50th Anniversary Year
Why This Newsletter?
This issue, Volume 50, Number 1, Issue Number 2298, marks the beginning of the 50th anniversary year of Christian News. The first page of the first issue is reproduced on p. 20. CN began in the basement “dungeon” of the parsonage of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri on December 15, 1962. The editor cranked the hand mimeograph thousands of times. It was called Lutheran News until January 1, 1968.
The Statement of Policy on page 4 in each issue since 1968 was written by Dr. Kurt Marquart, who had been the editor’s roommate at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
Many of the names of those to whom the first issues of CN were sent by member of the State of the Church Conference, a group of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastors and laymen concerned about the growth of the theological liberalism and a pro-communist attitude within churches. It began at the Mule Mountain Ranch in Bisbee, Arizona where a group of pastors and laymen concerned about a pro-communist attitude within some major denominations had been meeting annually after Christmas. Some of them heard about a recent graduate of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis serving as pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Mo. They invited him to speak for four hours on their program. It took him almost 2 days to get there by bus and hitchhiking.
The anti-communist pastors and layman had him speak some 12 hours during the days at the ranch. Plans were then made to combat the theological liberalism, which the recent seminary graduate had shown the group had infiltrated the LCMS. He told them that this theological liberalism could be far more destructive than the pro-communist position of many churchman which had been their primary concern. At the time hundreds of U.S. clergyman were members of Communist front groups.
When the pastors meeting in Arizona asked the seminary graduate for the names of leaders of “your” group opposing theological liberalism, the graduate said there really was no organized group but that men like Kurt Marquart and Harold Romoser shared his concerns. When the graduate suggested that the leader of the anti-communist pastors meeting in Arizona, Dr. August Brustat, would be a good chairmen of a group opposing theological liberalism, Brustat said this would not be wise since he was a member of the “44”, an organization of leading liberals in the LCMS. Lutheran Hour Speaker, Dr. Oswald Hoffman was the last living member of the “44”. Otten then suggested that Cameron Mackenzie: would make a good chairman. Mackenzie, a Detriot pastor, agreed to serve and immediately called for an organizing meeting in Detroit. Dr. Louis Brighton, later a long time professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, became a member of the executive committee of the conservatives at a meeting in Detroit which called for a “State of the Church Conference” in Milwaukee. A future editor of Affirm was critical of the conservatives who opposed liberalism in the LCMS. He wrote in his column “To Tell the Truth” in The Badger Lutheran of the LCMS’s Milwaukee Council of Churches that among the men associated with those calling for a “State of the Church” meeting in Milwaukee was a “a graduate whom the seminary has so far refused ordination, and a person officially connected with another fringe publication.”
The Church League of America
The uncertified graduate had done some writing for the Church League of America, including Parts I, II, III and IV of “What is Troubling the Lutherans? The series was sent to LCMS churches, throughout the nation. The seminary graduate paid for most of the $1,000 cost of mailing from his, at the time, $150 monthly salary. He also compiled the 1961 and 1962 State of the Church Documentation, about 200 pages each, printed by Cameron Mackenzie at his Detroit church.
Hundreds from all over the nation attended the 1961 SOC gathering in Milwaukee, about 400 “registered” voting delegates plus some unregistered guests.” Future LCMS President Jack Preus was among the registered delegates. He kept his registration badge inside of his jacket, in order not to displease any church officials. Among the speakers at the SOC conference were Dr. William Beck, Dr. Siegbert Becker, Dr. L.W. Faulstick, Moderator Machenzie, Dr. August Brustarts, William McMurdie, Harold Romoser, Ben Bryant, M.D., Arnold Gebhardt and Fred Bendewald.
Neither the secular nor religious press presented accurate reports about what was said and done in the Milwaukee SOC meeting. The conservatives recognized they needed their own publication to publish accurate reports.
When the seminary graduate married Deaconess Grace Anderson they went on a 5,000 mile wedding trip. Along the way they spoke to many groups on “The Crisis in Christendom.” Names gathered on this trip were also used for the first mailing of Lutheran News. Grace spent the 30 dollars she had saved for Christmas presents to pay for the first issue.
Reprinted in this is “Why this Newsletter?” from page 1 of the first issue of Lutheran News and “A Forty year Battle For Free Speech”, a 54 page (11”x17”) booklet published in 1995. It has the history behind the founding of Christian News. Next month CN will publish “Officials Urge New Haven-REMOVE YOUR PASTOR, the recorded transcript of a meeting at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri, 4 days after the first issue of Lutheran News was published. After 50 years, the LCMS’ Council of President has not changed much. The COP call is still “remove your Pastor.” He is “an impenitent sinner on the road to Hell.”
For the entire article see Christian News, Volume 50, No. 1, January 2, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Where Is Heaven?
Where Is Heaven?
Christian News, Vol. 49, No. 48, December 19, 2011
“Infinity and Beyond” is the title of a feature story in the December 5 Time. The Subtitle is “After 34 years in space and a combined 20 billion miles, Voyager 1 and 2 are poised for their greatest adventure yet.” A section from the article reproduced on page 2 of the December 12 CN shows that Voyager 1 is approaching the “Edge of solar system 12 billion miles.”
Time says “There’s no way of knowing exactly where the solar system ends, but the best guess is that it’s up to 12 billion miles from the sun.”
Time’s “Infinity and Beyond led CN to consider again publicizing Journey to the Edge of Creation of our Solar System and The Milky Way and Beyond. Creation Astronomer Danny Faulkner had a major role in these videos.
“Astronomer Says God Created the World in Six Literal Days”, the lead story in the November 16, 1998 CN had this subtitle: “Has the Hubble Space Telescope Shown the Universe is 13 Billion Years Old?” It said:
"Astronomers Peer Into the Past," a New York Times Service story in the October 26 International Herald Tribune (Paris) reports: "Two weeks ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of what astronomers think are the most distant galaxies ever studied. These galaxies probably formed in the first billion years of cosmic history, or more than 12 billion years ago. Such estimates are rough because they depend on cosmological models and chronological yardsticks based on the universe's being about 13 billion years old, which is controversial and subject to revision."
Dr. Danny Faulkner, one of the few Creationist Astronomers in the U.S., insisted at a lecture at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri, on Saturday, November 7, that God created the world in six literal days less than ten thousand years ago.
Faulkner stressed that as a Christian and a Creation Astronomer his basic assumption is that the Bible is God's authoritative and inerrant Word. He said that it was important for a Christian to recognize the historicity of man's fall into sin described in Genesis 3 and the reality of the year-long global and universal flood mentioned in Genesis 6-8.
Dr. Faulkner received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from Indiana University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of South Carolina-Lancaster. His professional memberships include the American Astronomical Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Sigma Xi. He has conducted many nights of photoelectric observations on telescopes of aperture between 16 and 50 inches in Georgia, Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Chile. His work has been published in the Astrophysical Journal, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. He is also an editor for Program Notes on Close Binary Stars, a semiannual international publication.
Dr. Faulkner's creation writings have been published in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism, and Impact, a publication of ICR, the Institute for Creation Research in Santee, California. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the ICR Graduate School and a member of the Creation Research Society. He has been an invited speaker at creation conferences in South Korea, Origins 98 at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, and the 1998 International Creationism Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has been interviewed on Christian radio and appears in the Moody Institute of Science two-part video tape series Journeys to the Edge of Creation.
"Our Solar System" and "The Milky Way and Beyond”, the two-part videotape series of Journeys to the Edge of Creation, is available from Christian News for $14.00 plus postage. Dr. Faulkner served as a technical advisor for the series.
He is also the technical adviser for Voyage to the Stars and Voyage to the Planets published by the Institute for Creation Research. These books are reviewed in this issue of CN.
Dr. Faulkner accepts the statement of belief of the Creation Research Society, an organization of several hundred scientists. The statement says:
"1. The Bible is the written Word of God, and because it is inspired throughout, all its assertions are historically and scientifically true in all the original autographs. To the student of nature this means that the account of origins in Genesis is a factual presentation of simple historical truths.
"2. All basic types of living things, including man, were made by direct creative acts of God during the Creation Week described in Genesis. Whatever biological changes have occurred since the Creation Week have accomplished only changes within the original created kinds.
"3. The great Flood described in Genesis, commonly referred to as the Noachian Flood, was an historic event worldwide in its extent and effect.
"4. We are an organization of Christian men of science who accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The account of the special creation of Adam and Eve as one man and woman and their subsequent fall into sin is the basis for our belief in the necessity of a Savior for all mankind. Therefore, salvation can come only through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior." Pastor Herman Otten of Trinity Lutheran Church noted that when Dr. Walter Lammerts visited New Haven some 40 years ago Lammerts told him that there should be room within Bible-believing Christian churches for astronomers, biologists, physicists, chemists, and other scientist whose research may have led then to new insights as long as they do not contradict the authoritative Word of God set forth in Holy Scripture. Lammerts commented on astronomy and the billions of years which most astronomers accept as the age of the earth because of tremendous distances stars are from the earth and the time it would take for light to travel from these stars to be seen on earth. Lammerts wrote in "The Creation Concept," an essay published in the November 18, 1963, Christian News:
"A crude analogy is that of filling a large tank with water under pressure through a hose several hundred feet long. Once the tank is full the flow immediately reverses when pressure is discontinued. No matter how long the hose, water pours out immediately at a rate determined by the tank pressure. Astronomers of the uniformitarian school would have us starting with an empty hose. Then, of course, the time taken by the water to travel through the hose would be a measure of the length of the hose. So they assume stars as beginning to shine with no photons of light connecting them with the earth or other stars. But if the stars are conceived as being created by the flow of energy into them, then as soon as they begin to shine by virtue of this accumulated energy, a reversal in flow of light photons would immediately be visible here on the earth."
Dr. Walter Lammerts' "The Creation Concept" is reprinted in this issue, pp. 7-9. Lammerts thanked CN for publishing his essay at a time when the LCMS’ official publications, including the theological journals of both LCMS seminaries, would not publish the essay because of its strong stand against evolution.
Lammerts, and the CN editor, together with some other LCMS confessional Lutherans, met with the President and Vice-Presidents of the LCMS in St. Louis at the headquarters of the LCMS in 1965. Lammerts attempted to persuade the top LCMS leaders that evolution was being promoted in various sections of the LCMS. The LCMS officials argued that the LCMS professors Lammerts said were teaching evolution as a fact were simply promoting "progressive creation."
A recent survey showed that many LCMS high school teachers are teaching theistic evolution. LCMS officials have refused to discipline pastors and professors in the LCMS who promote evolution even though the LCMS in convention after convention has rejected evolution and affirmed the historicity of the Genesis account of creation, fall into sin, and flood.
Most denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope, accept the evolutionary origin of man and the universe.
Christian News, Vol. 49, No. 48, December 19, 2011
“Infinity and Beyond” is the title of a feature story in the December 5 Time. The Subtitle is “After 34 years in space and a combined 20 billion miles, Voyager 1 and 2 are poised for their greatest adventure yet.” A section from the article reproduced on page 2 of the December 12 CN shows that Voyager 1 is approaching the “Edge of solar system 12 billion miles.”
Time says “There’s no way of knowing exactly where the solar system ends, but the best guess is that it’s up to 12 billion miles from the sun.”
Time’s “Infinity and Beyond led CN to consider again publicizing Journey to the Edge of Creation of our Solar System and The Milky Way and Beyond. Creation Astronomer Danny Faulkner had a major role in these videos.
“Astronomer Says God Created the World in Six Literal Days”, the lead story in the November 16, 1998 CN had this subtitle: “Has the Hubble Space Telescope Shown the Universe is 13 Billion Years Old?” It said:
"Astronomers Peer Into the Past," a New York Times Service story in the October 26 International Herald Tribune (Paris) reports: "Two weeks ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of what astronomers think are the most distant galaxies ever studied. These galaxies probably formed in the first billion years of cosmic history, or more than 12 billion years ago. Such estimates are rough because they depend on cosmological models and chronological yardsticks based on the universe's being about 13 billion years old, which is controversial and subject to revision."
Dr. Danny Faulkner, one of the few Creationist Astronomers in the U.S., insisted at a lecture at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri, on Saturday, November 7, that God created the world in six literal days less than ten thousand years ago.
Faulkner stressed that as a Christian and a Creation Astronomer his basic assumption is that the Bible is God's authoritative and inerrant Word. He said that it was important for a Christian to recognize the historicity of man's fall into sin described in Genesis 3 and the reality of the year-long global and universal flood mentioned in Genesis 6-8.
Dr. Faulkner received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from Indiana University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of South Carolina-Lancaster. His professional memberships include the American Astronomical Society, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Sigma Xi. He has conducted many nights of photoelectric observations on telescopes of aperture between 16 and 50 inches in Georgia, Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Chile. His work has been published in the Astrophysical Journal, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. He is also an editor for Program Notes on Close Binary Stars, a semiannual international publication.
Dr. Faulkner's creation writings have been published in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism, and Impact, a publication of ICR, the Institute for Creation Research in Santee, California. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the ICR Graduate School and a member of the Creation Research Society. He has been an invited speaker at creation conferences in South Korea, Origins 98 at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, and the 1998 International Creationism Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has been interviewed on Christian radio and appears in the Moody Institute of Science two-part video tape series Journeys to the Edge of Creation.
"Our Solar System" and "The Milky Way and Beyond”, the two-part videotape series of Journeys to the Edge of Creation, is available from Christian News for $14.00 plus postage. Dr. Faulkner served as a technical advisor for the series.
He is also the technical adviser for Voyage to the Stars and Voyage to the Planets published by the Institute for Creation Research. These books are reviewed in this issue of CN.
Dr. Faulkner accepts the statement of belief of the Creation Research Society, an organization of several hundred scientists. The statement says:
"1. The Bible is the written Word of God, and because it is inspired throughout, all its assertions are historically and scientifically true in all the original autographs. To the student of nature this means that the account of origins in Genesis is a factual presentation of simple historical truths.
"2. All basic types of living things, including man, were made by direct creative acts of God during the Creation Week described in Genesis. Whatever biological changes have occurred since the Creation Week have accomplished only changes within the original created kinds.
"3. The great Flood described in Genesis, commonly referred to as the Noachian Flood, was an historic event worldwide in its extent and effect.
"4. We are an organization of Christian men of science who accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The account of the special creation of Adam and Eve as one man and woman and their subsequent fall into sin is the basis for our belief in the necessity of a Savior for all mankind. Therefore, salvation can come only through accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior." Pastor Herman Otten of Trinity Lutheran Church noted that when Dr. Walter Lammerts visited New Haven some 40 years ago Lammerts told him that there should be room within Bible-believing Christian churches for astronomers, biologists, physicists, chemists, and other scientist whose research may have led then to new insights as long as they do not contradict the authoritative Word of God set forth in Holy Scripture. Lammerts commented on astronomy and the billions of years which most astronomers accept as the age of the earth because of tremendous distances stars are from the earth and the time it would take for light to travel from these stars to be seen on earth. Lammerts wrote in "The Creation Concept," an essay published in the November 18, 1963, Christian News:
"A crude analogy is that of filling a large tank with water under pressure through a hose several hundred feet long. Once the tank is full the flow immediately reverses when pressure is discontinued. No matter how long the hose, water pours out immediately at a rate determined by the tank pressure. Astronomers of the uniformitarian school would have us starting with an empty hose. Then, of course, the time taken by the water to travel through the hose would be a measure of the length of the hose. So they assume stars as beginning to shine with no photons of light connecting them with the earth or other stars. But if the stars are conceived as being created by the flow of energy into them, then as soon as they begin to shine by virtue of this accumulated energy, a reversal in flow of light photons would immediately be visible here on the earth."
Dr. Walter Lammerts' "The Creation Concept" is reprinted in this issue, pp. 7-9. Lammerts thanked CN for publishing his essay at a time when the LCMS’ official publications, including the theological journals of both LCMS seminaries, would not publish the essay because of its strong stand against evolution.
Lammerts, and the CN editor, together with some other LCMS confessional Lutherans, met with the President and Vice-Presidents of the LCMS in St. Louis at the headquarters of the LCMS in 1965. Lammerts attempted to persuade the top LCMS leaders that evolution was being promoted in various sections of the LCMS. The LCMS officials argued that the LCMS professors Lammerts said were teaching evolution as a fact were simply promoting "progressive creation."
A recent survey showed that many LCMS high school teachers are teaching theistic evolution. LCMS officials have refused to discipline pastors and professors in the LCMS who promote evolution even though the LCMS in convention after convention has rejected evolution and affirmed the historicity of the Genesis account of creation, fall into sin, and flood.
Most denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope, accept the evolutionary origin of man and the universe.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
God Enters the World as an Infant
Christian News, Vol. 49, No. 47
December 12, 2011
The Final Secret of the Universe
By Dr. Kurt Marquart
John 1:1-18
Christian News, Vol. 49, No. 47
December 12, 2011
The Final Secret of the Universe
By Dr. Kurt Marquart
John 1:1-18
John opens his majestic prologue to his Gospel with the very first words of the Bible: “In the beginning …” (Genesis 1:1). When God started to make everything, “the Word” (Christ) was already there, because “the Word was God.” Christ is the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
Christ is God’s Self-Expression, Mind, Reason, and Pattern by whom everything was created. Against the idea that Jesus only became God’s Son in His Baptism or by the Resurrection, John makes it quite clear that Christ was God all along, without beginning and without end.
Verse 3 (just like Colossians 1:15-17) draws a clear line between Christ and the whole created universe, visible and invisible. Christ, as God and Creator, is on one side of the line, and all else is on the other side, as His creation.
And then comes the most mind-boggling miracle and mystery of all: “The Word became flesh”! In Christ, God became Man-and still is. Some think that Christ put away His manhood when He ascended into heaven-or that He “Filed it away” some where in heaven, so that He is now with us only as God, not as Man. But after the Word has become flesh through His miraculous conception and birth of His blessed Virgin mother, it is impossible to tear Him apart, as if God were here and His flesh there. No, wherever He is as Man, there also He is as God, and vice versa. In Colossians 2:9 (after the Ascension!) Paul uses the present tense: “In Him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily.”
Luther: “So it is final, says St. Paul, the whole, total Godhead dwells bodily, that is personally, in Jesus Christ. Therefore the fellow who does not find or get God in Christ shall never again and nowhere else have or find God outside of Christ, even if he goes, as it were, over heaven, under hell, or into space!”
Millions of dollars are spent every year to spy or “eavesdrop” on the universe with sophisticated electronic gear. Scientists are straining every ounce of their ingenuity to find evidence of meaningful signals, indicating the presence of intelligent forms of life somewhere deep in space. And all along the central riddle of the universe, and its self-solution, are largely ignored: God the Creator/Communicator freely opens and offers Himself to us in the Baby of Bethlehem! This is the secret or mystery long hidden, but now made plain through the preaching of Christ’s apostles (Romans 16:25-27; Colossians 1:26, 27:2; 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:16) – and even the angels have to learn it from them (1 Peter 1:12)! And Christ still has “communication centers” all over the world – wherever two or three gather in His Name (Matthew 18:20), especially as His communicants (1 Corinthians 10:16)!
“He lived among us and we saw His glory” (v. 14). His flesh is still a kind of Shield which protects us from that divine Radiation which no man can see and still live (Exodus 33:20). Even high heavenly beings have to cover their faces before Him (Isaiah 6:1.2; compare John 12:41). Christ’s human flesh is like a screen: it “filters out”, for those who believe in Him, the death-dealing rays of God’s justice and anger-yet lets through the life-giving light of His love and grace, vv. 4, 9, 14, 16, 17! For while the Law came through Moses, grace and truth, that is God’s free favor, came by Jesus Christ. Moses and the Old Covenant are shadow and picture. Jesus and His New Covenant are fullness, body, reality (Colossians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 3:6-4:6).
Thursday, December 1, 2011
GOD'S GIFT TO MANKIND -- MARRIAGE
GOD’S GIFT TO MANKIND—MARRIAGE
MARRIAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A CHRISTIAN WOMAN
Preserving the Christian Home
By Mrs. Dorthy Preus
MARRIAGE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A CHRISTIAN WOMAN
Preserving the Christian Home
By Mrs. Dorthy Preus
Christian News, December 5, 2011, Vol. 49, No. 46
Mrs. Preus is the wife of Pastor Rolf Preus, the author of the foreword to Pastor Otten's new book A Handbook of Christian Matrimony ($14.95)
While I am honored to be asked my perspective of marriage as a wife and mother, I do not want you to think that I am here to preach to you! God does not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to learn in silence. (I Timothy 2:9-15) I am here to encourage the young women and I ask the men to be patient while I have this opportunity to do a good thing. I appeal to Titus 2:1-5.
But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
We are in sad times in that marriage is not taken seriously even among young Christian women. So this older woman would like to teach good things in love and admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children………., that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
“Will you live with him according to God’s Holy Word and love and honor him, and in good and evil days, keep only unto him as long as you both shall live?” (The Norwegian Synod Handbook of the Ministerial Acts)
May 27, 1975 I was asked this. I have to admit I was nervous about this. The good days were what I was looking forward to, but evil days?! I was focusing on Rolf’s ability to love me for the rest of my life. I was focusing on my ability to love him for the rest of my life. I had my doubts. How is this going to work? The answer came in the question that was asked me: “Will you live with him according to God’s Holy Word…..” I threw my worries and fears upon God and vowed to be determined to trust God and His Word. God works things for good for those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) The text for our Wedding was Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33) I was determined and confident that God would take care of us.
The pastor pronounced that Rolf and I are husband and wife in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: “Therefore, let no one separate what God has joined together.”
This is it! The commitment has been made before God, family, friends and soon in the legal public records. What tends to be over-looked with all the excitement in preparing for the wedding celebration with the dresses, the ceremony, and other wedding details is that GOD IS COMMITTED! Christ, our Lord and Savior, points this out in Matthew 19: 4-6 and Mark 10:1-9. As wedding vows are being made, it is as if God is taking a rib from the side of the groom, forming a woman and giving to the man his bride before the eyes of family and friends!
Let us ever walk with Jesus,
Follow His example pure,
Flee the world, which would deceive us,
And to sin our souls allure.
Ever in His footsteps treading,
Body here, yet soul above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father’s bidding.
Faithful Lord, abide with me;
Savior, lead, I follow Thee
Let us suffer here with Jesus,
To His image e’er conform;
Heaven’s glory soon will please us,
Sunshine follow on the storm.
Though we sow in tears of
sorrow,
We shall reap in heav’nly joy;
And the fears that now annoy
Shall be laughter on the
morrow.
Christ, I suffer here with Thee;
There, O share Thy joy with me!
Let us also die with Jesus,
His death from the second death,
From our soul’s destruction, frees us,
Quickens us with life’s glad breath.
Let us mortify, while living,
Flesh and blood and die to sin;
And the grave that shuts us in
Shall but prove the gate to heaven.
Jesus, here I die to Thee,
There to live eternally.
Let us gladly live with Jesus;
Since He’s risen from the dead,
Death and grave must soon release us.
Jesus, Thou art now our Head.
We are truly Thine own members;
Where Thou livest, there live we.
Take and own us constantly,
Faithful Friend, as Thy dear brethren.
Jesus, here I live to Thee,
Also there eternally. (ELH # 236)
Follow His example pure,
Flee the world, which would deceive us,
And to sin our souls allure.
Ever in His footsteps treading,
Body here, yet soul above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father’s bidding.
Faithful Lord, abide with me;
Savior, lead, I follow Thee
Let us suffer here with Jesus,
To His image e’er conform;
Heaven’s glory soon will please us,
Sunshine follow on the storm.
Though we sow in tears of
sorrow,
We shall reap in heav’nly joy;
And the fears that now annoy
Shall be laughter on the
morrow.
Christ, I suffer here with Thee;
There, O share Thy joy with me!
Let us also die with Jesus,
His death from the second death,
From our soul’s destruction, frees us,
Quickens us with life’s glad breath.
Let us mortify, while living,
Flesh and blood and die to sin;
And the grave that shuts us in
Shall but prove the gate to heaven.
Jesus, here I die to Thee,
There to live eternally.
Let us gladly live with Jesus;
Since He’s risen from the dead,
Death and grave must soon release us.
Jesus, Thou art now our Head.
We are truly Thine own members;
Where Thou livest, there live we.
Take and own us constantly,
Faithful Friend, as Thy dear brethren.
Jesus, here I live to Thee,
Also there eternally. (ELH # 236)
Woman - The Greatest Gift to Man
Adam without question accepted God’s gift of a woman to be his wife as his flesh. (Genesis 2: 18-24) The woman is the greatest gift to man. The woman was made specifically for man. Adam feared, loved, and trusted God above all things. Adam loved his wife as himself. Adam loved and honored her by naming her Eve. And Eve loved Adam as herself. Eve respected Adam as her husband. Adam and Eve feared, loved and trusted in God above all things and loved the other as oneself. God, the Father, created and loved Adam and Eve very much. God BLESSED them and told Adam and Eve to have children, become many, fill the earth and control it. (Genesis 1:28) This was all VERY GOOD. How romantic is that! BUT it was especially GOOD because Adam and Eve walked with God. (Genesis 3:8) And so would Adam and Eve’s children for generations to come.
God told Adam not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:17) Adam told Eve not to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. What was Adam thinking while he watched Eve talking with the serpent by the forbidden tree!?! Adam did not intervene to protect Eve from the deceit of the serpent. Adam did not rebuke the serpent. Adam did not pull Eve away from the tree or the serpent. Instead Adam did not bother with God or His Word. Adam failed to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Adam did not keep Eve safe in God’s Word. Adam listened to his wife. Adam feared Eve more than God. Adam had become a ‘wimp’. Adam did not love Eve as his own body. Adam failed as a man. Adam failed his wife and their children for generations.
I understand the nature of Eve. Certainly the crafty serpent did. Here is all this wonderful fruit! We can’t let all of this fruit go to waste! My husband surely misunderstood God. Surely God would not want all this good fruit to go to waste! And so begins the wonder of men: “If a man speaks in a forest where no woman can hear, is he still wrong?” The crafty deceiver caused Eve to doubt God and His Word and Adam’s headship. Eve failed to fear, love and trust in God. Eve failed to respect her husband. Eve failed as a woman. Eve failed her husband and their children for generations.
God, our Creator and heavenly Father, saw Adam and Eve disobey Him. Adam and Eve failed to love and trust in God above all things. Adam and Eve failed to love each other as one self. By this sin, they separated what God has joined together. When one fails to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, one cannot love another as oneself. Since Adam’s fall into sin men and women have questioned God’s gift of a woman to a man. How can one love another as one self if you encourage one to not fear, love, and trust God? Men and Women fear to love and trust in God above all things. Men and Women fear to love another as oneself. When husband and wife do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things and love one another as one self, they separate what God has joined together.
Eve had it all. She had a husband that loved and honored her. Together Adam and Eve feared, loved, and trusted God above all things. Their needs were provided. What a marriage! What a life! This harmony with God did not please Satan. Satan did not want God to be loved by Adam and Eve. Satan did not want God to be glorified with Adam and Eve loving one another as one self. The crafty deceiver caused doubt in Eve toward God. Because Eve doubted God, she did not respect Adam. Eve doubted Adam. So began the misery on earth beginning within marriage. Sin separated what God had joined together.
The tree of life with ev’ry good
In Eden’s holy orchard stood
And of its fruit so pure and sweet
God let the man and woman eat.
Yet in this garden also grew
Another tree, of which they knew;
Its lovely limbs with fruit adorn
Against whose eating God had warned.
The stillness of that sacred grove
Was broken, as the serpent strove
With tempting voice to Eve beguile
And Adam too by sin defile.
O day of sadness when the breath
Of fear and darkness, doubt and death,
Its awful poison first displayed
Within the world so newly made.
What mercy God showed to our race,
A plan of rescue by His grace:
In sending One from woman’s seed,
The one to fill our greatest need
For on a tree uplifted high
His only Son for sin would die,
Would drink the cup of scorn and dread
To crush the ancient serpent’s head!
Now from that tree of Jesus’ shame
Flows life eternal in His name;
For all who trust and will believe,
Salvation’s living fruit receive.
And of this fruit so pure and sweet
The Lord invites the world to eat,
To find within this cross of wood
The Tree of life with ev’ry good. (ELH # 302)
After trying to pass off the guilt of their sin, God comforts them with a promise of a Savior from sin and death. (Genesis 3:15) After knowing they failed God and each other, Adam and Eve continue with their marriage in their sinful flesh. Let no one separate what God has joined together. Adam and Eve had to depend and take comfort in God’s promise of a Savior from their sin and eternal death. This promise covers the repentant Adam and Eve’s sin so that they are one flesh. God’s promise of the Savior from sin and death can only unite them. With this promise we can walk with God through life. Keeping in mind God’s mercy and grace through His Son and the Savior of the world (John 3:16), the husband and wife are reminded to be merciful to one another (Mark 11:25). Let no one separate what God has joined together.
In Eden’s holy orchard stood
And of its fruit so pure and sweet
God let the man and woman eat.
Yet in this garden also grew
Another tree, of which they knew;
Its lovely limbs with fruit adorn
Against whose eating God had warned.
The stillness of that sacred grove
Was broken, as the serpent strove
With tempting voice to Eve beguile
And Adam too by sin defile.
O day of sadness when the breath
Of fear and darkness, doubt and death,
Its awful poison first displayed
Within the world so newly made.
What mercy God showed to our race,
A plan of rescue by His grace:
In sending One from woman’s seed,
The one to fill our greatest need
For on a tree uplifted high
His only Son for sin would die,
Would drink the cup of scorn and dread
To crush the ancient serpent’s head!
Now from that tree of Jesus’ shame
Flows life eternal in His name;
For all who trust and will believe,
Salvation’s living fruit receive.
And of this fruit so pure and sweet
The Lord invites the world to eat,
To find within this cross of wood
The Tree of life with ev’ry good. (ELH # 302)
After trying to pass off the guilt of their sin, God comforts them with a promise of a Savior from sin and death. (Genesis 3:15) After knowing they failed God and each other, Adam and Eve continue with their marriage in their sinful flesh. Let no one separate what God has joined together. Adam and Eve had to depend and take comfort in God’s promise of a Savior from their sin and eternal death. This promise covers the repentant Adam and Eve’s sin so that they are one flesh. God’s promise of the Savior from sin and death can only unite them. With this promise we can walk with God through life. Keeping in mind God’s mercy and grace through His Son and the Savior of the world (John 3:16), the husband and wife are reminded to be merciful to one another (Mark 11:25). Let no one separate what God has joined together.
Die As A Christian
What I wanted in this life on earth was to die a Christian and I still do. I wanted to drown the Old Adam daily. (Romans 7:18) I wanted Christ to renew me daily through His Word. I wanted to always go to a church with a faithful Pastor rightly administering the Word and Sacraments to keep me in the true faith until God calls me from this sinful earth and my sinful flesh to eternal life. If I would be so blessed to marry, I wanted my husband to want the same so I could respect him and be safe in God’s Word. I wanted to spend the rest of my life on earth with Rolf. I wanted to respect Rolf as a wife should respect her husband. Rolf was raised Lutheran. I knew Rolf and I would get encouragement in our marriage to be faithful to God’s Word from Rolf’s family. I knew I was a sinner. I did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. I knew I didn’t love Rolf as myself. I wanted to and still do. I knew Rolf was a sinner. Rolf did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things or love me as himself. Rolf wanted to and still does.
One thing needful!
This one treasure
Teach me, Savior, to esteem;
Other things may promise pleasure,
But are never what they seem;
They prove to be burdens that vex
us and chafe us,
And true lasting happiness never
vouchsafe us;
This one precious treasure, that
all else exceeds,
Gives joy above measure and fills
all my needs.
I have naught, my God, to offer,
Save the blood of Thy dear Son;
Graciously accept the proffer:
Make His righteousness mine own.
His holy life gave He, was crucified for me;
His righteousness perfect He now pleads before Thee;
His own robe of righteousness, my highest good,
Shall clothe me in glory, through faith in His blood.
Hence forth Thou alone, my Savior,
Shalt be all in all to me.
Search my heart and my behavior,
Cast out all hypocrisy.
Restrain me from wand’ring in pathways unholy
And throughout life’s pilgrimage keep my heart lowly;
I’ll value but lightly earth’s treasure and store:
Thou art the One needful, and mine evermore!
(ELH 182 verses 1, 6, &10)
Luther on Sixth Commandment
God created woman for man. (Genesis 1:27; 2:21-25) Husband and wives daily separate what God has joined together because of their own sin. In Luther’s explanation of the sixth commandment, he describes what are necessary between husband and wife.
Thou shall not commit adultery. What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we may lead a chaste and decent life in word and deed, and each love and honor his spouse.
Alfred Kinsey, a gall-wasp zoologist!, taught at the Indiana University from 1920 until his death in 1956. In the book Sexual Anarchy: The Kinsey Legacy by Judith A. Reisman, PHD and Mary I McAlister, ESQ tells how Kinsey claimed the Biblical view was ‘repressive’. In 1953, Kinsey claimed that this ‘repressive’ sexual legacy was responsible for socio-sexual ills like divorce, rape, illegitimacy, venereal disease, juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, homosexuality, adultery, and child sexual abuse. Kinsey “claimed the legal and Biblical view was hypocritical and causes socio-sexual ills. Kinsey argued that if we Americans would admit that we really were engaged in widespread licentious conduct, instead of hypocritically denying it, then these socio-sexual ills would be dramatically reduced.” Kinsey claimed ‘free-love’ would eliminate socio-sexual ills. Aw….can’t you hear the serpent: “You won’t die. You will be like God.” (Genesis 3:4-5) This ‘free-love’ was the downfall of King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived.(I King 11) Christians are accused of being hypocritical. A Christian is hypocritical when he hides his sin(s) from the church and does not repent of his sin(s). Hypocrites fear man not God. Hypocrites judge what is good by their desires. Hypocrites will judge what is right and wrong determined on popular consensus of what sin is and what sin is not. The children of Israel thought the same thing when they convinced Aaron to build a golden calf. (Exodus 32) Is it not wise to know what sin is according to God’s Word? Even if the sinner fools himself sin is not sin, it is crucial the church knows and identifies sin for what it is for the sake of the sinner. (Proverbs 1:7) Where there is forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation.
Alfred Kinsey, a gall-wasp zoologist!, taught at the Indiana University from 1920 until his death in 1956. In the book Sexual Anarchy: The Kinsey Legacy by Judith A. Reisman, PHD and Mary I McAlister, ESQ tells how Kinsey claimed the Biblical view was ‘repressive’. In 1953, Kinsey claimed that this ‘repressive’ sexual legacy was responsible for socio-sexual ills like divorce, rape, illegitimacy, venereal disease, juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, homosexuality, adultery, and child sexual abuse. Kinsey “claimed the legal and Biblical view was hypocritical and causes socio-sexual ills. Kinsey argued that if we Americans would admit that we really were engaged in widespread licentious conduct, instead of hypocritically denying it, then these socio-sexual ills would be dramatically reduced.” Kinsey claimed ‘free-love’ would eliminate socio-sexual ills. Aw….can’t you hear the serpent: “You won’t die. You will be like God.” (Genesis 3:4-5) This ‘free-love’ was the downfall of King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived.(I King 11) Christians are accused of being hypocritical. A Christian is hypocritical when he hides his sin(s) from the church and does not repent of his sin(s). Hypocrites fear man not God. Hypocrites judge what is good by their desires. Hypocrites will judge what is right and wrong determined on popular consensus of what sin is and what sin is not. The children of Israel thought the same thing when they convinced Aaron to build a golden calf. (Exodus 32) Is it not wise to know what sin is according to God’s Word? Even if the sinner fools himself sin is not sin, it is crucial the church knows and identifies sin for what it is for the sake of the sinner. (Proverbs 1:7) Where there is forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation.
I pray Thee, dear Lord Jesus,
My heart to keep and train.
That I Thy holy temple
From youth to age remain.
Turn Thee my thoughts forever
From worldly wisdom lore.
If I but learn to know Thee,
I shall not want for more. (ELH 178)
My heart to keep and train.
That I Thy holy temple
From youth to age remain.
Turn Thee my thoughts forever
From worldly wisdom lore.
If I but learn to know Thee,
I shall not want for more. (ELH 178)
(To be Continued)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)