In this BLOG we will deal with the question whether Protestantism in our day has become more like Erasmus than Luther. What that means is that we try to minimize and gloss over doctrinal differences for the sake of peace within the denomination or Christendom as a whole. We have seen this between the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics. We have seen this in the Evangelical Catholics Together documents. The doctrinal differences are minimized and glossed over for the sake of peace. However, Scripture does not charge us to find peace at the cost of truth. In reality there is only true peace where there is truth. Without truth, there is no true love.
Within the SBC there are differing groups. There are those who are at least moderately liberal and those who are conservative. Others are fundamentalists, charismatic, and then those who are Reformed. While that does not necessarily describe everybody, it does give a broad idea of the situation. How are all of these people to exist peacefully within the SBC? Frankly, it appears that at least some of the effort going on now is to gloss over the differences. That may work for some time, but it is not a permanent peace. For there to be true peace within the SBC, the positions of each party must be stated. There must be true debate on the issue rather than a simple dialogue as such. Dialogue is aimed at fostering understanding and respect between the parties. Debate should be aimed at a love for the truth and a desire for the truth to be made known and to be understood. Debate sharpens the differences in terms of its precision and sets out the differences exactly where they are and are not.
Erasmus was a man that wanted peace and unity apart from theological precision and bold statements of truth. He was a scholar and preferred peace and simple morality to the truth. The spirit of Erasmus lives today in many areas. What we need are men like Luther who will point out the differences with biblical fidelity, a sharp logic, theological precision, and then to take a stand on the truth without concern about what men say about them. We need men who are willing to have men mad at them in order to please the living God. We need men who are willing to humbly stand for the truth even if it is offensive to the modern mind. The worst thing that can happen is for men to be more afraid of offending men than they are of offending God. Erasmus was a man that was willing to speak out on issues but did not want to offend men with them. We must be very careful not to be an Erasmus.
What is the problem with being like Luther? We have all seen those who are willing to stand up for what they believe and yet they appear to like offending men because it makes them exalted in their own eyes. It is almost like they are looking for ways to offend people or to say things that offend for the sake of appearing like a Luther or a prophet. But Luther’s words for the most part were not meant to offend for the sake of offending. He was blood earnest in standing for the truth of the Gospel. Whenever we stand we want to be sure that we are standing on the truth of God out of love for His glory and the souls of other human being. Our offense must be the Gospel itself and the cross itself. When men are offended at us rather than the Gospel, we have sinned. It is true that men will think they are offended at us rather than the Gospel and especially those that think they have it themselves. But let us not deceive ourselves; the Gospel will not go forward in this day without many being offended. There will be no revival and no reformation in or out of the SBC or anywhere else without many people being offended by the truth of the Gospel and of the cross. We are simply kidding ourselves if we think anything else.
God Loves... Himself 
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