Please see this article in which the ELCA repudiates Christ as the only way of salvation. If that action was strike three thenhere is strke four. As stated in my previous post I don't normally comment on what other religions are doing. But because many of our friends and relatives, formerly members of the LCMS, are now members of the ELCA, I think you should know what is...

The ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) is a distant spiritual relative of ours; and becoming more distant every day it seems. For this reason I include this podcast concerning their latest church-wide assembly in which they state that they can no longer affirm that faith in Jesus is the only way of salvation and eternal life. This, though Scripture states that:...

Today I received an email from an organization dedicated to teaching Christian apologetics. Apologetics seeks to give a rational and reasonable defense of the Christian faith, and benefits believers and unbelievers alike. Apologetics provides believers with an informed faith; and unbelievers who have an open mind with something deep and worthwhile to think about. All to t...

INTROIT(based on Psalm 49) Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,both low and high rich and poor together!Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life.for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence; yet after them people approve of their boasts.Like...

One of the verses we sometimes don't know what to do with is Luke 11:13b "how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him." I have heard (and given) various stand alone interpretations to it over the years.One possible answer to the dilemma is found in the epiklesis which has been used from time immemorial as part of the consecration. In it...

There seems to a great deal going on in Sunday's epistle, you can see my translation below. If we read it ecclesiastically, liturgically and sacramentally it yields much. My assumption is that Colossians is not just an abstract epistle by which Paul deals with particular problems - as in Galatians and Corinthians for example. But that it is either a baptismal rite and / o...

Wile E. Coyote could defy gravity ... for a few seconds. So can culture. Every time Wile E. went over the edge he would hang in mid air for a bit. But gravity, like God, cannot be mocked. Wile E. is a parable for post-Christan western culture. When we expelled the gospel we cut off our branch from the Tree of Life and the evidence is unmistabeable. The deficiation of ou...

Here is a brief refresher on basic Christian doctrine that will benefit every Christian. Christians believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God. They believe that though the Bible was written by men, that they were guided by the Holy Spirit, and that the resulting document is a revelation of divine thoughts and plans; not the opinions of the author. We le...

At this time, based on my studies and thinking, I am ready to say that Scripture has no independent life apart from liturgy. That is, apart from the liturgizing of God. (The fact that liturgy is comprised of Scripture, though true, is not my point here.) But I say this in contradistinction to the notion that I learned and have worked with for over 40 years, namely that Sc...

To realize this is to hear Scripture differently than we do. The Lord's infancy narrative, for example, is not simply the story of Baby Jesus in Bethlehem but the solemn invitation for all men Jew and Gentile, King and Shepherd alike, to worship him at the manger of the altar in the Bethlehem of the church. The infancy narrative ceases, then, to be simply a story and becom...