Rev. Daniel Fleischer
Parents have long ago passed from time to eternity. The house in which I was born is gone. Another in which I lived is now replaced by a parking lot. The high school from which I graduated no longer exists. I cannot go home again. I can dream, but not recapture the days so long ago that in many ways through trial, illness, and struggle, mixed with many happier circumstances, contributed to my future under the Lord’s direction and blessing. Even the difficult confessional struggles and trials within the church served the purpose under the Lord’s direction to give appreciation I pray is never forgotten, lest forgetting the past breeds another necessity to endure them again. To that end we pray, “Lord keep us steadfast in Your Word.”
As a Christ-believer looks back at life or anticipates the future, he understands and gives thanks for the providential care of the Lord. “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31). In His care of the created world, the Lord does exactly what He wants, when He wants, with whom He wants, where He wants. In this scenario the child of God looks at more than his material, secular existence, passing as it is. He looks at the future knowing, despite the unknowns of this age, what the future holds.
In this scenario the child of God has assurance that the world does not have, and cannot understand, for “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:28-37).
“More than conquerors through Him Who loved us.” What a profound thought for the believer to contemplate in a world and, more parochially, a nation that is crumbling around us. We may not be able to go back to from where we have come personally or as a nation; but why would we want to? Among those who are more than conquerors, we prefer to look to what lies ahead!
A young lady on a history tour of Europe visited the notorious Nazi holocaust site in Poland. It affected her deeply, and she wrote: “Every day is truly a blessing from the LORD, we have so much to be thankful for, and every day we overlook so many things that are such a gift that we take for granted.” We do not know what the future holds for us in this dying world and society. We certainly hope and pray that there will not be another in which innocent lives are wantonly destroyed to satisfy personal agendas, whims, and egos of godless leaders, the evidence of which can be seen at such sites as the young lady witnessed.
We pray to the Lord that we can live in our land and confess our faith and live out our life in peace and tranquility. But we err if we take our freedom for granted, particularly as we hold fast our faith and confess the Lord Jesus Christ before the world. Christians in some countries today are losing their lives because they are Christians.
The devil failed in his attempt to rid the world of the influence of Christ when Jesus rose again from the dead. Jesus said of Himself. “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Because the living Christ is the personification of Truth, the truth cannot be overcome. So, Satan and his minions seek to destroy the bearers of the truth that speaks judgment on the fallen world and promises eternal life to all who confess the Lord Jesus. Though the ungodly can destroy the life of confessors of Christ, they cannot and will not win. The apostle Paul boldly preached and paid the price. He said, “…Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:20-21). He was more than a conqueror through Christ Who loved him! It was this faith and confidence that drove those whose life and death is a witness to us and an encouragement as we carry on. We should not expect life or confessing our faith in in Christ our Savior to become easier in a world that hates the truth.
Scripture exhorts us to look at a cloud of witnesses who have come before us, many of whom paid with their life for confessing faith in the Lord God, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Who were some of them?
Read Hebrews 11—“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous… By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going… By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised…By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense… By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.… By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned…By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented…”
In the New Testament all the apostles of the Lord died a martyr’s death, except for John who was exiled on the island of Patmos.
At the time of the Reformation think of the two Martins, Luther and Chemnitz. Think of CFW Walther, and the Piepers, stalwarts in the faith. Be encouraged to carry on faithfully by the example of faithful parents, grandparents, your faithful pastor and teacher in Christian Day School and Sunday School, and of the forebears in the Church of the Lutheran Confession whom we will not mention for fear of forgetting some. These did not lose their life in defense of the truth, but endured hardship and sorrow as they defended the faith. “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct” (Hebrews 13:7) which was a triumphant one as they were translated from the church militant to the church triumphant. Remember their faithfulness. Pray for faith and strength to lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares you. Run with endurance the race that is set before you against spiritual foes or any others who are at enmity with God and proclamation of the truth.
Ask yourself if your faith and your confession of faith, is of the steadfast nature that you will be remembered among those of whom Scripture speaks, saying, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
The source of strength of the forebears, as well substance of the message of the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls” (Hebrews 12:2-3).
In faith and life do not trade your future for the pottage of the present. Our confession of faith is all about the inspired, inerrant Word of God. The message of the Word is all about and reflects Jesus, without whom we would be without hope in the world. Neither forget the past, nor long for what is gone, but believe and live for the future. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved!
We cannot go back again. Yet we can be and are blessed to remember the past. We are blessed to draw upon the memory of those who have gone before, and from their example draw strength for the future until your future, like theirs, has been translated into eternal joy and peace in glory with the Lord.
Rev. Daniel Fleischer is a retired pastor, former CLC president, residing in Oakdale, MN.
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