Blessed Easter: Issues, Etc. and Dr. Norman Nagel

(Introduced by Ross Wardenburg) We at BJS have created a new column where we hope to review at least one program from Issues, Etc. each week. Our hope in doing this is to help people to understand what types of programs are available on Issues, Etc. and perhaps to generate interest in the show by new listeners. We also hope to make it easier for you to introduce Issues, Etc. to friends or members of your church; you can print these out and hand them to people who might be interested in the topic. Listen to the show to learn more about this topic, or go to the On Demand page on Issues Etc for other programs.


The men over at Issues, Etc. have the following message posted on
their web site’s On-Demand page:

Issues, Etc. regular guest Dr. Norman Nagel suffered a stroke last
year. He is still recovering. We know that many of you dearly love Dr.
Nagel and his teaching on Issues, Etc. Please take some time this week
to contact Dr. Nagel to wish him and his wife Betsy well, tell him
that you’re praying for him, and thank him for his long and faithful
service to the Church. You’ll find his email and mailing address
below.

[email protected]

I am sure many of you have fond memories of listening to Dr. Norman
Nagel preach and teach the Gospel during a worship service, in a
classroom or as a guest on Issues, Etc. He was proclaiming the
“Christ-centered, cross-focused” Gospel decades before this excellent
slogan found its way to Issues, Etc..

Today I am reading one of Dr. Nagel’s sermons published by CPH in the
book Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel. It is a Good Friday sermon
preached in London in 1957. This sermon sets the standard for what
Pastor Wilken looks for in his sermon reviews. Every paragraph and
almost every sentence is dripping with Jesus and His saving work for
us. One example is where Dr. Nagel writes, “Jesus’ death was the
climax, the crowning glory. It did not appear so, but He committed
Himself to God, the God who brings life out of death. So the death of
our repentance, our parting company with sin, will seem to us a loss,
but it is not so. For when we thus die, we cast ourselves on God, the
God who brings life out of death-only out of Jesus’ death.”

I thank our Lord for professors like Dr. Nagel. I am also thankful
for Pastor Wilken, Jeff Schwarz and Craig Fichtinger who produce a
worldwide radio broadcast which daily features pastors and professors
who proclaim Christ for us. Remember Dr. Norman Nagel, Issues, Etc.,
and all of our pastors in your prayers and have a very blessed Good
Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday as we meditate on the
wonderful Word, God’s own Son, dying on the cross and raised
triumphantly to life for us.

(Editor’s Note: Allow me to share a personal note along with Ross’ introduction. Dr. Nagel came to the seminary while my class was on vicarage. What a great gift God had waiting for us when we returned. We were mystified, sometimes studefied but mostly edified in Dr. Nagel’s classes. It was commonplace to hear us say after one of Dr. Nagel’s classes “I am not even sure I was a Lutheran until I took classes with him” and this was coming from fourth year students. Dr. Nagel, you will never know the great extent of your influence on our beloved Missouri Synod – Pastor Rossow.)


Listen to the show to learn more about this topic, or go to the On Demand page on Issues Etc for other programs. At Issues, Etc., we love our OnDemand listeners!

[podcast]https://www.issuesetc.org/podcast/189031909H1.mp3[/podcast]

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