Potential Certainties

This guy has me hooked. I’d like to toss in another perspective- certainly nothing to speak to the contrary (as if!), rather in support of what has been already written.

In his most recent post, Crossteste, the author connects William Blake’s philosophy with Rick Warren’s. Of interest is the view that this life is incomplete, merely a preparation for what is to come in the next.

What would transpire if Warren’s substance met with Lutheran style?

“Larry Christenson, one of the most influential Lutheran charismatic pastors of the last century, claims that ‘in Baptism one is given all things that he will ever receive in Christ- potentially.’ He goes on to say that if a person does not live up to one’s Baptism, ‘God’s purpose in Baptism has failed of achievement,’ and it would have been better if the person had not been baptized at all’” (Fire and the Staff, Klemet Preus, p. 98-99).  

That’s what. God has a purpose for Baptism that must be lived up to. It is not efficacious because of what He does, but what the baptized do. It is completed by their acts- or not according to their failure to act. Baptism is only that which is potential, not actual. Therefore, Baptism is not a certainty. Moreover, salvation is likewise only potential, not a certainty.

Here’s a certain actuality for you: one sin you can’t ignore or sweep between the folds of your grey matter and you have living-in-your-own-flesh proof that you are outside of the Kingdom.

Now what do you cling to?

Rather, to Whom do you cling?

Since Baptism is a divine act in which God Himself participates and since it is attended by the three exalted Persons of the Godhead, it must be prized and honored. One must agree that Baptism was not invented by any man but was instituted by God. It is not plain water but has God’s Word in it and with it; and this transforms such water into a soul bath and into a bath of rejuvenation. Furthermore, we must maintain that a Baptism is a proper and valid Baptism even if the person baptized is unbelieving and ungodly. For is it conceivable that God would be faithless because of my faithlessness? (Rom. 3:3). M. Luther. (LW, AE, vol. 22)