Having been in the ministry as a pastor since 1966, I have seen and heard much regarding ministry and how to conduct it successfully. Sally and I have always realized that if anything is done, it is the Lord who does it. Something my father once said regarding my brother Richard is burned deeply in my mind. My dad said in response to a statement regarding how wonderful his son was that “if there is something wonderful about my son it is the Lord who is in him.”
Recently in reading through B. B. Warfield’s Selected Shorter Writings once again that truth became evident once again. This old Princeton Professor of Theology wrote essays on the Book of Acts in his second volume. After speaking of the Gospel of Luke and the work of Luke on this second of his treatises (Acts), Warfield states: “To him, thus, this second section of his history was not the ‘Acts of the Apostles,’ except in so far as the apostles may be conceived as the instruments through whom Jesus prosecuted his work of establishing his Church in the world. It was specifically the “Acts of the Risen Christ” (pages 26-27, volume two).
A bit later in speaking of the supernatural work of Jesus Christ recorded in Acts, he states, “but much more because the whole history is conceived from a supernatural point of view, and developed as a distinctively supernatural product. To the author of Acts the Church was not established in the Roman Empire by self-directed efforts of men who wrought no doubt with divine approval. It was established by the constant and unintermittent activity of the Lord Jesus, sitting on the throne of the universe and ordering the course of history according to his will, so that the whole development is to be conceived as a supernatural work.”
In reading these words of Warfield, it strikes me how close we come sometimes in the work of missions and in the ministry to what the Puritans called “practical atheism.” Practical atheism is something that plagues believers, not unbelievers. It is expressed in those times and in those experiences when we begin to believe that everything in ministry depends on us, our strength and our wit, and begin to think that if all organizational matters are perfect, that if the right leadership is in place, that if we can learn the latest methodologies of ministry and mission, we will certainly be able to accomplish the task whether the Lord is in it or not.
When the supernatural is present, as it is in Acts, those naturalists like the religious-political Pharisees of our Lord’s time hate what they see, cannot defeat the movement and thus attempt to stamp out the work to keep a grip on their so called power. We see this in their putting to death of our Lord and we see it in their treatment of the men and women in the Book of Acts. If God is in control supernaturally, then men lose their control and that angers them because it takes away their false sense of power.
May the Lord never allow us to slip into naturalism – practical atheism – but to cling to the supernatural activities of our great God and Savior. Francis Schaeffer likened naturalism to alpine fog that fills the valleys and then works its way up the mountain. If windows are left opened, the fog will creep into the house in a slow and subtle way. So it is with naturalism. It captures the mind and heart before we realize that we are falling prey to its atheistic influences.
Supernaturalism is the way to reach the world with the Gospel. It goes without saying that I am not speaking of wild and crazy activity but rather a solid trust in what the Lord can do. We can give it the old college try in our own strength, but nothing of lasting value will be accomplished for the glory of the Lord. Too many souls are at stake, too much money is needed and too many lives are at risk to go the way of Naturalism. May the Lord bless us with high and supernatural thoughts of our Lord.
Pastor Seefried
Posted on 29 May 2007 at 2:16pm | Filed under Devotionals
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