Sin now, pay later

The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause [indulgences] provoked Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses, protesting against what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. In Thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence)

We may be tempted to think that such abuses within the church are long dead and buried. We would be wrong! In some churches in Namibia the practice remains – at least, in a form that would ‘shock’ reformed evangelicals in other parts of the world

Imagine this ‘hypothetical’ case – you are a single girl, in your teens or early twenties. You have been involved in fornication, become pregnant and then given birth. You desire your child to be baptized, to ensure your child is Christian (and therefore will go to heaven). But you can’t because you have been involved in sin.

So, this is the procedure:

1. You have to go and confess you sin to the pastor;
2. You have to go to ‘school’ at church – a special series of ‘classes’ for those who have ‘sinned’ (This ‘sinning’ rarely includes any other kind of behaviour; fornication is name of the game);
3. You have to be interviewed by the pastor (and perhaps church elders) who will ask you ‘funny’ questions (to quote the locals – meaning ‘personally invasive’) about why the event happened and the exact details of the event;
4. Having survived this (these) embarrassing interview(s), you will then be required to attend a service of ’repentance’. (The service is usually arranged when there are a predetermined number of ‘takers’ – this is quite a common sin so you can’t have the services too often!). At this service you will be formally pardoned by the church, and granted remission of sins. Of course, this service is not ‘free’ - it comes at a predetermined price you have to pay;
5. Voila! You are back in fellowship with God and the church, and you are ready to have your child baptized, as a full member of the church!

Be careful! If you fail to go through this procedure, and your child happens to die, it will be buried OUTSIDE the cemetery. Hopefully, you will still be able to find a pastor who is willing to do the ceremony in the church; in most cases the fee you will pay for the service is enough to persuade him/her.

We thank God that, in one of the NETS study guides, there is a clear Gospel presentation which is made up by a number of pictures, many of which portray the "false" things people trust. It shows us how sin separates from God and how our attempts to try and build our own way back to God are doomed to failure.

Many Namibians put their trust in their baptism to qualify them for heaven. Some people trust ‘the church’ to mediate between us and God. This is actually a huge issue, based on a flawed misunderstanding of John 20:23 – “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”. People also trust in money to ‘bring us to God’. One can see how the latter two beliefs are actually being encouraged by church practice.

May God grant that, one day, these people will clearly understand that it is the cross of Christ which is the reality - justified by faith alone in Jesus' atoning death.

AMEN