Baptismal Waters

When Martin Luther lay dying, he was asked, "Reverend Father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in his name?" "Yes!," he replied. Shortly afterward, a stroke deprived him of the power of speech. But following his death, a piece of paper was found on his person which contained what are usually thought of as his last words. They also, in many ways, sum up a great deal of his theology: "We are beggars. This is true." Beggars. People utterly dependent on the generosity of Another. People without resources of their own.  People whose plea is for mercy, not for justice; whose prayer is not, "Lord, I thank You that I am not as others are," but rather "God, be merciful to me, a sinner," uttered in the painful awareness that the Christian in himself is exactly as others are, and no better. Yet Christians still presume to look down our noses at people who differ from

In 1999, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) and the Lutheran World Federation issued th e Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification ,  which claimed to represent a resolution of the central issue of the Reformation, namely the question of whether we are saved by grace by faith alone, as Luther insisted, or by a combination of faith and works, as Roman Catholicism insisted. It did no such thing. But now, it seems, the World Communion of Reformed Churches has signed on to the JDDJ. On the basis of that "agreement," the Roman church declared that the condemnations of the Council of Trent sort do not apply to Lutheranism, at least as represented by the churches of the LWF. Here is what Trent, in fact, condemned: Canon IX: If anyone says that the ungodly is justified by faith alone in such a way that he understands that nothing else is required which cooperates toward obtaining the grace of justification . . . let him be condemned. Ca

October 31 will mark the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany, touching off the Protestant Reformation. A great many people will be celebrating the anniversary who have no business doing so. The fact is that justification by grace alone, through faith alone- the central tenet of the Reformation, and the teaching Luther regarded as "the doctrine whereby the Church stands or falls-" is by no means held, as a practical matter, by all "Protestants." John Wesley chose to unbiblically define "sin" as an "intentional" violation of God's law despite the fact that the Bible abides no such qualification, even providing in the Mosaic Law for sacrifices to atone for unintentional sins! By lowering the bar on the law, Wesley set the stage for his bizarre doctrine of "Christian perfection," a teaching which he spent the rest of his life backing off from bu

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? --Ezekiel 18:23 (ESV) Hugh Hefner, the high priest of the sexual revolution and the founder of Playboy magazine, is dead at age 91. Reactions are varied. I can honestly say that I have not seen or heard any Christian come right out and openly gloat about Hef entering eternity, but there is no shortage of smug speculation in Christian circles concerning his eternal fate. Not surprisingly- and not without justification- atheists and the anti-religious take this of further evidence of the self-righteousness, judgementalism, and lack of compassion which supposedly characterize Christians and therefore Christianity. Once again, we seem literally hell-bent on confirming the world's impression that the Faith, and by extension Jesus, have an agenda one hundred eighty degrees the opposite of what it really is. Few people in the history

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. -Mark 16:8 ESV What a strange text we have this morning! Here the Marys and Salome had gone to the tomb, mourning for a dead Lord, and expecting to complete the sad task of embalming Him. Instead, they found the stone at the tomb’s entrance rolled away, and an angel sitting next to it- with the incredible news that the One they mourned was alive! “Go!” the angel said. “Tell His disciples. Tell Peter. He is not here. He is risen!” So did they go and do as they had been told? No! They didn't tell anybody! It's not that they were overcome with joy that Jesus wasn’t dead anymore. Our text tells us that they didn't do what the angel told them to do because they were afraid.  Now, it's a very human thing to be afraid. We live in a universe over which we have far less control than we tell ourselves we have. Have you ever l