Mark Quanstrom

Does "Love Win?"

Does “love win?”  Of course it does, which is what Rob Bell wants to affirm in his latest book published earlier this year, titled “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.”  That’s quite a title!  Rob Bell, according to the title, is going to inform the American public of the fate of every person who ever lived!  I’m not sure I would want to be so presumptuous but the title served its purpose.  People were interested!  It debuted at # 2 on the New York Times’ bestseller list where it remained for several weeks.  Evidently, people want to know where they are going to go when they die.  Evidently, people want to know what the Christian faith has to say about the future.  And we would say, “Of course they do.”

Una breve defensa del bautismo de infantes

Para que no quepa ninguna duda, debo decir que Debi y yo bautizamos a nuestros tres hijos cuando eran niños.  Lukas, Ryan y Daniel fueron bautizados por su abuelo, un presbítero nazareno.  Recuerdo claramente cada ocasión y la motivación para lo que, en aquella época, fue  una práctica relativamente poco frecuente. Deseábamos que nuestros niños, como niños, recibieran la señal del pacto de la aceptación de Dios para ellos.  Siempre hemos esperado que nuestros niños tuvieran testimonios aburridos - esto significa que, nunca deseamos que ellos tuvieran un testimonio dramático de ser salvados de la profundidad del pecado. Nuestra intención fue criar a nuestros hijos en la fe, de manera que ellos nunca recordaran un tiempo cuando no hubieran estado dentro de ella. Por último, queríamos que ellos supieran que Dios les había dado la bienvenida a su reino aún antes de que ellos pudieran recordar, y el bautismo fue la señal de esa aceptación.

A Candle in a Wind Storm

I preached on Epiphany Sunday at the University Campus of Olivet's College Church of the Nazarene.  I gave everyone a birthday candle as they entered the sanctuary for the morning service.  I asked worshippers to keep the candle as a reminder that those of us who follow Jesus Christ have been commissioned - as He was - to be a light to the world.  Light to a dark world is an image the Biblical writers used often to describe the mission of Christ and His followers.  For example, in the prologue to John's gospel, John wrote of Jesus as light.  In John 1:4-5, he wrote: "In Him was life and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." 

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, addressed Christ's followers as light when he wrote, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light."  (Ephesians 5:8)  Jesus Himself, in the Sermon on the Mount, used light imagery to describe the disciples' mission.  He said, "You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven."  (Matt 5:14-16)

A Brief Apology for Infant Baptism

In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that Debi and I baptized our three sons when they were babies.  Lukas, Ryan and Daniel were baptized by their grandfather, who is an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene.  I remember the occasions well and the motivation for what was a relatively minority practice at that time was our desire for our children as children to have received the covenantal sign of God's acceptance of them.  We have always hoped that our children would have boring testimonies and by that I mean that we have never wanted them to have a dramatic testimony of being saved from the depths of sin.  Our intention was to raise our children in the faith such that they would not remember a time when they weren't within it.  To that end, we wanted them to know that God had welcomed them into his kingdom even before they could remember and baptism was the sign of that acceptance.