51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive […]
Christians sometimes torment themselves with thoughts relating to election, thoughts about what they imagine to be God’s secret counsel, his secret will about their salvation. If this happens to you, hear this Word of God: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke […]
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 […]
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 […]
Winston Churchill was visiting New York the day after the stock market crash of 1929. The noise of a crowd outside his hotel woke him. “Under my very window a gentleman cast himself down fifteen stories and was dashed to pieces, causing a wild commotion and the arrival of the fire brigade,” he wrote. Over […]
“Mom always liked you best.” That was the signature line of the comedy act, the Smothers Brothers. In an interview by PBS, Tommy Smothers recalled how it started. He was the younger, dumber brother. Dick was the older, smarter brother. Dick, as usual, was running Tommy down. He did it so convincingly that the audience […]
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. […]
Napoleon moved with his army through Switzerland. People hailed him everywhere with thunderous applause and cheers. He seemed unimpressed. Someone said, “Isn’t it great, this roaring support of the people?” Napoleon replied, “The same people cheering for me today would cheer just as loudly at my execution.” When Jesus showed his glory, people liked him. […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Publisher’s Preface “Drink from it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” By these words, did Jesus give the Church a sacrament, or did He require from us a sacrifice? What is a testament? What did Jesus want us to […]
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 […]
by T. R. HalvorsonNote: This article may be downloaded as a PDF file. In Scripture and the Lutheran confessions, Christ works the atonement in his life of active obedience (Matthew 3:15), his passive obedience of humbling himself to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8), and in his rising for the justification of the whole world. […]
The Evangelical Kyrie by T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF Document The character of Lutheran worship is a rich tapestry of traits. It is like the catechism: it can be learned by a child, but no one can master it. Here are a few vital threads woven into the […]
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 […]
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. […]
Below are two speeches that I am planning to give to Floor Committee 5 of the 2023 LCMS convention about Resolution 5-14 on the annotated Large Catechism. The first addresses the resolution generally, and the second goes into detail on one of the flaws of the annotated Large Catechism. Speech to Floor Committee on Resolution […]
The Pagan and secular worlds say we have three options for emphasis in our lives: 1. Being 2. Doing 3. Thinking (or Believing) Which is it? None of the above. They overlook the fourth option: 4. Receiving Yes, receiving. The Doer is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God creates. The Father […]
When people talk about the Law, often they are ships passing in the night. They talk past each other. At the surface, they seem to be disagreeing with each other, but they are not even talking about the same thing. When it is assumed at the superficial level that they are talking about the same […]
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.