Home - T. R. Halvorson

Would You Deny Real Presence to Escape the Jaws of Beasts?

Would You Deny Real Presence to Escape the Jaws of beasts? By T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF Document A vogue phrase today is, “to die for.” “This chocolate is to die for.” “That dress is to die for.” A lifestyle clothing brand is called To Die For. A […]

Watershed in Missouri

There is a geological feature called a “watershed.” A watershed is an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas. Watersheds exist all over the world. One watershed in my state of Montana, for example, shows how great a difference there can be. Imagine yourself standing exactly on the line […]

A Simple Map of Conversion Terminology

A Simple Map of Conversion Terminology By T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF document. On a recurring basis, online Lutheran discussions will confront you with terms like pelagianism, synergism, and monergism. You will see one participant claim that what another person said is wrong because it is pelagian. Maybe […]

Make Sure You Enjoy Being in the Field on Your Way to Resurrection

One spring when I was a teenager, my Dad injured his back. He landed in the hospital in traction. That left seeding the crop to me. Could I get it done? I doubted and dreaded. When I got to the farmyard, before I knew what I was doing, I had climbed the windmill tower and […]

Vicarious Satisfaction in the Lutheran Confessions

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 […]

How to Find the Church — Pastor Rolf Preus

If you want to ﬁnd the church you don’t look for Christians. You look for the pure gospel of Christ. God only knows who the Christians are. But we can and must know what the gospel is. So we don’t look for the biggest group, the most prestigious group, the holiest group, or the most […]

Unavoidable Personal Evangelism

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 Hellacious Cost of Making the Creed Palatable

The presiding bishop of a Lutheran body said during an interview by reporter Robert Herguth during his podcast “Faith to Face” that there might be a hell, but she thinks it is empty.[1] In reality, many in that body don’t believe in hell. This comes into the open when congregations of that body remove, “He descended […]

He said, “You Are Not Supposed to Hit a Substitute that Hard”

When the quarterback sprained his ankle, his substitute came into the game. On the next play, there was no backfield blocking. Both outside line backers came in fast and hit the quarterback hard. His helmet came off. The ball rolled out of his hands. He lay there dazed. Finally being shifted to a stretcher, he […]

Did Jesus Use the iPhone’s Apple Maps

When iPhone got Apple Maps, Apple received a storm of criticism. The maps were inaccurate. Australian police issued a warning not to use them to get to the town of Mildura. It would leave users stranded in Murray-Sunset Nation Park, 70 kilometers off target, and in a dangerous place without proper preparation. Jesus looks like […]

Cultural Marxism and Critical Theory: An Introductory Sketch

Published originally on Brothers of John the Steadfast, July 13, 2020 Note: This article may be downloaded as a PDF document. Introduction This article provides an introductory sketch of Cultural Marxism and Critical Theory. It discusses the disappointment of economic Marxists over the failure of the workers of the world to unite for revolution. It […]

Vicarious Satisfaction in Liturgy: Worship in General

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. […]

The Saddest Chapter in the History of Mankind

We are now about to discuss the saddest chapter in the whole history of mankind. Think of it: man is unable to bring about his reconciliation with God, and so God Himself accomplished it by surrendering His own Son and placing Him under the obligation and curse of the Law. God has thus graciously prepared […]

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 […]

Jesus Plays No Harp. He Swings a Hammer.

The website TV Tropes has an article about a figure often used in television, called “Fluffy Cloud Heaven.” In this figure, heaven is heavenly blue. It is in the clouds. The clouds are solid enough to walk on. When we die, we get our wings, a white robe, and a halo. We become angels, float in clouds, […]

Trinity in Luther Christmas Sermon

From a sermon of Martin Luther for Christmas Day, reprinted in Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. I, pp. 181-83 (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, USA: 1983) “And the Word was with God.” 21. … But here he clearly distinguishes the persons, so that the Word is a different person than God with whom it was. […]

Review: Kilcrease, The Doctrine of the Atonement from Luther to Forde

Jack D. Kilcrease The Doctrine of the Atonement from Luther to Forde Review In this book (Jack D. Kilcrease, The Doctrine of the Atonement from Luther to Forde (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2018), Dr. Kilcrease skillfully accomplishes many important feats. In a fast-moving and trim volume, Dr. Kilcrease engages the written works of theologians […]

What Is Jesus Doing in Retirement?

Retirement affects people differently. One friend worked 50 years, got his gold watch, retired, and died less than a year later. Someone said he died of not having enough to do. Another friend said he had to retire to have enough time to get all his work done. He is busier now than when he […]

Atonement in Lutheran Orthodoxy: Baier-Walther

C. F. W. Walther selected Johann Wilhelm Baier’s Compendium Theologiae Positivae as the basis for the first dogmatics used to prepare pastors for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Walther edited Baier’s Compendium and annotated it with excerpts from Luther and orthodox Lutheran theologians. Baier-Walther’s “On the office of Christ” (Vol. III, Cap. II. Sectio III, De […]

Hushing Christ’s Words of Institution: Then and Now

At the time of Luther, the practice of the Sacrament of the Altar by papists inflicted many abuses upon the laity. These included withholding the cup from the laity, selling masses, masses for the dead, and more. The greatest abuse was warping the Sacrament from being a sacrament into being a sacrifice.[1] In a sacrifice, people […]

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.