The Sacrament and the Second Petition in Leviticus
Leviticus was used widely in the early church and later to preach the Gospel. The modern church generally ignores Leviticus.[1] Leviticus is a gift unopened and sent back to the Giver. We’re missing out. God speaks in Leviticus. Here He gives us many of the most basic and precious truths of forgiveness, life, and salvation, such […]
Nunc Dimittis: Seeing God’s Savior and Salvation
Nunc Dimittis: Seeing God’s Savior and Salvation by T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF Document Introduction Nunc Dimittis (the Song of Simeon) as a post-Communion canticle is a treasure. It holds deep riches of consolation in God’s Savior and salvation. Receiving the true body and blood of Christ with […]
Come unto Me: Sin and Salvation
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 […]
Who Goes with You into Surgery?
One of my vain ideas was to reach 60 without being an inpatient of a hospital. Didn’t work. Two Januaries in a row, I was hospitalized. I was a suffering puppy, though still nothing like many around me. My condition meant many trips to Billings this past year for surgeries. It’s amazing how nurses and […]
Minute Messages: Gospel-Filled Devotions for Every Occasion — Reviewed
by T. R. Halvorson Note: This article may be downloaded as a PDF file. Outline Citation Executive Summary Author Plan of the Book Strengths of the Book Folding It In Upshot It is amazing what God’s Word can do in one minute. Citation Richard, Matthew, Minute Messages: Gospel-Filled Devotions for Every Occasion, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing […]
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 […]
Relevant Worship: The Story of Your Life
Relevant Worship: The Story of Your Life By T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF Document In the worship wars, one of the alleged reasons for abandoning the historic liturgy is to make worship relevant. We want application of the Gospel in ways that connect with people. Dear friends, the […]
The Focus of Life is “None of the Above”
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 […]
The Blessed Begats
“The begats” is a listing of generations from Adam to Noah. It was repetitious and boring. In each generation, it says someone was born, had kids, lived awhile longer and they died. This repeats nine times. In the King James version, the wording was, the person “begat” sons and daughters. That’s why I call the […]
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 […]
The Will in Conversion: Protestant Rationalism versus Lutheran Adherence to Scripture
The Will in Conversion:Protestant Rationalism versus Lutheran Adherence to Scripture By T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF Document A recurring issue in Christian conversations is: What is the role of man’s will in conversion. Some say this is no better than arguing about how many angels can dance on the […]
Dr. Kloha’s Plastic Text of Scripture: Synodical Convention Controversy
Dr. Kloha’s Plastic Text of Scripture:Synodical Convention Controversy By T. R. Halvorson NOTE: This article may be downloaded as a PDF Document Introduction The Convention Workbook 2016 of the Lutheran Church – Missouri synod contains these two overtures: 4-23 To Settle Prof. Jeffery Kloha Controversy 4-24 To Request Public Clarification of Kloha Paper In preparation […]
Priority of the Word: A Bleeding Woman and a Dying Daughter
Text: Mark 5:21-43 As with other events in the ministry of Jesus, this text shows the priority of the Word of God. Before we have the Word, we might have optimism or happy superstition, but not faith. Before God makes a promise, there is nothing to believe. Once we have his Word, the Holy Spirit […]
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 […]
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 […]
Why He Went Out of State for Surgery
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Then You’ll Have a Clean Room
When I was a kid, my next door neighbor was my best friend. He was a good kid. He excelled at sports and did well in school. But when his mother told him to clean up his room, he asked, “Why?” His mother said, “I’ll give you a dollar.” It was a lot of money. […]
Baptism: No Stepping on the Lord’s Train
Here is something that is not to be done: stepping on the train of a king’s robe. With that in mind, recall what Isaiah saw. “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” (Isaiah 6:1). Since the train of the Lord’s robe filled […]
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.