Mission to Nuremberg

I have been reading 'Mission to Nuremberg' by Tim Townsend.  It is well-written, but I feel he goes on too many tangents and might have been better to write a shorter account.

At the Nuremberg Trials, twenty-two of the most notorious Nazis were tried for war crimes.  Two chaplains were assigned to minister to them, including the American Lutheran, Henry Gerecke.

I want to focus on Gereche's ministry to Hermann Goring, who was one of the leading architects of the Nazi's evil regime.   Goring was the Nazi prisoner that Gerecke dreaded meeting the most.  Goring had been responsible for the Nazi party's security apparatus, and had created the first concentration camps for Hitler's political opponents.  He later oversaw the Luftwaffe (German air force) and was Hitler's number two.

Jesus teaches that God sends the sun and the rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous,  The psalms teach that God is good to all he has made.  God blessed Goring with human love through his devoted wife, Emmy, and their young daughter, Edda.  Another blessing God gives all people is that he retrains our evil.  Despite such a cruel heart towards so many people, Goring was an animal lover, and even had tame lions at his home.

In the prison, Gerecke found Goring to be a natural listener who related to him with friendliness and charm.  Goring was a nominal Christian, with no personal relationship with Jesus.  At the Christmas carol service in the make-shift chapel, Goring sung 'Silent Night' louder than all the others. 

Gerecke described Goring's wife, Emmy, as a woman of 'considerable grace and charm.'  Her first visit occurred after she had been apart from her husband for seventeen months.  She wanted to kiss him, but rules would not permit. 

Edda Goring was eight years old when she visited her father for the last time at Nuremberg.  She recalls standing on a chair to get a better view of him through the screen, and seeing him surrounded by white-helmeted guards.  Emmy had urged her daughter to talk with the chaplain, and Gerecke asked her if she said her prayers.  She told him that she prayed every night.  When he asked what she prayed about, she replied, 'I kneel by my bed and look up to heaven and ask God to open daddy's heart and let Jesus in.'

Yet Goring's heart was closed to Jesus.

Goring was found guilty of war crimes and he was sentenced to death by hanging.

At Emmy's last visit, she told Goring that she would like to die with him, if it were not for their daughter.  After the visit Goring told Gerecke that it didn't matter what happened to him now, for he died when he left her for the last time.

Gerecke was not allowed reveal the timings of the prison's executions.  On the night of Goring's planned hanging he visited his cell with the desire to lead him to Christ.  Gerecke had written a devotional for Goring to read.  Goring promised to read it letter, but the chaplain was desperate.  He tried to steer the conversation towards faith.

Goring was annoyed that he was being hung, he felt that it would be more dignified for a senior commander to face the firing squad.  That's what he wanted to talk about.  Again, Gerecke tried to get the conversation onto faith.  But Goring ridiculed the creation accounts of the Old Testament, made fun of the idea of the Bible being divinely inspired and he would not accept the necessity of Jesus' death on the cross.

Gerecke protested, 'this Jesus is my saviour who suffered, bled and died that I may go to heaven one day.  He paid for my sins.'  Goring rubbished the idea of life after death or that God would care about the lives of individuals.  

Then, Goring asked Gerecke to serve him the Lord's Supper.  Gerecke could not with a clear conscience do this.  'This is the way it is: Only those who believe that Jesus is really their saviour, who believe him who instituted the supper, should be permitted to attend the Lord's Supper.  The others are not fit.'

Goring protested that no German pastor had refused him the Lord's Supper.  But Gerecke stood his ground.  Then he tried his last card: 'Herr Goring, your little girl says she wants to met you in heaven.'  

'Yes,' replied Goring.  'She believes in your saviour.  But I don't, I'll just take my chances, my own way.'

Feeling defeated, Gerecke left.

Later that evening commotion broke out when a guard realised that Goring was dying.  He has swallowed a cyanide that someone had smuggled to him.  Gerecke rushed to his cell and whispered in the dying man's ears, 'the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.'

Goring had written a number of suicide notes.  In one, to Gerecke, he claimed that he had prayed to God, and that he felt it was right to take his life rather than die by hanging ('for political reasons').  It is really unclear whether Goring had really turned to the Jesus of the Bible/ 

So, what do we learn from the story of Goring and Gerecke?

1.  We learn about God's common grace.  Common grace is the undeserved kindness to all people, even towards an evil man like Goring.  Goring was blessed with intelligence, charm and a family who loved him.  None of us deserve anything from God, but every good gift comes from above.

2.  We also learn of the God who seeks and saves those who are lost.  God sent that wonderful chaplain, Henry Gerecke, to those prisoners.  God extend them the offer of his forgiveness and life beyond the grave.  The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  The same grace Goring needed is the grace each of us need.  We remember that Christ Jesus came into the world to save not the self-righteous but those who know their sin.  He will never turn away anyone who comes sincerely to him.

Let's pray:

' Lord Jesus, I acknowledge your many good gifts to me.  I acknowledge the gift of your Son who died for the guilt of all who would put their trust in Him.  I thanks you that you transform our present and offer us the sure hope of eternal life.'  Amen.           

My wife is in love with another man

My wife is in love with another man.  In fact she loves him more than she loves me.  When I come home I can hear his voice in the kitchen.  But thankfully her love is limited to his preaching; and I love him too.  Caroline has taken to listen to Tim Keller sermons.

I could recommend a number of his books.  He makes the case for the reasonableness of the Christian faith in 'The Reason for God'.  He highlights the mercy that should characterise the Christian life in 'Generous Justice'.  He teaches how to grow to be godly in marriage in 'The Meaning of Marriage'.  He exposes the idol of self in 'The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness'.  He shows the beauty of grace in 'The Prodigal God'.  In the book club that I go to we will be soon looking at his book 'Walking with God through Pain and Suffering'.  But the book I wish I could force every young and old adult in our church to read is his teaching on the first half of the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans (please get yourself a copy).

Anyway, I include this clip of Tim explaining the gospel.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7LwJqrgI7To

The Gospel in Romans

In the forth century, a man called Augustine was born in a small farm in what is now Algeria.  During his youth he was a slave of his sexual passions and the focus of his mother's prayers.  He was later to move to Milan as a teacher of rhetoric and literature.  There he came under the spell of the preaching of a bishop called Ambrose.  He was wrestling within himself.  At the age of thirty-two he took himself out into the garden of where he was lodging, seeking solitude.  He threw himself under a fig tree and wept freely.  But he heard the voice of a child in a nearby garden chanting, 'pick up and read, pick up and read ...'  He took this as a divine command and read his Bible at the first place he set his eyes.  "Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on The Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts" (Romans 13:13-14).  He read no further, his anxiety lifted and doubts were dispelled.  Augustine was converted and became one of the great Christians of history.

In 1515 a man called Martin Luther was struggling with the a morbid fear of God, death, judgement and hell.  He had thought that the best way to get into heaven to become a monk.  He prayed and fasted, sometimes days on end.  'I was a good monk', he wrote, 'if ever a monk got into heaven by his mockery, it was I.'  But he had no peace.  He could only think of God as a terrifying judge, and not as a merciful saviour.  A verse in Romans changed everything for him.  It spoke of 'the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel' (Romans 1:17).  He grasped that this righteousness is that whereby, 'through grace and sheer mercy, [God] justifies us by faith.'  'Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through the doors into paradise.  The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before "the righteousness of God" had filled me with hate, now it came to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.  This passage of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven.'

Two hundred years later a discouraged John Wesley was at a meeting where the preface to Martin Luther's commentary on Romans was being read.  Wesley was very religious, he had been overseas as a missionary.  But he lacked an assurance that he was really a Christian.  As he heard Luther's words he understood the gospel.  Later he wrote in his journal:

After a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Dumitru Cornilescu was studying at the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Romania.  He longed to experience a greater spiritual reality and depth.  He was introduced to some books that directed him to the Bible.  So he determined to translate the Scriptures into modern Romanian.  Through his study of Romans he came to believe truths which had previously been unfamiliar to him.  'There is no-one righteous, not even one' (3:23), 'the wages of sin is death' (6:23), that sinners are 'justified freely' through Christ (3:24), because God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood (3:25).  Dumitru realised that God through Christ had done everything necessary to rescue us from guilt and judgement.  'I took this forgiveness for myself, I accepted Christ as my Saviour.'  His translation of the Bible, published in 1923, became the standard Bible Society text.  But he himself was exiled by the head of the Orthodox text, and died some year later in Switzerland.

John Scott calls Paul's letter to the Romans 'a manifesto of freedom through Jesus Christ.'  'It is the fullest, plainest and grandest statement of the gospel in the New Testament.'  'For here is unfolded the good news of freedom, freedom from the holy wrath of God upon all ungodliness, freedom from alienation to reconciliation, freedom from the condemnation of God's law, freedom from what Malcolm Muggeridge used to call "the dark little dungeon of our own ego", freedom from the fear of death, freedom one day from the decay of the groaning creation into the glorious liberty of God's children, and meanwhile freedom from ethnic conflict in the family of God, and freedom to give ourselves to the loving service of God and others.'  Luther called Romans 'really the chief part of the New Testament, and ... truly the purest gospel.'

Sermon jam - The gospel

I have been fairly devoid of ideas for this blog recently.  So I have resorted to posting a sermon jam.  Enjoy!

Grateful prayer

After World War 2 the Russians occupied Romania. Wurmbrand loved sharing the gospel with these soldiers. ‘For me to preach the gospel to the Russians is heaven on earth.’ On one occasion he shared the gospel with a young Russian who was enthralled with the person, teaching, death and resurrection of Christ. All this was new to him. This soldier responded in faith. He prayed aloud:

‘Oh, God, what a fine chap you are! If I was you and you were me, I would never have forgiven you of your sins. But you are really a nice chap! I love you with all of my heart.’

Christ is risen

Justified

And all God's people said 'Amen!'

Mark Driscoll on the Gospel

Judgement is part of the Gospel

'This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares' (Rom. 2:16 NIV).

John Stott explains, 'Probably this means that the good news of salvation shines forth more brightly when it is seen against the dark background of divine judgement. We cheapen the gospel if we represent it as a deliverance only from unhappiness, fear, guilt and other felt needs, instead of as a rescue from the coming wrath.'

A shared view of the gospel?

On Saturday night I was talking to friends who had been involved in a Methodist church. They mentioned that this church had a congregational meeting where my friends saw that the views held by the congregation were very diverse. They wondered how the church could chart a way forward when they had such differing opinions.

John Stott writes, 'Only loyalty to the gospel can secure unity in the church.' A fellowship needs to be committed to a shared view of the gospel if it is doing to have any direction and purpose. But do we live at a time when we can't even agree on what the gospel is?

Different gospels

Rob Bell Twittered the following definition of the gospel:

"The gospel is the counterintuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us" 9.36am, Oct 5th, 2009.

It has been criticised for lack of content. The only thing it conveys is that Jesus brings a great love that we don't deserve.

By contrast our pastoral assistant David Blevins came up with the following Twitter for the gospel (although I am not sure he has Twittered it!):

"The gospel is the news that God, in great love and at great cost, has provided the effective means of rescue for a world that is doomed." Jan. 14th, 2010.

This picks up themes of the impending judgement of the world, the gracious love of God towards the world, and the rescue of the cross.

The Gospel in more than 100!

A while ago I set myself the task of explaining the gospel in a hundred words. I came across the brief explanation of the gospel by John Stott (it is more than a hundred words).

"The good news, then is this: that Almighty God loves us in spite of our rebellion against him; that he came after us himself is the person of his Son Jesus Christ; that he took our nature and became a human being; that he lived a perfect life of love, having no sins of his own for which atonement needed to be made, but that on the cross he identified himself with our sin and guilt. In two dramatic New Testament expressions he was 'made ... to be sins for us' and became 'a curse for us' (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). For in those awful three hours of God-forsaken darkness he endured the condemnation our sins deserved. But now, on the ground of Christ's sin-bearing death, God offers us a full and free forgiveness, together with a new birth and a new beginning in the power of the resurrection."

The Gospel in 100!

It began with a sense of call to overseas work. I was listening to someone speak about their work in Africa. I knew that Caroline was very willing to go overseas. So I looked up the Crosslinks website and later contacted them. Since then we have had a long chat with the general secretary and Irish coordinator. While we are unsure of where we would like to work we are keen to work with them after we finish our time in Richhill.

Part of our conversation, which took place at our home, involved a discussion on where we stood theologically. With regards to this the first question Andy Lines asked was 'What is your understanding of the gospel?' Myself and Caroline still laugh at how I waffled in my answer.

So I have set myself the task: 'Explain the Gospel in One Hundred Words'.

"John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world. The gospel expresses God's love. In John's writings the world is a place rebelling against God. He sends his Son to an undeserving people. The previous verse speaks of Jesus 'being lifted up', primarily referring to the cross. There Jesus has taken our guilt so that we might know God's forgiveness. The following verses say that if we believe we are not condemned but if we refuse to believe in Jesus we stand condemned already. Without Jesus we will perish. In Jesus we experience eternal life, knowing God now and anticipating enjoying being one of his people forever."

Just over a hundred words!

The gospel according to Gerry Adams

In an interview on RTE Gerry Adams was asked 'So what if it's all true and you have to stand before God at the Judgement Day. What will you say?'

He replied, 'I'll say, "I did my best. Here I am. Take me in."

Problem is that such an answer implies that Gerry Adams doesn't understand the gospel. As Stafford Carson comments on his blog, ‘If doing our best was enough to get us into heaven, then why did Jesus die on the cross? If doing our best is enough, then the death of Jesus seems strangely unnecessary. The fact is, our best is just not good enough. That’s why we need a Saviour.’