Posts from the “Theology” Category

That fool Copernicus

Posted on June 6th, 2013

John Lennox, writing on the revolution of Copernican astronomy and how it necessitated new examination of Biblical texts, observed that Luther allegedly called Copernicus a “fool” for wanting to turn astronomy upside down, since Scripture clearly tells us that the sun moves, not the earth. Of course, the “new” interpretation eventually won the day. Why do Christians accept this “new” interpretation [that the earth orbits the sun], and not still insist on a “literal” understanding of the “pillars of the earth”? Why are we not still split up into fixed-earthers and moving-earthers? Is it really because we have all compromised, and made Scripture subservient to science? Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science (p. 19) I haven’t read…

Categories: Books, Theology

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The primary battle of life

Posted on June 5th, 2013

Neil T. Anderson on Jesus’ words, “Take up your cross and follow Me”: To deny ourselves is to deny self-rule. Dying to self is the primary battle of life. The flesh scrambles for the throne and struggles to be God. Jesus doesn’t enter into that battle; He’s already won it. He occupies the throne and graciously offers to share it with us. But for some deceptive reason, we want to be king and rule our own lives. Until we deny ourselves that which was never meant to be ours—the role of being God in our lives—we will never be at peace with ourselves or with God, and we will never be free. The Bondage Breaker (p. 39)

Categories: Books, Theology

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The modern non-redemptive religion

Posted on June 3rd, 2013

The great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. This modern non-redemptive religion is called “modernism” or “liberalism.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Kindle Locations 15-18)

Categories: Theology

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What is the primal sin?

Posted on May 30th, 2013

Russell Morre on pride: [Pride] is the primal sin because no other sin is possible without believing that some good gift of God is mine and mine alone to use for my purposes, for my own kingdom and glory. Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ (p. 143)

Categories: Theology

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Praying for women on Mothers Day

Posted on May 11th, 2013

Pastor Michael Schuermann has an excellent piece on pastoral considerations for Mothers Day. You can read it here. Since we are using as the Prayer of the Church the Great Litany of St. John Chrysostom during Eastertide at Immanuel, I will be inserting the following bids: For all mothers, let us pray to the Lord. For all women with child (especially ______), let us pray to the Lord. For all women who long to have children, but cannot, let us pray to the Lord. For all women who have lost a child, let us pray to the Lord.

Categories: Liturgy, Theology

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To hell with that

Posted on May 9th, 2013

A parishioner shared this great anecdote with me: The great Flannery O’Connor, at a New York dinner party, responded thus when one of the other guests opined that the Eucharist was a symbol empty of religious truth:  “If it’s a symbol, to hell with that.”  She later said:  “That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”

Categories: Theology

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Get Clean

Posted on April 13th, 2013

I published this a few years ago, but the video is broken. Here’s a working one. If you haven’t been to confession lately, go. It’s a great blessing, all for the joy of forgiveness.

 

Categories: Theology

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McClean on Kieschnick on the Papacy as Antichrist

Posted on April 4th, 2013

My colleague and friend, Charles McClean (who will be installed as Pastor of Our Saviour Church in Baltimore next month) wrote a lengthy reply to a previous post on Esgetology highlighting Gerald Kieschnick’s remarks on the papacy. You can read the original post here.     Once again Dr. Kieschnick demonstrates ignorance of the Lutheran Symbols when he deplores the emphasis on private confession and suggests that the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God is purely Roman Catholic doctrine. Confessional Lutherans differ on the latter but, given the fact that Lutherans from Luther through Pieper to this very day (e.g. John Stephenson, Charles McClean) have accepted the perpetual virginity, it can scarcely be seen as uniquely Roman Catholic teaching. Confessional Lutherans have also differed on the identification…

Categories: Theology

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Easter freedom

Posted on April 3rd, 2013

Great thought for Easter Wednesday from Russell Moore: In the long run we’re all dead, and in the longer run we’re all raised from the dead. There’s a freedom that comes from seeing that. -Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ

Categories: Theology

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Jeering, hitting, and abusing the deposed tyrant

Posted on April 2nd, 2013

Now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection…. Death has become like a tyrant who has become completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot as he know is, the passers-by jeer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Saviour on the cross. St…

Categories: Theology

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