Relevant ProMundis Blogposts

Criminals and Murderers carve out a Career among God’s People

Christian forgiveness is so complete that in the Bible there are men and women with dark pasts who rise up to become premier role models and leaders. Paul writes to this effect in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Particular Role Models in the Faith and their Misdeeds, etc., prior to their Conversion to Faith in God or to their Calling

Rahab	Prostitute	Josua 2:1; 6:17.25; Hebrews 11:31
Moses	Murderer	Exodus 2:11-15; comp. 18:4
Simon (Disciple of Jesus)	Zealot = Violent Revolutionary	Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13
Zacchaeus	White Collar Criminal	Luke 19:2-10
Paul	Murderer, Violent Fanatic	Acts 9:1; 8:3; Galatians 1:13-14

Particular Role Models in the Faith and their Crimes, etc., prior to their Conversion to Faith in God or to their Calling

Noah	Naked and Drunk	Genesis 9:21-24
Jacob	Deceiver, Legacy Hunter	Genesis 27:36+12; comp. Deu-teronomy 27:18
David	Murderer and Adulterer	2 Samuel 11:2-12:5; Psalm 51, in part. verse 2
Peter	Cuts off the Ear of an Official, denies Jesus by swearing that he does not know Him	John 18:10+26; Mark 14:66-72; Matthew 26:69-75; Luke 22:56-62; John 18:15-18+25-27

Wrongdoings of other Members of God’s People, who are not necessarily to be considered Role Models

Levi	Murderer	Genesis 49:5-7
Lot	Commits Incest while drunk	Genesis 19:30-38
Rebecca	Deceiver	Genesis 27:12; comp. Deuteronomy 27:18
Judah	Prostitution, Incest	Genesis 38
Gideon	Seducer, innumerable Affairs with Women	Judges 8:22-33; comp. his Son in Judges 9
Samson	Desecrator of a Corpse, Drunk-enness, Rape, Concubinage	Judges 13-16; Hebrews 11:32
Couple in Corinth	Incest (with Stepmother)	1 Corinthians 5:1-2 (comp. Le-viticus 18:18); 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

What applies to severe sin in 1 Corinthians prior to conversion to faith in God even applies to severe sins which are committed by Christians. The best examples are the Christians in Corinth. They lived in incest (1 Corinthians 5:1-2) and prompted Paul, among other things, to write the first letter to the Corinthians so that they would be excluded and the second letter to the Corinthians so that they would be received again after repenting (2 Corinthians 2:5-11)! Paul confronts the church, which had just finally managed to draw conclusions and exclude the concerned individuals, with what had come to their mind, namely not to immediately accept those whom God has forgiven back into the church. Paul justifies the ‘forgiveness’ (verses 9-10) as follows: “I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. . . . in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes“ (verses 8, 11)!

Do people in our churches have similar backgrounds about which they can speak openly, either from before the time they became Christians or since they have been Christians? Or is something still hanging on there? Are we not often stricter than God, who has long since forgiven them?

There are a lot of women who are active in the right to life movement who in the past had an abortion. Now, after having received God’s forgiveness, they willingly help others and indeed warn others. They perform an important and ‘effective’ service. And yet many report that they do not receive support from their churches at all and rather that listeners are uncomfortably affected when they hear about their pasts.

Several theses underscore this:

1. Forgiveness is what defines the essence of Jesus‘ church. Even as forgiveness presupposes change of mind and deed, we have to forgive as Christ himself forgives. For this very reason the Lord’s Supper is a permanent mark of Jesus’ church.
2. The Church is a home for the homeless, since many people who experience fundamental changes in their lives lose their old home forever and often find a new one in Jesus‘ church. When Paul became a Christian, he lost all his old friends but unfortunately had trouble finding a new home in the church. This is due to the fact that many doubted this sudden change in Paul.
3. The special thing about the Christian faith is that an admission of guilt and forgiveness belong together. The admission of guilt does not lead to condemnation but rather to forgiveness. However, there is no forgiveness for concealing, trivializing, making excuses, blameshifting or sweeping things under the carpet, but rather for accepting responsibility and admitting one’s guilt. Forgiveness without confession is a cheap brushing aside, while confession without forgiveness is self-mutilation.
4. Self-criticism belongs to the essence of being a Christian. Christians are not better but they have it better. According to Luther, being a Christian means one beggar telling another beggar where there is something to eat. For this reason Christians do not gloss over their pasts before and after they convert to Christianity. Rather, they point out that they are only what they are through the grace of God. For instance, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10: ´”For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

No religion knows self-criticism like Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity. It does not matter whether this has always shaped its history or not. The errors of their most important leaders have been laid bare and all too often God has called upon outsiders to bring his people back to their senses. “In contrast to the Holy Scriptures of Mohammed, the Hebrew Bible is not a book but rather a library. It is a colorful tapestry of accounts which an entire people wove together over millennia. No misdeed on the part of the children of Israel is left out of this incomparable convolution. No wrongdoing by its greatest king is concealed. Paul Badde comments that “up to the New Testament one can look at each book of the Bible as an objection, contradiction or a critical commentary of its own earlier history.’ The result of this historical frankness is that since that time self-criticism in the Judeo-Christian world has counted as a virtue: it is a sign of strength and not an admission of weakness. In Islam it is different: a critique of one’s own history? Unthinkable, a blasphemy! It would pull the foundation out from under revelation. It would be an insult to the prophet. Therefore, it is the case that up until today in countries shaped by Islam there is neither freedom of speech nor debate in freely elected parliaments“ (the Jewish author Hannes Stein). There is no religion where the adherents of their own religion come away so badly as in the Old and New Testaments. The teaching that Jews and Christians are sinners and are capable of the worst deeds is something that is shown quite plainly in the Bible. In the Old Testament it is not the pagan peoples, nor is it the Romans and Greeks in the New Testament whose atrocities and fallacious outlooks stand in the center of things. Rather, it is the alleged or actual people of God. The Bible does not dispense belief and unbelief according to races or nations. For that reason pagans and unbelieving Jews are designated with the same words in both the Old and the New Testaments. Christianity itself becomes a heinous religion if it denies the true power of God (2 Timothy 3:5: “. . . having a form of godliness but denying its power”) or places human laws and commandments in the place of divine revelation (Mark 7:1-13; Isaiah 28:13-14). The Jews are for instance criticized because in studying the Bible they overlook the essence, namely Jesus (John 5:39). They strive after God, but they do so without following him (Romans 10: 2-3) and because they call upon God and his word but actually do not live according to it (Romans 2).

Who is scared of Evangelical Terrorists?

Against maliciously equating Evangelicals with Islamic Terrorists

Within three days I found the following randomly chosen reports about Islamists, which were published almost simultaneously in practically all major media in Germany: in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad, an Islamic suicide bomber had killed four UN employees at the local headquarters of the World Food Program when a bomb he was carrying exploded.

• For an entire day Islamists paralyzed the headquarters of the Pakistani Army by placing it under fire and taking hostages. Now 30,000 Pakistani soldiers are attempting to move against the Islamists and compensate for the disgrace.
• A one-hour German language video with an Islamic group tied to Al Qaeda, in which German and German-speaking Islamists threatened Germany, shows background pictures of terror training camps in which numerous blond or European looking children are conspicuous.
• In Yemen the government is fighting a desperate battle against the Islamic Al Qaeda network, which wants to expand Yemen into its new operational headquarters. Although the future of Islamic terrorism could be decided here, Yemen is missing international support.
• In Hamburg a ten-man Islamic terror cell that traveled in March to Hindu Kush was discovered. In Germany there is estimated to be around 80 trained Islamic terrorists at present living in the country.
• In Berlin in one fell swoop 155 officials were searching through apartments in order to move against a group of 15 Islamists who are suspected of planning attacks against Russia and who wanted to defect.
• A book about honor killings that was about to be released was withdrawn at the last minute by the publisher Droste Verlag due to fear of acts of vengeance by Islamists.

That was all just within three days!

And Evangelicals are compared with such Islamists in the sme media? Absurd! Unfounded! Malevolent! Even to compare my peaceful Muslim neighbors with such terrorists would be a disgrace, but peaceful, often pacifistically oriented Evangelicals?

Evangelicals are allowed to pay required fees for German state TV ARD and ZDF television so that with conspiratoranial means they can ‘prove’ and advance what cannot be demonstrated – that Evangelicals are a type of Christian Islamists. The fact is: there are no Evangelical terrorists, no suicide attackers, and no Evangelical network which is planning to conduct something that brings death and violence. Anything else is virtual nonsense and the worst type of slander.

Where is it necessary to search for weapons in Evangelical churches? Where are Evangelical terror camps being maintained, army headquarters attacked, and skirmishes conducted against 30,000 soldiers?

Who is scared of traveling to a particular country for vacation because Evangelicals live there? Where are the Evangelicals who are threatening journalists who hold dissenting ideas or threatening their families? Why do Evangelicals not come under the rubric of constitutional protection, either in Germany or anywhere else in the world?

And in addition to this: in spite of the non-stop horror reports about Islamism, we are – and rightly so – repeatedly reminded and even remind ourselves again and again that we have to distinguish between Islamists and peaceful Muslims. For once just consider the thought that the 1.8 million Evangelicals in Germany would want to limit freedom with violence. And while no one has witnessed anything like that, at the same time several thousand Islamists keep us on edge?

In the case of 400 million Evangelicals, in contrast, it seems as if one does not have to differentiate between Terrorists (wherever they might be) and the millions and millions of peaceful adherents. One negative example is enough to make everyone responsible for their counterparts! Even if there were to be one single Evangelical terrorist or an individual who even dreamed of being a terrorist, one would still have to clearly distinguish between that individual and the millions and millions of peaceful Evangelicals.

One more question to pose to ARD and ZDF television: Is it not also an aspect of religious freedom that one is to be protected from governmental and semi-governmental institutions? Does our state media know that there is no persecution of minorities where the media is not playing a central role? And does our state media know that nowadays it is often the media who more than anyone else decides which minorities are seen as victims and which ones are leprous and themselves held accountable for the situation?

My book on internetpornography in Russian

My book on internetpornography (‘Internetpornografie’, SCM Hänssler, 2008) has been published in Russian.

Thomas Schirrmacher. Prawda o pornografii. übersetzt von I. W. Proswirjakowoj, Lek-torat W. S. Rjagusowa. Copyright: Ewangelskij aljans. Moskau: Wjatka, 2009. 224 S.

It is available in Russian internet book shops, eg:
(But as I do not know Russian, I better do not provide any links.)

• http://www.books.ru/shop/
• http://www.my-shop.ru/shop/books/510051.html
• http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/4835068/

I am in discussion with another publisher to provide an edition in Western Europa.

• The cover is here.
• The back cover is here.
• The impressum is here.

Tribute to Glenn M. Penner (1962-2010)

The International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) of the World Evangelical Alliance pays tribute to the member of its Academic Board, Rev. Glenn M. Penner, MA, who succumbed to leukemia at the age of 48 on 25 January 2010. In his advisory function he focused on the theology of persecution and curriculum development.

Glenn has authored In the Shadow of the Cross: A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship (Bartlesville: Living Sacrifice Books, 2004), which has been translated into several languages, among others Chinese and Korean and will shortly be published in German by the IIRF.

He has also contributed a series on the biblical theology of persecution and discipleship to the International Journal for Religious Freedom since 2008, which he could unfortunately not maintain beyond two installments.
As the Chief Executive Officer of Voice of the Martyrs in Canada, Glenn was the first to provide sponsorship for the major research project of the IIRF on theologies of suffering, persecution and martyrdom and followed the progress with great interest.

He also submitted a paper to the Bad Urach Consultation organized by the IIRF on the same topic in September 2009, but was kept from attending.
Glenn pioneered the teaching of a biblical theology of persecution as a regular course in theological education as a visiting Professor of Oklahoma Wesleyan University 2003-2006 and developed a curriculum for it. He has taught on this topic to Christian leaders in religiously restricted and hostile nations in South America, Africa and Asia as well as in seminaries and colleges in Europe and North America.

We remember Glenn Penner and his valuable and lasting contributions for the sake of the persecuted and to related academic research with deep gratitude.
As Christians, we believe that Glenn has now been promoted to glory and gone ahead of us to be part of the ‘cloud of witnesses and martyrs’ who are watching on as we complete our race.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely; and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Glenn wrote in this context:

“The testimony and example of those who have successfully faced
and overcome persecution should provide inspiration
and hope to those who are wavering,
as it reminds them of the constancy of God.”
(Glenn Penner, In the Shadow of the Cross, p. 232)

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher and Dr. Christof Sauer
as directors of the International Institute for Religious Freedom
on behalf of its boards and staff

John Calvin as a Forerunner of World Missions

A collection of essays published under edition afem upon the anniversary of Calvin’s Birth

(Bonn, 23.12.2009) Calvin not only had the global proclamation of the message of God’s grace in view. He also sent the first missionaries to Brazil. It is not by accident that churches in countries influenced by the Reformed faith such as The Netherlands, Scotland, England or, more recently, South Korea have played a leading role in world missions. That is at any rate the essence of a collection of 16 research articles drawn from the last 125 years of work conducted on Calvin’s view of missions.

The volume, which in large part contains articles written in English, appears in the ‘mission classics’ series published under the edition afem by the task force for Evangelical missiology. It appears as a co-production of the VTR Publications (Nuremberg) and the VKW Culture and Science Publ. (Bonn). With the release of this volume at the end of the year commemorating Calvin’s birth, Martin Bucer Seminary and afem present a reminder that John Calvin was also a guide for and planner of Evangelical missions.

A similar collection of essays addressing the relationship between world missions and Martin Bucer already appeared in German in 2006 under edition afem with the title Martin Bucer als Vorreiter der evangelischen Mission (Martin Bucer as a Forerunner of Protestant Missions).

Bibliographical Details:

Thomas Schirrmacher (ed.). Calvin and World Mission: Essays. 2009. 204 pp. Pb. 18,00 €. ISBN 978-3-938116-84-5 (VKW), ISBN 978-3-941750-20-3 (VTR)

Thomas Schirrmacher (ed.). Martin Bucer als Vorreiter der evangelischen Mission. 2006. 110 pp. Pb. 9,80 € (D), 10,10 € (A), 18,50 SFr. ISBN 978-3-938116-22-7 (VKW), ISBN 978-3-937965-57-4 (VTR)

Downloads:

Calvin and World Mission Cover as a jpg file
Impressum, Table of Contents and Introduction as a pdf file
Martin Bucer as Vorreiter der evangelischen Mission Cover as a jpg file


Placing Orders:

• The book can be ordered in Germany from local bookstores or online at www.genialebuecher.de or www.amazon.de.
• Overseas delivery is available from Amazon:
  USA: www.amazon.com
  Great Britain: www.amazon.co.uk
  France: www.amazon.fr
  Japan: www.amazon.co.jp
  Canada: www.amazon.ca

Released for free complete or partial reproduction

Downloads of graphics and of communication
http://www.bucer.org/bq.html