“These are Your Words, Heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the Truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.” I cannot count how many times I have heard this prayer. My dad, who was my pastor for the first eighteen years of my life, often used this prayer before his sermons. This prayer, which comes from Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17:17), is very much connected with the first petition, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” We learn in the Small Catechism that God’s Word is kept Holy When His Word is taught in its truth and purity and we as children of God also   More…

O Sinner, come thy sin to mourn So vast and vile that it has borne Christ to this vale of anguish. Son of a Virgin, sweet and mild In poverty the Holy Child Thy substitute did languish. Behold with faith God’s only Son. Come nigh and see what love has done To save thee from damnation. The Father cast on Him thy guilt. For thee His precious blood was spilt To bless thee with salvation. “Seek and you will find…” (Matt 7:7) “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matt 6:33) “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is   More…

In previous articles I have stressed the centrality of justification in Christian doctrine and thus the eminent relevance of doctrine to the people of God.  When we understand such centrality it helps us avoid both legalism and antinomianism or gospel-reductionism.  It keeps us from separating faith from Christ and Christ from His teaching.  After all, Christ Jesus is the chief corner stone of all apostolic and prophetic doctrine (Eph 2:20).  Doctrine teaches the faith (fides quae creditur), being the sustenance of our faith (fides qua creditur), or particular faith (fides particularis; or fides specialis cf. Ap IV, 45), which clings specifically to   More…

Jesus blesses and sanctifies marriage. He does this in two ways. First He creates it, and then He redeems it. Jesus created marriage when He created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were married. God gave Eve to Adam as a helper, and He told them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Now, at this time, Adam and Eve were perfectly righteous, and they delighted in the commandments of God. Eve delighted in helping Adam, and Adam delighted in loving Eve. Adam delighted in teaching Eve God’s commandments. Adam loved Eve more sincerely and more perfectly than any husband has ever loved his wife.   More…

What happens when Justification becomes peripheral and not the central article? I’ll tell you what happens: Doctrine becomes not life. Doctrine becomes something not for the people. The word Doctrine becomes theological jargon that is used only by theologians and a few pastors. You can’t expect the people to care about Doctrine when the central article does not remain that God justifies the ungodly for Christ’s sake through faith in His Name. Why is this? This is because Justification is personal. Justification reaches you even when no one else knows your hidden faults, but your heart is kindled, and you   More…

The students of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St. Catharines, ON started a student journal last year, which is called Propter Christum. This year, they are continuing the journal as well as keeping a blog: propterchristum.blogspot.com.  This post is from Tuesday, October 23rd.     In volume I, issue 2 of Propter Christum (link at the top-right side of our blog), the cover-graphic was Hans Holbein the Younger’s Allegory of the Old and New Testament. Not enough is known about Hans Holbein the Younger. Based on a painting his dad painted of him and his older brother, he was probably born   More…

I started writing this post about a month ago, and I stopped writing and almost forgot about it. But yesterday I read from the October 8th, 2012 issue of Christian News a response to Christianity Today’s “50 Women You Should Know.” As a response to CT’s list that included the false prophet Joyce Meyer, CN came out with their list of the Most Influential Women. Among the women mentioned were my mother and my grandmother who both had a significant number of children. I appreciated that article, not so much because it mentioned my mother and grandmother, but rather because   More…

This past weekend, I taught on the 2nd Article of the Creed at a confirmation retreat. In preparation, I was given a nifty booklet with the whole lay-out of the lesson. Since I only had an hour to teach, I had to skip a few details. So I tried to emphasize some of the main points. The booklet separated the various parts of the 2nd Article. After beginning with “And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord,” it continued with “who was conceived by the Holy Spirit;” the next one said, “born of the Virgin Mary,” and so on.   More…

 Text: Mark 9:30-37 Our Condescending God and Lord Dear friends in Christ, When someone is condescending, we usually understand that to mean that he says things in a patronizing kind of way, making those to whom he speaks feel small and inferior. Such a person typically thinks highly of himself. As the disciples in our text, he might see himself as the greatest, at least in his own right. The disciples disputed among themselves concerning who among them was the greatest. How often do we hear about the arrogance, foolishness and pride of the disciples? Peter always seems to be   More…

One thing I have noticed about the opponents of Objective Justification is that they tend to say that we who hold to it teach justification “apart from faith” or “whether you believe it or not.”  I would like to demonstrate that this is far from the truth.  In fact Objective Justification affirms justification by faith alone.  Distinguishing between Objective and Subjective Justification is like distinguishing between the visible and invisible church.  Quenstedt calls such distinction an equivoque in its equivocate, or a distinction within one substance.  We don’t turn them into two species.  Rather, the concept of God justifying sinners (Objective)   More…

Before I begin my delayed vicarage, I need to finish my treatise. I am writing on the church in the theology of John Andrew Quenstedt and David Hollaz, and their emphasis on the synthetic church. One of the major features of the synthetic church is the understanding of it being made up of both teachers and hearers. The following is a revised section of my treatise, in which I argue the importance of a good relationship between pastors and hearers in obtaining church unity. The concept of the synthetic church consisting of both teachers and hearers is vital when considering   More…

I recently listened to an Issues Etc edition on prayer (above), and I thought there were some very helpful and insightful points in there.  Over all, I really enjoyed it.  But I would like to respectfully offer a contribution to the conversation.  The following is a revision of a post I wrote on propterchristum.blogspot.com.

What is the Church? She is a shelter from the storm for sinners who thirst for mercy in Christ. She is the collection of all believers who have been called by the gospel into faith in Christ. She is the bride of her Bridegroom Christ, who has cleansed her from all blame by the washing of water with the Word, where new-born infants are born through baptism, being fed with that pure spiritual milk of the gospel. And she is also a family, that is, the family of God’s children who the Holy Spirit keeps in unity of spirit by working   More…

In Acts 20:28, Paul tells the elders in Ephesus, “Pay special attention to yourselves and of all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.” Pastors/Elders (according to its Biblical meaning, that is, pastor) /Presbyters/Bishops are supposed to supervise doctrine, caring for the church of God. But how do they do this? We know they are supposed to teach. So do they teach by means of supervising or do they supervise by means of teaching? Jesus tells His disciples how they are to   More…

  Besides my homework, I have been spending a lot of time editing our student journal at CLTS, St. Catharines.   It is called Propter Christum.  So I thought I would share this on BJS. We just started this journal in Advent. We are about to print our second issue to the first volume, but we have both of our issues on the seminary’s website.   If you want to see both issues, go here: http://www.brocku.ca/concordiaseminary/student-life.php Here is the link to our most recent issue: http://www.brocku.ca/concordiaseminary/Files/Propter_Christum_I,2.pdf