9 February 07
Dear Perry,
Grace, mercy and peace be yours from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. I read your 2007 web page (I don't know the proper term) in an effort to keep up. Your comments about the pipe manufacturers and tobacco blenders abusing the consuming public reminded me of something you may want to post on your site. In selfishness I was tempted to keep this information for myself. However, I would rather see Christian smokers (albeit Calvinist and Reformed semi-errorists that y'all are) profit than to have seculars and pagans sweep the market. In an effort I did a little online research and verified that the rumor is true: Turkey is running out of meerschaum.
Time to buy Turkish block meerschaum pipes is now, especially on eBay before other buyers and sellers catch wind of this, while prices ar still ridiculously low. At the height of production, Turkey mined 92,950 pounds of meerschaum in 1956, but production has been dropping steadily since then. It produced 80,850 pounds of meerschaum in 1958, 22,770 in 1989 and 5,170 in 1994. The next year it produced less than half that volume, 2200, and in 1996, half of that, 1100 pounds. The rate of decline slowed in 1997 and 1999 to 880 pounds and rose to 1,100 pounds in 2000, only to drop back to 880 pounds in 2001, 660 in 2002 and 440 in 2003. The rumors are true and the trend is undeniable. Turkey, currently mining less than one-half of a percent of what it mined half a century ago, is running out of meerschaum, a nonrenewable resource.
I have a question for you that I request you pass on to all the "five point/T.U.L.I.P" Calvinist/Reformed brethren. First, background. We Lutherans (confessional, orthodox, not the liberal variety) confess that the cardinal doctrine of Christianity (salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ's atoning death on Calvary's cross alone as testified by Holy Scripture alone) is expressed in the cardinal principles. These (in Latin and English) are sola gratia (only grace), sola fide (only faith), solus Christus (only Christ), sola crux (only cross) and sola scriptura (only scripture). The Reformed agree on four of the five, substituting soli Deo gloria for sola crux. Second, the query: Where did the phrase originate? Yes, we all know that the doctrine originates in Holy Scripture, but where did the specific phrase originate? So far as I can tell, it began with the Lutheran composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. I thought Bach picked it up from some German Reformed theologian. If such a person existed I haven't found him. For this reason, I turn to you.
You ought not be surprised if you cannot find a pre-Bach "SDG" in Reformed sources. It would not be the first time Reformed theology "borrowed" from Lutheranism. "Total depravity" came from a Lutheran theologian, Matthias Flacius Illyricus, born in Croatia Matija Vlačić. He was the nephew of the Albonese Lutheran martyr, Baldo Lupetino. (Bet you didn't know there were Italian Lutherans--neither do most Lutherans.) Your theologians claim that the Reformed got total depravity from St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. I suspect (without evidence) that they got the idea from Flacius and went to look for where Flacius got the idea, from Augustine. Ultimately, as King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. All the truth that matters, and should matter to us, comes from the Lord; all else is manmade heresy. Hence, sola scriptura, no?
However, outside the hearing of the secular humanists and unbelievers generally, over a few bowls of substantial Balkan tobacco, we can argue about history. My argument is that Calvin learned about Augustine from the Lutherans. What was Jean Chauvin? A French attorney who had no theological training of which I am aware. Reformed historians neglect to mention Calvin's ever being a Lutheran, but we Lutherans remember. Who would have studied St. Augustine in depth, a French attorney steeped in the humanism of the University of Paris or a doctor of theology who served as a university professor who belonged to the order of Augustinian Hermits? The former is Calvin, the latter is Luther.
Please do not feel in any way obligated to respond. My hope is that you meditate upon such things. One of Luther's adages that is burned into every LCMS pastor while in seminary is "oratio, meditatio et tentatio facuit theologum," "prayer, meditation and affliction form the theologian."
This brings me to your editorial: "But what's more important, loving one's own life or seeking first the kingdom of God? (Here's a helpful hint for evangelicals and charismatics: The answer is not what you think)." My response is your question is based on a false dichotomy, and I'm fairly sure you know it. Also fairly sure you meant to solicit the response that one can truly love one's own life by surrendering it to the Lord and to His will. The Lutheran response sounds close to that, but significantly different, though I would not be surprised if a few orthodox Calvinists see it as we do. Human effort cannot do any good. All we can do is stay out of the Holy Spirit's way as He continues to regenerate us and urge us to do the good deeds the Lord, from before time, prepared for each Christian to do. The good we do is actually the action of the Holy Spirit in which we do not interfere. The only will we can exercise is to resist the Paraclete, and that is always evil. This is why in this part of Florida you will see Lutheran pastors dressed in black except for the white clerical collar, raising a mug of "Lutheran beverage" to the honor of Christ who invented beer, created women and inspired our songs in a crowded restaurant. We drink in public because it is part of our witness. That drinking is not a sin, drinking excessively is (just as car speed.) Christ drank in public, so do his shepherds.
Semper sub Crucem Christi, Wes Kan
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©copyright 2007, Perry S. Fuller
