tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post6887971802369717028..comments2024-03-29T04:31:15.219-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: Certainty in an ambiguous worldPastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-46708561527057984642012-06-19T21:17:37.870-05:002012-06-19T21:17:37.870-05:00Any contributor to a blog like this one is limited...Any contributor to a blog like this one is limited in what he may write by the number of characters permitted. Therefore it may become awkward to write everything you want to. After making my earlier posting, I began to think that someone might interpret my words as concern for doctrinal purity per se, as if the most important work of the Church is to be guardian of the truth, and as if really pure doctrine will solve all of the problems of the Church here on earth. My memory is not precise, but I think it was Robert D. Preus, who wrote words to the effect that any deviation from orthodoxy affects the Doctrine of Justification. I am sure he was right, but if he was, this is also true of the entire Gospel. That is my concern.<br /><br />At the same time, having read “Freed From the Shopkeeper's Prison”, by<br />Rev. H. R. Curtis, I am also convinced that nothing any of us do, will do, or fail to do affects the number of God’s Elect who will enter Paradise. Not even preaching an impure Gospel. But what is affected is life in the Church, in the Kingdom that is populated by God’s Elect. I suspect that if we do not proclaim the pure Gospel, then we may deprive ourselves of some of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.” And every one of the items I mentioned in my earlier postings affects how we define the Gospel.<br /><br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. MarquartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-61278690709219380342012-06-19T16:59:47.376-05:002012-06-19T16:59:47.376-05:00Excellent post. I think both camps make their argu...Excellent post. I think both camps make their arguments based on this notion: Man cannot define truth.<br /><br />I draw comfort from being a member of a confessional church that stands by its Christological confessions and is built upon the ancient church firmly based on Scripture. <br /><br />It befuddles me to no end why Christians would attend a church that attempts to refute Sacrament, confessions and creeds while their faith is being shepherded on the whims and fancies of a singular pastor. (And what happens when that singular pastor dies or retires and leaves a flock of believers to "shift" to another pastor with different theologies? I want an answer on that one.) Why throw away hundreds of years of finely-tuned, Scripturally-rooted liturgy for the desires and wants of people today in this culture? And it's just plain sad to see people missing out on the wonderful salvific gifts of the Sacraments.Erik Maldrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16069445625382113969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-13327588454049048642012-06-19T13:34:25.166-05:002012-06-19T13:34:25.166-05:00George offers thoughtful and interesting ideas. H...George offers thoughtful and interesting ideas. However, those who lament the "diversity" in practice in Missouri or elsewhere are utterly unconcerned about and uninterested in such things. They are interested in results in this world. Such as whatever they need to say to get people in the door.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-40812563004578127652012-06-19T13:17:15.787-05:002012-06-19T13:17:15.787-05:00“Missouri and the smaller confessional Lutheran bo...“Missouri and the smaller confessional Lutheran bodies are either dinosaurs of a past era or prophetic voices to the modern mess of ambiguity and relative truth.” It is estimated that there are upward of 30,000 denominations in the world today that call themselves “Christian”. There is only one point, with all of their diversity, which they all, without a single exception, believe to be true: “that they are right, and everybody else is wrong.” To be a “prophetic voice” you have to be “a voice crying in the wilderness”; in other words you have to proclaim what nobody else proclaims.<br /><br />It would be absurd to proclaim, “We are wrong about everything”, but if we admit, “we may be wrong about some things,” we would indeed be a prophetic voice. But we cannot do that; we are “quia” confessors. Just like the ex cathedra Pope, we cannot be wrong. Here are a few thought starters:<br />1. Is the Apology correct in teaching that God wrote the Decalogue on our hearts?<br />2. Is there something wrong with the fourth item under Luther’s explanation of Baptism in the Small Catechism: “What does such baptizing with water signify?”<br />3. Is there something wrong with Luther’s explanation of the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism?<br />4. Is there something wrong with the idea of “faith and the Holy Spirit departing from David” in the Smalcald Articles’ section “Of the false repentance of the Papists”?<br /><br />No, I don’t make it a point to search for errors in the Book of Concord. I go there for answers, and every once in a while I come across something that makes me ask, “can this be true”? It will not destroy the Lutheran Church if we admit that we could be wrong about some things. But it may be destroyed if we claim to be the only organization in which humans take part that does not make mistakes.<br /><br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. MarquartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-32665021403152645982012-06-19T12:58:11.774-05:002012-06-19T12:58:11.774-05:00.
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Remind me where this diversity came from.
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..<br />.<br />Remind me where this diversity came from.<br />.<br />.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com