BOLL: The Lutheran AAR Center

Long Overdue!

2011-08-04T22:54:00.003-05:00

***Warning! My Own Private Opinion Follows!***

Pastor Harrison, President of the LCMS, announced on Issues, Etc that the synod will be ending its joint chaplaincy commitment with the ELCA. In my personal opinion, this is long overdue. We needed to make our chaplaincy effort consistent with the altar/pulpit fellowship policy of our church body. I am sure that the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" drove the majority of this decision, but it should have been made even if the possibility openly homosexual ELCA chaplains was not an issue.

As a service member who is a member of the LCMS, I stand whole heartedly behind this decision. It is hard enough to get quality Lutheran chaplain support. It is even harder when the quality of ELCA chaplains has been -- quite frankly -- rather poor in my own personal experience on several occasions (with the exception of one ELCA chaplain who I met at Ft. Hood as we both were passing through mobilization). I will be charitable and not share any of my "horror stories" on my blog.

In contrast, I have yet to meet an LCMS chaplain that is anything short of exceptional.

The LCMS is losing very little by this move. It is good to see the synod standing on principle on behalf of its members who are in uniform.

***End of Private Opinion***

You are the Christ!

2011-07-28T00:32:00.000-05:00

First we have this message from the angel of the Lord to Abraham on the mount where Isaac was to be offered up but God provided a ram as a substitutionary sacrifice. Clearly this is a typological reference to Christ. Pay particular attention to the promise [hearkening back to the Genesis 3:15 promise made to Eve] which is now made to Abraham:

"By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you [Abraham] have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
-Genesis 22:16-18

Clearly a Christological reference. Now read here where Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ:

"He [Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
-Matthew 16:15-19

...Just let that sink in for a little bit.

Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Deep stuff. :)

Why are so many Lutherans Seemingly at odds with Good Works? Part 2

2011-07-24T16:20:00.000-05:00

Question: Why are so many Lutherans Seemingly at odds with Good Works?

Answer 2: Because, as Lutherans, it is often fashionable to trash talk good works.

In any group, it is a goal of its members to conform to the group. There have been studies that illustrate that this need to go with the flow is so great that individuals will override what they know to be true in order to go along with those that they are associating with. Lutherans are not immune to this by any stretch of the imagination.

In most circles within Lutheranism that I have encountered, it is fashionable to bash good works. Its a good way to earn points in Bible Class and appear pious in front of your friends. After all, if someone trashes the idea of good works and claims that he doesn't do any good works ever, then he must be really pious... maybe even a theologian. So the key to being a really popular Lutheran is to be a really hopeless case and make sure that everyone knows it. This is where recognizing your own sinfulness and inadequacy kind of branches out and strays into reveling in your powerlessness to establish your Lutheran authenticity. After all, Luther really slammed himself alot in public... that must be what it means to be Lutheran!

This is more of a psychological behavior than one informed by theology in many cases. I think that if it was fashionable for Lutherans to sing badly, you would run across people in church who were intentionally singing off key... and choir practice would be absolutely unbearable. So when some well-meaning brother is sitting in Bible Class (which is a good work btw) and remarks about how he doesn't ever do anything God pleasing or good, I start to wonder if he is just not paying attention to his actions or if he is trying to cement his Lutheran street cred. After all, isn't the only true form of Lutheran humor the self-deprecating kind?

Of course talking about what a horrible sinner you are is true and appropriate... but a Christian is also a new creation in Christ that is redeemed and restored who will naturally do good works as a living tree naturally bears fruit. As a believer, your sinful state does not render that second part impossible. Yes, your Old Adam still clings to you and you still sin, but you are not JUST Old Adam anymore. Half of the truth is not the whole truth. Read St. Paul about the will of the Spirit set against the will of the Flesh. There is an actual battle going on there... but listening to some well-meaning Lutherans you would think that there is no battle at all because sin and despair always win all the time.

Trust me, it is possible to despair of your own abilities as a poor miserable sinner while fully believing in Sola Fide (which is true) and still not take it to the point that you think that you perform absolutely no good works ever (which is false).

Why are so many Lutherans Seemingly at odds with Good Works? Part 1

2011-07-24T15:52:00.000-05:00

Question: Why are so many Lutherans Seemingly at odds with Good Works?

Answer 1: Because the pietism expressed in American Evangelicalism causes Lutherans to flee to the opposite extreme (which is also wrong).

From rehashed social justice liberalism to Rick Warren to the charismatic movement to church growth to the Emergent Church, it is clear that many of the large movements within the modern American church all seem to be trending towards moralism and legalism. It seems right and good to oppose these movements with a different stance and approach. While this instinct is correct, the answer many Lutherans come up with is not the Biblical one and actually avoids the left ditch in the road by swerving to the opposite extreme and landing in the right (and equally incorrect) ditch of antinomianism. If legalism is wrong then anti-legalism must be the answer to it. This approach creates a false dichotomy which forces an either or choice where other alternatives exist. The truth is that neither of these extremes are true. The solution to both of these problems is the proper distinction between law and gospel as it is centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

To compound this problem, many converts to Lutheranism have been so hurt by being brought up in a brand of Christianity that seems to "take with one hand what was given with the other" where the gospel is offered and then it is taken away with works righteousness in the next sentence. This also appears when the gospel is given as a conditional reward for past service or as a down payment on future service to God. Neither of these are correct teachings of sanctification. For those who have been hurt by these false teachings that the entire topic of sanctification has become a deadly third rail where many are made hypersensitive to works because of bad preaching and shoddy theology. Anyone who begins talking about good works is instantly suspect.

Why Changing God's Name is an Insult

2011-07-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

Recently, the United Church of Christ modified its bylaws and constitution which weakened or removed Trinitarian language and references to the "Heavenly Father". This is all part of a long standing trend in liberal denominations to eliminate the gender-specific references to the Triune God (i.e. "Father", "Son", etc).

You will find absurdity at the radical edge of this trend. The feminist fringe will replace it with alternate language like "Mother" or "Daughter". Most rational people can easily see why this move is simultaneously inaccurate, politically motivated, and offensive. The problem is that in this modern age of compromise, we are tempted to strike a middle ground to please everyone. A popular blending of this radical trend and historically Biblical references to God is to replace His name with the roles or attributes of the persons of the Trinity. So instead of "Father" you say "Creator". Instead of "Son" you say "Redeemer". Instead of "Holy Spirit" you say "Sanctifier".

At this point, it is very easy to slide into Aristotelian philosophy in talking about natures, essences, and accidents... forms and modes... blah blah blah... The truth is that most people don't care about philosophy and even fewer really understand it. (And almost no one can remember how to spell "Aristotelian" off the top of their heads!) So here is my attempt to plainly explain why "Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier" is unacceptable and insulting as an alternate Triune name.

1. In every other aspect of life, replacing someone's name with their function is considered an impersonal insult. You don't refer to your Mother as "The Cook". You don't refer to your kid as "Potential Organ Donor Match". If you are in court and you want to win you say "Your Honor" to the guy with the gavel and not "Hey Judge". In the military, I can refer to an individual who is not in the military as "You there, Civilian." All of these qualities may be true. Your mom cooks. Your kids might be able to give you a kidney some day. The man who passes sentence is the judge. Civilians are civilians. There are cases where using the description is apprppriate in a given context, but to constantly use the function or role of a person as a name communicates a kind of impersonal distance which can also imply disrespect. In some cases, you can get away with this... but a refusal to use personal names with those to which you have a personal relationship would indicate bizarre antisocial behavior. Why do we want to treat God this way?

2. The fact is that God has told His name to us. It is the name by which we are saved. It is clear and nonnegotiable. He has said about Himself that He is "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" and that is the name in which we are baptized. When someone introduces themselves and you call them by another name, you communicate an even greater disrespect than my first point. It is such a culturally understood faux pas that comedy writers us as a standard tacitc the inability to get someone's name right as a way to show the audience that a given character is either a moron or an egotistical jerk. If a girl says that her name is "Stacey", I suggest that you start calling her "Jane" from that point forward and see how far you get with her!

Better yet, when she says her name is "Stacey" tell her to her face: "I don't see you as a Stacey. I will call you Jane. You are more of a Jane to me."

...again... Why do we want to treat God that way?

There was the True Light Which, Coming into the World, Enlightens Every Man.

2011-07-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

You know that you have finally communicated the gospel in its full sweetness when...

...the person you are talking to interrupts you and says:

"What? Wait... that's it? .......well then what is the point of trying to be good if everything has been done for me already by Jesus?"

Praise God who tears down barriers and the false edifices of fallen man through the power of His pefect and eternal Word!

...And what deeply profound conversations that question leads to! Great fun. Nothing encourages me more than to see the Spirit going about His profound and mysterious work.

Directing to Christ 101: The Realist

2011-06-02T00:34:00.002-05:00

I can't tell you how many times I have found myself listening to some well-meaning brother spout off what amounts to a bunch of legalism. It's pretty easy to detect, but it sounds good to our ears so it can be pretty hard to refute at times. The problem with pietism is that it has homefield advantage in the blackness of our corrupted, sinful natures. As usual, the temptation is to try to dazzle him with brilliance (and a healthy dose of Luther quotes) to put him in his totally-depraved place. Sadly, I have found that this almost never works. What does work? The Realist.

Approach 2: The Realist

William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, "Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive." The applications for this profound statement are limitless... in this case we're talking about the naive idealism regarding the capability of sinful man in his fallen state. The problem with every legalist is that he thinks people can and should pull off the Law's demands by pulling himself up by his bootstraps.

This approach slaps that idealism with a cold dose of reality... and it is best if you start out in a self-depricating manner so as not to offend to quickly (oh, but you will almost assuredly offend eventually!) The goal of anyone pushing legalism is to motivate the unmotivated. It's a delicate dance of encouragement and threats... which is as painful to watch as it is to participate in. What the Realist does is come in and throw a huge monkey wrench into this delecate legalist machine.

Example: You got invited to some pan-denominational Bible study in which the teacher is taking the "fruit of the spirit" and beating people over the head with it as if it is some kind of sanctification check list. Just looking around the room you can see how distressed people are getting... facial expressions of guilt and frustration mixed in with copious note-taking on strategies for overcoming personal struggles etc... no mention of grace or forgiveness or any words of comfort.

The Execution: I always wait until the "go around the circle and share time" so I don't speak out of turn, but executing The Realist is really easy. State the hard facts. It goes something like this:

"I look at this list of works and I get depressed and frustrated." (Which is true!) "I know, being brutally honest with myself, that I do not do these things at all." (remember: self-depricating at first to soften the blow that is to come.) "I really want to do better, but I know that I am going to leave this study and go and do the same things because I am a horrible sinner and a hypocrite. These tactics work sometimes, but life is messy and these strategies will fail. We shouldn't pretend like they won't. If I had to guess, I'd say that everyone in this room struggles with most of these things on this list on at least a daily basis. We don't love God as we ought and we don't love our neighbors as ourselves. Thank God that Jesus has already done these good works for us! He lived a perfect life in our stead and died a sacrifical death on the cross so that all of our sins would be covered...."

BOOM! We're talking gospel, substitutionary atonement, and both active and passive obdience of Christ now. When you start talking the gospel in this case, you can see the look of relief on people's faces around the table. From this point, you can keep driving home the gospel or, if you are more advanced theologically, you can talk about the proper interpretation of the fruit of the spirit and about how the good works of a Christian are God's works through us and not our works for Him. The "Fruit of the Spirit" example is one that I have personally used, but it can be adapted to any works-righteous sales pitch... cause there are a ton of them out there.

The problem with this tactic is that it can really ruin all of the works-righteous study materials that people paid good money for. I have been asked to not come back to a Bible Study for being disruptive after doing this one. That's a small sacrifice to proclaim the gospel!

Directing to Christ 101: The Kid

2011-06-02T00:17:00.002-05:00

Alot of times you find yourself in a conversation with another believer who is... a little... wonky on doctrine and is a little... weak... on the gospel. One is automatically tempted to engage in rhetorical gymnastics and great feats of apologetic magic to teach them properly. Often times, however, the simplest approaches are the best and perhaps the most elegent. Most of the time, people try to defeat someone they think is wrong. In reality, this kind of approach almost never works. What does work is a careful redirection that causes the other party to come to the right answer on their own. This sounds complex, but it's actually alot easier than one would think.

Approach 1: Playing the Kid

Do you know what's really annoying about little kids? They are honest. They haven't figured out the joy that comes with being arrogantly clever and so they just ask questions that are directly on their minds. You know what? Most of the time, these questions are obnoxiously concise and expose the weakness of unsupported opinions.

Example: You have someone talking about the Christian faith but their description of it is totally cross-less. There is no talk of sin or grace, etc. It's all about prosperity junk, or purpose junk, or other nonsense that only adults find important. At some point, the ubiquitous "Lord and Savior" title comes across (probably in some kind of decision for Jesus appeal).

The Execution: You are the kid. Your annoying little radar instantly grabs a hold of the one thing that suddenly interests you and does not fit in to the rest of the boring grown-up conversation. "Savior". There it is. ...and like an annoying little kid, you ruin the flow of the adult's thought by asking the inconvenient question at the right moment.

You say: "Savior? Savior.... from what exactly? What do we need to be saved from?"

Boom! No matter how they answer that one, we are at least on the whole sin, hell, cross issues. Flawless rhetorical redirect from pointless speculation to an actual Biblical truth... easily executed by asking the simple question.

***Another really great kid tactic is judicious use of "Why?", "How?", "Where does it say that?" If someone is making up theology as they go along, make them work for it. If they believe extra-biblical teachings regarding the sacraments... make them prove it by the book. Why should you have to do the work. They are the ones with the outlandish claim. When in doubt, ask probing questions. Most bad theology can't withstand the slightest probing.

American Idol

2011-06-01T23:34:00.002-05:00

I have learned that the preaching office is alot like American Idol:

The overwhelming majority of people who really really really want to go far have no talent at all and are actually painful to listen to.

Would that every seminary had a Simon Cowell conducting evaluations!

Damage Control Time!

2011-05-22T15:22:00.005-05:00

A severe onset of schadenfreude sent me over to www.wecanknow.com (which had billboards up in my town for months) just to see what they have to say for themselves now that it is waaay past Rapture Day. No change yet... The headline of the page still says that the apocolypse will come on May 21, 2011. They must be either taking a few weeks off or scrambling for face-saving explinations.

I did notice that their "doomsday clock" in red in the upper right hand corner is suck on 0 Days, 0 hours. Shouldn't that thing be in the negatives? Hmmm?

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." Matthew 24:36

So a Lutheran, a Calvinist, and a Roman Catholic run into each other at a tobacconist...

2011-05-02T18:48:00.004-05:00

...and have a heady theological conversation that ruins the atmosphere. Sorry, the title was not the set up for a really great joke. It's just a typical Friday.

Here's an excerpt as presented from my memory:

Me: "Listen, God doesn't grade on a curve."
RC: "Oh yes He does!"
Me: "Be ye perfect as My Father in heaven is perfect."
RC: "......"
Me: "....it looks like that curve is infinitely straight and infinitely high."
Calvinist: "hehe...."

If you guessed that the Roman Catholic then brought up the topic of Purgatory you win!

If you guessed that the Calvinist later shifted the covernsation away from Purgatory then wanted to slam prayers for the dead using purely philosophical arguements, you win again!

If you guessed that they both wanted to talk about the Joint Declaration on Justification, you win extra credit! :P

A Few Thoughts on the Death of Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-02T17:45:00.001-05:00

We will never know the number of innocent human lives that have been saved through this action all across the world. Bin Laden will never plan another terror attack on civilian men, women, and children; of that we can be certain. Terrorism remains alive and well, but its chief celebrities have been killed or captured and the myth of Al Queda’s invulnerability has been almost completely destroyed in the last decade.

What has taken me aback is the surprise in the minds of many who have approached me about the subject today--as if this was a completely unexpected turn of events. The man was not immortal or invisible. He had managed to hide in some of the most remote and lawless tracts of land in the entire world, but he had the full weight of the United States military and her allies against him. His death was only a matter of time… one way or another. Without him here, a significant blow has been struck against those who allied with him to do us great harm.

The work of preserving peace, safety, and justice remains unfinished and we have people of valor and determination both here and abroad who have sworn to carry out that dangerous and woeful work. These tasks will continue to be unfinished until Christ returns in glory and we continue in the ages-old struggle against the wretched curse of sin that infects and effects all of us.

One does not rejoice in death (not even this death though it does purchase us some releif and closure).

Instead, one rejoices in victory… and the greatest victory--the one secured by Christ Jesus who died for our sins and rose from the dead so that death is swallowed up in victory for all who believe--that greatest victory of all victories is both now and not yet.

Lord, come quickly!

The Well-Beaten Path to Universalism

2011-04-03T21:52:00.005-05:00

I've noticed a trend among the public statements people who progress towards Universalism (of which Rob Bell is the most recent and sadly not the last.) This seems to be a predictable path down which one trods to end up at this error.

At this point, I'm not drawing any kind of conclusions here. It is just an observation from watching enough of these over the last several years:

Step 1: Mysticism. They start out in a place where feelings and philosophy are in a place that is clearly above the authority of the texts of Scripture.

Step 2: They begin downplaying the seriousness of sin, its effects, and corruption.

Step 3: They make God exactly like us and describe Him as having human perspectives, attitudes, and methods and judge His will based on what sinful humans consider to be good or bad.

Step 4: They engage in topics with deconstrucitonism and logical fallacies.

Step 5: They downplay or voice serious questions regarding the truth of the penal substitutionary atonement on the cross for our sins (a result of Steps 2-4.)

Step 6: They begin to express appreciation and affinity for other religions and "moral" non-Christians (see Step 2 and 5).

Step 7: By now they have been accused of Universalism (which may be premature, but is certainly on the horizon). They respond by denying Universalism, but they state that God certainly has the power to do anything He wishes.

Step 8: They continue to deny Universalism, but very emotionally state that they personally hope that it is true and that God's mercy might win out in the end.

Step 9: They stop denying Universalism. They publicly wrestle with the scriptural teaching of eternal torment in hell for those who are outside of the faith in Christ.

Step 10: They publicly agree with all the classic teachings of Universalism (perhaps using a different term) and they continue to claim that they are still wrestling with these things... and continue to ardently teach and advance Universalism even while they "wrestle with it".

Why Satire can Hurt Your Fealings Without Being Mean-Spirited or Evil

2011-03-29T19:19:00.011-05:00

As is so often the case, Wikipedia provides an excellent clear definition of true satire which I will post here in support of my point:

"Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon." (my emphasis added)

If a harsh remark or insult is like shoving a knife in someone's gut in order to do them harm and cause them pain, true satire is more like a surgeon's scalpel which must inflict harm with the intent of doing a greater good. Satire seeks to cut out the tumors of ignorance, abuse, folly, and other ills. It must do this because, in the estimation of the author, all other tactics have failed. The perpetrators of the wrong that a particular satire seeks to address have closed their ears to polite criticism and humble encouragement. The patient is too far gone for mild treatments. It is time to operate... always with the intent of forcing change, improvement, and awareness.

No doubt, people considered Jonathan Swift cruel and wrong for suggesting infanticide and cannibalism in "A Modest Proposal" as a way to deal with poverty, over-population, and hunger in 18th century Ireland. I'm sure the rich English establishment did not like the implication that they were being hard-hearted.

No doubt, people considered Mark Twain's portrayal of Huck Fin's moral guilt over betraying his southern upbringing by being racially tolerant to be offensive and mean-spirited.

No doubt, people even today hate to even read George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" because they don't like to encounter such direct, dystopian, and derisive analysis of modern culture. Portraying socialists as pigs and comfort-addicts as brainless, spiritless, and heartless is not a way to win friends. It is a way to get your point across when people otherwise will not listen.

That brings us to the knee-jerk defense when you find your faults cornered, exposed, and ridiculed by satire. You want to call the author out for being mean... or at least being unfair. Are they being mean or unfair? Is the author just being a jerk who unnecessarily tears down his opponents? Does the author have a point or is he just being overly critical to different poitns of view? These are important questions. They are important enough to warrant serious evaluation and application instead of just an uninformed and emotional denial.

There are alot of jerks out there who hide their bad attitudes and offensive sense of humor under the label of "satire". There are alot of bad examples of satire where it falls flat on its face. But it is easy to answer these questions on a case by case basis by just looking at the individual piece itself. Satire isn't about tearing people down in order to be funny. It uses humor and wit to tear down bad ways of thinking in order to build people up and improve their situation if they would just abandon the folly that the author is pointing out.

So when a Christian creates true satire in speaking about the church with the intent to address and correct public matters of doctrine and practice, is he sinning against his neighbor? I don't think so. Individual cases vary, but one should not jump to the conclusion that the strategy is inherently evil especially when the intent is to bring about a greater good and all nice approaches have failed time and again.

...especially when the Prophet Nathan uses a satirical parable in 2nd Samuel 12 to rhetorically corner King David and call him to repentence by turning his own words against him: "You are the man!" If David was a fool, he would ignore his sin and accuse Nathan of being mean and trapping him. David was not a fool. He saw the point of the exchange and recognized it for what it was: a harsh, direct call to repentence.

Causing Offense with New Age Jargon

2011-03-19T21:23:00.005-05:00

If you want to win me over to your cause, do not use the word "tribe" to describe some non-tribal group. Using it in this way is a weasel word, a piece of jargon made to manipulate people while obfuscating the details of the actual truth.

Examples of this include calling Lutheranism the "Lutheran tribe" or calling the Jews in the New Testament the "Jewish tribe" (which is properly called a culture that happens to contain 12 actual tribes if you know anything at all about the subject) or the "Gentile tribe" (which is the biggest abuse of the word "tribe" thus far). None of these groups are tribes in the sense that the word tribe has ever been used in the history of the English language. Stop it. You might as well call a group of cats "a fleet", or a collection of books "a herd", or the whole human body "an organ", or two boats "an armada", or the State of Alabama "a county".

It makes you sound stupid and ignorant. It makes you sound like you are putting on heirs. It tells me that you are the kind of person who can't use words properly or is just not honest and precise enough to call something what it actually is. It tells me that you are a parrot who picks up things that sound interesting and repeats them without true understanding or analysis. Parrots are annoying.

Most of all this artistic use of the word "tribe" is very offensive to people who have actually interacted with real tribal groups and all the complex community-based interactions that go along with it. If you have lived with, worked along side, or known people who actually have true tribal ties you realize that Lutherans are not a tribe. The whole Jewish culture is not a single tribe. Everyone who is not Jewish is not a tribe. That's just silly and wrong.

A Few Lessons That I have Learned by FAILING at a Fast

2011-03-05T21:20:00.004-06:00

Now is the time of year when everyone wants to talk and read about successful fasting techniques and the kinds of lessons you learn while fasting. I'm going to engage in the exact opposite discussion by talking about some of the things that I have learned by unsuccessful fasting and what can be learned after you fail at it. :P

1. Your inability to keep your outward disciplines has no effect on your eternal standing before God... and neither does your ability to temporarly obserive such disciplines. On account of Christ, you remain an heir of the Kingdom of God by grace alone through faith alone. You have failed in even the simplest things and remain His beloved child in spite of what you do or do not do rather than because of it. Even when you fail in greater things, the promise of the forgiveness of sins and heaven are not denied to you. At the point of failure is where the Gospel is at its clearest.

2. Your fallen nature is such that you cannot keep this simple devotion for a short period of time... where then is your boasting in things which are far more difficult or impossible? If any man boasts, let him boast in the Lord.

3. While you were being successful at your fast, you felt pride at your accomplishment which was replaced by disappointment and shame when you failed. That entire time while you fasted, you habitually engaged in sins far more heinous and injurious to faith. Why do you not lament them as severly as this abandonment of your simple outward training?

4. Your lack of dedication has not cut you off from God's revelation to man. You have made a concerted effort to exercise a discipline and failed... and yet God continues to speak to you in His Word and from the mouth of your pastor, God continues to give you the forgiveness of your sins in His word of Absolution, and continues to draw you to Himself through the mysteries of the Holy Sacraments. He remains steadfast and true to His promises to you even when you cannot keep the promises and resolutions that you make to yourself. Contrast this assurance with the vein worship of the mystics who wrongly think that they must prove themselves worthy before they can be truly enlightened and uplifted by the Holy Spirit.

5. God's loving blessings to you in this world are so complete, lovely, and abundant that even His gift of daily bread is a precious thing to you that you hardly call to mind... a gift that you do not realize how much you enjoy until you attempt to do without it. It is hard to understand the great hights of blessing that God has given you in this life until you attempt to forgo a few of them. You are so blessed that you have food and simple delights that you must constantly ignore in order to observe any kind of fast. God's bountiful riches are given to you in such abundence that they bombard you like an annoyance when you attempt to forego them. How can you then complain about your lot in life with such profound and bountiful gifts from the Heavenly Father?

6. You could not do without a few meals by choice. Imagine the suffering of those who involuntarily go without food on a regular basis through poverty or famine. Imagine the horror you would know if you could not end your fasting as easily as you did. Realizing this, you can now recognize that you have the power in this modern age to help your fellow man to feel as physically satisfied as you do now... through charity and the feeding of the poor around the world.

7. The hunger that you suffered during the fast is nothing compared to the hunger of the soul who desprives himself of God's Word and Sacraments. You cannot experience the former for a few days without great suffering, but--in your sin--you can ignore the latter for extended periods of time and actually feel better about yourself and your situation. You are hard pressed to ever skip a meal, but skipping church or family devotion is no big deal at all. When you are starving for food it as though no feast is large enough for your eyes... and yet the spiritual feast which God offers to halt your spiritual starvation quickly becomes tiresome, boring, repetitive, and too much for your tastes.

The Thing Most Needful

2011-02-28T18:59:00.002-06:00

The church will always have weaknesses and fall short this side of Glory. There will always be room for improvement as we toil and wait for what is to come.

But if the church is to be found wanting... let it be in anything but fidelity to the Word of God and the declaration of the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ.

The pure and true Gospel of Jesus Christ is the one thing that is most needful.

The Solution for a Church Full of Hypocrites

2011-02-18T20:29:00.048-06:00

This was actually one of a couple dozen theses that I penned while trying to list some points on another topic, but I have come to realize that it is significant enough to deserve its own blog post apart from the issue that brought it up so that I can expand the thought and broaden its scope.

The Solution for a Church Full of Hypocrites:

A "hypocrite" is someone who says one thing but does the opposite. He is an actor who portrays something that he is really not. The church is full of hypocrites. This is a very, very bad thing. Christ hates hypocrites and specifically warns against hypocrisy when dealing with the Pharisees. It is a charge that is levelled against the church quite often. This charge is unfortunately true and has an endless string of examples to prove its veracity. I have heard wrong-headed people suggest that the church is supposed to be full of hypocrites. They will even respond to the charge by saying something to the effect of, "certainly the church is full of hypocrites... and there is room for one more!" NO!!! That is wrong! The church is not supposed to be hypocritical at all. Thankfully, the people who actually think the church is okay being hypocritical is relatively small.

The problem comes when people aim to fix this issue of rampant hypocrisy among "Christians". Everyone knows that they way to do away with hypocrisy is to make some one's words and public face match who they are and what they do. So one must ask, "Why is the church full of hypocrites?"

Answer: The church is full of hypocrites because it is full of people who claim to be pulling holiness off when they are not. A "Christian" is a hypocrite when he claims to be righteous when he is in fact a wretched example of horrible thoughts, emotions, and behavior. He proclaims the changed life when he appears completely unchanged and lives as bad as the pagans.

The history of the church is filled with heretics, pietists, legalists, and plain ole erring leaders who have sought to rectify this problem... but went about it the wrong way. Without a proper understanding of man's sinful condition this side of Heavenly Glory, they seek to motivate, cajole, encourage, and threaten men into acting in accordance with the high principles of the Law. They wrongly believe that, if they can just reform people's behavior, the whole hypocrisy problem will be resolved. They foolishly think that, if they can just fix enough people, the church as a whole will improve itself and finally live up to expectations. They wrongly believe that the reason why this has not happened yet is because the right methodology has yet to be applied and set out to finally institute the purification of the church. This is not possible because the sinful flesh still clings to our mortal bodies. It will never work.

This will sound pessimistic, but the only feasible way to remove "Christian" hypocrisy is to lower the person's self-concept, words, and public face down to the level of his poor behavior and spiritual depravity. One must bring a person's words in compliance with his bad behavior through the power of the Holy Spirit by teaching him to always pray "God be merciful to me, the sinner!"

In light of God's Law, which demands perfect and sincere obedience in every way at all times, a hypocrite who tries harder is still a hypocrite no matter how successful he thinks that he has become. He will always fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous. Not even one.

A sinner who claims the title of "sinner" is no longer being hypocritical. His self-perception and behavior finally agree. He finally sees himself for what he is: a fallen creature in desperate need of a savior because he cannot free himself from his sinful condition.

And here is where the Law has finally done it's great work by driving desperate men to the cross. Here is the place where the sinner encounters the God-Man Christ Jesus, the Great Physician, who declares, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Here is where the diagnosis finally fits the symptoms and the holy imputed righteousness of Christ is administered to him through the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments in accordance with Christ's institution. Here is where the sinner finds healing, wholeness, and unity in the Body of Christ as a fellow beggar among brothers rather than just a puffed-up, lying failure in the company of other puffed-up, lying failures.

Here is where the Law is completed in the death and resurrection of Christ and the freedom of the Gospel liberates the sinner from all of the Law's threats and demands. This is where the public perception no longer matters and the man abandons boasting in himself and begins to loudly boast in the only thing that he truly has to boast in: the Lord God Almighty. This is where the light yoke of Our Savior is found as He, the blameless and spotless sacrifice, assumes our burden of guilt before God the Father and becomes a perfect advocate on our behalf. This is where the Holy Spirit does a mighty and mysterious work within the regenerated soul of the Christian in accordance with His perfect will and bestows upon him diverse and new gifts filled with pious passions as a gracious free treasure of matchless worth. This is where the threatening veil of God's wrath is pulled away and, through the mediation of Christ Jesus, the true face of our merciful God of love is found.

In this freedom that only the Gospel can give, the Christian is finally free and empowered by God Himself to do truly good works which God had predestined before the foundation of the world for His purchased servant to walk in by faith. Free from the burden, despair, and compulsion of obligations, the sinner is supernaturally conformed to the image of Christ through sharing in His cross. He stops toiling in the vain hope of favor from God and the approval of men for all his hard efforts and finally begins to work for free in selfless holiness because God has shown him that Christ has already earned his heavenly wages on his account. It is then that the Christian is able to achieve by faith the truly God pleasing works which no external source on earth--not even the church herself--could compel him to do through human machinations and the exhortations of the Law.

In the gratitude of his salvation and with the secure knowledge that his eternal destiny has already been won completely by Jesus so that there is not even one single thing that could even be added, the Christian gladly and joyfully undertakes the work of a servant to his fellow man as a holy act of true, genuine worship. Freed from despair and guilt, the Christian recognizes that his imperfect obedience in this new life is covered and perfected by Christ's imputed righteousness just as his disobedience was when he was born again by water and the Spirit.

He is finally no longer loathed to contend with the imperative force of the Law's demands but finds himself living freely in the Spirit and walking in God's ways as a new creation in Christ. He can now see his lingering sinfulness for what it now is through Christ: the vestigial Old Adam which clings to him for a short time but will be done away with when this life of tears comes to an end and God rescues him from this body of death. He no longer resists sin because he fears as though he "has to or else" but rather he resists sin and wages war against it on all fronts because his regenerated spirit actually wants to walk in newness of life. He no longer simply fears his sinfulness as an eternal liability but comes to hate his sin as a contagion and detestable thing of which he desires no part according to his regenerated spirit.

The Christian no longer lives in a state of hypocrisy where his words and ideals do not conform to his heart and actions. Instead he lives honestly as a sinner redeemed by grace whose life is one of constant combat between the right spirit which was given to him by the Holy Spirit and the sinful flesh which still clings to him with all its temptations and faults. Rather than attempting to reform his sinfulness through legalistic new measures, he seeks to kill it daily through repentance and enjoys the gift of the forgiveness of sins given in holy absolution and the Lord's Supper with his church family.

In jubilant praise and compassionate concern for his fellow sinner, he finds that the Holy Spirit has given him a voice of expression which helps the church on earth proclaim the very saving message that had won him back from that liar the devil and the gaping jaws of hell itself. Rather than forcing himself to be the greatest among his peers and struggling to fit in, the Christian settles into community with his fellow sheep and peacefully lives out his life in the Body of Christ in accordance with his various callings, vocations, and stations in life.

This is how true disciples of Christ are made and this is how those disciples are kept steadfast in the faith. This is where the Kingdom of God is at hand and made manifest: in Christ Jesus Our Lord. This regenerative act of salvation is where Jesus Christ exercises His power of kingship and how the church of God is brought into being, preserved, sanctified, and eventually glorified on the Last Day.

And so the health of the church is never measured quantitatively or even qualitatively according to humanly conceived standards but is measured Christologically according to its faithfulness to her Savior through the clear preaching of the Divine Word and the proper administration of the sacraments in accordance with the Gospel of Christ.

Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

Who Invented Your Means of Grace?

2011-02-15T21:34:00.008-06:00

There is no such thing as a church without sacraments.

I'm serious. Every church has them. They may call them different things and they may morph and change on a whim, but no church is devoid of some kind of sacrament. The reason for this is that you cannot avoid it. You have to answer the question, "How does an individual receive the objective promise of the forgiveness of sins?" You can't ignore that question because even a young child will hear John 3:16 and impertinently ask "But how does that happen to us?"

Every church body that still remains remotely Christian explains how this objective promise is applied to the individual through some kind of "means". There is always a "Means of Grace" whereby you are given access to forgiveness. The reason for this need is the simple fact that you are separated from the cross by 2,000 years and over 2,000 miles. It's a fundamental question that must be answered. "How do I get this forgiveness of sins?"

Scripture is clear and the early church fathers confirm its truth: The means by which an individual encounters the forgiveness of sins are found in those times and places where God has promised to do so. He calls the shots, remember? These means are in those places where the Word is applied to poor miserable sinners by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where you find the gospel preached, the Sacrament of the Altar celebrated, Holy Baptism applied in the triune name, and the proclamation of Absolution, there you will find the means of God's grace. This revelation is supported by similar types and forms found in the Old Testament as God's chosen people await the coming messiah and are pointed towards His supreme and all-availing sacrifice on the cross. The Old Testament is filled with typological sacrafices and signs that reveal that this is how God choses to interact with His chosen people. In this way, the ways of God are consistant so that He--and He alone--declares His promises to us and gives them as gifts to His people all the way from Adam up to the present day.

There are churches that claim that they have no sacraments. This is not true. In fact, they simply ignore the means of grace that God instituted in favor of a man-made means that has no Scriptural support. They point you to "your decision" to "make Christ your personal Lord and Savior" as the means whereby the objective promise of the forgiveness of sins is applied to you specifically. That's important. It's not the Gospel that does this. Nor is it the Holy Spirit. Nor is it those things that God instituted in His Word that have His promise for the forgiveness of sins.

It's your decision that makes this forgiveness happen for you. That's what gives you access.

You do it.

YOU.

Christ promises forgiveness, but you bring it into effect by your conscious effort. Grace is not given to you as a free gift and imparted to you through the means that God instituted. Instead, you summon grace to yourself by the power of your own independent, autonomous will. Of course you are saved by faith... it's just that this faith is something you muster up from within yourself and are expected to maintain through discipline, mysticism, and forced zealotry.

That is significant. That is an amazing, bold, and dangerous claim. It smacks of the Garden of Eden where the devil entices man with the promise that we, the creature, will "be like God". The Scriptural supports to defend such an unfounded invention are weak at best. Do the research and you will find that the "proof texts" are taken wildly out of context and interpreted broadly with sweeping assumptions and mental leaps read into the actual texts. In contrast, the sacramental proof texts are starkly clear and unmistakably obvious. The fact that this debate still continues is a testament to the strength of fallen human pride and ignorance.

Many people who have not really looked into decision theology with any honest analysis (and probably never had to tortuously labor under its unpredictable and tyrannical yoke) will dismiss opposition to it by saying that we are splitting hairs.

This isn't hair splitting. This is the difference between searching the Scriptures to believe and practice what they clearly say...... and gross, man-centered idolatry. It is the difference between pointing a sinner to Christ and turning him back in on himself.

There is no other way to put it. It really is that crass. It really is that important.

Continuing Luther's Work....... By Undoing It?

2011-02-08T20:38:00.005-06:00

History is full of people (past and present) who have said a great many good things about Dr. Luther.

Quite often, I come across theologians who have found themselves in the 500 year wake of the ongoing Lutheran Reformation who make magnanimous-sounding statements that all can be summarized as:

"What Luther did was a great start with the right intentions, but he just didn't go far enough."

Red flag. Right there. Run away. You can tell this is going to end badly. It's one thing to respectfully disagree with Luther... I just get really nervous when someone seeks to out-Luther Luther.

It never fails. As soon as they get that sentence out of their lips, every single one of them then proceeds to outline their doctrines and "fixes" that are intended to continue what Luther started... AND COMPLETELY UNDO EVERYTHING LUTHER STOOD FOR AND PROFESSED! What you end up with is not a continuation and perfection of Luther's work... but a complete repudiation of his ideas that would turn us back towards the very medieval superstitions that Luther sought to combat.

Look... either you're down with Luther's work or you're not. Please don't try to co-opt him for your own purposes in order to drape your shabby ideas in the regal robes of a true theologian.

God Did Not Design You This Way

2011-01-31T18:40:00.005-06:00

It is a gross and blasphemous error, when people equate God's perfect creative work with the world in its current fallen state without qualification. Sin has corrupted what God called "good" in the first few chapters in Genesis (remember the Father's regret at the start of the story of Noah's Ark which prompted him to destroy the world He had made?). This world is not as it was designed or as it should be. By the same token, while man was created in the image of God, he is also corrupted and enslaved by sin: a aberrant spiritual disease which God did not make.

God did not design you with your various sinful habits and opinions. He did not place your sinful condition and sinful impulses in you.

God is not the author of sin.

Our purpose and condition must always be viewed through the lens of the Fall from Grace. You are a sinner who is enslaved to rebellion against Him by your sinful nature. You are allied with the devil against Him. God, in His perfect justice and purity, does not "love you just the way you are" and your sinful condition is not "part of His plan for you". Death is also not a creation of God and the fact that things die is not "part of God's circle of life".

This is why Christ had to come and die for your sins so that you can be redeemed back from death and hell. This is why this world and all of its corruption will pass away and give rise to a new creation on the Last Day.

It is not God's fault that you are this way and living in the world that you are living in. Please stop talking and thinking like this. It is as incorrect, dangerous, and ignorant of the facts as it is offensive.

Theological Assertion

2011-01-31T13:51:00.010-06:00

I am a big believer that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Theological Assertion - The modern Christian quest to discover, quantify, and actualize one's live purpose is a kind of crypto-holiness movement that (1) promises the unattainable (in this life at least), (2) gives Christians a distorted view of vocation, (3) obscures the Christian doctrines of repentance, hope, and suffering, and (4) presents a shallow do-it-yourself message of life change to unbelievers that is not evangelism in any true sense.

I welcome discussion on all points.

First, there can be no doubt that the therapeutic desire to realize the Christian life as defined by purpose is really a modern slant on good ole methodism. I recently heard something brilliant and entertaining from the brilliant and entertaining Rev Jonathan Fisk (who unanimously would win the Lutheran Blogosphere "New Internet Theologian of the Year Award" if such a thing ever existed... seriously, go watch his videos.) He correctly identified that the American church is overwhelmingly Baptist in its theology, Methodist in its practice, and Charismatic in its worship (thank you John Wesley and Charles Finney).

This holiness movement influence in terms of practice has given rise to all sorts of purpose-oriented books, bible studies, and even churches over the last several decades. Rather than see this as an improvement in the life of the church, discerning Christians should watch these aberrant developments with alarm once they realize the unintended consequences of such teachings.

1. Purpose promises the unattainable (in this life at least)...

Simul justus et peccator. We are simultaneously justified by the imputed grace of God on account of Christ. While we are a new creation in Christ Jesus [2 Corinthians 5:17], the old sinful nature still clings to our mortal flesh [Romans 7] in this life so that the life of the Christian is one of internal and external spiritual warfare [Ephesians 6; 2 Corinthians 10] that is only ended when the perishable passes away and we rise again in new life with imperishable and perfected bodies [1 Corinthians 15; Philippians 3].

Perhaps due to an improper appreciation for our fallen condition, obsessively chasing after purpose in this life gives the false impression to hearers that this perfected, fundamentally God-pleasing nature as a human being is attainable in the life of the Christian through discipline rather than through the death and resurrection of Christ. Sloppy preaching and teaching in this area strays dangerously into the theology of "infused grace" which is unbiblical and a Roman Catholic error that many synergistic Protestants seem to be out doing the papacy on in their zeal to realize the Baptist formal principle of "The Changed Life" and this Charismatic drive to perform mystical worship practices.

In this way, many protestant (and incorrectly named "non-denominational" churches) put the Bible and the Reformation aside and follow Rome down it's path of "Jesus saved you so that you can work harder to please God and either earn (in the hard form) or reimburse God (in the soft form) for your eternal salvation." The Bible does not speak this way. Instead, the good works for which Christians have been set aside to perform are actually the works of God through the Christian by faith [Philippians 2] for service to our neighbors. This principle of being "God's workmanship" stands directly opposed to the purpose-seeking idea that, while we are God's creation, we are fundamentally our own workmanship and we have just been not doing a very good job.

This distorted view of sanctification takes away with one hand what is only occasionally given with the other as legalism snatches away the sweetness and freedom of the gospel in favor of a new enslavement. To paraphrase Rev. Fisk: it falsely teaches that we have been set free so that we can be enslaved. This in itself is gross false doctrine that is dangerous to faith and injurious to eternal salvation because it places the trust of the believer back in his own works rather than pointing him to the cross and the hope that comes in our eventual perfection on the last day.

2. Purpose gives Christians a distorted view of vocation...

The doctrine of vocation is probably one of the most under-taught and misunderstood doctrine in all of Christendom. I submit that the void left by a true Christian understanding of what the Christian is to do and how he is to see his good works after conversion is what allows wrong-headed opinions like methodism and purpose to swoop in and take root. Christians have a legitimate need for training in a proper understanding in righteousness and good works. The faith within them cries out for this holy and practical teaching. When it is not given, well-meaning Christians seek anything that looks like it can fill that hole.

...but purpose is not the proper fit. Where a right view of vocation teaches the Christian to understand his place in the world wherever he may find himself at any given moment, "purpose" teaches him that his place in the world is some hidden mystery of God that must be sought out and discovered through all manner of mystical and rationalistic approaches. Purpose, calling upon mankind's natural desire to answer the question "what am I going to do with my life?", wrongly teaches you to look past the objective reality of where you may find yourself and who your neighbor is so that you can sink deep down within yourself to hear what God really wants you to do.

The reality is that God has already told you very clearly what he wants you to do: it's called "The Ten Commandments". They're written down in the book of Exodus so that you can look them up and apply them to every aspect of your life. Unfortunately, purpose distracts you from such pious self-examination and improvement in piety because, while the world moves on around you with ample opportunities to do God-pleasing works by faith, you sit and stew in your own egotistical juices as you try to discern what grand design awaits you in the kingdom of God.

The mother will ignore the rearing of her children as she sits in her bedroom praying for insight. The student will disregard his teacher's instructions as he wracks his brain over where God wants him to be. The worker will ignore the poor and needy all around him as he wonders what in the world he has been put on this earth to do. The pastor will skip proper sermon study and preparation in favor of spending hours contemplating whether God wants him to open an new ministry across town. Most tragically, churches will shelve the proclamation of the only Gospel which saves sinners from hell in order to help the above people find answers to their navel-gazing questions. It's all a horrible mistake. The military calls this "paralysis by analysis": you think so much about your actions that you fail to act and it is as if you never even engaged the problem at all.

3. Purpose obscures the Christian doctrines of repentance, hope, and suffering...

All one has to do is read the first few chapters of Ecclesiastes in order to learn that, yes, this life is full of meaningless vapor and pointless striving after ephemeral nonsense. It's a real problem that is a natural consequence of man's fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. This world is a pretty horrible and futile place and all of creation groans in anticipation of being destroyed and made anew. Because the law is written on man's hearts, everyone (Christian and pagan alike) is consciously aware of this threat of pointlessness. The entire field of philosophy is consumed with man's attempt to answer these fundamental questions: "Why are we here? What are we doing? How do I achieve meaning?"

Christ came to earth and preached the answer to these questions: "Repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand!" (The kingdom of course being Christ himself.) Later, his own apostles preached the same answer: "Repent and be baptised everyone of you for the forgiveness of your sins" and "Repent and believe the Gospel." The holy spirit revealed this same answer to Martin Luther when he wrote: "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite ("do penance" or "repent"), willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance."

Here we see the true "purpose" of fallen man in this world in view of the Theology of the Cross. Do you not know what you should be doing? Look to Christ hanging on the cross. Repent and believe the Gospel. The devil encourages us to obsess over the question rather than looking to the answer and the quest for purpose that is being carried out by the church is a tool whereby many well-meaning believers are directed away from the cross so that they can curve in on themselves. This is where the rubber meets the road in the ages-old battle between the Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory. Is this all about the redemption won for you and all mankind on the cross by Christ? ...or is this about you and what you need to be doing with the 80 or so years you may (or may not) have on this earth.

We live in a fallen world. Corrupted and fallen from the original goodness that it once possessed at its divine creation, the child of God will always feel out of place here. He will always feel as though he (along with the rest of the world) is falling short of expectations. This place will always feel futile, sinful, and devoid of eternal meaning. You will always feel imperfect, partially blind, and wayward as you journey through a world that is not your true home. The Christian church tells people truthfully that these feelings of ache and homesickness are valid and good.

Do you feel like you are not living up to God's will? Of course! It's because you aren't! Do you feel like you do not pray as you ought? Of course! It's because you aren't! Do you feel rejected? Of course! As a Christian you will face rejection! These identifications and feelings of heartache are the law of God working in your own heart as it faces the assaults of your sinful flesh, this sinful world, and that liar: the devil. The living faith within you that clings to the perfect will of God and at least partially recognizes how the world should be but isn't can clearly see that these things are not taking place around and within you. It's easy to see how the world is failing.

But "purpose" does not say these things because legalism tells only a half truth. Instead of telling you the truth about your situation and pointing you to Jesus, purpose makes the sufferings and crosses that Christ Himself said that we will bear into a flaw in your faith and an oversight in your practice. Purpose peddlers do not speak as Paul does who tells his sheep things like:

"Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

and

"Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account."

Instead, purpose looks at your suffering and tells you that you are just not being Christian enough. Purpose does not point you to the only true hope which rests beyond the grave in a glorious resurrection. Instead, purpose mangles law and gospel by telling you to get to work because Christians shouldn't feel this way after all that Jesus has done for them. If you feel out of place and inadequate, the real problem is not your fallen condition: the real problem, in the sophists' estimation, is that you are living outside of God's true plan for your life. Once you discover and live your purpose, these feelings will subside.

I'm here to tell you that they will never go away this side of glory. Purpose is selling you a bill of goods. Your hope is not in yourself and what you could be doing. Your hope is in Christ and what He has done, what He continues to do, and what He will do on the Last Day. You feel this way because you are a fallen creature who is sinning and living in a fallen world filled with sinners. Your answer is not "try harder and conform better to God's unknowable will".

Your answer is "Repent and believe the Gospel."

4. Purpose presents a shallow do-it-yourself message of life change to unbelievers that is not evangelism in any true sense.

Since the completely erroneous teachings about repentance, hope, and suffering are believed by many American Christians, this is the "evangel" that they take to the lost. They preach the "changed life through better living that makes you feel better" because that is the message which has been given to them. The seed they cast falls on hard ground and in the weeds because it appeals to man's sinful need for autonomy and earning salvation rather than delivering the Holy Spirit through the clearly preached Word of God. It is not "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" but is a pseudogospel of Oprah do-goodism and sentimentality. It is a message that does not save. It makes people feel good... but the feeling does not last because the human invention of purpose, like all things under the sun, is vanity and a meaningless chasing after the wind.

In Christ, "Taps" is not the Final Trumpet

2011-01-29T14:26:00.010-06:00

Today a loving family, the Holy Christian Church, the United States Army, and a grateful nation laid Private First Class Rob Roy Certain to rest who passed away at the age of 83. I had the profound privilege of folding the American Flag for his funeral as part of the Military Funeral Honor Guard which Mr. Certain had purchased decades ago through blood and sweat during the Korean War. He was a combat veteran and, based on the medals displayed at his funeral, a three time Bronze Star recipient.

In my short Army career thus far, I have probably conducted 60-70 such funerals. While individual military honors funerals vary greatly on many peripheral matters, there are three things that are constant: The ceremonial folding of an American Flag, the presentation of that flag to a surviving loved one, and--before those things--there is the playing of a short horn piece known nearly to the whole nation as "Taps".

As with most military customs, it is not entirely clear how this piece came to be played at funerals though most apocryphal accounts place its use in funerals during Civil War at the latest. Regardless of it's origins, "Taps" is played at military funerals. This event with this song has been played thousands of times at actual funerals and has been immortalized in so many film recreations of the ceremony that the American psyche cannot help but equate "Taps" with "Death".

This connection between "Taps" and "Death" is so strong in the collective memory of American citizens, that the start of "Taps" is usually when the sobbing and wails of mourners greatly increase in volume and intensity. They have held their composure for the entire service in relative silence with little more than red eyes and a few silent tears... ...but, simply at the first few notes of this horn, the entire audience tends to break down. It is as though this music piece firmly declares to all who hear it "Yes, they really are dead." It is an iconic message that is almost universal in its impact across the nation. Next time you are at a military funeral, pay attention and you'll notice it, too.

But "Taps" is not just the "He's dead, Jim" funeral music as most civilians know it. Military personnel know all to well what its true meaning is because, when living on a military base, they hear it played late into the night... each and every night... like clockwork. Why? Because it is clockwork. In the days before the point where every soldier in camp had reliable watches, radios, alarm clocks, and email, a whole slew of bugle calls were created as part of the larger set of trumpeted commands to broadcast across the entire base what time it is, what is going on, where people should go, and what people should be doing. Where a runner could deliver a message to a few through great effort, a bugler could almost effortlessly deliver a message instantly to the ears of the whole camp. It is just part of a much greater tradition of sounding trumpets to signal messages to masses of people... dating all the way back to all ancient civilizations.

While civilians equate "Taps" with "Death", military personnel know that "Taps" actually means "Lights Out" or "Time to Sleep". That's when it's played and that's what it is for. It's time to sleep. On a military base, you hear taps play across the parade grounds and you know what time it is: It's time to hit the rack. It's that simple; almost mundane in its function. It's use at funerals is secondary to this original purpose and pours out of this utilitarian meaning. "Lights Out".

What a fantastic Christian metaphor! That is what death is for those who die in the faith: a time of sleep and waiting for a new dawn. A trooper in a camp here's "Taps" with relief knowing that the day's work is done and that a new day will break with the sounding of the opposite twin for "Taps". Where "Taps" signals the night, the call of sunrise is known as "Reveille" which is a French word that literally means "Wake Up".

The "Taps" at night is always answered by the new day's "Reveille". And for those who die in the faith of Jesus Christ, their peaceful slumber will be ended at the anouncement of a blessed new day. After the long night, there will be a sounding of a magnificent heavenly trumpet that will loudly declare to the entire world that the new dawn of the Second Coming of Christ is at hand!

"I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory."
"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
-1 Corinthians 15:50-58

So when you are at a military funeral for your Christian brother or sister, contemplate the true meaning of "Taps" and let the music remind you of what I have pointed out here... and the words of Christ:

"The child is not dead but asleep." [Mark 5:39]

The Achilles Heel of Contemporary Worship

2011-01-21T19:59:00.007-06:00

As a former contemporary worship guy, I can tell you what the Achilles Heel of Contemporary Worship is. (If I really think about it, there are a whole host of weaknesses to the format, but this is the one that prevents its spread, exposes its folly, and severs its hold on people.)

The Achilles Heel: Contemporary Worship is not about content. In order to emulate the broad-base contemporary music that it is mimicing, it has to be intentionally vague, emotional, existential and subjective.

By applying strong didactic text standards to all songs performed in church (something that no one can openly oppose without sounding anti-discipleship), you remove all of the "really good songs" in the genre. This isn't a cynical trick at all since weak song texts (in praise songs and hymns) have been a major contributor to the rampant Biblical illiteracy in this country. This is what is not understood by Contemporary Worship leaders. They know that music manipulates people, but they do not understand that it teaches things as well... even though every one of them learned their ABCs by singing it as a kid.

Also, when a song teaches false doctrine, bring that individual song up and measure it against God's Word and have it removed. What most people don't realize is that "no content" and "bad content" is the overwhelming majority of contemporary worship song texts. This puts a praise band up against a tough challenge because the few doctrine-rich praise songs that remain are further widdled down by what is easy enough to play and what songs transition well into each other. In order to conform to Lutheran doctrinal standards, you pretty much end up with a couple old praise songs from the 1950s - 1980s (most already in the LSB) and about five songs from Chris Tomlin.

To further thin the herd, all songs must have been composed by Christians or individuals whose orthodoxy is not in dispute. This sounds odd, but when you consider how many Oneness Pentecostals and anti-trinitarians are in the Praise Band scene, you can cut out some popular--even award winning--artists (Phillips, Craig & Dean and The Katinas are modalists for example.)

In the final talley, the number of acceptable songs that eventually survive the cut is so small that a praise band just can't perform week after week with such a limited repertoire. In order to fill its sets without being too repetitive, it would have to serve the congregation a set that would contain the religious musical equivelant of garbage.

So instead of cutting down a dead tree that people love for some odd reason, you agree to prune off the dead branches one by one. By the time you are finished, you have virtually no tree left and everyone says, "Okay... just cut it down... we see your point." At the worst, you end up with a blended service where one or two contemporary songs get played or hymns are played with contemporary flavoring.

Witnessing (Part 2) - Turning a Mouse into an Elephant

2011-01-17T12:06:00.026-06:00

Towards the end of my favorite book that seeks to analyze the War on Terrorism so far (a book that I recommend to anyone who wants to actually learn something meaningful and academic about the subject of counter-terrorism), Dr. Kilcullen talks about "turning a mouse into an elephant". In the context of terrorism, this means turning a group that is globally insignificant and marginalized (like Al Qaeda) into something that seems far more powerful and dangerous than it actually is simply by the extreme force of your response to it. After all, if you are really devoting so much time and effort to destroy something, it has to be a great threat to humanity at large, right? Well what if you are over-reacting? What if you are making a mouse look like a elephant simply by the way you frame the discussion?

This is what the church has done to witnessing. It has turned what is essentially a tiny squeaky mouse that the smallest child can defeat and made it out to be a huge, rampaging bull elephant in the minds of many Christians. Even the bravest among us are leery about facing a charging elephant. But what if witnessing is really the mouse that the Bible describes it as?

We have taken all kinds of thorny subjects like financial issues, church membership numbers, community involvement, cultural issues, synodical politics, and even sanctification only to lump them under the one big banner of "missions" so that many individuals feel the weight of all these issues on their shoulders when they talk to their cousin about why Jesus was hanging on the cross. Even the term "evangelism" is so misunderstood that it defines the act of bearing witness to the gospel as something that no Christian feels qualified to do. Let's break it down:

Evangel (n): 1. The Christian Gospel. 2. Good News.

-ism (suffix): 1. the act, process, or characteristic of the root word (ex: patriotism is the act or characteristic of being a patriot). 2. the condition of or property of the root word (ex: barbarianism is a property of a barbarian). 3. Adherence to a system of principles or beliefs. (ex: Buddhism is the system of belief for a Buddhist.)

Evangelism: 1. the act of the good news. 2. the property of the good news. 3. Adherence to belief in the good news.

So at least the modern evangelicals come by the horrible phrases of "being the gospel" and "doing the gospel" honestly. It is practically written in the English term so often used for reaching lost people. Historically, the term has not been understood as a legalistic human undertaking, but the modern church treats this as the work of men (thank you revivalism!). This is where the mouse becomes an elephant. It becomes something I'm supposed to do or become because I am a Christian and I can't let God down... I can't allow people to slip into hell...

I'm told that time is short and hell is hot. I'm told that I don't want to face the people that I failed to witness to on the Last Day only to have them ask, "Why didn't you tell me?!?" as they are flung into hell. (And, yes, I heard that second one several times as a kid from the pulpit during sermons! One time it was described as a criss-cross of escalators like at the mall where I was going up to heaven and I met a friend of mine that I never witnessed to on his way going down.)

But is that really what the Bible teaches? What if the Bible doesn't frame witnessing in these "elephant" terms but in "mouse" terms? What if the church, as an institution, is so busy legalistically driving people to be better evangelists that it fails to paint the act of witnessing as the simple act that it really is? Why has the church decided that the way to solve the fear of witnessing is to present it as a do-or-die mission of such urgency that no one would ever want to even think about it?

Matthew 28:18-20: "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"

Did you see what Jesus said there? Ignore the middle part that the church beats everyone over the head with. Right there at the start and the end of the "Great Commission" Jesus takes on all of the elephant tasks that we concern ourselves with. Christ has all authority. Christ is with us always. Our "mouse" tasks in the middle there are surrounded by Christ, His work, and His promises. If anything, that middle part describes how we will be used as His instruments. Do you really think that our incompetence can impede the will of God? The witnessing issue is so charged with guilt-trips that many people who have extreme anxiety about witnessing fear that this is exactly what is happening. God wants to save people but can't because we are failing Him... and our neighbors. No wonder people are hiding from evangelism! And yet, within this envelope of divine care, Scripture clearly shows that we are free to declare the word, baptize, and make disciples. We are shown that this authority that we burden ourselves has been given to CHRIST. Why do we make this seem harder than it really is?

1 Corinthians 3:5-7: "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."

Just ask around and you will observe an inferiority complex within the Christian community regarding giving public testimony. Some of this is good ole honest stage fright which is understandable because religion can be a contentious thing. Most of it is an overwhelming sense of inadequacy to the task. The mistake many leaders make is that they confuse these feelings of inferiority and unpreparedness with timidity. Not understanding the problem, they try to build up enough courage and confidence in the hearts their people to take on that elephant!

The inferiority will not be overcome. Why? Because it's true! We are all unworthy sinners who are not even worthy of being saved ourselves let alone having the privilege of sharing the good news of salvation with others. You don't overcome that with a few powerpoint slides and some good motivational speeches. Instead you embrace it!

You do as Paul did again and again and point out everyone's inadequacy and listen to the collective sigh of relief in the room. Rather than despair, people will be free to admit their own fears and reservations regarding witnessing in an environment free of judgement and condemnation. In my own experience, being shown that everyone is inadequate to the task is met with a universal, "Oh, thank God! I thought it was just me!" Then you take that elephant and reduce it down to a mouse by pointing out that "evangelism" is not really our work, but God's! If you frame witnessing properly, people will see it for the mouse that it is... a mouse that is much less terrible than the elephant that they are used to.

The unpreparedness should not be ignored and it can't be addressed with a few workshops and some pre-made religious tracts. This problem is a diagnosis of the poor job the church is doing in training its people. If you really get to the heart of it, most people don't witness because they don't feel confident in the subject matter. They don't know the issues well enough and they don't trust themselves to do a good job. This is made worse by directing people to talk about their own personal testimonies. Personal testimonies look good on paper because they are essentially immune to apologetic arguments. They are subjective so they cannot be argued and people already have their own histories memorized. How can I tell you that God didn't do something subjective to you when it happened in your life?

...but this misunderstands the critical weaknesses of personal testimonies:

1. Some people don't have them. Some people have never had anything impressive happen to them. They have been blessed with quiet lives and have nothing to share that would emotionally appeal to anyone. In our "personal testimony" culture, they wrongly assume that have no witness and so... they don't witness.

2. While it is impossible to debate a personal experience it is still just a personal experience. Your personal experience has no sway over me. So what if Jesus rescued you from a life of drugs and prostitution? I hate to be insensitive, but what does that have to do with me? Even if I have a similar situation, does that mean that I am supposed to be impressed by this Jesus?

3. Which leads into our next problem: personal experiences can be duplicated by non-Christian sources. Jesus got you off of drugs? Well, rehab did it for me and I got to stay a hedonistic pagan. Jesus fixed your family? Well, I went to this family counsellor and my family is doing fine? Jesus got your finances in order? Well, I did that myself with a little self discipline and Quicken on my PC.

4. Which leads into our next problem: personal experiences are not indicative of future results. Jesus got you off of drugs? Well, I can show you tons of Christian who still struggle with that. Does that mean that Jesus loves them less than you? Jesus fixed your family? Well, I can show you tons of broken families and a huge divorce rate within the church. Your personal testimony could prove insulting to those you witness too. This isn't just because your success may actually be the exception rather than the norm, but it is inherently dishonest. After all, you are implying that Jesus could do the same good things for the person you are witnessing to... which does not always happen... but no one ever says that during witnessing. It's a bait-n-switch. A con. A scam.

5. Every Christian is still a sinner. The problem with a personal experience is that your experience has to live up to the hype of your pitch. If you are going to tell people that Jesus got you off of drugs, what happens to your witness when you stumble and use drugs again? If you talk about how Jesus fixed your family, what happens when that affair you had becomes public knowledge? ...this is a major reason why people don't witness. They are afraid of letting Christ down in the eyes of the lost. Why? Because we tell Christians that they are supposed to live better than other people. All this law talk only creates two groups of people: secure hypocrites and sinners full of despair. It's no wonder that modern evangelism is largely made up of these two groups.

6. Most importantly, a personal experience is about you. Are we talking about you and what has happened to you or are we talking about Christ and the work that He did on the cross? The more you talk about yourself the less you will actually talk about Jesus.

So let's turn this elephant back into a mouse. Do you want to witness? Just tell people about Jesus and what the Bible says He has done for sinners on the cross. Share the small catechism and the creeds with people. When someone misrepresents the Christian faith or quotes the Bible out of context, be bold and correct the record. Be open and honest. Be willing to talk about this important part of your life with others to the best of your ability knowing that the Holy Spirit will guide you and that Christ is with you always. All of the hard work has been done and is being done by Christ and He has given you the privilege of sharing this great news with others. You don't have to do anything but bear witness about Jesus and His saving work... and all a witness has to do is tell people the truth about what happened. All you are doing is planting and watering... those are almost menial tasks when you get down to it. The growth? That's not your job.

Witnessing - Setting Our People up for Failure

2011-01-17T10:07:00.028-06:00

Has someone ever "set you up for failure"? This is when they train you or prepare you in a particular task... but fail to give you a complete picture with all of the information that you need in order to be successful. It can also happen when you are properly trained, but you are sent into a no win situation where your efforts are totally wasted. In either case, you walk right into the task so unprepared that you are almost doomed from the very start.

In retrospect, you can look back and see that the fault did not lie with your effort but with the one who sent you on this foolish mission. In my experience, church evangelism programs (with very rare exceptions) do this horrible deed almost better than anyone. It's no wonder then that well-meaning Christians hate the idea of sharing the faith and live in constant anxiety about it. This is why they will tell 40 people about the great new pizza place that just opened up in town, but choke and sputter at the thought of talking about how Jesus delivers sinners from eternal damnation. I'm here to tell you that it is not their fault. This is just a classic case of "live and let live".

In World War I, the generals charged with overseeing and conducting the war ran across a problem that became known as "live and let live". The idea of trench warfare had proven itself to be so futile and abhorrent to the trench fighters on both sides that a spontaneous spirit of co-operative non-aggression became rampant. In simple terms, everyone got it in their heads that there was no reason to climb out of a trench and die when one could just sit in a trench and do nothing. We live. They live. Everybody wins.

In many ways, this was the inevitable response of bad command decisions. The tactical blunders of WWI that pitted ancient military tactics against modern weaponry forced both sides into a protracted, horrible war of unending static misery. This analogy fits well with modern evangelism because--if you ask enough individual Christians--you will find many who describe witnessing in ways that are shockingly similar to a WWI trooper getting up out of the safety of his trench and running across the bomb-scarred no-man's land only to gain a few feet of actual territory for his side at best or get mowed down by raking machine-gun fire at worst. Is this what Our Lord's Great Commission is about? Really?

The initial response to "live and let live" was equally foolish and counter-productive. Generals in the rear instinctively accused their soldiers of cowardice and dereliction of duty. This could not have been further from the truth in most cases. The truth is that every man has his limits and those limits are reached far quicker when there is no clear objective or hope. Based on this false assumption, the planers and decision makers addressed the problem in the only way they knew how: through ineffective and institutional means. Propaganda and motivational training was ramped up. Several countries turned to harsh treatment, intimidation, and guilt to try to push the Soldiers back into line. Raids and assaults against the enemy were institutionally planned and carried out in order to keep up the offensive spirit in the ranks and discourage sedentary behavior when there was a perfectly good war to be fought. These measures met with mixed success and never actually got rid of the "live and let live" mentality which survived all the way through the end of the entire war.

It got so bad that the commanders in the trenches (themselves firm advocates of "life and let live") would send detailed false reports back to the rear of attacks against the enemy that never happened. There is a historical account of one British general who sought to deal with this particular problem using an institutional metric (physical evidence) to authenticate his previous metric (the report)... an approach which seems to be the only managerial solution these days! He required that every report of an attack that was sent from the front include a little bit of German barbed wire to prove that the unit had actually gotten out of the trench, crossed no-man's land, and reached the enemy line. It was from this enemy trench that the German wire could be recovered. The general confidently reported that this would help him prove the veracity of the reports he was getting.

...but metrics don't solve all problems. There is another historical account of British troops going out into no-man's land and finding an entire spool of German barbed wire. They took it back to their position in the trench. Each time the frontline troops had to send a false report to the general, they would snip off a piece of their stolen German wire to send it with their reports.

The reports were still false. The attacks still never happened. "Live and let live" was still in place. Only this time, the general's own solution had blinded him to the continued existence of the problem and further obscured the actual cause: the failure of the war itself to create a climate where individual Soldiers could actually win and survive.

I submit that the Christian church in America, as an institution, is setting Christians up for failure in a very similar way when it comes to witnessing to the lost. It is clear that the bad tactics and training that we are receiving in the trenches are not working. As the mission field becomes increasingly static and individual congregations begin digging trenches, the institutional leadership from all kinds of denominations and sects is turning to the only thing that it understands: propaganda, guilt, increasingly outdated advertising strategies stolen from secular business, and (of course) unverifiable metrics. "Go cut off some some barbed wire for me as proof of the execution of your duties and send it in with your report."

In response, the "generals" at the institutional level are increasingly coming into contact with the Christian version of "live and let live" which is further exacerbated by a culture that encourages everyone to just stay out of people's personal business. The zeal of the individual witness is draining and everyone can see the Christian soldiers just sitting in their trenches. People feel as though they have reached their limits. They have no hope of success. They know that what they are being told to do and how they are trained to do it just does not work in the real world. They sit in their trench and "live and let live". They send less and less money back to the rear to support a tactical engagement that they no longer believe in for a spiritual war that they honestly just don't want to be a part of anymore. They are tired. They just want to go back to "normal"... which they define as a life which does not involve slogging it out in this horrible trench with this horrible burden of witnessing.

What is the solution? It is certainly not collecting barbed wire or pushing exhausted troopers even further beyond their breaking point. The church as a whole needs to go down to the trenches and identify the source of the problem. The policy of "live and let live" is a response to being "set up for failure". Our training is wrong. Our tactics are wrong. Our metrics are wrong. We are metaphorically sending individual Christians out to the mission field to die and we don't want to admit that problem lies with the institutional paradigm that the church has bought into.

We need to go back to the drawing board. We need to evaluate these problem areas of training and tactics. We need a new approach--a soldier centric approach--that equips individual Christians with proper apologetic and proclamation tools and points them in the right direction: the places where they can do the most good and observe the most success for their effort.

Going back to my pizza example at the start of this long diatribe, the pizza place has no institutional system for setting up its customers as witnesses and yet the word of mouth takes care of itself. Why? Because no one needs to be exhorted to tell their friends about a place to get a good bite to eat. It's just common sense. Why doesn't the gospel translate to the same "good advice" that you tell a friend about because you care about them? There are a whole host of reasons, but chief on the list is the fact that the church has psyched Christians out by making witnessing out to be some daunting chore instead of a simple, clear, and blessed message of "good news" which is a Christian's privelage to joyfully share with others in the freedom of the gospel and not from the threats and demands of the law. In over thinking the problem, we have approached the issue from the wrong direction with the wrong set of presuppositions for so long that whatever witnessing does take place in the public square is happening in spite of our efforts rather than because of them.

You can be sure that I am going to be thinking about this topic through the Epiphany season. Expect more posts on that analyze various aspects of this problem... a problem that I, myself, have been a victim of for far too long.

The Most Wonderful [Anti-Enthusiast] Time of the Year, Part 2

2010-12-22T16:50:00.007-06:00

As a follow up to my previous post:

...are those "wise men" who travelled to a specific location in Bethlehem worshiping the King of Kings by presenting tangible gifts contained in actual BOXES!?!? "God in a box" jokes aside for a moment, when do we get to the relativistically gnostic spiritualism part of this story?

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'

"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' but 'As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own land."

Jeremiah 23:5-7

The Most Wonderful [Anti-Enthusiast] Time of the Year

2010-12-22T16:21:00.008-06:00

I have to say that this time of year warms the cockles of my objectively-minded, confesionally Lutheran heart. It is this time of of year when we hear the story of how The Son, the second person of the triune godhead, came down from heaven and took on human flesh only to be laid in a man-made feeding trough for livestock so that shepherds and and magi could come and worship.

...or as I sum it up for my charismatic Christian friends:

"Look! There's God putting Himself in a box just as He had promised us all the way back the Garden of Eden! And look there! There's Mary placing that incarnate box in yet another box filled with hay as they all rest from the elements inside a large box designed to house livestock. So... "God in a box" has been placed in a box which is inside another box ...sure does make you wonder, huh?"

Have a blessed Christmas filled with joy as we celebrate the tangible, objective truth from a God who has promised to reveal Himself to man through Word and Sacrament.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - Examples of Faith

2010-12-18T12:21:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was the commemoration of Daniel and the three young men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). You can read about it here.

Some thoughts about this story. First, lets not forget that if they had just done the simple act of kneeling before the idol of their captors, the fiery furnace would have never happened. Let us not forget that persecution is a response to a stand that a believer takes... a stand that--if not taken--assures you a life free of persecution for your faith. I would submit that part of the reason why the American church is not persecuted today is because she has done everything that the pagan culture has asked of her.

Second, let's look at this picture of what real faith looks like. In the face of future uncertainty, they cling to God's merciful provision and remain adamant to live the life to which they have been called... the essence of "Thy Will Be Done."

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." [Daniel 3:16-18]

Thankfully, God Hates Divorce!

2010-12-15T16:03:00.007-06:00

Rev Eric Brown was talking about the Christian view of divorce a few days ago. You can find that conversation here. Someone named "Jace" left the following comment on the thread:

-----------

Jace:

divorce is necessary for many who are trapped in an unhealthy relationship, i do not believe God would allow man to live his life unhappy just to prove he is faithful

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As is my custom, I blew him off with a derisive laugh and a sharp comment, but I've been thinking alot about what Jace said. It takes at least 24 hours for my maturity to kick in. All too often we look at divorce from a man-centered point of view... as if what the Scriptures have to say about divorce only applies to our various situations. But there is incredible gospel here if one takes the time to look!

How blessed we are that God does not think the way that Jace thinks He does about marriage and divorce! ...for God Himself is deeply grieved by the sins of man and yet remains faithful to His marriage covenant to Israel through Christ Jesus our Lord. He proves His faithfulness to us in spite of our dreadful adultery and whoring as we greive Him with our idolatry and wickedness. He has borne our griefs and endured our blasphemies and yet does not cut us off from His love and covenant.

For God has rescued Jerusalem from the bonds of slavery and called her to Himself as His bride and has adorned her with blessings and riches beyond compare:

"When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD." [Ezekiel 16:8-14]

And this chosen bride took those gifts and turned to whoring after other gods and presented these lavish gifts that God had given to her various other lovers:

"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord GOD. And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood." [Ezekiel 16:15-22]

...and yet, God did not cast Jerusalem aside and divorce her from His sight in spite of her filth and treachery, but he seeks her out and draws her to Himself and promises forgiveness, hope, reconciliation, and points to His steadfast keeping of His covenant to her through grace:

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD." [Hosea 2:14-20]

So God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, born of a virgin. This savior, fully God and fully man, lived the perfect life that we could not and died on the cross to bear our guilt and shame so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." [Ephesians 5:25-32]

Jesus Christ, the Lamb, sanctifies and cleanses His church (Israel) "by the washing of water with the word" so that He might present the church to Himself without spot or blemish. And so, in spite of her wickedness and adultery, God does not cast His chosen people aside, but renews and purifies them on account of Christ by the power of the Gospel through the Means of Grace: Word and Sacrament which are the marks of the church and the essence of the apostolic Christian faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

"Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." [Revelation 21:9-14]

Rejoice Jerusalem! Praise be to God for His steadfast love, faithfulness, and grace!

Word of the Day

2010-12-11T19:37:00.005-06:00

Conversate (kon-VER-sate)..... as in:

"That person is difficult to conversate with."

Please... please... please... this monsterous perversion of the English language is not a word. Maybe you are having trouble "conversate-ing" because that person speaks English and you do not. Trust me, the word that you are looking for is: "converse". Let's fix that sentence.

"That person is difficult to converse with."

Much better.

That is all.

An Ethical Position Stands on Something

2010-12-07T19:54:00.008-06:00

An ethical system is a wall made of many interlocking stones. They all effect each other and the higher ones rest on what exists beneath it. You do not build a wall from the top down, but from the bottom up. You lay foundation stones and then stack other stones upon the ones laid before in a systematic and thoughtful way. The base stones carry the most weight. In this analogy, they are the basic principles of any ethical system. From this foundation, more advanced concepts are developed, derive their context, and are provided their significance.

But no stone in a wall floats freely at its appropriate height, but must first be placed and rest on the lower stones. A stone by itself, devoid of support and context, will not keep out evil. Building up ethics is as time consuming and tedious as building a wall. You must lay stone upon stone and build up the structure piece by piece.

In the ancient ways of warfare, a popular way of taking down a defensive wall was to undermine it. Tunnels would be dug beneath the wall to deprive the foundation stones of their stability. Once the security on which the wall was built was compromised, the entire wall collapsed under its own weight. Defending the top of the wall was not enough in this case. The bottom of the wall was also in great danger.

Today, the carefully built wall of the Judeo-Christian ethical system is being undermined--not from above, but from below. It is the foundation that needs to be defended and secured, but the majority of the defenders remain on the ramparts worried about their pet piece of the rampart. It is no wonder that these defenders (like the "Moral Majority" and the "Religious Right" as examples) find themselves tumbling to the ground as their footing gives way. They had no idea where the attacks were actually directed.

Lets be honest: topics like gay marriage, contraception, and divorce are pretty high up on the wall. They rest on the stones of selflessness, duty, love, compassion, patience, dedication, integrity, sacrifice, gender roles and differences, and even vocation. Topics like evolution, higher criticism, and narcissistic theological interpretations rest on the stones of scriptural authority. Those lower stones are the ones that are really under attack and those are the ones that must be reinforced, secured, and replaced... first! The failure at the higher levels is just a symptom of the foundation problem. Trying to dress the cracks in the mortar at the top is not going to address the fundamental threat.

Yes... the entire wall is important. The entire wall must be defended, but do not think that the top of the wall--or even the middle of the wall--can stand on its own if the bottom falls out from underneath it.

Everything in Love (Even a Rebuke!)

2010-12-06T16:31:00.009-06:00

Christians do good works to help and serve their neighbor. Everything is out of love and concern... EVERYTHING.

Even a rebuke must come out of concern for the spiritual health and safety of our neighbor. We do not rebuke because we know that we are right and they are wrong (as the Pharisees did). We rebuke out of the same concern that a parent has when they try to stop a child from touching a hot stove.

So even when the law is applied to secure sinners, it is not done out of wrath, pride, or vengeance... but from the selfless love that flows from the Holy Spirit who does not desire the death of the sinner, but that the wicked would repent and live! [Ezekiel 18:32]. If we are to emulate Christ, we must learn to come from this same place of selflessness and compassion.

This should be a constant petition in our prayers, because none of us do this as we should. We do not love our neighbors as we ought. We want to defeat them and be better than them. We want to stand in the high places, be respected, and have the authority to correct their errors and stand in judgment of their life choices. We want to be the gurus that are respected for our sage advice. But who among us can boast? Who is so free of sin that they can feel confident to cast the first stone of condemnation in any situation?

We are not called to be the greatest. We are called to be the least. We share in the cross and in Christ's humility. By the power of the gift of a living faith, the Holy Spirit that dwells in us creates new passions and naturally produces fruit such as love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the great gifts of God that we must share with our neighbor. How will anyone know God's love and mercy through you if they are shown nothing but hardness of heart, enmity, anger, and pride?

Entering the Mission Field

2010-12-06T01:30:00.003-06:00

I have seen signs at the exits of churches or as you leave their parking lots that say:

"You are now entering the mission field."

I understand this sentiment. I get it. But... does that mean that the church is not a mission field?

Judging Others... in the Positive Sense?

2010-12-05T16:52:00.015-06:00

When we think about "judging others" we almost always approach the topic from the same direction. We talk about being overly critical of others from a sense of superiority. We talk about dealing with people in the negative direction. I wonder, "Is that all that's to this?"

I've been thinking that this way of judging is not the only way that Christians judge their neighbors... and in my estimation it is probably not even the most harmful way that we judge. Nobody likes a self-righteous critic, but--thinking out of the box for a second--what happens when we judge the heart of another in the opposite direction... not negatively, but positively?

In dealing with other Christians especially, what happens when we judge others in the positive direction by assuming that this person is spiritually equipped enough to the point that we don't need to teach doctrine... or remind them the gospel that saves and redeems sinners? What happens when we look at a "leader" in the church like a pastor, elder, "strong Christian" in the congregation, or even a spiritual mentor, and wrongly just assume that they have it all figured out because of their outward appearances? What happens when we judge them to have the gospel locked down at all times? What happens when we assume that they don't need to hear the Word of God for themselves?

We know the analogies of the wheat and the chaff or the sheep and the goats. When the topic of judging others comes up with these analogies, we naturally assume that we shouldn't treat wheat like chaff or assume that a sheep is a goat... but can't the mistake can go the other way too?

No sinner is "too good" for the Gospel. No person is "so spiritual" that they have no use for the Gospel. No one has "plenty of time" to grow in Christ at some later date. No neighbor is so mature as a Christian that they have no use for your evangelism. No one is strong enough that they are beyond the need for encouragement from you. There is no situation where the Gospel "goes without saying" or where there is a particular truth "that does not need to be verbalized".

The church is full of people that have been written off as being beyond all hardship or struggle. In my experience, these are the ones who languish in a place of greatest need.

God's Law: The Universal Context in All Human Cultures

2010-12-03T22:03:00.002-06:00

There is alot of talk about "contextualization" these days. The idea is that, since cultures are all different, you have to place your mission approach into that culture's (or subculture's) context. While this is true about basic apologetic approaches, it is a false argument to assert that the church's mission can only be successful if it adopts contextual approaches unique to each culture.

Why?

Because it overlooks the fact that there is one universal context that all human cultures have in common... by virtue of the fact that they are human.

God's Law and original sin. There is no culture that can avoid this context. They may ignore it or describe it differently, but this crucible sits at the core of every human experience. There is no culture, group, sect, or individual who does not understand this fundamental struggle because it is a part of everyone's nature since the fall.

To frame missional approaches by any other context is to dance around the central theme that binds all human cultures together and cuts to the center of the human problem: sin. Do you want to be contextual and relevant? Rightly divide Law and Gospel.

Addiction: The Speck in Your Brother's Eye

2010-11-29T19:28:00.006-06:00

Whenever the topic of repentance comes up, you always hear people bring up the topic of addictions and habitual sinners. They will bring up the guy who struggles with his particular sin constantly and--while he comes back for forgiveness time and again--never seems to gain any traction in resisting this particular problem. It is usually something like alcohol, drugs, violence, and pornography.

This matter is obviously a complex issue that is well within the grounds of individual pastoral care between a sinner and his minister.

That said, what is often the case is that individuals who bring up this situation are only talking about "those people" over there. The addicts. I saw this alot in the you-should-be-getting-progressively-more-holy-and-sin-less-and-less mentality of evangelicalism, but it strikes right here in Lutheranism as well. Too often, the implication here is that these people who struggle with habitual sin are just not serious. They are luke-warm Christians and hypocrites. They are taking advantage of God's mercy by not fighting their addiction hard enough. What they really need is to get their lives in order.

My response to such thinking is: "...and how is it that YOU do not consider yourself an addict? Are you not addicted to lying? Are you not addicted to envy? Do you not repent over and over again and yet continually fall back into taking the Lord's holy name in vain, despising the proclamations of His word, and trusting in the false gods of your own making? Do you not find yourself getting bored or thinking about other things during divine worship? Do you not refuse charity to those in need so that you can have all the riches you desire? How is it that you do not consider yourself a gossip addict? Do you not laugh at crude jokes, think impurely of others, and even commit murder in thought if not deed?"

"In what way do you not continually dishonor your parents and other authorities? In what way do you not habitually and constantly violate your marriage vows or stain the purity of chastity in singleness. Why do you read God's Law and get the notion that you do not daily struggle with loving God above all things and loving your neighbor as yourself? Do you not get off on the 'high' that your sinning gives you? Does it not shame you to the point where you hide your sins from your neighbors, friends, and family? How are your addictions any different? Do you think that God gives you a free pass because your dependency is not chemical or because your wretched acts don't leave any track marks on your arms? Why is it that you are just not taking your sin problem seriously enough? Why don't you stop? If you are honest, you realize that you can't. You have a problem. You are an addict, too. The old adam in you is addicted to sin and can't get enough. Just admit it and receive the ever present gospel remedy."

The obvious addict who falls into sin again and again and returns to God for forgiveness 70 times 7 times is not the exception. It is merely a more apparent example of what happens in all of us. The truth is that you are exactly like other men... even that sinner over there. The constant, unrelenting struggle against sin is the picture of the Christian life as we labor and wait for the perfection of our flesh on the Last Day.

So take advantage of God's mercy which is offered to you freely and without condition because of Christ Jesus who purchased you, a poor miserable sinner, by death on the cross. The real tragedy is not the individual who struggles with particular sins, but the poor soul who does not realize that his need for constant and repeated forgiveness through the Gospel of Christ Jesus is just as great--if not greater--than his neighbor's need. Even repentance itself is a free gift of God since people who are dead in the trespasses and sins do not turn to God or love Him. We are by nature sinful and unclean. We are desperately sick and are in need of the Great Physician, Christ, who did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance [Luke 5:32]. By the power of the Holy Spirit, put to death the old flesh and make no provision for sin as you await the eternal rest that will come to all who believe when our Savior returns to judge the living and the dead.

Sound Doctrine: A Source of Unity

2010-11-23T19:54:00.004-06:00

It is a common complaint that digging too deeply into doctrines, standing firmly on positions, and even formulating creedal and confessional statements to express our beliefs is divisive. It is an activity that always harms the unity of the Body of Christ.

I submit that this is not true. While unnecessary speculation and the development of previously unknown doctrines does cause schism and division in the church, seeking to formulate a solid confession of "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" is the exact opposite of division. In fact, it is unity.

The clear expression of the faith is the language of the Body of Christ. This common tongue unites us rather than divides us. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit that overcomes all of the confusion and babel. We gather together around common ideas rather than wandering aimlessly in the chaotic masses as we search to hear a single common voice out of the din of a myriad of human opinions.

And even in those places where confessions differ, the first step to resolving these issues is to identify where the sources of difference lie. How can people with two differing opinions ever learn from each other if neither knows the clear position of the other?

Clear doctrinal statements also remove the temptation to judge people's motives. When someone demonstrates a willingness to engage in full disclosure and works to remove doubts about his intentions and private opinions, the seeds of trust can finally grow. Clearly revealing someone's foundational ideas and presuppositions helps to provide a context for all further discussion so that no one need to wonder if he should "read inbetween the lines" or search for hidden meanings that reveal his brother's true purposes.

It is only in the hands of the tyrants, heterodox, schismatics, and rebellious that differing opinions cause division. This is not the fault of the proclamation of truth, but is a manifestation of the sinful deficiencies in all human beings.

Decoding Law Usage in Modern Langauge

2010-11-23T18:22:00.006-06:00

10. Faith

I can hear it now, "WOAH THERE, Buddy! You have gone to far now! How can "Faith" be Law?"

Answer: When it is perverted and twisted by sinful man so that it is a quality that man possesses and maintains rather than a gift from God. When it is understood to be nothing more than the understanding possessed by the devil and his angels... or when it is understood to be a synonym for "doing right by God"... or when it is henotheistically understood that non-Christians can possess the same qualities as Christians when it comes to "having faith" in something.

When the church talks about faith, it is talking about belief and hope... in what? That's an important question because in the Biblical definition of "faith" that word always has an object that it points to: Faith... in Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Savior of the World. On top of that, it is not a human creation, but is something that is given by the Holy Spirit as pure gift. Faith, rightly understood, is extra nos. It comes from outside of you as a gift from the Holy Spirit.

The world has a different meaning for the same word and you start to hear Christians using it more and more these days. This faith needs no object. It is a cognitive analysis of trust that is given from the individual that possesses it... usually based on evidence or convincing propositions. This kind of faith is better described as "loyalty" or "allegiance". The military oath of enlistment has the phrase "I will bear true faith and allegiance". That is what we are talking about. I know that this is a little bit of hair-splitting on words, but the practical application of this seemingly minor difference is truly significant. This is how a word as fundamental to the Gospel as "faith" can become a human quality that must be preserved by human effort... and therefore is perverted into Law.

Many times you will hear people talk about "having faith", or about how their "faith is important to them", or that they are a "people of faith", or that they are afraid they are "losing their faith", or even that they "have faith in Jesus". When you investigate through asking questions, you learn that this word they are using does not really have an object and is something that they have to preserve through their effort. It is a very secular use of the term... a term that they do not really understand from a theological perspective. You learn that this "faith" word is really a pious sounding synonym for "loyalty" or "obedience".

This is where decision theology comes in. It takes the gift of faith and blurs it. It confuses it by making it seem as though the work of the Holy Spirit is not the free gift of "faith". Instead, it makes the Holy Spirit seem as though He is an advisor or salesman that provides very convincing promptings and propositions that influence the sovereign individual and cause them to decide to have faith in what is being presented.

...then you start to wonder in times crisis........ did I respond in faith properly? Did I do it right? Did I do it enough? Should I do it again?

LAW!

Decoding Law Usage in Modern Langauge

2010-11-23T17:26:00.015-06:00

8. "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD)

Who can forget about WWJD?!? Oh man, that was a huge fad when I was in school! The really appealing thing about it is that it is complete and total Law... but it has "Jesus" in the name so people think it's Gospel. To counter increasing teen promiscuity, drug use, violence, and lewdness (in the church especially), this program sought to create a kind of cosmic version of Simon says. The idea behind it is "Jesus wouldn't do that so you don't do that either." or "Jesus would do this so you have to make it happen." Just like the implied imperatives we talked about before, WWJD is built on the same concept except Jesus is in place of Moses and His perfect life is in place of the two stone tablets.

You think this fad is dead? Think again. Yeah, some Jehovah's Witness wannabe hasn't handed me one of those cheapo bracelets in a while, but just yesterday I heard a woman on national television use "WWJD" as the reason behind a particular behavior choice. The problem with fads is that--once they die--they are very susceptible to necromancy. The zombie-returned-from-the-grave-to-haunt-us version of "WWJD" is "Christ Follower". More on that in a minute.

Getting back on point, some people did their best to turn "WWJD" into a Gospel message. They started going with "WDJD" and "WHJD" for "What Did Jesus Do" and "What Has Jesus Done". I know some people love this turn of phrase, but it really is garbage. First of all, it is only kind of sort of Gospel-ish. It is a classic case of talking about the Gospel without ever mentioning the Gospel. The problem here is that the implication of the question is too vague. Jesus DID alot of stuff... like heal the sick... feed the poor... teach really neat lessons about loving people. Secondly, the "What Did Jesus Do" got perverted and it has largely become the Gospel guilt trip to motivate people to do more law. As in, "Jesus died for you and you are going to repay Him by acting like this?!?" Not good. Read C.F.W. Walther's Thesis XV in his Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel.

9. Christ Follower

Trendy guys with square-framed glasses, designer shoes, frosted highlights, $150 jeans, and artificial tans came up with this term a while back. Thankfully, I had left the Purpose Driven movement in time to miss this one. For 2,000 years, the church has used words like "Christians", "Believers", "The Faithful", "The Elect", "Brothers and Sisters" and "Saints" to describe those who have been won by Christ.

Apparently this was just not good enough. We took the ideas already expressed in WWJD and made a new kind of disciple who was obsessed with the moralistic example of Jesus instead of the saving work of Jesus. Unlike most people, I don't think that this was just a move solely motivated by contemporary impulses. They keep words like "tithe" and "Bible", so why ditch traditional name of the people in the religion? It's not about being contextual because "tithe" is much more offensive than "believer". I think there is an actual theological argument being made here and it all has to do with Gospel and Law. Stay with me:

Traditionally understood, "Christians" and "Believers" are made. Alot of people say that they became a Christian, but a more exact term is that you were made a Christian. God creates faith. We put on Christ through the waters of baptism. No one comes to Christ unless the Father draws them to Him. We are sons and heirs of the Kingdom and everyone knows that you don't decide to become an heir. You are made one. You are born again... something totally out of your control. This concept is Gospel.

We can't have that though in the Law-dominated church. Already weakened by decision theology and revivalism (thanks for nothing, Charles Finney...), this historic understanding of God making Christians has been thrown out the window and replaced with something that places the emphasis on the man and not God. A "Christ Follower" is one who follows Christ. It's right there in the name. Do Christians follow Christ? Of course, but what I am pointing out is a change of emphasis. We have gone from language that was largely understood in mongeristic terms to a focus on the human activity that occurs in response to faith: i.e. discipleship. Those are works... and if you listen to some of these seeker-sensitive guys, they think that the start of this "following" process can precede coming to the faith and prepare someone for conversion! MMmm... smells like... legalism... and sulfer....

"Christ Follower" is not just dumb and unneccesary... it's a Law term. It's not even a good Law term because Law and Gospel are badly confused in how it is explained and defined.

Geography Class, Islam, and the Gospel

2010-11-22T22:15:00.013-06:00

I vividly remember sitting in World Geography one day in High School. By this time I had become a good little Pharisee in the Purpose Driven and Contemporary Praise Band movements of the Southern Baptist Convention. I remember watching a few films in class about various world religions. I honestly can't tell you the name of the film series or even the individuals they got to speak on the program. I do remember a young charismatic Muslim with a Koran in his hand speaking about the merits of his religion.

At one point he said something to the effect of, "Islam actually tells you what you need to do and then tells you how to do these things. Christianity does not do this. This is the strength of Islam. It teaches the principles and then it teaches you how to actually live by what it teaches."

For a moment, my young impressionable mind was threatened by what he had said. It was true that I carried a great deal of guilt and sense of failure about these standards that I was supposed to meet. For a moment, the legalist in me envied the Muslim for his attainable religion. Then my charismatic sensibilities kicked back in. "He's totally off base!" I mused. I thought back to all the practical preaching I had sat through. I thought about all the promises and commitments I had made. I thought about all the principles that my church had shown us buried in the Scriptures. We had Purpose, Spiritual Gift Surveys, the Prayer of Jabez, Promise Keepers, Small Groups, Accountability Partners, etc, etc. All the "progress" I had been making along the path. I thought about all of the works and steps and programs. I thought about all the training in sanctification.

Over the next couple years, I was impressed by the progress that the church was making in these areas. Eventually, the "Bible as Life's Instruction Manual" had been perfected and several cottage industries had sprung up in support of it. In my own mind I had thought back to that guy in class and been proud of how we sure were proving that silly Muslim wrong!

Looking back, that Muslim understood the Law in the Christian Bible better than I did. The reason why I found such commonality in my own faith and his description of Islam was that my faith was in my own works. The proof was in the things that I turned to for comfort: my works. I thought I was pulling things off just like he did. I was a legalist... just like him. No wonder we had so much in common.

Where was Christ in all of that? Did Christ even matter and was He even needed? On what had I set my hope and faith? Did I really believe in Christ or was "belief in Christ" just another self-righteous work that I had achieved on my way to pleasing God? All of the other stuff had obscured the cross... the very thing that I needed most.

The missing piece that he had not said on that video was something that I should have been clinging to all along. Yes, the Christian Law cannot be followed by sinful man. Yes, it cannot be done because it must be done perfectly. That is true. But Christ has fulfilled the Law on my behalf and justified me, a poor miserable sinner, through His vicarious atonement by death on the cross. There is nothing left for me to do. Christ has done it all in my stead.

And yet many churches today fall for the arguement that I first heard from this Muslim in Geography class. The church has to be practical. It has to be relevant and achievable.

It has to be like Islam. Achievable Law... no Gospel required.

Decoding Law Usage in Modern Language

2010-11-22T21:45:00.017-06:00

7. "Have to", "Got to", "Ought to", "Need to", "Should", and "Must"

Along with their Southern Baptist cousins "Havta", "Gotta", "Otta", "Needta", and "Shoulda", these words are all verbs and verb phrases. Verbs--as I'm sure you learned in grammar class--are action words. Now when one thinks of the Law, one thinks of direct verbs that you use when you want to form a good imperative phrase. An imperative phrase is a command... which is Law. "You start acting right." and "You repent!" This is obviously Law and, when we think of Law preaching, we invision some red-faced parson yelling these kinds of phrases at his parishoners with a finger wagging.

But it doesn't just stop there. Verbs can be used to make all kinds of phrases. How about an indicative phrase? Indicatives are descriptive statements. Here's a good example: "Fathers should be spending time with their kids." Or here's one: "The people of this church are a people who care about the poor." Now one wouldn't think that phrases in the indicative mood are Law exactly. That's not "fire and brimstone" stuff. It's just good advice and descriptive phrases, right? Indicative mood isn't Law, right? Check out your Ten Commandments:

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not murder.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

...well what do you know! The LAW of Moses is all indicatives! They aren't in the command mood at all, but are--in fact--descriptions of what good behavior looks like. And yet the Law always accuses... because you do not meet this discription, do you? That's the implied imparative inside of most Law-based indicatives. Everyone knows the mom who uses the indicative, "We don't curse in this house." The command is implied. She is saying, "Stop cursing!"

So when a pastor says, "Fathers should be spending time with their kids." The implied command is "Take care of your kids!" When a pastor says, "We need to be a people who care deeply about lost people." The implied command is, "Get off your lazy butt and go care deeply about lost people."

If it has to do with human action the statement is Law no matter how it's worded. When understood and analyzed, we find that most churches these days are actually 90% or more about Law and Law-related concepts.

Decoding Law Usage in Modern Language

2010-11-22T21:23:00.010-06:00

3. "Principle" can mean an "idea" or "concept", but in the modern church it is a Law term.

Principle: 1. a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; 2. a rule or standard especially of good behavior; 3. a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon or the function of a complex system; 4. a rule of personal conduct.

Coming from a Latin root that means "foundation" or "beginning", a principle is a rule or standard. It is a system of conduct. It is a work. It is law.

4. "Step" as in "Here are four easy steps to a happy marriage" is mega-Law [for full effect say "mega-Law" out loud like you are booming into a mega phone at a monster truck ralley].

Step: A measure: any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal; "the situation called for strong measures so the police took steps to reduce crime".

If it is something that you must do, it is a work and therefore it falls under the purview of the Law.

5. "Purpose" as in "Purpose Driven Church" or "Purpose Driven Life" or "Discover Your Purpose" etc, etc, etc, etc

Purpose: 1. A result, end, aim, or goal of an action intentionally undertaken, or of an object being brought into use or existence, whether or not the purpose was a primary or secondary effect. 2. A function: what something is used for.

Every tool has a purpose. That purpose is to perform a specific kind of work. Those are Law categories.

6. "Love" as in "We don't get all tied up in doctrine. It's just important to love God and love other people."

Love... Perhaps you should get tied up in doctrine because you have no idea what you are talking about. You think you are protecting against legalism, but the Law is summarized in our love for God and our neighbors. This one doesn't need a dictionary definition. Instead, what is appropriate is a Bible verse:

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And [Jesus] said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

-Matthew 22:36-40

Decoding Law Usage in Modern Language

2010-11-22T21:01:00.007-06:00

Often times, the common misunderstanding is that the contemporary church is Antinomian and is not teaching much of anything. The truth is that they are often teaching nothing but the Law. They may be doing it badly and they may be using non-Biblical language to do it, but the themes are essentially Law when they are analyzed. Just because the Law is delivered with a hands-off smile and some trendy music doesn't make it any less distressing for those who hear it. Allow me decode some of the langague for you.

1. "Encouragement" is almost always a Law term.

Encouragement: 1. the expression of approval and support. 2. The act of encouraging; incitement to action or to practice; as, the encouragement of youth in generosity; That which serves to incite, support, promote or advance, as favor, countenance, reward etc.; incentive; increase of confidence.

A term from Old French that means "to put in courage", encouragement is used several ways in contemporary churches. They are almost always related to the Law. Most often, encouragement is used to "encourage" someone to do a particular thing... which is a work... which is Law. There is also a kind of encouragement which is intended to lift the spirit up (which is not the same as the "hope" one finds in hearing the Gospel). In this use, it is almost to counter discouragement which is a consequence of previous applications of the Law. Instead of providing the Gospel, this form almost always turns us back to more works. This is what we converts who have left Purpose Drivenism cynically call the "rat wheel". Most often encouragement in Christian circles is equated with "strength for the day" which is essentially the power to do what you are supposed to do. That's Law... fuzzy-sounding hippy kind of law... but Law none the less.

2. "Practical" is another Law term.

Practical: concerned with actual use or practice

Having something in the church that possess the quality of being "practical" sounds good... but then again the Law makes alot of sense to us because it is written on our hearts. Practical means that you can do something with it. That's a work. That's Law. It may be nice, useful Law... but it's still Law.

Psych on Biblical Knowledge

2010-11-19T12:55:00.004-06:00

As indicated by my "Skydiving Judi Dench" reference, I am a big fan of the TV show Psych. Here is a wonderfully hilarious case of art imitating life. :P

------

Shawn: "Samson, that's just a great name. Straight out of film noir, like an old detective who drinks hard, but loves even harder. Or, go with me on this, Samson, a tiny little orphan mouse who must find his way home to Wolverhampton."

Gus: "...Or Samson, the legendary figure from the Bible."

Shawn: "Naw, that doesn’t work. All those guys had names like Ben Hur and Prometheus."

Gus: "You have never read the Bible, have you, Shawn?"

Shawn: [counting the book titles on his fingers] "Pfffhh. Genesis. Exorcist. Leviathan. Dooo…the right thing…"

Gus: "Oh. My gosh."

Lassiter: "Stop Talking!"

What Have I Been Missing?!?

2010-11-18T18:06:00.002-06:00

I just ate something called "Bacon Ends and Pieces".

Skydiving Judi Dench! ....why in the world do they cut the tastiest part of bacon off?!?

Proper Perspective and Materialism

2010-11-12T06:44:00.002-06:00

It's sad when pagans understand certain ethical matters better than many Christians. A while ago I came across this clever quote:

"He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."
-Laozi

Finally Counting the Cost

2010-11-10T12:47:00.005-06:00

The feature article for the November edition of Lutheran Witness is interesting. It is called "Living a Life of Significance in a Post-Christian Culture" by Dr. Kurt Senske. You can find the article here.

I have to admit, the title worried me when I first saw it. An article with that kind of title could go a bunch of ways in the wrong hands. With great relief I saw that there were no trendy gimmicks or new doctrines here. Instead, Dr. Senske did a fantastic job of communicating some very old ideas about the doctrine of vocation in a fresh, new way that uses the modern language of today's audience to address the modern perceptions of the timeless problems of discipleship. It's a good read.

I got to thinking about the topics discussed in this article in view of the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price. Dr. Senske's reference to Bonhoeffer reminded me of many things that I had considered for the first time when reading the "Cost of Discipleship".

It's sad really. Sometimes I get it in my head that I am pulling this off to some extent. I look at the Pearl of Great Price and think that I am eagerly selling all that I have and turning my back on temporary materialism for the eternal treasure in Christ. I realize in my head and my heart that these things pass away and that my security is in Jesus. Then what happens? The moth comes in and destroys. The thieves break in and steal. The cost of discipleship actually requires something of me more than mere lip-service. The cause of Christ heaps the smallest amount of shame, persecution, and hardship on me. The test comes.

...and I find myself resenting it.

I find myself hating that I can't have my cake and eat it too. I find myself disappointed and dissatisfied. I find myself getting angry that the wicked prosper and the cheaters always seem to finish first. I find myself upset that I am losing at a pointless game that I told myself I was no longer playing. I talk a good game about being counter-cultural, but my heart is not in the fight like I thought it was. I realize that in my heart of hearts I really want it both ways. I want the Pearl of Great Price and I want my worldly treasures. Like the disciples, I claim to be willing to follow Christ to death, but I shun participating in His rejection and shame.

I want to be a disciple of Christ..... but also remain a son of the world at the same time. The truth is that I really love this materialism and self-worship. Denial of self just causes me to miss self-gratification more intensely. I've been paying bills with my mouth that my pocket can't afford. I've been arrogantly building my tower and have not first sat down to count the cost. What does this theology of the cross really mean in my life? Where has my heart been set really?

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Reformation Day - The Church Militant Continues Her 2,000 Year Journey of Reformation and Exile

2010-10-31T19:28:00.015-05:00

In 1949, a communist uprising and takeover within the Republic of China resulted in the Chinese Civil War. The war ended with the freedom of mainland China being handed over to the communist dictatorship that remains to this day. The original government, still called the Republic of China was forced into exile to the island off the coast of their country.

The usurping government took the name "People's Republic of China" even though the humanitarian record of the regime proved that it is not a government of the "People" and it is only superficially a "Republic". The power, size, and propaganda of the communist government has been such that the name "China" now refers to the communist regime and the Republic of China in exile has been largely forgotten. They still call themselves "The Republic of China" 50+ years later, but everyone knows them as "Taiwan".

If you say "China", people think of the communists. If you try to call Taiwan the "Republic of China" to the uninitiated, great confusion abounds. Yet the people of Taiwan remain true to their roots and look forward to the day when freedom may return to their homeland.

On this day, hundreds of years ago, a reform movement from within the western church began to restore the freedom of the Gospel to millions of Christians. The defense of the gospel met with only limited success and the reformers were expelled by imposters who stole the moniker "Catholic" (meaning "Universal") for themselves. These reformers in exile have come to be known as "Lutherans" a name as unfortunate as "Taiwanese" but a name that must exist to differentiate the tyrannical majority from the freedom-loving minority in exile.

Are the Taiwanese the Republic of China? Yes! And they are fully entitled to the name. Are the communists also called and well known as the Republic of China? Yes! ......but it is not a Republic in any real sense. Are they Chinese? Yes! ....but unfortunately they are also tyrannical communists.

By the same token the Lutheran church is catholic ("universal"). We are fully entitled to the name but it confuses the uninitiated. It is just easier to use the name "Lutheran" to tell us from those who are not Lutheran. Is the Roman Catholic church also called and well known as Catholic? Yes! ....but it is no longer "universal" in any real sense because it casts out Christians who seek to return her to the freedom of the Gospel. Are they Christian? Yes! ... but unfortunately they are also papists and legalistic enthusiasts.

Are there faithful Christians in Rome? Yes! ...but they labor for Christ under duress in spite of their church in the same way that communist government of China rules over her victimized, silenced, oppressed, and deceived citizens who are in desperate need of freedom and relief.

And so the Lutheran quest to reform the visible church here on earth and return her to the teaching of Scripture continues as she labors as an exiled, marginalized, and mocked minority. Lutheranism is in good company because--unlike the Chinese War that only occurred recently--the true church of Jesus Christ that clings to pure doctrine has always been rejected, hated, and rather small when she is compared to the false religions, persecuters, sects, heretics, and other enemies around and among her. The true church of Jesus always shares in Christ's rejection [Matt 21:42, John 16:33, Matt 10:5-42].

The Reformation of the middle ages was started by Martin Luther, but he is but one in a long line of prophetic voices of reform that have corrected error and legalism since the very dawn of the church 2,000 years ago. In fact, this lineage traces back through Christ's wrestling with the religious majority of His day, through John the Baptist, and through centuries of Old Testament prophets and judges who watched over the spiritual Isreal that was always kept by God within the visible body of the Israelites. Like those who come before us, we bold and faithful few continue to call ourselves and our neighbors back to Christ to hear the Word of the Lord and live in unity under the truth that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Let us always remain orthodox, catholic, and Christian as we hold steadfast to God's Word within the exile of the Lutheran Church... our island and last line of defense against legalistic tyranny and false doctrine.

The Church's One Foundation
Lyrics by Samuel J. Stone
Music by Charles Wesley
(LSB #644)

The church's one foundation
is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation
by water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy bride;
with his own blood he bought her,
and for her life he died.

Elect from every nation,
yet one o'er all the earth;
her charter of salvation,
one Lord, one faith, one birth;
one holy name she blesses,
partakes one holy food,
and to one hope she presses,
with every grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder
we see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping;
their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.

Mid toil and tribulation,
and tumult of her war,
she waits the consummation
of peace forevermore;
till, with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blest,
and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
with God the Three in One,
and mystic sweet communion
with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
like them, the meek and lowly,
on high may dwell with thee.

The Folly of "Immersion Only Believer's Baptism... Only"

2010-10-30T20:49:00.016-05:00

I used to hold that the only valid baptism was a believer's baptism (consenting confessing adult) by immersion (full dunking). Not only was that requirement not Biblical, I never stopped to consider what that means.

Using some rough estimates, here is what this accusation says when taken to its logical conclusion:

1.115 billion Roman Catholics are not properly baptized.
225 million Eastern Orthodox are not properly baptized.
75 million Calvinists are not properly baptized.
75 million Methodists are not properly baptized.
73 million Anglicans are not properly baptized.
72 million Oriental Orthodox are not properly baptized.
70 million Lutherans are not properly baptized.

...that adds up to almost 1.75 billion Christians currently living who are not properly baptized according to your particular interpretation of some pretty vague passages. It doesn't end there. Imagine if we add to that total the incalculable sum of all the Christians who ever lived and held to these denominations dating back to the early church. That is a HUGE majority of the church. This immense throng of your brothers and sisters were all baptized as infants.

You are saying they were never baptized and their rite is an erroneous violation of Holy Scripture. That's a pretty serious charge to make.... especially when you have no Biblical text that explicitly forbids the practice.

It's okay to make a charge that accuses so many faithful in all times and places if it is clearly supported by Scripture, but this is why the burden of proof is on the Anabaptists. The church shouldn't have to defend itself from such an unwarranted attack. Where is your clear proof? You are the ones accusing the majority of the current church and all or their ancestors of not being baptized in accordance with Christ's institution. That is a more serious charge than you realize. Since you consider baptism an ordinance of God, those who do not follow it are being disobedient. You are accusing 1.75 billion Christians and all their ancestors of disobedience to what Christ commanded of them. One should never accuse a brother of disobedience without clear proof from God's Word... especially when that blanket accusation numbers in the billions of brothers and sisters both living and dead.

Wouldn't you want to base such a sweeping accusation that effects so many of your fellow brothers and sisters on more than just mere human opinion, a few fallible lexicons and commentaries, and a textual interpretation that amounts to nothing more than the logical fallacy called "an argument from silence"?

.......if I'm going to publicly rebuke that much of the Body of Christ, I want to be absolutely sure that I am right beyond any and all doubt. I want to be able to point to some very clear passages that support my position and clearly reject all other positions.

My Dictum on Lutheran Practice

2010-10-29T22:02:00.005-05:00

After over a year of throwing thousands upon thousands of cluttered words into the aether of the Lutheran blogosphere I have finally managed to cobble together a single witty phrase that appears relatively popular. Feel free to use it to impress (and anger) your friends and family.

You cannot have charismatic Lutheranism for the same reason that there are no flaming snowballs or air-filled vacuums.

Be ready to back this dictum up with the Smalcald Articles (Article VIII:3-13)

The Folly of "Getting Back on Track"

2010-10-29T21:35:00.003-05:00

If you think of the repentance that comes with sanctification as a point where you decide to start "getting back on track" with God....

...I have to ask...

...when exactly where you ever ON track before?

Examine yourself in light of the Ten Commandments and be brutally honest with yourself.

Being on a track that is laid by the abilities of mere human achievement is not a train that I would want to be on... ever.

Repentance is not "getting back on track". That is the talk of legalistic moralism. Instead, repentance is the process of being drawn to the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Folly of the "Bound Conscience"

2010-10-29T16:40:00.008-05:00

Do not appeal to your "Bound Conscience" and be wary of those who do. To appeal to your captive conscience is pure folly. Why? Three reasons:

First, your conscience can be trained and conditioned. Your conscience is not sovereign and you exert influence (sometimes unintentionally) over your conscience. Appeals to conscience are all well and good so long as that conscience is sound, but consciences have also been appealed to for some of the most dastardly evil acts in history.

Second, you should not be bound to your conscience. Your conscience should be bound to the word of God. Do you see the subjectivism and subtle idolatry in the former and the humble piety of the latter? Your conscience is YOURS. Binding yourself to it is saying that you are binding your actions to yourself. That's not selflessness. That's narcissism. That is the road to egotistical self-righteousness.

Third, the Gospel of Christ is not about binding consciences but freeing them. A man who deals happily with his bound conscience wanders dangerously close to legalism. It is not the primary intent of the Law of God to hold people to a system of moral edicts. It is the intent of the Law to convict and kill. The Law always accuses and drives sinners to desperation and repentence.

Notice that Luther said, "My conscience is captive to the Word of God," and not "I am bound to my conscience." The Word is authoritative. The Conscience is your human opinion which is only helpful when it is conformed to the authoritative Word. You see here that Luther makes God's Word the master of his conscience and himself. Alternatively, people today make their consciences master over their actions and thereby make themselves their own god by placing their own interpretations and opinions between God and their choices. It allows other influences to shape their conscience that do not come from the objective truth of divine revelation. From there it is a very simple thing to have the conscience dictate opinions and interpretations to God as is prevelant in the liberal and enthusiast church bodies.

More often than not, when people speak of their bound conscience, they are using it to justify a false opinion or ill-conceived scheme. It is only when they say that their consciences are bound to God's Word that they are dealing with God honestly on His terms.

Sanctification - Let the Little Children Come

2010-10-26T22:16:00.016-05:00

In meditating on the gospel reading for last Sunday [Luke 18:9-17], I have been wrestling with what sanctification looks like. Obviously, I'm still working through my thoughts which are still quite unrefined. :P

The tendency is to take away with one hand what you give with the other. We offer the gospel and then we take it away with works righteousness. We hold up the tax collector from this text as the ideal and cast a jondis eye at that mustache-twisting villain the Pharisee. But with the same breath, we subconsciously think that the Christian life is to be a Frankenstein's monster combination of these two people: humble and self-aware like the tax collector but independently ethical and practically minded like the Pharisee.

Obviously the Third Use of the Law is valid and necessary in the life of the Christian. We are not to be slaves to sin. The Law of God does show us what a God-pleasing good work is, but how do we apply this "guiding use" of the Law without falling into legalism and works righteous behavior like the Judaizers and the Pharisees before them? How do we keep the Law a guide without making it a whip, an idol, or a shackle? After all, isn't artificial humility really just a veiled version of pride? Isn't it all too easy to say, with words eerily similar to the Pharisee, "God, I am glad that you are helping me to become someone who is not like these other men..."?

To combat this, St. Paul always presents the concept of sanctification in its proper context: in light of the Gospel that won salvation and rebirth for us through Christ's work.

In the sermon for this last Sunday, my pastor wisely directed us to the often overlooked and misinterpreted last portion of this lectionary selection: the tale of the little children coming to Jesus. Here we see the heart of the Christian life. Here the desperation of the tax collector segways seamlessly into the complete dependency of the powerless children being brought to be blessed by Jesus.

I have heard many people bemoan that Lutherans are "weak on sanctification". As a recovering legalist and enthusiast, this comment makes me feel that the people who hold this opinion have no idea what sanctification really is. I think it is because they don't know what sanctification looks like so they construct what it must be like using their own reason... which takes them back to legalism and works righteousness every time.

So before we even start looking at sanctification, we need to ask "What does the Bible say Christian sanctification even looks like?" Is sanctification a system where we become holy? Or is sanctification a gift of God whereby we are made holy?

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:16-17

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
-Philipians 2:12-13

Why do people not see sanctification in Lutheranism? Because, to be frank, they don't know what they are looking for. They have a preconceived notion that sanctification should be some amazing system of works or punch-list when it is not. They think that sanctification should resemble some system of improvement or enlightenment because that is what makes sense to our fallen human reason. Rather than a guide, they think that the Third Use should take the shape of some kind of ruler to judge one's spiritual progress up the ladder. This is just not true.

Instead, sanctification is in the shape of the cross. The holy life is a life that is conformed to Christ crucified. It looks like the broken and miserable sinner who is drawn to temple of God to be covered in the blood of the sacrifice to forgive his many sins. It looks like the little children being brought to receive the blessing from Christ. Sanctification is a sacramental life where God gives His gifts to His people and cares for His sheep through water, word, absolution, bread, and wine. It looks like the blind, the lepers, the crippled, the dying, the dead, the harlot, and the desperate being healed by a Savior who did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It is an external holiness given to the unrighteous that is revealed "from faith for faith" whereby the sinner is declared righteous and "lives by faith".

The daily dying to the old self and the fulfillment of one's vocation is not glamorous. It is not what man thinks of when he thinks of holiness, but this is what sanctification actually looks like. It is the life of humble service to which the saints are called. So away with the life of veiled pride dressed up with pious intent. Let the cruciform life of the sinner redeemed by grace always be our aim.

And in this cruciform life of faith in the Gospel, the Holy Spirit performs mighty works within the sinner which are His fruit that naturally flow from faith in Jesus. Good Works are--first and foremost--His works after all. The Christian life does not excuse or tolerate sin, it exposes and forgives sin. Sanctification doesn't look like anyone or anything we do which is constantly tainted by sin. Instead it looks like the cross. That's why well-intentioned Christians overlook it and misunderstand it. That's why we get tied up in systems and methods of self-improvement that distract us from Christ and His gifts to us.

Too often, we present the Gospel as what gets you in the door and then we turn people back to a system of works that they should be doing to grow in Christ. That's just not biblical. The good works always flow from faith and are presented in view of faith. The Christian never gets away from the cross and the empty tomb. The Christian never gets past Word and Sacrament. The Christian never moves beyond the Gospel. To do so would be to get away from the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, Himself. Sanctification is not a heavy burden but is pure gift in the freedom of the Gospel. It is a work of God that is ongoing and culminates in our Glorification on the Last Day at Christ's Return.

"And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
-Philippians 1:6

And in this freedom of imputed righteousness, you are finally free to perform truly good works that are not self-motivated because of compulsion, terror, or duress. From this freedom, you can finally do good works with a glad and grateful heart by the power of the Holy Spirit. From this freedom, you can help your neighbor in His every need secure in the knowledge that God has provided (and will continue to provide) for your every need for Christ's sake. Do not make sanctification a cruel taskmaster in your own mind that compels you into legalistic and bitter obedience. Just like justification, sanctification is a pure gift of God. Let the Gospel reign in the life of the Christian.

"At that time Jesus declared, 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 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 11:25-30

Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone
And rests in Him unceasing;
And by its fruits true faith is known,
With love and hope increasing.
For faith alone can justify;
Works serve our neighbor and supply
The proof that faith is living.

-Salvation Unto Us Has Come
LSB Hymn 555

For Many, the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will Last a Lifetime

2010-10-21T20:15:00.014-05:00

"The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." -Douglas MacArthur

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq begin to fade from public attention and discourse, I would like to remind my readers that there are many military veterans who will continue to "bear the deepest wounds and scars" of this most recent conflict... some for the rest of their lives. I see a growing temptation in the public mindset that is starting to forget and move on to other pressing issues, but we cannot leave our veterans behind as we push forward as a people and a nation. A mark of a true patriot is one who continues to care for the troops even when it is no longer fashionable and popular to do so.

In the past, I have had the honor and privilege to work with The Wounded Warrior Project which was founded by veterans to assist our own who now battle lingering injuries and disability. This non-profit and non-partisan organization seeks to assist and comfort our wounded veterans and their families and they do an excellent job by providing caregiver retreats, assistance programs, and public advocacy. I was lucky enough to be able to serve as an escort on a joint military/civilian initiative that assisted wounded combat veterans who were still in recovery in military hospitals. Through generous financial support and the charity of local businesses, we were able to provide these heroic men and women with a weekend vacation from the hospital environment so that they could enjoy free time filled with much deserved entertainment, food, public recognition, and relaxation.

...but the Wounded Warrior Project does so much more than this simple gesture of compassion and gratitude. I would encourage any of you who are interested in thanking these veterans by suggesting that you get involved with this worthy program. They can always use financial and material help in the form of donations and volunteers.

As a veteran of Iraq myself, I always hear how thankful and proud everyone is of our service. I respectfully invite everyone to put their money and time where their mouth is by contributing to this and/or other worthy charitable organizations. I have personally seen the good that this program does and so I am happy to vouch for it. I have also seen how underfunded they are and I know that they could certainly use your help. There are alot of scams out there, but these guys are a credible charity.

It is now time to serve and sacrifice for those who have so selflessly served and sacrificed for us. It is now time to begin to pay these individuals back for the immeasurable debt that we now owe them. It is very easy to neglect our neighbor when our own financial situation is difficult or uncertain, but we are called to love our neighbors as ourself. Here are some neighbors who could use your help.

Thanks.

Gift of God

2010-10-18T00:52:00.008-05:00

Against some of the foolishness that comes with decision theology (i.e. altar calls, acceptance prayers, etc), the following verses are often quoted:

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord." -Romans 6:23

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." -Ephesians 2:4-10

From there it is easy to discuss the difference between a "wage" (something you earn) and a "gift" (something you are given and don't earn).

The common reply is, "......well, you have to accept a gift" as if to say that a gift isn't a gift until you actively and consciously receive it.

No.

While it may be customary to accept SOME gifts, leaning on this limited custom to defend an indefensible position that comes from deficient Biblical familiarity is just bad reasoning. It is easily refuted.

Example 1: Joe is hit by a car and is flown by helicopter to the ICU. He loses alot of blood on the pavement and his kidney's are badly damaged. He wakes up months later and is told that he received "the gift of life" from anonymous donors. At one point, he was legally dead, but the doctors refused to give up and did everything they could to save him. While in a coma, he was given several blood transfusions (giving blood is called "the gift of life" after all) and a new kidney. Did he accept this gift? No. It was externally given to him without his knowledge or even explicit consent. Similarly, while we we were "Dead in our trespasses and sins" God "made you alive with Christ". (Colossians 2:13) Salvation is that kind of gift.

Example 2: Suzy is a brilliant child. She is only four years old and she can already read children's books like someone twice her age. Everyone calls her "gifted". The implication here is that she was given an extra serving of smarts. What did Suzy do to accept her abilities? Nothing. She had no say. She was born with them. Did she have to read books in order to be smart? Of course not! She's been given the gift of high intelligence and her book reading naturally flows from her gift. Salvation is that kind of gift. [John 3:1-21]

Example 3: Terrance grew up in the United States where he is free to live as he chooses. He enjoys freedom, economic prosperity, and hope. Terrance did nothing to bring this about aside from being born here. Terrance learns in history class that generations of Americans before him gave him this great life he has through hard work and sacrifice. He learns about all of the patriots who died in all of the wars so that he can remain free. He learns about all of the great minds and hard workers who built this country up from nothing so that he can have food anytime he wants it, a cell phone, and Facebook. Terrance is reminded that his own grandparents and parents worked their butts off to give him a better life. He did nothing to deserve or accept any of this. He did not consciously accept what was given to him before his birth. What did Terrance do to accept this gift? Nothing. The gift was purchased and given to him before he even existed. Salvation is that kind of gift.

The only thing that makes a gift is that it is given and not earned. This acceptance garbage is not biblical and it's barely even rational.

Twits and Twitter

2010-10-16T22:19:00.004-05:00

Yes, folks, we finally have a study that shows that Twitter is as lame as I have always said it was.

Almost no one is really listening to you (and the few that do actually read what you say don't really care). Twitter is just playing to everyone's vanity, poor writing skills, and ADHD. Go read a book.

Two Great Quotes

2010-10-13T00:57:00.002-05:00

In this world that is being seduced and stupefied by subjective speculation, here are two great quotes:

"Any mental activity is easy if it need not take reality into account."
-Marcel Proust

"Facts, facts, facts. It is a capital mistake to theorize in advance of the facts. I can discover facts but I cannot change them."
-Sherlock Holmes

HT: John Warwick Montgomery's lecture here.

A Helpful Analogy

2010-10-09T21:47:00.004-05:00

Here is a helpful analogy that I use when explaining goodness among men versus the goodness of God. Like all analogies it is imperfect, but I thought I'd share and get your thoughts.

----

The problem with descriptive words is that they are almost always relative to what you are talking about. Descriptions are relative. So the question one must always ask is, "compared to what?" Here is what I mean:

A basket ball is BIG when compared to a golf ball...... but compared to the planet Jupiter, the basket ball is TINY.

A stained, dingy rag that is straight out of the wash is CLEAN when compared to a pair of muddy boots..... but compared to a spotless wedding dress, it is DIRTY.

By the same token, descriptions of goodness and holiness are relative based on what we are talking about. According to what standard are we talking about goodness? Ours? Or Gods?

A generally nice person who stays away from scandal, gives to the needy, and pays his taxes may be GOOD when compared to a child molesting serial killer.... but when compared to the perfect holiness and righteousness of God, that good man is actually revoltingly EVIL.

This is why the "at least I'm not like that dude" excuse does not work. This is why the relative "goodness" that we see here on earth is but a tiny shadow of true holiness of God. This why "I am basically a good person" is a horrible farce when we are talking about God's expectations. We cannot try to deal with God on our terms (dirty rags and basket balls). We need to deal with our omnipotent, perfectly righteous God honestly on His terms.

...because when we are talking on terms of Jupiter, calling a basket ball big is just silly. When we are talking about the demands of perfection in God's law, calling any man good is a sad joke.

There is none righteous, no not one. [Romans 3:10]

+ In Memoriam Jancy Baker +

2010-10-05T11:34:00.009-05:00

My mother, Jancy, went to be with her Lord this morning only a few months after being diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. I have posted my open letter to friends and family below:

+++

Dear friends and family with special words of consolation for my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Expressing grief is good. Feelings of loss, regret, and sadness are healthy. In a world that increasingly shrinks away from anything difficult or painful and insists that every aspect of life contain at least an element of fun, it needs to be said that you are not expected to feel good all the time. It is okay to hurt. It is okay to mourn. With the example of Jesus weeping at the death of His dear friend Lazarus, we need to recognize that there is nothing sinful in feeling anguish and loss when someone dies [John 11:1-44]. We can look to the example of Jesus weeping in the Garden of Gethsemane and see that there is nothing inherently wrong with tears [Luke 22:35-46].

As flawed, finite creatures we’re understandably afraid of and shaken by death. Even as Christians, death can be a daunting thing to face… but there’s no shame in that. Funerals make us uncomfortable. We have clever euphemisms to soften how talking about death sounds to our ears. We use Botox and plastic surgery to hide the ugly signs of death creeping up on us. We put off writing our wills and we push thoughts of our own death as far away from our minds as possible. We marginalize, avoid, and impugn the dignity of our elderly and fear the day when we will be like them. We go about our daily lives and do our best to distract ourselves from the subject of death as much as possible by staying busy. We don’t want to confront the harsh idea of our own frailty will give way to a final moment when we will breathe our last breath.

The judgment of our souls still looms over us and that makes us afraid. We all know that there are evil things that we have done for which we will have to give account and there are good things that we’ve failed to do that we will have to answer for [Romans 2:1-16]. Somehow we know that “Well, I tried the best I could with the opportunities that I had… most of the time” is just not going to be enough on the Day of Judgment [Matthew 25:41-46]. Regret, shame, and guilt set in. We all have a sense that perfect justice should—and will—prevail in the end. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to recognize that we are all criminals in God’s court who have committed so many wrongs against so many people. If we are honest, we are all terrified of facing the end and what lies beyond it.

So we lie to ourselves and assume that death is—while terrible and inevitable—at least distant in the far off future and not something that could happen to us at any moment. Our relatively safe and long-lived culture makes it easier to believe these misconceptions about death, but this man-made illusion is not how Scripture describes our situation. Our end comes like a thief. It interrupts our plans and it comes unexpectedly [Luke 12:22:31]. Every death, no matter how much or how little warning we may have, seems to shock and trouble us. It is abrupt, unnatural, and does not ever feel like this is how things are supposed to happen. Death is just a bad deal.

Death was not originally a part of the human condition as God created it. Instead, the creation account in Genesis describes Death as a curse, a corruption, which was not part of the creative work of God who originally made Adam and Eve sinless, eternal, and very good [Gen 1:26-31; 3:14-24]. The temptation is to blame God in times like this, but we were not created by God to suffer and die. That came later when Satan entered the picture. Deceived and tempted, Adam and Eve chose the path of disobedience, ate the forbidden fruit, and fell into sin. Through that sin, death entered the world [Romans 5:12-21].

But we’d rather not even think about all that. Our relative security and affluence here in western civilization clouds our judgment and lulls us into a false sense of apathetic comfort. Undaunted by sin and death, we have turned modern Christianity into a shallow system of vaguely Judeo-Christian moral suggestions; an entertaining, satisfying subculture where many of us think that “being a spiritual person” is little more than a system for enjoying life to its fullest and serving a God that can be summoned or invoked to serve our whims exactly like the New Age philosophy of the power of positive thinking or pagan white magic.

Christianity has cheapened itself to such a degree that we seem obsessed with living our best lives now, our spiritual progress now, and realizing our God-given potential now. We have trivialized the essence of our faith so that it is little more than drinking a spiritual energy drink or cashing in all of our frequent flier holiness miles for well-deserved prizes on occasion. The problem with this naive approach is that it is incomplete, false, and only pseudo-biblical. Authentic Christianity has always centered itself on the firm foundation of nothing less than the bold and unwavering proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins through Christ.

When we ignore Christ or minimize His role throughout the entire Christian life, we place our faith and trust in the shifting sands of our own works, feelings, empty prayers, and achievements rather than in the immutable power and promises of Almighty God [Matthew 7:21-29]. It should come as no surprise then when we become frustrated by the fact that all of our hard effort is rendered futile, we fail time and time again, and the storms of life constantly remind us that so many things remain far beyond our control. It is not enough to hope if that hope is misplaced in something that is incapable of delivering on our expectations. Our hope and trust must be placed on a firm foundation that does not fail us.

Rather than learning and submitting to what God’s foundation is according to His own words in Holy Scripture, we like to make up divine promises that He never made and are surprised when God does not deliver on what we decided that He should do for us. A faith and confidence in ourselves and what we are doing rather than what Christ does for us is hopelessly weak and doomed to fail when it is tested. It is no wonder then that so many of us have a spiritual life characterized by ecstatic emotional highs at first that quickly fade and give way to dark crashes of prolonged confusion, depression, isolation, abandonment, and agony.

Obviously not all of the other things that we get distracted with in this life are bad. Many could be good things in moderation and proper context. It’s good to have fellowship with fellow Christians. It’s good to enjoy God’s gifts to us. It’s good to have a good time. It’s good to be optimistic and have a vision for where life could be going. It’s good to train disciples who understand good morals, productivity, and life skills. The desire to grow the church can be a good one. The problem comes when we allow the merely good works and things in life to take the place of the one best thing: The historical events that make up the saving, freeing message of the gospel of Christ [Galatians 3:1-14].

In the First Letter to the Corinthians chapter 15, St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth and makes clear what the church’s priorities should always be:

”Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you now stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [also called Peter], then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

This passage echoes what St. Paul writes earlier in the letter where he reminds the Corinthian believers that the entire Christian life from start to finish is tied up in a humble, single-minded focus on Christ alone. In Chapters 1 and 2, he writes:

“God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

The story of salvation through Christ and Him crucified is the Biblical definition of the gospel. The gospel of Christ crucified for the sins of man is true. Anything that could be false cannot be a part of the gospel, and, while other teachings or ideas may be true and good, they are not the gospel. The gospel is what we are to be about as Christians. We need to hold fast to the message of eternal salvation. It is always to be of first importance among us especially at times like this when death causes all other approaches, strategies, and plans to fail.

This is a teaching that St. Paul reminds us of again in his letter to the Galatians. In chapter 1, He writes:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Why is this Christ-centered focus on the gospel so important for believer and nonbeliever alike? Because “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:21-25]. Because “the wages of sin is death” [Romans 6:19-25]. Because “If we think that we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us [1 John 1:8-10].” No man receives the Holy Spirit by works of the law. [Galatians 3:2] Our “…heart[s] [are] desperately wicked…” [Jeremiah 17:5-10] and our tongues are “...a restless evil, full of deadly poison…” [James 3:1-12]. We all love evil and hate good [Romans 7:15-25]. In our natural state, we are evil, alienated, hostile in mind, and enemies of God [Colossians 1:21-23; Romans 5:10-11].

In this desperate situation, Christ Jesus came down from heaven and took on our flesh to redeem a lost and fallen mankind [John 6:35-40]. In His perfect, sinless life He achieved every one of God’s requirements in our stead so that His holiness could be credited to our account [Romans 3:22; 4:3-25; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 10:10-14]. Moreover, He died on the cross for us so that the judgment and wrath that we so justly deserve was inflicted upon Christ in our stead [Isaiah 53:1-12; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18].

On the third day, He rose from the dead and in doing so overcame death so that it no longer has any power over us [2 Timothy 1:8-12]. He mercifully sends and bestows upon us the Holy Spirit so that we can come to this knowledge of Him by faith alone apart from works so that no man can boast [John 16:6-15; Ephesians 2:8-10]. This faith in Christ comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God [Romans 10:17; Galatians 3:2]. With His Word, God graciously draws us to Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit so that our sins may be forgiven and so that we may be continually renewed and strengthened [John 6:35-46]. In baptism, we are crucified into Christ’s death so that we might rise in newness of life [Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27].

These truths are not just an evangelistic recruiting tool that applies only to heathen folk, backsliders, or something that we only teach to new Christians and little kids. It’s the foundation and essence of the entire Christian faith for all people [1 Corinthians 15:3-5]. It is a message that we all need to hear constantly because we all are in constant need of God’s forgiveness and restoration. God extends love and forgiveness to everyone in Christ—even you [John 3:13-18].

We learn from Scripture that divine forgiveness is not some abstract concept that we pull out occasionally for nostalgia’s sake and it is not something that we can just gloss over. We need to constantly revisit it and be transformed over and over again by what Christ has done for us. This constant returning to repentance under the cross of Christ is what it means to be a Christian and not all these other things we get distracted by. Rather than arrogantly writing off any evangelistic message as something we have no use for because we have already heard it before, we are called to recognize that everything that is good in our lives in the Body of Christ is caused by, springs out from, circulates around, finds inspiration in, is vivified through, speaks explicitly about, and draws us back to this amazing life-giving message of the cross and the empty tomb.

In times like today, it alone is the only true comfort for our grief and fear because the proclaimed word of the gospel is the only message that carries in it the Holy Spirit and the very promises of God that offer true relief, faith, and salvation to hurting sinners in need and the means by which those sinners are forgiven, restored, and uplifted [2 Peter 1:16-21]. The gospel is for the whole world—including you [Matthew 24:13-14; 28:16-20; Mark 16:15-16].

Christ said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance [Luke 5:31-32].” Christ said, “Does [a shepherd] not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and search for the one [sheep] that went astray [Matthew 18:10-14]?”

We need to remember that what we consider to be the great “evangelism” letters like Romans and Galatians were actually written directly to specific groups of Christians and churches [Romans 1:7; Galatians 1:2-5] as the rule of expression for the faith so that the explicit gospel messages that they contain would be a divine promise that should be read aloud and declared constantly to all people: believer and unbeliever alike. This is where we find a true mystery of the faith: that the work of Christ on the cross is for everyone because it is in Christ that each one of us lives and moves and has our being [Acts 17:28].

This centrality of the gospel message in the life of the early church was so important that nearly all of the letters in the New Testament take great pains to explicitly remind believers of what Christ has done and they present this truth of gracious mercy as the foundation and standard of the life for the Christian so that the gospel message is presented as the fount from which all other teachings flow and the reality by which all other teachings and good works are to be framed. It is not as though this teaching appears in only a few places so that it can be safely ignored or trivialized [2 Cor 2:14-4:6; 5:11-21; 13:1-10; Eph 2:11-22; Philippians 1:27-30; Col 1:11-24; 2:6-15; 1 Thess 1:2-8; 2 Thess 2:13-17; 1 Tim 1:15-20; 2 Tim 1:8-14; 4:1-5; Heb 2:1-18; 10:19-25; 1 Peter 1:3-25; 2 Peter 1:8-21; 1 John 1:5-2:6; 4:1-6; 5:1-12; 2 John 1:7-11; 3 John 1:1-4; Jude 1:1-8; 17-23; etc, etc]. It is this faithful clinging to the message of Christ crucified for our sins that is presented by the apostles as the standard by which the health of any Christian, pastor, or congregation is to be judged (and not by merely by outward things such as wondrous signs, clever presentations, worldly wisdom, external growth, or zealous piety.)

I say all of this so that, as you mourn, you keep this same gospel message in mind and realize that you don’t need to worry about my mom. She is in a better place. And I don’t say that because I’m some sentimentally religious sap who desperately wishes to feel better by imagining or hoping that maybe there could be something good after all this but I lack any clear evidence to prove it. Unfortunately, there are many funerals where I cannot truthfully say such a thing because the deceased was not in the one faith that saves sinners from hell. Thanks be to God, this is not one of those times. Eternity is as daunting and terrible thing. I do not believe in life after death because it is therapeutic or useful to me here and now. I believe it because it is true.

I know that eternal life for Christians is a fact. As evidence for this claim, I am able to present the corroborated actual testimonies of multiple eye witnesses to the life, death, and miraculous resurrection of the historical man Jesus of Nazareth who demonstrated His divine authority by performing miracles that no contemporary witness was able to refute and modern science still cannot duplicate. This man claimed to be God in human flesh and that He had come to save us from hell by faith in His all-atoning sacrifice on the cross. His coming had long been foretold by hundreds of years worth of prophets [John 5:37-47; Luke 24:25-35] and from the very mouth of God Himself in the Garden of Eden [Genesis 3:12-15].

While all other religions depend merely on human opinion where you have to take the prophet’s word for it, this Jesus proved His authenticity, truthfulness, and ultimate power over all created things by His crucifixion, death, and miraculous resurrection from the dead just as He had predicted about Himself on numerous occasions. As much as His detractors and enemies hated this Jesus, they could not find persuasive evidence to discredit Him during His public ministry and could not present any evidence or witnesses to disprove His bodily resurrection despite their enormous influence, wealth, and authority in Judea, Greece, and Rome.

After He ascended into heaven, His apostles and disciples went on to perform similar miracles, signs, and wonders in the name of this Jesus and proclaimed the story of Jesus that they had witnessed to anyone who would listen. They encouraged anyone who doubted their story to go speak to all of the other witnesses who were still living at the time confident that the truth would be made apparent as one investigated deeper into what actually happened. With nothing to gain by their insistence on the factual accuracy of these events and everything to lose, they each went on to endure torture, imprisonment, exile, and unspeakable methods of execution and none of them wavered in their accounts of what they saw take place. These testimonies still ring true in spite of two thousand years of skeptical criticism and vain attempts to discredit their veracity. None of the other hundreds of actual witnesses to the resurrection of Christ ever came forward and presented an alternate explanation to refute the claim that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.

This dedication to the truth continued after the death of the apostles. The converted followers who remained, many of them first hand witnesses themselves, were equally stalwart in the face of religious purges and willingly submitted to being burned alive on poles or fed to wild animals rather than renounce the events that they had seen and experienced. Speaking from a purely intellectual standpoint in view of all of the historical, textual, and archeological evidence, we can be as sure that Jesus Christ lived in first century Palestine and rose from the dead with the same degree of certainty that we can have regarding any other historical event that ever took place.

So I am not guessing, speculating, or grasping at straws here. My hope is not misplaced. Christ rose from the dead. I know for a fact that He has saved Jancy and that she is now in heaven because the testimonies about Christ and His promises are trustworthy.

And it’s not as if Jancy went to her grave foolishly thinking that she going to go there because she was “basically a good person” or “faithful and dedicated enough”. Not at all! Rather she has been rescued from death’s grip solely because the crucified and risen Jesus purchased her with His blood; not because she had some desirable quality, inner strength, pious decision, or secret spiritual discipline, but because of His great mercy in spite of her undesirable sinfulness and frailty [Titus 3:3-8]. We serve a God who says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness [2 Corinthians 12:8-9].”

Of all the blessings, valuables, and gifts that she enjoyed in her life, my mother possessed a single treasure, a pearl of great price [Matthew 13:45-46], and she cherished it: She had her Savior, Christ Jesus. Let all other treasures pass away and be rendered worthless by comparison. She’s in paradise right now because of Jesus.

I say all of this so that, as you consider that your own death is approaching, you will resist the lies of the Devil and remember that the assurance of your eternal salvation does not require that you hit a set “heavenly entrance standard” regarding your own worth, morality, or dedication to God. Rather assurance rests solely in the promises of God and the faithfulness of the same Jesus who didn’t abandon His apostles even though they abandoned Him [Matthew 26:55-56].

Jancy was purchased and cared for by the same Jesus who reached down and pulled St. Peter up out of the sea when the disciple miraculously walked on the water out to meet Christ only to sink because of his “little faith”. As Peter cried out “Lord save me!” Jesus did not abandon him to his pitiful fate, but pulled His beloved sheep, Peter, to safety [Matthew 14:22-40].

It is this same Jesus who is faithful to His sheep [John 10:11-18]. Jesus Christ freely handed Himself over to evil men to be killed on our behalf. “…God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God [2 Corinthians 5:18-21].” The wage of death that we have all earned for our many sins has been paid in full so that we no longer bear our damning guilt in the eyes of God [Romans 6:20-23]. Instead, His own perfect Son, Jesus, willingly received our punishment on the cross [John 3:10-16].

And all of the good that Christ did on our behalf has been credited to our account so that God looks at us and sees RIGHTEOUS instead of SINFUL, PERFECT instead of FLAWED, HOLY instead of WRETCHED, and ETERNALLY SAVED instead of WORHTY OF ETERNAL DAMNATION. There’s nothing left for us to do to win God’s favor, prove ourselves worthy, or merit this divine favor from God. Jesus has done it all for us already.

We need to do away with all this unbiblical, foolish talk that always seems to place the ball in our court, hang the heavy lifting in our human hands, and cause us to doubt when adversity strikes. In whose strength and faithfulness should we place our trust: in Christ or in our own abilities? Do we hope in a false hope or is our hope in Christ? In many ways this “me generation” has gotten the person doing the work and the person for whom the work is done completely backwards so that we are expected to hope and trust in what we have done or are able to do to cause God to love and forgive us. This is wrong.

Times like this demonstrate why we must place our faith in Christ Jesus alone and return Biblical Christianity back to its proper way of speaking.

He is the one who has chosen you [2 Thessalonians 2:13; John 15:16]. He has revealed God the Father to you [Matthew 11:27]. He has dedicated Himself completely to you [Isaiah 53]. He has granted the gift of repentance to you [Acts 11:18]. He purchased you [Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20]. He brings you to faith [Ephesians 2:8-10]. He will never leave or forsake you [Hebrews 13:5]. You have been invited into fellowship with Him [1 Corinthians 1:9]. It is He who works sanctification in you [Philippians 2:13]. He invites the weary and heavy burdened to come and receive rest in Him for His yoke is easy and His burden is light [Matthew 11:28]. He is the one who has done all the work. “It is finished [John 19:30].”

My mother knew this to be true and clung to it even in the final, difficult days of her life. These things were proclaimed to her and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the gift of faith was given to her, she came to believe, and was held fast in that faith until the day she died. While many of us who knew her were hoping and praying for some spectacular miracle that could only delay her inevitable death for a few decades, God had already performed the greatest miracle in her heart which few bothered to recognize: the miracle of salvation by faith in Christ Jesus.

The lesser miracle that did not happen would have restored her physical body to some semblance of temporary health only to face death again later on in the future, but the greatest miracle—the perfect healing—that did happen restored her body and soul to a healed relationship with her Lord through the cross. The lesser miracle that did not happen would have seemed spectacular as it would have returned her to temporary health for a short period of time only to face death again later down the road, but the greatest miracle that did happen was mysterious and unseen as the Holy Spirit gave her life eternal in heaven so that the grave had no victory over her because the gift of faith in Jesus.

This perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ, overpowered the grave. United with Him in His death, we who are poor miserable sinners are also united with Him in His resurrection [Romans 6:5-11]. The grave stands defeated, bound, and killed by Christ. Death has been swallowed up in victory [1 Corinthians 15:50-58]. Death, that terrifying thing that breathes down our neck every day as a specter, a thief, a sudden destroyer, and an unknowable pit, is now a toothless doorway into life everlasting in heaven for all who believe in God’s promises by faith.

What a blessed hope it is in all circumstances to know that in the face of our overwhelming sin we have an advocate, Jesus the righteous, who now sits at the right hand of the Father [Hebrews 12:1-2]. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit “helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words [Romans 8:26-27].” By the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, God has adopted us as dear children and heirs of the kingdom of heaven [Ephesians 1:3-10].

What a wondrous miracle of healing and life! By faith, my mother is resting with her Lord as I speak. By faith, she has been rescued from sin, death, and the devil. Where she is now there is no weakness. Where she is now there is no cancer. There are no tears. Instead there is the Holy City where the triune Godhead dwells surrounded by the angelic host. My Granny Baker is there along with all of the saints of God from every time and place to include all of your loved ones who have died in the apostolic Christian faith [Revelation 7:15-17].

Dear friends, take comfort in this: Goodbyes between Christians are not permanent. Those of us who are in Christ will see Jancy again.

And we must never forget that the Last Day will come where Christ will return as a triumphant, conquering king. On that glorious day of days, Jancy will be raised from the dead and will live again in the flesh just as Christ rose from the grave though He was stone-cold dead in the ground for three days. Her flesh will be perfected and glorified and she will live body and soul for all eternity in heaven.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 says:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

We will remember Jancy and everything that she has done for us. We should celebrate her life. More importantly, we should above all celebrate the God-given gift of eternal life that she now enjoys in Christ Jesus Our Lord [1 John 1:1-3].

Respectfully,

Mike Baker

Debunking Heretical Church Business Models with Crass Corperate-Speak

2010-09-24T00:46:00.015-05:00

Let's translate our call to repentence in crass terms that you "church as a business" and "pastor as CEO" guys understand:

Proclaiming repentance, eternal life, and the forgiveness of sins is a "niche market". No one outside of Christianity can truly offer this "service". This is the "bread and butter" of the church and is the one place where there is no "competition". In fact, the church holds a "monopoly" in this area that no other entity on earth can penetrate. There is a limitless supply of work to be done in this area so we need to devote "all of our assets and resources" to this monumental task. We can't get distracted by other concerns and go "chasing rabbits in the weeds".

When the church leaves our 2,000 year old "business model" and adopts something else, the church steps out of "a sure thing" and wanders off into areas that are "outside of its depth". Worst of all, other entities have more worldly "capital" than the church and so they will always "price the church out of the market". If the church is exactly like a Christian-ish version of a Las Vegas show, Oprah, a rock concert, a community center, a political party, or a ethics think tank, then there is no reason for people to stay with the church since those organizations "offer their products" at a much higher "quality level" than the church can provide without completely "selling out" to those industries.

Now I hear alot of things around the "water cooler". Alot of people are claiming that the "boss" is looking to unveil something new and different. Well, I don't see Him inviting any of these people into any "special meetings" and he certainly hasn't "put out anything concrete" on these kinds of things. Most of that stuff is just "hearsay" and people "stealing authority" that isn't theirs.

Moreover, our "owner", Jesus Christ, has put forth "strict directives" in His "policy memorandum" titled: The Bible. We cannot go against these founding principles. It's not "who we are". Worse yet, He has already threatened repeatedly that he will remove people who don't do the job and replace them with people who will do it. He has made it clear that He's not really interested in creativity. He wants consistency, commitment, and steadfast dedication to HIS "business model". Questioning the model that has already been established is "above our pay grade". We weren't hired on to rethink, repackage, or reimagine the divine "paradigm". That "ship has sailed". We weren't "delegated" that kind of authority by the "home office". With that in mind, we need to stop throwing "good money after bad" on our own "pet projects" that do not create any "lasting dividends". Most of that stuff has just "artificially inflated our books". Most of those gains "won't be able to produce in the final analysis".

Stop all instances of "mission creep". Let's just "stay on task" and do what we were told by the guy who "built this thing from the ground up". After all, He is the one who "signing all our checks" and "paying all the bills".

There..... now I feel icky and sick to my stomach.

Close ...But Not Quite

2010-09-23T23:25:00.012-05:00

Growing up as a... whatever it was I was, I always heard pastors, church leaders, and uberChristians bemoaning the fact that we come to church on Sunday and then fall into our same sinful habits. Even today, I hear these guys talking about how Christians seem to "fall back into the old self." To a certain extent, most of them will even admit--maybe only in private--that everyone does this so that no one pulls off the Christian life the way they are supposed to.

Close... but not quite.

Hey, genius, in this life we never leave the "old self". The problem that you are seeing is more pervasive than you think. You aren't "reverting", because you would have to be something different in order to "revert". If anything you are "continuing". We don't just get religious and holy one day and then have trouble with follow through. St. Paul tells us that the old flesh still clings to us even after our conversion. Everything you catch yourself doing on Monday, you are guilty of all the time if you examine yourself close enough. And it's not just happening Monday morning through Saturday night. It happens on Sunday at church while you sit in the pew.

You think the problem is bad now? If you are giving yourself even an hour of success each week where you think that you are at least "pulling it off" then you just haven't figured out how bad the situation really is. You don't need a holy stamina or a holy strategy to improve your piety.

What you need is a holy Savior, Jesus Christ who died on the cross for you, to forgive your manifold litany of sins. The problem isn't just what you are doing and not doing. The problem is you. The problem isn't just that you commit sins. The problem is that you are (and will remain!) a sinner.

The answer to this problem? Repent and believe the Gospel. When the problem is you and you are powerless to fix it, someone else must save you from yourself.

"So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

"There is therefore 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. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

"You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus fro the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." -Romans 7:21-25; 8:1-11

Hey, looky there! That sounds like "simul justus et peccator". It's time to get off the hypocritical moralism rat-race and look at sin the way the Bible actually looks at it.

Christianity: A Message of Salvation to All People

2010-09-09T23:00:00.003-05:00

Christianity is a message of slavation to all people. Christ is a friend of the lame, blind, sick, possessed, widowed, alien, rejected, outcast, heavy-burdened and especially children.

Not only does Christ reach out to these people, He encourages everyone to see themselves this way. From various passages we find that who wish to come to Him are to consider themselves sick and powerless. Then they must take up their cross and be like little children. They will be aliens and outcasts.

So--knowing this universal truth about being a Christian--it becomes really easy to spot the false teachers. All you have to do is find the people that insist that you have to be more than that to really get to the meat of God's Word. When someone is having to do philosphical gymnastics to explain to you why the clear meaning of the text as it would be plainly read by a child is not what Scripture really means, odds are pretty good that you have found someone who is missing the point and is probably deceived. Odds are pretty good that when you find a person who takes individual passages out of context in order to have God say what he wants Him to say, odds are pretty good that you are dealing with someone who is of a different spirit. After all it was Satan, the father of lies, who offerred the first philisophical commentary that perverted God's clearly stated Word when he spoke to Eve and asked, "Did God really say....?"

You need special training and skills to teach Christianity properly and be a shepherd, but you don't need to be a philosphy student to understand it's universal message: the unmeritted forgiveness of sins on account of Christ by His death on the cross so that all who believe might have eternal life in heaven.

Anyone who tells you different is being too smart by half.

The Irony of Modern American Protestantism

2010-09-05T19:56:00.017-05:00

Modern American Protestantism these days seems intent on having you dream big. They want you to cast your vision for the future and see all of the great things that God desires for your life. They want you to live your best life now and not be afraid to pray boldly for the things that you want. They teach that God has a desire for you that is beyond your imagination and you were designed with a purpose to achieve this plan that God has.

.......unless your dream is to be held captive by the entire Word of God properly handled and in context.

.......unless your dream is the forgiveness of sins.

.......unless your dream is to see the churches around you grow in spirit AND truth as their understanding of the true faith matures and deepens in the knowledge of pure, Biblical doctrine.

.......unless the vision that God is laying on your heart is a fervent desire to kneel at the cross of Christ daily as a member of a congregation that has a single-minded focus on the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins where God's gifts are distributed to His children which He purchased with the blood of Jesus.

By their own statements and example, it seems that God presents everything but those kinds of dreams. If you look at the Parable of the Great Banquet [really the whole chapter of Luke 14], it would seem from these false teachers that it is God's desire to help you take care of your field, your oxen, and your wife rather than to bring people to the feast.

Do I sense a desire to see God draw men to Himself rather than humans just luring people into a building to create slightly better-behaved sinners? That kind of nonsense is the one thing that can't be coming from God!

The irony of this kind of thinking is not lost on me. It is the worst idolatry when we secretly make our own desires seem holy by claiming that God wants what we think sounds good for us rather than truly listening when He speaks for Himself in His holy Word. We all do this. We gather around causes and pet projects in the name of God rather than around the cross. We follow the teachers in great throngs of nominal admirers who are still totally loyal to earthly concerns and will not come and die in Christ's death so that we might live in His resurrection.

Christ's response to this great, casual multitude is clear and earth-shattering. He says, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."

The way of a "Christ follower" is always the cross. It is a call for nothing less--and nothing other--than total death. You cannot follow Christ without picking up your cross. A cross-less journey can never be one that persues God's desire for you. Christ is the one mediator between God and man. This mediator bids you to come, hate your own life, despise your sin, and die... so that you will live eternally with Him in heaven.

This teaching seems horrible, terrible, harsh, and damning.

But then again, the Law always sounds horrible, terrible, harsh, and damning to those of us who are miserable sinners. This teaching from a just and righteous God absolutely kills us... and rightly so! What ungreatful guests we are: to snub our Lord's gracious invititation for earthly and temporal concerns.

Finally Ready... Or Just Getting Started?

2010-08-11T18:02:00.013-05:00

When I came out of high school over ten years ago, I realized that I didn't really know very much. At the time, I set out to finally learn something worth knowing and to find a life that was worth living. I thought that such a thing might be important for me to have before I decided what to do with my life. This was controversial to say the least. Many people understood this to be apathy and aimlessness on my part. They were right of course. That's pretty much what it was.... but at least it was "intentional" apathy and aimlessness. I certainly wasn't going to go live how everyone told me I was supposed to live without at least considering the possibility of alternatives first.

Looking back, I have learned so much in these ten years of wandering around and trying a little bit of just about everything. I am mostly in one piece and thankfully I have very little in the way of tangible success to show for all my effort. I've done so much and I have been able to remain pretty much a nobody. I have a decade of life experience and not much in the way of temporal distractions or accolades. In my odd little book, that really does count for something.

I doubt few can see that I have done a decent job of accomplishing what I set out to do (and at great personal cost it would seem.) Maybe now I am finally ready to live my life and direct myself towards a set of long-term, worthy pursuits. I know so much more now than I did before I deliberately undertook this decade of practical learning in the "school of hard knocks".

Of course, one of the things that I have discovered over the last ten years is that I still don't really know very much. In fact, the simple world that I didn't understand before has only proven itself to be far more complex and difficult than I could have ever imagined. Maybe that is the primary moral of this story. It has been a truly worthy lesson indeed... worth everything that it cost.

The Myth of Stupid Ancient Man... as Baseless as a Flat Earth

2010-08-09T18:40:00.037-05:00

There is a tendency in modern culture to exalt our own achievements at the expense of our ancient forefathers. Theories of evolution have further damaged this understanding of the historical evidence in the general culture. We like to think of ourselves as wise and enlightened and previous generations as rather superstitious and stupid in comparison.

The archaeological facts just do not support this view. With far fewer technological tools ancient men achieved marvelous developments that should not be brushed over. A quick example would be the Great Pyramid of Khufu which was built around 2560 BC. The structure is aligned to within 4 minutes of arc to earth's True North, the passages are straight to within 0.013 inches per 100 feet of travel, and its 13 acre foundation remains almost perfectly level to this day (about 0.8 inches off).

Lets also consider things like the great Library of Alexander which existed centuries before the birth of Christ. Consider some of the names associated with this university and their mind-blowing achievements. All of these existed nearly 2,000 years ago. You should be humbled.

Aristophanes of Byzantium is credited with the creation of the accent system for the Greek Alphabet that assisted readers with pronunciation. He is also the inventor of basic concepts of punctuation for the western languages such as the period, comma, colon, and semi-colon. He was also an accomplished lexicographer that complied large collections of rare, archaic, and unusual words.

Callimachus compiled a 120 volume catalog that chronologically arranged all of the works in the library. He did this by hand without a computer.

Zenodotus practically invented textual analysis. He gathered various copies of Homeric works and compared them to eliminate dubious passages, transposed lines, and copy errors.

Hero of Alexandria invented the first known wind-driven machine and used his knowledge of thermodynamics to create the first automatic door in history. He invented the first vending machine that dispensed a controlled amount of water after a coin was deposited. In physics, he accurately described Fermat's Principle which states that a ray of light will always travel in a path that takes the least amount of time... 1,600 years before Pierre Fermat refined it.

Eratosthenes of Cyrene invented geography--literally! He is the first to apply the basic principles that we use today and is the first to use the term "geography". Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth (which he knew to be round). He was off by less than 1% of the actual number. He deduced the tilt of the Earth's axis and was off by one degree. Not to be a one-trick-pony, he also invented a simple algorithm for calculating prime numbers.

Despite the fire in Alexandria that destroyed the library, these teachings actually lived on and helped to bring us to where we are today. A man named Posidonius lived 150 years after Eratosthenes and he argued that his calculations were too large. This was not unknown to the people of the middle ages. Most scholars of the day held to Eratosthenes' numbers, but Christopher Columbus used Posidonius' research to argue his case for a path to the Indies. The argument of the 1500s was not about the roundness or flatness of the earth. That matter had been settled thousands of years ago. It was a debate over size.

It turns out that almost no credible scholars of the middle ages believed the earth was flat. It is a 19th century modern myth that everyone now believes because that's what they are told to think with no supporting evidence as proof. It was a myth driven by the ideological need of the philosophy of modernity that seeks to pit the correctness and superiority of modern science against the errors of all past belief systems.

The image to the left is a 14th century illustration of Europeans walking on the round earth. The second image in the picture shows men being drawn to the earth by gravity rather than falling off. That's historical evidence folks. In spite of this, our image of them is a total fantasy: the backward establishment pointing to maps with dragons on them and a giant waterfall out past Europe with Christopher the rogue genius claiming something that was so unheard of that he was some kind of crazy radical. This was not the case at all.

The evidence points to a more scientific debate between Columbus and his rivals about the location of east Asia on the globe in terms of degrees based on the debated diameter of the Earth. Everyone at the table knew it was possible in theory. That was not the debate. Some just thought that ship technology would not cover the calculated distances using the numbers proposed over a thousand years ago by Eratosthenes. This historically accurate view means that science and religion can coexist (even cooperate) and we can't have that. It points to smart ancestors and we can't have that either. So... we believe total fiction instead.

(For the record Christopher's calculations were wrong and his critics back in Europe had been right all along because Eratosthenes was far more accurate than Posidonius. Had the Americas not been there to save him, Columbus would have run out of supplies and died... just as his opponents had predicted.)

I quote historians David Linberg and Ronald Numbers: "there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even knew its approximate circumference." How about Jeffery Russell who says that "with extraordinary few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century BC onward believed that the earth was flat."

3rd Centruy BC. So... Christ lived in a time where the educated were so advanced that they knew that they lived on a round earth by pure mathematical calculations, observational physics, and the scientific method.... any of you higher critics or old-earth theologians out there have any thoughts on that? ...nobody?

We were all taught that "middle ages thought the earth was flat" myth in school by our substandard education system. Like dopes we just ate it up and didn't do any study to test what we were told by the powers that be. We took it on blind faith. It is as false as gods living on the mountain of Olympus. Now who is the ignorant savage that is living in a dark age filled with baseless superstition and ideologically motivated errors? hmmm? :)

A Difficult Challenge

2010-08-09T13:57:00.001-05:00

"Tis better to suffer wrong than do it."

-Thomas Fuller

I Knew It! ...or did I?

2010-08-07T16:31:00.003-05:00

I could never really describe the delusional problem that we all seem to suffer from. Today I stumbled on a few articles on these studies. At last, the ugly truth has a name.

The Real Problem

2010-07-28T14:51:00.006-05:00

The greatest allies of a failing bureaucracy are not the bureaucrats; they are the common people who believe that the bureaucracy could be used for good if only it was steered in the right direction. Bureaucracy isn't a big ship with a bad captain. It's an oil slick. It isn't a productive machine that is just going the wrong direction. It is the juggernaut that systematically destroys all productive ideas because it is in its very nature to do so. The man who tries to harness a wild bureaucracy for "good" is as foolish as the various heroes of story and legend who--in their hubris--thought that they should try to control the mighty cave beast rather than just slay it.

"Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work"
-Albert Einstein

"Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."
-Oscar Wilde

"Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism."
-Mary McCarthy

"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing."
-Thomas Sowell

"Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies."
-Honre de Balzac

"Bureaucracies are inherently antidemocratic. Bureaucrats derive their power from their position in the structure, not from their relations with people they are supposed to serve. The people are not masters of the bureaucracy, but its clients."
-Alan Keys

Purpose Driven Toyota.

2010-07-26T20:44:00.006-05:00

About the same time that the contemporary Christian church began to advance the idea of a Purpose Driven church, the business practices of the 1990s began promoting a new business paradigm. It's vision casting ideas were in all of the business and manufacturing books and the church basically copied those ideas word for word in their new church growth books.

If there was one shining example of business in those days, it was Toyota. Toyota had gone from mediocre to awesome so fast and their innovations were state of the art that no one company highlighted this new way of doing business better. If you sat in a business meeting or a manufacturing floor in the 90s, you heard about Toyota and how their successes had to be copied. If you read a business book or went to school for business, Toyota usually came up as an illustration of the latest business practices. Toyota was the Willow Creek of the business world... or should that be the other way around?

So, by proxy, the church was chasing after this kind of business model. The business ethic of thinkers like Toyota has as much to do with the Church Growth as anything else. It is no coincidence that the cracks in the mission of the new church are beginning to show as the recalls, lawsuits, and government investigations loom over the poster boy for purpose driven secular business.

Read this article about what went wrong with Toyota. It is a business critique of success over quality that is eerily similar to the church critique over the Purpose Driven movement. The similarity is no coincidence.

Now it is time for the church to follow the lessons of Toyota once again. When you skip quality and humble listening for bigger numbers in a spreadsheet, you fail.

Grand experiment over. Let's get back to work.

The Hidden Horror of Gospel-less Ministry

2010-07-25T20:03:00.005-05:00

It's horrible that some churches aren't preaching the gospel correctly to their people. What people rarely consider is the horrible truth that so many of them don't ever "fix" their ministry problems when tragedy hits.

When you don't give the gospel to people in the congregations, you don't have the mindset and experience that you need to deliver the gospel in times of crisis and critical illness. If you don't understand Law and Gospel from the pulpit or in the pew, you won't know what to say at the bedside. Even the best of us have trouble in emotionally difficult situations so, if you aren't immersed in the Gospel, you aren't going to dust that off and declare repentance and the forgiveness of sins when it really really counts.

For all the talk of relevance, helping, and healing people, if you don't have the gospel then you've got nothing in clutch time. All of your rhetoric and platitudes mean nothing in those crushing times when all human words fail. I've been there. I've stood by the beds as the trendy pastors mumble positive thinking and empty hope. I've been at the scenes of a violent death where counselors don't know what to say or they say things that make it all so much worse.

This is the hidden shame of Christ-less Christianity. Nothing they have to offer is eternal... and so it becomes an insulting joke when death looms.

How Free is our Will?

2010-07-24T20:35:00.003-05:00

Okay... so this is not about theological Free Will. This is about us and our free will in earthly terms when it comes with our powers of choice in dealing with ourselves and others. In that context I ask, "How free is our will?"

Even if you are one of those rare individuals who is humble and honest enough to admit that Total Depravity is the correct doctrine regarding our disposition towards God, there are still many otherwise intelligent people who frankly delude themselves into thinking that they are virtually immune to influences that affect their judgement.

So can the human mind be totally independent? Of course not and we wouldn't really want to achieve that. You want to be open minded. The key is not to be empty minded. The idea that we are independent moral agents which are incapable of being seduced by others is just not backed up by history or science. It is not as though people who fall under these influences are some how defective or weak. Everyone, in the right circumstances, can be pressured and manipulated. Half the time we manipulate ourselves!

This is important because about the worst way to approach any situation or idea is to go into it with a "that could never happen to me" attitude. The generations past called this hubris and it was considered the very definition of foolishness that doomed even the most noble of intentions.

The fact is that it looks like our subjective human experience is alot less reliable than we want to believe. Even worse than that, our grasp of objective truth is far from rock solid. In both cases, the people around us and the situations that we find ourselves in have a tremendous amount of influence on the very nature of our judgement. These problems of perception suggest that any attempt to understand truth must be done with a sober mind and a very critical eye (and often times that means a self-critical eye.)

I am going to include some links that highlight some research and stories that will give you an idea about what I am talking about. Please don't make these links the sum total of your research in these topics.

The concept of Groupthink is summarized in this wikipedia article.

Sometimes our own brain chemistry and mental health conspires against us. It makes us want to resolve things that don't initially make sense through any means possible. Read about cognitive dissonance here.

Sometimes we can experience very important emotional experiences that shape our lives, but these feelings may not be true or based in anything other than our own brains. After all these religious experiences can now be artificially created in lab conditions.

Sometimes we are alot weaker to peer pressure and authority than we want to admit. It affects our moral choices and claims to truth. Read about the Milgram Experiment and the Asch Conformity Experiments.

Even when you get past these influences, the very way we think is much weaker than it used to be in previous ages. Check out this list of logical fallacies and become familiar with what they are talking about. Then you can start to examine the faulty assumptions and flawed arguments in your own world view. Better than that, you can start to tell when people are trying to convince you of things that just don't cut the mustard logically.

This is just a very shallow summary of what I am talking about when it comes to being a truly independent thinker, but you get the idea. Why is this important? Because when you recognize just how badly the deck is stacked against you, there is no choice but to actively engage in a careful quest for the truth underneath the layers of delusion. When you recognize all of the subtle tendencies that all humans have working on them, you can more easily recognize when you are being pushed around by something other than logic, ethics, and plain reason. Will you able to start thinking independently with total success? Of course not, but you stand a better chance of being clear headed than if you wander through life unprepared and under the assumption that you understand everything that matters.

Does any of this interest you? Do you have any thoughts or questions?

Amen!

2010-07-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

Go read this post over at Confessional Gadfly.

Another Problem

2010-07-23T09:51:00.006-05:00

Pastor Weedon made an excellent point about the gospel on his blog. It got me thinking of another really big problem that is really just a different manifestation of the exact same thing:

Another problem is when we get caught up in constantly worrying about how we are "doing church" or how we are "protecting the church" rather than just actually being the church.

...and, if you happen to think that we confessional Lutherans are in some way immune to this temptation as if to say that the danger of drifting away from being Christ-centered in favor of a focus on what men need to do is merely some external danger that only afflicts the less-enlightened people "out there", I would encourage you to engage in prayer and close self-examination in light of Holy Scripture with a spirit of humility and love.

How Will Ted Know if He is Not Told?

2010-07-22T08:34:00.008-05:00

This happened in Iraq.

I was in the small chapel for music practice. I played piano for the contemporary service and organ for the liturgical (See? I can play nice with other people when I want to. :P) As the praise band finished their practice, I started picking the hymns for the litrugical service. The drummer for the praise band (we'll call him "Sergeant Ted") walked by and glanced over my selections. As I continued to go through my binder, he scanned the lyrics.

"I have a question," Sergeant Ted said. He then asked me, "Why are all these hymns so macabre? I mean why does there have to be so much blood in them?"

I responded, "Because, Ted, the Bible says that 'without the shedding of blood there is no forgivness of sins.' Christ's bloody death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins is the only thing that can save you from hell. It is what Christianity is all about."

He stood up as if I had just said something very odd and remarked, "That's wierd."

---------

This is what Christless Christianity does to people. You can have regularly attending church members who help run the services as your worship leaders or musicians in the music program week after week for years and those people might still not even know why topics like blood and death would show up in a Christian song. This is more common than anyone wants to admit. Lord have mercy! If you want an evangelism opportunity, go find out where the Ted's in your church are hanging out and love them enough to share the gospel with them.

As True Now as it Ever Was

2010-07-22T04:36:00.005-05:00

"All this is the old devil and old serpent, who also converted Adam and Eve into enthusiasts, and led them from the outward Word of God to spiritualizing and self-conceit, and nevertheless he accomplished this through other outward words. Just as also our enthusiasts at the present day condemn the outward Word, and nevertheless they themselves are not silent, but they fill the world with their pratings and writings, as though, indeed, the Spirit could not come through the writings and spoken word of the apostles, but first through their writings and words he must come. Why then do not they also omit their own sermons and writings, until the Spirit Himself come to men, without their writings and before them, as they boast that He has come into them without the preaching of the Scriptures?"

-Blessed Martin Luther, Smalcald Articles (Article VIII:5-6)

Discernment Pop Quiz

2010-07-22T00:54:00.007-05:00

Alright... get out your #2 pencils. Pop Quiz.

Question 1: Based on what is presented on the front cover, is there a problem with this book? Why or why not?

(This is one of my favorite practical application questions to spring on unsuspecting confirmands who wander too close... hehe...)

Note: Before someone accuses me of judging a book by its cover or suggests that I am taking this book title out of context, I will include part of the author's blurb about the book. In his own words:

"My goal in writing The Hole in Our Gospel was to confront people with the implications of the faith we profess. The Christian faith was never meant to be some tame anesthetizing tonic meant only to soothe our souls; no, it was intended to be a medicine so powerful that it could challenge the legion of social illnesses that plague the human race – poverty, alienation, hatred, corruption, apathy and injustice." [my emphasis added.]

I guess this is what happens when CEOs are allowed to write theological books. Did you notice that it won a "Christian Book of the Year" award from somewhere? Lord have mercy!

Do We Need an LCMS Mom?

2010-07-21T10:23:00.006-05:00

Sometimes I think that the restructuring plan for the LCMS should have included a synodical mother. Not a cute cuddly mother to snuggle with us and cover our scrapes with Hello Kitty bandaids. I'm talking about a humorless, depression-era mother with a switch in one hand and a rolling pin in the other. A synodical mom that knows how to grab a petulant child by the ear and put things in perspective.

That way whenever anyone talked about how the LCMS needs to be cool or get with the times or complained about how unpopular confessional lutheranism is becoming to the larger culture or how what we are doing isn't fun enough she could stand up, put her hands on her hips and say:

"Oh yeah, well if the ELCA, PCUSA, SBC, and Emergent Village all jumped off a cliff, would you do that too?!? Just do what you're supposed to do and ignore what all the popular kids think. I didn't raise you to be like them. If you do that kind of trash where do you think you'll be in 20 years. As long as you are under my roof you will live by my rules. If you don't like it then go get a job and I'll pack your things. ...did you finish the yard work like I told you to do?"

Coming Back from the Brink

2010-07-21T05:51:00.009-05:00

My internet presence on this blog and other places has been sparse over the last year and a half. Part of that had to do with my deployment to Iraq. I was... busy. Since returning from Iraq, I have had to go through alot of adjustment and recovery. The details of my situation are not really "blog" material. I will just say that it has been a time where even I have been at a loss for words.

I am starting to see what appears to be a return to my old self at long last. I'm starting to have opinions again that are close enough to constructive that I will risk sharing them with others. I have never had a really big following on this blog. I think that that's for the best when it comes to laymen bloggers like me who are still know-nothing-twenty-somethings with obnoxiously high levels of wit and frighteningly low levels of tact. All that said, I'll start it up again and see where it goes.

Expect to see my inflammatory, long-winded rhetoric with more frequency... both here and in the comment sections of other blogs whose moderators tolerate my musings with varying levels of patience.

To love truth is to care about it enough to defend it from those who would do it violence.

2010-07-21T01:50:00.067-05:00

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
-United States Constitution, Amendment 2.

What does this mean? Now, it is true that the word "arms" can mean weapons, but a more common meaning of the word is actually the two limbs that come off of a person's shoulders.

Here is what my concordance says: "Arms: (n) (pl) The appendages of a crinoid that extend upward and outward from the body."

Isn't that interesting? I went through my whole life and never even considered that. But it's true don't you think? After all, what militia or free state could be kept safe if no one had limbs or hands? Imagine a life without arms. Imagine a country where the citizens couldn't pick things up or carry things or build things with their hands. Arms are pretty important right? Now, historically, all the pointy-headed academics of the past superstitiously believed that this meant guns and ammo... stuff like that.

But it is just far too narrow to assume that the founders meant only arms in a militaristic sense. So, after a much more authentic study of the original words using the full sense of the language, we find that people have the right to keep their limbs so that they are equipped to serve the militia and the state with them. It's not about paranoia and getting weapons together to oppose the government. It's about keeping your body intact so that you can obediently serve those in authority over you and toil for the good of the state and its military complex.

In return for that that service, the state in this amendment promises not to cut your limbs off at the shoulders. Now what happens if you don't serve the state? Well, I hate to say it, but arms are for the militia and the security of the state. If you aren't contributing to the security of the state, I guess you don't need arms now do you...

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime,"-United States Constitution, Amendment 5.

What does this mean? Well, there you have it folks, this country was never supposed to convict criminals. After all, the founding of this great nation was not so much about representative government and the rule of law. It was about freedom. Freedom to do whatever you want. That's why the states all agreed that "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime," After all, who are we to judge what other people do?!? It's more important to preserve freedom for all people no matter what the cost is. And yet our prisons are full of people who have been held to answer for crimes in direct violation of this amendment to our United States Constitution. This is not what the founders intended at all!

Why are we letting people get imprisoned and even put to death when our own Constitution forbids it? We should let them all go and just forgive them.

So the Bill of Rights teaches that we should be slaves to a state that is impowered to mutilate our bodies if we don't comply and that no one should ever be charged of a capital crime.

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

If you were offended by this twisting of the text or you found this to be just stupid logic, then you and I agree that context and proper textual interpretation are critical to the preservation of truth. You wouldn't want to live in a state where the Constitution is twisted this way. If the government started to talk this way, you'd get pretty mad and afraid. If there was a national movement to let all the criminals out of jail and abolish the criminal justice system based on the 5th Amendment, wouldn't you say something? If the President started saying that people who didn't serve the government were going to have their arms chopped off in accordance with the 2nd Amendment, wouldn't you protest? Wouldn't you stand up for the truth?

People who pervert the truth this way are dangerous quite frankly. They don't care about the truth. They don't care about you. They are charlatans. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. Con-men. Most of the time, their lies and half-truths are alot slicker than these examples. They are just using something that you value (like the Constitution or the Bible) to justify thier own personal agendas. The sad thing is that the state only has control over the affairs of this world. Why would you want to let the church do this to Holy Scripture when the consequences are so much worse!?! It's not just people's lives... we are talking about things of eternal significance.

It's not nit-picking to demand that everyone carefully use a text properly and not twist it to fit their own personal agendas. If you love truth then you have no choice but to defend truth when it gets trampled on by some idiot who wants to make a text say things that it doesn't. If you love something, you don't let people steal it and co-opt it for their own purposes.

If you are a totalitarian with genocidal tendencies, be proud of who you are. Own your crazy beliefs and speak plainly. Be a man and stand on your own two feet. But don't pretend the Constitution supports your views. Don't twist the words of the founders to prop up your lunacy. Don't approach a situation sideways and manipulate the facts just so you can win. Don't try to steal the credibility of the Constitution to use for your own purposes. Don't act like you love liberty and that liberty means subjegating people and cutting their arms off.

By the same token, if you are some ideolgoical fanatic, be proud of who you are. Stand on your own two feet and see how many followers you can attract on your own merit. But don't pretend that your views are Biblical. Don't twist God's Word to prop up your lunacy. Don't try to steal the credibility of the Christian faith when you aren't even close to teaching Christianity. Don't act like you love Christianity and that Christianity means whatever foolishness it is that you managed to came up with.

Can't everyone see that these kinds of people must be opposed by a civil and rigorous defense in the public square using plain reason, intelegence, evidence, and the clear facts?

It is one thing if some kook is rambling off like this in the street and no one listens to him. You can ignore that. But when respected teachers and leaders start teaching masses of people and children this kind of horrible doctrine, and when those people start to believe that it is true and live their lives accordingly, those who know the truth must stand up and point out the error. What other choice is there? Let truth die and let tyranny prevail in the name of some misguided attempt to let sleeping dogs lie? It's one thing to let a sleeping dog lie. Leave that dog alone. But when the dog wakes up and starts mauling an old lady, you have no choice but to act.

We shouldn't have to argue over these kinds of things. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to point out where liars and fools are leading people astray. I certainly don't want to fight about truth... it is exhausting and not much fun... but I can't stand by and let truth get destroyed. I've seen what it costs. I can't watch people get conned and do nothing. Good men must rally together and mount a compitent defense if good is to prevail at all.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." -Edmund Burke

To love truth is to care about it enough to defend it from those who would do it violence. To love people is to care enough about them that you are willing to point out when they are getting taken for a ride. To love the flock is to care about it enough that you are willing to risk hurting some feelings in order to beat back the wolves that have invaded the fold. Loving something requires that you must defend it... and sometimes it must be a defense that costs a great deal. Some things must be defended at the cost of superficial unity, people's feelings, political correctness, your time, your comfort, and--where neccessary--even life itself.

I love Christ. I love Christianity. I love the church. And I love all of you. Those aren't just empty words. They are backed up by action. These things are worth defending at all times and at all costs. As a Soldier, I am in the vocation of defense in physical warfare. As a Christian, I am also called to do the same but on a spiritual battlefield. Defense is not about killing what you hate. It is about protecting what you love.

There was a popular slogan during this nation's founding: "This We'll Defend." It is commonly depicted in the form of a speech bubble coming from a serpent which was the symbol of the "Don't Tread on Me" flags and drawings. Both the serpent and the motto can be found on the official seal of the Department of the Army to this very day and "This We'll Defend" remains the official motto of the Drill Sergeant Academy. Every drill sergeant in the army wears a badge on his or her chest that says "This We'll Defend". Why? Because if you love something, you believe that it is worth defending from those who would take and kill or twist it. That's true of liberty. That's true of your fellow man. That's true of Christianity.

Do you love the Bible? It is under attack from people who claim to be on our own side. Don't just gloss over that terrible fact! Help us defend it from the multitude of fools and traitors who are misleading people to the fires of hell in the name of Christianity.

Stand up and defend your love. Imposters in the church are ripping it apart as we speak. We must mount a compitent defense if the truth of Christianity is to prevail among us. The church has its own motto that was born out of the Lutheran Reformation. Like "This We'll Defend", it is a statement of love and stalwart defense in the face of those who would rob us of the divine freedom and truth found only in the gospel: "Here I Stand."

We are called to respectfully give a defense for the Gospel [1 Pet 3:13-22]. Every single one of us must study hard, pray for descernment, and look to the Holy Spirit to guide us in this sacred defense of the truth: That Christ died on the cross to save sinners from hell by grace alone through faith alone and that He was raised from the dead in accordance with the Scriptures. We must present this message faithfully and with gentleness, but we must also consistantly and forcefully contend for the faith.

Would that every Christian saw that it was their duty to preserve the truth and clear meaning of Scripture to the same degree that most Americans want to preserve the clear reading of our Constitution. The former is an eternal, divine revelation that is the only rescue for fallen humanity. The latter is just an agreement among the people of this nation to preserve temporary human freedoms that are ultimately of no eternal significance.

+Soli Deo Gloria+

Winning the Lost.... Through Propoganda?

2010-07-20T01:41:00.007-05:00

Let us all have the honesty to call the marketing of the church what it is: propaganda. Maybe it is propaganda dressed in good intentions, but it is manipulation none the less.

And when you feel like you have to market the church, what are you subconsciously admitting? Be honest. You don't believe that God will do his work unless it is through you. Deep down, you don't believe that the Word of God possesses the innate ability to change hearts and minds so it requires an external human agency to convince people of its veracity and worth. Why else would you go away from a defense of the faith (apologetics) and move into a marketing of the church and its brand (propaganda)?

I see no difference between the approaches of the marketeers of the modern church and propagandists. Their presuppositions, pragmatic approaches, rationalizations, and methods appear to be more similar than dissimilar. An obsession on packaging and emotional manipulation reveals that the presenter believes it is his job to convince opinions and change minds rather than just plainly state the truth.

Make no mistake. The church is not the propaganda office of the Kingdom of God. There is no biblical mandate for us to sell or build the church. We are called to "proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins" which is totally different than "winning people for Jesus" or "growing the church". That is God's job.

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”
-Joseph Goebbels

The Power of Imputed Righteousness

2010-02-15T14:17:00.004-06:00

The same voice that declared the universe into existence...
The same voice that declared the perfect holiness of the law...
The same voice that declared the seas to be still and they obeyed...

...declares that you are righteous and pure on account of Christ.

"Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:34-36

When God declares you forgiven. You are forgiven with the voice that said, "Let there be light" and there was light.

Not Enough Time to Preach Forgiveness

2009-12-13T15:58:00.005-06:00

I stumbled upon this quote while flipping through the channels on TV. It was the closing comment of a sermon given by John Hagee.

"Now, I could preach for an hour and a half about forgiveness, but I won't because my time is up."
-John Hagee

...................................sigh. There are no words.....

...Never Saw This Before

2009-12-09T14:15:00.005-06:00

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die."

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate."
-Genesis 3:1-6 [ESV]

See that crafty serpent and how carefully he lays the ground work for his tempting deception?

Before he tempts Eve to commit sin, the Devil lies to undermine God's Law and disarms it of all threats. All matter of evil is allowed to come from this self-affirming delusion: the foolish idea that "you will not surely die."

Make no mistake. This is a blasphemous, murderous lie. Scripture clearly teaches that the wages of sin is death. [Romans 6:23]

Wretched, disobedient man that I am! How often do I do the serpent's work for him? How often do I pave the way for temptation within my own heart by removing the threat of just punishment from my mind?

How often do I form these satanic words in my mind or even speak them on my lips so that I may build up enough self-confidence to indulge in my own desires without fear of divine judgement?

Mission Complete

2009-11-06T15:42:00.003-06:00

Saddam (left) and me (right).

Mission Complete. This deployment is over. I am back in the United States.

Not the Same

2009-10-23T16:51:00.005-05:00

Islam and Christianity are not the same. Today it is trendy to blur the distinctions between the two.

The teachings are not the same. Allah is not the same as God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The description of humanity is not the same. The way a person is justified before God is not the same.

The way that God interacts with man is not the same.

It might be helpful to present a clear comparison for those Christians who are flirting with universalist tendencies just because this particular false religion happens to be monotheistic in flavor. I present two similar stories that I have found to reveal the striking difference between the one, true faith of Christianity and the religion of Islam.

Story 1 - Hadith

Imran ibn Husain, a companion of Muhammad and a Narrator of Hadith, reported that a woman from Juhiana came to Muhammad and confessed that she had become pregnant because of adultery. She said, "I am pregnant as a result of zina (extramarital sex)." Muhammad said, "Go back, and come to me after the birth of the child."

After giving birth, the woman came back to Muhammad, saying, "Please purify me now." Next, Muhammad said, "Go and suckle your child, and come after the period of suckling is over." She came after the period of weaning and brought a piece of bread with her. She fed the child the piece of bread and said, "Oh, Allah's Apostle, the child has been weaned."

At that Muhammad pronounced judgement about her and she was stoned to death.

Story 2 - John 8:2-11

Early in the morning [Jesus] came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.

And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord."

And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."

Indifference

2009-09-20T05:26:00.001-05:00

Indifference is a prevelant and nearly undefeatable foe. It is also a seductive temptation.

My Satire and (hopefully false!) Prediction

2009-08-18T15:17:00.005-05:00

We were talking about the excesses of commercialized, market-driven worship fads this evening. After everything I've personally seen and had the misfortune of hearing about, there remains one thing that a church has not done (to my knowledge). Should this happen, I would have to say that I would be surprised, shocked, and disappointed.

Anything short of this satirical prediction no longer phases me.

Let me know when a church...

...follows in the footsteps of major league ball parks and discovers that they can get a much larger worship center if they get a big sponsor to pay for the structure in exchange for naming rights. Examples could include:

1. Minute Maid® Temple
2. Pepsi Cola® Community Church
3. Our Lady of Hanes® Her Way™
4. Christ Is Our Nike® Tabernacle (I'm seeing a really nice logo with a cross and a swoosh)

...I will admit that these are probably unlikely--at least initially. We'll have to build up to Minute Maid® Temple. It is probably more likely that they will find pious companies to do business with before they do open business with the world. We will probably see one of the following first:

1. Christ's Church for Light and Inspiration (CCLI™)
2. First Lutheran Church and Free Methodist Credit Union
3. Christianity Today® Community Church

I hope I haven't just triggered any search committees or capital campaigns.

Is There A Spiritual Gift More Agonizing than Discernment?

2009-08-18T08:01:00.006-05:00

I am starting to wonder if Job is the archetype of suffering... or was it Jeremiah? I'm not even really that good at discernment and the small bit of it that I have does nothing but assault my senses on a regular basis. In the case of most worship services, ignorance is truly bliss.

Discernment basically prevents you from having any fun at all in the popular church services of your day. It also causes you to be the wet blanket of the faithful that takes every lofty opinion and crushes it in the hands of its originator with pesky things like Scripture passages and plain reason. It makes you sound like Chris Rosebrough.

It's not something you get to turn off either. It causes you to appear ill in your pew (chair, theater seat, etc) and it forces you to involuntarily make disapproving faces when everyone else is waving their hands and blubbering with joy. It causes you to spend a great deal of time praying for patience and causes all of your friends to spend all their free time praying that your pessimism would be mercifully removed from your cold, spiritually-dead heart.

It causes you to say obnoxious things like, "I don't know why you liked that sermon so much. It turned me back to myself to fix my own problems. Where was Christ? Where was the atonement for sin on the cross? Where was the imputed righteousness and grace?"

This last Sunday I experienced a service that I am now calling "Heresy Week". This may seem harsh, but it is the best construction that I have been able to find thus far. My previous names for it were not so charitable.

We had a praise song that explicitly promoted the synergistic errors of Arminianism ("when you and I embrace surrender, when you and I choose to believe, then you and I will see...") This is no surprise since they announced the upcoming "revival" that they will be holding.

We had another praise song that was written by a trio of anti-trinitarian modalists (Phillips, Craig & Dean). I had a discussion about this before the service with one of the musicians. His comments proved that he is on the fence about the whole "a Christian has to espouse the Trinitarian dogma" thing. To add another twist to the knife, he is a self-identified Lutheran.

There was a baptism planned for the service, but there was a baptismal font malfunction. Can you imagine the headache of executing a full immersion baptism in a middle eastern desert during combat operations? Not fun. Everyone bemoaned that the baptism couldn't take place. I grabbed a 1 Liter bottle of drinking water and said, "Here let's use this, it's room temp. It worked in 100 A.D. Problem solved." ...the problem was not solved apparently. Anabaptists. Sheesh. :P

What is so ironic about this situation is that just a day prior everyone was gathered and talking about how "cool" it would be to do a baptism by water balloon. My solution was just as "cool" as that, but without the wacky party atmosphere. I was still shot down. My mode just wasn't relevant enough (even if it was practical, scriptural, apostolic, and feasible given our predicament.) As an aside: Someone got the tank to work (their irreverent phrase not mine), so the ceremonial ordinance could take place as scheduled.

But my personal favorite was when the preacher declared that God had to come down and become man so that He could understand what we were going through. It was so cumbersome in delivery that the conclusion that was inadvertently created was: "Is God's omniscience so limited that He could not understand the plight of His creation prior to the incarnation?"

There were other issues with the service, but--to be honest--I engaged my doctrinal autopilot after these were dropped in my lap. I only vaguely remember other things that made me wince and do not care to enumerate them ever again. Needless to say, people have stopped asking me what I thought of the service whenever we head out the door.

Yup. I'm a nit-picky jerk.

P.S. ...now that I look at that Chris Tomlin song, I'm starting to think that it's leaning more towards Pelagian heresy rather than Ariminian heresy. I say this because the song clearly places the Holy Spirit's calling and operation after "when you and I choose to believe". Only then "you and I will see who we were meant to be." It's confused because verse 2 seems to be a little more orthodox in its presentation... nevermind. I'm just going to drop it.

Thank You, Dr. Freude

2009-08-10T09:56:00.003-05:00

A Freudian slip occurred at a memorialist version of the Lord's Supper. As the chaplain fumbled through the words of institution, he accidentally said:

"And our Lord took the juice after supper..."

You could tell by the look on his face that he was deeply embarrassed when he caught the error.

He tried to recover by making some vague reference to the fruit of the vine, but my grin of vindication was already too pronounced to hide. His slip had illustrated just how far from those words of institution his heterodox practice had taken him. There he stood with a plastic shot glass filled with grape juice that was nothing more than a shot glass full of grape juice. Was this really what Christ had instituted when he said "This is my body... this is my blood..."?

No. Because Christ did not take "the juice after supper..." That's just something that some people are doing in recent years as a novel bad practice. It stands against scripture's clear language and teaching. It isn't juice. It is "the cup of blessing" which truly is a "participation (koinonia) in the blood of Christ." [1 Cor 10:6].

Going Back... to the Future?

2009-07-31T12:11:00.010-05:00

In reading some church history, I was struck by how current this historical record sounds. This is an account by a church historian about the events that lead up to the Great Persecution under Emperor Diocletian. It is an interesting commentary on the church of the early 4th century. As one who witnessed and endured the persecution, it is profound to hear who the author blames for the arrival of this dark time in the church history. In his estimation, the church brought the persecution upon itself.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. Read this excerpt and marvel at the modern parallels. I sure did.

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

How great, how unique were the honor, and liberty too, which before the persecution of my time were granted by all men, Greeks and non-Greeks alike, to the message given through Christ to the world, of the reverence for the God of the universe! It is beyond my ability to describe it as it deserves. Witness the goodwill so often shown by potentates to our people; they even put into their hands the government of the provinces, releasing them from the agonizing question of sacrificing, in view of the friendliness with which they regarded their teaching. What need I say about those in the imperial palaces and about the supreme rulers? Did they not permit the members of their households - consorts, children, and servants - to embrace boldly before their eyes the divine message and way of life, hardly minding even if they boasted of the liberty granted to the Faith? Did they not hold them in special esteem, and favor them more than their fellow servants? I might instance the famous Dorotheus, the most devoted and loyal of their servants, and on the account much more honored than the holders of offices and governorships. With him I couple the celebrated Gorgonius, and all who because of God's word were held in the same honor as these two.

And what approbation the rulers in every church unmistakably won from all procurators and governors! How could one describe those mass meetings, the enormous gatherings in every city, and the remarkable congregations in places of worship? No longer satisfied with the old buildings, they raised from the foundations in all the cities churches spacious in plan. These things went forward with the times and expanded at a daily increasing rate, so that no envy stopped them nor could any evil spirit bewitch them or check them by means of human schemes, as long as the divine and heavenly hand sheltered and protected its own people, as being worthy.

But increasing freedom transformed our character to arrogance and sloth; we began envying and abusing each other, cutting other own throats, as occasion offered, with weapons of sharp-edged words; rulers hurled themselves at rulers and laymen waged party fights against laymen, and unspeakable hypocrisy and dissimulation were carried to the limit of wickedness. At last, while the gatherings were still crowded, divine judgement, with its wonted mercy, gently and gradually began to order things its own way, and with the Christians in the army the persecution began.

But alas! realizing nothing, we made not the slightest effort to render the Deity kindly and propitious; and as if we had been a lot of atheists, we imagined that our doings went unnoticed and unregarded, and went from wickedness to wickedness. Those of us who were supposed to be pastors cast off the restraining influence of the fear of God and quarrelled heatedly with each other, engaged solely in frantically demanding the despotic power they coveted.

Then, then it was that in accordance with the words of Jeremiah, the Lord in His anger covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud, and cast down from Heaven the glory of Israel; He remembered not the footstool of His feet in the day of His anger, but the Lord also drowned in the sea all beauty of Israel, and broke down all his fences. So also, as foretold in the Psalms, He overthrew the covenant of His bondservant and profaned the ground (through the destruction of the churches) his sanctuary and broke down all his fences; He made his strongholds cowardice. All that passed by the way despoiled the multitudes of the people; moreover, he became a reproach to his neighbors. For He exalted the right hand of his enemies, and turned back the aid of his sword and did not assist him in the war. But He also cut him off from cleansing and threw down his throne to the ground, and shortened the days of his time, and finally covered him with shame.

-Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, c. 236 - c. 339
from "The History of the Church" Book VIII

Here We Go Again...

2009-07-22T17:59:00.012-05:00

This Sunday is the last one. After that, the only competent and orthodox protestant chaplain we have is returning home. I'm happy for him and his unit... but the future of our small, liturgical service remains uncertain. Because the rest of the chaplaincy seems unwilling to support us, the laity will continue the services without them. I'm having Ash Wednesday flashbacks!

The laity-driven service will start on Trinity 9. I have elected to follow the LSB one-year lectionary (because if I'm still here in Iraq to use the three year lectionary we are going to have problems!) I submit the rough draft of my meditation for your review and critique. If I am about to speak elloquent error or tangled truth, let it be caught and corrected now.

Trinity 8 - "Scripture is God's Wolf Repellant"
Psalm: Psalm 26
Readings: Jer 23:16-29; Acts 20:27-38; Matt 7:15-23

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,There is no mistaking what God’s Word tells us today. In the book of Jeremiah, we are warned against the false prophets who run about and claim to speak the words of the Lord but were not sent by God and do not carry His message. In the book of Acts, we hear St. Paul warning the church against the savage wolves that will carry on the false prophet tradition.

The Holy Gospel says the same. Jesus warns against the wolves that come in a sheep’s clothing; that is of the false prophets who come dressed as men of God. Even the Psalm for today speaks on this topic when David declares, “I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites.”We who are saints of God are now faced with a daunting task. We must be able to tell the difference between a fellow sheep and a wolf who looks like a sheep. What are we to do in a world where the sheep suits are so expertly made that the wolves look more like sheep than the sheep actually do? It is all so confusing.

The temptation is to assume that we should look at a Christian’s works for clarity. After all, Christ told us in the Gospel today that figs do not come from thistles and healthy trees do not bear bad fruit. But not so fast. Just verses later we see that the wolves are busy prophesying, casting out demons, and doing great works in the name of God. After all these seemingly good things that they point to, what will Christ say to them on the last day? “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

So works can be deceiving. It is true, the wolves talk a great game here on earth. They look the part. You hear a common phrase today. Many who claim to speak for God will say, “I am going to tell you something that the Lord has lain on my heart,” or as Jeremiah puts it, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” It seems that everyone who speaks in any church these days, wolf and sheep alike, is eager to make the same claim of divine inspiration. And what do these people say? Many different things. So many things that it seems that no two prophets can agree on what God is telling us. How can this be?

Over this useless babble the wise Christian quotes Jeremiah 17:9 which says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?” There is no dispute that all prophets have something on their heart and in their dreams. We must ask the question: “Is the message that they are proclaiming rotten fruit or good fruit?” Or more directly: “Does their message come from the sick, confused heart of man or from the pure and authoritative Word of God?”

We would like to think that man has evolved past the silly superstitions of the ancient times, but the absurd paganism recorded in the Bible has given way to a slicker form of the same idolatry. The heathen priests of old are now replaced by the exact same packaged, consumer-friendly religion peddlers that plagued Israel and the early church centuries before us. The world today is as lost and confused as it ever was.

We have given up Baal and Apollo for the generic spiritualism and therapeutic sentimentality of the modern age. We prefer soft, manmade religions that are practical and self-affirming. We want a god that is like an unassuming old uncle who hangs out with us and will bail us out of trouble. The kind of guy who never asks any tough questions, never imposes his own will, and is up for just about anything. We want a useful religion that is like a vending machine so that we can put the right stuff into it, push the right buttons, get what we need, and go on our way feeling encouraged, self-assured, and satisfied.

We want a god that serves us and a faith that suits our needs. We design it in our own minds, borrow foolish notions from the world when it suits us, and proceed to shape our religion to suit us so that we can have a god that we can love easily, worship endlessly, follow naturally, and promote recklessly. This is sin. It is a violation of the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” In this case, the god is us because we have made ourselves lords over God. Our will is in place of His will; our interpretation in place of His interpretation; our truth in place of His truth.

Make no mistake, dear friends, these created idols that we have made are no different than the graven images of old. And if you believe that the false gods and false notions of the world have not crept into every corner of the church, then you are not seeing clearly.The wolves are in the sheep pen just as much today as they were in the days of Jeremiah, Jesus, and Paul. They are strategically prowling in their wool disguises so that they can separate the sheep from the Shepherd. They know that if they can get the Christian to wander away from Christ then the Christian will be easily devoured by the pretty errors that they peddle… errors that are harmful to faith and injurious to eternal life.What are we sheep to do? How are we to grow in the knowledge of the truth with so many lies, assumptions, and errors?

At the top of the first page of your bulletin for today, there is a quote from St. Jerome. He says, “Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ.” This ancient father of the church echoes the very thing that Christ told the false prophets. Christ said to the Pharasees, “The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."

It’s not enough to know your Bible. It’s not enough to study so that you can quote Scripture and apply it however you wish. Even the Pharisees could do that and yet they were without grace. They stood condemned in their sin.

You must come to know Scripture the way that God, Himself, tells us how we should know it: through Christ-colored lenses so that the Bible points us to Jesus so that we may have life… eternal life.

So essential is this proper understanding of the Christ-centered message that is found in scripture that St. Jerome, over a thousand years before Martin Luther and Myles Coverdale, devoted himself to the translation of the Greek and Hebrew texts into the Latin so that the people of his day could have the scriptures in their native language… so that they could be shown Christ and have life in Him.

Scripture is not just some mere guidebook. It is not just a divine self help program that the Holy Spirit has preserved for 2,000 years so that you can be equipped to improve your personal situation here on earth. The truth is that a dead corpse cannot improve its situation. Apart from Christ, that is what we are: fallen, damned corpses. We know from Scripture that, since the Fall of Adam, all of mankind remains hopelessly dead in their trespasses. We are not merely weakened by our sinfulness. We are not simply injured by sin. We are dead because of it: both now and eternally. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Nothing.

It is the Word of God that breathes life into our dead and sinful souls. It is this breath of new life that is the essence of faith. It is through this holy revelation that the Holy Spirit brings Christ to us. It is not just a rational, intellectual argument that causes our minds to think on a better way through a few good examples and stories. It is not just an ecstatic, emotional experience that motivates our hearts to start being godly through its poetry and prose. It is the supernatural revelation of God that gives us life by uniting us with Jesus Christ by faith.

The Word of the Lord calls out to you as you lie in the grave of your sin. It shouts in a loud voice, “Lazarus! Come out!”The proclaimed Word of the Lord brings Christ to us, not just once in our lives and then it is of little value, but the Gospel works constantly as this alien faith invades our sinful flesh, repeatedly breathes life into our broken bodies, and holds us captive to every word that comes from the mouth of God. This is the declared purpose of God’s Word and the pages are obsessed with it. Scripture does not just speak about Christ occasionally as an important topic, but it testifies constantly and consistently so that Christ and His saving work on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin is the intent, theme, and message from Genesis to Revelation, chapter by chapter, foundation to rafters.This is the only message that saves you from hell.

When you understand this truth rightly, the light of the cross and the empty grave casts a brilliant illumination upon this book and the darkness of the false prophets is immediately cast aside. The distractions are exposed. The sheep suits of the wolves are torn off and the truth is understood at last. It is this pious truth that the Apostle Paul understood and confessed. With the Christ-centered faith given by the Holy Spirit, Paul boldly declared to the church in Corinth these words: “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

Christ is still Lord of the church. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. He remains the firm foundation upon which the house of our faith is built. Upon this rock, that is upon Christ the Son of the Living God, your faith will stand against the rages of Satan. Safe from the storm, you are protected from the false prophets who deceive themselves as much as they deceive those who listen to them. You stand forgiven before God because of Christ through the gift of faith. As the houses that are built upon things other than Christ are washed away, you remain secure in the one true faith that is revealed to us through scripture.

So let the false prophets weave their cleaver deceptions. Let them do their best to distract us from our focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let Satan whisper his wicked lies as he attempts to pervert or obscure and Gospel as best he can with seemingly good and practical things. You are not moved. You are not washed away by the tide. You have God’s Holy Word in your hands, in your ears, written upon your hearts, and spoken on your lips.

You understand the one and only purpose of the Church: to proclaim Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins so that sinners are reconciled to God by grace and granted eternal life through faith. The Holy Spirit has drawn us to the feet of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through word and sacrament.

This adoption into new life began for you in your baptism. By daily repentance, meditation on His word, and reception of grace through the Lord’s Supper, our life in Him is deepened and renewed as we wait for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. As we rest in the presence of this mighty Shepherd and listen to His loving voice, we need not fear any wolf or snare.

Last Modified: August 1, 2009

Have You Seen This Man?

2009-07-19T11:34:00.003-05:00

I am having so much trouble finding Jesus in the programs of the local chaplaincy that I am seriously considering posting WANTED posters with Christ's face on them. I wonder if such a tactic would give me any leads on where I can find this man.

A Contemporary Song that Exposes the Ancient, Gospel-less Horror in the Seeker Movement.

2009-07-14T12:49:00.008-05:00

The doctrine in this song is so bad and misleading that I cannot bring myself to comment on it at this time. I will dissect it after I have recovered. When you read it, I am sure you will understand....

"If We Are The Body" By Casting Crowns

It's crowded in worship today
As she slips in
Trying to fade into the faces
The girls' teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know

CHORUS
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way

A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat
And quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances tells him that his chances
Are better out on the road

CHORUS
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the Body?
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?

BRIDGE
Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the Body of Christ

CHORUS (2x)
If we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
Jesus is the way

Predestination and Logic

2009-07-09T17:27:00.002-05:00

The teachings on Free Well that come out of Arminianism and Calvinism are both built on the foundation of a common logical fallacy. The informal fallacy of false dilemma is where two concepts are presented as a mutually exclusive choice where no other options exists. This is an especially foolish assumption when trying to guess the unknowable operation of an omnipotent and omniscient God.

In other words, this fallacy presents the choice of either A or B... but ignores the possibility of an option C, D, E, F, etc. An absurd example of such a fallacy would be: "If you are an animal, you are either a dog or a cat." Such a statement is illogical because an animal could be a horse, cow, or any number of other creatures.

The Arminian/Calvinist debate over eternal election which rages is built on this kind of false dilemma. They want to force you into using your limited human reason to choose either option A or option B. Both of these options have been carefully crafted and argued by the flawed source that is the human intellect. At the same time, infallible Holy Scripture clearly makes both options unsupportable. It is okay to say that there could be an unknown "option C" regarding our eternal election that is beyond our human understanding. In the end, we must stand on only what Scripture reveals and not what we can try to figure out with our limited capabilities and knowledge. Everything beyond the clear testimony of Scripture is just guess work.

...of course a Calvinist has already told me that this position is a "cop out". :P

Evangelism without Evangel

2009-06-27T13:37:00.003-05:00

I am stealing this fantastic quote from an anabaptist layman who is teaching a pretty good Bible study over here:

"Evangelism is the most misunderstood word in Christianity. It no longer means what it used to mean. Evangelism means to tell the Evangel: the Good News. Evangelism that does not specifically state the whole Good News properly is just recruitment."

I am going to start making this distinction. It's helpful to call a spade a spade.

+ In Memoriam +

2009-06-22T13:52:00.004-05:00

It is around this time of year that our family remembers the solid Christian witness that was given to us by the sainted Grandma Baker. I will never forget her final instructions that she spoke to me before she went to be with Our Lord:

"Love your family, love everybody, and count your blessings. And do that every day."

God's Prosperity for You is Found in Holy Absolution

2009-06-18T14:30:00.009-05:00

You hear alot these days about the two "P"s in church: "Prosperity" and "Purpose". There are books, churches, and movements founded on unlocking some kind of divine formula for prosperity. The entire purpose of the church these days is to show you how to purposefully search for your purpose so that you will prosper.

You have to wonder though, when we get past all these mortal speakers, hucksters, and mystics for a second... what does God's Word actually say about true prosperity? What does divine prosperity actually look like? Where does one find God's prosperity?

God's prosperity for you is found at the center of holy absolution. The forgiveness of your sin which is apprehended by faith in Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price. Cast aside everything to lay hold of this unique treasure. What other thing could be found that is of equal value? There is nothing else but this promise: Come and hear Christ's word of forgiveness spoken specifically to you.

"Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." -Proverbs 28:13 [ESV]

The Slap in the Face

2009-06-06T12:43:00.004-05:00

How often do we, as Christians, gather for worship... and then do nothing less but reenact the Fall of Man in the name of God?

Tricky Devil, you come into the garden that is Lord's House and you convince us to lay aside the clear Word of God. You tempt us to do that which God has forbidden, upset the order that He has established for the church, and seek the worldly self-gratification that comes with trying to make ourselves wise.

That's Why They Call it a Desert

2009-05-31T07:15:00.003-05:00

Yesterday it was over 110° F. (This reading was based off of a thermometer that was in the shade!)

This morning it was 90° F at 08:30 a.m.

...and it is only the end of May.

Oh, this summer is going to be brutal. :P