Bethany and Concordia

Gene Edward Veith notes an article about the decline of youth work in churches these days. Apparently, it’s hard to get the interest of teens and keep them engaged at church, and getting harder. Maybe our own teens have something to say about that. (Read Veith’s article first, then leave a comment here or on our Facebook page.) He makes the case that a more rigorous faith — including genuine mysteries, and a good deal of ongoing, practical effort from participants — may fare better. Meanwhile, youth programs that focus on fun more than on the serious and somewhat radical business of salvation just blend into all the other “fun” alternatives in a teen’s life.

It sounds to me as though some teens (or “youth”) are simply more interested in being treated like adults than like children. That’s why I consider our Divine Service, Bible classes, and other activities to be for our youth just as much as for independent adults. I’m not opposed to doing fun things together, but our expertise and focus at Bethany and Concordia are in God’s Word, the certainty of salvation, and living as Christians in a fallen world. That’s where we’re different from 99% of the other things our youth could do. That should be important to us all. But is it enough to engage us at church? Youth too?

What do you think? By the way, the comments on Veith’s blog posts are usually worth reading too.

Paul Kretzmann’s commentary on the whole Bible has been a dear resource for generations of Lutherans. The books are long out of print, though you can probably still find used copies floating around. An alternative, though is to search and read it online. Try it out. This brief commentary was widely published and used for good reason.

In 1530, Lutherans had an opportunity to explain themselves in defense against a number of unfair accusations. It was said that they were abolishing the divine service (with the Lord’s Supper, then called “the Mass”), and getting rid of many long-standing church ceremonies. Here is part of their defense:

Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the Mass. The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, except that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns. These have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed for this reason alone, that the uneducated be taught what they need to know about Christ. … All those able to do so partake of the Sacrament together. This also increases the reverence and devotion of public worship. No one is admitted to the Sacrament without first being examined. The people are also advised about the dignity and use of the Sacrament, about how it brings great consolation to anxious consciences, so that they too may learn to believe God and to expect and ask from Him all that is good. This worship pleases God. Such use of the Sacrament nourishes true devotion toward God. Therefore, it does not appear that the Mass is more devoutly celebrated among our adversaries than among us.

Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV. Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, p. 47-48

In today’s sermon I mentioned two composers who wrote music and words on the basis of their faith, just as David did three thousand years ago. Now, I see that an example of Bach’s poetry and music was posted today at Cyberbrethren, which is the blog of Paul McCain, the publisher at Concordia Publishing house. You can go there and listen to it, while you read along in translation.

An Evangelical, millenialist pastor named John Hagee has written an article for the Jewish Daily Forward. In it, Hagee presents some reasons why Christian zionists support the present-day nation of Israel. He writes,

On May 23, pastors, ministers and priests at more than 1,500 churches in all 50 states and over 50 foreign countries will dedicate their Sunday services to teaching the importance of Christian support for Israel.

Some of our members, or our neighbors, may wonder if we will join with those churches, or whether we should. The answer to that stems from the theology of Christian zionism. Zion is the name for the hill where the Jebusites had established the city of Jerusalem, and which King David later captured and made his capital. It became symbolic of the entire city, and ultimately, for the nation of Israel. Zionism is quite different, though the word is related. It describes a movement in which people attach special historic and theological importance to the existence of an earthly nation of Jews. It goes further than respect for the Jewish people as the nation from which our Savior, the Messiah, was born. It goes further even than recognizing a spiritual significance to ancient Israel that is connected to our present-day faith in Jesus.

In the words of John Hagee: “As is the case for many Jews, our support for Israel starts with God’s promises in the Hebrew Bible, but it does not end there.” By the Hebrew Bible, Hagee means the Old Testament scriptures. I suppose that the promises he references are the ones that describe a future kingdom of peace, ruled by the Messiah, when all enemies will be vanquished. Orthodox Christianity considers those promises to be fulfilled spiritually by Jesus right now, though their fulfillment will be revealed to all on the Last Day, which will be the First Day of our bodily eternal life in paradise. Millenialists, however, look for an outward earthly kingdom in which the Messiah will subjugate all outward enemies and reign as a sovereign potentate. This is not a new teaching; many Jews have made the same error for thousands of years. Hagee and others have, knowingly or not, imported such ideas into their Christian worldview. They support this notion with forced explanations of Bible passages under the guise of a “literal” interpretation. Unfortunately, those explanations usually do not allow the text of the Bible to stand on its own.

Hagee continues:

Christian Zionists recognize that we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Jewish people. As I have stressed to my Christian audiences for years: If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there would be no Christianity.

I beg to differ. It was not the Jewish people who provided the doctrine of holy scripture. That came from God Himself, in spite of those to whom He spoke. The Jewish people, as such, have their beginning in Babylon, after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the first Temple in 586 B.C. They are called “Jewish” because the kingdom Nebuchadnezzar destroyed was Judah, named for one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Today’s Jewish traditions and worship are indeed very old, dating back to that 6th century before Christ. Yet we should not imagine that Jewish worship is the same as the worship of Israel. Jewish worship centers in synagogues, which became the organizational model for early Christian congregations. It was a tradition designed to preserve the precious doctrine among the generations of Jews, despite the absence of the most important element of Israelite worship: the Temple in Jerusalem, and before it, the Tabernacle.

Today’s Judaism is quite different from Israelite worship, say, during the reign of King Josiah, or during the period of the Judges. Judaism’s roots are found in Israelite worship and doctrine, but the two are different. More importantly, a major focus of both ancient Israelite worship and ancient Judaism has been lost in present-day Judaism. That focus is echoed today only among the “messianic Jews” (those who recognize that Jesus is the Messiah) and Christians. It is the redemptive, justifying atonement of the Messiah, who through His own suffering and death, would provide forgiveness and remission of sins for all Israelites and for Gentiles, to be received through faith alone. The significance of this is only understood when we know the deep depravity and guilt of original sin, which cannot be erased or mitigated by the efforts of mortal man. This is all taught throughout the Bible, in both Old and New Testaments, but it is lost to modern-day Judaism.

Hagee writes, “From the patriarchs to the prophets, from Jesus and his family to the men who wrote down the Bible, Jewish people have provided us with the fundamentals of our faith.” The patriarchs were not Jews, nor even Israelites. Jesus and the apostles were indeed Jews, of the kind disowned today by their unbelieving Jewish families. They all believed and taught that Jesus is the Messiah. For this, most of them were killed. I don’t hold that fact against modern day Jews, but mention it only because Hagee would have us thank present-day Jews for their contribution to our Christian faith. History shows this to be senseless.

Speaking for Christian Zionists, Hagee also writes something with which I heartily agree: “Israel is not the cause of militant Islam’s hatred of America, but an ally in the fight against militant Islam.” Islamofascists use Israel as a convenient excuse and a favorite punching bag, but their real target is personal freedom and the Christian worldview behind it.

Hagee writes that the focus of Christian zionists on May 23rd will include “God’s promise in Genesis 12:3 that He will bless those who bless Israel.” If you look up that verse, you will see that it does not mention Israel by name. It says “you,” meaning Abraham and the nation that would come from him. The promise in Genesis 12 does include Israel, but not in the way Christian zionists would have us believe. Israel was the beginning of the “great nation” descended from Abraham. The purpose of this nation was not to bless those who bless it, but that through it, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” That is fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah, who has provided salvation not only for Israelites, but for every nation. Other blessings of God upon the Israelites were fulfilled between the Exodus from Egypt and the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. After that, many believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and finally, the time of Temple worship came to a permanent end when the second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.

If we want to be a genuine blessing to the present-day Jews, we will hand them a copy of the Letter to the Hebrews and repeat what the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:7-9 (NKJV), “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” The faith Paul mentions is faith in the true Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

That brings me to the false identification of present-day Israel with ancient Israel. There are only two similarities between them: their citizens are primarily descendants of the patriarch Jacob, and they roughly occupy the same physical territory. In all other respects, they are different. The ancient nation of Israel does still exist, but it is hidden in this world. Its members include all those who belong to the Messiah, Jesus, by faith. Some are in heaven already, including such Israelites as Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Rahab, Ruth, David, Hezekiah, Elijah, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, John the Baptizer, the apostle Nathaniel, the pastor Titus, the evangelist Luke, the confessor Athanasius, and the reformer Luther. Others still live on the earth. The root of Israel is described in the Old Testament, but the wild branch of the Gentiles has been grafted in by faith (Romans 11:17), while many original branches have broken away because of unbelief. Yet unbelieving Jews may yet believe, and some are converted all the time (v. 23).

The true Israel is the Church. It is not a democracy, like the modern-day nation of Israel, but remains a monarchy. Our king is the Messiah, Jesus, who has fulfilled the prophecies of His victory and will return to end this world of sorrow and bring us into His everlasting kingdom of glory. Christians are Israelites, citizens of this world while also citizens of heaven. We live in the time of fulfillment, in the “millennium” that so many are awaiting. We pray weekly that God will open the hearts of Jewish people to believe in their Messiah. We would have them blessed with all that God promised to their forefathers, but as long as they reject their true God and Messiah, we shall not call them the true “Israel.”

Pastor Abrahamson has posted a couple “Words of the Week” that you should find edifying. Here’s the beginning of one on Marriage.

The first institution God made for His people was the institution of marriage. We are told in Genesis 1:27 that the image of God resides in the marriage of a man and a woman as God created them, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

From the time Adam and Eve fell into sin their marriage was under assault. God’s image in them was perverted. Before they fell into sin, God’s Word in Genesis 2:23–24 says: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Read more at diatheke.

A former professor at Bethany Lutheran College, candidate for Minnesota governor, and long-time member of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod has publicly pointed out a strong anti-marriage bias in the health care legislation that’s been so much in the news lately. You can see the news article at WorldNetDaily.

Soul Cafe is really a church! Beyond being a youth center on 12th St. in Hood River, it’s a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). That’s the largest church body in the United States that calls itself “Lutheran.” We also call ourselves “Lutheran,” but we mean something different by it than does the ELCA. We consider the label “Lutheran,” when applied to a church, to mean the particular confession of faith to which that church holds in its teaching. Specifically, we consider a Lutheran church to be one that holds (without compromise) the teachings confessed in the Lutheran Confessions, because they fully and faithfully agree with the Bible.

Soul Cafe’s church body, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, acknowledges that the Lutheran Confessions have historical importance, but no normative importance over present-day Lutheran teaching. Therefore, we would not describe the ELCA with the adjective “Lutheran.” Appropriately enough, Soul Cafe seems to avoid that label.

If you’d like to confirm for yourself that Soul Cafe is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have a look at its web site. Be sure to scroll to the bottom. If you’re still not convinced, you can look it up in the ELCA congregation directory.

Soul Cafe’s web site uses some of the code language of homosexual advocacy (“open and affirming”), extending it to accept and affirm many different social choices that the Bible considers to be sinful. It promotes an organization called “Lutherans Concerned/North America,” which advocates the acceptance of homosexuality in Lutheran churches, contrary to several passages in Holy Scripture. The person it calls “pastor” has written several statements there that show a radical separation from historic Christianity. She alludes to the Lutheran Confessions (specifically, Augsburg Confession article 7), but only to claim that most of what the Confessions say should be considered “adiaphora,” meaning “that which is neither commanded by God nor forbidden.” The effect is to dismiss the Confessions, as well as much of the Bible’s doctrinal content as a matter of mere personal opinion. More troubling, she seems to deny the trinitarian foundation of the Ecumenical Creeds:

I have learned that the Trinity is not some complex theological doctrine. The Trinity is the experience of God the Father/Mother, Son, and Holy Spirit in relation, in community with one another and in relation, in community with all the world. The Trinity is the perichoretic God—the God who circulates and dances through the neighborhood, working healing and wholeness.

Any church that persistently denies the Trinity, or even the authority of God’s Word in all matters of faith and life, is not a Christian church, though it may still claim to be. Christianity is not a matter of being nice to others, nor a matter of merely living a certain way. It is a matter of what we believe, which then flows naturally into the way we live. When we confess that God’s Word is right about our sins, and then trust in the forgiveness He applies through Jesus Christ, we have begun to be Christians. This faith continues with a confession that God is right about everything else that His Word addresses. Unfortunately, the heritage of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America includes theological liberalism, which does not consider the Bible to be God’s Word. Therefore, there is very little to prevent a congregation like Soul Cafe from completely losing the character and doctrine of the Christian Church.

We should pray for our friends and neighbors influenced by such places as Soul Cafe, and do what we can to help them avoid such places. We can offer them so much more, beginning with the certainty that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, and has died and physically risen to life again as the atoning sacrifice for every sin — even sinful life choices like homosexuality. Some may still not be convinced that Soul Cafe is a church. Remember Matthew 7:15-20, where Jesus predicted such things:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is splitting over its recent decision to ordain openly practicing homosexuals as ministers. While we may rejoice that some recognize that God’s Word should not be compromised, it must be pointed out that there are many other areas where the teaching of the ELCA departs dramatically from self-interpreted Holy Scripture. For example, the Bible claims to be the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and completely sufficient Word of God. ELCA disagrees. The Bible assigns gender-based roles to men and women, particularly in churches. ELCA disagrees. The list could go on.

We should pray for our friends in ELCA churches, and those who will be leaving the ELCA, encouraging them to stand upon God’s pure and unchanging Word alone, no matter what the world around us may think of it.

But the holy orders and true religious institutions established by God are these three: the office of priest, the estate of marriage, the civil government. [See Large Catechism, 4th Commandment, 158, and the Augsburg Confession, Article XVI] All who are engaged in the clerical office or ministry of the Word are in a holy, proper, good, and God-pleasing order and estate, such as those who preach, administer sacraments, supervise the common chest, sextons and messengers or servants who serve such persons. These are engaged in works which are altogether holy in God’s sight.

Again, all fathers and mothers who regulate their household wisely and bring up their children to the service of God are engaged in pure holiness, in a holy work and a holy order. Similarly, when children and servants show obedience to their elders and masters, here too is pure holiness, and whoever is thus engaged is a living saint on earth.

Moreover, princes and lords, judges, civil officers, state officials, notaries, male and female servants and all who serve such persons, and further, all their obedient subjects — all are engaged in pure holiness and leading a holy life before God. For these three religious institutions or orders are found in God’s Word and commandment; and whatever is contained in God’s Word must be holy, for God’s Word is holy and sanctifies everything connected with it and involved in it.

Above these three institutions and orders is the common order of Christian love, in which one serves not only the three orders, but also serves every needy person in general with all kinds of benevolent deeds, such as feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, forgiving enemies, praying for all men on earth, suffering all kinds of evil on earth, etc. Behold, all of these are called good and holy works. However, none of these orders is a means of salvation. There remains only one way above them all, viz. faith in Jesus Christ.

For to be holy and to be saved are two entirely different things. We are saved through Christ alone; but we become holy both through this faith and through these divine foundations and orders. Even the godless may have much about them that is holy without being saved thereby. For God wishes us to perform such works to his praise and glory. And all who are saved in the faith of Christ surely do these works and maintain these orders.

(AE 37:364-365)

Note that neither the three broad categories (churchly, domestic, and civil) that Luther describes, nor the examples he gives, are meant to be mutually exclusive. Our church Treasurer supervises the common chest, but also holds other churchly responsibilities, as well as responsibilities in the other categories.