“Cultured Despisers Gonna Despise”: the Nature of Liberal “Evangelical” Theology Versus a Truly Biblical Theology

“The Holy Spirit is no skeptic…. a man must delight in assertions or he will be no Christian.” — Martin Luther to Erasmus Recently, in an interesting First Thoughts piece on the current debates about Karl Barth, the name of Immanuel Kant was invoked. The author of the article, Philip Carey, stated that for Kant: …

Very Short and Very Sweet Martin Luther Devotions

What does Martin Luther have to say about the inner-life of the Christian?  Newly translated comments on Bible texts for every day of the year are now being made available free of charge by Lutheran Press.  Simply “like” Lutheran Press on Facebook to receive Luther’s intriguing insights daily. Lutheran Press, started by pastors Paul Strawn …

Why Does God Come to Us in Bread and Wine?

Note: While I know not all Reformation 500 readers will be “with me” on this, I am very appreciative of the opportunity to present what I hope is a compelling and winsome picture of what we Lutherans believe, teach and confess (if discussion ensues, I will respond at some point in the near future although …

“But if You Do Not Forgive Others Their Trespasses, Neither Will….” Is God’s Love Really Unconditional?

. As Thanksgiving is upon us are there persons that you need to forgive?  Consider this post an attempt at doing “the third use of the law”, the topic of my last several posts… I am currently teaching a beginning Christianity course to university students. On the discussion boards last night, one asked this challenging …

Confused about Lutherans and the Third Use of the Law?

That’s OK.  I humbly submit to you that many Lutherans – even many who call themselves Confessional – are as well. Have no fear – this post should clear go a long way in clearly things up… (note that Pastor Matt Richards, mentioned in the article, frequently blogs at Pastor Jonathan Fisk’s Worldview Everlasting site). …

Joan of Arc faith vs. infant faith

Another one of my re-cycled Reformation posts… This one deals with the issue of certainty in the Christian life (see Romans 5:1 and I John 5:12-13). In the heat the Reformation, Luther said some very damning things about Rome:  “What kind of church is the pope’s church? It is an uncertain, vacillating, and tottering church. …

The Coming Vindication of Martin Luther – Summary and Conclusion

So maybe Luther had some good points (careful Mr. Douthat….). But will God (and perhaps the Church at large?) vindicate Him for His actions (as we hear endlessly: unleashing thousands of denominations, each man his own Pope…)? Over at my own blog, theology like a child, I have been re-cycling previous posts on the Reformation.  …

Is the distinction between mortal and venial sin helpful?

The two confessional Lutheran seminarians and one layman who do the Pseudepodcast (at the Just and Sinner site) recently did a show on mortal and venial sin, “Mortal Sin –  a light and fluffy topic for a change…”, which I highly recommend checking out. A guy commenting on their show hits the nail on the …

“An Overview of the Influence of the Publication of Patristic Literature Upon the Reformation” by Paul Strawn

[NOTE: You can download Paul Strawn’s paper featuring groundbreaking research on the Reformation, “An Overview of the Influence of the Publication of Patristic Literature Upon the Reformation”, which this post summarizes, here] In a previous post published at my personal blog theology like a child, countering the Eastern Orthodox apologist Father Stephen Freeman, I wrote, …

Lover of Truth, Martin Chemnitz

This was originally posted on my blog theology like a child around Reformation day last year. I am posting it again as a follow-up to this post that I did last week about my pastor’s research, which has led him to ask this question of other scholars: “Was a significant aspect of the Reformation a …