Blessed Hope - 2 letters
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 10:15 am
In both letters from Rocky Cape, Peter Hoover mentions MNs LesterB re Hope:
Hope or Assurance
Hoover-Krahn Family
Jun 12
*Lester Bauman,* a Mennonite writer living in Alberta, Canada, but whom
I have known for many years since we both came from southern Ontario,
sent me a small writing that I found instructive and on track. This is
how it goes:
*In my Old Order Mennonite* background the idea of Assurance was a
foreign one. In fact if a person stood up and said that he was a
Christian and he knew he was going to heaven, he would have been
called proud by some. The more knowledgeable ones would have
considered him a Calvinist. When I was a boy, if someone believed he
was born again, people thought he believed in eternal security.
People read the Bible and noticed the work "hope". They didn't
interpret this word like we tend to, like an 8 year old "hoping"
he'll get a new bicycle for his birthday. Rather, they viewed it as
something that was very likely, but not necessarily settled in
stone. But some didn't understand this, and lived in constant fear
that their salvation wasn't secure, and that it was just as likely
that they would be lost as it was that they would be saved, and they
felt helpless because their fate was in the hands of a God that they
didn't really know.
John R Mummau wrote a book addressing this fear, and Christian Light
Publishers has republished it in the last several decades. I haven't
read it recently, but as I recall it was a fine book. But what I've
seen also in the last decades is a sort of evolution of the idea of
assurance to the point that it has almost become a formula that
guarantees our salvation. It has almost made us the master of our
own destiny, as the humanist love to say. I feel that in too many
cases this also is a counterfeit, and is often driven by fear. So we
are afraid that we aren't good enough, and we look for a formula
that will force God to accept us. That formula takes various forms
but has become very important to Fundamentalist Christians. Take it
away, they revert to their fear.
I'm suggesting that the old belief in hope was actually more solid
and more biblical. Why did they hope? They believed in a merciful
God who understood them and their humanity. They believed in a God
who loved them enough that he would lead them in the right path.
Sure, they could turn their back on him, and he would not be forced
to accept them, but they had a hope that led them to believe that he
would not just easily give up on them and toss them in the trash
heap when they failed. So they would crawl to their feet after a
failure and continue, with their hope undiminished. This kind of
assurance is based on relationship and love, rather than fear. I
believe that it is actually more solid than the hysterical promotion
of Assurance we sometimes hear.
*Thank you, Lester!* Curiously, I have also learned from those who
promote the "once saved, always saved" doctrine, that it is not uncommon
amongst their members to be dealing with deep anguish and fear before
they die. Had they really been saved? Were they certainly sure of what
they believed?
In the end, I am very thankful that all us believers have the
possibility to "humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He
may exalt us in due time, casting all our care upon Him, for He cares
for us" (1 Peter 5:4-7).
Peter Hoover
Rocky Cape, Tasmania