Why Have a Synod, or Denomination?

With so many non-denominational, or unaffiliated churches nowadays many people ask why do we have denominations or synods anyway. It is important to remember that the word synod means walking or journeying together, which really means having the same faith. Below is the 14 reasons that the LCMS was formed, taken from its first constitution. Look how many of these have to do with purity of doctrine. On a separate note, why in the world have we gotten rid of number 10?!?

1. To stand guard over the purity and unity of doctrine within the synodical circle, and to oppose false doctrine.
2. Supervision over the performance of the official duties on the part of the pastors and teachers of Synod.
3. Common protection and extension of the church.
4. Publication and distribution of a church periodical.
5. Conscientious examination of candidates for the ministry and teaching profession.
6. To provide for ecclesiastical ordination and induction into office.
7. The preparation of future preachers and teachers for service in the Church.
8. To provide for congregations with out pastors, if the former apply to Synod.
9. To give theological opinions, also to settle disputes between single persons or between parties in the congregations. But the latter is to take place only in cases where all persons involved have applied to Synod for arbitration.
10. To strive after the greatest possible uniformity in ceremonies.
11. To have concern for the faithful execution of all the duties of the ministry, especially of the truly evangelical cure of souls in all its branches; in this respect also to help advance sound catechumen instruction above all, and especially with reference to the false doctrines of the prominent sects; also to institute and maintain catechizations every Sunday for the, confirmed youth.
12. To support indigent congregations who are members of Synod, that they may obtain the regular service of a pastor.
13. To gather church statistics within Synod and also to start a chronicle of American Lutheranism.
14. To establish connections with the Lutheran Church in foreign countries, especially Germany.

What is the Church?

One, means single and unified, wherever the "Marks of the Church" are.

Holy means dedicate or consecrated to God.

Catholic means universal, all encompassing. This means the church of all places.

Apostolic means in agreement with the teaching of the apostles. This means the church of all times and at all places.

Orthodox means conforming to beliefs and practices that have been established and approved, and therefore, accepted as right or true generally and traditionally. This is essentially saying catholic and apostolic.

Evangelical means in accordance with the teaching of the gospel

In his Book, “On Councils and the Church” Luther identifies seven marks of the church:

1. The Holy Word of God.
2. The Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
3. The Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
4. The Office of the Keys Exercised Publicly (Confession and Absolution).
5. The Calling, Consecrating, and Ordaining of Ministers (The Holy Ministry).
6. Prayer, Public Praise, and Thanksgiving to God (The Liturgy / Public Worship). 
7. The Sacred Cross.

Vocation 4 - Evangelism

Vocation Day IV: Living our faith in our callings

According to medieval Catholicism, the only kind of "calling" was to a distinctly religious life. If you had a "vocation," that meant that you were to be a priest, a monk, or a nun. Luther's contribution--which was taken up by all Protestants and now even by contemporary Catholics--was to see that so-called "secular" occupations were also callings from God. While our relationship to God is based solely on His grace through Jesus Christ, not our works, He calls us to do good works for our neighbors. ("God does not need our good works. Our neighbor does.") This means that the Christian life is to be lived out primarily in our vocations. Not only that, but work done in the church is not superior.  Having a job outside of church is as important as having one inside. Volunteering in the community is as important as volunteering in the church. Being a pastor is not a better calling than being a janitor, or engineer. It does not matter what you do, it matters that you give glory to God in whatever you do (1 Cor. 10:31, Col. 3:17).

This is where sanctification happens, not so much in "church work" but in our families, our workplace, our life in our communities. Vocation is the key to evangelism (as we bring up our children in Christ, as we interact with non-believers on the job) and to Christian influence on the culture (being salt and light in the world). As Christians learn to live out their faith in their callings--the arts, politics, businesses, education, court rooms, the entertainment industry, the media, marriage, parenting--the culture will be changed. As the great commission tells us, we are to make disciples as we are going about our lives (Matthew 28:19-20).

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

Pentecost, not Pentecostal

Last post, we looked at how the Bible says the charismatic gifts have ceased. God appointed and promised the apostles this.  He confirmed the teaching of the old testament prophets. He did not do that for us. The apostles had signs of being prophets so that there words would be accepted as prophecy, demanding our acceptance and belief. The cessation of these gifts is attested to by the early church as well as modern Jews (see quotes below). Those who claim to speak in tongues or prophecy, or get signs from God, are really claiming to be prophets, and are therefore, false prophets. But why does this happen?

• First of all, some are just lying.
• Jeremiah 14 tells us that not all claims of prophecy are true.
• 1 Kings 13:11-22 tells us that even a well meaning believer can do the wrong thing and go against God by lying about prophecy. 
• Matthew tells us that people will go to hell who thought they were doing the right thing of prophesying: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ -Matthew 7:21-23
• Secondly, the Devil can say nice things about God and cause prophecy and signs
• False prophets will arise and show great wonders. show signs and wanders lead away the elect. Matthew 24:24
• 2 Thessalonians tells us the coming of the lawless one is accompanied by power and signs wonders.
• The 2nd beast in revelation works great signs.
• The real danger is that when people think “God” is talking to them, that voice is indistinguishable from that of Satan. After all, Satan comes and deceives. He uses Scripture (and twists it) and often is disguised as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
• The Devil can work through prosperity and spirituality (the eye of needle in 1 Timothy 6:10), we get complacent and think we did it all.
• Pain can backfire, like when Job was driven to God and the Psalmist who cried out to the Lord in his anguish.
• Powerful beings do good things for people to get them to trust them and think they are God, so they look to experiences instead of words of Jesus, then after a while, when it matters, they let them down. God does not manipulate emotions. The Holy Spirit does not work in emotions. Feelings used to lead you astray
• These movements were not the Holy Spirit: Montanism, Spiritualistic Fransiscans, Enthusiast movements of the Schwarmerei, Charismatics like Pentecostal.
• Lastly, even true prophesying does not indicate one's state of grace.
• Balaam prophecied
• Judas healed and cast out demons
• Ciaphas prophesied by the Holy Spirit that it was good for one man to be handed over to die for the people.

Jews don't believe there is continued prophecy (1 Maccabees 4:46; 9:27; 14:41, 2 Baruch 85:3, Josephus, Against Apion 1.37-41, Jewish Chronology, Seder Olam Rabbah, chapter 30, Babylonian Talmud: Tosefta Sotah 13:2, Yoma 9b, Sotah 48a, and Sanhedrin 11a)

Clement of Rome in 95 AD wrote a letter to the Corinthian church rebuking every problem that Paul rebuked except tongues. Why did he not mention tongues or miracles?

Justin Martyr (~160 AD) visited many churches but never once mentions tongues in his lists of spiritual gifts.

Origen (~250 AD) in his voluminous writings argues against Celsus by stating that the sign gifts of the apostles' age were temporary and were not exercised by Christians in the 3rd Century.

Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) "[Corinth] is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur, but now no longer take place." [Homilies, XXIX, 1]

Augustine (354-430 AD) said in speaking of Acts 2:4, "In the earliest times, the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues....these were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit...that thing was done for a betokening and it passed away."

Herman Sasse

“The recognition that the revelation in Christ is not something inconclusive or relative stands and falls with the primacy of the apostolate over prophecy. Wherever prophecy asserts its independence and power, it is a threat to the finality of the revelation that happened once in history, of which the apostolic office bears witness. Christ’s church is an apostolic, not prophetic church. This does not mean a quenching of the Spirit. Rather it expresses the conviction that revelation has taken place, that the word of God is no longer only given and assigned to a human being here and there, but that the Word has become flesh.”

“The ‘apostolic church’ is a poor church. It has no marvelous new revelations, no knowledge of higher worlds, and no possibility of proving its faith by reason. It lives from the witness of a few men who were neither religious geniuses, nor ethical heroes, nor original thinkers. The only authority for the unverifiable things they said was that Jesus Christ had sent them and that they were witnesses of His resurrection.”

Book Review/Summary - An Evaluation of the Claims to the Charismatic Gifts (Douglas Judisch)

Tongues

• Before our era, *nobody* in scholarship thought that Paul was talking about ecstatic tongues in acts, but simply foreign, earthly languages. The church fathers acknowledge that something in Corinth was weird, but then go on to dismiss it. The reformers considered it nothing more than the normal practice of liturgical ritual retaining foreign language, Hebrew at first, and then later Latin. New Theology can never be correct, or someone somewhere would have taught it before.
• The sign of speaking in tongues has always been a sign of judgement and punishment.
• In Deuteronomy 28:49, it was a covenantal curse, that is one of the things to show the covenant is ended because Israel did not keep it.
• Isaiah rebukes leaders 7:8 and belittles them in 9-10 because the people did not listen to the prophet who was speaking clearly, God brought alien tongues as a sign of punishment.
• Jeremiah 5:15 was a warning the south the same thing is going to happen to them as the north. If they reject clear word of god, they get words that make no sense to them.
• The Speaking in tongues in Acts 2 fulfilled the prophecy of Joel it quotes about the Spirit being poured out in the last day. Since it was a sign for the times as the final alienation and punishment for the Jews not being faithful, why then would it continue after that?
• In Acts 10:45 gentiles speak in tongues that Jews cannot understand, cementing the end judgment. The temple was then destroyed in 70 AD. Speaking in tongues was a temporary sing of end of old covenant, shown also with temple. There is no need for them anymore.
• In 1 Corinthians 12:1, the word is not gifts, but “things”. Some good things and some bad things. The rest of the book he is rebuking those who are setting up their “gifts” as them being above the rest of the community. A more excellent way than these “gifts” is love in chapter 13. 1 Corinthians 13:8 even says that prophecies will pass away and tongues will cease. Speaking in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 is not a sign for believers, but unbelievers. A sign that they don’t believe. Verse 19 even says that speaking in tongues is not good.

Prophecy

• The Old Testament stated that prophecy would end
• Zechariah 13 states that God will remove out of the land the prophets
• Daniel 9:24 speaks of the end of covenant coming with sealing up of vision and prophecy after the messiah comes.
• Miraculous signs were proof of the prophets of old. Likewise, they were proof of the prophecy (proclaiming of God's Word) of the apostles was divinely inspired and inerrant (qualified for cannon). However, New Testament does not say signs are proof of prophets for us today.
• In Matthew 10 Jesus calls and names people sending them out, giving charismatic gifts among Jews to tell them the Messiah has arrived in the present age. In Matthew 28, during the great commission, Jesus sends the apostles out to all nations, telling them that to continue on into the ages, they should baptize and teaching.
• The apostles could lay hands to pass on the some gifts, but not the gift of passing it on. The second generation could not pass on the gifts.
• Phillip preaches and gives communion in Acts 8. However, Phillip can’t pass on the gifts, so he calls the apostles to do it. 
• “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”(Hebrews 1:1–2)
• The author of Hebrews points out how God has spoken to those who have gone before us in the faith. Now, in these last days, God has spoken to us by His son. His disciples have recorded the words and deeds of this Son, Jesus Christ. Not only that, but Jesus also instituted Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Absolution, and the preaching of this Word. It is through these, which we identify as the external Word (in contrast to an “inner” or hidden word), that Scripture promises that the Holy Spirit works. For this reason we confess that we reject the teaching which would say that the Holy Spirit works outside of the external Word.
• Sola Scriptura - The Bible is the only rule and norm for understanding Gods will and what he wants you to think, believe, know and do. Nothing extra-Biblical is allowed.
• I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book" -Revelation 22:18

Other things to read:

• The Charismatic Movement and Lutheran Theology (CTCR Report for the LCMS, January 1972)
• The Lutheran Church and the Charismatic Movement: Guidelines for Congregations and Pastors (CTCR Report for the LCMS, January 1977)

The Divine Service

From Higher Things

I realized I have discussed different church services, what the divine service is, why tradition and liturgy are important, and information on each of the parts of the services in previous posts, but have never gone over the order of service and why the parts of service are the way they are. 

• Pre-Service
• As we walk into the church with reverence, what pastor wears, the architecture, the decorations, art, and the symbols we see are there to direct or our hearts and minds to Christ as the center of our faith and worship. Traditionally, we walk past the baptismal font on the way in (or at least up front to see it), to remind us of our baptism (Psalm 46:10, Habakkuk 2:20)
• As we sit down an opening prayer is said verbally or silently as a time to prepare ourselves to come into the presence of God. (reference)
• Passing of the Peace can be in multiple places (upper room)
• An Opening Hymn/Hymn of Invocation - calls upon Triune God, theme of the church season. The Candles are usually lit at this point (Collossians 3:16)
• To mark preparation for worship Pastor leads outside of chancel/communion rail, not yet entered presence.
• Invocation - In the Name of the Triune God. God put his name on us in baptism, we gather in his name. This is the beginning of the worship service (reference)
• Confession and Absolution - the first thing we do when entering God's presence is  repent and be forgiven (Hebrews 10:19)
• Second Part of Service, focuses on the spoken word of God. The Pastor enters the Chancel area
• Introit/Psalm of the Day (Psalms, Collossians 3:16)
• Kyrie Lord have mercy, greet the Lord in Confident prayer, welcoming the king, trust in the ruler to provide for our need, recognizing that he is showing us mercy (lepers, Bartamaeus)
• Hymn of Praise that we are forgiven, this is the feast, looking forward to heaven (angels at Christmas, Rev 5,15,19)
• Salutation - Lord be with you (Boaz)
• Collect - Prayer that collects all petitions/themes (reference)
• Readings Lectionary-Old testament, Epistle, Gospel (Luke 4:17, Ephesians 4:11, hear from the four elements)
• Sermon Hymn (Collossians 3:16)
• Sermon (Children's sermon) (Ephesians 4:11, hear from the four elements)
• Confession of Faith (Creed) - all Christians everywhere every-when (reference)
• Offering and Offertory - Give back (at each lords day set aside as God blesses you paul)
• Prayers
• Prayers of the people (prayers intercessions)
• The Lord's prayer (reference)
• Third part, sacrament, Pastor enters the Sanctuary
• Preface - Salutation (need blessing before going into the presence of God, reference)
• Sanctus hymn of sacrament, heaven on earth, praise (Isaiah, holy angel coal to lips, Psalm 118, Hebrews 12:22-)
• Distribution (reference)
• Prayer of THanksgiving (O give thanks mercy endures forever)
• Post Service
• Closing Hymn The candles are usually extinguished here (Collossians 3:16)
• Benediction - sending out, in God's Name, baptism, a promise of divine blessing and peace (Number 6:24-26)

Our worship here accords with the heavenly worship described in Isaiah 6:1-7 and Revelation 5. Our worship service is also adapted from and flows out of worship of the old testament, so it is really not even new to the Post-Jesus, Early Christian church. This is how the church has been worshiping forever. Lastly, the service is important for catechesis as shown below:

Catechesis in the Liturgy

Matthew 28:19-20 - The Great Commission

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is probably one of the most misunderstood verses ever, so I will break it down here.

• Jesus was saying these things to his disciples this after they had finished their training with him, so this verse is primarily for pastors.
• In the Greek, the word "go" is not a command. It is more of "as you are going." The command is the phrase make disciples, which is specifically their job.
• Baptism saves you and you are made a disciple through it. It is done to you, not a work of you, so age does not matter.
• In the Greek the word observe, is not so much obey commands as abide in teaching (or doctrine).
• This makes sense because in John 8:31 Jesus defines discipleship in just such a way: So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples."
• If you hold to the true doctrine of the Bible (and are therefore a disciple) the world will hate you and persecute you for it (John 15:18-27).

Therefore, Jesus is telling Pastors, that as they are going about their ministry, the way they are to make people believe in Jesus and his doctrine is by baptizing all people of any ethnicity and age and teaching them the doctrine.

Additionally, Parents are primarily evangelists. The main job of parents is to get their kids baptized and teach them about Jesus. Parenting is fulfilling the great commission.

Can I Get a Witness? (A: No)

One of my pet peeves is the Christian exhortation to be "witnesses" As I described in a previous post, a witness is someone who experienced something personally. We cannot be witnesses about or for Jesus. We confess and proclaim our faith. The great commission is for Pastors to teach and baptize to make disciples as they are living out their faith.  Here is a great Bible Study I just found by Alan Ludwig on Acts 1:8 in Context:
_________________

Today it is commonplace, and not only in churches of the Baptist-Evangelical persuasion, to hear sermons that exhort the hearers to “go out and witness.” Appeal for this is regularly made to Acts 1:8, which reads in part: “And you will be my witnesses, both in Judea and in Jerusalem and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” How the preacher has made the move from the original disciples to the people in the pew, from those who received these words from the mouth of Jesus to those who hear them from the preacher’s lips, seldom receives an explanation. That all Christians are witnesses is assumed as a self-evident truth that needs no apology.

And yet this easy application of Acts 1:8 to all Christians is a relative latecomer on the ecclesiastical scene. Is it warranted? To answer this question it is necessary to take a careful look at a text that we often take for granted. This study then will include a brief survey of the witness word group in the New Testament-the verb μαρτυρέω and its cognates-and after that examine more closely the peculiar Lukan use of these terms, with special regard to Acts 1:8.

Witness in the New Testament

The Witness words are μαρτυρέω, “to bear witness, testify”; μαρτυρία and μαρτύριον, “witness,” “testimony”; and μάρτυς, “one who bears witness or testifies.” Some of these words also have compound forms.

The Old Testament Background of Witness

In addition to its usual meaning in Greek, this witness word group is heavily flavored by Old Testament usage. The witness is generally one who has gained information firsthand through seeing or hearing, and he testifies to what he knows. God, man, and inanimate things may serve as witnesses. The Torah and its individual parts are also called "testimonies" because they provide written attestation to God's salvation and to the divine will.

Witness in General in the New Testament

Virtually all of the Old Testament uses carry over into the New Testament, though not in equal measure. Especially prominent is the Torah's requirement that every word be established at the mouth of two or three witnesses (Deut 19:15). This is not only a feature of Jewish life regulated by the Torah (Matt 26:59-61; John 8:17-18; Heb 10:28) but also extends to life in the church (Matt 18:16), even to the churches of the Gentile mission (2 Cor 13:1; 1 Tim 5:19; cf. 1 Cor 14:27, 29).

There are two essential characteristics of a witness (μάρτυς): he has gained information, usually by firsthand observation, and he conveys this information to others, often in a formal or legal setting. At the one end of the spectrum, the μάρτυς may be virtually a spectator who observes (Heb 12:1). At the other end, the act of testifying and the content of the testimony take precedence over how the testifier came by the information (Rev 12:11, 17). . . .

The Apostolic Witness to Christ

When Jesus tells his disciples that the Paraclete will bear witness concerning him, he goes on to say, "and you also bear witness, because you are with me from the beginning [ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς]” (John 15:26-27; cf. Luke 1:2). The disciples’ testimony is the witness of those who have seen and heard firsthand, and it is through this testimony that the Spirit himself will bear witness of Christ (Acts 5:32), just as he has already witnessed to the Messiah through Moses and the Prophets. John states beautifully the role of these eyewitnesses in the opening words of his first epistle:

That which was from the beginning [ἀπ᾿ἀρχῆς], which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it [μαρτυροῦμεν] and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3 ESV)

The “we” here is surely John and his fellow apostles. The truth of their testimony is confirmed by their having been present with him “from the beginning” (John 15:27; Acts 1:21-22) and having heard, seen, and touched the Word of Life. . . .

Vocational Dentist

I wanted to give a shout-out to a man who really understands vocation; my dentist. He is a devout Roman Catholic who knows it is his mission in life to live out his vocations as best he can.  He always has a picture of his wife and kids up in the office and talks about how he strives to be the best father and husband he can. He always tries to do the right thing in the right way. He works hard, does his best. He genuinely wants to help people. That is how he serves his neighbor. He is always happy and has a great bedside manner/customer service, even when people are upset.  He apologizes if anything goes wrong and takes responsibility for his staff. He does not charge to fix things that should have lasted longer. And he does all this with a cheerful attitude. That is all good businesses, but also being a good Christian. Patients notice and mention it to him and he is always ready to point to the love of Jesus as the reason. He recognizes that mission is through vocation. We should all live out our vocations as best as possible as he does.

Is Baptism Necessary?

I discussed how life is a gift from God and how he formed all people lovingly in the womb in my last post. While God has promised that he saves through Baptism, so we know it always works and can look to it for assurance, He has not said he cannot use other means. Charles Porterfield Krauth, in his great book The Conservative Reformation. This is great news for all who have endured miscarriages.

"The Lutheran Church holds that it is necessary to salvation to be born again of water (baptism) and the Spirit, (John iii. 5, and Augsburg Confession, Art. II. and IX.;) but she holds that this necessity, though absolute as regards the work of the Spirit, is, as regards the outward part of baptism, ordinary, not absolute, or without exception; that the contempt of the sacrament, not the want of it, condemns; and that though God binds us to the means, he does not bind his own mercy by them. From the time of Luther to the present hour, the Lutheran theologians have maintained the salvability and actual salvation of infants dying unbaptized.

The rest of the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, as a whole, is involved in her confessing, with the Nicene creed, "one baptism for the remission of sins," and that through it the grace of God is offered, that children are to be baptized, and that being thus committed to God, they are graciously received by him. At the same time she rejects the theory of the Anabaptists, that infants unbaptized have salvation because of their personal innocence, and maintains that the nature with which we were born requires a change, which must be wrought by the Spirit of God, before we can enter into heaven (A. C., Art. IX. and II.,) and that infants are saved by the application of Christ's redemptory work, of which Baptism is the ordinary channel."

However, it remains an open question what size/age children (and the rest of us) will be after the resurrection. Biblical justification for this doctrine can be found easily. First of all God Commands it.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. -Matthew 28:19

Secondly, the Bible tells us why it is necessary. Notice, while baptism saves, it is a lack of faith that condemns.

Baptism... now saves you. -1 Peter 3:21

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. -Mark 16:16

While Baptism is the normal means through which the Holy Spirit has promised to work, he is not bound by it. He has not promised to do so, and we have no assurance of it, but He can.

Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
     you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

On you was I cast from my birth,
     and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
    they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
-Psalm 22:9-10

Likewise, the opposite is true.

The wicked are estranged from the womb; -Psalm 58:3

Those who believe in decision theology say that Psalm is poetic and cannot be taken literally, but there are other verses as well.

And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength -Isaiah 49:5

Also, John the Baptizer believed when he was in the womb in Jesus, who was also in the womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, not because she chose to believe, but because God filled her.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” -Luke 1:39-45