Calvin Synod Herald, 2002 (103. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)

2002-01-01 / 1-2. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

7

Verse 5: “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

These words of Paul to Timothy are words that we make take as instructions to us as well. What should our response be to the mass exodus of biblical theology from our local churches? It should be just as Paul says here:

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.”

“But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

Yes, we are now living in the day when people do not put up with sound doctrine. We are living in the day when people expect us to tell them only what they want to hear, rather than what is written in scripture. And, our local churches are declining because of it.

But, our task as ministers of the gospel is to live out the vows that we took at our ordination. We are to interpret scripture not in light of our own agendas or our ideology, but in light of its historical context and god’s revelation in Jesus Christ. That is - we are to be faithful preachers and teachers of the faith - no matter how much the church appears to crumbling around us. We must stand with Martin Luther who declared: “My conscience is captive to the word of God. To go against conscience is neither honest nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other.”

The time has come for another reformation of the church. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century came about from what Luther and Calvin received as wrong theology. Today, the reformation must come again because of a lack of theology. The reasons are different, but the need is the same today: The church must return to Jesus Christ - without Him we are not the church.

I don’t think that the answer to our decline is to start baptizing dogs and I don’t think that professor Willimon truly believes that either. I think that the answer is for us as pastors to stand for the apostolic faith and to yield to the Holy Spirit. The way for us to bring the church back to Christ is for us to be firmly rooted in Christ ourselves.

May God help us, and may God purify the church. AMEN.

This keynote address was delivered at the Lakeside Classis Meeting, on October 15,2001, by the Rev. David Boda-Mercer, Calvin United Church of Christ, Toledo, Ohio.

o(?; East is East, and West is West, and never tl)e twain slyall meet,,

Till Barth ímö shy stand presently at God's great Judgement Seat;

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birt^

when two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth-Rudyard Kipling

Temples of Faith Around The World

Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Szabó - Bishop Emeritus

By the grace of God I was able to visit many of the great temples of the leading faiths of the world. As relating the story gives me great pleasure, I hope it is as informative and interesting to our readers.

Roman Catholic: On one occasion I visited St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy, named after the famed Apostle. The church of the Pope, it is the foremost of all Roman Catholic churches in the world.

St. Mathias Church in Buda, known as the “Coronation Church,” sits atop the hill in Budapest, Hungary, and far below is St. Stephen’s Basilica, on the Pest side of the Danube River, both of which I visited a number of times.

Episcopal: A visit took me to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, named after the apostle to the Gentiles, owned by the official state Church of England, the largest church in the British Empire. On several other trips I was also in Westminster Abbey, the renowned coronation church. The impetus came from these isles to Hungary in naming the Reformed Church’s heads as bishops.

Lutheran: A trip to Wittenberg, Germany, took me into the Castle Church where Martin Luther’s challenge on October 31, A.D. 1517, brought on the Reformation in Germany that soon spread all over Europe.

Reformed: My journey to Switzerland naturally led to the Maria-Einseideln Church, where Ulrich Zwingli had already initiated the church’s reformation there in A.D. 1516, by removing the altars, pictures, statues and relics, in what were truly the very first acts of the Reformation.

St. Peter’s Cathedral in Geneva was the site of John Calvin’s world-shaking ministry, commencing in A.D. 1536, and where I sat in his straight-backed chair and also preached from the same historical pulpit. It was from the magnificent Reformation Monument in the city that I received the inspiration to write my book, The March of Truth, which has been printed in English, Dutch and many portions in Hungarian.

It was an honor to visit and preach in the Great Church in Debrecen, the city known as the “Calvinist Rome”. This historic Nagytemplom was the birthplace of the Hungarian Republic and Louis Kossuth’s courageous declaration of freedom by the Magyar people. Of course I have preached, visited and ministered in many others here and overseas.

Greek Rite Catholic: Most notable for me was the Ungvar Church in Hungary, but now in the Ukraine, for in this rite there are no statues unlike the Roman, but pictures of saints abound. For a short time preceding WWII this area was returned to Hungary, and I was elected pastor of the Reformed Church there, but the town was soon lost and my own life suddenly and drastically altered.

Eastern Orthodox: In Sophia, Bulgaria, the ancient Eastern Orthodox Cathedral is so typical of their unique designs