A Stingy Orthodoxy

The best way to stifle the worshipping heart is to be fuzzy about the abilities of man and God. In an age where its cool to be generous in our orthodoxy to include value and appreciation of man's contribution to God and His salvation and to remove the particulars of doctrine, I would like to advocate a stingy orthodoxy. One that wont give us anything. Listen to Martin Luther from Freedom of the Will...

Therefore, it is not irreligious, curious, or superfluous, but essentially wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know, whether or not the will does any thing in those things which pertain unto Salvation. For our object is this: to inquire what Free Will can do, in what it is passive, and how it stands with reference to the grace of God. If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing whatever of Christian matters, and shall be far behind all People upon the earth. He that does not feel this, let him confess that he is no Christian. And he that despises and laughs at it, let him know that he is the Christian's greatest enemy. For, if I know not how much I can do myself, how far my ability extends, and what I can do God-wards; I shall be equally uncertain and ignorant how much God is to do, how far His ability is to extend, and what He is to do toward me: whereas it is God that worketh all in all. (1 Cor. xii. 6.) But if I know not the distinction between our working and the power of God, I know not God Himself. And if I know not God, I cannot worship Him, praise Him, give Him thanks, nor serve Him; for I shall not know how much I ought to ascribe unto myself, and how much unto God. It is necessary, therefore, to hold the most certain distinction, between the power of God and our power, the working of God and our working, if we would live in His fear.

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Contemporary efforts to encourage people with talk about their inherent goodness and potential are really achieving the opposite effect. If we do not define with ferocious veracity the impossibility of man's "free will" to do anything "God-wards", we will remove from the church the only source of worship. In the case of ascribing ability to ourselves, "less" yields more worship and "none" will yield true praise, thanks and service. So lets embrace an orthodoxy thats stingy and the God that is generous.