Concupiscence, Gottesdienst, Quaetenus: What Does This Mean?

My daughter Paige and I were running together. We'd gone a ways with each of us drifting off to our own thoughts. The silence was broken by a question from Paige: "Dad, how do you pronounce the word that means we have a tendency to sin?" "Concupiscence," said I. The run then continued in silence for a while.

How did she come up with that random question?

Because she knew what concupiscence was. She'd learned it from adult Bible study at church (I had her come with us instead of going to the kids class when she was in high school - yes, I'm a rebel.) She'd also learned it at home from our home catechesis.

Have you been avoiding the use of "big words?" Here's a quote of Pastor Paul McCain from the October 27th Issues, Etc. show:

I have to give credit to Pastor Peter Bender, who years ago at a seminar I attended said something that's always stuck with me. The argument we often face is we cannot teach children words they don't understand, and he said very simply, "If that was our attitude, then none of us would ever learn to speak, because the words we learn as we're learning to speak we don't understand, we just say them, and then we grow into these words." So learning the words is the foundation for understanding what they mean.

If you don't know what the words concupiscence, quaetenus, or Gottesdienst mean, you're missing out. Ask your pastor to teach them to you.

Straddling Heaven and Earth

Quoting from John W. Kleinig's essay "Ministry and Ordination" contained in Women Pastors?: The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective:

As holy priests, all Christians have equal access to the presence of the Triune God. As priests with the privilege of access to God’s heavenly presence, they perform two functions. On the one hand, they offer true sacrifices of themselves to God in Christ with their bodies and offerings, their prayers and praises. These are offered both for themselves and other people. They therefore represent the world and the people of the world sacrificially before God in the divine service. On the other hand, they represent God to the people of the world, communally in their corporate witness and personally in their vocation. As holy priests they bring God’s love and peace and blessing to those who, unlike them, do not yet have assess [sic] by faith to God’s gracious presence. The spiritual priesthood therefore straddles heaven and earth. It brings the needs of other people to God, and it brings God’s blessings back to them.

Kleinig, John W. "Ministry and Ordination." Women Pastors?: The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective. Ed. Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless. St. Louis: CPH, 2008. 323-336. photo credit: defendamerica.mil

The Emerging Church, Part 5: A Generous Orthodoxy?

The phrase "a generous orthodoxy" comes from the pen of Emerging Church leader Brian McLaren. Some people might call his phrase describing the Emerging Church an oxymoron, positing that while the Emerging Church is generous, you may not want to call it orthodox. That would be a wrong assumption, because it is neither generous, nor orthodox. McLaren states in his book The Church on the Other Side:

We shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. After all, if our perspectives are biased by the groups we belong to, if our understanding is limited by our contexts, if our view is valid only from our subjective standpoint, then each of us is untrustworthy and subjective in knowledge and judgment and none of us can presume to very much authority. (p. 163)

What an odd thing to say - compare McLaren’s words with Paul's words to the Thessalonians:

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 Thess. 2:15 ESV).

Martin Luther's response to Erasmus comes to mind after pondering McLaren's false presuppositions: "What a fulsome speaker you are!-but utterly ignorant of what you are talking about."¹

Click HERE to continue reading >>

Fear Not...

A Savior is born... fear not.

God grant you and your family a blessed Christmas as we join together, rejoicing in the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

See you in a few days.


photo credit: Martin Beek

The Emerging Church, Part 4: Failing to Unwrap the Gift

Last time, we explored what many in the Emerging Church consider the Gospel, a social gospel mixed with a large dose of liberation theology. This departure from orthodoxy is justified under the pretense of a need to attract postmodern people.

Examining Emerging Church objections to the "institutional" church, many of their objections are based on straw man arguments, yet some of their objections do ring true, especially when compared with Evangelicalism. Many of these objections can and should be answered by placing them squarely into the realm of Lutheranism.

The following quotes illustrate the mindset of Emerging Church authors, followed by contrasting observations provided by orthodox Lutheran theology.

Emerging Church author Rob Bell, in his book Velvet Elvis says

When we choose God's vision of who we are, we are living as God made us to live. We are living in the flow of how we are going to live forever. This is the life of heaven, here and now. And as we live this life, in harmony with God's intentions for us, the life of heaven becomes more and more present in our lives. Heaven comes to earth. This is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." There is this place, this realm, heaven, where things are as God desires them to be. As we live this way, heaven comes here. To this place, this world, the one we're living in. (p. 147)

Bringing heaven and the kingdom of God to earth are familiar themes in the Emerging Church, themes in which the "followers of Jesus" are the ones who accomplish the "bringing." LCMS seminary professor Arthur Just corrects this oft man-centered Emerging Church view with a proper Christ-centered perspective:

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Lutheran Theology Doesn't Mix

When you mix Lutheran theology with the theology of other denominations bad things happen, things like contentious counting, women's ordination, silly seeker-sensitive services and more. In an effort to promote Lutheran theology and raise awareness to the threat of foreign theology seeping into Lutheran distinctives and contaminating them like food coloring in water, I created the graphic above. Please feel free to use it, distribute it, paste it to your blog or front door, however you'd like. To get your own copy, just click on the image and save the larger image that pops up.

Thanks for contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

What Not to Teach

If you're looking for something to add to your list of things to avoid, The Alpha Course would be a good candidate. Billed as a "non-threatening introduction to the Christian faith," The Alpha Course is essentially a course taught with a Pentecostal outlook. The course insists that you take your Christian beliefs to the next level by being filled with the Spirit, something that all Christians already possess in totality. Unfortunately, there are a few Lutheran churches that teach the Alpha Course.

Jim Pierce has written a short review of The Alpha Course, available on his blog Confessional's Bytes. I hope you'll check it out.

The Emerging Church, Part 3: What Gospel?

In Part 2 of our series, we discovered how beliefs in the Emerging Church are often created through a triad of community, experience, and Scripture, as opposed to sola Scriptura. The results of this sort of viewpoint can be seen playing out in the words of Emerging Church leader Brian McLaren:

I don’t think we’ve got the gospel right yet. What does it mean to be “saved”? When I read the bible, I don’t see it meaning, “I’m going to heaven after I die.” (online reference)

Other big names in the emerging conversation, such as Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt, and N. T. Wright, pay lip service to heaven. But their passing nod to heaven (if it occurs at all) is generally more of a disclaimer quickly mentioned, before they move on to what they really want to talk about, redefining the Gospel into a utopian vision of earth now.

So people shouldn’t think of their destiny in relation to heaven or hell, which aren’t the ultimate reality, but in relation to God–God the compassionate Father, God who loves the poor and the weak and the vulnerable and cares when they’re mistreated, God who values both personal morality and public justice, God whose will is peace and justice for all. (Brian McLaren through a character in his book The Last Word and the Word After That, p. 164)

They often speak of God’s dreams for the world and their participation in those dreams, and of love:

Our dream is to join in the activity of God in the world wherever we are able, so that God’s dreams for our world come true. In the process, the world can be healed and changed, and so can we. (Emergent Village, online reference)

We invite you to join with us in pursuing the dreams and love of God for the world in the way of Jesus. (Solomon’s Porch, leader Doug Pagitt, online reference)

God’s dream was for freedom and creativity, kindness and justice, generosity and peace, diversity and harmony. (McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, p. 141)

Repentance is redefined, and original sin is omitted entirely:

Click HERE to continue reading >>

Confessing the Faith

"A Lutheran's attitude toward the confessions will indicate his attitude toward the Gospel itself."

Quoted from Dr. Robert Preus's paper "Confessional Subscription."

Ablaze! Is...

Here's a list of quotes on the Ablaze! program, all taken from the synod's website:

Ablaze!™ is not a program. It's a movement.
Ablaze! is not an answer…it's an invitation!
"Ablaze!" is a vision...
Ablaze! is the name of an initiative...
Ablaze! is taking hold...
Ablaze! is all about burning hearts...
Ablaze! is a movement to effect a culture change in our church...
Ablaze! is about re-engineering instead of downsizing.
Ablaze! is a mission movement...
Ablaze! is taking hold, kindling a renewed zeal for the mission...
“Ablaze!” is an effort...
Ablaze! is a grassroots movement.
Ablaze! is the spark that will bring renewed focus and passion for mission!
Ablaze! is a bold vision...
Ablaze! is all about every Lutheran Christian...
Ablaze! is what we are doing...

The question is, what do you think Ablaze! is?