Tear Down the High Places...

Conflict of interest: How the LCMS is killing itself.

2008-05-22T00:18:00.002-05:00

As a former Evangelical, I have been witness to may different types of "Christian" worship over the years. Some of it has merit, while others have some particularly devastating consequences on the souls of those who participate. For instance, there are some aspects of Pentecostal worship that can stir the mind, usually manifest in their tendency to emphasize the Imago Dei, by way of expressing that we are children of God called to worship Him and to express that worship in daily service to others. But keep in mind, I'm expressing to you now this aspect of Pentecostal worship using language more common to the theologians of our past than to the theologians of our day. Yes, how I'm expressing it would confuse most Pentecostals, but once you unpack the language for them they typically understand it. A Pentecostal would say "I'm a child of God and I can do what God does in my neighborhood because it gives Glory to God and Jesus! Amen!"

The reason I bring this up is thus: The LCMS is inadvertently killing itself. It's death by conflict of interest. Now what do I mean by that? It's simple. Although a Pentecostal can be made to understand the concepts behind the Imago Dei and to understand the implications behind it, I wouldn't expect them to adopt that more precise way of expressing it just because I told them to. No, that would be ridiculous. I would expect them to try to understand it in the same way I'd expect them to understand one of the Ecumenical Creeds, but I wouldn't expect them... Well, I might as well say it. I wouldn't expect them to just become Lutheran.

It doesn't seem at this point like I'm unpacking this very well, but hear me out. There was a time when the Lutheran Heritage was closely tied to German Heritage. The congregations were German, they spoke German, the liturgy was in German... But as time has gone by, the German Heritage has been falling away and to some extent the Lutheran Heritage goes with it. Fair enough. This is what happens with the passing of generations and time. But to a growing number of former outsiders, the "Lutheran Heritage" has quite an appeal for a number or reasons.

Let's look at one of the primary reasons why the idea of "Lutheran Heritage" would appeal to someone becoming Lutheran. First and foremost, the appeal comes from the fact that it's fundamentally different from everything else. Evangelicals who are fed up with what is going on in their own churches look outside and recognize something authentic, and they cling to it because they get a sense of having moorings in a ecclesial culture that is all too often infatuated with itself.

But after that, there's another reason. Beyond authenticity, there is quickly recognized a maturity of the Faith. A maturity that wishes to understand all aspects of the faith, however intimidating much of it may be at first glance. This reason soon reaches beyond mere liturgical matters, and soon begins to expose the raw doctrine of what it means to be a Lutheran. Scratch the liturgical surface of Lutheranism and you have what the Formula of Concord calls, "that special brilliant light" beginning to ooze out like the life blood of Christ himself.

Law and Gospel. Not much is said these days about this. We hear a lot about Peace, unity, compassion, speaking truths with love... But not much about God's law or God's Gospel. The practices of the historic Lutheran Church reflect a proper distinction between Law and Gospel. Our pastoral edge often is grounded in this distinction. In fact, there would absolutely be no Lutheranism whatsoever if there were no right division of God's word.

The minute someone begins to tell us, as a synod, that there is something else that is more important than dividing Law and Gospel, the Synod is in conflict of interest with itself. Without God's word rightly divided, we have no heritage to speak of, for God's word confused by the acts of sinful men can be dangerous. The practices of the Lutheran Church, when cut loose from Law and Gospel, are nothing but a confused mess of laws to keep. If they are just laws to keep, then they can be set aside under the same premise that all laws are ultimately disobeyed. The Historic Liturgy can be set aside in favor of Rock concert style worship, or theatre worship, or pseudo Buddhist/Islam/Judaism stylings... All of which amounts to a slow death of Lutheran Heritage, and perhaps even Christian heritage. A death, I might add, that is totally unnecessary.

So why talk about Pentecostalism and aspects of the worship practices of those who call themselves by that moniker? To highlight the fact that there are only aspects of their worship that is beneficial. Scratch the surface of Pentecostalism and you don't have Law and Gospel rightly divided. For the most part, there is nothing but confusion of Law and Gospel evidenced in their worship practices. The same emphasis on the Imago Dei also winds up resulting in an emphasis on the person and work of the children of God over the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's a very dangerous place to be.

The LCMS is in that same position even now. There is a conflict of interest. Law and Gospel is not rightly divided. The latest communiques from many of our leaders, be they congregational pastors, district presidents, or synodical leaders, betray a steadfast forgetfulness of what it means to be who we are. As a layperson, I don't expect those who don't use the language of our Lutheran heritage to adopt such language, but I do expect them at least understand it. Understand what it means to divide Law and Gospel. Understand that the Cross has, as it does Christ's own blood, the Law of God and the Gospel of God splattered upon it. Understand that the Law of God condemns and instructs but does not have the power to create a Church. Understand that the Gospel of God Forgives and instructs and has all power to create faith, to create hope, to create believers and to build a Church on that foundation alone.

It is a conflict of interest to hold anything above the Gospel. May it never be with us that the Gospel be forgotten.

Crushed by God's blessing

2008-05-15T20:47:00.004-05:00

This evening I'm sitting here, listening to an old episode of Issue's etc. It's a Sunday night episode, and Dr. Rod Rosenbladt is the guest. The topic is "Justification". It's one that I called into, mainly at first because it was Rod on the show. It was before I was on the Radio myself.

It was a devastating night. The reason it was devastating is because I was on the phone, listening to Rod say something to this effect: "There is something about the work of Christ in us that is so gentle and so loving, like the scripture says, 'A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.' " By the time it was my turn, I was an emotional wreck. But it was good, because once again, the blessings of God had crushed me.

That sounds weird, but it's true. For this Christian, God's overwhelming blessings and goodness toward him daily are part of what causes repentance. God blesses me with lots of good things, and sometimes I'm floored because... How could he give these things to me? I'm such a broken reed, I don't deserve his good blessings at all. I deserve eternal condemnation. I sit in front of a radio microphone, and I'm crushed. Lots of people would kill to get in that position, to talk on the radio, to be in the driver seat. But for me, each blessing is another crushing blow. And when the Gospel hits my ears again, and I hear "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory", I realize the depth of His riches and goodness.

Without the doctrine of Justification, one can't have a true relationship with Jesus. You don't understand his goodness towards you till he crushes you with his blessing. You don't know his mercy till he lifts you up from that sorrow and weeping, and gives you new life. And it's not even about temporal tears most times, but rather a sense of awe and wonder. Tears can be involved indeed, but the word remains the same.

This smoldering wick is forever thankful.

Evangelicalism at a Crossroads.

2008-05-13T19:53:00.002-05:00

I used to be an Evangelical. What that means is, I subscribed to all the doctrines that Modern Evangelicals believe. Whether is was the doctrine of "make a sincere decision for Christ" doctrine, or the "age of accountability" doctrine, or "believer's baptism" doctrine, I was staunch in not only believing them, but in proclaiming them.

But with all of my certainty over these teachings, there was something about all of this that made me worry. After all, as much sense as everything made, all the doctrines seemed to line up very well, I didn't seem to have any peace. I remember back during my days as a moderator at Christianity.com, that with all the people who would sign up daily to the forum and start posting, the majority of them were almost looking for a fight, and many of them actually were looking for a fight.

Now being what I called a "thinking evangelical", I liked taking on the ones who were spoiling for a fight. I remember one individual who billed himself as a "Messianic Jew", who called himself SolaScriptura. He was all about proclaiming to everyone that they needed to start being Jews as soon as possible because that is what pleases God. Of course, when you tried to pin him down for proof that being a Jew, keeping all the commandments and Holy Days and Festivals actually is pleasing to God, he had none. Not pragmatic proof, anecdotal or biblical proof. We eventually wound up banning him from the forums altogether for teaching false doctrines.

But the thing that got me about all of that was, no matter how many times you banned them, they would sign up again and come back for more. The fighting still goes on at the Forums at Christianity.com. There's a thread there that is a debate between so called "Arminians" and "Calvinists" that is currently on 29379 replies with no end in sight! Nothing solved, no doctrines ironed out.

But, after a while of having to deal with this kind of thing, I was challenged by someone to listen to "the White Horse Inn". I accepted the challenge, and that led me to Issues etc, which led me to the confessions and the LCMS. That's the nuts and bolts of it, but the reality was that I was tired of the bickering, tired of always having to defend something that I knew wasn't robust and fully fleshed out... That being Evangelicalism.

Don't get me wrong, there are some wonder Evangelicals out there who know there stuff pretty well. In such cases you can tell talk about the finer points of doctrine; The Lord's supper, Holy Baptism, Monergism, the Holiness of God... But for the most part, Evangelicals are either one of two types: They are as close to perfectly happy as they can get with where they are spiritually, or they are growing tired of what's going on. The ones who are growing tired of Evangelicalism are the ones I identify with the most.

They are like me. I started down the Wittenberg Trail because I was tired of all the shallowness, lightness and frivolity that was going on around me. I was tired of feeling beat down. I was tired of seeing people being destroyed by weird doctrines, talk of annointings, extra blessings from God... I was tired of being told how to manipulate God, even though they wouldn't put it in such stark terms as that. I was tired of hearing someone say, "if you do A, B, and C, you will begin to see the hand of God move in your life"...

I'd imagine that there are people out there just like me. I've talked to them a lot in the last couple of years. People like that are at a crossroads. What will they do? Will they find a robust faith? Will they find people to challenge them to dig deeper into God's word than they ever have before? Will they find someone who will enthusiastically proclaim Christ and him crucified, for them!

Oh Heavenly Father. Let me be your sounding board. Let me be the watchman at the Crossroad to point the true way. In the name of your son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. One God forever and ever. Amen.

Issues etc. with the Numbers Game

2008-03-30T14:21:00.005-05:00

Recently, a letter was posted on the official LCMS website purporting to explain why Issues etc. was canceled. The reasons, in my opinion, are rather spurious, and as someone is more familiar than most what Internet download numbers mean, I have to address something important concerning the reason by David L. Strand, Executive Director Board for Communication Services on the recent canceling of Issues etc.

Some may also be under a misapprehension about the size of the “Issues” audience. In 2005, station management decided it could no longer justify paying for expensive ratings reports in light of the predictably low and static nature of KFUOAM’s audience numbers. At the time, a blending of the spring 2004 and spring 2005 “books” showed an average listening audience during the “Issues” Monday-Friday timeslot of 1,650. There is no indication these numbers have grown appreciably since.

First of all, Mr. Strand, if you aren't keeping track of the numbers because it's not justifiable in your mind to keep track of the numbers, you shouldn't be saying anything about numbers in the first place. If you don't know what the numbers are, don't talk about what the numbers are.

As for the audio streaming of “Issues, Etc.” via the Internet, the numbers are similarly low. During the last full month (February 2008) for which we have reports, the average number of live, streaming listeners during the “Issues” Monday-Friday timeslot was 64.

That's actually pretty high numbers considering people absolutely have to arrive at the KFUOam.org website to access the feed. What should have been happening is the station streaming audio should have been MADE accessible in as many places as possible. Plus, someone should have been looking other popular ways in which streaming media is distributed on the Internet. http://www.stickam.com/ is a place where many radio stations and shows are broadcasting their content, live as it happens.

Also, are you saying that the people who were calling the show, some regularly, and some not so regularly, were not pretty amazing numbers? Shawn Hannity doesn't get as many callers as Issues etc. did, but he's doing rather well for himself.

Now, I want to address an issue that David Strand didn't even address. Radical Grace Radio lives and breaths by downloads per month. We can find out what are ratings are for on the air if we want to, but I personally have decided not to worry about that until after we've been on the air for at least a year. Pastor Gary and myself frequently check our downloads daily, and lately for a show so new and still relatively unknown, we're posting impressive numbers, especially since it's mostly been word of mouth that drives our numbers. I recently came upon numbers by a friend at Wittenberg trail that shows that Issues etc. was having around 300,000 downloads per month, and that figure was very steady. If we at Radical Grace Radio had one quarter of that right now, we'd be considered a huge success in the secular world. Your average secular radio station doesn't do anywhere near that size of downloads for any given show nor for the most part combined downloads for the entire station!

Again, I have to ask... What's happening here people?

What happening people?

2008-03-21T16:39:00.003-05:00

This has to be the cheap shot of all time. Let me say something here folks, this isn't about a talk show or the hosts thereof. It's about a Church Body, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, wanting to throw away it's Lutheran heritage along with the trappings of old world German Culture. In doing so, they are turning from Grace and leaving the word behind.

What am I talking about? Unless I'm sorely mistaken, this is the current model for Lutheran Church.

http://www.watersedgefrisco.com/

Take a look at the sermon videos, all the band instruments dwarfing the alter, no space set aside for the work of God, a "youth pastor" styled pastor who's yelling and screaming and giving good advice. He tries to placard Christ and him crucified up before the people, but he winds up driving the verbs the wrong way. It's subtle, but it's there.

Pastor Todd Wilken has taught me too well. Where other world religions are growing by remaining authentic, we're throw any chance at authenticity we have out the window. While Islam and it's Imams still say that Allah is not the Christian God, we are comprimising the Triune God's identity to attract people. While other religions are not concerned about numbers, we are counting the heads and the beans.

What's happening people?

Issues etc... RIP

2008-03-19T23:11:00.006-05:00

Apparently, somebody high up in our Synod has decided to pull the plug on the most successful outreach and news program that ever was produced by our Church body. Issues etc, was cancelled Tuesday, March 19th. Rev. Todd Wilken, who was serving his call to be the show's host, and Jeff Schwarz the producer of the show, were fired. The buzzword that's being bandied about is "terminated". This happened during Passion Week.

This blogger, who has been busy with a radio show of his own, is appalled that a pastor could be ripped from his call so easily. I'm equally appalled that a program, that aired for 14 hours a week and was the premier catechisis for many of us new Lutheran Converts, was taken down when it was so successful and was such a money maker for the station it ran on, KFUO in St. Louis. Nearly everyone you talk to who has become a Lutheran in the past five years will mention the profound impact that Issues etc. had on their walk of faith, and now that it's gone, there's a huge void left behind. Who will pick up the mantle?

There's been talk on Wittenber Trail of continuing the show via the internet. I'm all for that, but I'm all for us lay people and pastors taking a greater role in the future of our Synod. We can, as has been proven in so many internet venues today like Youtube, Stickam, and others, as well as numerous podcasting services, make a huge difference in the world today. Since our message is the message of the Gospel, it's not beyond God's ability to bless this world with a huge outpouring of materila with a polished and professional look, while all the time proclaiming our Risen Savior and standing by our confessional heritage.

What we need is resolve. I've learned that God is interested in doing what he wants to do, and not to argue with him when he wants us to do what he wants. He's already, literally, thrown a radio show at us. He's throwing more. It's going to happen whether we want it to or not. We're just caught up in the drama of God's work.

Peace to you all. Let's show these emergent/evangelicals types how we do things down town!

Blogger just shut down my Pastor's Blog...

2008-03-04T18:11:00.000-05:00

The new blog I opened for my pastor and co-host, Pastor Gary Held, was shut down by blogger supposedly due to "terms of service violations". I'm concerned that someone out there is flagging our blogs in an attempt to shut down Radical Grace's web presence. If this happens, everyone needs to have this feed saved. Radical Grace Feedburner Feed

I'm posting this on all the blogs. Link this feed.

It's official... John Hagee is a heritic.

2007-11-06T00:18:00.000-05:00

Personally, I don't know much about John Hagee. I've heard a few of his sermons via KFUO on Issue's etc. but other than that, all I knew about the man was he is a staunch defender of Modern Israel. Apparently, he's gone off the deep end.

His new book, In Defense of Israel, should be an interesting read.

Atheists Pwned by Upstart Theologian, part 2

2007-10-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

Here is Doug Powell, once again, refuting the Rational Response Squad's (RRS) silly arguments. Doug is far from an "upstart", indeed, he's a published theologian and appologist. He just put up another video continuing and explaining his argument for a transcendental God.

I'm especially fond of his renaming the Rational Response Squad, the Irrational Response Squad, or more ironically(?), the IRS!

Thought I'd just hide that one out of sight. Go and visit Doug Powell's website Here. He's a musician who's toured with Tod Rundgren.

Either way, for those who don't know what the RRS is, it's led by a young man named Brian Sapient, who believes that anyone who believes in God is delusional. In fact, he and his cohorts would like to have belief in God classed as a mental illness in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The fact that groups like the RRS exist is exactly why we need good appologists today. We might not be able to convert people with standard appologetics, but at least we can stand in the left hand kingdom when people try to make an end run around the law and class us as delusional.

Rock on Doug, Rock on.

ELCA permits homosexuals to be pastors

2007-08-11T18:50:00.000-05:00

This is in response to a certain ELCA Lutheran's justification for "inclusiveness".

"Check out their hearts: the hearts of a loving, committed gay couple look just like the hearts of a loving, committed heterosexual couple.
Something tells me that THAT is where God looks first."

That is true. God looks on the heart. But what does He see there? Even in the hearts of a "loving couple", He sees idolotry, bigotry, sexual immorality, deceit, malice, adultery, stealing, vanity, covetousness... People idolize their churches because those churches make it ok for them to sin, practice bigotry against those they do not agree with, hop from bed to bed on Saturday night before coming to church on Sunday, then lie about all of it with malice aforethought to make others look bad... They take illegal drugs, lying, cheating and stealing to get them, steal intellectual property and refuse to pay for any of it, covet their best friend's wives and plot how to get in their pants. They say they are 'good', but their hearts are open graves before God, wicked and deceitful above everything else. All this they practice, and more, all the while slowly abrogating God's law with doctrines of men, screaming at God while shaking their collective fists, "but this is my nature, why can't I sin as much as I want?"

The reason you can't sin is not because you'd better not sin, but because God has buried you in Christ in baptism, and raised you to newness of life. Praise God that this sinful flesh I inhabit will die one day, and along with it all that is impure. Those who would choose to sin, using as their excuse "this is who I am", are missing the point. I sin, but I hate my sin. It's in my nature to kill, steal, blaspheme, commit adultery, lie, cheat, desire evil, and worship false gods... It's who I am, but I shouldn't be allowed to do those things, anymore than anyone else should be allowed to sin.

I'm an LCMS Lutheran. I will not tolerate someone telling me that their sin is OK while mine is not. It's wrong for people to do that. Practice what you will, but when you turn around and make me into the outcast because you want to practice your sin, then you have put a heavy burden on us. Pretty soon you'll be picketting outside our churches, calling us bigots, tearing down our alters... All the while using as your excuse, "it's in my nature to sin, why can't I sin as much as I want?"

God's gospel is not "it's in your nature to sin, so I'll look the other way because you're not perfect". God's gospel is, "I am both just and the justifier of the wicked, and have not spared even my own son in order to forgive". Our response to that should not be to sin more, but to love God because he has reconciled us to himself through the death and blood of Jesus Christ. When sin requires that much blood and suffering to reconcile us before God, I as a child of God have every right to hate that sin.

Nulla Salus Extra Christus!!

2007-07-14T14:40:00.000-05:00

Of late, Pope Benedict XVI has made a couple of interesting decrees. The one on the Latin mass is interesting in and of itself, but the latest decree is one affirming St. Cyprian's Dictum "Nulla Salus Extra Ecclesiam" (No Salvation outside the church). Actually it's not so much a decree as it is a restatement of what has already been said and understood as official Roman Doctrine.

Having said that, what is most interesting about this is how The Pope makes a move concerning both Easter Orthodox Churches and Protestant Churches. In Reaffirming his document, "Dominus Iesus" and over and against what the 5th Lateran Council said (and Cyprian), he calls the Eastern Orthodox Churches "defective", a point that has never been made as far as I can find. He then lumps every other church body into one box, calling them "ecclesial communities". In that particular box he lumps all reformational churches as well. He has stated in the past that Protestant Theology is "gravely Deficient", and called Protestant churches "not true churches", and reaffirms these notions firmly.

What I'd like to do is show to both my Lutheran Brethren and any modern evangelical what it is that Rome still holds to. From the Council of Trent...

CHAPTER IX
AGAINST THE VAIN CONFIDENCE OF HERETICS

But though it is necessary to believe that sins neither are remitted nor ever have been remitted except gratuitously by divine mercy for Christ's sake, yet it must not be said that sins are forgiven or have been forgiven to anyone who boasts of his confidence and certainty of the remission of his sins,[47] resting on that alone, though among heretics and schismatics this vain and ungodly confidence may be and in our troubled times indeed is found and preached with untiring fury against the Catholic Church. Moreover, it must not be maintained, that they who are truly justified must needs, without any doubt whatever, convince themselves that they are justified, and that no one is absolved from sins and justified except he that believes with certainty that he is absolved and justified,[48] and that absolution and justification are effected by this faith alone, as if he who does not believe this, doubts the promises of God and the efficacy of the death and resurrection of Christ. For as no pious person ought to doubt the mercy of God, the merit of Christ and the virtue and efficacy of the sacraments, so each one, when he considers himself and his own weakness and indisposition, may have fear and apprehension concerning his own grace, since no one can know with the certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he has obtained the grace of God.

Stunning... Absolutely stunning. The heretics are us, my friends. Because we believe, teach and confess that Salvation is by Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria, and reserve no credit for ourselves whatsoever, Rome considers us anathema. In this, Rome's Tridentine Catholic teaching tells us that no one should ever say nor believe that they are saved. This is a weird type of Pietism that robs the believer of any kind of comfort in this life. Even more so...

CHAPTER XI
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE COMMANDMENTS AND THE NECESSITY AND
POSSIBILITY THEREOF

But no one, however much justified, should consider himself exempt from the observance of the commandments; no one should use that rash statement, once forbidden by the Fathers under anathema, that the observance of the commandments of God is impossible for one that is justified. For God does not command impossibilities, but by commanding admonishes thee to do what thou canst and to pray for what thou canst not, and aids thee that thou mayest be able.

Rome would have us be, at the very least, Semi-Pelagians. Note that Pelagius' teachings began because he believed that God would not nor could not command of anyone something that is impossible. "For God does not command impossibilities" Rome says. Pelagius said that same thing.

Grace alone? Rome will affirm this one, though grudgingly. Their doctrines of prevenient grace teach that it's God's grace alone that saves. But look...

Canon 11. If anyone says that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost,[116] and remains in them, or also that the grace by which we are justified is only the good will of God, let him be anathema.

Rome teaches that grace is something more than God's good will. It's understood that grace is a substance that is literally poured into us. Note also that those of us that understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and that sole imputation alone is all that is needed for justification, are condemned.

Let's witness Rome now condemn the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Canon 12. If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy,[117] which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this confidence alone that justifies us, let him be anathema.

I deliberately refrained from bringing scripture in until now because I was interested in making people think about what they believe as opposed to what Rome teaches. But right now, I'm going to let St. Paul talk to this particular Canon...

Eph 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Gal 2:16-17 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

Ro 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Indeed, Jesus tells us this...

Lk 18:10-14 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Again, Because we believe, teach and confess that Salvation is by Sola Gratia (Grace alone), Sola Fide (Faith Alone), Solus Christus (for Christ's sake Alone), Soli Deo Gloria (For the Glory of God alone), and reserve no credit for ourselves whatsoever, Rome considers us anathema.

Nulla Salus Extra Christum.

The Lutheran Church makes a Christian Difference

2007-07-12T16:04:00.000-05:00

After a month long break from High Places, I'm back and announcing the blogsite is completed for our Church's Podcast, The Lutheran Difference. Four People enter, only one leaves... No, I'm only kidding. The show is a discussion of Lutheran Theology in light of today's modern evangelicalism.

It's been a blast working on this. I'll be posting here again as well as at the show's blog. When you go to the site, you'll find you can listen right from the site, download the show as an mp3, subscribe to the show in RSS and iTunes, as well as find out about future programs and find programs you missed in the archives.

Surf on over to listen to the show. I have a meeting later today with the participants to plan for more programs and such.

iSlam: The feelgood religion of the new mellinium...

2007-06-04T18:23:00.000-05:00

This is the ultimate in natural religion.

What do I mean by this? It has all the natural human tendencies for religion simplified to the point of elegance. Here's how it works. First of all, since "Allah" is unknowable and far away, he is a very safe distance from his followers. Second of all, iSlam gives you all the rules you need to follow to keep "Allah" happy, which keeps him unknowable and at a safe distance. Third, if something goes wrong in your life, it's because you didn't follow the rules or someone nearby you didn't follow the rules. If it's not you breaking the rules, all you need to do is find out who around you did and deal with them.

By the way, there are rules on how to deal with people near you who are sinning and messing up your life. And if it's not anyone near you, it must some evil "great Satan" that is messing up your life. And by the way, there are rules for dealing with that as well.

OK, there's a possibility I'm setting up a huge strawman here, but what I'm doing is applying the average american's tendencies to make everything either thereputic or about status. Think about modern Evangelicalism's view of God. It's been called by people way more intelligent that I "Moralistic theraputic deism", God is a commodity, present to make you happy, make you prosperous, and make you moral. When things are not going well, you go to God who is very far away in any other case and ask for help. Once you do that, the next step is to locate the source of your problem and eliminate it. If it's sin in your life, you deal with it, and there are rules you need to follow to deal with that sin. If it turns out there isn't anything wrong with you, it must be someone around you or the world in general, so you need to lash out against either that someone or the world. That means getting interested in politics, running for office, joining the "moral majority", fighting the latest "moral outrage" that will make God angry... Wow, this sounds an awful lot like Islam.

That's why I'm calling it iSlam. Now, Steve Jobs is probably going to sick his lawyers on me, but I don't care. He should have thought of this! iSlam! It's the new "Moralistic Theraputic Deism", with a god who gives you the sharia law and makes it easy to keep him happy! Who tells you how to deal with those who make him mad!

Unlike the Holy Triune God who cannot be appeased by anything we do. Who has judged the world and in his love has poured out his wrath on his Son, Jesus Christ to appease that wrath against us. The Holy Triune God who is so just and so holy that he didn't spare even his own Son in order to forgive us. The Triune God who, before the foundations of world, set his will for his people and placed them in his Son's hands who lose none of them. Who, by His mercy and grace, through faith only He can give, for the sake of the innocent and bitter sufferings of His Son, Jesus Christ, has reconciled the world to Himself.

To Him be the Glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Podcasts and how-to drills...

2007-05-22T11:03:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday we taped our first ever podcast. We used the pastor's laptop, a 4-channel mixer from radio shack, four microphones plus a backup, four table microphone stands, and of course windscreens for the mikes to keep from popping the p's. It went well, although pastor felt that we wandered around too much... We had some good stuff come up in the conversation, and there's a lot there to edit and make good use of.

We used Audicity to record the show. I didn't used to think too much of audacity as an editor, and indeed I still don't. But audacity has a few tricks up it's sleeve. Apparently, while we were taping the show, there was some interference that caused a low level buzzing noise in the recording. My heart sank when I auditioned the recording later at home. But audacity has a noise filter program that allows you to identify the noise and remove it from the audio tracks. I was able to rescue the recording!

Now, the other end of the spectrum is another program called MixCraft. This program is a fully functional recording studio with an interface not unlike photoshop. I'm using it right now to edit the audio and create music tracks for the breaks. It's been interesting, but it's also a great learning experience.

God is busy with us and this new technology. For less than 200 dollars, any church can begin using this in outreach and evangelism. I'll post the results as we go. Maybe I'll look into the idea of writing a book on this subject.

This week, on the Whitehorse Inn

2007-05-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

This week, the boys at the inn take on the question that Jesus asks us all: Who Do You Say That I Am? Of special note is Rod Rosenbladt talking about how the Jesus of protestant liberalism would never have been crucified. To protestant liberals, Jesus was just going around telling people to do right and be good rather than pointing out people's sins and proclaiming he was God... The would have given him the keys to the city!

Click here to listen to the show!

Mother's day...

2007-05-14T06:24:00.000-05:00

My mother and I didn't get along very well. I really don't want to get very deep into why, since she is dead. She's been gone since August of 1995, in fact. There is a lot that I could say about her, but most of the time it's very difficult to think of anything positive... There were some good times here and there but most of the time there was trouble.

Either way, the reason I'm doing this post is because of the guilt I carry concerning my relationship with her. Yesterday my church, like many others around the world, was doing a service based around mother's day. Had I remembered what day it was I might not have gone to church. There was a children's message about mother's day, and the sermon consisted of one of our member pastor's asking people to stand up and give stories about their mothers... I would have liked to give one, but I couldn't remember anything that would have been good. I felt terrible, and remorse was all I could muster. I know full well that no one had anything else in mind other than good intentions, as does God in all his ways. How could anyone know? In fact, I wouldn't want to burden them with my problems in light of what they are called to do.

The problem is simple... I can sort of forgive my mom for everything, and there was a sort of reconciliation before she died between me and her. Our relationship wasn't one where I or she refused to speak to one another, but rather one of walking on egg shells... Where basically a lot of unsaid anymosity was laid aside in favor of polite talk and a smile... Now, that she's gone, every mother's day that comes around is only a reminder of how I can't ask her to forgive me for all the trouble I caused her. So, yesterday at church was especially rough, because the reason we are called to church is to hear the proclamation of forgiveness of sins... And I listened intently for a word of encouragement for me, but there wasn't one... Everyone else I guess got along with their mom's just fine all their lives and aren't in a place where they need to hear something good about it.

I'm guessing I need to make time to ask the Pastor to hear my confession. It's been 12 years and this isn't going away. I'm feeling desparate... I just wish I could tell her I'm sorry!!!

I miss you mom!!!

A Concert from Afar...

2007-05-08T06:32:00.000-05:00

This is a video shot in the Philipines of a Piano Concerto Competition. The winner in the under twelve catagory was eight year old Hannah F. Hua playing Mozart's Concerto number 1 in F major. The orchestra needed some tuning, but little Hannah is amazing.

What strikes me is two things. One is how incredibly far behind we are here in the US in terms of education. How so? Apparently most of the world still believes there's merit in teaching kids classical music, and studies show that studying music makes for better grades...

But the second thing that strikes me is the Philipines is a high ranked destination for men from the US to go and have sex with underage kids. How did our culture get into this mess?

The Lutheran Church makes a Christian Difference

2007-05-07T19:56:00.000-05:00

I've been struggling. As a result, I stopped posting to this blog for the last seven days (among other things). What am I struggling with?

One is an old man/new man struggle inside me concerning people hearing the Gospel. I've been working on two projects for our church, the most pressing of which is the radio program. This has involved both technical issues and programming issues. The program will, at first, be a podcast, which will be recorded in house using cheap but good equipment, which includes a mixing board, four headset microphones, a laptop, mixing software, and storage. There's still a couple of interface issues, both unforeseeable, but they can be worked out. In the programming area, I've worked up a schedule of topics, and have been trying to think up radical ways to "drop bombs" on the listener so as to get them thinking.

Not the easiest thing to do. I'm just a layman. But the struggle isn't there, but rather inside me. On the one hand I want the whole city (and by extension, the whole world) to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We all want that. But on the other hand, there's a lot of people out there that are downright mean-spirited... I find myself realizing that by going this route I'm opening myself up to all sorts of harassment and trouble. I myself have reveled in my anonymity all these years. If you had told me a year ago I'd be working on a radio program, let alone a Christian radio program, I'd have told you "you're nuts".

So, what to do? Do I press on with this and take whatever may come? I know that there really isn't much choice but to go forward, but... This isn't easy at all. It's funny, because I can hear Luther's words at Worms: "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me".

Maybe this is the same issue as the old "someone puts a gun to your head and says 'deny Christ or die', what do you do?" question. Do I say, "you're going to have to kill me", or do I deny him?

Issues etc.

2007-05-01T07:27:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday evening, John Warwick Montgomery, author of How Do We Know There Is A God? (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1973), and Where is History Going? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969), joined Host Todd Wilken on issues etc for a discussion on "the new atheists". The number one and two arguments that today's atheists make are, respectively, that the "God of the bible is (insert ad hominem attack here)", and it would seem the age old accusation of antinomianism. The argument goes "God likes to forgive, I like to sin... let's go kill some infidels". Both arguments are nonsense, of course, but "field marshal" Montgomery makes short work of both of these and other arguments used by today's atheist.

I find it to be very important to answer the claims made by Dawkins and Harris. Click here to listen to the program.

The Reformation, by Diarmaid MacCulloch

2007-05-01T06:54:00.000-05:00

I have to highly recommend this book. Not only is it authoritative, highly detailed, and a good read, it's also a great reference book. The chapter on Luther is very good, although not exhaustive.

Moments of revelation in this book include how the black plague had a lot to do with the innovation of the "sacrifice of the mass", and the number of churches all around Europe with many alters where the Eucharist was performed several times a day as many times as possible to appease God. Also, the author gives us quite a vivid picture of the politics of the times, including Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples, who published commentaries on Paul's epistles in 1512, using language that described human works as "irrelevant" in God's salvation of humanity, as well as profiles for Cardinal Gesparo Contarini and others who joined Luther's reformation.

More importantly, the book traces the aftershocks of the reformation all the way to the 1700s. This book takes a bit of time to read (708 pages), but it's worth every page.

This week on the Whitehorse Inn, April 29th.

2007-05-01T06:27:00.000-05:00

This week, Discussion at the inn concerns Christ's view of Scripture. I just love Rod's take on John 2:22: "After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken." Now, it's not that they didn't believe the scriptures before Jesus was raised from the dead, but after he was raised, THEY REALLY BELIEVED! Also, for those who say Jesus didn't say he was God in any other gospel but John's, Jesus puts his own words on par with scripture by saying "heaven and earth may pass away, but my word will never pass away". No wonder they wanted him dead.

Click here to listen to the show.

Things the culture does to us... Could be offensive to some.

2007-04-19T19:07:00.000-05:00

Warning! I'm about to put this peekaboo hack to good use with a blog post about some garbage I got to see for free with this new service called "joost". It was offensive stuff, so I'm warning everyone who might read this not to read it in case they might be offended. There's no pictures or anything like that, but I'm going to describe some things in detail as a warning to people not to use Joost.

I recently recieved an invitation to try out this new service from a company named "Joost". It's a Peer to Peer (P2P) client you install on your computer, and video content is delivered to you to be watched when you want to, how you want to.

Now, at first glance, this seems like what a lot of people are looking for in a video on demand service. You can choose the channels you want to watch and delete the ones you don't want to watch. And other than the software itself is still in beta testing and is glitchy, it seemed to work fine.

But the problem I had was not with the software so much (although it tries to set itself up as a server and Zone Alarm blocks that activity), but rather with the content. After installing the software, I watched some rather terrible clips that were basically garbage. As I moved through each video, I began to notice that a number of them were racy videos, and I finally got mad and turned it off when...

A video came on where a scantily clad female was basically giving this guy a lapdance. When I tried to bring up the "Heads Up Display" (or HUD) so I could click past this video, the software ignored me at first. Then when it did come up and I clicked the "skip forward" button, it took quite a few seconds for the video to stop and move on to the next video. Then, when the next video was a "jackass" rip off from japan featuring a guy with a bottle rocket up his ass, I got mad. I shut the thing down and uninstalled it.

I went to Joost's support forum to register my displeasure about the content they offered and the manner in which it was displayed, that I was given little control over what was happening and got an eyefull I didn't want. But one poster to the thread I started said, quote: "

"Um dude, i am sure there are more channels, then the HOT & WET channel, what were u expecting, if you don't wanna watch it, change the channel, or remove the channel altogether, no body is forcing you to watch it.. if you don't like it, don't watch it, but don't use a strip clip which u chose to watch as an excuse"

I told this guy I wasn't trying to view any particular channel, and this was just what was coming up. I don't remember now the order of the clips, but I said in the post that the strip clip was pretty much the first clip that came up, and without my bidding. I didn't ask to watch the clip, and indeed I stopped it as soon as I could.

This is the attitude people give you when you say you don't want to view this kind of garbage. They tell us if we don't want to watch, then don't, but they don't provide any alternatives other than some guy lighting a firecracker in his ass!

Yup, I'm ranting. I'm sure some people I know will see this and say, "Matt, you're messing up your sanctification", but I'm still mad about this. I was invited by Joost to try out their service, and this is what I got.

Don't use Joost, folks.

Dude, you're getting an error... Part 2

2007-04-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

One of the things that's going on right now in modern evangelicalism is it's tendency to try and blend into the culture while maintaining the label "Christian". Put "Christian" in front of anything, just like Apple Computers puts the ubiquitous "i" in front of anything, and you have something that is odd and at odds with what it means to be Christian.

Oh, doesn't all this seem so helpful? I mean, take what is the culture's, slap a Christian label on it and you get... This. You Can't make this stuff up, folks. On the one hand, I can understand what they are trying to do with stuff like this. They want to be able to have their own culture that is free of various corruptions, foul language, smutty ads, borderline unethical ideas, but this is just more false piety in action.

This magazine is sponsored by the likes of Covenant Eyes, a service that monitors your net activity and reports it to your "accountability partner". Alright, first of all, if you're a Christian and you have a computer, the entire secular world is going to assume you've looked at online porn. It's kind of like virginity. You can claim to be a virgin, but who's going to believe you?

"I've never looked at internet porn" a Christian might say, but the secular world can always choose to disbelieve him. If the Christian says, "I have an internet filter installed on my computer", the secular world can say, "see, you have to have a filter to keep your eyes off of porn", or, "well, you can always disable that and look at porn anyway", and it will never end. And, on top of all that, all the avoidance of internet porn in the world will not help you in the least... In fact, it might make you want to look at internet porn even more!

Real solution to this problem? Call God's heavenly IT techs so they can install Jesus! (Oy vey es schmer, did I just type that?)

The magazine itself has an article entitled... I kid you all not... Ephesians 6:10-18 and your computer. Offering us 6-9 biblical tips to securing your computer? Luther had a name for this stuff. He called people like this "schwarmers", busy bees, enthusiasts... people driven by emotions and impulse. It must sound good to the natural man to talk about the full armor of God for your computer. It's an impulsive need to take the culture and make it our own.

It's just silly. Can't even reach the level of heresy because it's just too silly.

Dude, you're getting an error...

2007-04-11T17:42:00.000-05:00

First in a series of silly errors running around in modern Christianity. First up?

21 Days to a Complaint-Free Life: No complaint bracelets.

The website exclaims (with a picture of Oprah Winfrey) "The complaint bracelet has changed the lives of millions of people by helping them to break their addiction of complaining. Over 1 Million people across the world are wearing these complaint-free bracelets and they have been featured on OPRAH, The Today Show and in People magazine. To get your free no-complaint bracelet and to learn more about them please enter your email address below to continue."

Click here to watch video from MSNBC.com.

Rev. Will Bowen of Christ Church Unity came up with the idea for this while taking a shower. The bracelet come with a pledge to not complain for 21 days. Everyone who has tried this little evangelical wonder has failed repeatedly in each attempt. If you fail, you have to change the bracelet to the other wrist.

Why is this my first "dude, your getting an error" story? Several things come to mind. One, this is an evangelical pastor trying to teach people that they can actually pull this off without telling people that this in no way will improve their standing before God. Second, if you don't catch yourself complaining, you obviously will have falsly claimed to have made it 21 days. Another thing is, if Jesus were to take this challenge he would fail.

Yup. You read me right. When Jesus cast out the money changers from the temple he said two things. He said, "Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?" That's a complaint, and then he said, "But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’" That's another. Jesus fails the test. But yet, Jesus was without sin. But if Jesus is complaining, isn't that a sin? No, it isn't folk. In fact, if you pray about something that isn't right in your life and you pray to God to fix it for you, that's complaining.

This is such a silly attempt at false piety it's ridiculous.

Peekaboo hack for blogger...

2007-04-09T16:27:00.000-05:00

I just implemented an awesome hack on my blogsite. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with trying to hack people's computers. What it does is allows me to make huge posts, but have after a paragraph or two a "read more" link that opens up the rest of the post. Click read more... to read more!

I found the hack on this website name Hackosphere. It turns out, as long as you make sure you locate the exact places to put the new code and copy and paste, you wont break your template. I've wanted this functionality for a while but bloogle didn't add it to the recent beta upgrade. Now, anyone can have it.

Keep in mind, this particular hack only works for the new blogger. There are hacks for the old blogger. I'm putting a permanant link in my sidebar.