Spirituality Column #341
May 28, 2013
Current in Carmel–Westfield–Noblesville–Fishers–Zionsville

By Bob Walters

My maternal grandfather Dr. Alexander R. McKinney (1885-1964) was a kindly, good-humored ophthalmologist – an eye doctor – in Saginaw, Mich.

He was also a field surgeon with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War I.  Among the personal effects my family received after his death was a duffle bag containing various army artifacts – gas mask, dough-boy helmet, knapsack, a cartridge belt and a physician’s “black bag” imprinted with “Capt. A.R. McKinney.”

In 1964 I was 10 years old and the “real army gear” served as coveted playthings for my younger brother Joe and me.  But the most special item showed up years later in the mail from my older sister Linda, who had sorted through my mother’s things after she died in 2003.  It was “Grandpa Doc’s” 1917 army field version of The Gospel of St. John, a shirt-pocket-sized inspirational booklet distributed to millions of soldiers around the globe during “The Great War.”

This particular, apparently well-used artifact has “Dr. A.R. McKinney, MD” written inside the cover, in pencil, in a doctor’s scrawl, just below what appears to be a blood stain at the top of the page.

The small booklet, “Dedicated to Our Soldier Boys,” was British in origin but distributed by The Free Tract Society of “Los Angeles, Calif.  U. S. A.”  On the cover is printed, “Send for samples of literature and as you go, PREACH.”

This “Special Features Edition” contains the fourth Gospel, the 23^rd Psalm, a four-point Plan of Salvation, the Lord’s Prayer (“debts” not “trespasses,” if you’re wondering), hymn lyrics (“Just as I Am,” “Onward Christian Soldiers,” “Rock of Ages” and others), and “Testaments on the Battlefield”: some words of both courage and encouragement meant for soldiers, sailors, and mothers.

“Seventeen millions” Khaki (army) and blue Navy editions, plus other books, were distributed worldwide.  The tract’s stated purpose was to encourage others “to accept not only these Gospels but Jesus Himself as their personal Savior.”

What I don’t know exactly is how this tract book got into my grandfather’s hands, but I have a strong hunch – in fact I have no doubt – that the United States Army was enthusiastically complicit in the books’ arrival into Grandpa Doc’s possession.

With groups today trying to make any witness of Jesus Christ within the US military a court martial offense, I have this thought:

On Memorial Day, we honor those who died for our freedom.  At the top of that list, for all of mankind, is Jesus Christ.  As long as America trusts in God, its defenders must be allowed, if they so choose, to trust in Jesus Christ.

That’s what freedom is all about.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that Grandpa Doc was a devout, teetotaling (non-drinking) Presbyterian.

Spirituality Column #340
May 21, 2013
Current in Carmel–Westfield–Noblesville–Fishers–Zionsville

By Bob Walters


The unsatisfying answer is … there is no way to “know,” at least not like that.

Not if we are demanding answers from God.  Not if we are focused on our own needs.  Not if we are measuring our estimable good works against God’s perfect grace.  Not if we imagine that our salvation in Christ is some sort of transaction, trade, or competitive status symbol.  Not if we think God owes us an explanation.  Not if we are challenging God to hold up His end of the “deal.”  Not if we insist on an answer right this minute or else accuse God of fraud.

That’s the wrong entry to the topic; it’s the worldly door of me-first, off-point, give-me-something-in-return religion.  It amounts to defining God in our image and tantamount to imagining that we carry managerial status in the Kingdom of God.

Salvation doesn’t come from God answering our questions; salvation comes from our having faith in God.  It’s a point the Bible makes repeatedly:

“Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you, go in peace” (Luke 7:50),

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved” (Paul in Romans 10:10),

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Paul in Ephesians 2:8),

“But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39).

Faith, you’ll notice, provides the answer to the question, “Am I saved?”  If I trust God that I am, and have faith that I am, then I am, because that’s what the Bible says.

And really, the question should not be, “Am I saved?”  The question should be, “Do I trust God’s faithfulness?”  If we put Jesus first, and if we put our neighbor first – truly, truly put them first (Luke 10:27) – then we won’t have the time, the inclination, or the need to check on our soteriological status.  We’ll already be living the Kingdom life.

Remember, it’s not enough to merely “believe” – even Satan believes in Jesus (Matthew 4), but Satan is out for his own glory, not God’s.  We must love, worship, glorify, trust, and as best we can, obey God.  This is where our joy in the Lord resides.

On the cross, Jesus did the heavy lifting of salvation.  For His sake, He did His job well.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that many people who argue about salvation don’t really believe in salvation.

Spirituality Column #339
May 14, 2013
Current in Carmel–Westfield–Noblesville–Fishers–Zionsville

By Bob Walters

An intelligent but dependably maddening uber-liberal Facebook friend recently posted a thought on “traditional marriage.”

Ordinarily not one to quote the Bible, he nonetheless cited 1 Kings 11:3: “(Solomon) had seven hundred wives …and three hundred concubines.”  My friend expresses “a lot more of a problem with that” (Solomon’s nuptials) than with modern “marriage equality.”  Why shouldn’t two people of the same gender marry, he reasons, since it won’t affect “anyone else’s life, let alone heterosexual marriage”?

On the one hand, my friend is in complete agreement with God, who also had a problem with Solomon’s multiple wives and concubines.  But the Bible’s lesson about Solomon’s wives doesn’t center on marriage; it centers ultimately on the sin of turning away from God and worshipping pagan idols.  Solomon’s wives were no blessing from God; they were the forbidden fruit of Solomon’s earthly wealth.  In reading the entire verse, we learn that Solomon’s foreign “wives led him astray.”



Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) understands there are diverse social and political views, but doesn’t understand why so many folks consistently resist the Bible’s authority but persistently insist on quoting from it.

Spirituality Column #338
May 7, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

Spirituality Column #337
April 30, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

For 2,000 years the proposition “You should be a Christian” has been countered with the question: “What do I get?”

Sermonizers, evangelists and ministers endlessly answer seekers and new believers suggesting a transaction: “Johnny, tell ‘em what they’ve won!”  Believers get a new life in Christ; forgiveness of sin, the wisdom of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, plus eternal life, grace, freedom, mercy, peace, patience, kindness …

Not enough?  Well, how about health, wealth, and happiness?

Still not enough?  OK, you’ll be rich, smart, good looking and all your prayers will be answered in the Godly affirmative: Yes!  Just, c’mon, be a Christian!

Religion “buyers” (us) and “sellers” (preachers) too often leap reflexively and opportunistically from encountering the sober and divine gift of Jesus Christ into the hysterical earthly realm of fallen humans trying to satisfy worldly appetites.

It’s an equation mostly unchanged in two millennia of Christian thought.  Twenty-first century mankind is no less mercenary than our ancestors.  Freer, perhaps – plus with iPhones, game shows, etc. – but still asking Jesus “What’s in it for me?”  We’ll listen to a surprising idea, consider obedience and faith, suppose the existence of “right” and “wrong”, entertain the notion of Jesus Christ as the son of God and savior of humanity, and maybe even tolerate the inconvenience of church.  But eventually we ask, “”What do I get?”  I’m here to say, that’s the wrong question.

For fun and re-edification, I am re-reading Oxford theologian Alister McGrath’s “Christian Theology,” an 800-page college text.  My son used this introductory survey while taking a Religious Studies minor at Purdue.  My copy is one I picked up years ago from friend and pastor Russ Blowers who had a spare in his home library.  Certainly, the “benefits” of Christianity, i.e., “What do I get?” is noted and discussed.

Since Jesus appeared, defining the earthly value of Christian belief has been nearly as extensive an enterprise as defining the nature and person of Jesus Christ.  Origen, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Augustine, the Cappadocian Fathers, Maximus (the Confessor), Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and countless scholars have  dissected, parsed, imputed, translated, investigated, and expounded on every word of scripture and every imaginable detail of Christ’s place in the Godhead and Jesus’ influence on the world.  Yet we sit in church, or somewhere, and ask, “What do I get?”

When contemplating Christ and all He gave, it seems a self-centered misstep to negotiate one’s Christian walk in terms of “What I can get.”

No, being about Christ is being about “What I can give.”

That expresses divine love - the Gospel - and that’s as good as it gets.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) poses this “give and get” - Christ forgiving us; us forgetting ourselves.

Spirituality Column #336
April 23, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

The weekly church sign read: “Who will be in heaven because of you?”

Great question.

My inner reaction, embarrassingly, was a spontaneous jumble of off-point, defensive, legalistic, self-centered, arrogant, judgmental questions.  I wondered … am I doing enough?  Is my walk straight enough?  Is my witness true enough?  Is my writing about Christ affecting anyone in a positive way?  And, hey wait a minute, is that church full of people who think they can pave their own or someone else’s way into Heaven?

Notice: All questions, mostly about me, no answers.  Not a great response.

So let’s try again.  “Who will be in heaven because of you?”

The correct and final answer is: “Nobody.”

There it is.  We can’t save anyone.  Heaven is only there because of God, we can get there only because of Jesus Christ, and we only know about it because of the Holy Spirit.  There is only one way to stand in the presence of God and share the eternal, divine, loving fellowship of salvation in heaven – and that is to be justified; to have one’s earthly fallenness and sin restored to heavenly righteousness.

That work is above any earthly pay grade.

But how are we justified?  When do we “get saved”?  When are our sins forgiven and our fallenness restored?  While its secular shimmer makes it easy to miss, that’s why we celebrate Easter.  We are justified, forgiven, made righteous in faith, and restored to communion with God thanks purely to Christ’s work on the cross and not in any part due to our work in the world.

Romans 2, 3 and 4 provide the key biblical tutorial for how God’s righteousness, judgment and faithfulness “fix” mankind’s fallenness and how we gain righteousness in Christ.  Understand, our necessary righteousness has already been won by Christ on the cross, but only the combination of our faith and Christ’s love puts us in heaven.

But wait, isn’t “having faith,” in essence, “doing something”?  No.  Faith isn’t something we “do,” it’s something we have … or not.  Christians often confuse systematic obedience with loving faith. Christian faith is not a system to follow; it’s love in a relationship with Christ.  Obedience is merely evidence of a system, while faith is evidence of love.  That’s the difference in the Old and New Covenants – the old was about obeying laws; the new is about having faith and loving Jesus.

My efforts will never get anyone into heaven, including me.  But as indeed Jesus came for “all mankind” (John 3:16), our battle has already been won.

We’ll be in heaven because of Him.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) loves that church sign; he drives by it every day on the way to work.

Spirituality Column #335
April 16, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Exactly how any one of us might come to faith in Christ is, to me, one of the great mysteries in life.

All of us as believers have family, friends, associates – shoot, everybody we encounter – with whom we want to share this great gift.  And that’s what the Bible tells us to do – make “disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-22) even to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  “How” we should do it boils down to replicating, as best we can, the unselfish and sacrificial love of Jesus.  Jesus gives us “why” in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Doesn’t everyone want and need peace?  Sure, but … actions are misinterpreted, words are not understood, and motives are suspect.  We blame ourselves for not “converting” someone.  But remember: Jesus had the exact same problem with the Pharisees and Pontius Pilate.  History shows us that even the holiest words can fall on deaf, hostile ears.

In our personal lives, it is especially hard to see loved ones firmly entrenched in their steadfast knowledge of the world and rebuff the message of Jesus.  We have to be honest with ourselves and ask whether our love is selfish or unselfish because truly, only selfish love can be rebuffed.  Yet we can do what Jesus wants us to do as long as we draw breath if our love is truly unselfish.  We can also take heart that God isn’t keeping score of anything but our love and our faith.  “Souls saved” is squarely the job of the Holy Spirit.

But how does that happen?  There doesn’t appear to be a formula.

In my own case, I can look back, track the steps, see what happened, and it all makes perfect sense … now.  But I didn’t see it coming, would have run from it if I had, wasn’t really looking, and executed no repeatable “system.”

I think that’s what makes evangelism in general – sharing the Good News of Christ – so difficult.  I mean, yes it’s easy to tell a story about how I got here, but impossible to draw a map for someone else’s journey.  Only God can do that, and God starts by giving each of us the freedom to accept or deny Christ’s love.

Maybe that’s why one’s journey to Christ is so special, because God makes the path unique and personal.  I’m convinced it’s a mystery we can’t embrace until we realize that Christ is first embracing us.

Walters’ (rlwcom@aol.com) conversion story appears in his book Common Christianity, Uncommon Commentary in columns 55-59 and 252-253.