The Rob Bell groupies are coming out of the woodwork to defend their hero, and consequently, and predictably, they are doing so anonymously, hiding behind fake names and e-mail addresses. Here again is my comment policy, which, well, you can like it, or you can lump it. I say that with all the warm and cozy feelings in my heart that I can muster!

COMMENT POLICY: READ THIS CAREFULLY
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but please understand that you have no “right” to make a comment on my blog. I welcome them. I appreciate them, and I thank you for them, but every once in a while along comes a particularly crabby person who demands that I post their comment. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. If you have a comment to share, feel free to post it. I do moderate comments and reserve the right to reject and/or edit comments, entirely at my discretion. I think of comments as letters to the editor of a newspaper: those that are signed, short, to the point, and make a positive and/or interesting contribution to the post’s topic are much more likely to be be approved. I highly discourage anonymous comments. If you have something to say, be willing to identify yourself and be held accountable for your remarks. If you are looking for a place to engage in extended debate, also known as “comment wars,” this blog won’t be your cup of tea, or coffee. I don’t apologize for the fact that I use comments on this blog to facilitate the purpose of the blog. Finally, if you don’t like my comment policy, I invite you to start your own blog and rant, rave, argue and otherwise pontificate to your heart’s content, just like I do here. That’s what’s fun about blogging!

The man, the legend: Johann Gerhard! How did he write so much while wearing that collar? I do not know, but he did.

By far, the best and most comprehensive treatment of Christian doctrine by an orthodox Lutheran theologian remains the work of Johann Gehard, with his LOCI THEOLOGICI. There simply is no equal to Gerhard’s work. And, thankfully, they are now becoming available in English. Our project to put these volumes into English, a very time consuming and labor intensive project, was recently reaffirmed and supported by the board of directors of Concordia Publishing House. I would really appreciate if as many of you a possible would subscribe to the series. These books are by no means inexpensive to produce, in fact, CPH’s is making an investment in this series for the sake of the Church. So, will you subscribe to the series? Please call our customer service center at 800-325-3040 to sign up for them.

Here is a list of what is coming out, and in what order:

Already appeared:
Exegesis I, On the Nature of Theology and on Scripture, rev. ed.
Exegesis II–III, On the Nature of God and on the Trinity
Exegesis IV, On Christ
Commonplace XXV, On the Church

Forthcoming:
Commonplace XXVI/1, On the Ministry, Part One, late 2011
Commonplace XXVI/2, On the Ministry, Part Two, fall 2012
Commonplaces VIII–XI, On Creation and Predestination, fall 2013
Commonplaces XII–XIV, On Sin and Free Choice
Commonplaces XV–XVI, On the Law
Commonplaces XVII–XVIII, On the Gospel and Repentance
Commonplace XIX, On Justification
Commonplace XX, On Good Works
Commonplace XXIII, On Holy Baptism
Commonplace XXIV, On the Holy Supper
Commonplace XXVIII/1, On Marriage, Part One
Commonplace XXVIII/2, On Marriage, Part Two
Commonplace XXVIII/3, On Marriage, Part Three

Here is information about the Gerhard series from the Concordia Publishing House web site:

The Theological Commonplaces series is the first-ever English translation of Johann Gerhard’s monumental Loci Theologici. Gerhard was the premier Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century. Combining his profound understanding of evangelical Lutheran theology with a broad interest in ethics and culture, he produced significant works on biblical, doctrinal, pastoral, and devotional theology. Gerhard interacts with the writings of the church fathers, Luther and his contemporaries, and the Catholic and Calvinist theologians of his day. His Loci are regarded as the standard compendium of Lutheran orthodoxy, with topics ranging from the proper understanding and interpretation of Scripture to eschatology.

In this first volume (of Seventeen) of the Theological Commonplaces series, Gerhard presents a brief introduction on the nature of theology, then addresses the source of all Lutheran doctrineHoly Scripture. In 28 chapters, Gerhard explores the efficient cause of Scripture, the subject matter of Holy Writ, offers specific treatment of each canonical and apocryphal book of the Bible, and discussed inspiration of Scripture. Finally, Gerhard offers insight on versions of Holy Scripture and its interpretation.

Useful for research on Lutheran doctrine, Gerhard’s accessible style makes this a must-have on the bookshelf of pastors and professional church workers.

Features of the 2nd edition:

• New translation of two original introductions by Gerhard, explaining the purpose of the Theological Commonplaces and giving autobiographical details; clarified text; explanatory footnotes
• vocabulary list
• Scripture index
• person index
• well-researched works cited list

You probably thought Saint Louis was just another boring quasi-Southern/Midwestern city, boring and predictable. And you would be wrong! We are cool. We are hip. We are cutting edge, baby. And to prove it we even have our own local Episcopalian priest who is giving up Christianity for Lent! How awesome is that? Here’s the story, and here’s a snippet:

The Rev. Steve Lawler should have just given up chocolate or television for Lent. Instead, Lawler, of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ferguson, decided to adopt the rituals of Islam for 40 days to gain a deeper understanding of the faith. On Friday, he faced being defrocked if he continued in those endeavors. “He can’t be both a Christian and a Muslim,” said Bishop George Wayne Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. “If he chooses to practice as Muslim, then he would, by default, give up his Christian identity and priesthood in the church.” Lawler, a part-time rector at the church, didn’t foresee such problems when he came up with the idea. He merely wanted to learn more about Islam, he said, especially in light of the ongoing congressional hearings on the radicalization of the faith On Wednesday, the first day of Lent, he began performing salah five times a day, by facing east, toward Mecca, and praying to Allah. He also started studying the Quran and following Islamic dietary restrictions by abstaining from alcohol, pork and fish. During Holy Week, he planned to fast from dawn to sunset as Muslims do during Ramadan. But in Smith’s eyes, the exercise amounts to “playing” at someone else’s religion and could be viewed as disrespectful.

One of the many examples of deceit and sloppy scholarship in Rob Bell’s controversial book Love Wins, is his assertion that Martin Luther supports his theories. Dr. Gene Edward Veith has an excellent blog post on this:

Do you know about PrayNow, the only Lutheran prayer and devotional app available for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod? No, you say? Well, let me introduce you to it. And, let me also assure Droid folks that we are working on a Droid version of it, which we anticipate releasing later this year. I continue to bump into folks on the Internet who have not heard of PrayNow and they are delighted to discover it. It is such a wonderful tool for daily prayer. And, for only $8.99, it offers you a wealth of content, for the entire year, with multiple choices for daily orders of prayers and an abundant treasure of daily readings in the Psalms, OT and NT, with a devotional writing from a pastor or other Christian teacher and theologian through the ages. You can buy it from the iTunes store.

Here is a link to the longest and most thorough-going refutation of Bell’s errors in his new book Love Wins I’ve read, to date.

Here’s a portion of the review that gets to the very heart of the problems with the book and the problem with the “Yes, but…” reactions to his book I’m already seeing among Lutherans.

I’m sure that many people looking to defend Bell will be drawn to a couple escape hatches he launches along the way. As you’ll see, the book is a sustained attack on the idea that those who fail to believe in Jesus Christ in this life will suffer eternally for their sins. This is the traditional Christianity he finds “misguided and toxic” (viii). But in one or two places Bell seems more agnostic.

Will everybody be saved, or will some perish apart from God forever because of their choices? Those are questions, or more accurately, those are tensions we are free to leave fully intact. We don’t need to resolve them or answer them because we can’t, and so we simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires. (115)

These are strange sentences because they fall in the chapter where Bell argues that God wants everyone to be saved and God gets what God wants. He tells us that “never-ending punishment” does not give God glory, and “God’s love will eventually melt even the hardest hearts” (108). So it’s unclear where the sudden agnosticism comes from. Is Bell wrestling with himself? Did a friend or editor ask him to throw in a few caveats? Is he simply inconsistent?

Similarly, at the end Bell argues, rather out of the blue, that we need to trust God in the present, that our choices here and now “matter more than we can begin to imagine” because we can miss out on rewards and celebrations (197).  This almost looks like an old-fashioned call to turn to Christ before it’s too late. When you look more carefully, however, you see that Bell is not saying what evangelicals might think. He wants us to make the most of life because “while we may get other opportunities, we won’t get the one right in front of us again” (197). In other words, there are consequences for our actions, in this life and in the next, and we can’t get this moment back; but there will always be more chances. If you don’t live life to the fullest and choose love now, you may initially miss out on some good things in the life to come, but in the end love wins (197–198).

For anyone tempted to take these few lines and make Bell sound orthodox, I encourage you to read the whole book more carefully. Likewise, before you rush to accept that Bell believes in hell and believes Christ is the only way, pay attention to his conception of hell and in what way he thinks Jesus is the only way. Bad theology usually sneaks in under the guise of familiar language. There’s a reason he’s written 200 pages on why you must be deluded to think people end up in eternal conscious punishment under the just wrath of God. Words mean something, even when some of them seem forced or out of place. Take the book as a whole to get Bell’s whole message.

My pastor recently preached a great sermon on worry, here is where you can listen to it.

With apologies to those who who think I’m grinding a bit of an axe here, about Rob Bell, I’m going to mention him again. Lutherans who are somewhat sheltered from what’s going on in American Evangelicalism may not be aware of how significant Rob Bell’s influence has been on American Evangelical “emerging church” type thought, which has found its way into many Lutheran pastor’s studies. Rob Bell’s videos known as “Nooma” videos have been used because, well, they are cool and different and have a certain edgy modern appearance to them. But Rob Bell is a false teacher, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and we need keep in mind that often people in this position are not even aware of it themselves. His latest book is now out and is being soundly condemned and critiqued by any number of key American evangelicals.

Here is a review that I found particularly helpful.

Excerpt:

Bell begins the book with surprising forthrightness: Jesus’ story has been hijacked by a number of different stories that Jesus has no interest in telling. “The plot has been lost, and it’s time to reclaim it.” (Preface, vi)

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. (ibid)

You may want to read that again.

It really says that. And it really means what you think it means. Though it takes time for that to become clear.

I can not even remember now how the web site got started, but a number of years ago I created bookofconcord.org and in recent years, my friend Norm Fisher, took the site under his wing and helped it look good and work well. Jenn Balaska designed the banner for the site. So, now, today, bookofconcord.org is the home of the Lutheran Confessions on the Internet, offering the complete text of the Book of Concord, in English translation, for free, via the public domain translation of the old Dau/Bente translation. In addition to the text of the Confessions, we’ve amassed a lot of public domain supporting documents, from the period of the Lutheran Confessions, helping to aid understanding and provide context, for example, the Roman response to the Augsburg Confession, the “Confutation” to which the Apology [Defense] of the Augsburg Confession was a response. There are also the German and Latin editions of the two official editions of the Book of Concord available, along with links to the historical background of the Book of Concord, and a lot of other material.

I had not taken a close look at the web site’s statistics for probably well over a year. Interesting stuff. We are nearly at 500,000 visitors to the site, and at nearly on million page views. How do people find the site? Google searches account for the largest number of visitors, followed by Wikipedia, which has a page on the Book of Concord, linking to the site. The most popular pages on the site are the Small and Large catechisms.

I was most intrigued to note where across the globe visitors are coming from. There are 201 countries represented in the list of sources of visitors, with, by far, the most being from the USA, and a dozen or so countries accounting for a single visitor, including a country I’ve never heard of “Comoros,” which is an small chain of islands in the Indian Ocean.

If you haven’t paid a visit recently to bookofconcord.org, I invite you to do so, and if you do not have a permanent link to it on your web site, blog site, or Facebook page, would you consider doing it? So far, it is linked to from nearly 3,500 web sites, many Lutheran church web sites, etc.

I keep bookofconcord.org free from denominational entanglements. Obviously, it represents a conservative approach to the Lutheran Confessions and Lutheranism, but I intentionally avoid linking it to any particular Lutheran church body.

Here is a screen shot from the sight showing you the various supplemental materials available. These can be somewhat difficult to find otherwise, and they are conveniently all in one place on bookofconcord.org

Here you go, interesting article.

Here’s a chart summarizing the findings:

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.
He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island but it turned out
to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it
was a weapon of math disruption.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum
Blownapart

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking
into it.

10.Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11.Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

12.Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to
the other: ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’

13.I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

14.A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’

15.The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small
medium at large.

16.The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a
seasoned veteran.

17.A backward poet writes inverse.

18.In a democracy, it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism, it’s your
count that votes.

19.When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

20.If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine.

21.A vulture boards an airplane carrying two dead raccoons. The
stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion
allowed per passenger.’

22.Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and
says ‘Dam!’

23.Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly so they lit a fire in the
craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your
kayak and heat it too.

24.Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’ The
other says ‘Are you sure?’ The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’

25.Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root
canal? His goal: transcend dental medication

May the Lord bless you richly through the coming days of Lent and grant you repentance and the joy and peace of the Savior’s mercy and grace.

“Oh, come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

–From the Gradual for Lent, from the Book of Hebrews

Here is a sermon preached eleven years ago, during Lent, by Pastor John Pless.

LENT IV     2 APRIL 2000
University Lutheran Chapel     Minneapolis, MN

+Jesu Juva+

WE WOULD SEE JESUS!     Saint John 12:20-26

Hardly a month passes without our hearing of some new picture of Jesus. Not long ago, there was an animal rights group that tried to make the case that Jesus was a vegetarian. The New Age Movement Him as a guru imparting spiritual insights that would bring His followers into mystical harmony with the cosmos. Others see Jesus as a peasant cynic who lived the life of a wandering crafter of parables. There are those who see Jesus as the proto-typical liberal, born before His time. Then there is the pseudo-scholarship of the Jesus Seminar that has achieved so notorious fame for itself these last few years. If modern day counter parts to the Greeks in today’s Gospel reading come with the question, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus?” they might be given the reply, “Which Jesus?”

In the 19th century we had the so-called “quest for the historical Jesus.” One commentator noted that those questers peered down the long, dark well of hisory looking for the historical Jesus only to see a dim reflection of their own faces. In other words, in looking for Jesus apart from the New Testament, they simply re-constructed a Jesus to fit their own philosophical ideology. Buying into the Enlightenment notion that history and faith are antithetical, they mistakenly thought that the so-called “Christ of faith” proclaimed in the pages of the Gospel could not possibility be the real “Jesus of history” who walked the dusty roads of first century Palestine. Ask them the question “Sir we wish to see Jesus?” and they show us much more of themselves than they do of Jesus!

The request of those Greek visitors to Jerusalem is not a bad question in spite of all the wrong-headed answers it is apt to receive. It is, in fact, an essential question for it is only in Jesus that we have access to God. Earlier in his Gospel, the Apostle John wrote: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (1:18). In that same Holy Week in which the Lord speaks the words of our Gospel text, Philip comes up to Jesus with another request: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (14:8). Remember how Jesus answers Philip? He says to Philip: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9). Because the Father and the Son are one, to see Jesus who is the very Son of God is to see the Father.

To see Jesus is essential. But not any Jesus will do. In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes of those who proclaim “another gospel” and therefore a different Christ. There is only one Jesus, one Christ and He is the Lord of whom Paul writes in I Corinthians “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (I Cor. 15:3-4).

We are not told why the Greeks wanted to see Jesus. Had they heard of the miracles He had performed and thought that it would be kind of interesting to see this guy who is able to heal the sick and raise the dead? Wouldn’t it be kind of exciting to see such a famous person as Jesus of Nazareth? Just think of how the people back in Athens might react when they got home and said “Guess who we got to see when we were in Jerusalem for spring break?” We don’t know why these Greek visitors wanted to see Jesus. We don’t even know if their request was granted. We’re not told. Philip passes on their request to Andrew. Andrew in turn tells Jesus.

Jesus gives what at first appears to be a strange answer. He doesn’t say anything about setting up an appointment for a private audience or even a brief appearance. Instead He says “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” In other words, Jesus tells them that the time has come for Him to be lifted up on the cross. That is the hour of Jesus glory. He will be lifted up, just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that all who look to Him will receive the forgiveness of sins. That is why He came into the world. That is why the Father sent His Son into our flesh. Jesus came not to be the object of attention but to be the Savior who will bear our sins in His own body, dying to give us life.

It is that Jesus we need to see. The Jesus who comes not to put on a show, but to be our Savior. This is the Jesus who endured the mockery and the torture, the shame and the suffering that we might be reconciled to God for a life of endless tomorrows. This is the Jesus who took our sins to the killing grounds of Calvary and died under their condemnation so that we now can hear those comforting words from Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but the Spirit.” This is the Jesus who was raised from the tomb on the third day to give life and salvation to all who trust in Him. “There is” says Peter “no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

That is the Jesus we must see. Accept no substitutes. Don’t be fooled by a Jesus who is made up of the patch work of human imagination. Don’t be deceived by a Jesus that is more spiritual than the bady of Bethlehem and the Man of Calvary. Don’t be taken by a Jesus who is so spiritual that He could never suffer and die on a cross or be buried like a grain of wheat. Don’t be duped by Jesus who is no different from Buddha or a thousand other religious figures who have lived and died.

There is in reality but one Jesus and He is the One who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, the One who suffered under Pontus Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He is the One who descended into the very pit of hell to proclaim His triumph over Satan and raised on the third day never to die again. This is the Jesus into whose death you were baptized. This is the Jesus who gives you His body and blood to eat and to drink that you might be one with Him and He with you in an intimacy that cannot be broken even by death itself.

Someone has said that the quest for the historical Jesus ends not by looking down that deep and dark well of history, but by looking into the communion chalice where we receive the very blood of Christ. It’s true. We need not go back in history to see Jesus. We need only come to where His Word is proclaimed and His body is given us to eat and His blood is given us to drink. Here we have Jesus. And in Him we have peace with God.

Listen again to the words of the Lenten Gradual from the Book of Hebrews:

“Oh, come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.

A friend in Australia just drew this web site to my attention. It will be adding more content as time goes on, but for now they have a complete series of Dr. John Kleinig’s lectures on spirituality available, as audio downloads. Here is the web site. It is on the basis of these lectures that Dr. Kleinig wrote his book Grace Upon Grace

Parents, do you know what your kids are playing on their video gaming systems? If not, please take a moment to find out. The games coming out are getting worse and worse. There is a new game coming out called “Dead Island” which is nothing short of horrendous, featuring cannibalism, among other hideous things.

Movies, video games and music are becoming increasingly more violent, gory and sickening in American culture. Colored as entertainment, Americans mask their fears of death and the afterlife by creating hyper-morbid alternate realities to distract us. One upcoming video game, Dead Island, recently released a trailer which is once again pushing the limits. Yet, below the surface of our shallow obsession with the profane as “fun,” the haunting game trailer exposes both our sickening human state (concupiscence) and a frightening image of the lives humans really live “in the flesh.”

We asked Pastor Jonathan Fisk, of Worldview Everlasting video fame, to prepare a short bible study to help people work through the issues raised by this game. It is now part f our “Pulse” series of downloadable bible studies Check it out here.

By the way, Pastor Fisk has also agreed to write a book for us titled, Seven Rules About Seven Christian Rules That Every Christian Must Break As Often as Possible or something like that. Sounds perfectly Fiskian, no?