{"id":261,"date":"2012-07-15T08:23:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T12:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=261"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:17:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T11:17:25","slug":"let-exceptions-be-exceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Exceptions Be Exceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perfection in design is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.<\/em>
\n–Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry<\/p>\n

As a software engineer, I can appreciate this statement.\u00a0 Good engineering isn’t cluttered and doesn’t have extra parts left over.\u00a0 It cleanly and efficiently does what it’s supposed to do, and nothing else.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the modern mind is the mind of an engineer, and we often forget that what is a sound proverb in engineering makes little sense when applied to other pursuits.\u00a0 Shall we take brush strokes off of paintings as long as they could do without?\u00a0 Shall we replace literature with Cliff’s notes that cover the essential points without all that unnecessary prose?\u00a0 While there can be a kind of beauty in clean efficiency, it is not the only kind of beauty.\u00a0 Good design is not Truth.\u00a0 Perhaps the greatest crime against the humanities has been modernism’s ongoing attempts to reach the essence of a thing by stripping away everything that’s non-essential.\u00a0 An effective strategy for the mechanical is downright destructive for the spiritual and the organic.<\/p>\n

The same holds true when we try to apply this to theology.\u00a0 Consider baptism.\u00a0 Lutherans believe what the Church has historically taught and the Bible has always taught about baptism.\u00a0 In short, we believe that Baptism saves us (“Baptism now saves you” 1 Peter 3:21, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” John 3:5, etc).\u00a0 More modernistic theologies, however, attempt to strip baptism and salvation down to their essential parts and end up separating the two.<\/p>\n

This is typically reached, not through Biblical instruction, but through the use of exceptions to trim the edges of Biblical instruction.\u00a0 Sometimes these exceptions come from the Bible:\u00a0 for instance the thief on the cross.\u00a0 He was told he’d be with Jesus in paradise, but he (probably) wasn’t baptized.\u00a0 More often, the exceptions come from life.\u00a0 What about unbaptized babies that die?\u00a0 What about a man who believes because he here’s the Word, but he’s killed in a car accident on the way to his baptism?\u00a0 Such folk aren’t baptized, but surely must be saved!\u00a0 Must we therefore be good modernists by stripping salvation down to its essence and removing baptism from it?\u00a0 Shall we make salvation more efficient and get rid of all the “false positives” of baptized who reject Christ later in life?<\/p>\n

I think there’s a different and entirely legitimate answer to the exceptions:\u00a0 “So what?”\u00a0 Do these examples really prove that Baptism is unnecessary?\u00a0 Only in the same way a broken Chevy rolling down a hill after pulling the wedges out from underneath its wheels proves that a car doesn’t need an engine to accelerate.\u00a0 There might be some narrow, abstract, & theoretical sense in which it’s technically true, but it’s also completely irrelevant.\u00a0 There’s nothing for the Church to do about a man who dies on his way to be baptized.\u00a0 There’s nothing for the Church to do about unbaptized infants whom we have not been given the opportunity to baptize–otherwise they’d be baptized infants.\u00a0 Let God sort that out.\u00a0 That whole sacrificing His Son and dying for our sins thing makes me suspect that we can trust Him to accomplish whatever end is good and right.\u00a0 The thief on the cross was saved by Christ’s personal promise–that he would be with him in paradise that very day.\u00a0 We too are saved by Christ’s promise–His promise to the whole world that He saves us through baptism.\u00a0 Why cut off perfectly good legs just because it might technically be possible to move around on bloody stumps?<\/p>\n

We have not been authorized to make salvation more efficient than what God has taught.\u00a0 God has given us the means of grace that He has given us:\u00a0 Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Word.\u00a0 By receiving these we receive faith & salvation.\u00a0 He has taught us these things, and His teachings are trustworthy and true.\u00a0 There’s nothing to be gained by misusing modernistic thought trends in a vain attempt to “improve” God’s instruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perfection in design is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away. –Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry As a software engineer, I can appreciate this statement.\u00a0 Good engineering isn’t cluttered and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLet Exceptions Be Exceptions - The 96th Thesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let Exceptions Be Exceptions - The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perfection in design is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away. –Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry As a software engineer, I can appreciate this statement.\u00a0 Good engineering isn’t cluttered and … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-15T12:23:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@matt_e_cochran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@matt_e_cochran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matt\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/026b49396f19b6940e8bb4a68d94b5fa\"},\"headline\":\"Let Exceptions Be Exceptions\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-15T12:23:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\"},\"wordCount\":687,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/026b49396f19b6940e8bb4a68d94b5fa\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Lutheranism\",\"Theology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\",\"name\":\"Let Exceptions Be Exceptions - The 96th Thesis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-15T12:23:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/let-exceptions-be-exceptions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Let Exceptions Be Exceptions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The 96th Thesis\",\"description\":\"The Devil Never Sleeps; 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