q&A (no. 1693). And there’s a second new Q&A at the website (1694).

• Martin Luther’s (less-than-honest?) phrase “faith alone”: how biblical is this?

• Kudos: to fellow-teacher Hannah DeSouza on her award-winning sermon at Harvard. Let me also commend Alan Jacques for his excellent and practical presentation Jesus’ Way with People.

Enjoy this week’s offerings. May them help you to be a better informed believer, a happier person, and a more honest Christian. Thank you for your support!

Was Jesus impaled on a “torture stake”?

The Jehovah’s Witnesses say Jesus died on a “torture stake.” If Jesus had died by being impaled (hung on a tree) without any broken bones, would it have made a difference to our salvation?

First, Jesus didn't have any broken bones. (Where does the Bible say his bones were broken?) As for impaling – the position of the Jehovah’s Witnesses – it’s hard to see how a different form of execution would nullify the power of Jesus’s blood.

However, all the archaeological and literary and biblical evidence suggest he was crucified on a cross. So do the material remains of crucified persons—feet nailed (through the ankles) to the upright.

The witnesses are partially correct. In classical Greek, stauros means an upright pole. A crosspiece was often attached to the top of the pole. We can be certain of this from the ancient depictions of crucifixion, for example the 2^nd century Alexamenos Graffito.

Martin Luther and his troublesome phrase “faith alone”

Last week I introduced what was apparently (for some) a new idea: two-phase salvation. If you didn’t get to read this article, it’s in the 30 April newsletter.

Years ago, while reading Luther’s 1522 translation of the New Testament into German, I noticed he’d added a word. Rom 3:28 is rendered, “So halten wir nun dafür, daß der Mensch gerecht werde ohne des Gesetzes Werke, allein durch den Glauben.” I’ve bolded his extra word, because he’s going beyond the apostolic teaching: “We therefore conclude that a person is justified apart from the works of the law through faith alone.”

Luther interpreted “the Law’s works” as entailing “works righteousness” (earning our salvation). However, “Law” in Romans refers to the Torah, the Law of Moses, not the Law of Christ or the need to live an obedience Christian life. Further, although we are indeed justified by faith, it is not faith alone. See James 2:24—and don’t be too surprised that Luther’s initial reaction was to remove James from the body of his NT, placing it in an appendix with three other NT books he could not stomach.

“For we are not going to become students and followers of the papists. Rather we will become their judge and master. We, too, are going to be proud and brag with these blockheads; and just as St. Paul brags against his madly raving saints, I will brag over these asses of mine! They are doctors? Me too. They are scholars? I am as well. They are philosophers? And I. They are dialecticians? I am too. They are lecturers? So am I. They write books? So do I. 

“I will go even further with my bragging: I can exegete the psalms and the prophets, and they cannot. I can translate, and they cannot. I can read Holy Scriptures, and they cannot. I can pray, they cannot. Coming down to their level, I can do their dialectics and philosophy better than all of them put together. Plus I know that not one of them understands Aristotle. If, in fact, any one of them can correctly understand one part or chapter of Aristotle, I will eat my hat! No, I am not overdoing it, for I have been educated in and have practiced their science since my childhood. I recognize how broad and deep it is. They, too, know that everything they can do, I can do. Yet they handle me like a stranger in their discipline, these incurable fellows, as if I had just arrived this morning and had never seen or heard what they know and teach. How they do so brilliantly parade around with their science, teaching me what I grew beyond twenty years ago! To all their shouting and screaming I join the harlot in singing: "I have known for seven years that horseshoe nails are iron.

“So this can be the answer to your first question. Please do not give these asses any other answer to their useless braying about that word ‘sola’ than simply ‘Luther will have it so, and he says that he is a doctor above all the papal doctors.’ Let it remain at that. I will, from now on, hold them in contempt, and have already held them in contempt, as long as they are the kind of people that they are—asses, I should say. And there are brazen idiots among them who have never learned their own art of sophistry—like Dr. Schmidt and Snot-Nose, and such like them. They set themselves against me in this matter, which not only transcends sophistry, but as St. Paul writes, all the wisdom and understanding in the world as well. An ass truly does not have to sing much as he is already known for his ears.” — “An Open Letter on Translating” from Project Gutenberg

Luther claimed that the word “alone” had to be added to the German Bible for Paul’s words to have the same sense in the Greek. Untrue! He added them because of his theology. Then he mocked those who did not accept his logic.

I recall once publicly urging an imminent NT scholar to jettison the unnecessary phrase “faith alone,” for a two reasons: it’s not in the Bible, and it verbally contradicts James 2:24, causing endless confusion. Unfortunately, he did not back down. I don’t mean to be a nitpicker, but some phrases are misleading, and deserve to be abandoned.