Yesterday a 14 year old young man got hold of a firearm and used it to shoot up his school. Four are dead (2 teachers and 2 students) at latest report, and 9 wounded. Naturally the politicians are out in force asking for new gun laws. However they could easily solve the problem by simply making murder illegal. I can't for the life of me understand why won't they just do t...

In her missionary zeal the church has "absolutized" the doctrine of salvation/justification to the exclusion of all other teachings, in particular the Atonement that our High Priest made for the sins of the world. The goal of "outreach" is to bring people to Christ, but what does that even mean? Personal evangelism seminars tell earnest Christians that they must "talk to...

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Your sight,OLord, mystrength and myRedeemer." --The eternal Word of God warns all humanity that: "Pride precedes Destruction, and an arrogant spirit presages a Fall." (Proverbs 16:1) In light of this what can we say about "pride month?" While pride month people may stand tall before the culture,...

The notion of personal evangelism (PE) is the fruit of a poisonous tree. Yet one so appealing that Christians love to eat from it. The poisonous tree is theology of the Radical Reformation which jettisoned the formal church, its Services and Sacraments; in a quest to purify the Christian religion of assumed defects, thus the moniker Puritan. Rather than allow people to e...

"So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." (Genesis 2:3) As often as we hear these words from Genesis the first thing Christians should see is Jesus in the tomb, resting from "all his work" of salvation that he accomplished in the making of a New Creation. The first creation as we find it ...

There has been a flurry of activity in the last 7 weeks among end-times-oriented Christians in connection with the Israel Hamas war. But may all Lutherans understand that this war has nothing to do with the Bible, Bible prophecy, the End of the World, or the Return of Christ for Judgment. Though regretful and miserable ("war is hell"), and though every good person prays f...

In the LCMS today pastors are trying to revive the love of, and teach the importance of, the liturgy. Liturgical worship was standard procedure for Lutherans in America from the publication of the Common Service in the late 1800's, and for about 100 years thereafter when ecclesiastical mayhem took hold. The worship wars were on: traditional v. contemporary. But the more t...

The hymn "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" is a favorite of Lutherans and other Christians as well. In this article the author gives an outstanding explanation of the piece, its history and its melody. Listen to it here....

Hermeneutics are the "rules" by which one interprets the Bible. Everyone has them; and everyone, moreover, has a catechism which is the distillation and conclusions of one's interpretive / hermeneutical methods. Even the Fundamentalist who claims the Bible alone as his catechism betrays himself, and his hermeneutical methods the moment he underlines a passage, or notes wh...

After much study and analysis I have a theory about the Book of Hebrews; that it is the transcript of a Divine Service from beginning to end. Imagine a court reporter taking down every word of a normal Eucharistic liturgy in the LCMS (p. 184). It would open with the invocation and close with the benediction or possibly a parting hymn. Every word would be taken down but in ...