The Lutheran Hour
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"Identity Theft"
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Text: Galatians 1:5-8
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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! That is the truth of God which saves and upon which our hope of heaven is based. God grant that all souls may cling to this truth which ought never be changed. In the Savior’s Name. Amen.
In 1921 President Warren Harding was on hand when an unnamed soldier from World War I was buried in Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Since then three others were buried at this grave whose inscription reads, “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” What you might not know is that one of those soldiers, Michael Blassie was later identified and interred by his family in St. Louis, Missouri.
That grave proves our identities are important to us and why nobody, not even Hilda Whitcher, likes to be the victim of identity theft. What you don’t know Hilda? Then let me tell you her story. In 1938, the wallet company, E. H. Ferree of Lockport, New York, had a desire to show how good a Social Security card would look in their wallets. To do this a sample Social Security card, number and all, was printed and placed into each wallet. Sadly, the number they used wasn’t fake. Ferree’s Vice-President, Douglas Patterson, had those sample cards printed with the number 078-05-1120. 078-05-1120 was the Social Security number of his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Whitcher.
In a short time there were all kinds of people claiming Hilda’s number as their own. In 1943, over 5,700 people thought 078-05-1120 was their Social Security card number. But that wasn’t the worst. The FBI paid a visit to Hilda at her home and demanded to know why her Social Security number was showing up from coast to coast. To help solve the problem, the Social Security Administration gave Hilda a new number and retired her old number so no one could ever use it again. All in all, over 40,000 people borrowed Hilda’s Social Security number, which makes her the greatest victim of identity theft in history.
Identity theft. Nobody likes to be the victim of identity theft. From firsthand experience Pam and I know that to be true. Two years ago, in January, we got our credit card bill. The amount we had charged for Christmas presents was a shock. Even more shocking was the bill we had for presents someone else had charged to our account. We were shaken to find that while we were visiting family in Minnesota, our credit card company said we had filled up our truck at a RaceTrac gas station in Atlanta, Georgia. While we were nestled snug in our beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, someone had apparently gone to Macy’s and Wal-Mart department stores to purchase a ton of toys for children and grandchildren which were not ours.
Identity theft. Nobody likes to be the victim of identity theft. Nobody likes it when another individual takes his good name and misuses it. Nobody likes to be the victim of identity theft and that includes the Lord. That’s why, after the Lord had procured the release of His people from Egypt’s slavery, He sat them down and gave them Commandments by which they were to lead their lives. The Lord’s list touches upon many important aspects of life: envy, theft, murder, family, and helping someone preserve his reputation and good name.
Still from God’s point of view, the most important rule He gave was the one which says: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Ex 20:3) In that rule God said He didn’t want anyone to steal His identity. He didn’t want anyone or anything to bump Him off to the side and He certainly didn’t want anyone to take the respect, reverence, and love which ought only be given to Him. The Lord was so serious about the theft of His identity, in Deuteronomy 6 (v. 12-15) He clarified Himself and warned His people: “take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the LORD your God you shall fear. …You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you- …lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you…”
A few hundred years later, after His people had repeatedly disregarded and disobeyed His prime directive, God gave this reminder: (Excerpts 2 Kings 17:35b-39) “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt… You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. …. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” Hearing those words you can tell God wasn’t joking and He wasn’t giving His people a whole lot of wiggle room. And did the Lord’s people listen? They did not. They forgot and gave their allegiance to any false deity who came wandering down the road. That’s why that same passage sadly says: (2 Kings 17:40) “However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.”
As a punishment, the Lord took away much of His people’s identity. They lost their country; they lost their temple; they lost their kingdom and they lost their freedom. It was only after the Holy Spirit brought God’s people to repentance; only after they remembered to worship Him and Him alone, that they were brought home and given back some semblance of their identity. It was then, while God’s people were being ruled by Rome, that the long-awaited Savior was born. Jesus entered this world fulfilling the prophecies which ought to have identified Him to the people who had waited so long for His coming. He lived His life doing those miraculous deeds which should have made it clear that He was the Messiah. In spite of all the prophecies which Jesus had kept and all the works which He had done, God’s chosen people could never bring themselves to seeing His true identity. They never respected Him or proclaimed Him the Son of God and their Savior from sin.
On the contrary, they did just the opposite. Rather than receiving Jesus as the Redeemer who had come to offer Himself as the ransom which would win their forgiveness and save their souls, they preferred to cling to their man-made laws. It was a case of identity theft pure and simple. Instead of revering Jesus, they called Him a sinner, a Samaritan, a demon, a devil, a liar and a blasphemer. Rather than loving Him, they hated and despised Him. So strong was their loathing for the Redeemer, these ancient leaders set up kangaroo courts in which false witnesses were called in to spin their lies and assure Jesus’ death sentence. So violent was their hatred, the Roman Procurator was threatened and Pontius Pilate allowed Jesus to be condemned to the cross where, according to prophecy and God’s plan, He gave up His life for us.
But these Jewish leaders were not yet done. So vehement was their hatred toward the Christ they went to the governor and pleaded (Excerpts Matthew 27:63-64), “Sir, we remember how that impostor said,…’After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure…, lest his disciples… steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Thank God they did that. Because Jesus’ tomb was secured by His self-proclaimed enemies, there can be no doubt that He actually, physically rose from the dead three days after He had been murdered. There can be no doubt that Jesus conquered death and grave because, again and again, He appeared to those who needed to be reassured of His identity as God’s Son and the world’s only Savior.
Jesus’ resurrection, unique in the annals of history, took place almost 2,000 years ago. That resurrection was the Lord’s final and absolute proof that Jesus had fulfilled the laws we have broken; defeated Satan’s temptations, and done all which was necessary for sinners to be rescued and saved. It is a simple message; a saving message; the unchangeable message which can move our eternal destiny from hell to heaven. That is the message this broadcast has proclaimed over the air waves for over eighty-five years. It is the only message which saves and it is the message of the Holy Spirit that He uses to call to faith all those who are not yet saved.
May I ask, what was your reaction when I said, “Jesus is the only Savior, the only Way to heaven?” I would not be surprised if your response was less than positive. To believe on Jesus Christ seems too simple, too uncomplicated, too undemanding, No, I wouldn’t be surprised because the world has always done its best to tell you salvation is a complicated business. Since the days of the disciples there has always been people who have tried to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate Jesus’ identity as Savior. There have been those who came forward and said the Jesus’ story was incomplete and they had a new revelation; there have been those who have said the disciples got it wrong and they had been given the information to make things right. There have been those who have said Jesus was only a part-time Savior; that He wasn’t anybody special; that He was only an example on how we were to live.
Again and again we have seen people commit identity theft against our Redeemer. There have been the tragic ones like Jim Jones who called for the suicide of 918 of his followers in Jonestown, Guyana. There was David Koresh whose Branch Davidians died in a fiery shootout with government authorities; and there was Marshall Applewhite’s Heaven’s Gate Cult who took their own lives so they could meet the extra-terrestrial’s who were riding on the tail of the Hale-Bopp Comet. But these are the only the most obvious and most tragic of those who would steal the Savior’s identity.In today’s religious circles it is not unusual to find that Jesus’ goal of saving souls is transformed to become the means to obtain earthly prosperity. To such preachers no longer is Jesus the Savior Who calls us from darkness into God’s marvelous light; He is the One Who will offer temporal gifts to that person who makes a pledge, or orders some sacred water from the Jordan, or sacred soil brought from Jerusalem; or sacred incense from the Holy Land, or who possesses a specially blessed holy handkerchief. Then there are those identity thieves who would demote the Savior and make Him One of many equal and interchangeable deities.
These new gospels, these different gospels, are only devilish gospels which are designed to steal the Savior’s identity. As Saint Paul wrote to the church in Galatia, there is only one Gospel and anything else proclaimed by anyone else is wrong, perverted, and must be condemned. Any Gospel which does not point unerringly and accurately to Jesus being our Savior is leading its followers on a path which will lead to hell and not to heaven. My friends, nobody likes identity theft… especially not the Lord Whose Son was sacrificed so we might be redeemed, rescued, recycled, restored, and saved.
This is getting pretty intense. Let’s take the intensity down a few notches and allow me to introduce you to Henrichus Antonius Han van Meegeren. That’s a lot of name, so I’ll just call him van Meegeren. Van Meegeren was an artist who lived most of his life in the last century. Unfortunately, the critics didn’t like van Meegeren’s paintings. They called him tired, uninspiring, and unoriginal. With such reviews van Meegeren found it difficult to sell enough of his work to make a livelihood.
Well, the critics had said he was uncreative. That was hardly the case. Van Meegeren decided to show his skill by forging paintings. Working in the style of many old masters, van Meegeren went to work. The results were nothing less than astounding. He managed to copy the strokes, the colors, the shadows, the very style of some of the great masters. Not even the experts were able to tell the difference between van Meegeren’s work and the greats artists from previous centuries. With the critics waxing eloquent about his forgeries, van Meegeren was able to sell them as recently discovered masterpieces.
All went well until, after World War II. It was discovered that van Meegeren had sold one of his forgeries to the Nazi Reichsmarshall Herrmann Göring. On May 29, 1945, van Meegeren was arrested for having sold Dutch cultural property to the Germans. If he were found guilty of being a Nazi collaborator, van Meegeren would be sentenced to death. Realizing his life was on the line; van Meegeren came clean and confessed what he had been doing for the last few decades. As a result of his admission, van Meegeren’s life was spared and his sentence was reduced to one year in jail for the lesser crimes of forgery and falsification. Those who have studied his work estimate that van Meegeren’s identity theft of the art world’s great masters duped buyers, including the government of the Netherlands, out of an equivalent of more than thirty million dollars in today’s money.
Now some would say that figure makes van Meegeren’s this world’s most successful identity thief. They might say it, but they would be wrong. That title belongs to all those who try to transform Jesus into being anything less than humanity’s one, only, and ultimate Savior from sin. I say that because while van Meegeren stole a great deal of money, these people are stealing the souls for whom Jesus suffered, died, and rose. St. Paul says such perpetrators should be damned, and they will be. But don’t you let them take you with them. Believe with all your heart that God loved this world… including you, so much that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that all who believe on Him will not perish but live forever with Him in heaven. This is the Savior we preach. If you wish to know more about Him, please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for May 29, 2016
Topic: Revenge and ForgivenessANNOUNCER: How do you pray for your enemies? That’ll be our question today for our Speaker Emeritus, Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Thank you, Mark. Good to be here.
ANNOUNCER: Well, Pastor, our listener has a devotion book that includes a prayer on behalf of one’s enemies. He says he used to pray that prayer every day, but now he doesn’t feel honest saying those words. He knows he should pray that those who persecute Christians will one day come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but he admits his faith isn’t strong enough to believe that would ever happen. He’d rather see them dead!
KLAUS: Let’s begin by saying these feelings are totally honest. It’s a human reaction to those who hate, persecute, and seek only evil for us.
ANNOUNCER: Right. Everyone wants the scales of justice balanced.
KLAUS: Yeah, in Revelation 6: 9-11, even the martyrs in heaven cry out, “O Sovereign Lord, … how long before you will judge and avenge our blood…?” They want to see the persecution against believers stopped and justice paid out to those who caused that suffering,
ANNOUNCER: We notice that these martyrs are calling to the Lord. They’re not calling out to the church for retaliation with overwhelming force.
KLAUS: No, these saints recognize that the Lord does not forget His people and He will make things right.
ANNOUNCER: We should also point out we’re not talking about self-defense here either. We covered that topic in a previous Q&A session back in January, 2015 (program 82-21, for those who are interested.) Here, we’re speaking specifically about revenge, about getting even.
KLAUS: Right. Deuteronomy 32:35-36 shares God’s intentions when it says, “For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants…” St. Paul expanded on that idea when he wrote to the persecuted Christians in Rome. He said, “…as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.'”
ANNOUNCER: And in Matthew (5:43-48) Jesus taught: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”
KLAUS: Exactly. That’s what our listener is struggling to do. Jesus also taught us to pray: “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” and it’s why, on the cross He forgave those who put Him there.
ANNOUNCER: And our listener really wants to know, “How do you do that when you don’t feel that way?”
KLAUS: To that, I’ve got four things to say. First, forgiving is a decision that is made in the mind and then taught to the heart. Second, we forgive because the Lord has forgiven us. Remember, from the Lord’s perfect perspective, the sins we have committed are just as bad as anything the followers of these other religions have done. And third, we forgive, because if we seek revenge, we are no better than they are.
ANNOUNCER: Jesus is calling us here to a response that’s, frankly, super-human.
KLAUS: Yeah, and that’s because He knows that our actions will give witness to the transforming power of Jesus. There is truth to what the church father, Tertullian, wrote many years ago: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
ANNOUNCER: We’re coming close to the end of our time for today. Anything else which needs to be said?
KLAUS: Possibly this, which is the fourth thing I wanted to say. When it comes to forgiveness, we need to be sure we don’t put the cart before the horse. By that, I mean we don’t pray as we do just because we feel like it. We pray as we do because God commands us to do it. Praying for those who persecute us is not an emotional choice, it is a logical decision made in compliance with the Lord’s instructions. It means our hearts must be bent to the standard the Lord has given to us, and, in Jesus, has shown to us.
ANNOUNCER: And with that in mind, let’s close today with this prayer from Lutheran Service Book: Almighty, everlasting God, through your only Son, our blessed Lord, you commanded us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us. Therefore, we earnestly implore you that by your gracious working our enemies may be led to true repentance, may have the same love toward us as we have toward them, and may be of one accord and of one mind and heart with us and with your whole Church, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
KLAUS: Amen.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Action in Ministry for May 29, 2016
Guest: Dr. Melanie WilsonANNOUNCER: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour and this is Action in Ministry. Today Pastor Klaus talked about identity theft. I know that many people very carefully monitor their credit card accounts each month just to make sure nobody is stealing their identity. How many of us, I wonder, pay attention to better knowing the identity of Christ on a daily basis?
SELTZ: Well, Mark, it reminds me of how federal agents learn to recognize counterfeit money by studying the real thing. And by studying Christ we can identity His characteristics and not be fooled by the counterfeits.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Melanie Wilson has prepared an excellent resource for us titled, The Mystery of You, and she’s here to talk with us about that. The mystery of identity-not only who we are but Whose we are.
SELTZ: There you go. Dr. Wilson, thank you for joining us.
WILSON: Thank you for having me.
SELTZ: Melanie, this resource is titled The Mystery of You. Why are we such a mystery to our spouses and maybe even to ourselves?
WILSON: I am not going to try to tackle why we are a mystery to our spouses.
SELTZ: That might get us all in trouble.
WILSON: Right. I have not solved that dilemma in twenty-four years of marriage. But I think we are a mystery to ourselves because we have so much information that we are trying to make sense of when it comes to determining who we are.
ANNOUNCER: And in this resource you liken it to the game of “Clue”. There are several different aspects, several different questions that have to be answered in order to get at that secret of identity. What are those factors?
WILSON: First there is where have we been. In the game “Clue,” it’s what room was the person in; but in our lives it’s where did we grow up.
ANNOUNCER: Right.
WILSON: For example, I grew up in South Dakota and that shapes my identity. But it could be where have you lived. I spent a year living in a trailer court. So that shaped my identity. Several years living on a farm also shaped my identity. But an aspect of who we are is also what we have done. Not just where we have been but what we have done. That can be both positive and negative; even in the same circumstance. So, for example, I went to graduate school in clinical psychology. That’s a positive thing because I had an education in a field that was important to me; but it was also a time in my life when I made some really poor decisions that made me feel bad about myself.
SELTZ: Wow, I think one reason that people keep searching for their true identity is even when they really understand some things, they don’t really like what they see. They don’t like where they’ve been. They don’t like what they’ve done.
WILSON: Absolutely. And there is hope for us in that. In John, chapter four, we learn that Jesus spent time with a woman from Samaria, which just wasn’t done. Samaritans were not considered high-class people to spend time with. This woman, in particular, who was speaking with Jesus, had reason to feel like she wasn’t worthy of being paid attention to because she had had five husbands and she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. I’m sure she was the talk of the town and Jesus knew all of that; yet still showed her compassion and continued to engage her. She was so enthralled by this that she went to a community that had, as I said, likely had been gossiping about her and excluding her. Absolutely. And said, “Come and meet a Man Who told me everything I’ve ever done.” Yet He accepted her anyway. It changed everything for her.
SELTZ: She had a new identity just because she met this Jesus and when you think about how that changed her life, well that can change our lives today too, right?
WILSON: Right. So, God’s standard for us…His standard for us is His holiness, which is perfection, which none of us can achieve. So, that failure on our part would separate us from God forever if not for what God did through the person of Jesus Christ on the cross. He died for our sins so that we can spend eternity with Him.
SELTZ: Yeah, you think about just how your identity is so rooted in your relationship with God and now here He brings that…reconciles that all back. I love where you share the words from a Bible study teacher that says, “Cheer up. You’re worse than you think.” Which is true. 100% sinners. We’re worse than we can imagine, but when we start to think about what Jesus has done on the cross, He’s calling even us home to Himself. What a powerful, powerful way to see your new life in Him.
WILSON: Yes.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Melanie Wilson, thank you for joining us and for sharing this valuable resource with us.
WILSON: Thank you so much for having me.
SELTZ: And that’s our Action in Ministry segment today to bless, to empower, and to strengthen your life in Christ, for others.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Wilson’s booklet is titled: The Mystery of You. For your free copy, call The Lutheran Hour toll free 1-855-john316. That’s 1-855-564-6316. Or go to lutheranhour.org and click on Action in Ministry. Our email address is info@lhm.org.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“In the Very Midst of Life” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Grant Peace, We Pray, in Mercy, Lord” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)