Kinda Makes You Wonder...

...what they were thinking when leaders of the Southern Province of the Moravian Church posted a statement to its Web site that purported to be "A Moravian Understanding of 'Jesus is the only way to Salvation.'" It was posted in mid-May without authorship attribution or any indication of who authorized it to be set out for all the world to see. As soon as it was discovered it touched off a storm of criticism, so much so that it was pulled about a week later and not replaced. For EI readers who may have missed it, I publish it here (and of course it will also be permanently available in the archives) and offer my own critique of it. I also offer a suggestion for a rewrite of the document that would better express what Moravians believe. I don't do this to beat a dead horse, given that the Province has already killed it, but as a way of indicating just how little understanding leadership has of the current controversy in the Moravian Church and other mainline denominations about the role of Christ in salvation.

"A Moravian Understanding of 'Jesus is the only way to Salvation.'"

DOCUMENT: We do believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation in that the saving work of Christ has made possible a restored, forgiven, grace-filled, loving relationship with God for all of God's creation since left on our own we fail (i.e. "miss the mark", which is the literal translation of the biblical word "sin").

CRITIQUE: This is poorly written, and renders difficult to understand the relationship between sin and Christ's saving work. The reference to "all of God's creation," while theologically accurate in affirming the cosmic dimension of salvation, introduces an element that is foreign to the purpose of the document. I also don't know what the point of the parenthetical phrase is.

DOCUMENT: St. Paul used the phrase "through Christ God is reconciling the world unto himself". In that sense then, wherever God is "saving" it is through Christ, whether we see it or understand it or not. Historically and theologically then Moravians have professed, taught and believed that:

CRITIQUE: Why put "saving" in quotation marks? Sounds slippery, like the author doesn't really know what salvation means, or wants to leave the meaning as open-ended as possible.

DOCUMENT: 1. Jesus is the way to God for anybody.
2. God's saving work for his creation through Christ is for the benefit of everybody.
3. Where the saving work of God is present, there is Christ.

CRITIQUE: This is repetitious, both within the three statements and of what went before. But this isn't where the real problem arises. For that, you've got to go on to statement 4.

DOCUMENT: 4. Since we do not, and should not, seek to control the saving will of God, we don't know whether strict "belief in Christ" (understood as intellectual assent to faith) is in fact the ONLY way to God (for example, God's covenant with the Jews is older than ours!).

CRITIQUE: This is a classic straw man–given the Pietist roots of the Moravian Church, it's not surprising that no one has suggested that "intellectual assent to faith" (in itself a dumb phrase that makes little sense; "intellectual assent to doctrine" is more likely what was meant) is a way to God at all, much less the only way. The faith that God seeks in His people was defined by the Reformers as "trust," a multi-faceted word that speaks to the will, the mind, and the heart. The question properly put, then, is this: is conscious trust in Christ the only way to be saved? That's not what the above sentence addresses, however. In addition, the reference to God's covenant with the Jews has no place in this discussion. The issue of God's continuing relationship with the Jewish people is both too sensitive and too complicated to be tossed out so flippantly.

DOCUMENT: [4. continued] That is why our Ground of the Unity says, "But just as the Holy Scriptures do not contain any doctrinal system, so the Unitas Fratrum also has not developed any of its own because it knows that the mystery of Jesus Christ, which is attested to in the Bible, cannot be comprehended completely by any human statement."

CRITIQUE: I have no idea why this quotation is here, except that it refers back to the "intellectual assent" idea above. In any rewritten form, that line should go. So should this one. [NOTE: If you don't know what the Moravian Ground of the Unity is, take a look at http://www.npmc.org/np/groundoftheunity.htm to read it in its entirety.]

DOCUMENT: [4. continued] This does not mean that we think all religions are the same and that it's just a buffet religious world out there. It does mean that we don't have to judge or persecute other faiths and think we know what God might be doing or not doing through them.

CRITIQUE: I have no clue what the first sentence means. Rather than addressing the world religions question, it seems to be aimed at a syncretistic combination of elements from various religions (that's what you do at a buffet, right? A little of this, a little of that...). While that approach to religion is certainly a significant reality in modern American culture, it misses the point that the Moravian controversy has been about the salvific efficacy of the world religions, not syncretism. The second sentence is simply bizarre. No one in the Moravian Church has ever hinted that persecution is a proper response to other religions, and I, for one, was more angry over its inclusion in this statement than anything else. Other parts of this statement may be questionable theology or writing; this, however, struck me as mean-spirited.

DOCUMENT: 5. So as Moravians we witness to our personal relationship with Christ, serve the world and its people for Christ, and in discipleship hold up Christ to all (after all, he gave his life for the whole world - "Christ and him crucified..."). We leave the rest in faith to a merciful and loving God.

CRITIQUE: The parenthetical expression adds nothing to the point. Actually, I think this whole point could be eliminated, since what it says has already been said above.

So, to put together what I've suggested would better explain what Moravians think about the question at hand:

REWRITE: A Moravian Understanding of "Jesus is the only way to Salvation"

We believe in the truth of the biblical affirmation about Jesus that "there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) By his life, death, and resurrection, Christ has made possible a relationship between God and people characterized by love, grace, and mercy. Without the work of Christ on our behalf, this relationship would be impossible, because our sin results in separation from God. St. Paul wrote, "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself." (2 Cor. 5:19) Wherever God is saving people from sin and death, it is through Jesus Christ. Moravians have historically and theologically professed, taught, and believed that:

1. The offer of salvation through Christ is available to all people, and is appropriated by faith in Christ.
2. Acknowledging God's sovereignty, we do not presume to judge whether any non-Christian adherent of another religion will be saved, but we reaffirm the call to witness to the truth of the gospel to all people as we have been commanded by Christ. (Matthew 28:19)
3. As Moravians we will witness to our personal relationship with Christ, serve the world's people for Christ, and as disciples hold up Christ to all. In faith, we leave the rest to a merciful and loving God.

Compare this to the original statement:

A Moravian Understanding of "Jesus is the only way to Salvation"

We do believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation in that the saving work of Christ has made possible a restored, forgiven, grace-filled, loving relationship with God for all of God's creation since left on our own we fail (i.e. "miss the mark", which is the literal translation of the biblical word "sin"). St. Paul used the phrase "through Christ God is reconciling the world unto himself". In that sense then, wherever God is "saving" it is through Christ, whether we see it or understand it or not. Historically and theologically then Moravians have professed, taught and believed that:

1. Jesus is the way to God for anybody.
2. God's saving work for his creation through Christ is for the benefit of everybody.
3. Where the saving work of God is present, there is Christ.
4. Since we do not, and should not, seek to control the saving will of God, we don't know whether strict "belief in Christ" (understood as intellectual assent to faith) is in fact the ONLY way to God (for example, God's covenant with the Jews is older than ours!). That is why our Ground of the Unity says, "But just as the Holy Scriptures do not contain any doctrinal system, so the Unitas Fratrum also has not developed any of its own because it knows that the mystery of Jesus Christ, which is attested to in the Bible, cannot be comprehended completely by any human statement." This does not mean that we think all religions are the same and that it's just a buffet religious world out there. It does mean that we don't have to judge or persecute other faiths and think we know what God might be doing or not doing through them.
5. So as Moravians we witness to our personal relationship with Christ, serve the world and its people for Christ, and in discipleship hold up Christ to all (after all, he gave his life for the whole world - "Christ and him crucified..."). We leave the rest in faith to a merciful and loving God.

One final note. For non-Moravians readers of EI, all of this may be rather puzzling. What is all this about? It is connected with a controversy that arose around a series of public lectures given by the Rev. Truman Dunn of Messiah Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, NC in 2001, lectures that were subsequently published in a periodical I used to edit called The Hinge. Rather than rehearse all of the details here, I would suggest you go to the Moravians.org Web site (there's a link elsewhere on this page) for further information.