I’ve been reading a really interesting book on the history and development of the Glock pistol and popular it has become across the United States, particular as the weapon of choice of police departments around the country. The Glock pistol is used by over 65% of all police and law enforcement agencies in the country. Even if you have absolutely no interest in firearms or shooting, this book is interesting because it examines America’s gun culture and the various issues that continue to swirl around the use of firearms and the Second Amendment. I highly recommend the book. Here is a link to where you can buy it.

Here’s a little video I put together about the Glock for those who have no knowledge of them.

The Divine Glory Is Manifested in the Signs of Christ

When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, it was “the first of His signs,” by which He “manifested His glory” (John 2:11). It pointed to His coming “hour,” when He was lifted up on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins and the life of the world (John 2:4; 12:23–32). The glory of the cross is incomprehensible apart from the Word and Spirit of God, but disciples of Jesus recognize that glory in the signs of His Gospel, and so they believe in Him. Jesus does not wait for His disciples to discover Him on their own, but He seeks out the forsaken and the desolate and unites them to Himself. He adorns them with His own beautiful righteousness and delights in them “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride” (Is. 62:4–5). Purified by the washing of water with His Word in Holy Baptism, His disciples confess that “Jesus is Lord,” and they return thanks to Him “in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3), as they drink the good wine that He pours out for them, which is the new testament in His blood.

Readings Appointed for Today

Introit: Ps. 66:1–5, 20; antiphon: Ps. 66:4, 92:1
Old Testament: Ex. 33:12–23 or Amos 9:11-15
Psalmody: Psalm 67 (antiphon: v. 1) or Psalm 111 (antiphon: v. 9)
Epistle: Ephesians 5:22-33 or Romans 12:6-16
Gradual: Psalm 107:20-21
Verse: Psalm 148:2
Gospel: John 2:1-11

From Luther’s Church Postil on the Gospel for Today

“Hence the highest thought in this Gospel lesson, and it must ever be kept in mind, is, that we honor God as being good and gracious, even if he acts and speaks otherwise, and all our understanding and feeling be otherwise. For in this way feeling is killed, and the old man perishes, so that nothing but faith in God’s goodness remains, and no feeling. For here you see how his mother retains a free faith and holds it forth as an example to us. She is certain that he will be gracious, although she does not feel it. She is certain also that she feels otherwise than she believes. Therefore she freely leaves and commends all to his goodness, and fixes for him neither time nor place, neither manner nor measure, neither person nor name. He is to act when it pleases him. If not in the midst of the feast, then at the end of it, or after the feast. My defeat I will swallow, his scorning me, letting me stand in disgrace before all the guests, speaking so unkindly to me, causing us all to blush for shame. He acts tart, but he is sweet I know. Let us proceed in the same way, then we are true Christians. … Observe, God and men proceed in contrary ways. Men set on first that which is best, afterward that which is worse. God first gives the cross and affliction, then honor and blessedness. This is because men seek to preserve the old man; on which account they instruct us to keep the Law by works, and offer promises great and sweet. But the outcome is stale, the result has a vile taste; for the longer it goes on the worse is the condition of conscience, although, being intoxicated with great promises, it does not feel its wretchedness; yet at last when the wine is digested, and the false promises gone, the wretchedness appears. But God first of all terrifies the conscience, sets on miserable wine, in fact nothing but water; then, however, he consoles us with the promises of the Gospel which endure forever.” Source.

Read more…

This is a briliant piece of satire that is so funny, because it is so true. HT: GE Veith, via Joanna Veith.

And this is why we must always be grateful to live in a country that has religious freedom….what a mess in Israel.

In Israel, a clash over religious gender segregation
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By Judith Sudilovsky
Jerusalem, 12 January (ENInews)–Should Israel allow segregation by gender in the public sphere simply because one religious group — ultra-Orthodox Jews — demand it? This issue has become a focal point as Israel struggles with its identity as a Jewish democratic state.

“This is taking us straight to the most important dialogue [for the country]: what kind of values do we want for our Jewish state?” said Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, in an interview with ENInews.

The ultra-Orthodox have until recently only imposed their rules regarding the separation of the sexes — including separate sidewalks for men and women — in their own neighborhoods, but they have begun trying to enforce those standards in other areas. They maintain the separation is necessary in order to protect the modesty of women and is mandated by the Halacha, or Jewish religious law. However, a prominent conservative rabbi, Eliezer Melamed, said in his weekly newspaper column that it is “optional” not “required” under Jewish law.

Alon Visser, 22, a Jerusalem resident who initiated a bus protest on 1 January against segregation, said the issue was one of “freedom in the public sphere and of religious coercion.” He said that “there are certain values I want to see this country retain. I don’t want to see this country turning into a fundamentalist bastion.”

Several women have been exposed to verbal abuse in recent weeks as they refused to move to the back of an unofficially gender-segregated public bus. A young modern orthodox girl was spat at by an ultra-Orthodox man on her way to school in the town of Beit Shemesh just west of Jerusalem because he deemed her long skirt and shirt to be not modest enough, according to media reports.

Gender segregation has been illegally imposed on sidewalks where women are allowed to walk on only a certain side of the street and men-only public health clinics. Some public advertising campaigns have refrained from posting images of women in deference to ultra-Orthodox sensibilities. There was outrage among secular Israelis when a sole woman recipient of a Health Ministry award was excluded from the award ceremony because her presence offended religious sensitivities and when women speakers were excluded from a scheduled gynecological conference.

In response, women have held a “flash mob” dance performance in the center of Beit Shemesh, groups of “Freedom Riders” have ridden segregated buses, women have lent their image for an advertising campaign on private property and have held public “sing-offs” in protest of the growing extremism.

“People confuse the concept of multi-culturalism,” said Laura Wharton, 49, a member of the Jerusalem City Council from the left-wing Meretz Party, who last week boarded a segregated bus in an organized protest. “It means you can celebrate whatever holidays you want … It doesn’t mean you can invent your own laws.”

All articles (c) Ecumenical News International
Reproduction permitted only by media subscribers and
provided ENI is acknowledged as the source.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released the results of a survey of Mormons and the results prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that Mormons are Mormons. It is a very interesting survey and what caught my eye was this summary:

In one very interesting section of the new survey, respondents were asked several questions about what is essential to being a good Mormon. According to the survey, 80 percent said “believing Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ” is essential to being a good Mormon, 73 percent said “working to help the poor,” 51 percent said “regular Family Home Evenings,” 49 percent said “not drinking coffee and tea” and 32 percent said “not watching R-rated movies.

While many Christians who are, tragically, ignorant of what Christianity is all about, the survey demonstrates that Mormonism is not Christianity, not even a form of Christianity. At best, all we can say is that Mormonism is a cult that sprang from distinctly non-Christian heresies.

MARRIAGE AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together An Open Letter from Religious Leaders in the United States to All Americans

Released January 12, 2012

Open letter and signatories found here. Here is a PDF copy of the statement: Marriage-and-Religious-Freedom-Letter-Jan-12-2012-4

Executive Summary

We, as representatives of a broad array of faiths, join together to affirm that marriage, the union of one man and one woman, must be promoted and protected for its own sake and for the common good. We also agree that redefining marriage will incur grave consequences, including a deleterious impact on religious liberty. Altering the definition of marriage will change not just one law but hundreds, even thousands, of laws. There will be government mandates, requiring the recognition and accommodation of so-called same-sex “marriages,” that pose a critical threat to institutions and individuals who for reasons of faith and conscience will resist the law’s compulsion. Cases involving criminal and civil penalties and the denial of grants and other government benefits are already occurring and will only increase in number and severity if more jurisdictions redefine marriage. The law not only will coerce and impose disincentives, but will also teach that religious objectors must be marked as if they were bigots. We encourage all people of good will to protect marriage as the union between one man and one woman, and to consider carefully the far-reaching consequences for the religious freedom of all Americans if marriage is redefined. May all of us work together to strengthen and preserve the unique meaning of marriage and the precious gift of religious liberty.

Signatories come from the following communities:

Agudath Israel of America

Anglican Church in North America

Assemblies of God

The Brethren Church

Bruderhof Communities

The Christian & Missionary Alliance

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Church of the Nazarene Conservative Congregational Christian Conference

Evangelical Free Church of America

Evangelical Friends Church, North America Fellowship of Evangelical Churches

The Foursquare Church

Free Methodist Church

USA General Association of General Baptists

General Council of Christian Union Churches

Grace Communion International

Great Commission Churches

International Pentecostal Church of Christ

International Pentecostal Holiness Church

Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod

Missionary Church, Inc.

National Association of Evangelicals

National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

North American Lutheran Church

Open Bible Churches

The Salvation Army

Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

United Brethren in Christ Church, USA

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

Vineyard USA

The Wesleyan Church

Look Who’s Talking about The Church from Age to Age

Scholars

Dr. H. J. Selderhuis, a Dutch scholar of the Reformation and an editor for Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht projects, cited The Church from Age to Age positively in a recent review article regarding religious faith and the problem of violence. If you read Dutch, you can see the article here.

Dr. Nathan A. Finn, Associate Professor of Historical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, has kindly reviewed and commended our book. You can read his review here.

Solid Ground Newsetter, a publication of evangelical apologists at Stand to Reason, is carrying The Church from Age to Age as a recommended resource here.

Students

Concordia University, Ann Arbor, students recently lined up to get their copy of the book as a textbook for their required church history class.

Pastors

Rev. William Weedon of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Hamel, IL states that he is “MEGA impressed. . . . This volume is exceedingly well written.” He kindly recommended our book on his blog here.

Families

Mr. Peter Reske purchased The Church from Age to Age for his wife as a Christmas present. He was surprised to find his five year-old making it part of his bed time reading!

Why is this church history receiving so much attention? It is the most affordable, readable, one-volume church history available! Order your copy here. Get the Kindle edition here.

Supreme Court says judges cannot get involved in church-employee discrimination dispute
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, January 11, 10:29 AM

WASHINGTON — In a groundbreaking case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held for the first time that religious employees of a church cannot sue for employment discrimination.

But the court’s unanimous decision in a case from Michigan did not specify the distinction between a secular employee, who can take advantage of the government’s protection from discrimination and retaliation, and a religious employee, who can’t.

It was, nevertheless, the first time the high court has acknowledged the existence of a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws — a doctrine developed in lower court rulings. This doctrine says the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches and their operations from the reach of such protective laws when the issue involves employees of these institutions.

The case came before the court because the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School of Redford, Mich., on behalf of employee Cheryl Perich, over her firing, which happened after she complained of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Writing the court’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Allowing anti-discrimination lawsuits against religious organizations could end up forcing churches to take religious leaders they no longer want.”

“Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs,” Roberts said. “By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the Free Exercise Clause, which protects a religious group’s right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments.”

Here is the full text of the Supreme Court’s ruling: SCOTUS Ruling

Read the full story here.

Be sure to click on the picture to get the full size version to display…

“One of the great rewards of biblical study is an increased awareness of the historical and cultural setting in which the Scriptures were written.  In The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes, Editor Engelbrecht and his team of contributors have provided an attractive and accessible overview of one of the most interesting periods in the Bible’s history, namely, the Intertestamental or Second Temple Period.  It was during this time that the Old Testament was completed and the New Testament was on the threshold of emerging.  Succinct introductions with helpful maps and diagrams enrich the presentation.  A distinctive strength is the churchly and confessional assessment from a Lutheran perspective that provides a framework for the historical material—a significant contribution that lifts the reader beyond the merely academic.”

Interesting interpretation of Pope Benedict’s latest appointments to the College of Cardinals. Seems to me that the problem with the Roman Catholic church has always been it is more Roman than Catholic, so it should come as no surprise that PB XVI wants to keep it that way. But this article, obviously, doesn’t understand just how profound that observation, theologically, really is, and is whining more about geography than theology. Obviously, is is extremely irritating, to say the least, to the liberals in the Catholic Church who want to see it conform to the Western modernist theological agenda. These appointments will go a long way toward preventing that from happening.

Pope Benedict’s cardinals: more Roman, less ‘catholic’

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By David Gibson — ENInews/RNS

9 January (ENInews)–Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement on 6 January of 22 new cardinals shows that he is continuing a pattern of stacking the College of Cardinals with Europeans (mainly Italians) and with leaders of the Roman curia, the papal bureaucracy whose officials are often considered more conservative than prelates in dioceses around the world.

This trend goes against the push by Benedict’s predecessors, notably the late John Paul II, to “internationalize” the College of Cardinals and make it more representative of the global church, Religion News Service reports.

It also runs counter to the inexorable demographics of the church, which shows the number of Catholics growing in places like Africa, Asia, and Latin America, even as the faith barely treads water in North America and declines in Europe. The 22 churchmen will be installed at a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on 18 February.

“This suggests an upside-down church,” Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for The Tablet, a Catholic weekly in London, said of the pope’s appointments. “It doesn’t reflect where the church is going.”

The numbers tell the story. Since Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in April 2005, his three batches of new cardinals have favored Europeans and those who work with him in Rome over bishops from other countries.

Eighteen of the 22 cardinals in this latest round of appointments are under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote in the conclave, or gathering, that elects a pope. (The red hats given to the four octogenarians are the church equivalent of lifetime achievement awards.) Of those 18 new electors, seven are Italians, five others are from Europe, and a total of 10 are Vatican officials.

Just three of the new cardinals — from Brazil, Hong Kong and India — are from outside the West, and in the biggest surprise, none are from Africa, where the church is experiencing its greatest growth, followed by Asia. Half of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics live in the Americas.

That means Italians will form the largest national block and account for one-quarter of the 126 cardinal-electors (several will age out this year), up from 16.5 percent in 2005. In addition, 35 percent of the cardinal-electors will come from the Roman curia — up from less than a quarter when Benedict was elected in 2005.

John Paul II, who was Polish and the first non-Italian pontiff in 450 years when he was elected in 1978, deliberately sought to internationalize the College of Cardinals and the Roman curia, though he also brought in a number of fellow Poles to help run his administration.

Why has Benedict largely reversed that trend? Vatican-watcher John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter noted that before he was elected pope, Ratzinger spent nearly 25 years working in Rome and his appointments are “perhaps a product of his comfort level with Italian ecclesial culture.”

The other major factor is that Benedict is at heart an Old World, old-fashioned Bavarian Catholic, and both he and the cardinals who elected him believe that Europe remains the birthplace of Catholic culture. In that view, Benedict represents the best — and perhaps last — chance to restore that culture and use it to evangelize the rest of the world.

But in light of this latest round of cardinal appointments, and given growing concerns about Benedict’s health — he turns 85 in April — this set of electors may well be the men who eventually choose Benedict’s successor. Their numbers suggest they may be just as likely to look to Europe once again rather than to the future church in the global South.

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Isak Gerson, Church Leader

This is true. I’m not making it up. Story posted here.

The Church of Kopimism, a religion whose central tenet is the free sharing of information, has been formally recognized by the Swedish government.

Kopimists believe all information sharing is “holy” and that the value of information multiplies when it’s shared. They hold CTRL+C and CTRL+V, keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting, to be sacred symbols of their religion. (We’re not making this stuff up.)

According to a press release on the Church’s website, Kopimism has been striving to achieve legal recognition in Sweden for more than a year. The church’s board chairman, Gustav Nipe, says the Kopimists has tried three times to register with Kammarkollegiet, the Swedish Administrative Services Agency. They were ultimately successful and recognized as a religion just before Christmas of last year.

Formal acknowledgment provides the Church of Kopimism, named for the Swedish word for “copy,” with legal protections under that country’s law and potential access to government-assisted funding.

The recognition of the Church of Kopimism is the latest success for Europeans fighting for a free and open Internet. The Pirate Party, formed in Sweden in 2006, aims to reform copyright and patent laws and to protect online access to information. The Pirate Party won over 7% of Swedish votes in 2009′s European parliamentary elections, and it has spawned an international movement under the banner “Pirate Parties International.”

Not everything has gone smoothly for the Church of Kopimism. Its website buckled under the pressure of sudden international interest. A temporary page is urging people interested in becoming a Kopimist to check back “when the storm is settled.”

Read more here.

The words of encouragement, praise and endorsement keep rolling in from a broad range of scholars who have had a chance to review an unedited proof copy of The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes. It will be out by the end of October 2012.

I recommend this edition of the Apocrypha as a timely and useful addition to The Lutheran Study Bible. The Apocrypha have been considered as a part of the biblical canon for most of the church’s history, and while the Reformers may have had good reasons for thinking differently, they still had a high regard for them. This edition enables both scholars and lay readers to understand why.
Knut Alfsvåg
Professor of Systematic Theology
School of Mission and Theology
Stavanger, Norway

The books of the Apocrypha are absolutely essential for understanding the Jewish context of early Christianity. The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes is an outstanding work of scholarship that provides a welcome service to Lutherans and, indeed, to Christians of other traditions interested in reading and studying these fascinating and often entertaining writings, which the great Luther himself deemed “useful and good to read.” A thoughtfully edited and attractively produced volume, it includes many unique features and has the fullest annotations of any comparable study edition. In all, this is a monumental achievement and valuable resource for scholars, students, and lay people alike.
Daniel C. Harlow
Professor of Religion, Calvin College
Editor, The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism

Coming October 2012.