Home - T. R. Halvorson

The Silver Spoon Jesus Left in a Drawer

Before 1700, common folk had wooden spoons. Well off people had silver. The saying, “He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” views a high-born person as knowing nothing about the struggles of life. As the Son of God, Jesus has a silver spoon, his divine powers. But He was born under the […]

A Masterful Biblical Defense of Vicarious Atonement | Book Review

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 […]

Pastor-Elder-Bishop in Scripture

Pastor-Elder-Bishop in Scripture By T. R. Halvorson Note: This post may be downloaded as a PDF file One Office; Three Names In Scripture, there is one pastoral office that the Apostles call by three names. The three names do not divide the office into three offices. Each name emphasizes an aspect of a single office. […]

The Word Does Things To Us — Robert Kolb

Sixteenth century humanists were already changing biblical exegesis by finding ‘a literary method for handling the narrative construction of the Bible as a whole … where discrete biblical meanings congealed in a coherent body of knowledge.’ Luther contributed to that search by providing a metanarrative that recognized the dilemma of the sinner and delivered God’s […]

Review: Luz, The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew

Ulrich Luz The Theology of the Gospel of Matthew Review Outline Citation The Author Nature of the Work Matthew as Story The Text Invites Reading as a Narrative Author and Sources Reading Synchronically Structure and Meaning Sampling Results of Narratological Reading Faith and Works Breakdown in Luz’s Approach Scripture Evaluation Citation Luz, Ulrich. The Theology […]

The Bright and Shining Sin of Good Works and the Service of God

A sermon of Martin Luther on Luke 2:21-40 is loaded with so many gems it is difficult to select one for consideration here. Two are how Simeon is a preacher of the cross and against glory, and how works and respectability can be a snare against faith. Here is a piece of the latter: “51. […]

You’ll Have To Draw Me a Picture

I almost flunked out of high school. The first time was in algebra, trying to solve polynomials. “Solving” means finding the roots of many terms. My translation? Trying to make sense of a heap of concepts. Good gravy. After my algebra disaster, it was surprising how well I did in geometry. It’s not that geometry […]

Vicarious Satisfaction in Liturgy: Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)

Note: This essay may be downloaded in a PDF here. Introduction Lutheran Orthodoxy teaches that an indispensable part of the mighty work that God has done in Christ is atonement by vicarious satisfaction. Adversaries of Lutheran Orthodoxy deny vicarious satisfaction. They teach that God just “up and forgave” before and without the blood of Christ. […]

Is Jesus Worth It? (Matthew 10:34-42)

Introduction This text for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost in Year A of the Three-Year Lectionary raises this question: Is Jesus worth it? We are going to look at this question two ways: A Difficult and Surprising Text This is a difficult and surprising text. When we first hear Jesus saying this, He sounds harsh. […]

Who Volunteers for Humiliation?

At Landsberg, Germany, as the U.S. Army occupies and loots the defeated German town, Capt. Lewis Nixon carries on his quest for Vat 69, a Scotch blended whiskey. He has become a drunk, but will drink only the best. He finds a house that looks rich enough to have some. Inside, the home is well […]

Finally! Some Satisfaction in the Atonement

Two Notes: This article originally published January 3, 2014 on TwinStoneWarden. The problems described here got much better with the publication of Jack Kilcrease’s The Doctrine of the Atonement from Luther to Forde. You can read my review of that book here. Ever since reading Gustaf Aulén’s Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main […]

Protecting Deeds Done in Darkness

Jesus said (John 3:19-21 ESV): And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever […]

Antinomianism and Legalism: Three Streams of Confessional Lutherans

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 […]

Strategic Defense of Justification: Recognize Recurring Theosis

Note: This article originally was published on October 29, 2014on Brothers of John the Steadfast This article is a layman’s plea to confessional Lutheran pastors, theologians, and doctors to consider the myriad of challenges to the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls from a simple, strategic perspective. Otherwise, all we’re ever going to […]

Talking About the Black Sheep of the Family

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 […]

“Faith Journey,” Baptism, Legalism, and Antinomianism

Properly explained in accord with Scripture and the Lutheran confessions, the phrase “faith journey” possibly could have a good meaning, and in that sense, I would be willing to say that I am on a faith journey. For example, Scripture speaks of our “walk” as a Christian and of the “way” of the Christian faith. […]

How Can We Expect Baptism To Work?

The first time my Dad sent me out seeding alone, a feeling of pessimism overcame me. That night I said, “How can we expect a green, leafy, lush crop from this? We are dropping dry seed through dead iron machinery into dirt.” He said, “It’s made to work.” That gave me something to think about. […]

Husband, Love your Wife with the Small Catechism

Adam fell down on his vocation as catechist of Eve. Ever since, husbands have had the tendency to default on their calling to teach the Word to their wives. This sin of husbands has had terrible effects in marriage and home, church and community, and these effects are transmitted from generation to generation. This becomes […]

Second Edition of Atonement in Lutheran Orthodoxy: Johannes Quenstedt

Johannes Quenstedt’s De Officio Christi is an antidote to errors about atonement in Lutheran circles. Lutheran Orthodoxy teaches that an indispensable part of atonement is vicarious satisfaction. Adversaries deny vicarious satisfaction. Their errors existed already in Quenstedt’s time. While teaching the orthodox truth, Quenstedt thoroughly refutes the adversaries from Scripture. Robert D. Preus says, “Quenstedt […]

What Can an Old Cigarette Ad Show Us about Gethsemane?

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 […]

Liturgy and Communion

Bibliography

Bibliography: Atonement

Books

Atonement in Confessional Lutheran Theology: Franz Pieper

Atonement in Lutheran Orthodoxy: Johannes Quenstedt

Atonement in Lutheran Orthodoxy: Baier-Walther

Atonement in Lutheran Orthodoxy: Abraham Calov

Vicarious Satisfaction in Lutheran Catechisms, Confessions, and Hymns

Catechism and Confessions

Vicarious Satisfaction in Explanations of Luther’s Small Catechism

Vicarious Satisfaction in the Lutheran Confessions

Hymns

Vicarious Satisfaction in Lutheran Hymns

Book Reviews

Jack D. Kilcrease, The Doctrine of the Atonement from Luther to Forde

Theodore Dierks, Reconciliation and Justification

Junius B. Remensnyder, Atonement and Modern Thought

Burnell F. Eckardt, Anselm and Luther on the Atonement: Was It “Necessary”?

Benjamin Wheaton, Suffering, Not Power: Atonement in the Middle Ages

Errors and Truth

Atonement in Our Circles and Church

The Cracked Foundation of Forde’s Radical Lutheranism

Nice Guys Ruin the Consolation of Christ’s Blood

The Saddest Chapter in the History of Mankind

NEC-NOS

Finally! Some Satisfaction in the Atonement

How Do Sump Pumps and Sacrifice Work?

Escaping a Prairie Fire on Burnt Out Ground

Jesus Received Up — John 9:51-56

Bibliography

Bibliography: Liturgy and Communion

Worship in General

Relevant Worship: The Story of Your Life

Worship: What for? Who acts? Which way does it flow?

W and M Forms of “Worship”

How Can Worship Begin — Baptism: No Stepping on the Lord’s Train

Parts of the Service

The Evangelical Kyrie

Why the Preface, Agnus Dei, and Pax Domini? Real Presence

Nunc Dimittis: Seeing God’s Savior and Salvation

What was I thinking when reciting the Creed?

Real Presence

Would you deny Real Presence to escape the jaws of beasts?

Vicarious Satisfaction in Liturgy

Vicarious Satisfaction in Liturgy: Worship in General

Vicarious Satisfaction in Liturgy: Invocation

Vicarious Satisfaction in Liturgy: Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)

NEC-NOS

The Sacrament and the Second Petition in Leviticus

Hushing Christ’s Words of Institution: Then and Now

Publisher’s Preface: Luther’s Liturgical Criteria, Bryan D. Spinks

The Focus of Life is “None of the Above”

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.