Lay Lutherans and personal evangelism have a strained relationship. First, we are tempted to think that only pastors should witness for Christ. If asked about it in a quiz, however, we are good enough test takers to know that is not the right answer. While only rightly called and ordained pastors should publicly preach and […]
The children of a prominent family commissioned a biographer to write a book of family history. They warned him about the black sheep of the family, an uncle executed in the electric chair. The biographer said he could avoid embarrassment. “I’ll say he occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He […]
On Christmas Day, heresies begin in earnest. Our desire for self-justification cannot abide the Incarnation. It is a scandal that we should need God to come to us in this way to save us. Did it take all this? Are we so bad? Are we so powerless? See the Christ child with our eyes, not […]
The week he was gone from work, no one knew where he went. When he came back, he didn’t say, and no one asked. He seemed to be himself, except he was not going on like he usually did about his healthy lifestyle. In time he confided in a coworker. He’d gone out of state […]
Consider the following from John T. Pless: The liturgy is Gottesdienst, divine service, the Lord’s service to us through the proclamation of His Word and the giving out of His body and blood. In the theology of the Lutheran Confessions, God is the subject not the object of liturgical action. The trajectory is from the Lord […]
The Gospel text for January 4 is Luke 2:41-52. After God gives Jesus to Mary, He seems to take him away from her. When she loses him on the return journey from the Passover in Jerusalem, she and Joseph search for him for three days. Are they able to sleep during the intervening nights? When […]
Some of you remember. Before 1971, television had cigarette advertisements. After that, the ads were banned. The jingle for one brand went, “Over, under, around, and through; Pall Mall travels pleasure to you.” The video showed smoke passing over, under, around, and through tobacco to the smoker. This illustrates something that happened to Jesus in […]
Three streams. There are three streams that have flowed into current confessional Lutheranism. (There are more, but for present purposes, these three are sufficient to consider.) Stream One. Those born, baptized, raised, confirmed, and still living in confessional Lutheranism. Stream Two. Those born, baptized, raised, and confirmed in Lutheran synods that went antinomian. Examples would […]
Introduction Delegates to the synodical conventions of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod later this month have a duty to be conscientious. This includes a duty to study the reports and overtures in the convention Workbook and the further reports and resolutions in Today’s Business. It is work. It takes time. It is the job. For my […]
A mindless repetition. That is what critics of creeds say about reciting the Creed. Opponents of liturgy call it a vain repetition. Of course, it is possible to say the Creed mindlessly. People say all kinds of things mindlessly. Sometimes we even say well-intended things like, “I love you,” somewhat mindlessly. We still should say […]
On November 8, 2022, a majority of the Board of Regents (BOR) of Concordia University Texas (CTX) purportedly made that board self-governing and self-perpetuating in complete independence from the Concordia University System (CUS) and The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). CTX delivered unauthorized and newly adopted governance documents to the Texas Secretary of State.[i] Rev. Michael […]
Marilyn and I were walking in Nice, Provence. While passing a gallery, something on a wall inside caught me. I stopped, stepped back, took a second look, and said, “That can’t be here. It’s in Chicago.” Marilyn humored me as we went inside and headed straight to the painting that was the spitting image of […]
Frequently I hear it said, as a refutation of this or that orthodox proposition, “In this day and age,” that proposition is absurd. There are many variant formulations of the idea. Sometimes it is stated as, “This is the 21st century. We are not controlled by the darkness of the past.” Leaving aside for the […]
Many are tormented from time to time with doubts that Jesus loves them. They see something judging them on Facebook or You Tube. A works-righteousness church they left tells them they are going to hell because they have converted to salvation by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone. Family members […]
In the three year lectionary, the Gospel text this year for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost is John 6:35-51. Let us observe how our text starts. First, Jesus declares who He is. He says, “I am the bread of life.” Next, He says that they have seen him. Then, He says that although they have […]
by T. R. Halvorson Note: This article may be downloaded as a PDF file. Summary A prior article (“What Are You Taught About Redemption?”) briefly sketched the orthodox Christian doctrine of Christ’s redemption by vicarious satisfaction; heretical denial of vicarious satisfaction by some popular Lutheran theologians; and how the Lutheran church has taught vicarious satisfaction […]
The following is from David P. Scaer, Law and Gospel and the Means of Grace, pp. 4-5 (The Luther Academy: St. Louis, 2008). According to a confessional Lutheran understanding, the law lays down God’s requirements or regulations in such a way that sinful people by themselves cannot fulfill them. Those who understand the law’s message in […]
The decline in membership of Lutheran churches in America is a like a migraine headache. It is always there. We keep explaining it with the same explanations. We keep taking the same medications. The pain continues. What is the right word for that? In The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the current (March 2017) issue of Reporter carries an […]
One year at our farm at Wildrose, we reached the peak in a long period of historically high precipitation. Sloughs ran over. Fields were saturated. Few crops were planted. By July, nearly all my neighbors were talking about seepage into their basements. They were going on about their sump pumps. My basement didn’t have seepage […]
Copyright (c) 2023 Dennis E. McFadden. Used by Permission. Rev. McFadden is a Pastor ordained in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. The meaning of “atonement” has been a topic of much debate in recent decades. A large number of theologians have dismissed the Reformation view as misguided and even barbaric. This book adds the […]
Atonement
Liturgy and Communion
Luther’s Liturgical Criteria and His Reform of the Canon of the Mass
Luther reformed the Canon of the Mass, the way the Sacrament of the Altar is administered. He has been branded a liturgical hack.
Was he a hack or a surgeon? What part did Jesus’ own words have in Luther’s reform. Is the Lord’s Supper a sacrifice we are to offer to God, or is it a testament and gift that Christ gives to the Church?
World renowned scholar Bryan D. Spinks reports the findings of his research. Spinks identifies errors of scholastic procedure in the body of literature. He examines root sources. By his industry and workmanlike procedure, Spinks succeeds at what he set out to do: Let Luther answer for himself.
As John T. Pless says in the Foreword: “It took an Anglican to rescue Luther from the Lutheran liturgical gurus. That was my first response to reading this tightly-packed and potent monograph years ago. Its value has not diminished with the passage of time. … Spinks demonstrates that Luther’s liturgical revisions were not sloppily done but carried out with integrity based on his confession of justification by faith alone. Luther understood God to be the donor in the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. Thanksgiving which flows from the gift dare not blur this fact. The Sacrament is the Gospel.”
Spinks’ achievement gives this work an exceptional place in the literature. A new audience needs it. This is why it should be republished. First published in 1982, it has gone out of print. Used copies are rare and expensive. Dr. Spinks once more gives a precious gift to the Church by readily and graciously granting his permission for this new edition.
With new musical engravings of the Verba and The German Sanctus by Jon D. Vieker and commendation by William C. Weedon, this new edition bursts the epiphany of Spinks’ brilliance into the sight of a new audience and generation.