Dead Rituals?

What is this page about?

At some time, every Christian asks: how do I know that I belong to God? People ask it at three in the morning. They ask it at a grave. They ask it after they have done something shameful.

Churches must answer this question. There are two main answers.

Three things are true, and this page keeps them in mind.

• Nobody here thinks that a ceremony saves a person who does not believe. The old texts on the full page do not teach that.
• Very many people truly come to faith under the newer answer.
• The newer answer began for a good reason. Churches were full of baptized people who knew nothing of God.

So the question is not which side is honest. It is smaller. What can you hold on to when you look inside and find nothing that you can trust?

The short answer

1. Checking does not end doubt. It makes doubt worse. Scientists have tested this. In a study, people checked a pretend gas cooker again and again. Their memory stayed correct. But it became less clear, and they trusted it less. So when we tell a worried believer, “Go back and look at yourself again,” we give him the very thing that causes the problem.

2. It hurts the wrong people. A person with a soft and careful heart looks inside. He sees his mixed reasons. He decides that maybe he was never truly a Christian. A person who seldom looks at himself looks inside, finds nothing wrong, and says that he is completely sure. The system rewards the second person.

3. For most of church history, every part of the church gave a doubting person the same answer: look outward. See Part 2.

4. Even the churches that looked inside most gave a protection. Today it is often gone. The Westminster Confession of 1647 says that a true believer “may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties” before he feels sure. Being unsure was not a sign against you. Today it often is.

5. We can date the change. In American revival meetings from about 1826, people were called to a special seat at the front. Later came the decision card and the life story with a date. A Reformed teacher warned against it at that time.

6. When people cannot find certainty in God’s promise, the need for certainty does not go away. It moves to the man at the front. See Part 4.

7. Dividing a church into “spiritual” people and “only religious” people is very old. About the year 180, a Christian teacher named Irenaeus wrote about a group that did this. It taught that the “spiritual” people were saved because of what they were by nature, whatever they did. He wrote five books against that group.

8. Paul uses the same two words for the opposite purpose. He tells the Christians at Corinth that they are not spiritual. His evidence is that they have divided into groups: “For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ aren’t you fleshly?” (1 Corinthians 3:4) So Paul does not rank Christians. He speaks against ranking them.

9. “Dead ritual” can be a real thing. The Bible itself complains about it. But there are two different complaints. See Part 5.

What the church told a frightened person

The old churches disagreed about almost everything. Sometimes they even put each other’s members in prison. But on this one question they say the same thing.

For my faith does not make Baptism, but receives it.

Martin Luther, Large Catechism, 1529

In simple words: My faith does not make baptism. My faith receives baptism.

This short sentence divides the two answers. If faith makes baptism, then the question is: how good is my faith? Then you are back with the garage door. If faith receives baptism, then the question is: what was given? Someone else settled that, on a date, in front of people.

Luther did not tell a troubled man, “Check if you were ever truly converted.” He gave him a few words to say: “Nevertheless I am baptized.” In simple words: “But I am baptized.” The sentence is about the past. It tells of something that was done to him.

Luther also said that a person who rests on the strength of his own faith builds on something of his own, not on God’s word. He did not say that faith does not matter. He said that faith must be added to baptism. His point is this: when you rest on how good your faith is, you have moved the foundation from God to yourself.

Three other voices say the same.

• John Calvin, 1559. He said that we must look at Christ as in a mirror. A man who searches himself finds either hopelessness or false pride, and he cannot tell which.
• The Church of England, 1571. Its statement of faith says that the sacraments are “effectual signs of grace”. That means signs through which God truly works. The part about baptism ends with the words: “Faith is confirmed.” That means faith is made strong.
• The Westminster Confession, 1647. It says that a true believer may be without a sure feeling for a long time. This feeling can be shaken and can come and go.

What can you really check?

Think about these questions. How could each one be answered?

Other people and records can answer these:

• Was I baptized? There is a church book, a paper, people who were there, and maybe photographs. It happened, even if I cannot remember it.
• Did I close the garage door? I can go and look.
• Was the bread put into my hands last Sunday with the words “for you”? A named person said it aloud, in a room full of people.

Nobody can check these:

• Did I really mean it when I prayed the prayer at fifteen? There is no record of what I intended. The memory is very old, and I have gone over it a thousand times.
• Is my faith the kind that lasts?
• Do I feel close to God today? I know what I feel. But I do not know what the feeling shows. Calm and fear both have many causes that have nothing to do with God.

Now listen to some sentences that a doubting person may hear. This page wrote the modern ones.

This puts everything on a memory. And memory becomes less clear the more a person checks it.

The second half is a trap. Doubt is no longer a difficulty. It becomes the evidence against the person. No honest answer can help him now.

A tired man may say this on a normal day and mean no harm. But the result is not fewer doubts. The result is that fewer people dare to speak about their doubts.

Where the certainty goes

This part is the most important. It is about people, not about church teaching.

People need to be sure about this. It is a need and not only a wish. A person who believes that his life with God for ever is in question cannot just live without knowing. Suppose he cannot get certainty from the old signs, because he was told that they are empty. And he cannot get it from looking inside. The need does not go away. It looks for another place.

One place is easy to find. Every week a man stands in front of him. This man speaks about God with confidence. He speaks easily about what happens inside people. People can see him giving praise and holding it back. He is the only judge that the person can find.

Nobody has to claim this power. The church members give it. Here is how it grows. This page wrote this description. It is not about a real church.

1. New words come. The members learn that there are two kinds of people among them: the spiritual, “hungry” ones, and the lukewarm ones who only go through the motions. No names are said. Each person puts himself in a group in one second. Most put themselves in the second group, because they know what they are like on a normal weekday.
2. Showing becomes sensible. The evidence cannot be seen. So the only way to be counted in the first group is to show the signs. This is not really pretending. It is what any person does when something cannot be seen and it matters very much.
3. Praise starts to do a job it should not do. A kind word from the leader feels like a judgement from God. And a cool word, or not being asked to help, feels like news about your place with God.

No part of the church gives a minister this power. Not Rome, not the Orthodox, not the Anglicans, not the Lutherans, not the Reformed. A minister announces a promise that he did not write. He cannot hold it back as he likes. Long ago the church decided that a bad minister cannot spoil God’s gift. So no person’s comfort should ever depend on a minister’s character. Paul says: “We don’t control your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy.” (2 Corinthians 1:24)

Two different complaints

“Dead ritual” can mean two very different things.

Complaint A is about the person. The thing is real, and God gave it. But this man uses it with an empty heart. The answer is to turn back to God, not to throw the thing away. The prophet Isaiah says that God hates the people’s feasts. But he does not tell them to stop the feasts. He says: “Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean.” (Isaiah 1:16) Every old church makes Complaint A, and makes it strongly.

Complaint B is about the thing. The thing itself is empty. It is only a symbol, or a show. Nothing is given, so there is nothing to receive. This is a different claim. This page tests it.

Look at some examples.

• “Bring no more vain offerings.” (Isaiah 1:13) This is Complaint A. The cure follows in the next verses: be clean, and help people who are treated badly.
• Paul warns about eating the Lord’s Supper in a wrong way, without seeing the Lord’s body for what it is (1 Corinthians 11:29). This is Complaint A at its strongest. And it shows that something is truly there.

The last example is hard to argue with, because its first part and its last part are true. The old church does not answer, “Rituals save.” Nobody teaches that. It answers that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not empty rituals. God gave them, and he meets his people in them.

Why does the difference matter? Think of what each complaint leaves in a person’s hands. Under Complaint A, he has something real, and he is told to use it rightly. He can begin this Sunday. Under Complaint B, he has nothing. The only place left to look is inside himself, and he cannot read that place.

There is one more thing. God himself gave these acts. He joined a promise to them and told his church to keep doing them. So a person who says “nothing is given in them” is not only speaking about ceremonies. He is speaking about the One who gave them.

Fair arguments against this page

“The Bible tells us to examine ourselves.” It does: “Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith.” (2 Corinthians 13:5) This is the strongest verse for the other side. But nobody here argues against looking at yourself. The question is what you may stand on when you look and cannot read the answer. Every honest person is sometimes in that place.

“Many people are baptized and clearly do not believe.” True. Everyone on both sides agrees. The old texts say so themselves.

“This is just an excuse for empty religion.” People can use it that way. But a lazy person can hide under both answers. Under the old answer, he is told that his life does not fit the promise he stands on. Under the newer answer, he looks inside, finds nothing wrong, and passes.

“Assurance is about now. The Spirit speaks to me today. It is not a memory, so the garage door does not fit.” This is the best argument. But then the date, the remembered prayer and the life story that begins with a year are all the wrong tools. And a new problem comes. Now you must tell the Spirit’s voice from your own mood, with the same heart that is in question.

Check it yourself

1. Read the Westminster Confession of 1647, chapter 18. It has four short paragraphs about being sure.
2. Read the part about baptism in Luther’s Large Catechism. Find “my faith does not make Baptism, but receives it”.
3. The study about checking and memory is by van den Hout and Kindt, from 2003. Its short summary is free to read.
4. Do this one. Think of the last five things you heard about how to know that you are a Christian. For each one, ask: Where was I told to look? Who could confirm it? What would have happened if I had said honestly, “I am not sure”?