The Gospel Coalition

A couple weeks ago, John Piper announced that he had invited Rick Warren to speak at the Desiring God conference this fall. His announcement caused an uproar in some parts of the Reformed blogosphere. Some even questioned Piper’s commitment to the gospel, wondering out loud if he is a “wolf” in sheep’s clothing.

The debate over Piper’s choice of Warren reminds me of my days in an independent Baptist school. In fundamentalist circles, it’s not enough to separate from those who disagree with you (even on minor issues, like the style of music in church or which Bible translation you use). You have to go the extra mile and separate from those who refuse to separate. It’s called “second-degree separation.” For example, someone who is convinced that all Catholics are apostate would not only withhold fellowship from Catholics, but would also withhold fellowship from people who fellowship with Catholics.

The Piper brouhaha is a Reformed expression of this same phenomenon. It is a sign that there some who are pitching their tents in the far corner of the Reformed cul-de-sac, unwilling to entertain the notion that there are other people with legitimate building permits in the same neighborhood.

(Before I make a few comments on this debate, perhaps we should take a deep breath and realize that blog comments may not always  be an accurate indicator of where a discussion is headed. It is possible that Piper’s opponents are merely a small, but vocal number and that they do not necessarily represent the majority of those in the Young, Restless, Reformed movement.)

Here are a few of my thoughts regarding this controversy:

1. Willingness to learn from people you disagree with is not a sign that you’re waffling on your firm convictions. It’s a sign that you’re steadfast.

Piper knows what he believes. That’s why he can share the stage with someone he respectfully disagrees with. Piper extended this invitation, not because he is waffling on his theological positions, but because he knows right where he stands.

Insularity is often bred by insecurity. When I was in high school, I constantly questioned my teachers about certain affirmations that didn’t add up. I was puzzled as to why certain books were off limits, or why the preaching of many evangelical leaders was forbidden. The more I sought to understand the rationale behind the interdictions, the more I came to understand that it was an insecurity masked by dogmatism that kept us in our cul-de-sac.

It’s ironic, but true: The more you forbid people to read or hear from those outside your circle, the more you communicate the insecurity of your own position. Your followers will eventually entertain this notion: If they think I could so easily adopt another point of view on this matter, maybe their position isn’t as rock-solid and self-evident as they make it out to be.

2. You can disagree with Piper’s choice and yet still love Piper.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t disagree with Piper’s choice. (It seems lost on people that the title of this conference is Think! The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. Warren’s presence at Desiring God will make Piper’s devotees do just that.) Rick Warren has been speaking a lot lately about the need to use our minds for the glory of Christ. It makes sense to me that he would be invited to a conference about the life of the mind.

Some may disagree charitably with Piper’s choice. That’s okay. In fact, if we never disagree with the people we look up to, we ought to consider where our allegiance lies. But disagreement over this issue should not be cause for attacks and accusations and the withdrawal of fellowship.

Let’s remember that discernment takes place when you occasionally hear voices you disagree with, not when you “Amen” everything coming from someone who sings off the same sheet of music.

3. When you use the word “heretic” to refer to anyone who disagrees with you, you don’t have a good word to use to refer to someone who actually fits the bill.

Can we be slow to label people as heretics? The term “heresy” is generally reserved for cultists and those who deny the Trinity. Jerry Falwell once said that “limited atonement” was a heresy. He was criticized for using the “h-” word so recklessly. Ironically, many of the Calvinists who hammered Falwell shoot he “h-” word at Warren, Falwell, and just about anyone else who isn’t as Reformed as they are.

Rick Warren is not a heretic. You might disagree with his emphasis, the way he does church, or his method of biblical interpretation. But he is a brother. Save the “h-” word for people on their way to hell because of their rejection of clear Christian teaching.

4. Trajectories go both ways.

Some worry about a liberal trajectory in evangelicalism. Rejecting the authority of Scripture is indeed a perpetual danger. We should avoid compromising our convictions about the inspiration of the Bible. We should beware of theologies that would take our focus off Christ crucified and raised for our salvation.

But there can be a fundamentalist separatist trajectory as well. That trajectory, while rooted in a desire for gospel-centeredness, eventually leads to a legalistic separation from brothers and sisters who disagree with us on other issues. The fundamentalist survival mechanism kicks in, and we begin to find our identity in finding additional things to protest.

Once we’re on the separatist trajectory, we exaggerate differences and distinctions in order to provide justification for our group’s existence. We also tend to see “holiness” and “rightness” in terms of the doctrines that set us apart from other Christians, rather than the beliefs we hold in common with other Christians that set us apart from the world.

Piper’s choice of Warren indicates that he is aware of the separatist trajectory and hopes the Reformed movement will not go that direction.

5. Renewal of evangelicalism will not take place without bridge-building.

Evangelicalism is a bigger movement than the Reformed Resurgence. While the YRR movement may signify the beginning of a renewal of evangelicalism, such a renewal will not take place without significant bridge-building.

The evangelical movement has been compared to a village green. If the Reformed simply stand off to the side and castigate those who don’t interpret Scripture the same way, then they will move into increasing irrelevance. Instead, the Reformed need to be part of the conversation – a broader conversation, where “Together for the Gospel” means more than “Together for Calvinism.”

Piper is right to build bridges to the wider world of evangelicalism. Renewal will not take place in a corner, but in all of evangelicalism’s neighborhoods, as gospel-centrality and brotherly love spread through the streets.

6. No matter what we think of Piper’s choice, we could all use a good dose of humility.

There are many who have labeled Piper’s critics were as “out-of-line”, “legalistic”, “angry”, “close-minded”, etc. Perhaps those labels are accurate in some cases.

But let’s not be Pharisaical in the way we call out Pharisees. It’s way too easy for us to be reactionary towards those we see as reactionary. Those of us who support Piper’s decision can be just as self-righteous as those who condemned his choice. We can begin to think, Thank God I’m not like those grumpy legalists!

Not only is there plenty of self-righteousness out there, and I confess that when I look into my heart, I find plenty of self-righteousness in here. We all need the humility that comes from the gospel.

Here are my picks for your weekend reading:

1. Tributes to Michael Spencer (the InternetMonk): 1956-2010

2. Ron Howard was wrong. Apollo 13 would have burned, not frozen.

3. 55 Things the Gospel Isn’t

4. Four crucial questions at the heart of the gospel

5. Dads set the temperature in the home.

6. Tim Challies on “The Writer’s Life” (I can relate!)

7. The Arcane Scrutiny. Dave Zimmerman reflects on pronunciation, editing, and words.

Yesterday, I posted an interview with John Ensor about his work with Heartbeat International. Today, I have one follow-up question about a recent development in the pro-life movement.

Trevin Wax: What do you think of the recent media coverage given to the Atlanta billboard campaign (“Black children are an endangered species”)?

John Ensor: Funny you should ask.  I just met last week with Ryan Bomberger, who designed the campaign.  We became friends a year ago when he told me his amazing story (conceived in rape, almost aborted, adopted by white Christian family, one of 13 children, etc.).  He and his “Endangered Species” Campaign is a wonderful sign of what we call the Third Wave.

Trevin Wax: Explain that for us. What is the third wave of the pro-life movement?

John Ensor: In the first wave, Catholics took the lead is declaring the inherent evil of abortion.  Evangelicals then flooded in to help advance the pregnancy help movement.  The Third Wave points to the victory of our movement and the downfall of abortion as a business, when Black and Hispanic Christians not only join this movement, but lead it.

The Endangered Species Campaign is causing many people, black and white, to look at the connections between racism and abortion and to reassess their views.  But Trevin, I am pleased to report that this is just one of several signs of the Third Wave.

Trevin Wax: What are some of the other signs?

John Ensor: The release of the documentary Maafa 21 is magnificent piece of research.  It is well done and opening eyes within the Black Christian community like never before.

Last January, Bound 4 Life (those radical young Christians who stand with a piece of red tape over their months and pray for spiritual revival in America) made a challenging video clip exposing the racism and called young people to gathered outside the new Planned Parenthood Super Store opening in the predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood of Houston. 14,000 kids showed up to stand and intercede.

Rev. Arnold Culbreath, of Protecting Black Life, recently loaded 65 Black pastors in Miami onto buses in order to visit Heartbeat of Miami. This pregnancy help medical clinic serves amidst 30 plus abortion business targeting Miami’s minority neighborhoods.  Arnold believes if these Black pastors drop the dodge that abortion is a conservative political concern, rather than a biblical matter of justice, and if they break the silence in their pulpits and get behind the pregnancy help movement, they will see the abortion industry collapse before their very eyes.

Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King (and board member at Heartbeat International) is now tirelessly and painfully speaking about her two abortions.  She explains how deceived she was and is calling on the Black community to see that the reason Jim Crow laws were evil, is the same reason abortion is evil; both are examples of powerful people devaluing the human life of powerless people.  She is a true Third Wave leader.

Alveda came with me to Pittsburgh in November, 2008.  We went there to led support to an urban initiative undertaken by two white suburban pregnancy centers who decided to merge, move into the city and partner with the Black Christian community there.  That kind of resolve and courage is worth supporting.  Alveda helped them highlight how all 4 abortion businesses in Pittsburgh are in or adjacent to the predominant Black neighborhood of Wilkinsburg.  Her testimony inspired many to act.

In January, 2010, the Women’s Resource Network dedicated and opened a new office in Wilkinsburg.  Covenant Church, led by Bishop Joseph Garlington, provides the space and contributes to the leadership.  This is the Third Wave.

Trevin Wax: How does the racial component of abortion make this tragic killing even more unspeakable?

John Ensor: The tragedy that our Black and Latino neighbors represent 25% of our population but suffer 59% of all abortions arouses me to do everything I can, in the name of Jesus, to steer the pregnancy help movement into the city.  I found one block in LA where their are 4 abortion businesses within 100 feet of each other!  I think it the neediest neighborhood in America in want of a pregnancy center.  So if anyone wants to get involved, visit any of these links or join me in our urban initiatives at Heartbeat International.

Related Posts:

• Abortion and White Supremacy
• The Current State of the Pro-Life Movement: An Interview with Scott Klusendorf
• A Worthwhile Documentary on the Abortion Debate

Doug Wilson’s seven basic and brief points for writers. This one in particular has been a helpful tip for me. Once I learned Romanian (closest language to Latin still spoken today), I began reading and writing much better and faster in English:

Learn other languages, preferably languages that are upstream from ours. This would include Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. The brain is not a shoebox that “gets full,” but is rather a muscle that expands its capacity with increased use. The more you know the more you canknow. The more you can do with words, the more you can do. As it turns out.

Scotty Smith answers the question “What is the gospel?” in a number of ways. Here’s just a sampling:

• The gospel is God the Father’s irrepressible commitment to redeem his pan-national trans-generational family, and restore his broken creation through the person and work of Jesus, and the power and presence of his Holy Spirit

• The gospel is the glory-story of how God the Father is redeeming a people from every single race, tribe, tongue and people group for a life of worship service in the new heaven and new earth. All of this is being accomplished through the person and work of his Son, Jesus, and the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit.

A debate between Craig Evans and Bart Ehrman on the question, “Does the New Testament Misquote Jesus”?

Russell Moore on “cremation and a new kind of Christianity”:

Sometimes the “culture wars” that really matter aren’t the ones you’re screaming about with unbelievers in the public square; they’re the ones in which you’ve already surrendered, and never even noticed.

I am often asked to promote a variety of organizations and ministries that are doing a world of good. For my readers’ sake, I generally decline these requests. Most of the time, even if I agree with the mission and the ministry, I realize that I simply can’t point readers to every good ministry out there and maintain the consistency of this blog.

Still, there are rare occasions when I want to promote a ministry, and since these occasions are so rare, my support should be interpreted as very, very strong. That brings me to Heartbeat International and their ministry and their pregnancy support ministry. Let me introduce you to John Ensor – a man who has the mission of Heartbeat at his heart.

Trevin Wax: Welcome to Kingdom People, John. Tell us a little about Heartbeat International.

John Ensor: Heartbeat serves as the leadership supply-line for other pregnancy help ministries. There are 2000 plus pregnancy help ministries established now across the USA and Canada. They consist mostly of pregnancy help centers, (about half of which are now ultrasound-equipped medical clinics) and maternity homes, started, funded and staffed by the Christian community. With rare exception, none of these existed 40 years ago.

Trevin Wax: How does Heartbeat serve the pregnancy support movement and how did you become involved with this ministry?

John Ensor: Nearly 40 years ago, legalized abortion became the accelerant used to burn down the moral structures designed by our pluralistic society to protect women, children, marriage and family. In response, the pregnancy help movement emerged as a fire line: a winsome, life-saving and life-changing work of crisis intervention.

I consider this movement to be the underground railroad of our time. It is everyday Christians focusing on rescuing individuals and couples, promoting life, sexual integrity, family and faith in Christ in their neighborhood, while praying for the truth to work it’s way into the conscience our of country. Heartbeat’s role has been to keep this movement growing effectively and broadly.

For example, in 1992, when I lived in Boston, a number of churches recognized that by working together, in spite of remaining differences, and pooling resources, we could stop the killing and make dramatic changes in the lives of those in pregnancy distress. We turned to Heartbeat for training, resources, mentors and counsel.

• Over the next 12 years we established six pregnancy help medical clinics.
• We saw six abortion businesses close during that time.
• The state abortion rate dropped from 40,000 a year to about 26,000 a year.

While a variety of factors contributed to that downturn, one was certainly the cumulative impact of hundreds of Christians actively befriending, mentoring, evangelizing and helping thousands of women and couples who otherwise would have turned to an abortionist as their savior.

It fell to me to lead that effort. At the time, I was lamenting the discovery that probably 30% of the women in my church had already suffered an abortion (or three). An similar percentage of men confessed to pushing for and paying for abortions in their personal history. I was shocked. Then I was deeply disturbed at my own pastoral leadership as I read how clearly and plainly the Bible calls us stop the shedding of innocent blood (Dt 21:1-9, Psm 82:3-4; Lk 10:25-37 to name a few).

I turned to Heartbeat to learn how to take this biblical call and convert it into a practical local ministry. They taught me and our team how to save lives and how to do it in a personal and loving way so that the Gospel flowed freely from us to those we served. Now, at Heartbeat, I am working to turn the local pregnancy help ministry into a true global missions movement.

Trevin Wax: How can we get involved in helping Heartbeat move forward?

John Ensor: Start with a visit to our website. It was developed for Christians who are hungry and eager to make a difference in this, the preeminent injustice of our time.

We call the work before us, “cross-bearing for the child-bearing.” That reflects both the method and the message fueling the pregnancy help movement. It certainly reflects the sacrifice required.

This cross is taken up simply by taking up a small piece of the work. Decide which piece by reviewing our five initiatives. Then join that community of like-minded friends and supporters working with Heartbeat along those lines.

On the home page, take up the challenge: “$2 Answers this Call!” We designed this so that anyone and everyone can directly engage in the life-saving work of the pregnancy help movement. So buy a few calls and then sign up for the updates so you can learn who and how lives were saved through your support.

And tell the kids! Kids and teenagers recoil at the abhorrence of abortion. As soon as they learn of it, they want to stop it. Can you imagine what it would mean if the ninth graders in your church for example, each paid for a phone call that helped a mother choose life and then used their FaceBook or texted a few friends to follow? They would never forget it.

Giving stimulates passion; or as Jesus said it, “where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21). They may be active and supportive in the cause of life for the next 50 years. And should they or their friends ever need pregnancy help, they would know that help is a phone call away. That is our thinking behind the Answer the Call effort.

So if you want to advance the pregnancy help movement, visit Heartbeat International, feed your interest, invest a few dollars, follow your thirst!

Tomorrow, I’ll ask John about the recent campaign in Georgia that seeks to communicate the racial component of abortion-on-demand.

Related Posts:

• Roe v. Wade at 37
• Making the Case for Life
• Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death: An Interview with Russ Moore

The average wedding now costs $28,000:

WHEN it comes to paying for a wedding while remaining financially afloat, today’s rule is all hands on deck. Couples are relying not only on the kindness of the bride’s parents, who have traditionally borne most of the burden, but also on that of the bridegroom’s parents, along with the couple’s stepparents and even grandparents, aunts and uncles.

The Gospel Coalition now has a site for book reviews. I’m a proponent of online book reviews. By following sites like this, you can stay current with book releases without having to read each book cover to cover.

Michael Kelley on how to recover a sense of discipline:

Not longing for some kind of a rules-based relationship with God so I can have a measuring stick for whether I’m doing a good job at being a Christian, but discipline. Discipline that honors God and lives in the middle of grace. Discipline that focuses my mind and heart. That’s what I want. So that’s what I’m going after, by God’s grace. Here are some steps to doing so I’m trying to implement in my life…

HarperCollins will soon release the C.S. Lewis Bible:

Thought-provoking meditations from beloved author C. S. Lewis’s own spiritual writings are paired with corresponding Bible passages in The C. S. Lewis Bible. This NRSV Bible provides readings comprised of over 600 selections from Lewis’s celebrated spiritual classics…

When I first stumbled across Michael Spencer’s blog (under his nickname, the Internet Monk), I didn’t quite know what to make of his writing. On the one hand, Michael was giving voice to some thoughts and questions I had wrestled with, but never fully articulated. On the other hand, his honesty was brutal, intense, and often made me uncomfortable.

What I eventually came to appreciate most about Michael – both from his blog and from personal contact – was that the center of his thought and ministry was grace: extravagant mercy and favor to undeserving, broken sinners.

Here are five of my favorite posts from Michael through the years. If they seem rather diverse, well… that’s because they are. Michael wrote on a number of subjects. Here are a few personal picks of mine. I hope that as you look over his words today that you will remember his family in prayer during this difficult time of loss.

I Like the Prayer List

The prayer list frees us from the notion that the people of God are the healthy, happy ones who turned up for worship today. It reminds us that our community is extended into hospitals, nursing homes, psych hospitals, the homes of the poor, the relationships we have with other kinds of Christians and the mission we’re on together.

The prayer list is a picture of the broken and humbled body of Christ. It has a particular kind of beauty, and I’m glad our church- which hasn’t gotten around to a confession, covenant or constitution- has that prayer list.

It’s part of my journey these days to know that my name will one day be on that list, and these will be the people who will love and pray for me when my place in the church is to be ministered unto by the praying people of God.

Grace is as Dangerous as Ever

When the quality of God’s mercy in the Gospel no longer amazes you, you will begin to justify the dilution of amazing grace into religious grace, or moral grace, or grace in response to something.

Real grace is simply inexplicable, inappropriate, out of the box, out of bounds, offensive, excessive, too much, given to the wrong people and all those things.

The Choice, The Treasure: Calvinism and the Language of Believing

I do not believe we can listen to the teaching of Jesus without being confronted with choices about the nature and presence of God, the nature of reality, the value of Jesus and the good news of the Gospel. The Gospel is an announcement, but to believe it is to choose and decide, as well as to believe and trust.

What is Jesus-Shaped Spirituality?

I want to be clear that I am not trying to “return to primitive Christianity” or “reinvent the church.” What I am doing is developing a tool, a grid or filter, to interpret Christianity wherever I encounter it, by asking basic questions about Jesus. If I am going to be faulted, it will be for this: I am determined to be satisfied with nothing short of a Jesus-shaped Christianity, as best I can understand what that means.

The Question is God; the Answer is Jesus

If you are going to think about God, go to Jesus and start there, stay there and end there.

This simple rule is too simple for the religious, the worldly wise, the power seeking and the proud.

It is infuriating to those who want to manipulate for money or distract for some personal agenda.

Jesus will break our idols, complicate our assumptions, overturn our tables and put himself squarely in the center of every question. He is the way, the truth, the life. He is the answer. He is the one way we think about, know, love, worship and relate to God.

When you think about God, go to Jesus.

When I lived in Romania, I often got homesick during the Christmas holidays. But once we moved back to the States, Corina and I often got homesick for Romania around Easter.

Spending five Easters in Romania has had a profound effect on me theologically. I now recognize (in a way I did not before) the importance of Jesus’ resurrection as the central event of human history and the crux of the Christian faith.

The Church Calendar

Part of what makes Easter special in Romania is the time of spiritual preparation that precedes the holiday. Most evangelical churches in America celebrate Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Many churches choose not to meet on Christmas Day (unless it falls on a Sunday). Most of the other “Sunday” celebrations are secular, such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Liturgical traditions (such as the Eastern Orthodox Church) have a calendar replete with important church events:

• In January, Romanians celebrate Jesus’ baptism.
• Usually in February or March, the Lenten fast begins.
• The Thursday night of Holy Week brings the church together in solemn remembrance of the Lord’s Supper.
• Good Friday services are held both in the morning and evening.
• No services are held on “The Saturday of Silence.”
• The Orthodox church holds an Easter vigil at midnight, and Easter services are held twice on Sunday and twice on Monday.
• The Sundays following Easter continue to focus on the Resurrection of Jesus.
• 40 days after Easter, the Ascension is celebrated.
• Just a little over a week after the Ascension, on the 50th day after Easter, the church devotes two full days of worship (Sunday and Monday) to Pentecost – commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian church.

Although bypassing most of the less-important events, the evangelical churches in Romania hold tightly to the Orthodox church calendar when it comes to celebrating Christmas, Jesus’ baptism, Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. Many evangelicals choose to keep the Lenten or Advent fasts. Thus, the evangelical church of Romania takes what is best from the liturgical tradition and still maintains a strong free-church style of worship.

Growing up in America, Christmas always seemed like the biggest holiday of the year. I was not accustomed to celebrating holidays like Jesus’ Baptism, the Ascension, or Pentecost. The Romanian celebration of other important events deepened my appreciation for major moments for the Christian church.

Before moving to Romania, I had never reflected on how the church orders its time. I had never thought about why Pentecost is such an important date. Neither had I given much thought to Jesus’ Ascension or to the spiritual significance of his baptism. But it was the Romanian emphasis on Easter that gave shape to my understanding of Jesus as the Conquering King.

Why Two Dates?

The Eastern Church and Western Church have separate dates for Easter. Occasionally, Easter falls on the same Sunday (in 2010 and 2011, we will celebrate together), but usually the celebrations are separated by a week or two. This means that in any given year, you might find Roman Catholic Hungarians in the area celebrating Easter one Sunday, while the Orthodox Romanians might be celebrating a week or two later. In 2005, the dates were spread very far apart: the Western churches celebrated on March 27 and the Orthodox churches on May 1.

Romanian evangelicals go with the majority of Romanians and choose to celebrate with the Orthodox. But Romanian evangelical churches in the West (in the United States or Great Britain) generally celebrate together with the majority of Christians in their area.

Why the different dates? Both the Eastern and Western churches claim to celebrate Easter on “the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.” The problem is that Western church uses the Gregorian calendar to establish this Sunday, while the Eastern church uses the older, Julian calendar. When the different definitions of “vernal equinox” and “full moon” are taken into consideration, it is no wonder that the two church traditions do not come to a mutual understanding.

Furthermore, the Orthodox Church always places Easter after the Jewish Passover, which means that the date may sometimes be the first Sunday in May. Easter observance in the Western Church often precedes the Passover by weeks.

For me, the only downside to Easter in Romania was not always being able to celebrate on the same Sunday with my friends and family back in the States. Aside from the difference in dates, Easter quickly became my favorite Sunday of the year.

Tomorrow, I’ll write about my experience at an Eastern Orthodox midnight Easter vigil.

A Resurrection that Matters:

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit explains the world-shattering significance of Jesus’ resurrection: “He thrown everything off balance. If he did what he said then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow him, and if he didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can.”

With these words O’Connor declared, in concert with the New Testament writers, that the Resurrection is everything. Its truth or falsity determines whether the world has been irrevocably shaken by Easter Sunday or whether, instead, God has left Jesus, us, and the entire created order unanswered in our cries for salvation. No less than this is at stake in our affirmation that Jesus is raised from the dead.

Some terrific storm pictures

Jerry Vines on the gospel in a conjunction and a phrase:

Paul clearly delineates the basics of the gospel message in I Corinthians 15:1-8. In those verses there is an interesting combination of historical reality and theological truth. They are indicated to us in verses 3-5 by the 4-fold repetition of a conjunction (“that”) and the 2-fold repetition of a phrase (“according to the Scriptures”).

Top 10 things that will make you crazy working at a church

Let no one bewail his poverty,
for the universal Kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one weep for his iniquities,
for pardon has shown forth from the grave.

Let no one fear death,
for the Savior’s death has set us free.
He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.

By descending into Hell,
He made hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of his flesh.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.

It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory?

Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.
Amen.