That Lutheran Guy

Luther's Works on Sale!

2011-04-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

I already own it, I love it and it is selling for about $90 less than usual:

Luther's Works on CD-ROM

by Luther, Martin

Item #: 151774WEB / 2001 / CD-ROM

Price:: ~~$249.00~~
Sale Price:: $159.99 You Save $89.01 (36%)

Free shipping on orders of $75 or more.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

I don't work for Concordia nor get a 'kickback', I just think this is a great product. I use it daily to post quotes from Luther on my congregation's Facebook page. I don't know how long this sale lasts but I'll tell you now, I paid MORE and I still think it was worth it!

Well, that's all for now.

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim
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Twitter And The Problem Of Evil

2011-04-19T03:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Recently on Twitter someone said their 8 yr old asked why God created earthquakes. I replied

God didn't make the earthquake, it's the effects of man's rebellion on creation Gen 3:17-18, Rom 5:12 & 8:22-23, 2 Pet 3:4-7.

Which is Scripturally true but woefully inadequate as a real answer. The reply I got (predictably) was if I had any advice on how to tell an 8 yr old that. That is definitely problematic. Each Family raises their children differently and for us, how we have raised our kids is part of the answer, not just the age of the child.

In our household we have been very factual and realistic in how we have raised our kids. We told them there was no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny & no Tooth Fairy. This was deliberate because unfortunately, much children's Sunday School material (and yes, our kids have attended very little Sunday School) looks just like children's story books leaving the impression at a later age that Jesus is no more real than Santa or the Easter Bunny and often when a grown child goes off to college, they are met by a professor (even at 'Christian' colleges) who lumps Jesus, Santa & the Easter Bunny all in one lump together. Another similar case is the college prof who compares Jesus, Mary & God the Father to characters out of Egyptian, Greek & Roman mythology.

Having been through this myself in college, I decided my kids would be brought up differently. We do celebrate Christmas and Easter but it is no mystery that presents and candy come from Mom & Dad and other family members. I have encouraged my children to watch the news and watch documentaries with me and I have taken them to museums and encouraged them to read wholesome books on history so as to ground them in historical facts about their world and religion is not treated as an other-worldly mystery or as a collection of 'nice stories' to make us feel warm and fuzzy. God is a fact, Jesus walked the earth and Christianity=Reality. My kids have learned not just from the catechism but from life what it means when we as Christians confess that:

I believe in one God,

 the Father Almighty,

 maker of heaven and earth,

 and of all things visible and invisible

Or "seen and unseen" as it were. Once this is accepted the problem of evil (Why do we have wars? Tornados? Earthquakes?) becomes a simple recognition of Man's fall, his sinful nature and our need for a Saviour. If we neglect to teach our children that Christianity is objectively, historicly true and further neglect to teach them about man's sinful nature, then they won't be able to deal with evil or it's many manifestations such as war, sickness, poverty or hypocrisy.

Man's sinful nature, caused by his rebellion toward God is the cause of all our problems, not God. God gave Man (Adam) both a choice and a warning - Man selected the wrong choice in spite of the warning God gave him and all the suffering we see and feel around us is the result.

And there is comfort in knowing this surprisingly enough. As my children (who watch the Disney & Nickelodeon channels daily) have seen the habitual wrong turns taken by child stars such as Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Miley Cyrus et. al., they have told me that they realize that these girls have given into the temptations that come with fame and money. They understand that these young women are struggling with their sinful nature and the decadence & materialism (probably not the words my kids would choose, probably "bad morals" and "lotsa stuff") are drawing them away from (all 3 have claimed to be Christian) God. My kids know that we all are sinners saved by Grace and if you are surrounded by fame and fortune, you will face temptations.

So perhaps maybe the way to unpack this for an 8 year old child is to begin:

1) Acknowledging that we all are sinners
2) Talk to them about a story they can relate to, the latest moral foible of a child star they see on TV
3) Take it back to the Fall of Adam & Eve
4) Reinforce that Adam & Eve were real people just like Jesus (& you & me)
5) Apply Scripture: Gen 3:17-18, Rom 5:12 & 8:22-23, 2 Pet 3:4-7.

Also, if you aren't now, begin to draw clear lines between the real world and the world of fantasy. You don't have to give up Christmas Presents or Easter candy, you just have to be truthful about where it really comes from. Additionally, once lines of demarcation are drawn between fantasy & reality - align your faith with the known world but also teach your child that there are some things we take by faith that we cannot see (like Angels and God Himself) and we know them to be true because it is contained in God's Word and the Gospels themselves are eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus when He was here on earth - just as you and I are here.

It is like Shakespeare said through the mouth of Hamlet in his refutation of materialism,

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

No Christian parent wants to hear their child invoke 1 Corinthians 13:11 as the reason they became an atheist. We don't want our children to 'grow out of' God as if He were Santa or the Easter Bunny.

My 7 year old son understands that he can never jump off a building like Spiderman or Iron Man does because those are movies with special effects created by men with computers. He also knows that the Bible is true because it teaches that Man has a sinful nature and when he is picked on by his 3 big sisters or has a fight with a kid on the school playground, that is sufficient evidence that evil exists and we are all sinners.

But you can't say all that on Twitter.

Well, that's all for now.

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim
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Reading Through The Church Fathers - Justin Martyr

2011-04-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Reading Justin Martyr was very different from reading Clement or Ignatius. Clement and Ignatius seemed more interested in how the Church was run, what was taught and martyrdom. Justin Martyr seems to be more concerned with arguing for Christianity and discrediting paganism. Today I think we would call him 'Justin the Apologist'. In Dialogue of Justin: Philosopher and Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew, Justin has a Platonic dialogue (a near monologue compared to the Socratic tradition) with a Jew named Trypho telling him why the Old Testament proves Christ. Some of Justin's ideas are well thought out, others stretch symbolism a little far and even make claims that just can't be supported like in this passage:

"When the people," replied I, "waged war with Amalek, and the son of Nave (Nun) by name Jesus (Joshua), led the fight, Moses himself prayed to God, stretching out both hands, and Hur with Aaron supported them during the whole day, so that they might not hang down when he got wearied. For if he gave up any part of this sign, which was an imitation of the cross, the people were beaten, as is recorded in the writings of Moses; but if he remained in this form, Amalek was proportionally defeated, and he who prevailed prevailed by the cross. For it was not because Moses so prayed that the people were stronger, but because, while one who bore the name of Jesus (Joshua) was in the forefront of the battle, he himself made the sign of the cross. For who of you knows not that the prayer of one who accompanies it with lamentation and tears, with the body prostrate, or with bended knees, propitiates God most of all? But in such a manner neither he nor any other one, while sitting on a stone, prayed. Nor even the stone symbolized Christ, as I have shown. - emphasis mine +

So are we to believe that Joshua genuflecting on the battlefield was what carried the day? To say that Moses is a type of of the Cross (with arms stretched outward) who is supporting Joshua (whose name makes him a type of Christ, aka, Jesus without the anglicized spelling) in the battle against the Amalekites (as a type of Satan) is believable (and further attested in the ANF, see St. Cyprian) but he then wants us also to believe that Joshua is crossing himself and adds on - as a curious afterthought that the stone here does not symbolize Christ? Now it could be a corruption of the text by a pious monk to protect Petrine Primacy but I don't have the manuscript evidence in front of me to say that for certain - call it a 'gut feeling'. I don't think the stone represents Christ here either so I can only assume this was said to deflect other allegorists from invoking passages like 1 Corinthians 10:4, Ephesians 2:20, 1 Peter 2:5, etc.

Justin can be hard to follow at times. He uses run-on sentences (or at least his translators did) and he can be repetitive, redundant and duplicative. That said, Justin was a man of expansive learning who tried to give an answer for everything, as the Bible says,

be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you - 1 Peter 3:15b

Answers for things like:

Chapter XX.-Why Choice of Meats Was Prescribed.

Chapter XXVII.-Why God Taught the Same Things by the Prophets as by Moses.

Chapter LIV.-What the Blood of the Grape Signifies.

After Justin finishes making his lengthy case for Christianity and against early Rabbinic Judaism he takes on the Greek world at shorter length but no less zeal in Justin's Hortatory Address to the Greeks in which he makes some interesting points. He contends that the gods of the Greek classical poets are not worthy of worship - they live lives of vice and violence. He 2ndly deals with the Greek philosophers and demonstrates how they conflict with one another (Pythagoras & Epicurus, Plato & Aristotle) in theory and even within themselves (Plato).

Surprisingly then, he validates the Bible by demonstrating that the poets and philosophers received some of their better ideas from the Bible, particularly from Moses! It takes a special kind of chutzpah to argue the way Justin did!

I particularly enjoyed some of the shorter writings such as the Other Fragments from the Lost Writings of Justin which contained some of his more aphoristic saying that were preserved in the writings of others. Here are a few:

VII. We shall not injure God by remaining ignorant of Him, but shall deprive ourselves of His friendship.

XIV. Neither shall light ever be darkness as long as light exists, nor shall the truth of the things pertaining to us be controverted. For truth is that than which nothing is more powerful. Every one who might speak the truth, and speaks it not, shall be judged by God.

XVI. Sound doctrine does not enter into the hard and disobedient heart; but, as if beaten back, enters anew into itself. XVII. As the good of the body is health, so the good of the soul is knowledge, which is indeed a kind of health of soul, by which a likeness to God is attained.

XVIII. To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.

Justin like many of his contemporary fellow-believers wanted to be freed from the corrupt world that was round-about them. 'Roman Civilization' meant the Circus Maximus, vomitoriums, legalized prostitution, infanticide, abortion, militarism - but really good roads! A pastoral faith of brotherhood, gentility and peace must have been extremely attractive, especially for anyone who felt 'trapped' by the vulgarity, efficiency & bellicosity of the Roman Empire. Justin was clearly a man who knew the Scriptures and understood the times he lived in and brought the full weight and power of his keen intellect to bear upon bringing down the vain facade of Rome and raising the Cross of Christ in it's place.

Dear God, thank-you for raising up men like Justin Martyr to speak truth to power, the power of the flesh, the devil and the world which hates Your Holy Law and despises Your Son and His Blessed Gospel.

Help us O LORD to be more like Justin and especially Your Son so that we might Glorify You to our neighbors in the unbelieving world and help rescue those who dwell in the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ our LORD who lives and reigns together with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever, Amen.

Tribute For Caesar

2011-04-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Since today's reading was from Mark 12:13:27, the pericope that deals with the famous, "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's" story and since as a collector of Biblical coins - I thought I'd share a little about it.

Matthew 22:15-22

Paying Taxes to Caesar

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. -ESV

Mark 12:13-17

13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him. - ESV

Luke 20:19-26

19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. - ESV

A genuine (Silver) Tiberius Denarius (Tribute Penny) from
Matthew 22:15-22 / Mark 12:13-17 / Luke 20:19-26. - Author's personal collection.

An ancient counterfeit (Bronze core, silver plating worn off) Tiberius Denarius (Tribute Penny) from Matthew 22:15-22 / Mark 12:13-17 / Luke 20:19-26. - Author's personal collection.

The Obverse side has a picture of the emperor Tiberius with the inscription:
TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS

DIVI means 'Divine'.

The Reverse side has a seated figure of Livia depicted as Pax (goddess of peace) holding as Olive branch and an inverted spear with the inscription PONTIF MAXIM.

PONTIF MAXIM is short for Pontifex Maximus - the title for the Roman State High Priest.

So Caesar (Tiberius in this case) was both the official 'head' Roman god and the head of the entire Roman religion. Get it? “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The Jews (Pharisees) Christ spoke to were NOT honoring God, they were carrying a coin that was about as Kosher as a medium-rare, bacon-cheese burger. The Pharisees wanted to nail Jesus for endorsing tax evasion and his counter to them showed (by their possession of the coin) that they were not keeping the Mosaic Law.

Jews were not allowed to mint coins with depictions of humans or animals, it was against Mosaic law. Furthermore, such coins were not to be carried in Jerusalem. Most Jewish coins had devices such as Amphorae, Barley, Laurel Wreathes, Pomegranates & Palm Trees.

St. Augustine wrote concerning this passage,

"Caesar seeks his image; render it. God seeks his image; render it. Do not withhold from Caesar his coin. Do not keep from God his coin. To this they could not think of anything to answer. For they had been sent to slander him. And they went back saying: No one could answer him. Why? Because he had shattered their teeth in their mouth.” - St. Augustine, ON THE PSALMS 58.8. ACCS Vol 2 pg. 160

and how true! They hoped to catch Jesus in his own words as Luther says,

“This is the same way that John Huss and Jerome of Prague were burned at Constance. No one there could honestly contradict them, so false opinions were ascribed to them, as can be seen clearly from the writings and books of both of them. Likewise Christ, when he says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” [Matt. 22:21], should really have said that one should not pay Caesar any interest.^{” - Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 39 : Church and Ministry I.}

Since what Christ said embarrassed them, they had to create false charges with false witnesses (Mark 14:55-60) to put Him on trial for His crucifixion.

No wonder we don't like to talk about money in Church!!!

Well, that's all for now.

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim
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Reading Through The Church Fathers

2011-03-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Over the past month or so I have been reading the early Church Fathers and not so much in the way of Lutheran theology or Bible commentaries - but I have been acquiring them!

I've read:

St. Clement's Epistles to The Corinthians

Mathetes

Polycarp

The Epistles of Ignatius (Genuine & Spurious)

Barnabas

Papias

and now I am reading Justin Martyr and am nearly finished with his Dialogue With Trypho.

I think I liked Ignatius the best, there was a lot of doctrinal content in his writings and his style is straight-forward and makes good use of rhetoric (but isn't over-the-top) like when he says,

"Let not those who seem worthy of credit, but teach strange doctrines, fill thee with apprehension. Stand firm, as does an anvil which is beaten. It is the part of a noble athlete to be wounded, and yet to conquer. And especially, we ought to bear all things for the sake of God, that He also may bear with us. Be ever becoming more zealous than what thou art. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes; impalpable and impassible, yet who became passible on our account; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes." - St. Ignatius, Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp, Chap 3, ANF Vol I, pg 94

Stand firm as does an anvil which is beaten - you think Ignatius was living in an environment of persecution? If Christ can take a beating so can you! Bothered by false teachers? Deal with it! Consider the day and age you live in and then look to Him who is the great I AM for strength and comfort. Reading words like those penned by Ignatius puts it all into perspective.

That's all for now, more when I finish reading Dialogue With Trypho.

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim
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New Years Resolutions

2011-01-05T03:07:00.000-08:00

Greetings,

Last year by making none I kept all mine. This year I'm aiming a little higher.

1) I'm going to lose some weight. I was watching an old John Candy film Uncle Buck and realized I am a little older (I'm 44 going on 45 later this month, Candy was 43 when he passed away) and not much lighter and I looked at my kids laughing at the movie and decided I should try to stick around a little longer.

2) More posts here. I have gotten pretty lazy when it comes to blogging since the 2010 election ended. I was just all blogged out. I've been reading A LOT since then and have other things to say now - and it's a lot less political and more theological in nature.

3) Less G-O-P and more C-H-R-I-S-T. I'm not eschewing politics or the Republican Party but, the world needs Jesus much more, right now - than it needs any political party. The Republican Party, when it gets it right has really 3 things going for it:

a) smaller government, that is, when it follows it's convictions, more laws means more law-breakers. We have gotten to the point in this country where we have so many laws that innocent people are now being called guilty and what we used to call evil is now called a 'right' at every turn.

b) Christian values (aka: Judeo-Christian values, Family Values, Traditional Values, pick your euphemism). Without Christianity, any culture will slip into barbarism. Nazi Germany was barely Christian when the 3rd Reich took over. Most of the Bible-believing Christians had fled for the USA in the 1800s because of the state-forced Prussian merger between the Lutheran and Reformed. Catholics were in the minority in Germany proper (Prussia), most lived in neighboring Poland and Austria. The GOP has more respect for custom, religion and tradition than the Democratic Party. So long as that remains the case the Republican Party and the conservative cause will be OK.

c) Military might. Like it or not - civilizations need to exercise both offensive and defensive power to keep the barbarians on the other side of the gate. Totalitarians of all stripes need to be kept at bay whether they be zealous theocrats (Al Qaida, Taliban, etc) or atheistic, Utopian revolutionaries (Communists, Marxists, Socialists).

That said, Government can only do so much, what we as a civilization need more than ever right now is Christ. The fights we currently have fought and are fighting be it National Healthcare, Don't Ask Don't Tell or taxpayer funded abortion are all red flags of unbelief.

When people no longer have faith in God, they look to the State as a source of Providence and Moral Law. God's providence is replaced by the Welfare State and God's Law is replaced by the Democratic process of Majority Rule.

To reverse these trends Christ needs to be made known. A common, Christian culture needs to be restored for both the salvation of souls (the highest priority) but also to restore our society to normalcy. I'm not talking about a grandiose revival or Heaven on earth. You can't eradicate sin any more than you can change Human Nature. But we must reverse course soon or God will have to apologize to Sodom & Gomorrah for not destroying us.

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim
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Prolegomena

2010-09-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Salutations,

I'm currently about 90 pages into Hoenecke's prolegomena in volume 1 of his monumental Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics and I'm all Schleiermacher-ed out. Now I know why my agnostic philosophy professor in college wanted to skip over Schleiermacher and talk about idealists like Hegel. Agree or disagree with Hegel, at least he was coherent! Schleiermacher is about as clear as split-pea soup.

Schleiermacher Soup

I still have quite a bit of prolegomena to go and as much as some of it gets technical-schmecnical for me (yes, even for mildly pedantic me) I got to give Hoenecke high marks for writing such a magnum opus and paying so much attention to the history and details of the ~~evolution~~ development of Lutheran theology and the philosophical trends that shaped and affected it.

It will be nice to get past it all though and get on to the actual dogmatic theology.

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim

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My Shelf Runneth Over

2010-08-28T04:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Lately I have acquired quite a few new books to read. I sort of have a plan for reading. I want to read certain New Testament Bible commentaries together (Lenski, ACCS, People's Bible, Concordia) and also read through several of the books on Dogmatic and/or systematic theology that have been written by Lutheran authors, especially those of the Synodical Conference.

Going back to school is still a year + out there and I want to be ready. I want to be drenched in good, Christian works on the Bible & Theology. My Pastor was cool enough to recently invite me to join Shelfari (see above) which is helping me log my reading.

Join me there sometime!

TTFN & God Bless,

Jim

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Lutheran Online Education and Other Moments in Wishful Thinking

2010-07-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

I have been very bad at keeping up this blog but I have also been very busy. I have focused most of my energies over the last umpteen years on the political realm and am growing tired of it. I have witnessed over 30 years of tumultuous change from the failed years of the Jimmy Carter presidency up to the present and I see humanity making the same mistakes over and over and repeating the same temporary remedies over and over and find that the words,

the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever

and

. . . vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever

have become very meaningful to me. I see a lot of striving back and forth and improvements to the human condition are fleeting and temporary when they do come. My own feeling is that while public opinion sways back and forth no real foundational changes (not any of the positive sort any way) for the better are taking place. No, what is occurring is partisans are only fighting back and forth for persuadable people rather than making life-long converts. The result? Very little substantive change but a good deal of fighting.

Over the last few months I have been reading several commentaries on Romans (Luther, Franzmann, Lenski, Panning, & Bray) and also I have been carefully reading Russell Kirk's magnum opus The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot and have found my mind wandering more and more to the transcendent, permanent & eternal over and against the immediate, evanescent & finite.

While I have been reading these various works and resultantly, evaluating my life, I have decided that soon I must go back to school and pursue a Masters Degree and then put those credentials to work immediately for the benefit of the Church. Economies will crest and crash, societies will ascend and topple - and the pendulum will swing back until the end of time.

In the mean time I have looked online for a online Lutheran Masters program in the form a MAR (Master of Arts in Religion) or some other similar degree. There are schools aplenty in the Baptist, Reformed and other Protestant traditions but very little in the Lutheran tradition. So far, to the best of my knowledge, all the confessional Lutheran synods (ELS, WELS, LC-MS) have little or no online degree programs. If I were Anglican, Baptist or Presbyterian I'd have some choices. Sigh.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T00:55:00.000-08:00

The Adoration of the Magi by Albrecht Dürer, 1504

Merry Christmas!

A Savior is born!

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins . . . Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. - Matthew 1:21, 23

Remember, He is the GOD who is there and He is not silent and He is with you always, even unto the end of the age.

Pax Christi, noli timere,

Jim

Sometimes You Can Be Too Conservative!

2009-10-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

There is a group of people at the web site called 'Conservapedia' that decided the Bible is too liberal.

Huh?

I like what Beliefnet columnist Rod Dreher said,

"You really need to read the whole Conservapedia entry to grasp how crazy this is. It's like what you'd get if you crossed the Jesus Seminar with the College Republican chapter at a rural institution of Bible learnin'."

These conservatives so-called should take heed to Moses:

Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

God Bless,

Jim

Revelations Commentary Reading Update

2009-07-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

Revelation, fol. CXCVIIIr: The angel with the key to the
bottomless pit, binding the dragon for a thousand years

Blessings to you gentle readers,

As some of you know, I have been reading several Revelations commentaries, mostly by Lutheran commentators but one was a patristic commentary with commentary and sermons culled from the early Christian Fathers. I recently finished these volumes:

The Revelation To John: A Commentary by Martin H. Franzmann

Revelation: New Testament Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture edited by William C. Weinrich

The interpretation of St. John's Revelation by R. C. H. Lenski

I'm just starting a Revelation commentary by Rev. Louis Brighton - which is a magnum opus in my opinion (and I've just finished the intro!) weighing in at 673 pages and 10 x 7.5 x 2 inches in size its a whopper! No matter where you go it seems to run for about $42.99 new and not much less used. I would say it is suitable for the studious layman, pastor, theology student, etc. I would recommend Franzmann and Mueller as more suitable volumes for the entry level. I personally feel Mueller's Revelation commentary is better, it's more thorough without being technical or jargonish. Franzmann's Revelation commentary is no where near as good as his classic treatment of Romans.

I have also downloaded a Revelations Bible Study by Rev. Paul Bartz from the Confessional Lutherans website. I have yet to read it though. When I do, I'll comment on it.

I have also learned of a Revelations Commentary that is over 800 pages for only $10:

Revelation - Scripture’s Crescendo and Culmination, (839 pages), by Laurence White - $10.00

I have yet to read that one either, but it sounds intriguing.

TTFN,

Jim

Religious Liberty Update

2009-04-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

As I understand this bill from my sources, mere participation in the aforementioned 'volunteer' program would then prohibit a young person from participating in a lot of other outside programs including Church.

I must apologize, I am way behind the curve on this one. The bill became law just today, it is called the 'Serve America Act' now, previously called Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education. It is an expansion of the Americorps ( www.americorps.gov ) program where college money from the government is exchanged for government service. The person who alerted me to all this was a bit johnny-come-lately on this and so I am too. The Senate version (S 277) already passed and today Obama signed it into law. Section 132A of the new law forbids funds going to any entity that is:

Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization, consistent with section 132.

So the above paragraph is already law and I bet many or all of us did not know until today.

A companion bill (not yet passed into law) HR 1444 would make this 'volunteer' service mandatory. So the bill is law and we are too late to stop that but we can attempt to stop HR 1444 and whatever it's Senate version maybe:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1444

Remember, when government expands, liberty contracts.

Jim

Church Attendance, Confirmation, Sunday School - Against The Law

2009-04-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

I couldn't believe this until I checked it out for myself. I found the bill on Govtrack, the House passed it, the Senate has yet to vote.

HR 1388: Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act (AKA The Obama Youth Brigade Bill)

Click on this link:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1388

then scroll down to sec 1310 in the yelow and click on it, it reads,

‘SEC. 132A. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS.

‘(a) Prohibited Activities- An approved national service position under this subtitle may not be used for the following activities:

‘(1) Attempting to influence legislation.

‘(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.

‘(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing.

‘(4) Impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements.

‘(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to Federal office or the outcome of an election to a State or local public office.

‘(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.

‘(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of proselytization, consistent with section 132.

‘(8) Consistent with section 132, providing a direct benefit to any--

‘(A) business organized for profit;

‘(B) labor union;

‘(C) partisan political organization;

‘(D) nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, except that nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and

‘(E) organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7), unless the position is not used to support those religious activities.

‘(9) Providing abortion services or referrals for receipt of such services.

‘(10) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.

‘(11) Carrying out such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.

‘(b) Ineligibility- No assistance provided under this subtitle may be provided to any organization that has violated a Federal criminal statute.

‘(c) Nondisplacement of Employed Workers or Other Volunteers- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not be directed to perform any services or duties, or to engage in any activities, prohibited under the nonduplication, nondisplacement, or nonsupplantation requirements relating to employees and volunteers in section 177.’.

------------

Time to burn up the phone lines and PASS THIS ON to everyone you can think of!

Herb Kohl
http://kohl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Russ Feingold
http://feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html

Outside of Wisconsin:
http://senate.gov/

You can search for your Senator by state in the upper right hand corner of the page.

In Christ,

Jim

What Church Father Are You?

2009-04-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

You’re St. Melito of Sardis!

You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins.

Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

Reading Luther's Sermons

2009-04-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

I'm still slogging through 3 Revelation commentaries (I'm up to chap 19!) but since Lent began I have also been reading Luther's Sermons again. I have an eight volume set I bought back in 1988 that read all the way through once over a summer (I had a sedentary job as a security guard) and I began to read these in earnest again. I most recently read Luther's sermon for Easter on the Sacrament of Holy Communion. If Luther's Sermon is any measure of good practice - then I feel none of the Synods are following it.

Back in the day, people were compelled to make a confession to a priest and then take communion on Easter. Luther was opposed to the practice because these people were going right back to the sinful lives they led beforehand often with no effort to better themselves. Also Luther distinguishes between 'historical faith' - head knowledge that Christ had indeed existed -vs- 'real faith' of the heart as well. Today some fellow Lutherans (who can be 'Left Brain' to a fault) would yell PIETISM! But here they have to argue with Luther himself so I think that claim falls flat. I think Luther was worried about people living in open sin, habitually drunk, etc. Also Luther wanted people to have a faith that was bicameral - more in keeping with the Scriptures:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. - Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27.

Luther was also on guard against the 'herd mentality' which was to have everyone take communion. He wanted people to be asked one-by-one if they wanted it and not to rely on the faith or piety of family members but an individual desire to receive it. I have not been asked that for years. Congregations I was a member of who were conscientious usually collected communion cards at the altar and elders were required to know who everyone was. Also even long time members were supposed to register for communion in a register prior to worship and that was as good as it ever got.

So the WELS and ELS churches I once attended were holding fast to the Galesburg Rule but not Luther's. Luther wanted to be sure the communicant actually desired forgiveness from Christ and was not just 'going up' as a matter of law, custom or peer pressure. I'm not going to go into my current LCMS congregation for now because I am not fully informed on it's practice but I will say they have no statement regarding participation in their bulletins.

The bottom line is we live in such a materialistic society these days that few approach the sacrament with the same fear, wonder and awe that Luther had in his day. Some might say that was because Luther was a victim of medieval theology and magical thinking and to a degree that is true but yet - as Christians who confess the Creeds, do we not believe in all things both seen and unseen? I think our lips move and our hearts lie. If we did believe as we should, we would have no open communion and we would see people get turned away from the altar once in a while. I haven't seen anyone turned back from any synodical altar since the early 1990s.

Another thing that really takes me back is Luther's language. Luther had a lawyers gift for rhetorical flourish. Today he would be so politically incorrect and offensive he would require his own team of ACLU attorneys to keep him out of jail just for being himself. Luther would have a hard time with today's idolatrous worship of pluralism, tolerance and diversity. Luther was a warrior for truth and let the chips fall where they may. Since I read him in English translation, I wonder just how bowdlerized the English speaking pastors who translated these sermons rendered some of what he said. As Nicolas Cage's character Ben Gates said in National Treasure, "People don't talk that way anymore."

They certainly don't and that is most certainly true.

In Christ,

Jim

Which Way LCMS?

2009-02-17T00:21:00.000-08:00

Greetings,

The LCMS seems to be heading in several differing directions right now:

1) Some would like it to go 'evangelical' and adopt the worship & theology of other non-denominational (i.e. Reformed), conversion-orientated churches. Some of this group would also welcome a more ecumenical practice of fellowship and some would be open to women's ordination (some would not) and other changes in doctrine.

2) Some want to go back to a more confessional direction like that had in the days of the old Synodical Conference with more emphasis given to traditional forms of worship, theology from the Book of Concord and the great theologians of Lutheranism and doing everything with a more distinctly Lutheran polity.

3) Then there is a portion of the LCMS leadership and bureaucracy which wants 'peace at any price' between those 2 major factions.

This is painting with a broad brush, there are self-described feminists, evangelicals, pentecostals, fundamentalists, conservatives, confessionalists and a some east-coast liberals who are ELCA-wannabees in the English District.

These problems go back 70 years to the theological battles of the 1940s. Doctrinal standards were on a slow, barely perceptible decline in the LCMS under President Behnken. In the 1940s and '50s there were debates over the practice of the doctrine of fellowship within the Synodical Conference - then made up of the ELS (Evangelical Lutheran Synod), the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) and the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod).

In 1955, the little ELS severed ties with the LCMS. Some WELS congregations felt the same way and broke from the WELS and formed the CLC (Church of the Lutheran Confession) and several years later the WELS followed suit. This was because the LCMS was having exploratory talks with the ALC (American Lutheran Church) which had different doctrines regarding lodges and predestination from the LCMS. For the LCMS to consider fellowship with the ALC meant to the ELS and WELS that the LCMS had a different doctrine of fellowship than that practiced by the ELS and WELS. By 1963 the Synodical Conference had disbanded. This helped give rise to the LCMS' Presidency of Oliver Harms. Little changed and the slide continued.

Cooperation existed between the ALC and LCMS until 1970 when the ALC started ordaining women. Several years later under President J.A.O. Preus II, the LCMS had the battle for the Bible. Preus (who had family in the ELS) tried to reverse many of the liberal trends taking place in the LCMS. One of them culminated in the 'Seminex' (Concordia Seminary In Exile) fiasco where John Tietjen had been the President of the seminary at St. Louis was fired for not teaching the Bible as the inerrent Word of God. He had introduced radical forms of higher-critical scholarship into the student body. In 1973 Tietjen was brought up on charges of heresy and teaching false doctrine. The charges were verified by the members of the systematic theology department. Some students and faculty walked out and formed Seminex which became the locus for a new liberal synod, the AELC. That synod would later merge with the moderate ALC and liberal LCA to form the now ELCA in 1987.

Going back a bit, after the controversial years of Preus' leadership, the LCMS sought a peacemaker and they found one in the person of Ralph Bohlman from 1981 to 1992. The LCMS was ready for less drama and Bohlman talked like a conservative and governed like a moderate. The liberal factions that did not leave and join the AELC for whatever reason remained and quietly grew under his leadership of the Synod.

Skip ahead to late 2001 after 9/11. Kieschnick was the newly minted President of the LCMS and his Atlantic District President David Benke participated in a ecumenical, unionistic memorial ceremony remembering the 9/11 victims. This was a 'damned if you do damned if you don't' situation. While the LCMS had stumbled in decades past over the fellowship issue, it had finally seemed to have hit it's stride in the Bohlman years. It sold itself as a theologically center-right church body. Not part of the liberal mainline denominations but still aloof from church bodies it called legalistic (ELS, WELS, etc). It was conservative enough to be called 'conservative' but with still enough wiggle room to not be embarrassed by it in front of it's non-Lutheran neighbors.

The nation was facing a national tragedy and that seemed more compelling than what the Bible says about Christianity being the narrow way to eternal life and Benke took part in the ceremony because he was more worried about appearances in front of the world than answering to Christ. Being a public figure, he was spotted and called out on it by Lutherans all across the country who thought it was a pagan or at least unionistic memorial ceremony. This became particularly tough on Kieschnick who was from Texas and was an acquaintance of President George W. Bush. It became a question of what seemed to be patriotism -vs- narrow sectarian doctrinal legalism in the eyes of the world.

Members of the ELS and WELS who would not say the pledge at ball games nor have military chaplains suddenly felt vindicated after all these years. They had remained faithful in what seemed to be a small thing. They had been ridiculed by the world for it and now they felt vindicated but more importanly their confessional kindred in the LCMS had spoken out in agreement. Without going into the minutiae of events since, I feel it is safe to say that Bohlmann's centrist 'peace at any price' patch is now shown to be worn threadbare.

This has been further exacerbated by the removal of the program Issues, Etc. from KFUO radion and the current legal actions President Kieschnick is using to try to silence (or censor if you prefer) Todd Wilken and Jeff Schwarz who have been critical of his Presidency. Even some conservative and moderate clergy feel President Kieschnick has been heavy handed and some are wont for a change.

The current perceived agent of change is Rev. Matthew Harrison. He has translated some important confessional writings, wrote some thoughtful articles and has practicle experience in world missions, particularly with releif efforts. He has released a paper called "It's Time:LCMS UNITY AND MISSION -The Real Problem We Face and How to Solve It" which many see as a call to unity and truth.

Time will tell, 1st Missourians will have to get him elected and 2ndly, we need to remember that we must above all put our faith in God, not men. He seems better than Kieschnick by word and deed but he could be a kinder, gentler J.A.O. Preus or he could be a more right of center version of Bohlmann. We just don't know.

Peace Be With You,

Jim