Woke in the WELS: An Honest Conversation about Sexuality: Video 3
And on to Video Three, which comes hot out of the gate with the assertion "They need to know Jesus first then you can get to the hard stuff" - an inversion of law and gospel. It's the law that convicts us, and after it has done its work on our heart of stone, we are opened up to the sweet proclamation of the Gospel. Why do you need a Savior if you don't recognize your sin? We move on to the question "What are some mistakes Christians have made in their attempt to share God's Word?" Bill's answer:
"Be cautious about forcing a point of view" ... "it's about first having a listening ear" ... "we need to be careful that our whole goal isn't to moralize, change behavior, stand on politics, associating that completely with our faith, but instead, you know, winning the trust of someone"
Is it possible to have a faith divorced of morals?
Continuing this theme, at the close of the video, Ben states:
"Christians have made mistakes in the past of just laying out the law and then acting as its just as matter of fact"
Is God's Law not a matter of fact?
Bill has the final word:
"Hey, you are of infinite value cause Christ died for you. And your story is worth listening to, even if their story is not in line with God's will and word at that moment."
Contrast Bill with Jude:
"And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear; pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh"
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Let's jump back to the 9-minute mark where we are told the John 4 account of the woman at the well is instructive: Jesus "heard her story", "wins her over with love", "gives her the Gospel", "then points out her need." I'm not sure what translation Bill uses, but that's not what I see. Let's visit the account:
John 4:7-26: A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
As of this point all we know about the woman is that she is a Samaritan: she has not shared any of her "story".
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
It is only after Jesus provoked the woman to expose her sin that Jesus reveals Himself and speaks of salvation. We still know nothing about the woman other than that she is a serial adulterer.
I'm going to side with Jesus over Bill: you need to show people their sin so that you can show people their Savior. This is consistent with the "Roman Road." This is consistent with Speratus' excellent hymn Salvation Unto Us Has Come
It is consistent with the Lutheran confessions, which speak of sin and the human inability to solve the problem of sin before introducing Jesus and the justification he won for us on the cross.
It is consistent with Walther's Theses on Law and Gospel, specifically VII and VIII
"You are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you first preach the Gospel and then the Law, or first sanctification and then justification, or first faith and then repentance, or first good works and then grace."
"You are not rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel in the Word of God if you preach the Law to those who are already in terror on account of their sins or the Gospel to those who are living securely in their sins"
It's simply being Lutheran. Bill, a WELS pastor, for some reason seems to fall short of that.
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Final point: Up to this point across three videos they have been very careful to restrict the conversation to LGBTQ, but at the 17 minute mark, Ben slips up:
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