The Nihil Rule

Sage advice from  Paul Gerhardt’s  last testimony to his only surviving son: "Outside of your office and vocation do not become angry. If you notice that anger has heated you up, remain still and speak not so much as a word until you have first prayed the Ten Commandments and the Christian Creed silently." Anger in vocation can be righteous, meet and salutary. Remember "WWJD includes making a whip and driving moneychangers out of the temple." Zeal presupposes love. 

"Sir, we would see Jesus" - Jn 12:21 The May WELS Connection (above) did not sit right with me. This id ea of "pre-evangelism" - the Church not sharing the Gospel directly, rather, doing things to earn trust then sharing the Gospel - seems like a stumbling block to sharing the Gospel. Dale Carnegie would teach you how to win friends and influence people; Jesus left us the great commission to go preach, baptize... we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles. At best this is a confusion between the work of the Church and the work of the Priesthood of all Believers. The Augsburg Confession, Article VII (AC VII), clearly defines the Church as " the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." The work of the Church is to preach the Gospel, in season and out of season, and administer the Sacraments. Word and Sacrament are the only tools we are given, and are th...

  Our God works through means, including the election of Presidents and the nomination of Supreme Court Justices. To God be the Glory!

Professor Schuetze - the guy with the hot take on David and Bathsheba - has yet another hot take on communion . Professor Schuetze holds that non-alcoholic grape wine or grape juice are allowable "in exceptional circumstances" citing John Schaller, the Wauwatosa Theologian - let the reader understand . This is a silly argument that should not come from a seminary professor. It is clear that wine was used in the Lords Supper. The timing of Passover relative to harvest ensured there would be only wine, not grape juice to drink. Our patriarch of the great era of WELS orthodoxy, Adolf Hoenecke, asserted the use of wine (Vol. 4 pg. 121 of his dogmatics).   This view contradicts the clear words of the Lutheran Confessions in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VII:48: "There can be no doubt that he [Christ] was speaking of true, natural bread and natural wine." Quia? Of course, the Magpies already dealt with this  in a response to then-seminary professor Brug: But ...

(no altar, no pulpit, no vestments, but what a sweet PowerPoint deck)  "Must Lutheranism be shorn of its glory to adapt it to our times in our land?" Charles Porterfield Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology p.208

Gottesdienst has another great post which chronicles hymnody gone soft -  The World is Very Evil . The hymn that is the title of the post is TLH #605 and laments its failure to be included in LSB. Needless to say it does not appear in the WELS CW or CW:Hymnal.  605 The World Is Very Evil Lutheran Hymnody

  Rev Roy Coates had an excellent presentation on the Father Frederick Roth Webber. One particular quote on the introduction of individual cups I wanted to share: The question of such things as individual communion cups does not come within the scope of this discussion. An age that takes delight in carillons that contain no bells, and church organs that contain no pipes need not be criticized for celebrating Holy Communion without a chalice. We are saying nothing against bell-less carillons and pipeless organs, nor chalice less celebrations of holy Communion either. For those who can find spiritual edification in such things, they may go as far as they like, for this is a land of religious freedom. It is possible that the day may come when the Christian’s devotion will be stirred by the sight of a clergy-man in his Talar, carrying a twenty-four inch chromium plated tray, with fifty little liquor glasses neatly reposing in a series of round holes in the tray, holding the tra...

What is your best argument against a Eucharistic view of John 6? σὰρξ versus σῶμά ? The exclusivity of "unless"? It predates the institution ? BUT LUTHER SAID?!? The Magpies have answers .

I'm a road cyclist. When I'm on my bike I'm generally going high intensity and listening to podcasts (bone conduction headset, naturally, to listen for traffic) is difficult if I intend to retain a whole lot from nuanced conversation. There are certain some podcasts that are amenable, but not enough to fill my rides. In prior years I'd crank up something hard (typically, System of a Down) and milk an extra mile or two per hour from the intensity (not kidding!)  This year I decided to try something - after listening to amenable podcasts, I listen to hymns and try to sing along. Well, depending on heart rate it isn't really "singing" so much as mouthing and mentally assenting, but using as many senses as possible to "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest". The rotation right now is "Dear Christians One and All Rejoice", "Salvation Unto Us has Come" and "Christ, the Life of All the Living." Mixed success - I find myself...

Service of Installation for Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz