Stand Firm

Some Dreams Do Come True

2012-01-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Playing Blind Man's Bluff with God

2012-01-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

Dr. Martin Luther, as quoted in One True God: Understanding Large Catechism II.66:

Reason plays the game of blind man’s bluff with God. It makes nothing but false moves and always misses Him in that it calls that “God” which is not God; and, conversely, fails to call Him God who is God…. It goes about the matter in this clumsy way, ascribing the name of God and divine honor to what it imagines to be God but never hitting upon the true God but rather on the devil or its own notion, which the devil controls. This is the reason why there is indeed a very great difference between knowing that God exists and knowing what or who God really is. The first truth human nature knows, and it is written in all hearts; the second only the Holy Spirit teaches. (St. L 14:859)

Edward Engelbrecht, One True God: Understanding Large Catechism II.66 (St. Louis: CPH, 2007) 98.

We’ll Always have Paris Fort Wayne; the 2012 Symposia, Epilogue

2012-01-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

In a sense, attending the Symposia is a unique opportunity for us outsiders, because it offers us a chance to participate in the life of the seminary for a week. Attending the presentations is a little like going to class, albeit with a lot of material. Interacting with the rest of the community is valuable. And one of the really nice things is the ability to participate in the various worship services, including the Divine Service if you’re there on Monday.

There’s something very beautiful about hearing the voices of so many men, and a few women, filling Kramer Chapel. It’s a treat to attend daily services, something that’s not available back at home. Walking through those doors is like entering another world, one free from all the worries and pressures of a hectic existence. One can sit and appreciate the choir, the organ, the cantor, the words of the sermon, all the while resting in Christ. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

Thanks to President Larry Rast, the faculty, staff, and students of Concordia Theological Seminary for sharing your campus with us. It’s greatly appreciated.

photo credit: Bob Myers

We’ll Always have Paris Fort Wayne; the 2012 Symposia, Part 2

2012-01-24T03:00:00.001-08:00

One of the best things about the Symposia is being able to hang out with fellow confessional Lutherans, and there’s always plenty of them to be found – perhaps too many in fact, judging from my lack of sleep.

Most of the “quality time” that I spent with others occurred over dinner. I was able to break bread with my friend Joe Strieter a couple of times. Joe has a lot of insight into synodical issues, as well as being a solid confessional Lutheran. One night I had dinner with Gene White and Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller, followed by a contest of wills with Pastor Wolfmueller, seeing which of us could continue a lucid conversation while staying awake later than either of us should have been up. Eventually Wolfmueller cracked – of course I had a one hour time zone advantage on him, he being on Mountain time, while I was operating on Pacific time. I also had dinner with Pastors Tim Rossow and Jonathan Fisk, and Chris Rosebrough (who wasn’t attending the symposia). It was good to see Chris, whom I hadn’t seen in a couple of years.

The most egregious social event occurred when I went to a bar someplace in the middle of nowhere with Pastors Drew Newman, Tim Rossow, Marcus Mackay, Clint Poppe, Scott Porath, (who has a radio program along with Pastor Brent Kuhlman in McCook, NE), Christopher Gerdes, Kent Schaaf (hope I got all that right), and a couple of others whose names I’ve subsequently forgotten - sorry guys. I’m pretty sure I was the token layman of the group. I mostly kept my mouth shut, not because of my layman status, but out of fear that my teeth would be discolored from all that cigar smoke. At times I was wishing I had a pair of night vision goggles to maintain visual contact with everyone in the group. I wonder if the cigar epidemic has anything to do with a certain synodical president? Probably not. Seriously, that was a lot of fun. Where else can you sit around with a bunch of guys and never have the conversation drift towards football? This is what true unity brings. I paid the price though. Pastor Rossow and I didn’t get back to the hotel until well after midnight, and I still had to bid on next month’s flying schedule before I went to bed (plus wash my clothes in the sink for de-fumigation purposes), so I didn’t hit the hay until 4 a.m.

The list of fellow bloggers with whom I at least got to say “hi” to includes:

Rev. Tom Chryst, Preachrblog

Rev. Dr. Al Collver, The ABC₃s of Miscellany

Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt, Gottesblog

Rev. Jonathan Fisk, Worldview Everlasting

Rev. Christopher Gillespie, Outer Rim Territories

Rev. President Matt Harrison, Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison

Rev. Kurt Hering, Laughing Martin

Rev. Dr. Jack Kilcrease, Theologia Crucis

Rev. Dr. Benjamin Mayes, Lutheran Orthodoxy

Rev. Dr. Michael Paul, 因基督稱義

Rev. Larry Peters, Pastoral Meanderings

Rev. Robert Portier, Smoky Mountain Bible Institute

Rev. Dr. Larry Rast, Rastaman Vibrations

Chris Rosebrough, Fighting for the Faith (and multiple others)
Rev. Tim Rossow, Brothers of John the Steadfast

Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller, The World-Wide Wolfmueller

In the basement near the bookstore Adriane Dorr and Deaconess Pam Nielsen were manning a booth (maybe that should be “personning” a booth). We had a lively conversation. I hadn’t met either of them before – now I know why Wilken and Schwarz are always trying to marry off Adriane, and why they continue to ask Pam back to the studio. Speaking of bookstores, I demonstrated amazing restraint in only purchasing one book on this trip.

A smattering of the many other people I talked to: Pastor Peter Bender (his last series discussing vocation on Issues, Etc. was great), Walter Dissen, Pastor Aric Fenske, Dr. Daniel Gard, Dr. Arthur Just (who also saw our daughter down in Haiti), Pastor Michael Kumm and his wife Janet, Greta Martin, Bob Myers, Dr. John Nordling, Dennis Peskey, Prof. John Pless, Rev. Klemet Preus, Lilian Spilde, Rev. Doug Taylor, Ginny Valleau, Rev. Larry Ziegler (whose main claim to fame now is that he's the father of Mollie Ziegler Hemingway), and Rev. Tom Zimmerman.

I’m thankful for all of my Lutheran friends. They are a true blessing. See you next year.

We’ll Always have Paris Fort Wayne; the 2012 Symposia, Part 1

2012-01-23T03:00:00.001-08:00

I made it back from Fort Wayne and the 2012 Symposia Series. Between the very slow snowy drive to the Fort Wayne airport and the circuitous route home, I’m thankful I made it back in one day (if you call getting home at 3 a.m. one day). Chicago was snowed in with all the flights from FWA canceled, so I had to fly to Dallas, and then to Seattle. The flight out of Dallas was way overbooked, with them paying some people to wait until the next day to travel. Since I’m an airline pilot, I can ride in the cockpit (for free) on just about any U.S. carrier, which is what I thought I’d be doing. You don’t want to ride in the jumpseat on a 737 – absolutely no leg room, the seat is hard as a rock with a straight up and down back, and that’s the good seat (there’s two on a 737 – the other jumpseat is directly behind the captain’s seat and it doesn’t even have knee room). But in Joel Osteen-like divine providence, what he calls God’s faaaa-ver, not only did I get on the plane, there was one first class seat that was inexplicably open. Nice! Some other selfless pilot, I think he was an American pilot, let me sit in first class and he took the jumpseat. Thanks to United Airlines, Skywest Airlines, American Eagle, and American Airlines for allowing me to ride along.

The Symposia, as always, were excellent. The Exegetical Theology Symposium featured Doctors David and Peter Scaer, Dr. Charles Gieschen, Dr. Richard Bauckham, Daniel Johansson, Dr. Arthur Just, and a panel discussion moderated by Dr. William Weinrich. I don’t know why some people skip the panel discussions, because they’re really good, with people asking questions that often need to be asked.

Dr. Richard Bauckham, the renowned Professor from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, had a two-part presentation on Jesus and the eyewitnesses which was quite interesting. His recent book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, sold out in the bookstore. He was autographing the book for people who had one, but I opted instead to hear Dr. Just’s presentation. Note to sem: Don’t run concurrent presentations and autograph sessions.

The Symposium on “The Lutheran Confessions: Justification in a Contemporary Context” featured Dr. Larry Rast, Dr. Scott Murray, Dr. Naomichi Masaki, Dr. Erik M. Heen, Dr. David Scaer, Dr. Christopher J. Malloy, Dr. Gordon Isaac, Prof. Roland Ziegler, and Dr. Jack Kilcrease, as well as a panel discussion.

Dr. Malloy, a Roman Catholic, spoke on the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification from a Catholic perspective. He definitely seemed a bit nervous, and who could blame him? He managed to make it through though and effectively survived the barbs that Dr. David Scaer tossed his way.

Dr. Jack Kilcrease’s presentation on “Atonement and Justification in the Theology of Gerhard Forde: A Contemporary Context” was way over my head, but then, I knew it would be. I read Dr. Kilcrease’s blog, Theologia Crucis, which is often pretty deep – a good workout for the theologically-challenged.

Especially enjoyable was Dr. Gordon L. Isaac’s presentation on “Justification in the Finnish Luther School.” He was the Reformed theologian of the bunch, but he sounded awfully Lutheran to me. I even saw him in Vespers on Thursday and the Itinerarium on Friday. His speaking style was very engaging.

Early Wednesday morning I attended the sectionals, which are shorter exegetical papers delivered in 25 minutes or less. I bumped into Rev. Dr. Al Collver in the hallway before they started. It turns out that he met our daughter down in Haiti a couple of days earlier, and was showing me photos of her on his iPhone. She attends the same church in Milwaukee where Dr. Collver was vicar. He posted a photo of Paige and her group on the Witness, Mercy, Life Together blog.

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller presented a paper on “Paul’s Preaching in the Book of Acts: Law and Gospel in its Context.” Pastor Wolfmueller oozes the Gospel. They pretty much had to drag him out of the room to get him to quit talking. He’s an underutilized LCMS treasure. Then imagine my dilemma as I had to decide between Pastor Jonathan Fisk and Pastor Burnell Eckardt, since they were both presenting at the same time. I opted for Pastor Eckardt, since I can dial up Pastor Fisk any time on the internet, although I was able to catch some of the fallout from Pastor Fisk’s presentation later on. Pastor Eckardt spoke about “Genesis 1 as Hermeneutical Pattern,” which was quite enlightening.

I was highly disappointed that I managed to miss the Higher Things get together. I wish the sem would advertise the ancillary events a little better, even if they aren’t officially sponsored by the seminary.

All in all, a great two Symposia. Maybe next year they can have it when it’s warm! One of these years it’s going to get blizzarded out. More to follow tomorrow.

On Approach in Mexico City

2012-01-20T03:00:00.000-08:00

For the majority of you who don't have opportunity to sit in the pointy end of an airliner on landing, this is what it looks like. The video shows a Mexicana flight crew landing in Mexico City. Enjoy.

No Comfort in Works

2012-01-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

Dr. C.F.W. Walther quoting Luther's comments on Genesis 27:38:

“When we were still monks, we accomplished nothing by our mortifications of the flesh, for we refused to admit our sin and our godless way of life. As a matter of fact, we knew nothing about original sin, and we didn’t understand that unbelief is sin. And, what is more, we also believed and taught that one must doubt God’s grace and mercy. That is why, the harder I ran and desired to come to Christ, the further He receded from me. After confession and when I had conducted Mass, my heart was never at peace, for conscience can never find real, abiding comfort in good works.” (II, 467, [cf. LW 5, 157])

Our works cannot justify us, or give us true comfort. Only faith in Jesus Christ justifies.

C.F.W. Walther, Essays for the Church, Vol. 1 (St. Louis: CPH, 1992) 268.

Remember When... #1

2012-01-18T03:00:00.001-08:00

Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd do an occasional "remember when" post. This first one takes a look at a few blogs that no longer exist, and a few that have a little different "face" now than they did then.

Remeber when...

Pastor Bill Cwirla occasionally took refuge in his bunker, Blogosphere Underground?

It's now been captured by Dale from Kentucky.

Remember when the Wild Boar still roamed the forest,

Athanasius and Crysostom were still fighting for their grandfather's church,

and the Issues, Etc. trademark was a source of contention?

Benjamin Harju was still a rostered LCMS pastor, before he really did drop the ball by resigning and becoming an Eastern Orthodox member,

and General Scuttlebutt still graced the cyberwaves:

Dr. Larry Rast was a Dean, not a President,

and Pastor Matt Harrison was an Executive Director, not a President. Some things are just meant to be.

And you've heard the phrase, "...whom God misses most" - well that's the Rt. Rev. Jack Bauer. I sure wish Jack would come back. I miss him too.

Bet You Haven't Heard this Theological Term Before

2012-01-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while you run across an insightful new term that bears repeating, and this is one of those. Reproduced below is a post from my rather creative apologist friend Pastor Ken Silva, author of the website Apprising Ministries. Reproduced with permission.

NARCIGESIS [nahr- si -jee’ -sis]

[(From: narcissus; 1540–50; < Latin < Greek nárkissos plant name, traditionally connected, by virtue of plant's narcotic effects, with nárkç numbness, torpor; probably from a pre-Gk. Aegean word, but associated with Gk. narke "numbness" (see narcotic) because of the plant's sedative effect.) (From: eisegesis; 1890–95; < Greek eisḗgesis, equivalent to eis- into + ( h ) çge- (stem of hçgeîsthai to lead) + -sis -sis {C19: from Greek eis into, in + -egesis, as in exegesis}.)]

ORIGINS:

Classical Mythology: a mythological youth (Narcissus) who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool and wasted away from unsatisfied desire, whereupon he was transformed a plant bearing his name, commonly associated with an amaryllidaceous plant of the Eurasian genus Narcissus, esp N. poeticus, whose yellow, orange, or white flowers have a crown surrounded by spreading segments.

Classical Psychology: “Narcissists” are people completely absorbed in themselves. (See narcissism.) Inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.

noun

The reading of one’s own life experiences and/or that of another’s life experience, into the text of Scripture; the need to make the Bible all about themselves.
An interpretation of Scripture based on the interpreter’s self-authority, particularly driven by self-esteem, self-actualization, mystical experiences and/or the interpreter’s “felt needs.” (See Sola Experientia)
A personal and/or mystical interpretation of Scripture based on the interpreter’s own ideas, biases, opinions, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, impressions, dreams, revelations, or the like, rather than based upon the plain meaning of the text.
The reading of one’s own doctrinal theories into Scripture (as opposed to exegesis, which is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of biblical text), particularly as a result of personal experience. (See Sola Experientia)
Self-centered, self-defined and self-authenticating biblical interpretation, application and counsel.
The reading of one’s own interpretation into Scripture based upon the egotistic belief that all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; and that only the learned, the elect, or the leadership elite (of which the interpreter considers himself), may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. (See Plura Scriptura)
The egotistical drive to invent new theologies, doctrines, revelations, applications and philosophies about Scripture, often manifested in self-aggrandizement activities such as book publishing, conferences, setting up organizations and websites, money-making schemes and publicity drives.
Oxymoron: Subjective exegesis.

adjective: narcigetic, narcigetical

See PLURA SCRIPTURA and SOLA EXPERIENTIA

*Adapted from http://www.dictionary.com/

I Love Mondays!

2012-01-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

Watch the video, then watch it a second time after you’ve figured it out! Be sure to click on “Click HERE to continue reading” below to read the rest of the post, after you’ve watched the video.

Who says romance is dead?

The ending of the video may look like science fiction, but it’s not. That’s the view out the cupola of the International Space Station. What an amazing place God has created for us to live in, and more amazing, even in its corrupted state, our own human nature, that He endowed with what Melanchthon in the Apology calls "physical love."

This video won the Judges’ Commendation prize in the 2011 Reed.co.uk Love Mondays Film competition. It was produced by Dan Blacker, Matt Bowron and John Addis. It stars Ben Tandy and Margot Clunie.

Absolute Truth Exists - Here It Is

2012-01-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Goal of Apologetics

2012-01-12T03:00:00.000-08:00

"The goal of apologetics is not victory but truth. Both sides win."

Peter Kreeft & Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics: Hundreds of Answers to Crucial Questions, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1994) 22.

Communicatio Idiomatum in English

2012-01-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quoting from E. G. Schwiebert's book Luther and His Times: The Reformation from a New Perspective:

In his tract [Concerning the Lord’s Supper, a Confession] of 1528 Luther wrote on this relationship:
If you can say: Here is God, then you must also grant that the Man Christ is likewise present. And, if you were to point to a place where God is present and not the man, then the person would already be divided, for then I could really make the assertion: Here is God who is not man and never was man and not my God. …No, my dear fellow, where you place God, there you must likewise put the humanity of Christ, for they cannot be separated in that they have become one person.
God is not limited to space, yet He revealed Himself in space. He can be where he wishes and can be everywhere present. To define this presence, Luther used the terms in, with, and under, implying “real presence,” yet not in the physical sense of space. The same Christ who could pass through stone walls, bolted doors, and disappear in a moment, could for Luther also be in the bread and wine through this quality of ubiquity, even though Communion was celebrated in ten thousand places at the same time.

E. G. Schwiebert, Luther and His Times: The Reformation from a New Perspective, (St. Louis: CPH, 1950) 703.

In You Changing a Diaper, Christ Celebrates His Victory over the Devil

2012-01-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

There’s not many tasks in life less delectable than changing dirty diapers – yet in seemingly mundane tasks such as this, through His subjects, Christ battles the devil and extends His Kingdom.

Our good works as Christians are always tainted by sin, but since they are done in Christ, they are made perfect. As Philip Melanchthon says in Article V of the Apology to the Augsburg Confession (paragraph 68),

Yet, because of Christ, they are holy, divine works, sacrifices, and acts belonging to the rule of Christ, who in this way displays His kingdom before this world. For in these works He sanctifies hearts and represses the devil. In order to retain the Gospel among people, He openly sets the confession of saints against the kingdom of the devil and, in our weakness, declares His power.

You may not get many kudos from your coworkers for taking out the trash, yet in these simple acts you serve your neighbor, confess the faith, and praise God. When you do these ordinary tasks, Satan loses ground on the plain of spiritual battle, pointing to the final consummation of all things when Christ will return in glory. As Master Philip says, “These deeds are holy works and true sacrifices acceptable to God.”

^{71 [192]} We think this way also about every good work in the humblest callings and in private affairs. Through these works Christ celebrates His victory over the devil, just as the distribution of alms by the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16:1) was a holy work, a sacrifice and battle of Christ against the devil, who labors so that nothing may be done to praise God. ^{72 [193]} To demean such works (the confession of doctrine, sufferings, works of love, suppression of the flesh) would be to demean the outward rule of Christ’s kingdom among people.

It is a great comfort to know that in the midst of our daily toil, there is Christ with us, proclaiming His victory in the seemingly insignificant, thwarting the devil and the naysayers of this world, proclaiming His victory and ultimate triumph over evil. Changing that diaper never looked so good!

Quotes from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Edited by Paul Timothy McCain (St. Louis: CPH, 2005), 110.

Epiphany Greetings from President Matt Harrison

2012-01-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

Too Much Christmas Shopping...

2012-01-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

...can make you all tuckered out.

photo credit: mfhiatt

Ongoing Sanctification

2012-01-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

Pastor Peter Bender, from his December 27 appearance on Issues, Etc., discussing Christian vocation:

The longer we live as Christians, the mark of Christian maturity is, the longer, the more we learn to believe how dependent upon the grace of God we are.

Time to Submit Overtures

2012-01-04T03:00:00.000-08:00

With the LCMS District Conventions fast approaching this year, and the LCMS national convention in 2013, it’s time to work on overtures if you haven’t already done so. Here’s a list of spots where you can go to see what other people’s overture ideas look like:

Suggestions from the Association of Confessing Evangelical Lutheran Congregations (ACELC) can be found here.

Suggested overtures on The Brothers of John the Steadfast website are here.

A list of older overtures from the Wyoming District can be found here.

A helpful overview of overture procedures can be found in the latest issue of The Lutheran Concerns Associations' The Lutheran Clarion, available here.

Information about overtures from the 2010 LCMS Handbook can be found here.

A pdf of the District Convention dates can be found here.

The Vocation of a Friend

2012-01-03T03:00:00.000-08:00

Below is a great post from Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller's blog The World-Wide Wolfmueller on the vocation of friend. Pastor Wolfmueller is the undershepherd at Hope Lutheran Church in Aurora, Colorado, as well as co-host of the world renowned internet radio show Table Talk Radio. Reprinted with permission:

What’s a Vocation?

The teaching of vocation is one of the most wonderful in the Scriptures. Our vocations are more than our job, they are our calling, our station in life; they are the way we fit into this world.

We all have multiple vocations. I am a Christian, a son, a husband, a father, a pastor, a citizen, etc. Every vocation defines who my neighbor is. As a Christian I am a neighbor to all people with on obligation to love all. As a son I have my father and mother to honor. As a husband I have Keri to love and cherish. As father I have Hannah, Andrew, Daniel and Isaac to love and provide for. As a Pastor I have you, the members of Hope Lutheran to love and care for with the Word of God and the Sacraments.

Your vocation puts a name on the neighbor that Jesus commands to love as yourself. And God is at work in our vocation. When we ask our Father in Heaven to provide us daily bread, we are praying for those who have the vocation of farmer and miller and baker and grocery store manager, etc. God is behind all these various vocations answering our prayers.

We do well to consider our various vocations in light of the Scriptures to see how the Lord has ordered this world and put is in it. The Table of Duties in the Small Catechism is a good place to start; it outlines the various different callings in life and provides Scriptures for each one.

The Vocation of Friend

There is, though, a vocation that I have never seen discussed: the vocation of friend. Our vocation of friend is a wonderful gift from God. We all have a friend, and this is pleasing in the eyes of God. It is good, then, for us to consider the Scriptures instruction regarding friendship.

Consider, then, a few of the Bible’s insight regarding being a friend:

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17).

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24, See also Proverbs 27:6-10).

Friends are acquainted with good council. A friend is close enough to say what needs to be said. A friend is a trusted advisor. A friend sticks with you, even when the world begins to fall apart.

Our friends are the biggest influence on our behavior. Our peers are the biggest influence on our conscience. St Paul gives this marvelous instruction to the Corinthians: ‘Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals,’” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Good friends speak the Gospel to us, help keep us in the faith, and encourage us toward love and good works. Other friendships tempt us away from the Scriptures, away from the Church, away from the Lord’s joy and comfort. We pray for good friends, and that we might be good to our friends.

Jesus, A Friend

One of the most stunning things the Bible teaches about friendship is the God Himself is pleased to be called our friend. Abraham is esteemed in the Scriptures as the “friend of God” (see 2 Chronicles 20:7, James 4:4). Moses is given the highest gift of speaking to God “face-to-face as one speaks to a friend,” (Exodus 33:11).

This gift of being a friend of God is extended to us in the New Testament. Jesus was reviled by His enemies as a “friend of sinners” (see Matthew 11:19), but Jesus rejoices in this title, in this vocation. This is exactly why He came to this world, to be our friend.

Consider these words of Jesus:

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you, (John 15:13-15).

Jesus calls us His friend, and this is the most wonderful gift, the most wonderful vocation of all. Amen.

Lord’s Blessings,

Pastor Wolfmueller

The Ultimate Medieval Offset

2012-01-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

By now you’ve heard of offsets. In our politically correct world, it’s no longer acceptable to burn coal to produce electricity, because it produces carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and who knows how many other “oxides” that haven’t even been invented yet. It’s no longer acceptable to drive to the grocery store to pick up that loaf of bread, because your car is belching hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. Not to worry though, because they’ve now invented the carbon offset. Pay someone to go plant a tree and you will have atoned for that trip to the grocery store in your gas guzzling SUV. (Never mind that they drove to go plant the tree, plus a separate trip to buy the tree too.) Companies can continue to pollute by buying carbon offsets to atone for their sins. They pay somebody else to do some environmentally friendly thing, such as building a wind or solar-powered generator. It’s a system that makes little sense, having spawned such ideas as the “Carbon Farming Initiative: Management of large feral herbivores,” more commonly known as killing camels.*

My favorite offset though, is the Ignorance Offset, which “allow[s] you to offset your own or someone else's ignorance by supporting the increase of knowledge elsewhere.” Maybe you or someone you know could benefit from one of these. Just kidding about the you part of that – Stand Firm readers are of course some of the smartest readers in blogdom.

Anyway, one of the original offsets was a medieval offset promoted by the Roman Catholic Church. This specific offset was offered to those who “couldn’t” participate in a crusade, but had available cash. Originally, if you participated in a crusade, you received an indulgence which immediately granted you temporal relief from the punishment for sin, as well as relief from purgatory. Since a crusade was viewed as a pilgrimage of sorts, many of the initial participants weren’t soldiers, but rather Joe the serf down the road who wanted to join the cause carrying his pitchfork and obtain the crusade indulgence. Since these hangers-on bogged down the war machine, the Catholic Church came up with a new and improved indulgence. Rather than go on the crusade yourself, you could instead pay the amount of money that was required to support a soldier, and still receive the indulgence. This was a “win/win” situation for everybody:

It allowed the common folk to receive the coveted indulgence.
It kept non-soldiers from getting in the way and sapping the resources of the military campaign.
It kept the Roman Curia’s coffers filled.
It was an incentive used to attract crusade supporters to offset Islam’s promise to their warriors of an immediate trip to heaven with its attendant feasts and eternal sexual gratification if killed while participating in the jihad.

Needless to say, the promise to the Islamic warrior is false, and so is the indulgence to the Christian. Everyone’s punishment for sin has already been accomplished by Jesus on the cross. There’s no working, or contributing, your way into heaven. Those who put their faith in indulgences are really putting their faith in their own good works, and placing themselves under the curse of the Law.

While the crusade indulgence no longer exists, indulgences in Roman Catholicism still do. Faithful Catholics labor under the fallacy that they must make satisfaction for their sins. If you know someone like this, the most loving thing you can do for them is to gently speak the Gospel to them, and show them how they’ve erred in their doctrine. There are no offsets needed in the heavenly kingdom.

*Thanks to Anthony Watts for pointing this one out.

Our Christmas Liturgy

2011-12-30T03:00:00.001-08:00

“Stable.”

“Set max power.”

“Power set, N1’s checked.”

“Airspeed alive both sides.”

“80 knots looking for 146.”

“Checks.”

“V₁, V_R, V₂.”

“Positive rate.”

“Gear up.”

“Verify LNAV.”

“Verified.”

“Bug up, N1, flaps one.”

“Selected.”

“Flaps up, after takeoff checklist.”

The wheels retract into their wells as we accelerate and point the nose of the jet southward on Christmas Eve morning, heading for Cabo San Lucas. On board is a full plane of mostly turistas and a few Mexicans. The flight is uneventful and relatively restful. Once we’re handed off on the radio from Los Angeles Center to Mazatlan Center just north of the border, the radio gets pretty quite. There’s not a whole lot to do except monitor the instruments and enjoy the view. From up at altitude, you can easily see all the way across the Baja, which is a beautiful sight. It’s very desolate, mountainous, and not much sign of civilization. The occasional volcanic island goes sliding by against its watery-blue backdrop.

Four hours later we touch down to a warm sunny day at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula. The cacti and mesquite hurtle by out the side window as we roll out on runway 34. While I’d rather be with my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, getting people safely to their destination on Christmas is a good feeling – lots of folks who want to be with their loved ones, either at home or on the beach.

Every year that I fly on Christmas, I give the rest of the crew a present. This year I bought gift certificates to Amazon.com for the four Flight Attendants and the Co-pilot. Nobody is expecting that. We have our own mini-Christmas before the passengers board in Seattle. On the way back from Cabo on Christmas Day, the Co-pilot brings a bunch of chocolate. I guess he figures a well-chocolated Captain is a happy Captain. So we have a little auburn goodness as Los Arcos recedes in the distance.

Our Christmas liturgy, the series of calls that we made up above on takeoff, help to get us safely off the ground and help to get our passengers where they want to go. Through our vocation as pilots we serve our neighbor – a small gift that comes about because of the big gift of a Savior, God incarnate, who also comes to serve. A blessed Christmastide to you and your family as we celebrate the Liturgy which has no end in our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here’s a few fotografías:

Everybody lines up to wave goodbye just before we push back.

Looking through the heads up display out the windshield.

We Have Seen His Glory

2011-12-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1 ESV

photo credit: .Bala

What Does It Mean to Examine Yourself for Communion?

2011-12-28T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quoting from a sermon of Dr. Martin Luther preached in his home on Maundy Thursday in 1534:

To examine one’s self means to consider well in what condition we are. If we find that our hearts are hardened, that we are not willing to refrain from sin, and that we do not fear its presence, then we may well conclude that we should not go to the Sacrament; for we are then no Christians. The best thing we could do, under such circumstances, would be to put a stop to such wickedness, to repent, to trust faithfully in the promises and mercy of God, and to unite again with Christians in the participation of the Holy Sacrament. If, however, we are unwilling to do this, we ought not to approach the Lord’s Table; for we would surely eat and drink damnation there. Let us carefully meditate upon what eternity has in store for us, if we thus fall under the judgment of God. If we are mindful of this, we will not be slow to repent, to put aside anger and other kinds of wickedness, and to make our peace with God in His Holy Supper. Again, if our hearts are contrite, if we confess our sins before God and are heartily sorry on account of them, if we believe that God in mercy, for Christ’s sake, will pardon us, then we are well prepared and can confidently say to the Savior: “O Lord, we are poor sinners, and therefore come to Your table to receive consolation.” If we approach the Sacrament in such a spirit, we shall be truly ready and receive the richest blessings. In behalf of such contrite and sorrowing souls the Lord’s Table was prepared, so that they might find there consolation and joy.

This quote is taken from the inaugural edition of Logia in 1992, in an article titled “Two Sermons on the Holy Supper.” They in turn were quoting from the house postils, in this case from Sermons on the Gospels for the Sundays and Principal Festivals of the Church Year by Martin Luther, translated by E. Schmid and edited by M. Loy (Rock Island, Illinois: Augustana Book Company, 1871).

Quotable Blog Quotes #15

2011-12-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere

Abide In My Word
Pastor Tom Messer
Contemporary Worship Came from Others

…Those who led the charge to turn worship into an experiential, enthusiastic, emotional-manipulating, feel-good, fun-fest do not believe Jesus is Present in their "worship experiences." That's the whole point, the whole basis for this genre of worship. Jesus is "up there," not here. We need to reach Him. We need to let Him know how much we love Him. We experience His love in return as we feel Him touch our hearts. And, if the worship is powerful enough, then that experienced love we feel in our hearts will lead us to commit ourselves to Jesus, make Him our personal Lord and Savior, and leave with the intent to live for Him in this world. It's all about you. Your feelings. Your emotions. Your decision. Your choice. Your commitment. Your life. Jesus is nothing more or less than the object of your affection and the arbiter of your feelings. It is little wonder that the vast majority of contemporary Christian praise songs focus on feelings and employ heart-language, since, well, they are simply the subjective experience and shared feelings of their authors put before others in the hope that they, too, will share that experience and those feelings.

Pastoral Meanderings
Pastor Larry Peters
Who is best equipped to change or adapt the liturgy?

It follows then that for whom the liturgy feels like an ill fitting garment, whose memory needs ever to be prompted by the appropriate response, for whom the church year is alien to their sense of time, and who seek to remove the liturgy as if it were a shackle or chain should not or cannot engage their discretion in adapting or changing the liturgy.

Pastoral Meanderings
Pastor Larry Peters
Fluidity…

The good and wise presider will work to keep the liturgical flow going, without intruding or distracting from the unfolding of Confession to Word to Meal to Sending. That is, I often think, the gift of presiding at the liturgy -- knowing when to speak and when to keep silent, what is needful to be said and what just happens and, well, flows. Far from assisting this flow, the constant flow of announcements, explanations, and page numbers turns this flow into a faucet that is on and off, on and off, jerky and disconcerting.

Preachrblog
Pastor Tom Chryst
Three Reactions to the Law

The great blessing of the law though, is that it drives us to despair - but in preparation for the hope and joy of the Gospel! To die, only to know the life he brings. Yes, without knowing our sin, how could we know our savior? Without knowing the severity of our sin, how could we appreciate the depth of his forgiveness? Without a daily, hard, cold look in the mirror, and a true view of the ugliness of our own sin, how can we daily know the forgiveness that flows from our baptism? This is the great blessing of the law - that it prepares us for the Gospel. It is the diagnosis before the treatment, the plowing of the dead field before the seed is planted and flourishes. The law lowers us down into the grave and shovels on the dirt, only for the trumpet call of Christ to bust our tombs open and burst death open into life.

DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed
Pastor Kevin DeYoung (HT: Pastor Paul McCain on this one)
Jesus Came to Save Grimace and Hamburglar Too

…So much that passes for spirituality these days is nothing more than middle class, 20something coffee culture. If you like jazz, soul patches, earth tone furniture, and lattes, that’s cool. But this culture is no holier than the McNugget, Hi-C, Value City, football culture that most people live in. Why does incarnational ministry usually mean hanging out at Starbucks instead of McDonalds?

Jesus came to save Grimace and Hamburglar too.

Theologia Crucis
Dr. Jack Kilcrease
A Good Insight from the Church Fathers.

A good insight from the Fathers: Basil of Ceasarea says that we cannot know what God is, but we can know how God is: i.e., Trinity, redeemer, creator, etc. Johann Gerhard says much the same thing. This works well with Luther's insistence that when we deal with God we deal only with him under his masks (larva Dei). Dealing with him under his masks, we can very easily talk about how he is by his actions. Nevertheless, we cannot pull away his masks in this life and see what is he. That will only happen in heaven.

thinking-out-loud
Pastor Rick Stuckwisch
The Feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle

The Father speaks forth His Son to make the heavens and the earth, and to create man in His Image. The Father speaks forth the same only-begotten Son in the flesh, to bear your sin and be your Savior. And as the Father has thus spoken, so does the Son speak His Word to you, which is Spirit and Life: He speaks to you by the ministers of His Word, called and sent in His Name.

Touchstone
Rev. Robbie Low
Death, Where is Thy Dignity?

I hope to God that when my time comes, the service will not be conducted by some fool bleating on about what a lovely man I was. (Friends assure me this is unlikely.) Give me a decent Requiem and plead the Cross of Christ for another sinful wretch utterly dependent on his mercy.

Walt’s World of Religion and Politics
Pastor Jody Walter quoting Dr. Henry Hamann
The Late Great Henry Hamann

The words of John the Baptist mark out for all ministers of the Word the humility which should characterize their attitude as well as the limits of their competency: "I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Ministers of the Word can administer the means of grace, and they must learn to do this well and not poorly, but they cannot bring about the salvation of the sinner; that the Lord has kept for Himself.

Santa Sighting!

2011-12-26T03:00:00.001-08:00

I bumped into Santa Claus at the Seattle airport. He had just finished up his deliveries and dropped into Seattle to get his sleigh runners waxed before the return flight to the North Pole. He and one of his elves commandeered a cart and were headed to the Sports Page Pub to tip back a cold one (doesn't it seem like he'd be drinking hot chocolate or something?), but I couldn't join them, since I was on duty. Oh well. Maybe next year. See ya Santa.

The Nativity of Our Lord

2011-12-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns." 8 The voice of your watchmen--they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:7-10 ESV

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." 13 And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:10-14 ESV

The Triple Advent of Christ

2011-12-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

The thoughts of 16th century Lutheran musicologist Lucas Lossius:

The Church celebrates the triple advent (or “coming”) of Christ. First is the advent into flesh, which is despised and humble before the world, of which Zechariah 9[:9] says, “Behold, Your King comes to you, gentle and poor, sitting upon a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden,” [cf.] Matthew 21[:5]. The second is the spiritual advent, which happens daily into the minds of the righteous, since He is present constantly with the Church, hears her, helps and consoles her, concerning which Christ said, John 14[:18]: “I will not leave you orphans, but will come to you.” Again, [v. 23:] “If anyone loves Me, We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.” The third advent of Christ is His glorious return to judgment, concerning which Isaiah 3[:14] says, “The Lord will come into judgment.” And Matthew 24[:30] says, “And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with much power and majesty.” It is useful always to consider these three advents of the Son of God—into flesh, the minds of the righteous, and for the last judgment—and to have them set forth in the Church for stirring up faith in minds, invocation, and the fear of God or repentance. St. Augustine says thus on Luke, “This time is called the Advent of the Lord for good reason: so that every believer will prepare himself and mend his ways, so that he may have strength worthily to celebrate the nativity of his God.”

Treasury of Daily Prayer, ed. Scot A. Kinnaman, (St. Louis: CPH, 2008) 1045.

Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye My People

2011-12-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quoting from Dr. Martin Luther's treatise The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods, written in 1519. God becomes incarnate that we might break His body on a cross, and that same body then be given back to us in the Sacrament of the Altar, healing our bodies and uniting us in perfect love:

Whoever is in despair, distressed by a sin-stricken conscience or terrified by death or carrying some other burden upon his heart, if he would be rid of them all, let him go joyfully to the sacrament of the altar and lay down his woe in the midst of the community [of saints] and seek help from the entire company of the spiritual body—just as a citizen whose property has suffered damage or misfortune at the hands of his enemies makes complaint to his town council and fellow citizens and asks them for help. The immeasurable grace and mercy of God are given us in this sacrament to the end that we might put from us all misery and tribulation [anfechtung] and lay it upon the community [of saints], and especially on Christ. Then we may with joy find strength and comfort, and say, “Though I am a sinner and have fallen, though this or that misfortune has befallen me, nevertheless I will go to the sacrament to receive a sign from God that I have on my side Christ’s righteousness, life, and sufferings, with all holy angels and the blessed in heaven and all pious men on earth. If I die, I am not alone in death; if I suffer, they suffer with me. [I know that] all my misfortune is shared with Christ and the saints, because I have a sure sign of their love toward me.” See, this is the benefit to be derived from this sacrament; this is the use we should make of it. Then the heart cannot but rejoice and be strengthened.

Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 35 : Word and Sacrament I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1960). 35:III-54.

E'en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come

2011-12-21T03:00:00.000-08:00

"My Katy von Bora"

2011-12-20T03:01:00.000-08:00

Today the Church commemorates Katharina von Bora Luther, Luther's wife, as well as house mistress, gardener, and brewmistress too. Perhaps no greater indirect compliment could be paid to a wife than Luther paid to Katy in his words:

The Epistle to the Galatians is my dear epistle. I have put my confidence in it. It is my Katy von Bora.

For photos of Katie's grave, see President Matt Harrison's recent photographs here.

Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 54 : Table Talk, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1967). 54:III-20.

photo credit: pittigliani2005

Join Me at the Lutheran Concerns Association Conference

2011-12-20T03:00:00.001-08:00

The Lutheran Concerns Association (LCA) Annual Conference is being held on Monday, January 16th at Don Hall’s Guest House in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I’m planning on being there – maybe you’d like to head on over as well. You can double your conference pleasure by migrating to Concordia Theological Seminary (CTS) the next day for their 2012 Symposia Series. The LCA promotes confessional causes within the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and speaks out on issues which undermine confessional Lutheranism.

Some of the LCA highlights include the following speakers:

Rev. Dr. Larry Rast, President of Concordia Theological Seminary, presenting “For Better or Worse: Seminaries, Theological Education and Pastoral Formation”
Rev. Kevin Vogts on “Our Concordia System: The Dying of the Light or Light from Above?”
Rev. Michael Kumm, Vice Chair of the LCMS Board of Directors, on “Synodical Issues and Update”
Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller, member of the LCMS Board for National Mission and co-host of the radio show Table Talk Radio, on “Youth Ministry and the Disappearing Demographic: What’s Gone Wrong and How Can We Fix It?”
Mr. Walter Dissen, Esq, LCA President, on “Theology: the Real Issue of the Preus Era”
Rev. Dr. John Wohlrabe, LCMS Second Vice-President, on the Office of the Ministry

Also speaking will be Rev. Joseph Fisher, Rev. Charles Froh, Mr. Scott Meyer, Esq., and Rev. Dr. Bill Weinrich.

With all of these speakers and a gathering of fellow confessional Lutherans, it should be a rewarding experience. You can find all the details here. You can subscribe to the newsletter of the LCA, The Lutheran Clarion, by going here:

Less Tuition – for a Semester

2011-12-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

Our daughter Paige graduated summa cum laude from Concordia University Wisconsin on Saturday with a degree in Theology and a minor in Missions. Of course, we’re very proud of her and thank God for the blessings He’s given us these past four years.

Rev. Dr. Tom Feiertag - one of Paige's favorites

What do you do with a theology degree? You go on to Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne in the fall for the Deaconess program.

This was the first time Paige graduated without being one of the speakers, so we had to settle for LCMS President Matt Harrison, who gave a wonderful speech which can be summarized in one word, hope. (You can watch Paige’s high school commencement speech here.)

We had a great time afterwards with a party at Luther Memorial Chapel’s Student Center. Maybe most graduation parties don’t go on for seven hours, but with so many friends and relatives, pool, ping pong, foosball, and especially a chocolate fountain, you just can’t stop. Plus we had a half hour hymn sing to top off the evening. Whoever said that college age kids can’t relate to church hymns has never met these guys.

Thanks to all who came, and thanks to Rev. Dr. Pat Ferry and the entire staff of Concordia University Wisconsin for all that you do. If you’re considering a university for your kids, Concordia Wisconsin is a great choice.

Two more of Paige's favorites

Your Throne Shall Be Established Forever

2011-12-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

The reading for the Fourth Sunday in Advent:

Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." 3 And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you." 4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"' 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 ESV

Is It in Your Mailbox?

2011-12-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Winter 2011 edition of HigherThings© Magazine should be on its way. There's an article written by yours truly in it titled "In, Not Of." You, or someone you know, might benefit from a subscription. There's even an electronic version, instantly downloadable. They make great Christmas gifts. You can receive a complimentary copy of HigherThings© Magazine, or subscribe, by going here.

President Harrison's Advent Greeting

2011-12-15T03:00:00.001-08:00

I'm thankful this Advent for our Synod, our President, Matthew Harrison, and especially for Christ's grace, that forgives me, a poor sinful being. Here's President Harrison's Advent Greeting:

How Do You Pray? Pastor George Borghardt's Got the Answer

2011-12-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

How could you not want to watch this Higher Things video short, considering it's the incomparable Pastor George Borghardt teaching you how to pray? He also offers sound advice on how to avoid "the three little piggy prayer." Tune in.

O that We Were There

2011-12-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

I came across a document titled “A Manual for Acolytes” on the internet. Maybe we could use it to “up our game” a little. Here’s a few quotes:

A Manual for Acolytes

“The Lord is my Light.”

What is the key function of an acolyte?

• To be an outward and very visible sign of Christ's light...to be reliable, attentive, expectant, worshipful, confident, caring, careful and joyful...to serve the Lord with gladness.
• To serve the Lord in the gathering of God's people by assisting in the drama and actions of the liturgies of the Church.

The Covenant

11. Wear the very best and/or cleanest shoes I have.
12. Be prepared for the unexpected or accidental.

...The best rule is that all should be done with dignity and care in the simplest way possible so as not to distract the congregation.

...Not just anyone becomes an acolyte. We don't recruit people from the Stanford Shopping Center. It is a privilege and an honor to serve.

...Many of us have been raised in the Church and most all of us have been at an event where we are so moved we have to be still……that's what it means to be reverent. That's what we are in worship.

...As you cross the chancel, always stop and reverence (bow) in the direction of the Altar.

Pre-Service

• Prayer with the ministers.

While Serving

• Have a good time, with a feeling of reverence and dignity.
• Keep hands together when moving about the sanctuary.
• When crossing the chancel, pause and reverence the altar.

photo credit: jdbradley

Binding Up the Brokenhearted

2011-12-12T03:00:00.000-08:00

The first reading for the Third Sunday in Advent, Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 ESV:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 8 For I the LORD love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed. 10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

A Little Tired of Frosty? Try Sacred Christmas Music on LPR

2011-12-09T03:00:00.001-08:00

Tired of hearing Willie Nelson singing "Frosty the Snowman" on your van ride to the hotel? The solution is right around the corner. Beginning on Christmas Eve, Lutheran Public Radio will be playing sacred Christmas music for the entire Christmas season. Tune in here. My ears can't wait.

Have Yourself a Merry Unionistic Christmas

2011-12-08T03:00:00.001-08:00

The Arlington United Methodist Church in Arlington, Tennessee announces the community-wide Christmas Day worship service like this:

The Advent Presbyterian Church in Arlington, where the event is being held, has this on their calendar:

Christ Lutheran Church, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation, puts it like this:

What's the difference? Christ Lutheran Church omits the word "worship." By omitting "worship," does that get them off the hook? Here's a quote from the Christian Cyclopedia:

...The Concordia Cyclopedia (St. Louis, 1927), p. 774: “Religious unionism consists in joint worship and work of those not united in doctrine. Its essence is an agreement to disagree. In effect, it denies the doctrine of the clearness of Scripture.”

Maybe there's something here that isn't as it seems, because it seems that having a joint service with Methodists and Presbyterians on Christmas Day or any other day is unionism, and even if it's not, I won't be there. We've all agreed not to do this sort of thing as Article VI of the LCMS Constitution clearly states:

Renunciation of unionism and syncretism of every description, such as:

...b. Taking part in the services and sacramental rites of heterodox congregations or of congregations of mixed confession...

A blessed Advent to those of you who are non-Lutherans. I rejoice that you are fellow Christians and I rejoice with you in the birth of our Savior, but all the same will reserve Christ's Christmas Day leitourgia for fellow Lutherans who share our confession.

"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions, that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter" (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

For You Creative Types Out There

2011-12-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

I'm a little slow in posting this. You can contribute to Dan Engle's Christmas video that will be featured by Time Out and released on Christmas Day. The video will feature LSB hymn #370, "What Child Is This." Dan is looking for your video and stills to incorporate into the project. Time is running short - he needs your submissions by December 18 or sooner, so dig out the Super 8 and have some fun. More information can be found here.

Doctrinally Pure?

2011-12-06T03:00:00.001-08:00

Considering yesterday's post, the following comments from Pastor Wilken on the November 4 Issues, Etc. listener email segment related to the teaching of truth in the Church and the use of doctrinally pure materials seem rather timely:

If you had a potluck, at church, and your pastor showed up with a case of bottled water, you know, people out there at the picnic with the pot luck. They want to have somethin’ to drink. He’s in charge of bringin’ the bottled water. O.K.? And he comes in with a couple cases of this stuff. And you look at it and it doesn’t look right. The water’s kind of yellow. Maybe some of the bottles look like they’ve been opened before – got some like dirty fingerprints on them. You see something floatin’ in one of the bottles. And you say “Pastor, um, what’s going on? Why did you bring this water to the potluck? I mean everybody’s going to need to drink this water. It doesn’t look right.” “Well, look. I could have gone to the store where I know they sell the pure water, that hasn’t been opened, that hasn’t been opened, that doesn’t got stuff floatin’ in it. I could have done that. But, but this water is so interesting – you haven’t tasted it yet. Now granted, some who have drunk this water have gotten sick. But I think our immune systems are strong enough here at this pot luck to drink this tainted bottled water. Sure we could have pure, but I think it’s time to try this, and by the way, they’re drinkin’ this water at the church down the street, at their pot lucks and they, they’re turnin’ people away from their potlucks, they’re so popular. They must be doing something right. I think it’s this water. So we’re all gonna drink it.” Would you drink the water, just because the big box church down the street having their pot luck is turning people away serving this tainted water? That your pastor admits is tainted, but he thinks you might be able to drink it without gettin’ sick. He thinks you might have a strong enough immune system. Would you give the water to your kids to drink? Or to a newborn baby? Or to one of your old people?

Now please, someone, anyone, explain to me how that is any different, than a pastor who knows better, who knows the difference between pure and false doctrine, who can tell the difference, brings in books like The Purpose-Driven Life, or whatever it is, into his congregation and says “Look, I know that not everything in here is what the Bible teaches, on things like Baptism and conversion and sin. I know it’s not exactly what the Bible teaches. It’s not pure. But I think we’re, our immune system’s strong enough to handle it. And he wants to teach your children too, and your old people, and you. Why would you accept that? Why, when you could have pure water? Oh, and by the way, the pure water’s free, and the books will cost you. I mean, how many congregations went out, when The Purpose-Driven Life went out, good old-fashioned Lutheran congregations went out when The Purpose-Driven Life came out and they bought them by the carton, for everyone in the congregation to study. And they did it knowing full well what was in there. And I had conversations with pastors and church workers at the time who said “Yes we know it doesn’t teach what the Bible teaches, but you don’t understand. We can drink this without getting sick. We can imbibe of this and it’s not gonna hurt us because we know that it’s impure. Come on. If you wouldn’t do it with water don’t do it with something that can actually kill you spiritually.

Fifteen Things Not to Do in a Sermon

2011-12-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

Here’s a short list of fifteen things not to do in a sermon, compiled after watching the video of a sermon preached at an LCMS church. The context of this “message” was the completion of the congregation’s study of Pastor Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Life. If you doubted President Harrison’s lament about the quality of preaching in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, doubt no more. I'm certain this preacher is doing what he thinks is best, yet his limited liturgical toolbox makes too frequent a use of the Law, and in a way that it wasn't meant to be used, as a pry bar. All quotes are direct quotes from the sermon.

The List of Fifteen Things Not to Do in a Sermon:

Begin the sermon with “Uh, hey.”
Start out with your hands in your pockets – this problem is easily solved by wearing liturgical vestments.
Cede your pastoral duty to rightly handle the Word of Truth by allowing Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life, to catechize your flock.
Talk about your pretty awesome-sounding new drum set that is an investment in the growth of the Kingdom for which your parishioners forsook “spending money on vacations or cars or stuff” to purchase – a thought which directly reflects the pietism taught in The Purpose-Driven Life.
Say that life is simply a preparation for eternity, destroying God’s wonderful First Article gifts of vocation and Creation by saying “And the fact is there’s more to life than the here and the now, there’s more to this life than your mundane job, there’s more to this life than just the family you have at home, and whether or not you eat dinner together, whether or not your car runs.” This is, again, more Rick Warren pietism.
Distract your hearers the whole time by waving about the paper outline that’s stuck to your hand.
Expound The Purpose-Driven Life concept of “worship,” which is to bring God pleasure – a complete dismantling of sacramental Lutheran theology: “I was planned for God’s pleasure so I have to worship.”
Have the congregants raise their hand during the sermon if they’ve been involved in a growth group.
Teach that we grow spiritually through commitments, and that it takes more than just sitting and listening in church to grow. “You have to take it to the next level.”
Spend part of your fleeting sermon time talking about upcoming church scheduling logistics and growth opportunities.
Teach that blessing comes from doing the purposes of God as though God is the fast food drive-thru window attendant: Hand Him a good work, get back a steaming-hot blessing - in eternity of course.
Use Alcoholics Anonymous quotes in the sermon: “If you want to keep it, you’ve got to give it away.”
Treat the sermon like you’re teaching Bible class.
Actually push your parishioners to study The Purpose-Driven Life and take it to heart, a book which is a perversion of Law and Gospel.
Forget to kill and make alive through the power of God’s Word – otherwise you’re just wasting your time and their time.

This sermon was in line with the theology of Rick Warren - an Evangelical synergistic pietism. I listened to a second sermon about Christmas preached by the same person, thinking that an escape from the Rick Warren mindset on his part might improve things. There was no “comfort ye, comfort ye my people” given. The outline, a downloadable pdf, contains thirteen blank spots for the parishioners to fill in as the sermon progresses.

The first three blanks read “I MUST _________________.” The next seven blanks:

1. __________________________ FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
2 . ___________THE CHRISTMAS STORY TO YOUR KIDS
3. _______ SOMEONE TO THE “PURPOSE OF CHRISTMAS”
4. __________________________________________SOMEONE
5 _______________________________________ TO SOMEONE
6. ________ A CHRISTMAS DISCUSSION GROUP AT WORK
7. ____________ SOMEONE TO [NAME OF CHURCH] FOR CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES

The last three blanks:

I MUST ______________________________________.
MY PART: ____________________________________.
GOD’S PART: _________________________________.

You fill in the blanks. It seems that our part is very large, and God’s part very small. Kyrie eleison.

Note: After completing the rough draft of this blog post, I went to the LCMS website to check on this person's "credentials." He wasn't listed. After Googling his name I discovered that he is a Specific Ministry Program (SMP) Vicar. Hopefully you'll forgive the oversight. The church's website calls him Pastor John Doe, not Vicar John Doe.

Vicars should not be held to the same preaching standards as an ordained pastor. I can understand if a vicar doesn't have a polished "delivery." However, while some of them may only be fledgling theologians, they should know the difference between Law and Gospel. With seminary training of some sort fresh in this vicar's mind, he doesn't have the years of experience as a few of our more seasoned pastors have, with which to "forget" his confessional Lutheran training for a more desirable paramour.

I don't think it would be fair to reveal this person's identity. Perhaps someone will have a word with his supervisor, so that Advent will become a blessing rather than a curse.

The Vicar from Hell

2011-12-02T03:00:00.001-08:00

I'm thinking this vicar definitely won't make the cut. If you're a pietist, view at your own risk:

Did You Know Your Church’s DNA Is Defined by Five Components that Create the Platform for All Vision Casting?

2011-12-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

Click on the graphic for a larger view

The following graphic comes from the Revitalization page of an LCMS congregation that’s involved with the Transforming Churches Network. Does the graphic have any sort of a Biblical basis, and is it appropriate for a Lutheran congregation?

As far as revitalization is concerned, Augsburg Confession Article V is hard to beat and is a little more succinct:

¹ So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. ² Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. ³ This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.

If you’re searching for book reviews on how to grow the Church written by non-Lutherans based on heterodox theology that therefore reaches questionable conclusions, they have a webpage for that which reviews the following books:

Winning on Purpose by John Kaiser

Church That Works by Gary L. McIntosh

Church Unique: How Mission Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement by Will Mancini

Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts by Thom S. Rainer

Discover your God-Given Gifts by Don & Katie Fortune

Be Not Terrified by Ocean and Whale

2011-11-30T03:00:00.000-08:00

From Luther’s lectures on Jonah in 1526, here discussing chapter 4, verses 1 and 2:

That Jonah is sent from the land of the Jews into a foreign country symbolizes that the Spirit and God’s Word were to be taken from the Jewish people and bestowed on the Gentiles. Thus Christ says in Matt. 21:43: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it, etc.” Jonah’s flight and the perils he encountered on the sea represent the cross and the persecution which the Gospel will experience in the world. It appears as though the Christian ministry were taking to flight, perishing, and vanishing from the scene. It seems so frail over against the fury of the world, since the persons administering the office are fugitives, that is, feeble and insignificant people. The ocean is the world, vast and mighty with its raging billows. The whale is gruesome and terrifying with its jaws and teeth. This animal represents the prince and god of the world, the devil, who ruthlessly murders and kills through his princes and great lords, etc. But despite all of these, Jonah is preserved mightily by God’s power, and his message cannot be frustrated either by his own flight or by the ocean’s fury, but it makes its way and penetrates into Nineveh. Thus, though pastors may be weak and the world powerful, God’s Word, the holy Gospel, is still mightier, and no obstacles can impede its progress. And even if all pastors were to be devoured, the Gospel will make its way into the world all the better and transform the world. It is consoling for us to observe that this was the experience of the apostles. And we, too, must not be terrified by ocean and whale, convinced that our Word or Gospel is mightier than all else.

Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 19: Minor Prophets II: Jonah and Habakkuk, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1974). 19:97.

What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate

2011-11-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

Michael Weatherly

The CBS hit television show NCIS is a “cop show” featuring the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that often has more twists and turns than San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street. The show’s most recognizable star is Mark Harmon, who plays the lead investigator, and it frequently has well known guest stars, such as last week’s appearance of Robert Wagner.

The November 15 episode of NCIS had an amazing 19.9 million viewers. The episode, titled “Engaged, Part II,” includes an interesting scene featuring the always entertaining Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, played by actor Michael Weatherly. The witty, confident, skirt chasing Tony has a usually hidden insecure side as well. In this episode, Tony enters the Navy base chapel looking for the Chaplain, Lieutenant Commander Melanie Burke, played by Jaime Ray Newman (to discuss business, not spiritual matters). The chapel is empty, affording Tony a rather quizzical conversation with a god that’s familiar to a lot of people – Satan wearing the mask of God:

Commander? Chaplain Burke? Hello? Anybody here?

And then, in his best Cool Hand Luke voice:

“Anybody here?” Cool Hand Luke. Of course you knew that. You know I could have used you a couple of months ago. I got my head scrambled pretty good. Of course I understand you’re a busy guy. We haven’t talked much. It’s my bad. [Picks up a Bible that’s lying on the floor.] I’m doing the best I can down here you know… for a DiNozzo. Hopefully living up to my end of the bargain. You do remember our bargain? Be nice to hear from you. So you have a plan? Anything you wanna share with me? How ‘bout you let me know I’m on the right track. How ‘bout you let me know I’m not talking to myself. You are so predictable.

And once again, Cool Hand Luke:

“Well I guess what we have here is a failure to communicate.”

Tony isn’t on the right track. He’s been duped by Satan. The devil loves to preach a compelling Gospel of works, and he’s a very effective preacher. He can preach with the best of them. He’ll be more than happy to tell you all about how you should help the little old lady across the street and give to your favorite charity - just as long as you’re not relying on Jesus Christ.

Satan is the god of this world. He blinds the minds of unbelievers with a clever deception, one that is very believable, and Tony is buying into it. If you’re good, you’ll get to heaven. If you just try, do your best, everything will be all right. Satan leans over you as he tucks you into bed at night, wearing God’s mask, but his lullaby is fatal. Putting your trust in your own works cannot save. You really aren’t good enough, because God expects perfection. As the saying goes, God doesn’t grade on a curve.

At the same time, God hides behind Satan’s mask. Every day the truth of the Gospel is labeled as foolishness in the classroom, the lab room, and the courtroom. The Gospel is put down and mocked. Who can believe that the world was created in six days, or that a virgin gave birth, or that God became man? Yet it pleased God through the folly of the preaching of the Gospel to save those who believe.

Ironically, the answer to Tony’s real problem is right there, lying at his feet - a plain-looking Bible. He picks the Bible up, but he doesn’t open it. Tony is right in one aspect, what we have here really is a failure to communicate. He continues in his delusion, refusing to open and read, or hear. He doesn’t see the magnitude of his sin, or the greater magnitude of Christ’s atoning work on the cross to forgive that sin. He believes that it’s all about the deal he cut with God, rather than the all-availing work of Jesus.

The bargain Tony made was a one-sided one that God had no part in – God knows Tony can’t possibly keep his end of the deal. God has a much better one-sided deal for us, one in which all we have to do is believe, and He seals the deal by giving us the belief we need. Tony’s rhetorical question, “So you have a plan?” is answered in the pages of Scripture:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 ESV

If you’re quick about it, you should be able to watch this episode online here.

photo credit: Alaidh

Funerals—“Everyone a Preacher”

2011-11-28T03:00:00.000-08:00

The following post is written by my good friend Joe Strieter. He addresses a topic that isn't brought up all that frequently, the funeral, and specifically the funeral sermon. I'm sure you'll enjoy Joe's insightful comments, on this, the First Monday in Advent.

On his 76th birthday, my friend Tom died. We had enjoyed a warm relationship that went back ten years to the building of a major addition to his church (Lutheran), he as chairman of the building committee, I as the builder’s representative. My wife and I attended his funeral in the church that he had helped to plan and that I had helped to get built, even down to the details necessary for funerals. I once heard a pastor say about funerals, “This is where the Lutheran Church shines.” Our expectations were high.

As we entered the nearly-full nave, we heard a piano being masterfully played. Tom had a rich baritone voice, and he had done a lot of solo work, some in our church. The pre-service music consisted of songs he had sung over the years, concluding with “The Lord’s Prayer,” and the pianist did the music more than justice. The service began as the pastors processed. “Christ is arisen!” the senior pastor proclaimed. “He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!” thundered the thrilling response. We heard the comforting words of Romans 6: “When we were baptized in Christ Jesus, we were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death” “It wouldn’t have been a proper funeral without those words,” I thought, and looked forward to hearing more.

Then we sang “You Have Come Down to the Lakeshore,” a song that seemed somewhat out of place at a funeral service. But I thought that perhaps it was one of Tom’s favorites—he had probably chosen it himself, and it had a pleasant melody, so why not? There were still more readings: from John 14, “Do not let your hearts be troubled…” and from Revelation 21, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth…” The pastor then asked us to join him in reciting the twenty-third psalm, a very moving experience, as the packed church said the familiar words from the King James: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…”

After “On Eagles Wings” the pastor began: “Every place I look around in here, I see Tom.” So did I. We had worked together for two years, as he led, directed, pushed, and cajoled the building project into completion. It was fitting to begin there. Tom had left his mark in that very place in many ways. The pastor continued for a few minutes then said, “It would be a comfort to me, and I’m sure to you, if anyone would like to say a few words about Tom.” He then left the pulpit.

After hearing those profound words of Scripture, was this to be the comfort we were to receive? One after another, people got up and “shared”: some from the pews, some stepping to the front, one person speaking from the pulpit, another even leaning on the altar as he spoke. (We were even treated to two “encores.”) A few were serious, but it seemed that most of the sharing was supposed to make us laugh—comic relief, rather than comfort for grief. I remember but one person who talked about Tom’s faith and none who spoke of the hope of the resurrection, not even the pastor. The proceedings had a “one-upmanship” quality, as it seemed each speaker tried to outdo the previous one. (Upon reflection, this sharing seemed more a “roast” than a eulogy.)

After a full half hour, the sharing mercifully ceased. I expected that the pastor would continue, wrapping things up with the proclamation of the Gospel, but he merely thanked the folks for their words, and the “sermon” was over. Not even an “Amen.” The service continued with the singing of “Borning Cry.” After the prayers the words of committal rang out: “Acknowledge, we beseech you a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming…” The service over, pastors and family left the church as the pianist began a vaguely familiar rhythmic tune. At first I thought it was a Gospel hymn or a praise song—another of Tom’s favorites? But then it hit me! It was no praise song. It was “Lida Rose” from The Music Man! The funeral recessional!

Driving home, I felt sadness and disappointment, even embarrassment, and, I have to admit, just a little anger: We had all been cheated—including Tom. We were made to feel comfortable, not comforted. We heard a lot about Tom, but little of Christ. Sentimental stories had replaced bold proclamation. The sharing, the joking, the laughter were but a smokescreen that concealed the reality of sin and death. An opportunity to proclaim the faith had been lost, and the good news devalued, rendered unrecognizable, pre-empted by shtick.

“Everybody wanted to preach,” observed my wife. How true! By inviting “sharing,” the pastor had vacated his pulpit and turned the funeral service over to the attendees, surely including unchurched friends and relatives, and cheated them out of a clear message of the Gospel and its hope in the Resurrection. Exchanging proclamation for idle chatter and the Gospel for silliness, he had traded the preaching office for the role of emcee. By abandoning his pulpit and exchanging solemn ritual for casual sharing, the pastor had effectively muted the sweet message of the Gospel in the face of death. An anonymous Episcopal priest has said it well: “The casual approach undermines the scriptural content, particularly the horror of death. And by undermining the horror of death, it undermines the promise of the Resurrection.” (Touchstone Archives: Rites & Wrongs of Passage)

This was not the first such service I have attended, nor was it the worst: imagine an invitation to say the “sinner’s prayer,” or a university fight song as recessional. It’s becoming all too common. Pastors – young, old, new, and well-seasoned – need to remember the words of Augustana V: “So that we may obtain this [saving] faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted…” Stick to the basics, and do not shy away from the realities of death and life, devaluing the Means of Grace. Can faith be “obtained” when they are so trivialized? To abdicate the pulpit this way is a dereliction of duty, a violation of the pastor’s vows. “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation…” That’s what it’s all about—as stewards of the mysteries of God, pastors, that’s what you’re all about.

Soli Deo Gloria!

W. I. (“Joe”) Strieter serves as an elder at Shepherd of the Valley LC in Perrysburg, Ohio, and is a lay member of the Ohio District Board of Directors.

Smile, It's Friday

2011-11-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

Put three marshmallows on your forehead and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of your day, because of course, you'll be too busy keeping those marshmallows up there.

photo credit: image415

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

"O Lord God, Heavenly Father, from whom without ceasing we receive exceeding abundantly all good gifts, and who daily of Thy pure grace guardest us against all evil: grant us, we beseech Thee, Thy Holy Spirit, that, acknowledging with our whole heart all this Thy goodness, we may now and evermore thank and praise Thy loving-kindness and tender mercy; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen."

Quoted from Liturgy andAgenda: Abridged Edition (St. Louis: CPH, 1918) 37.

Getting Rid of Those Stuffy “Liturgy Books”

2011-11-23T03:00:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this article at BixbyBulletin.com while looking for something a little more edifying. The article is the third in a series about storefront churches in Bixby, Oklahoma, written by Jo-Ann Jennings. This one is about Lord of Life Lutheran Church (LCMS). I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. Here’s the opening two paragraphs of the article:

If the word Lutheran causes you to think “black suit, white shirt, and polished shoes,” banish the thought. Vicar Jonathan Schultz has brought Lord of Life Lutheran Church to Bixby with praise and song. The once well-known liturgy books have been tucked away, and any reading or singing which needs to be done is on the wall in front of the congregation. “We want people with their heads up, worshipping Christ!” Schultz says with a huge smile. Not only that, but during the week, the church, in Cross Creek Shopping Center behind Bill and Ruth’s, is a coffee shop. One of Schultz biggest dreams-in-progress would be the ability to pick up a bus load of kids from a nearby trailer park and take them to the church in summer where they would be cool and have [sic] supervisor.

Schultz came to Bixby because of a vision of a Lutheran synod president who wanted to reach 100 million people by the year 2017. He looked at the globe to determine where to start. The US was to have 2,000 new Lutheran churches; Oklahoma, 12; Tulsa, six. “I am the second one,” Schultz said.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Confession and Absolution: Is It Optional?

2011-11-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quoting from Pastor David H. Petersen's article titled "Renewal" in the Michaelmas 2011 Gottesdienst:

Private confession and absolution may be optional for the laity, but it is certainly not optional for the clergy. No one can teach the Small Catechism and abstain from this gift without being a hypocrite, any more than he can teach the Small Catechism and abstain from the Lord's Supper or from having his children baptized. But beyond the obvious goodness of being absolved, the preacher learns something of humility and sorrow in confession. He remembers what it is to be on the other side, to be at someone else's mercy, to need someone else to say the words, to not have the answers and to depend on someone else. Preachers who forget this, and we are all prone to forgetting this, preach in generalities.

Our preachers also need to hear confession. Hearing confession is more humbling than making confession. It changes the character of the pastoral relationship. It deepens it. God makes us pastors by the call and ordination. But nothing "makes" us, in our minds, the pastor of an individual like this most intimate and pastoral relationship. It changes the way we think about our people. Parishioners might be surprised by this: no father confessor hearing the sins of his people becomes disgusted or angry. I repeat: the penitent's sins do not disgust or anger the confessor. Rather, hearing confession makes pastors sympathetic. It puts the preacher on the penitent's side.

Whether the people come or not, the pastor should have regularly scheduled, published times for confession. Even if the people don't come, the pastor is forced to contemplate his office and to pray for the people. And eventually, they will come.

photo credit: loafingcoot

Darwin vs. Beauty: The End of the Argument

2011-11-21T03:00:00.000-08:00

Psalm 104:24 "O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures."

Dr. Jonathan Witt, in his article in the latest Christian Research Journal (v. 34/no. 05) titled “Darwin vs. Beauty: Explaining Away the Butterfly,” points out the absurdity of Charles Darwin’s attempt to explain “instances of extravagant natural beauty” through his theory of sexual selection. “There Darwin argued, in essence, that the peacock has an extravagant tail, Shakespeare an extravagant gift for spinning tales, and Mozart an extravagant ability to compose, the better to attract a mate.”

Later on in the article, Dr. Witt comments that

A second and more wide-ranging way that Darwinian reductionism* is less than fully rational is in its commitment to the principle of methodological materialism. This is the investigative rule that says that investigators may consider only theories fully consistent with atheism. (It’s not usually described this starkly, but that’s what it boils down to.) According to the dictates of methodological materialism, if the extravagant beauty of butterflies or birds, if the origin of life or the universe or the fine tuning of the laws and constants of nature, if any of these features of our world points strongly toward a creative intelligence beyond the purely material, the flow of the evidence must be resisted.

This is what passes for scientific rationality in our age. But it isn’t hard-nosed realism at all. It’s priggish dogmatism. It’s the man in the seat beside you at a Beethoven concert insisting that everything you’re hearing is only so many notes, which are only so many sound waves, which are only so many perturbations among so many gaseous molecules amidst the machinery of your eardrum, the whole experience a curious stew of physics and sexual selection working its soulless magic on a delusional audience. The prig has talked all about the parts but has missed the whole—has missed the genius.

Fortunately, there aren’t that many people in the world who are so obtuse that they can’t appreciate the butterfly metamorphosing from creepy crawler into winged marvel. While 39% of Americans believe in evolution, 92% of Americans believe there is a God. We simply need roll back in our cubicle and glance out the window to know that this is so. No amount of methodological materialism can prevent this discovery of God, because God Himself reveals it to us:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:19-20 ESV

In the face of theories of evolution or the big bang, Christians need not feel inadequate because we don’t have “all the answers” in an empirically demonstrable way. Modern science is no threat to Christianity, and is in fact an ally. In some ways, the further we dig scientifically the less we find we know. Our explanatory power as creatures can’t hold up against God’s creation. We still can’t explain the nature of light, a verity which was pointed out by the Lord God Almighty to Job millennia ago:

"Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? Job 38:19-20 ESV

The Big Bang Theory is also proving to be a theory whose foundations are being eroded by both data and philosophy. We can rejoice as Christians - Darwin is no match for the Holy Spirit and the Word of God:

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11 ESV

You need not fret if you cannot eloquently articulate the cosmological proof for God. The butterfly playing on the wind is proof enough. It is God who creates the world, it is He who sends us our daily bread, and it is He who forgives our sin. A crucified and risen Savior is proof enough. Darwin and his attending methodological materialism cannot compete with the power of the Word. We have seen His glory.

That which was from the beginning, 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 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. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 1 John 1:1-4 ESV

*Witt explains Darwinian reductionism: “…The idea that the best way to understand something is to identify its material parts, and to do so at lower and lower levels (from traits to cells to molecules to atoms, and so on). At its most extreme, reductionism views things as ultimately just the sum of their parts. Thus, to a Darwinian reductionist, the grace and beauty of the butterfly or the songbird or the poet ultimately spring from some advantage this beauty lent the creature and its ancestors for survival and reproduction (“survival of the fittest”)."

photo credit: Eddy Van 3000

Lovely Las Vegas

2011-11-18T03:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a few photos from a recent layover in Las Vegas. Maybe not quite as glamorous as the TV commercials would have you believe.

Pastoral Care for Former Evangelicals by Pastor Jeremy Rhode

2011-11-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

The recently concluded series on pastoral care for former evangelicals with Pastor Jeremy Rhode on Issues, Etc. was one of the best series ever to grace the airwaves. It doesn’t matter who you are, Evangelical, Lutheran, Catholic, Pentecostal, Reformed, or other, these six segments are top notch. They delve into Evangelical theology, explaining the differences between Evangelicalism and Lutheranism, all the while highlighting the liberating doctrine that Lutheranism offers. You’ll be richly rewarded for your time.

Part 1: Discerning the Will of God, 8-3-11

http://issuesetc.org/2011/08/03/wednesday-august-3-2011/

Part 2: In Remembrance of Me, discussing the Lord’s Supper, 8-17-11

http://issuesetc.org/2011/08/17/wednesday-august-17-2011/

Part 3: The Office of the Pastor, 8-24-11

http://issuesetc.org/2011/08/24/14543/

Part 4: This is My Body, 9-14-11

http://issuesetc.org/2011/09/14/wednesday-september-14-2011/

Part5: The Christian Life, 9-21-11

http://issuesetc.org/2011/09/21/wednesday-september-21-2011/

Part 6: The Divine Service, 10-26-11

http://issuesetc.org/2011/10/26/the-gospel-for-former-evangelicals-the-divine-service-with-pr-jeremy-rhode-10262011/

Something to Chew On

2011-11-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

A couple years back we were reading through Augsburg Confession Article VII at the dinner table:

1 Our churches teach that one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints [Psalm 149:1] in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered. 2 For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. 3 It is not necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies instituted by men, should be the same everywhere. 4 As Paul says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:5–6).

Our daughter asked a good question. If the Church exists where the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered, what about where the Gospel isn’t purely taught, or the Sacraments aren’t correctly administered? Are those people outside the Church, and therefore not saved? Dr. C.F.W. Walther answers her question very nicely in Thesis XI of his essay The Evangelical Lutheran Church the True Visible Church of God on Earth, this portion delivered to the 12th Eastern District Convention in 1867.

Here’s Walther’s answer:

…You will find the true church wherever the Word of God is being used (im Schwange geht). Also among the sects the distinguishing marks [that tell us] whether and that there still exists a church, a band of believers, are not their heresies, but the remaining essential pieces of the pure Word of God. In other words, the pure Word always remains the distinguishing mark of the church, of all believers.

Question:
Is the church really mutilated among the sects, because they do not teach the Word of God in all its truth and purity?

Answer:
No, not the church but only the marks of the church are mutilated.

Objection:
But Art. VII says nothing about the church still existing where the Word of God is only partially proclaimed, but not in all its truth and purity!

Response:
A definition attempts to describe a thing the way it should be; that is also how the church is here described, according to its ideal condition, as it should be; but that is not to say that the church no longer exists where these distinctive marks are not present in all their pristine clarity and purity. For example, if you were to describe a human being according to the ideal state, you would say something like this: “Man is a physical-spiritual creature, capable of making rational judgments.” That is a description of man as he should be. But thereby we do not deny that also someone who is incapable of making rational judgments, or one who has not yet fully developed this capability (e.g., a child), is also a human being. It would be absurd to say: “A human being is a physical-spiritual creature which is occasionally unable to make rational judgments, or which occasionally has only one leg or one arm.” It would have been equally absurd if our forefathers had described the church as follows: “The church is present wherever the Word of God is not preached in all of its truth and purity.” In addition to that, the following Art. VIII of the Augsburg Confession already makes it clear that the church is not always as perfect as it is ideally described in Art. VII. (Italics are Walther’s emphasis; brackets were added by the editor.) C.F.W. Walther, Essays for the Church, Vol. 1 (St. Louis: CPH, 1992) 151.

We can rejoice that there are Christians outside of our own communion, and at the same time long for the day when we will all be united in faith and doctrine, gathered before the Lamb in the midst of the throne.

Contrasting Lutheran Worship with Evangelical Worship

2011-11-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

Quoting from Dr. David L. Adams paper “Evangelical Lutheranism and Lutheran Evangelicalism":

A second area in which there is a growing divide between Evangelical Lutheranism and Lutheran Evangelicalism in the Missouri Synod is in the area of worship. I am not here to re-hash arguments about contemporary music, the employment of liturgy, or the use of a hymnal, as important as those topics are. Rather, I suggest that the most important distinction between Evangelical Lutheranism and Lutheran Evangelicalism in the area of worship is the difference over the fundamental theological understanding of what worship is.

For Evangelical Lutheranism worship is a divine dialogue in which God speaks to us and gives his gifts through the Word and sacraments. We, the people of God, gather in His presence at his beckoning to receive those gifts in faith and respond in praise and thanksgiving. However – and this is of fundamental importance – Evangelical Lutheranism understands that the response of the people of God in worship is to be normed by God through the gifts of God.

What does this understanding of worship as divine dialogue mean in practical terms? First, it means that the worship ‘event’ of the Christian congregation is primarily for the congregation. That is to say, it is the people of God who gather together in worship. For this reason, as you doubtless know, the early church restricted the participation in worship of non-Christians and (in some cases) catechumens. Second, the understanding that the response of the people of God in worship is normed by God through His gifts has important implications for the form that the Church’s worship takes. In practical terms, this means that the words that the Church speaks in response to what God has done are primarily cast in the words of Scripture. We speak Christ’s words in response. Thus worship is a divine dialogue in which Christ speaks to us and Christ speaks in us.
Lutheran Evangelicalism is tending toward a very different theology of worship. It has gradually adopted what we might call a tent-meeting theology of worship, a theology of worship that is rooted in the revivalist theology of Evangelicalism’s Methodist roots. A tent-meeting theology of worship elevates outreach to the level of a primary function of worship. Its constant subtext is the need to reach out to the unbeliever in our midst. It focuses on bringing people into the tent and making them comfortable so that they will be receptive to hearing the Gospel. And it looks for a response from the unbeliever and the renewed believer alike.

This theological perspective also has significant implications for what is done in practice. First, it means that the goal of reaching outsiders becomes significant in shaping the worship ‘event’ of the Christian congregation. While the people of God are present and involved, there is an intentional focus upon evangelizing any unbelievers who may be present. Second, the event is structured with a two-fold emphasis: First, there is an emphasis on keeping disinterested people engaged. This leads in the direction of worship-as-religious-entertainment. Second, there is an emphasis on eliciting a response from them. For the children of the Romantic Movement, a valid response must be a response from the heart. In practical terms, this means that the words that the assembly speaks in response to what God has done are not primarily cast in the words of Scripture, but are cast in terms of what is going on in the heart of the individual. Pastors who write their own liturgies often fall into this trap. Even so-called liturgical worship becomes person-centered rather than Christ-centered when we speak back to God what is on out [sic] minds rather than what God has spoken to us. It becomes worship normed by our needs and our response rather than by God’s gifts and God’s Word. This is the reason that even though may congregations shaped by Lutheran Evangelicalism have a veneer of liturgical worship, the kind of liturgy they employ strikes the Evangelical Lutheran as deficient, for this kind of roll-you-own liturgy tends quickly to loose [sic] its Christ-centeredness.

A Bible in Stone? The Jehovah’s Witness’ Errant Biblical Timeline Based on the Great Pyramid

2011-11-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

Did you know that the pillar referred to in Isaiah 19:19-20 is actually the Great Pyramid?

In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. Isaiah 19:19-20 ESV

Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, believed that

The Great Pyramid, however, proves to be a storehouse of important truth—scientific, historic and prophetic—and its testimony is found to be in perfect accord with the Bible, expressing the prominent features of its truths in beautiful and fitting symbols (314-15). (All quotes come from Thy Kingdom Come, 1908 edition, written by Charles Taze Russell)

While its outward form illustrates the completed results of God’s Plan of Redemption, the inner construction marks and illustrates every prominent feature of that plan as it has developed from age to age, down to its glorious and complete consummation (330).

He also believed that “The old theory that it was built as a vault or tomb for an Egyptian king is unworthy of credence; for, as we shall see, it required more than the wisdom of the present day, to say nothing of that of Egypt four thousand years ago, to design such a structure” (319). Of course, he’s dead wrong in that speculation, since the Great Pyramid was built for Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek).

How is God’s plan of redemption marked out in the pyramid? By a series of measurements first done by Prof. Piazzi Smyth, and elaborated on by Robert Menzies, which resulted in the “inch=year theory.” All of the predictions made by Charles Taze Russell are based on measurements of various places inside the pyramid that equate an inch with a year. Here is how the inch=year theory is corroborated:

Click on the graphic for an expanded view
Years before this suggestion, that the “Grand Gallery” represents the Christian dispensation, Prof. Smyth had, by astronomical observation, fixed the date of the building of the Pyramid at B. C. 2170; and when Mr. Menzies suggested that the floor-line inches of the “Grand Gallery” represent years, it occurred to some one that, if that theory were true, the measuring of the floor-line backward from the lower edge of the “Grand Gallery,” down the “First Ascending Passage” to its junction with the “Entrance Passage,” and thence upward along the “Entrance Passage” toward the Pyramid’s entrance, should discover some mark or indication in the passage-way to correspond, and thus prove the date of the Pyramid’s construction, and the correctness of the inch=year theory. This, though not unreasonable, was a crucial test, and the service of a civil engineer was obtained to visit the Great Pyramid again and make very accurate measurements of passages, chambers, etc. This was in 1872; and the report of this gentleman was confirmatory to the last degree. His measurements show the floor-line just described to be 2170 ½ inches to a very finely ruled line in the walls of the “Entrance Passage.” Thus the date of its construction is doubly attested, while the floor-lines of its passages are shown to be scrolls of history and chronology, which shall yet be generally heard as “a Witness unto the Lord in the land of Egypt” (337).

What sort of redemptive plan do the pyramid’s measurements indicate? Such things as the death of Jacob, the date of the Exodus, the time of Christ’s [invisible] second advent in October, 1874, and “the four years from 1910 to the end of 1914, indicated thus in the Great Pyramid, will doubtless be a time of ‘fiery trial’ upon the Church (I Cor. 3:15)…” (364). The reference to “the Church” is what Jehovah’s Witnesses call “Christendom,” a derogatory term they use for those who claim to be Christian but are actually outside the fold, because they are not a part of the true church of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The “fiery trial upon the Church” never occurred. None of the prophecies of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have ever materialized, making the Watchtower a false prophet (it only takes one failed prophecy to make one a false prophet). (The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is the official name of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.) The whole inch=year theory was wrong from the beginning. Its entire scheme was based on a completion of the Great Pyramid in 2170 -- but the pyramid was actually completed around 2550 BC. None of this has been lost on the Watchtower however. They have made countless revisions in their predictions and literature in a hopeless battle to validate this and other false prophecies. Russell himself massaged his pyramid predictions to try to get them to more closely match his notions, and changed his measurements in the various editions of Thy Kingdom Come (ref. Eric Francke’s “A Pyramid Scheme: How C.T. Russell’s Great Pyramid Changed with the Times”).

The best way to show a Jehovah’s Witness the Watchtower’s error is with their own words. On page 374, Russell wrote:

Some may scoff at the testimony of this stone “Witness,” as they also scoff at God’s written Word; but to their scoffs we answer: Account for this peculiar fitness of things, or else venture to prophesy of the future, and see how your prophecies will result. Prove to us that it requires no inspiration to foretell future events. Show us a sample of worldly wisdom. “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and show us what will happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods [mighty ones].”—Isa. 41:21-23 (374).

The Watchtower has failed to accurately declare the things to come, failing its own test, and thereby warranting the righteous judgment of God in Isaiah 41:24: “Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.”

If you happen to encounter a Jehovah’s Witness, be respectful and patient with them. It’s helpful to be able to point out the false prophecies of the Watchtower, but do so with gentleness and respect. Asking them to come back at another time may give you the time you need to do a little advance preparation, so that you can introduce them to their real mediator, not the Watchtower, but rather Jesus Christ. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

You can read or download Thy Kingdom Come here.

photo credit: NidalM

Hard Evidence

2011-11-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

A rarely revealed bit of trivia that probably isn't on LCMS President Matt Harrison's resume is that he played with the Ditty Bops. I know you're raising an eyebrow right about now. It's uncommon knowledge - sort of gnostic I guess. Alright. Hang on a minute.

O.K. I'm back. After losing a bit of DNA on a protruding nail, I retrieved what I was looking for up in the attic. Found in a moldering box of curling photos from the Kodachrome days: visual evidence. The photo was taken around 2003, before the Ditty Bops made it big, at the Tiki Lounge in Lincoln, Nebraska. If you look closely you can see his autograph, "Matt H." Who knew?

The Divorce is Finalized

2011-11-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it, President Harrison reported on October 27 at the ACNA-LCMS Open Forum that the relationship of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is over:

Our relationship with the ELCA is over. We meet a couple of times a year to talk about some joint interests in social ministry and that kind of thing, but relationship Higgins Road [on which the ELCA headquarters is located] to St. Louis is over. We’ve ended, we’ve ended a number of express joint work. We just can’t do it any more with a good conscience.

It’s a shame that it had to come to this, but, while there are certainly faithful Lutherans in the ELCA, their corporate position is neither evangelical nor Lutheran. You can listen to what President Harrison had to say on the Witness, Mercy, Life Together blog here.

Emotion as Trojan Horse

2011-11-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

The following quote comes from Pastor Burnell F.Eckardt’s article in the Michaelmas 2011 issue of Gottesdient titled“Contemporary Worship, the Anabaptists, and the Hindus.” Before we get to the quote though, I’d liketo throw in a quick plug for Gottesdienst. Gottesdienstis an insightful journal, packed with great writing and a variety of topicsrelated to the Lutheran Liturgy. If you’rea confessional Lutheran, you’ll probably like it. And don’t worry, you don’t have to be aGottesdienster to read it (I’ll leave it to you to figure out what aGottesdienster is). Dare I say you mighteven enjoy it – Father Eckardt, theEditor-in-Chief, does have a flair for “stimulating” conversation betweenGottesdiensters and those of other "liturgical persuasions." You can subscribe at the Gottesdient website, aswell as check out theGottesdienst Online blog. Here’s thequote, reprinted with permission:

Rememberthe old George Harrison song “My Sweet Lord”? Consider these lyrics:

I really want to know you
Really want to go with you
Really want to show you lord
That it won’t take long, my lord (hallelujah)

My sweet lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah)

Anything objectionable there? Of course not, in fact it sounds ratherindistinguishable from the kind of thing you might hear from a praiseband. Unless, that is, you happen toknow about the background singers’ prayer that comes in later in the song: “hare krishna, hare krishna, krishnakrishna, hare hare, Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo, Maheshwara, GururSakshaat, Parabrahma, Tasmayi Shree, Guruve Namah, Hare Rama, hare krishna…”

And that, dear friends, comes from theBhagavad-Gita, a seminal poem that forms the basis of Hinduism. Repetition of the mantra is said to be the“sublime method for reviving our Krishna consciousness” (www.krishna.com). Here’s the explanation of the mantra fromKrishna.com:

As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krishnaconscious entities, but due to our association with matter from timeimmemorial, our consciousness is now polluted by material atmosphere. In this polluted concept of life, we are alltrying to exploit the resources of material nature, but actually we arebecoming more and more entangled in her complexities. This illusion is called maya, or hard struggle for existence for winning over the stringentlaws of material nature. This illusorystruggle against the material nature can at once be stopped by revival of our Krishnaconsciousness. (www.krishna.com/content/transcendental-vibration)

No Christian should have any difficulty recognizingthe odious character of that kind of thinking, but how many would recognize itfor what it is if it’s left in the background, untranslated, while the banalEnglish lyrics are made the heart of this popular song? In fact, Gospel singerBeBe Winans took this very song and removed the Krishna references and added intheir place, “You’re the Mighty One, You’re the Prince of Peace, You’re theFirst and the Last, You’re the Great I AM, and the Precious Lamb,” as thoughthat would somehow baptize this song for use among Christians. And for many, that sort of thing works justfine, because it’s all really about the mood anyhow, about making theexperiential connection with Jesus.

And thisprovides opportunity to address again a central failure of the contemporaryworship mentality to understand that the means of grace are not the experiencesof the Christian, but the words of the Holy Gospel.

Thisgets to the heart of that quotation from the Apology about fanatical men whodream that the Holy Ghost comes to them if they sit and wait forillumination. “Fanatics” have thetheological problem of failing to recognize that the real point of contact thata Christian has with God is only the Word of God, and of replacing that linkwith personal experience. And whenpersonal experience, particularly when that experience is tied to emotion,becomes the driving force in determining the legitimacy of one’s views, it canbe a very dangerous thing indeed. Theself-control of which the apostle Paul speaks is particularly the control ofone’s emotions: the Greek enkrateia (ἐγ + ϰϱάτεια) is derived from krateia: strength. Self-masteryhas to do with keeping oneself constrained; that is, with keeping the emotivedrives in check.

This is not to say that emotion has noplace in worship; on the contrary, worship of the noblest kind can be veryemotional, since the comfort of the Gospel is bound to have an effect on thedepths of one’s soul; and hence it is all the more necessary to take great careto distinguish worship centered in the Gospel itself from worship centered inthe emotions. The latter kind, whencalled Christian, is nothing more than a Trojan horse in which enters themischief of a false faith rooted in something other than the Word of God.

So then, not only is true faith at oddswith the natural will (as this column sought to demonstrate in the previousissue), it is also inseparably bound to the Word of God. Christian faith is dependent upon the Gospelnot only at its inception, but for its sustenance. The Gospel itself must form the heart andnucleus of all Christian worship, and therefore nebulous or simplisticemotional “encounters” cannot be allowed as replacements. Nor, then, can the kind of music that lendsitself so easily to the repetition of Hindu mantras ever become compatible withwhat is truly Christian.

God Hates Sin but Loves the Sinner?

2011-11-08T03:00:00.000-08:00

You’ve probably heard the phrase “God hates the sinbut loves the sinner” in the past. It’sa phrase that’s a little dated. There’snot a whole lot of talk about sin orthe sinner any more. Emerging Churchleader Rob Bell’s book Love Wins is agood example, where his comment on the orthodox Christian doctrine of heavenand hell is that it’s “misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts thecontagious spread of Jesus’s message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy thatour world desperately needs to hear." Yes, the world, and specifically sinners, don’t want to hear that they’resinners. And they certainly don’t wantto hear that God hates sinners, butthat’s precisely what they need to hear.

A few years back one of the retired pastors in ourcongregation gave me a copy of the following paper, written by Dr. Walter W. F.Albrecht in 1953, titled “Does God Hate Sin or the Sinner?” Dr. Albrecht does a great job of explainingthat God does hate the sinner, andwhy it is important that that message be preached, followed by the Gospelmessage that Christ died to save sinners. Here is Dr. Albrecht’s paper in its entirety. I hope you’ll give it aread, especially if you’re a pastor. Youcan download a copy here.

“Ifit is true that God hates the sinner, how is this truth to be presented insermons without doing harm?”

SpringfieldCircuit Conference

April20, 1953

Thewording of the question casts doubt on a divine truth and assumes that harm canbe done by preaching the truth. Whileunworthy of a Christian, it no doubt proceeds from a troubled heart. Let’s answer it therefore, and divide it intothe two questions: Does Scripture teach that God hates the sinner? and How isthis truth to be preached?

DOESSCRIPTURE TEACH THAT GOD HATES THE SINNER?

Hatred thedictionary defines as “bitter dislike or aversion; antipathy; animosity;enmity.” It “implies extreme aversion,especially as coupled with enmity or malice.” Dislike is repugnance. Aversionis mental opposition. Antipathy is aninstinctive feeling of aversion or dislike. Animosity is active and vehement enmity; ill will. Enmity is hostility or the state of being anenemy. Synonyms of hatred are: “Abhorrence,anger, animosity, antipathy, aversion, detestation, dislike, enmity, grudge,hate, hostility, ill will, malevolence, malice, rancor, repugnance, resentment,revenge, spite.” When speaking of God ashating, we of course do not imply “malevolence, malice, malignity, rancor,revenge, spite,” and the like. Thatwould be charging Him with evil. We donot mean to say that His hatred is “coupled with malice.” When the dictionary defines, “Hate or hatred,as applied to persons, as intense and continued aversion, usually withdisposition to injure,” this “usually with disposition to injure” does not fitGod. “Anger is sudden and brief, hatredis lingering and enduring,” continues the dictionary.

Nowour question reads: Does God have a bitter dislike and strong aversion for thesinner? Is He the enemy of thesinner? Has He an enduring antipathyagainst sinners? Does He detest sinners?

Lookinginto Scripture, we find these statements: “Thou art not a God that hathpleasure in wickedness…. Thou hatest(sane) all workers of iniquity. Thoushalt destroy them that speak leasing (lies): the Lord will abhor the bloodyand deceitful man,” Ps. 5:5-6. “Thesesix things does the Lord hate (sane): afalse witness that speaketh lies,” Prov. 6:16, 19. “I will destroy your high places, and cutdown your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, andmy soul shall abhor you,” Lev. 26:30. Moses, pleading for idolatrous Israel, declares: “I was afraid of theanger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroyyou,” Deut. 9:19. David, in Ps. 78:59,reminds the children of Israel of his day: “When God heard this (idolatry), He waswroth, and greatly abhorred Israel.” Andin Ps. 89:38: “Thou hast cast off and abhorred, Thou hast been wroth with Thineanointed.” Prov. 22:14: “The mouth ofstrange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall falltherein.”

Andin turning to the New Testament, we find John the Baptist preaching: “Ogeneration of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”Matthew 3:7. Christ prophesies of the last days of Jerusalem and the world:“For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people,”Luke 21:23. In the presence of thecenturion of Capernaum Jesus prophesied: “But the children of the kingdom shallbe cast out into outer darkness,” Matt. 8:12. “And when the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all nations begathered before Him, then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Departfrom Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and hisangels,’” Matt. 25:41.

InRom. 1:30 the RV has correctly changed the translation from “haters of God” to“hateful to God,” for that is what theostugēs means. And when Paul in Rom 5:10 says, “For if, whenwe were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life,” the words “when we wereenemies,” echthroi ontes, express not our enmity for God, but God’senmity toward us. Eph. 2:3 Paul says:“And were by nature the children of wrath.” As we came into the world, before ever we had committed a sin indesires, thoughts, words, and deeds, were we hated, detested, abhorred byGod. In 2 Cor. 16:22 Paul pronounces thecurse of God on all who reject Christ: “If any man love not the Lord JesusChrist, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.”

Butthis is also Paul’s sentiment. He hatesthe despiser of Christ. Even as he saysin Rom. 11:28 of the Jews: “As concerning the Gospel, they are enemiesfor your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for yourfathers’ sakes.” And so David echoes thefeelings of his divine Lord, when he says, Ps. 139:21-22: “Do not I hate them,O Lord, that hate Thee? And am I notgrieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them mine enemies.”

ThatLuther’s translation of Ps. 101:3 (“Ich hasse den Uebertreter und lasse ihnnicht bei mir bleiben”) is better than the Authorized “I hate the work of themthat turn aside,” is evident from the context even in the Authorized: “Afroward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person…. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell withinmy house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of theland; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord.” The Latin renders it: “Facientespraevaricationes odivi.” The Greek: poiountesparabaseis emisēsa. Everyone isfamiliar with the imprecatory Psalms of David, 59, 69, 109, where he calls downthe wrath of God upon his enemies.

Isthis Missouri teaching? Dr. F. Piepersays, Dogm. II, 345: “Rom 5:10: All men are echthroi, hated by God,under His wrath.” And in a footnote hequotes Luthardt as saying: “echthroi ontes does not have the activesense (as, e.g., Beck and Ritschl hold), but the passive sense: whose enemy Godwas, who lay under God’s wrath.”

Vol.II, p. 346 Piper says: “Rom. 5:10 ‘When we were enemies (echthroi,passive: Deo invisi), we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.’ Luthardt: ‘A change of attitude on thepart of God is meant.’”

Again,Vol. II, 348: “The katalassein (reconcile) of Rom. 5:10 and 2 Cor. 5:14does not refer – let the fact be noted – to any change that occurs in men, butdescribes an occurrence in the heart of God. It was God who laid His anger by on account of the ransom brought byChrist.” And in a footnote Pieper quotesMeyer, who says: “Mankind was on account of its uncancelled sins under God’sholy wrath, echthroi Theou, Rom. 5:10, Deo invisi, the object of God’shatred; but with the cancellation of their sins, effected by the death ofChrist, God’s wrath came to an end. Thereconciliation of all mankind took place objectively through the death ofChrist.”

Again,Vol. II, 352: “They object that it is a disparagement of the Divine Being topredicate of Him anger, wrath, enmity, as if nothing less than Christ’ssubstitutional suffering and death could reconcile Him to man. (Footnote: This criticism is advanced notonly by the Socinians, the coarse rationalists, Ritschl, etc., but also by manycontemporaneous sectarian preachers. Thesoft generation of our day must be spared the stern preaching of the wrath ofGod against sinful mankind.)

OnlyScripture can tell us what conceptions of God are worthy or unworthy of Him,and Scripture tells us that according to His righteousness God is very angrywith sinful men. Rom. 1:18: “The wrathof God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness ofmen.” Gal. 3:10: “Cursed is everyonethat continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law todo them.” Rom. 5:10: ‘When we wereenemies,’ echthroi ontes. Thistestimony of Scripture is corroborated by the voice of conscience, which findsno surcease in the philosophical speculations about the impossibility,unreasonableness, etc., of God’s wrath. – But the wrath of god struck Christ inour stead, and, expending itself on Him, it is changed into grace. Gal. 3:13: ‘Christ has redeemed us from thecurse of the Law, being made a curse for us.’” (Footnote: Mayer on Rom. 5:10 (echtroi): “It is not to be taken in theactive sense – we were God’s enemies – for the death of Christ did not wipe outthe enmity of men against God, such against whom the holy orgē of Godwas directed on account of sin: theostugeis (hated by God), Rom. 1:30;children of wrath, Eph. 2:3.”)

PieperII, 353: “According to Scripture, Christ’s death reveals both God’s love and God’swrath. This truth is brought out in thisvery passage, Rom. 5:8-11. ‘Hated by God(Deo invisi, lying under God’s wrath), we were reconciled to God.’” Footnote: “This is Meyer’s correctexplanation of this passage. AlsoLuthardt: “With whom God was angry, who were under the orgē of God – inspite of the agapē – katēlagēmen – katalagentes,passive. “Den Zorn laesst er wohlfahren” (“But lays His anger by”).” Pieper II, 406f: “We were reconciled with God while we were stillobjects of His wrath (“when we were enemies” v. 10, God being our enemy).”

Dr.G. Stoeckhardt comments on Rom 5:10: “In our passage, too, it is brought outthat this blessing of Christ began during the opposing state of mankind. While we were yet enemies, while wehad God against us, without this inimical relationbeing reduced or mitigated in any way, this great, wonderful change occurred,God’s Son took our place, shouldered the wrath and enmity, suffered the wrathin His passion and death, and thus converted our hostile relation to God into arelation of friendship, and procured for us God’s favor and affection.” p. 229.

OnRom. 1:30, theostugeis, Stoeckhardt remarks: “Such arrogance (over against thefellowman) is an especial abomination to God. Therefore the Apostle inserts the thought here that people of thiscaliber are hated of God. Fortheostugeis, which has only the passive meaning (hated) and cannot mean osoresDei (haters of God), does not fit for an independent place in this listof sins and must therefore be combined with the expressions following as theirattribute.” p. 66.

Stoeckhardtin his Commentary on Romans shows that Paul in Rom. 5:6-9 sets forth theunspeakably great love which God has shown us, namely, that Christ died forus. For whom did He die? “Christ died for the ungodly,” v. 6. Not for the righteous, not for the goodpeople, v. 7. He died for “us while wewere yet sinners,” v. 8. ThroughChrist’s death and blood we, all men, are justified, v. 9. And if we have been justified, “we shall be savedfrom wrath (RV: the wrath of God) through Him,” v. 9.

Ifthe greater thing has come to pass, the lesser will “much more” takeplace. The change which made justifiedpeople of the ungodly is greater than the change in the translation of therighteous into eternal bliss. ThroughChrist we shall escape the wrath of the Last Day. This conclusion Paul repeats in v. 10, theverse we are interested in. Here theApostle says: If we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son while wewere enemies, not righteous men, not good men, but ungodly, sinners, peoplewhom God abhorred, much more will the living and exalted Christ save us intoHis life, eternal life.

Of echthroiStoeckhardt says (p. 288): “Baur, Beck, Ritschl take echthroi in the activesense of haters of God, and katēlagēmen, katalagentes(reconciled) in the subjective sense of a change of attitude in manbrought about through Christ’s death, through God’s love, an amicabledisposition of man toward God, ‘But this interpretation,’ Weiss correctlynotes, ‘would contradict the whole context, which does not speak of a change ofmind toward God on the part of man, but speaks (of God’s act) of justificationand its consequences, and this opinion would supply an entirely differentmotive for the “much more” in v. 10 than in v. 9, where the conclusion as towhat favor can be expected in the future rests not on a greater worthiness ofman, but on a greater evidence of God’s love.’” p. 228.

OfEph. 2:3 Stoeckhardt says: “All men are by nature and birth, before they havecommitted any sin, subject to God’s wrath. Paul clearly and definitely teaches, just as the other writers of HolyWrit, that original sin is peccatum vere damnans…. Even though our reason hesitates and refusesto acknowledge that this original ruin is truly sin which includes guilt andthus subjects to the wrath of God, nevertheless we also in this case simplyfollow the teaching of Scripture which describes and pictures man as he is bynature, after the Fall, as a perfectly corrupt and detestable creature,the child of disobedience, of death, or wrath, and of eternal damnation, and inthis way present in a much brighter light the mercy of God toward this fallenman.” Commentary on Ephesians, SommerTranslation, p. 123.

Dr.Th. Engelder says in Scripture Cannot Be Broken, p.240: “The offense which men take at theso-called imprecatory psalms is due to two defects in their moral sense. They are, in the first place, deficient in the sense of theenormity and hatefulness of sin, of the rebellion against God, of falsedoctrine. They refuse to let God’s wrathagainst the evil-doer make its full impression on their ethico-Christianconsciousness…. And, secondly, theirmoral sense lacks too much of the fear of God. They dare to lay down rules of behavior for the almighty, all holyGod. They tell us that it would beunseemly if God had inspired the imprecatory psalms…. Because we believe in Verbal Inspiration, weknow that those sentiments express the mind of God; and while some of theexpressions may seem too harsh to us, we bridle our thoughts. We know that, while now we see only through aglass darkly, the light of glory will reveal to us that every word of theimprecatory psalms is in full accord with the eternal Holiness.”

Prof.H. Hamann of Australia quotes from McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia, VIII, p.755: “The truth is that only a morbid benevolence, a mistaken philanthropy,takes offense at these psalms; for in reality they are not opposed to thespirit of the Gospel nor to that love of enemies which Christ enjoined. Resentment against evil-doers is so far fromsinful, that we find it exemplified in the meek and spotless Redeemer Himself,Mark 3:5.” Quoted by Engelder p. 240.

Whois it that teaches that there is no wrath and hatred of the sinner in God? Abelard (d. 1142) taught that the Son of Godcame into the world not to satisfy the justice of God, but to give us, by Histeaching and example, particularly by His death, the supreme proof of God’slove and thus to awaken in us love for God, and that by exercising this lovefor God we are reconciled and justified. To say that God was reconciled by the blood of the innocent Christ wouldbe “cruel and unjust.” The Socinians andUnitarians hold a similar view. Ritschl,Ad. Harnack, von Hofmann also teach it. Ritschl’s “declaratory theory” teaches that there is no wrath in God onaccount of sin, but that God declares His love for man through Christ. The purpose of Christ’s life and sufferingwas not to render vicarious satisfaction to God’s justice, but to convince menthat they need not fear God because of their sins. Once men are convinced of this, theirreconciliation is accomplished. Thesense of guilt is an illusion which it is the part of Christ to dispel. This leaves as essence of Christianity humanmorality induced by Christ’s preaching.

ThisRischlian idea of a God without wrath who is all love has permeated not onlysectarian circles here in the United States. In the Lutheran Standard of the ALC of Feb. 21, 1953 we are told thatthe imprecatory psalms are “out of line with the spirit of Christ.” We quote: “The believers of the Old Testamenthad only a limited revelation of God…. This also made for a limited morality, both interms of knowledge and of motivation…. Further, it is often characteristic of the Old Testament to identifyevil with the person who committed it. In the New Testament a sharp distinction is made between sin and thesinner. The New Testament, too, hatesand damns sin. But it distinguishes itfrom the sinner, and it loves and seeks to redeem that sinner”…. To us, children of the New Testament, they(those imprecatory prayers) must remain foreign in spirit. Here Jesus is our pattern.” What a lack of Christian knowledge!

Itis evident, then, that Scripture teaches a hatred of God not only for sin, butfor the sinner.

II.

HOWSHOULD THIS TRUTH BE PREACHED?

A) Since it is a Scripture truth, it is tobe preached. We are toteach men all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. We are to instruct men in the whole counselof God. Whoever subtracts from what Godhas revealed in Scripture is as guilty as the teacher who adds to God’sWord. To His warning, “Therefore be yealso ready,” in His description of the last times the Lord immediately adds thequestion: “who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath maderuler over his household, to give them meat in due season?” Matthew 25:45.

B) This truth of God’s hate for the transgressoris to be preached clearly. Ourpreaching of this truth must fit the declaration of God: “The Word of God is quick and powerful, andsharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of souland spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughtsand intents of the heart,” Heb. 4:12. But, you counter, it denies the love of God. It does. And it should. Remember, Law andGospel are plusquam contradictoria, more than contradictory. God’s hatred, wrath, curse of the sinner isLaw. Its purpose is to arouse in the sinnera lively consciousness of his doom. Theconviction that God is his enemy, is after him, is wroth beyond description orcomprehension, will visit upon him his every iniquity, will punish even man’scorrupt condition which he did not himself produce, with excruciating pains ofbody and soul forevermore, - this conviction must seize man until hetrembles in terrors of conscience and in self-despair cries out: “Men andBrethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37.

Ifwe do not so preach the divine Law, if we dull its cutting edge, itspenetrating point, by mixing in here the love of God, we are unfaithfulshepherds, burying our pound in the ground and gaining nothing for Christ. As long as man stands in the shadow of the Law- as every one does by nature – and remains ignorant of God’s true relation tohim as the Giver of that Law, he will refuse to step into the sunlight of theGospel, he will not learn how to blot out the handwriting of condemnation inhis conscience with the handwriting of justification by the blood of theCrucified One, he will not discover how properly to separate Law and Gospel,but will inevitably combine Law and Gospel and make of God a shrew, and idol,who scolds a lot, but means little of it, who executes little of what Hethreatens, but is swayed by a sickly sentimentality. But such a belief is no saving faith; it is aman-made faith without power to save. Brethren,let your preaching of the Law be sharp and clear.

C)The truth of God’s consuming hatred of the sinner should be preached boldly. Will it do harm? What a question for a Christian teacher toask! God’s truth can do no harm. “My Word shall accomplish that which Iplease, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it,” Is. 55:11. But will it not frighten people away from theChurch? You are indeed commissioned topreach the Gospel to all the world. Butwhere does God promise that you will convert all the world? On the contrary, Scripture teaches that onlyGod’s elect will be saved. Even amongthe believers there are casualties. Someare time-believers. And if any man comesto faith and remains in faith unto the end, it is God’s doing. We contribute nothing to it. We can only wreck God’s plan of saving byshortchanging people in handing out Law or Gospel. But if we are faithful to God’s instructions,if we boldly teach Law and Gospel in their purity, His divine ends will befully accomplished an all His elect will be saved. We are not called to build up a mighty visibleorganization, to work for a united impressive front, but to build the invisiblekingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ according to His specifications.

D)The preaching of God’s hate of the sinner must be followed by thepreaching of God’s love for the same sinner. (See Piper II, 352). In other words, the preaching of the Law mustbe succeeded by the preaching of the Gospel. Our Great Commission and chief office is the preaching of theGospel. We preach the Law only propterevangelium. The Law is to servethe Gospel. And the Law is to beovercome by the Gospel. “Christ is theend of the Law for righteousness to everyone that believeth,” Rom. 10:4. Luther: “Both are God’s Word, the Law and theGospel, but the two are not equal. Oneis lower, the other higher; one is weaker, the other stronger; one is lesser,the other greater. When now they wrestlewith each other, I follow the Gospel and say, Good-by, Law!” Pieper: “It is therefore a part of the properdistinction between Law and Gospel that the Gospel be recognized as the “higherWord,” which is to be God’s final Word for the terrified sinner.” III,232. As Paul says: “Moreover the Lawentered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hathreigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness untoeternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord,” Rom. 5:20-21.

Thoughts on the Death of Our Dog

2011-11-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

We had to euthanize our family dog Hallie last Tuesday (an Airedale Terrier). It’s a particularly painful and stressful event. Putting down a dear friend and family member is not an easy thing to do. Weighing the options for someone who can’t speak makes it all the more difficult. Hallie’s kidneys were failing and she was gradually winding down. She ate little, and didn’t even have the motivation to go up the stairs to her bed at night. Her death gave me cause to wonder if this would be what it would be like if the loved one of an unbeliever were to die. Since animals have no soul, their ending is truly the end. There is no afterlife for them, and when saying goodbye, no hope for their future, which is a very bad feeling. For someone who is not a believer, death is a very bleak thing, whether it's the death of a pet or a person. Yet for our family, there’s more to the story.

Though Hallie is gone for good, we still rejoice, knowing that she was a gift from God. In his explanation to the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed in the Small Catechism, Luther states that God gives me “animals, and all I have,” and in the Large Catechism he explains

Now, all that we have, and whatever else is in heaven and upon the earth, is daily given, preserved, and kept for us by God. Therefore, it is clearly suggested and concluded that it is our duty to love, praise, and thank Him for these things without ceasing.

Hallie was a true source of joy for us. She was always willing to tag along wherever we might be headed, and always had a smile on her face. Even on her last night, she still managed to greet all of the trick-or-treaters who visited our home. She was smart, faster than fast, gentle with kids, and a great watchdog – not to mention awesome looking, as the photo up above shows. There’s no one who could deny God’s hand in her creation.

"But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10 ESV

I marveled at her senses, far outstripping me in smell, sight, and hearing, and though she didn’t have a human brain, she was still able to learn and communicate with us in her own unique ways.

Yet even in all of these wonderful blessings from God there is sorrow. I can’t open the door without thinking she’s going to be behind it, ready to greet me. But that grief will end. The Lord promises:

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isaiah 25:8-9 ESV

As I chat with you, I’m thankful for what God has given us. Through the death of our dog, I can proclaim to you God’s goodness. He created the world, sustains it, and will redeem it and all believers. Through the death of His Son Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven, sorrow is wiped away, and joy is eternal. Our four-legged friend is gone, but our hope is not. Thanks be to God.

Zach and Hallie in 2006

Click below for a couple more Hallie photos.

Facing into a sea breeze at Cannon Beach in 2003

Hallie in her prime in 2008. She came from championship stock.

The Numbers-Driven Church

2011-11-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

Feel free to use the graphic.

Dare to Be Lutheran: Reviews of the Higher Things 2011 Youth Conferences

2011-11-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

Many of you out there know that I encourage involving your kids in Higher Things. One of the many Christ-centered opportunities for them are the national Higher Things conferences, which do a great job of connecting them to Christ. This year’s conferences, Coram Deo, were held in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Bloomington, Illinois. In case you, or someone you know, hasn’t attended in the past and would like input on the Higher Things conferences, here’s a list of blog posts from various laymen and pastors about their experiences at this year’s conferences.

The Brothers of John the Steadfast: Higher Things Youth Ministry: “It’s all About Christ.”

Pastor Alan Kornacki: Higher Things 2011: Coram Deo

Pastor Alex Klages: Coram Deo!

Pastor Sam Schuldheisz: Higher Things Coram Deo Debrief: A Few Thoughts Post Vegas

Pastor Paul Beisel: Coram Deo Bloomington

Kelly Klages: Higher Things 2011: Coram Deo

The Reporter Online: Higher Things conferences draw record 2,100 participants

Pastor Jacob Ehrhard: Thoughts on Higher Things conference

Pastor Donald Engebretson: Coram Deo Conference - Part I

Pastor Donald Engebretson: Corem Deo Conference - Part II

Pastor Wil Weedon: Home from Higher Things: Coram Deo (Bloomington)

Pastor Brian Kachelmeier: Coram Deo 2011

Mystery poster: What Happened in Vegas Won’t Stay in Vegas!

The Hat Makes the Man

2011-11-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

On the October 14th Issues, Etc. Comment Line, a listener phoned in with show suggestions, one of which was “How can the LCMS appoint kingdom of the left administrators, give them kingdom of the left job titles, like ‘District President’ or ‘Synodical President,’ and give them kingdom of the left job descriptions, and then be surprised when they utilize the most recent kingdom of the left methodologies to come to conclusions that make absolutely no sense in the kingdom of the right.”

Pastor Wilken’s response has a ring of truth to it:

…The words we choose mean things. They actually shape what happens. You know if we want Bishops, if we want ecclesiastical supervisors, and that supervisor simply means “Bishop,” that’s what the word Bishop means, it means overseer, a shepherd. If we want Bishops, then let’s have Bishops. If we want presidents, administrators, bureaucrats, functionaries, cogs in the wheel of a bureaucracy, synodocrats, then let’s be prepared to live with the consequences. Now, we can go one of two ways, and I think there’s actually wisdom in going one rather than the other way. Everybody’s for Bishops in the church until it comes to the question of who should be the Bishop. I generally operate on the theory that guys who favor Bishops, I mean full-blown Bishops in the church do so because they think that it is they who will be crowned with the miter when all is said and done. When they talk about “I think we ought to have Bishops in the church” what they’re really saying is “I should be Bishop in the church.” Honestly. But it’s not, we cannot create a hybrid between this ecclesiastical office and this bureaucratic office. We can’t create it. We tried, and what has always in every case won – you can’t serve two masters. What has always in every case won is the bureaucrat. The bureaucrat kills the Bishop, if we tried to make one man embody both offices. It, in the best of men, in the most sincere of men, even faithful unto death men, in actual practice, day to day, how things are done, how decisions are made, even in the best, the bureaucrat kills the bishop, if we try and have one man embody both. There’s a certain wisdom in going one way or the other. And look, I kind of like the idea, of maybe, if we want to have bureaucrats, then let’s really do it, and let’s just toss aside the façade of doing all this stuff as church, and just say “look, we’re kind of like the military. We’ve got the, we’ve got the actual soldiers, the pastors out there, who really do what needs to get done, and then we have a civilian leadership that sits in the office and thinks about what needs to be done.” Right? That would be a great division to make in the church.

Graphic derived from a photo by Lawrence OP

All Saints’ Day 2011

2011-11-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

Penned by Dr. Martin Luther in 1535:

Next to Holy Scripture there certainly is no more useful book for Christendom than that of the lives of the saints, especially when unadulterated and authentic. For in these stories one is greatly pleased to find how they sincerely believed God’s Word, confessed it with their lips, praised it by their living, and honored and confirmed it by their suffering and dying. All this immeasurably comforts and strengthens those weak in the faith and increases the courage and confidence of those already strong far more than the teaching of Scripture alone, without any examples and stories of the saints. Although the Spirit performs His work abundantly within, it nonetheless helps very much to see or to hear the examples of others without. Otherwise a weak heart always thinks: See, you are the only one who so believes and confesses, acts, and suffers. For this reason God Himself in Scripture also describes the life, faith, confession, and suffering of the dear patriarchs and prophets along with their doctrine, and St. Peter, too, comforts Christians with the examples of all the saints and says: “Know that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:9).

Quoted from What Luther Says, p. 1251.

Reformation Day 2011

2011-10-31T03:00:00.000-07:00

From the pen of the blessed Reformer, Dr. Martin Luther, written in 1524:

If God had not been on our side
And had not come to aid us,
The foes with all their pow’r and might
Would surely have dismayed us;
For we, His flock, would have to fear
The threat of men both far and near
Who rise in might against us.

Their furious wrath, did God permit,
Would surely have consumed us,
And as a deep and yawning pit
With life and limb entombed us.
Like men o’er whom dark waters roll
Their wrath would have engulfed our soul
And, like a flood, o’erwhelmed us.

Blest be the Lord, who foiled their threat
That they could not devour us;
Our souls, like birds, escaped their net,
They could not overpow’r us.
The snare is broken—we are free!
Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee,
Who madest earth and heaven. Amen.

Quoted from What Walther Says, p. 1200.

Who's the Best Presidential Candidate in 2012?

2011-10-28T03:00:00.001-07:00

Who makes the best presidential candidate? Somebody that's intelligent, a logical thinker, honest, loyal, decisive, computer-savvy, not given to emotional outbursts, willing to make the hard decisions, and unwilling to violate the prime directive. Who best fits the bill? Here's your answer:

HT: Becky

Follow Stand Firm Via Email

2011-10-27T03:00:00.001-07:00

For you die hard readers out there, Stand Firm can be sent directly to your Inbox. Simply scroll down and fill in your email address in the box in the right side bar below where it says "FOLLOW BY EMAIL" and click "Submit." Each day that there's a new post(s), all subscribed readers will receive an email which includes a copy of the posts, as well as links back to the original posts. As always, thanks for reading!

photo credit: JASElabs

A Good Reason Not to Run

2011-10-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Firefighters in pink graced the front page of our local newspaper. People at work wore pink ties or ribbons, and NFL players sported pink gloves. What’s going on? It’s the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (like you didn’t already know). People and organizations across the country join forces to increase awareness of breast cancer, remember victims, help those who are currently afflicted, and raise funds. Since breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women after discounting skin cancer, it’s well worth the effort. (Approximately 1 in 100 cases of breast cancer occur in men as well.)

In Seattle, there’s a run/walk called the Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure held every June. While it looks like a great run, I’ve avoided it. Why? Because the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation donates money to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer prevention, and Planned Parenthood is the big abortion mill in the United States.

It’s ironic that the Komen Foundation works in part through an organization affiliated with abortions, since abortion is said to increase the risk of breast cancer. While Komen works to save the lives of women, it is at the same time donating money to the organization that’s best known for extinguishing the lives of unborn children. Komen affiliates contributed $569,000 to Planned Parenthood in 2010.

There are other ways to contribute to the cause, and other runs to run in. Brian Harris, the president of Tennessee Right to Life, recommends the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, Polycarp Research Institute, or Coalition on Abortion / Breast Cancer as alternatives to the Komen Foundation. Then, you can save not one life but two.

Click here for more information.

photo credit: Aglie

Happy Birthday Ferdie!

2011-10-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

Happy 200th Birthday to C.F.W. Walther. The cake may not be as cool the gag cake I got for my wife, but really, how many people remember your birthday after 200 years?

photo credit: Will Clayton

Thanksgiving for Light I

2011-10-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

We praise and thank you, O God, for you are without beginning and without end.

Through Christ you are the creator and preserver of the whole world; but above all, you are his God and Father, the giver of the Spirit, and the ruler of all that is, seen and unseen.

You made the day for the works of light and the night for the refreshment of our weakness.

O loving Lord and source of all that is good, mercifully accept our evening sacrifice of praise.

As you have conducted us through the day and brought us to night's beginning, keep us now in Christ; grant us a peaceful evening and a night free from sin; and at the end bring us to everlasting life through Christ, our Lord.

Through him we offer glory, honor, and worship to you in the Holy Spirit now and always and forever and ever.

Amen

From LW, p. 291

photo credit: Stuck in Customs

Alchemy: The Pot Becomes the Potter

2011-10-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

When the subject of alchemy comes up, the visual image that comes to mind for most people is that of an man with matted grey hair hunched over steaming beakers with mortar and pestle in hand, consumed with his quest to change lead into gold. While this image is not altogether unfounded, there’s more to alchemy than the usual stereotype.

The book Alchemy and Alchemists by Sean Martin (Chartwell Books, 2006) describes the history of alchemy in both the east and the west, expanding the more popular understanding of alchemy and getting to its roots. Mr. Martin is very thorough in his exploration of alchemy, laying bare the somewhat philosophical foundation of the practice. Alchemy is similar to Gnosticism in many ways, seeking to find secret knowledge that only a few can obtain. The stories of turning lead into gold (called transmutation), are, for the most part, not really the goal of alchemy, but rather a metaphor for the real goal, that of uniting and perfecting man and nature.

The history of alchemy certainly does have its share of interesting tales of people transmuting this or that into gold, yet there are no museums around the world sporting alchemical gold exhibits. Kings and nobleman have been involved in the quest for this gold, with alchemists allegedly gaining wealth and long life, or for those who failed, sometimes gaining the loss of their freedom. A few alchemists also expanded scientific knowledge, and some applied their craft to helping others. At the heart of the quest though is a deeper esoteric search to gain long life and spiritual wealth. It is here that alchemy fails, searching for spiritual perfection in a holistic view of nature rather than in the pages of Scripture:

They saw that there was a place within nature for alchemists (humanity) as the ones who should work with nature in order to perfect it. Because they saw within themselves the whole of creation, they were also perfecting themselves, and realising their true, divine natures. (21)

The alchemist seeks to unite the individual with nature in a pantheistic whole in which everything is divine:

Some elements of the divine are still discernible in nature, and its fallen state can be rectified through the work of the alchemist, a work which was thought to bring out the divinity in both nature and the alchemist. Alchemists believed that each person who gained the gnosis that the work required was helping not just themselves but the whole of material creation also. (47)

Alchemy “transmutes” the pot into the potter:

Alchemy has always stressed that the inner and the outer must be joined together, the body with the mind or spirit, and the individual with nature. Hence the importance of the physical side of alchemy: it is a profound engagement with matter that is also a profound engagement with the self. Alchemy teaches us that we are inextricably linked to matter and nature, and that we have the power to create and change both; changes in one inevitably mean changes in the other. (102)

We are now assigned the title of creator. Rather than acknowledge that there is a Creator who made us in His image, alchemy usurps God’s creative hand. We are to rely on ourselves and our own Hermetic formulas rather than God to sustain our world, a sin as old as man himself. The book Alchemy & Alchemists, though well written, buys into the alchemical worldview, thus arriving at a false conclusion:

Once this [spiritual change] is achieved, then we have completed the Great Work; we have redeemed ourselves and, in doing so, redeemed the cosmos. (107)

The fallen state of ourselves and of nature cannot be redeemed by efforts on our part – that work can only be done by God, and has already been accomplished for us through the death and resurrection of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Work or Play?

2011-10-21T03:00:00.001-07:00

A nice fringe benefits of being an airline pilot is layovers at awesome places. Here's a few photos from a recent trip to Honolulu.

The view from the top of Diamondhead

How to Copy Text from Your Kindle

2011-10-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve got the Kindle for iPad app on my iPad, and wanted to copy and paste some quotes from a book I was reading – which isn’t an option the app provides. Typing the quotes out manually wasn’t a task I particularly relished, so I did a little research. Turns out that any text that you highlight in the app gets saved onto your Kindle page at Amazon.com. Go to http://kindle.amazon.com and log in with your Amazon.com password. Click on “Your Highlights” at the top of the page, and it displays everything you’ve highlighted in your Kindle product, broken down by book, with the most recently highlighted book first. Then it’s a simple matter of copying and pasting what you want. This may seem a bit cumbersome, but with 111 highlighted passages in my book, this saved me a boatload of time. Hopefully it will do the same for you.

If you’ve got the Kindle on your PC, it is possible to copy and paste, although if you’ve highlighted a bunch of text, you may prefer the above method.

As an added bonus, it saves the highlighted passages from your Lutheran Study Bible too. Sweet!

Jamming for Jesus: Giving Him My Everything

2011-10-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

The video advertisement for the upcoming New Jersey Jam contemporary worship workshop starts out with Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Pastors Greg Bearss and Matt Peeples asking

So what does it look like to really worship God? As we fix our eyes on Jesus, can I worship God with electric drums? Can we worship Him with electric guitar, or via Skype from Knoxville, Tennessee? Can we worship God on a makeshift football field with a makeshift goal? What does it mean for us as we lead others to fix their eyes on Jesus, and to worship Him with everything they are, everything that is within them. Where can we worship Jesus? Can we worship in a movie theater, a football field, a makeshift grocery store? Can we worship in a bar? What can we use to worship God? Can we use our cell phones to shoot texts? What is it to worship in today’s culture, authentically, truly?

After hearing that, a good reciprocal question would be

Is worship primarily about me and my commitment to God, me giving Him everything within me, or is worship primarily about God and everything He’s giving me?

Certainly, there is an element of action on our part in worship, but that work is in response to the Gospel, and ultimately energizes us to serve our fellow man, not God. Article V of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession points us to the primary purpose of worship, which goes unmentioned in the video:

…The chief worship of the Gospel is to desire to receive the forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness (Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions, CPH, p. 193).

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that somewhere in this workshop which includes modules on “worship dance” and prayer stations, there’s also a module on the Apology’s definition of worship. Dr. Martin Noland provides a helpful set of principles which can be used to determine if our worship practices conform to our Confession:

1) WORD PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans teach, preach, read, hear, and seriously ponder the Word of God (LC 1st part, 92).

2) SACRAMENTAL PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans receive the sacraments and confess their sins publicly (LC 4th part, 1; LC Brief Exhortation, 10).

3) REVERENCE PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans show respect to God with songs and prayer (LC 1st part, 84).

4) PETITION PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans ask God for blessings, help, and comfort (LC 1st part, 17).

5) PRESCRIPTIVE PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans obey what is commanded by God’s Word, and avoid what is forbidden therein (FC SD X, 1).

6) INTEGRITY PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans avoid practices that are deceptive, i.e., which portray themselves as being something different than their true character (FC SD X, 5).

7) SYNCRETISTIC PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans avoid practices that give the impression that Lutherans have no serious disagreements with another faith, or that Lutherans are getting close to coming to agreement with that faith tradition (FC SD X, 5).

8) SPECTACLE PRINCIPLE – In worship Lutherans avoid useless or foolish spectacles (FC SD X, 7).

9) CHANGE PRINCIPLE – When change is being considered in worship, Lutherans will avoid frivolity and offense, and use the criteria of good order, Christian discipline, evangelical decorum, and the edification of the church; and they will consider such change as a community of faith, not as isolated congregations or as “lone wolf” pastors (FC SD X, 9).

The New Jersey Jam contemporary worship workshop seems like it doesn’t line up with Dr. Noland’s list. When the goal is to create a “worship experience,” the underlying foundation can’t be the Book of Concord, but a foundation more akin with those whose theological tradition espouses making a decision for Christ. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate.

Hearty and Honest Consent

2011-10-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

Quoting Lutheran theologian Charles Porterfield Krauth:

To true unity of the Church, is required hearty and honest consent in the fundamental doctrine of the gospel, or, in other words, in the Articles of Faith.

...It is utterly false that Evangelical Lutherans are sticklers for non-fundamentals, that they are intolerant toward those who err in regard to non-fundamentals; on the contrary, no Church, apart from the fundamentals of the gospel in which her unity and very life are involved, is so mild, so mediating so thoroughly tolerant as our own.

Charles Porterfield Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, (St. Louis: CPH, 2007) 181.

What Sort of Plan Is That?

2011-10-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Pastor David Kind, the pastor of University Lutheran Chapel, was interviewed on Issues, Etc. on September 26th. He was asked to explain what the Minnesota South District Board of Directors plan to do with the revenue from the sale of the University Lutheran Chapel property. Here is his response:

They have a plan to put the money into an endowment fund for the sake of campus ministries around the district, with the idea being that we no longer have full time campus workers, whether they be pastors or DCEs or what have you. And then we no longer have campus properties, or buildings, but that the students on campus, in conjunction with some sort of local congregation, organize themselves into a campus ministry, again, with the leadership of the congregation to do that, near them. The money then from that that’s put into that endowment fund is going to go toward hiring a campus ministry coordinator for the whole district, and then granting $5,000 grants to various congregations that are going to attempt to do campus ministry at whatever campus they’re near, whether it’s a community college or a smaller school or what have you. The problem with that is, they tried this before. At one time at the high point of the campus ministries in the district we had nine different campus ministries that followed this model, and none of them exist any more. It’s proven true over time that if you don’t have dedicated staff and a dedicated place, the campus ministries just don’t do that well. And in the places where [unintelligible] ministries do flourish it’s because they have a real dedication to it and they put money behind it and people behind it – a lot more than $5,000.

photo credit: san_drino

This Blog is Rated "G" for General Audiences

2011-10-14T03:00:00.001-07:00

According to oneplusyou.com, this blog is rated "G." I was hoping is would receive a "C" for catholic (universal) or an "RL" for Really Lutheran, but I guess I'm stuck with the G. You can see how your blog fares by going here.

Flipping Pancakes for ULC

2011-10-13T03:00:00.001-07:00

By now you've heard the news that the good people of University Lutheran Chapel are having their property sold out from under them. Naturally, this means they have no place to gather to hear the Word spoken, or receive Christ's body and blood, or have their children baptized. No place for university students to gather as they've done for decades. Maybe your congregation could give them a hand by flipping a few pancakes on November 6th, taking a free will offering, and sending the funds through the pipeline to ULC. Your help would give them a new start on a place to worship. For more information, check out the Pancakes for ULC blog. Doesn't the aroma from that hot steaming pancake smell good?

What is the Christian Life?

2011-10-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

Quoting Pastor Jeremy Rhode from his September 21 appearance on Issues, Etc., continuing the series on the Gospel for former Evangelicals:

Eternal life is to know the Father and the Son. Eternal life isn’t a place – it’s a relationship with God, founded upon His grace towards us in Jesus. Eternal life is not something you will get, it’s something you have right now. The Father reveals Himself to you through His Son. “And this is eternal life,” Jesus says, “that they may know the Father and the Son.” So you have eternal life right now. “Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die,” Jesus says. “I am the resurrection and the life.” So the life that you will have for eternity is Jesus, and nothing else. And the life that you now have, is Jesus and nothing else. “I am the life,” He says. So the Christian life is Jesus.

Anyone who wants to make the Christian life foremost about you and what you do, has already put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. In fact, they’ve already missed the whole point. The Christian life is Jesus Himself and what He does for you. His cross, His pastoral care, His Word, and His Sacrament. And of course, this includes good works as well, but let them have their proper place, and let them be understood in this light. They are His good works that He does in you and through you. Sanctification is Christ in action, in you and through you. And we have this from the very mouth of God Himself: Philippians chapter two verse thirteen says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will, and to do, for His good pleasure.”

A New Hymnal for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya

2011-10-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

Imagine sitting down in church to sing the next hymn – out of a Pentecostal hymnal, or out of a Lutheran hymnal that has no music, just words. That’s what the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK) have been doing. That’s about to change.

The ELCK will soon have a new Lutheran hymnal, in their native language of Swahili. The group working on this project, the ELCK Hymnal Commission, officially began in 2009 with the assistance of Deaconess Sandra Rhein and three Concordia Theological Seminary faculty members with experience in producing a hymnal. The ELCK has around 100,000 members, but only 150 pastors, so the majority of these pastors serve multiple congregations. The lack of a proper hymnal, combined with the lack of a pastor on many Sundays, makes for a problematic situation. Deaconess Rhein writes:

Bringing hymnody to the precious body of Christ, specifically to the suffering church of Kenya, would be a clear and effective form of human care and diakonia. Worry and despair, as the cause of many bodily afflictions related to depression and stress, can be overcome by the voice of the Gospel in hymnody. Consequently, providing hymnody, as part of a comprehensive solution and in conjunction with other forms of care, can be a fundamental way to care for the bodily needs of our brothers and sisters.

The new hymnal, called Ibada Takatifu (Divine Service), is going to print in January of next year, with a first printing of 20,000 copies. They could certainly use our help in funding these hymnals. At a cost of $100 for 34 hymnals, that equates to about $3 per hymnal. What a unique opportunity for us to help spread the Gospel in a wonderful way, that will have an impact for decades to come. If you’d like to help, you can contribute online here, or mail a check to:

Concordia Theological Seminary

6600 N Clinton

Fort Wayne IN 46825

In the memo line of the check, write “Kenyan Hymnal Project.”

More information can be found on the Kenyan Hymnal Project blog.

Pastor Joel Osteen on Piers Morgan Tonight: Word-Faith Confusion

2011-10-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

Joel Osteen and his wife Victoria appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight last Tuesday, October 4 – the release date of Pastor Osteen’s new book Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week. The interview covered a multitude of topics that might lead a sharp viewer to a couple of general observations: 1) Joel Osteen is an incredibly nice guy and 2) Joel Osteen knows very little about the basic articles of faith of Christianity, i.e. Christian doctrine. That’s really a shame because you want such a nice guy to be on top of his pastoral game, especially since he’s the pastor of the largest church in the United States (Lakewood Church in Houston), with 40,000 attendees per week.

If you check out the website for Pastor Osteen’s church, you will find that it does contain a basic Gospel message, yet his sermons and public appearances are nearly devoid of orthodox Christian doctrine or teaching. It’s as though someone else wrote the web page. Why is that? Because he’s a Word-Faith preacher (although a less egregious example). The Word-Faith movement, also called “positive confession,” “name it and claim it,” “blab it and grab it,” etc., believes that you speak reality into existence. If you believe what you’re speaking, your words create that reality. Faith is a power or force to be harnessed by visualization followed by verbalization – God becomes your personal valet controlled by your “faith” – you speak it and God’s obligated to make it happen.

You can see evidence of Pastor Osteen’s Word-Faith beliefs in his interview with Piers Morgan. For instance, when speaking of putting your faith in God, he says that “When you do that, to me, you’re releasing your faith, and that’s what allows God to change things.” His oft repeated creed “I believe it and declare it” is another example of this “faith.” What is lacking in this theology is true faith in the atoning work of Jesus on the cross, without which, no one can be saved. Believing that life is about speaking reality into existence, there’s no need to emphasize your real need, the forgiveness of sins, and thus no need to trust in Jesus; the Gospel is subtly replaced by a prosperity gospel. Your faith becomes not faith in Christ, but faith in faith, which is ultimately faith in yourself. There may be Word-Faith people out there that will be saved in spite of what they’ve been taught, because they do believe that Jesus is their Savior, a case of felicitous inconsistency.

The Word-Faith movement has many iterations (whose gurus include Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Paul and Jan Crouch, and Kenneth Hagin), but one thing all Word-Faith proponents realize is that their belief system often fails them, hence they need to leave themselves an “out.” The failure of their words to create reality is generally attributed to a lack of faith, or if something bad happens, it’s because you thought something bad. You can see evidence of this in the interview as well. This ought to be a rather obvious red flag – their theology doesn’t “work.” Here is precisely the spot where we can jump in and help people trapped in the Word-Faith movement. An honest person will admit that they’re not having a lot of success with their “faith,” which presents an opportunity for us to share with them what real faith is all about.

It’s a shame that the world fawns over those with the biggest following, who are often those with a false message. “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them” (1 John 4:5 ESV). Yet we can be thankful that their false beliefs offer us an opportunity to become “little Christs” and share the message of the Gospel with those in need.

An overview of the Word-Faith movement can be found here.

Here's Looking at You, Kid

2011-10-07T03:00:00.000-07:00

Another amazing part of God's creation - a closeup of the compound eyes of a long-legged fly. Next time you'll have a greater appreciation for this little guy as you splatter his innards across your kitchen cabinet door. For those of you that are of a slightly younger generation, the famous line "Here's looking at you, kid," was spoken by Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman at the end of the 1942 silver screen classic "Casablanca."

photo credit: Thomas Shahan

Reformation Week on Issues, Etc.

2011-10-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

The lineup of guests for Reformation week on Issues, Etc. looks great. Don’t forget to tune in.

Monday, October 24 – Rev. Paul McCain on Confessional Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism

Tuesday, October 25 – Dr. Ken Schurb on Confessional Lutheranism and Calvinism

Wednesday, October 26 – Dr. Martin Noland on Confessional Lutheranism and liberal mainline Protestantism

Thursday, October 27 – Dr. Ron Feuerhahn on Confessional Lutheranism and liberal Lutheranism

Friday, October 28 – Dr. Larry Rast on Confessional Lutheranism and American Evangelicalism

Considering a Vocation in Church Work?

2011-10-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

Quotable Blog Quotes #14

2011-10-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere

Confessional Gadfly

Pastor Eric J. Brown

"Sasse - Office, Congregation, and now..."

Missouri has in her pride and arrogance turned away from her first love - that is simply being a collection of congregations and pastors, faithful to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, desiring to walk together in love and peace as each congregation and pastor worked the place that was given to them.

Let us make our pastors once again pastors in congregations, and not simply idea men or paper pushers in some cubicle where they think up abstract theologies for the "greater good." Let them be where true theology of the best sort happens - in the pulpit and sanctuary, in the classroom, at the hospital bed, at the shut-in's side, at the congregational pantry...

Confessional’s Bytes

Jim Pierce

"The Persecution and Killing of the Saints"

Religious leaders caught up in this universal spirit of the age fall all over themselves in taking opportunity to show their unity in the doctrine of religious multiculturalism. What used to be simply a call for tolerance of each other's beliefs is now a silent killer. Rather than physically executing a Christian for confessing the truth, we now have a politically correct apparatus through multiculturalism in which to "kill" the message that there can be only one truth found in Christ. Claiming to have "the Truth" is a message held by hyper-radicals like Islamofascist terrorist groups, by today's "standards." "Live and let live" is the message of the day and sadly too many American Christians are buying into it.

Esgetology
Pastor Christopher Esget

"The Spiritual Sickness of Independence and Autonomy"

My denomination (the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod) is old (by American terms), and has not aged particularly well. We have weird layers of bureaucracy, odd traditions, and a really ugly logo. Most of her members don’t like me very much. (But then, I’m not very lovable, and don’t try real hard to make friends, either.) But I love her. Not because I was born into her, but because her confession is my confession. Not everybody in the Synod entirely agrees with our confession, and not everybody is practicing it. Here’s a surprise: she’s full of sinners, too. But her confession is my confession, and that’s what makes me stick with her.

Father Hollywood

Pastor Larry Beane

"Sister Enya, MD and the Trans-Siberian Riverdance"

Upon listening in the car, it wasn't quite what I expected. The music did feature (nearly all) Latin chant by the female choir - but there was more. The vocals were overlayed with New Age licks reminiscent of Enya. Don't get me wrong, I like Enya. I know I'm probably not supposed to, but I don't really care. I also like pineapple-amaretto daiquiris and little umbrellas in my drinks. You want my man card? Μολὼν λαβέ, tough guy! But Enya is not sacred music. I didn't dig the whole Gregorian Chant thing with massage music going in the background.

Four and Twenty+ Blackbirds

Pastor Rick Stuckwisch

"PMI: Maybe Not TMI, But MTP and TWI"

Pastors are prepared for the pastoral ministry by the pastoral care of the pastoral ministry: which isn't about marketing or propaganda, but comprises the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, the ongoing catechesis of the Word of Christ unto faith in His forgiveness, the hearing of confession and the absolving of sins in His name and stead, and the regular reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. Where those things are not at the center, neither is Christ Jesus. Where those things are the heart of who we are and what we do, there Christ is our true treasure, and we live by the grace of His Gospel, unto the life everlasting.

Gottesblog

Father Bernell Eckardt

"The Holy Trinity"

The Feast of the Holy Trinity grew out of a custom of using the Sunday after Pentecost for the "reconciliation of heretics." Hence Trinity Sunday is, in a way, an opportunity to point out false teachings against the Christian truth, in order to bring the world to the truth.

Gottesdienst Online

Pastor Heath Curtis

"Uncle"

I cry Uncle. Let it never be said that the folks at CPH have no sense of humor. The new Walther commemorative medal is made out of "antique bronze." That's a win.

Pastoral Meanderings

Pastor Larry Peters

"How did we get to this point?"

I grow weary of those who insist upon recapturing some golden age of Lutheran theology and practice. They give us liturgical folk a bad name. But I am also weary of "the Pointes" and "the Alleys" who flaunt their freedom by trashing their Lutheran heritage and the moniker into merely a vague principle instead of a specific confession and practice.*

Theologia Crucis

Dr. Jack Kilcrease

"Words and 'The Word': Derrida vs. Luther."

Though Derrida was an Atheist during his life time (he obviously no longer is now that he has passed on)….

Weedon’s Blog

Pastor Wil Weedon quoting A.C. Piepkorn

"New Lutheran Quote of the Day"

In the sacramental mystery it is the body and the blood that, as the Creed puts it, was born out of the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin, the most praiseworthy bearer of the Eternal Word. It is the body and blood that appeared to men in Palestine when Augustus and Tiberius ruled in Rome; the blood that first began to flow at His name-giving on the 8th day of His life; the body that was nailed to the cross and the blood that was the very life of the obedient Servant of Yahweh; the body which God raised from the dead and over which death no longer has dominion, and the blood that pleads for pardon and reconciliation of a world of sinners. -- A. C. Piepkorn, The Church, p. 190, 191

Sinful Separatism or Doctrinal Common Sense?

2011-10-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

In President Matt Harrison’s recent comments on the sale of University Lutheran Chapel, he mentioned the dissensus occurring in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod over what it means to be Lutheran. While there are likely many laymen completely unaware of these problems in our synod, the majority of those involved in the “synodical process” are acutely aware of these disagreements. A recent convention highlights the difficulties.

Our last district convention was an exposition on dissensus. While there was a thin veneer of civility on the surface, hidden beneath were a multiplicity of discordant pieces of particle board, tenuously held together with a minimum of glue. One of the most glaring examples of this friction occurred during the Divine Service on the last day. Was there some sort of outburst by someone? No – just the opposite. There was an absence – of Confessional pastors and laymen in the Divine Service; at least a few of them opted to skip the service rather than commune with those with whom they so vehemently disagreed. This action may seem inappropriate, actually skipping the Divine Service because you disagree with some of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Is this a case of sinful separatism?

The district where I reside is certainly one that isn’t overly Confessional – it’s more like a showcase for novel approaches to doing ministry that push the boundaries of Confessional propriety. Exploring new ways to do Word and Sacrament ministry using other-than-ordained-pastors is encouraged, open Communion is abundant, and practices which disregard our Confession through the embrace of non-Lutheran practices are all amply represented. Some people in the district fit the description which Robert D. Preus warned us about over two decades ago:

…Those who wish to be touted confessional Lutherans have mouthed the pure doctrine of the confessions, but sometimes abandoned or rejected a practice or worship which conforms with the pure Lutheran doctrine. Pastors, conferences, conventions, and even church bodies fall into this quasi-docetic self-delusion when they give lip-service to the creeds, pro forma subscription to the confessions, and reaffirmation of orthodox doctrinal statements, while their practice and worship lapse into Reformed or sectarian or generic forms, disconnected from their high doctrinal assertions.

With this lack of a district-wide confessional stance, could a refusal of pastors and laymen to attend the Divine Service because they disagree with the doctrine and practice of fellow district members be considered sinful separatism? There are certainly people who will make the argument that the answer is “yes.” Before you make that argument, however, consider what the following three Lutheran theologians have to say about the relationship between the Lord’s Supper and fellowship (quotes come from Cyberbrethren):

There cannot be a more inward, brotherly fellowship than that into which one enters with those in whose fellowship he receives the holy Supper.
- C. F. W. Walther

Our participation in the Lord’s Supper is a public profession on our part that we are not only in fellowship with Christ, but that we also are in fellowship with those with whom we commune at the Lord’s Table. For those that approach the same altar together profess to be one, one in all points of Christian doctrine and practice….
- George Stoeckhardt

Because altar fellowship is the most intimate expression of confessional unity, those who commune at the Lutheran altar are those who are in complete confessional agreement and fellowship with the other communicants.
- Norbert H. Mueller

With these quotes in mind, the sinful separatism argument doesn’t make much sense. Participation would mean an affirmation of some people’s ill-formed doctrine. Perhaps this refusal to commune at the district convention was not sinful separatism, but rather doctrinal common sense.

There are people out there who work hard to make it look like we’re all one big happy family here in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and share the exact same doctrine, thereby trying to legitimate their practice. Our synod president obviously disagrees with them, and for that I’m thankful. Admitting that we’ve got problems is the first step toward reconciliation, or, worst case scenario, separation. While reconciliation is the greater goal, separation may be a distasteful option if consensus cannot be achieved. Concord will take repentance, prayer, hard work on everyone’s part, and the blessing of our Lord.

It grieves me that we have such animosity towards one another, and long for a day when we will truly walk together as one in Christ. We must all acknowledge that the other guy isn’t the enemy – our battle is against the evil one.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (Philippians 2:1-2 ESV).

photo credit: Meredith_Farmer

Which Ascended Master Should You Trust?

2011-10-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

Looking for a special gift for that hard-to-buy-for friend or loved one? You might want to skip that box of Ascended Masters Oracle Cards found on Amazon.com.

The back of the oracle cards box exclaims

By popular demand, Doreen Virtue has created a beautiful deck of cards based on her best-selling book Archangels & Ascended Masters. The deck includes gorgeous paintings of 44 male and female cross-cultural deities, such as Ganesha, Merlin, Saint-Germain, Apollo, Pallas Athena, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Jesus, Moses, Yogananda, Green Man, and Kuthumi. The enclosed guidebook gives expanded explanations of each card’s meaning, and a brief history of each ascended master. As with each of Doreen’s oracle-card decks, the messages for each card are positive, accurate, and life-affirming.

As an example of what this deck of cards would do for you, if you were to randomly draw the “Balance Career and Home Life” card out of the deck, it would tell you

You drew this card as a reminder to keep balance in your life. You can do this more easily than you may imagine. You already know which part of your life is lopsided, and you may be feeling symptoms of burnout from this imbalance. You can rapidly shift your energy in positive ways by devoting time each day to your priorities. Even 30 minutes a day spent in meaningful ways will shift your mood, morale, and motivation.

Personally, I’d hope to draw a card that didn’t take up any of my personal time. I’ve already got enough to do. And if I want to shift my energy, I’ll stick my tongue on the positive and negative terminals of a 9 volt Duracell.

The spiritual power behind this particular card, though, comes from the Egyptian goddess Isis:

Isis demonstrated a perfectly balanced life as a great spiritual teacher and devoted wife and mother (to Osiris and Horus, respectively).

Isis is a much-revered Egyptian goddess who symbolizes feminine strength and power. She can help you find enough time and energy to enjoy all aspects of your life, if you’ll ask for her assistance.

According to the intro, the message for each card is supposed to be accurate, yet on the copyright page it says this:

The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Apparently, they don’t have a whole lot of faith in their product.

Most people aren’t gullible enough to look to Isis for real help, yet people search in other equally fatal places. The idea of the manipulation of energy is constantly promoted as a way to spiritual well-being, such as in yoga. When you consider that a deck of cards which features the Hindu god Ganesha, the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Greek god Apollo, the legendary wizard Merlin, and the sacred woman of the Sioux Indians, White Buffalo Calf Woman can be successfully marketed, it says something about the world we live in. Lumping Jesus together with these “ascended masters” illustrates the syncretistic nature of many people’s “spirituality.”

Unlike these others ascended masters, Jesus is not a myth or a shadowy figure from the past. St. Peter states

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 2 Peter 1:16 ESV

The miracles which Jesus performed, and His death and resurrection, occurred in history, and were prophesied by the prophets through the power of the Holy Spirit centuries before they took place. St. Luke records St. Paul’s words as he appeared before Governor Festus and King Agrippa:

…To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles. Acts 26:22-23 ESV

The miracles which Jesus performed, including his death and resurrection, were known not only to his immediate followers, but to those who didn’t believe in Him as well, as Paul affirms as St. Luke continues to recount:

And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind." But Paul said, "I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe." Acts 26:24-27 ESV

The Jewish unbelievers also knew of Jesus’ great works, as Peter reminds us:

Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Acts 2:22-24

The apostles believed in Christ. They were willing to suffer and even die for their risen Lord. Paul says to Timothy:

…Which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. 2 Timothy 1:12 ESV

Jesus is not an ascended master in any normal sense of the word, when compared with the other figures found on these cards. He is the one true God – yet He became true man, that He might suffer the temptations that we suffer, and take away our sin by being crucified on a cross. He ascended to sit in power at the right hand of God the Father – yet he still comes to us in His Word, and in His body and blood found in His Holy Supper.

Jesus is not a mysterious figure that we think will bring us good luck through some feckless tarot card. He is the only one who can offer us the things which these cards search for: peace, blessing, and freedom. As Jesus says in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus’ story is the one which was foretold by the prophets, expounded upon by His witnesses, and continues to resound to the ends of the earth throughout history:

So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." Acts 10:34-43 ESV

photo credit: galdo trouchky