A New Wittenberg Trail

There's a new Wittenberg Trail being started by Norm Fisher at the same address as the old Wittenberg Trail: http://wittenbergtrail.ning.com/

Stop by, get in on the ground floor, and offer suggestions on what you want for the new website.

Ephemeral

Websites come and websites go, and now is the time, I'm told, for The Wittenberg Trail to go.

I will miss it.

FOLLOW UP

Here's the comment Jim Pierce left explaining the demise of The Wittenberg Trail:

Hello all,

It is with great difficulty that I write this post and it is not a post that I wanted to write, since I wanted to contact each member personally via email, but alas a computer mishap with the email list of Wittenberg Trail membership rendered the list unusable.

On Wednesday of this week I finalized the decision to shut down the Wittenberg Trail on-line community and did so. The reasons were many and it was a terribly difficult decision to make. The main reasons for the site closure dealt with a lack of resources to keep the site viable. Also, the WT was in membership decline and with no financial resources coming in, was nearly impossible to promote.

I am terribly sorry for any negative impact closing the WT down has had on anyone else. I know I will miss the WT.

Finally, I have been in discussions with others, and while I can't make promises, or name names, a new concept for the Wittenberg Trail is already in the works and perhaps by late fall of this year we can see a new and improved (and free) Wittenberg Trail rise up, God willing.

Yours in Christ,

Jim Pierce


photo credit: Amy Messere

Deliverance from Distress

Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
they saw the deeds of the LORD,
his wondrous works in the deep.
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits' end.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
Psalms 107:23-32


photo credit: Bob Jagendorf

The Downward Spiral

You don't have to be a Lutheran to figure out that the "seeker sensitive" church isn't being faithful. Calvinist brother Les Lanphere nails it when he answers the question "What happens when the importance of numbers outweighs the importance of truth?" in his blog post titled "The Downward Spiral of Seeker Sensitivity." You can read his post on his blog Killer Robot Ninja.

A highlight:

Before too long the subtle changes turn to blatant shifts. The management begins asking for money for future needs as they look forward to bigger buildings and bigger staff. In reality, they have no choice. The people who understand what it means to give money to the Kingdom are leaving. The growing audience of unbelievers doesn’t know what sacrificial giving means, so they must be convinced to donate. Promises of prosperity, through twisted Scripture, are the obvious next step. The poor donations of the ‘new converts’ and unbelievers just compounds the need for an even bigger audience to ask for contributions from.

His conclusion:

If you are in a Church like this, or you know of one that is falling into this hopeless pattern, pray to God for restoration. He is the only hope. The flesh will never repent of this greed, only through the Spirit can God wake this kind of Church up.

Let’s love our brothers who may have made mistakes. Let’s sympathize with their good intentions. Let’s point out their error in love, and call them to repentance in gentleness. With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

photo credit: domnit

HT: Florence

The Words of Christ Still Stand

Quoting Professor John Pless from his paper “The Lord’s Supper in the Life of the Congregation”:

It was from the Formula [of Concord, Article VII] that Sasse would argue that the difference between the Lutherans and the Reformed on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper is as lively today as it was in the sixteenth century. It is not merely a debate over the how of Christ's presence but rather what is present. No Christian believes in a real absence. That was not the issue at the time of the Reformation nor is it the issue now. Thus communion announcements that ask that those who come to the altar "believe in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament" are meaningless. As Dr. Albert Collver has demonstrated the language of the real presence is not yet a confession of Christ's body and blood.

…The words of Christ still stand. He gives us His body to eat. He gives us the blood of His new testament to drink for the forgiveness of our sins. "Around the Lord's Table is gathered the church. At the Table of the Lord, the church knows what it most profoundly is: the body of Christ. There has been no doubt of this since the days of the apostles. Where the Lord's Supper is no longer known or celebrated, there the church dies, irretrievably lost" wrote Hermann Sasse in 1941.

Universalism: The Gospel Message of Emergent and New Age Spirituality

The following post is reproduced from the blog Sola Sisters. The Sola Sisters are two sisters who do a great job of keeping track of threats to Christ's Church from such things as the Emerging Church and New Age thought (which are often highly intertwined). I like their blog because they've both been saved from the very things they now speak against, and are thus well suited for their apologetic task - plus they explain things without bowling me over with a bewildering array of esoterica. Thanks to the Sola Sisters for sharing their thoughts with us:

One of the greatest misconceptions in this country today is that the New Age Movement of the 80s and 90s is (1) a thing of the past and (2) has nothing whatsoever in common with Christianity. Nothing could be further from the truth on either count. Let me explain.

Most Americans today have sort of an eye-rolling, amused response to the phrase "New Age." Perhaps their minds are conjuring up an image of Shirley MacLaine on the beach, talking to the sky, a spiritual eccentric who became the punch line of many jokes for her interest in reincarnation and channeling. Perhaps they think that, like Shirley MacLaine, the New Age has passed gently into history, much like the rubix cube and Duran Duran. Well, the truth is that the New Age is still very much with us today. It never really went away, it just went mainstream. New Age practices or beliefs that were once considered borderline occultic or kooky are now widely accepted and embraced, including yoga, mantra meditation, muscle testing, acupuncture, reiki, sustainable living and going green. Don't believe it? Just pick up any newspaper or popular magazine today (Reader's Digest, Ladies' Home Journal, Parade) and you will most likely read at least one, usually multiple articles, on the benefits of these practices. Heck, even my husband's Golf World had a lengthy article in the February 2010 issue on how golf courses around the country are trying to "go green."

So just how did this New Age worldview get so powerful so fast? The short answer is that although it's actually been around for a very long time, it got its greatest push into the mainstream through America's most beloved talk show host, Oprah Winfrey. For some reason, people think that this New Age Spirituality direction that Oprah has taken is a new thing. It is not. I know this because I was on the same path that she was for a very long time, and at about the same time. Along with Oprah, I became completely immersed in New Age beliefs and practices, about 20 year ago, and yet at the same time used Christian terminology for all that I was doing. But the catch was this: all the Christian terminology I used had been redefined to fit the theology of my New Age belief system. And this is exactly how Oprah has made the New Age worldview palatable to the average Americans who were watching: she was using the same terminology that many Americans were. We were still, at least at that time, a "Christian" nation, and by that I mean, the majority of Americans made some kind of Christian profession and had at least some knowledge of the Christian faith. So although Oprah was going in a distinctly occultic, eastern direction spiritually, she was using words like "Holy Spirit," "God," "Jesus," "atonement," and "salvation." And because Oprah was using terminology that everyone was familiar with, everybody's guard went down....and that's how the deception flooded in. Not to get too creepy about it, but this is exactly how many cults "reprogram" their new recruits. Same terminology, redefined terms.

Click HERE to continue reading >>

A Cloud of Witnesses

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV).



Thanks to Pastor David Gallas for creating another great video.

Miss Me Yet?

From the Humor Department:

The recent George W. Bush "MISS ME YET?" billboard reminded me of this photo I took in 2004. I spoke with this gentleman and war veteran holding the "Re-elect BUSH" sign when I was on a run in Boston. He was doing a little campaigning in his neighborhood. I guess he just thought we oughta vote for Bush. The catch? The house that's behind him over his left shoulder is that of Senator John Kerry.

Consider the Lilies

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:25-34 ESV


photo credit: B G

Quotable Blog Quotes #12

Quotable Quotes From Around the Blogosphere

Reformation Underground: Dead Theologians Society
David Appold

Theology must begin with God’s Word. Apart from that, as post-modernity would have it, there is no such thing as an objective truth. If spirituality is the search for the objective truth, then those who are spiritual but non-religious will cut themselves off from the very thing they desire by searching for experiential communion with God and denying the objective doctrines taught by Scripture. Those who are Christian but place little value on doctrine put their faith in experiences over God’s Word. Christian doctrine after all, is always a confession. Faith must express itself as a confession.


Weedon’s Blog
Pastor Wil Weedon

The Church as eschatological reality does not exist solely in the Eucharistic Assembly. Rather, her particular mode of existence in Eucharistic assembly is the source of her strength for her perpetual task in this world: the invasion. We are part of an alien invasion, make no bones about it. We are here to rescue as many "earthlings" as we can for the joys of that heavenly life that we certainly taste in Eucharistic assembly - our secret "visit home" each week. Strengthened to orient our lives toward the unseen realities that our Master Invader has revealed to us, He sends us out to BE His Church in this world.


More Pastor Weedon

Divine worship is a battle to strengthen faith for holding onto the promises. We know faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. Faith comes from the promises - they are what the Holy Spirit uses to give and to strengthen faith! So we hurl the promises at each other, drench each other in them, wrap each other up in them to help one another in the struggle as we live in this very broken and damaged world, stumbling on, crawling toward the joys of the Age that is to come - where everything that is not Love will at last and blessedly be history!


Pastor Jonathan Fisk
From a comment on The Brothers of John the Steadfast website

Interestingly enough, the word “mission” is not really a biblical word at all. It comes into Christian vocabulary from the latin translation of the word Apostle. The Jesuit “missions” were the Apostolic sending of priests to convert the heathen.
If we rightly want to get our missiology nailed down, and get missional, then biblically speaking we are talking about the Office of the Ministry, the Keys, etc. This is a far cry from the word “mission” as generally bandied about, even in Lutheran circles 50 years ago. That, rather, is the “go” of Matthew 28, which has been expanded into an entire paradigm for hermeneutics. Ironically, the “go” in Matthew 28 is not even an imperative at all! It’s a participle, and thus has far more to do with “being ready to give an answer” wherever your vocation happens to leave you then with any mandate to “go go go go go.”

Click HERE to continue reading >>