The Nihil Rule

  Hat tip to OldLuth (worth a follow!) With some commentary:

Following up on The Devil put Dinosaurs Here , permit me a thought experiment. What if oil is not really a fossil fuel? It isn't a terribly far-fetched idea. We know methane in particular can be generated abiotically and can be detected on planets where scientists have no reason to believe life exists or ever existed. There is evidence for the abiogenesis of methane  on planet earth. If oil is somehow found out to renewable, then the link between oil and fossils is broken. The problem would be that Dr. Eggert's explanation is now nonsensical. The argument that God made fossils because fossils go along with oil longer makes sense. Dr. Eggert is left holding the bag. Again, this is a hypothetical, but this demonstrates a broader problem: using the framework of science to explain difficulties in our theology is liable to backfire because science has no concrete basis in eternal Truth. Science is based on observations which can be invalidated and replaced by new observations. Newto...

Yes, Mike, it is. I wish I could say that Pastor Novotny spends ten minutes beating around the bush to get to the correct answer, but if that were the case I wouldn't be posting it as Woke in the WELS. Pastor Novotny ultimately says somewhere around the seven minute mark that you can't transition your gender. It is a sin to choose your own gender. This is correct. However, Pastor Novotny equivocates on the question of using a chosen pronoun. Around 2:25 he says "Preferred pronouns, attending [gay] weddings like that, these are issues where I really think the Christians who love the truth of the Bible and love of Jesus might end up in different places." Not right places, not wrong places, different places. He frames this in terms of the supposed quandary "[H]ow do we decide whether this is the time to be bold with the truth or to patiently love someone and deepen a relationship?" which is repeated more verbosely to close out the video. Pastor Novotny makes a...

I'm behind on my BHoP but I just listened to Episode 222 - wherein they answered a listener question submitted by a Pastor Mark Schroeder who identifies himself as 70 years old ... does the WELS synod president listen to BHoP? Big, if true!

   (* there is no Alice in Chains without Layne Staley. Don't do drugs, kids.) This post is going to investigate one of the arguments made by Dr. Arthur A. Eggert in an article entitled "Genesis 1 and Science" published in the Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Vol 117, No. 4 (Fall 2020). As this article is subject to copyright, I will not reproduce it in full, but I'll excerpt a few paragraphs under fair-use. Overall the article is a fair articulation of the Lutheran young-earth-creationist (but I repeat myself) position with a number of "Science Background Notes" which pull in information regarding radiation, tectonic plates and such. The only thing I quibble with (well, ok there's two things, the other being that he doesn't capitalize pronouns referring to God) is his explanation of the fossil record. Quoting his "Science Background Note 11":  " To scientists , soil and fossils are closely related. Each of them is the product of the deat...

 

H.R.6090  was passed on May 1, 2024. This bill criminalizes speech which can be characterized as antisemitic, as defined by the  International Holocaust Rememberance Alliance  or IHRA, a lobbying group. The definition is not provided in the bill and may be changed in the future by the IHRA. Besides the obvious implications to free speech, this has grave theological concerns. One of the classifications of antisemitic speech by the IHRA is Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis. This means portion of the Bible, for instance 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 "For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to...