I believe in the Resurrection of the body.

"The term 'resurrection of the flesh,' however, is not well chosen.  When we Germans hear the word Fleisch, we think no farther than the butcher shop.  Idiomatically we would say 'resurrection of the body.'  However, this is not of great importance, as long as the words are rightly understood."
Large Catechism, Apostles' Creed, Article III.

"Fourthly, concerning the doctrine of the resurrection, Scripture testifies that precisely the substance of this our flesh, but without sin, shall arise, and that in eternal life we shall have and keep precisely this soul, although without sin.  If there were no difference whatsoever between our corrupted body and soul on the one hand and original sin on the other, then it would follow, contrary to this article of our Christian faith, either that our flesh would not rise on Judgment Day and that in eternal life, instead of this essence of our body and soul, we should have another substance or another soul since we there shall be without sin...."
Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article I, Original Sin.

I struggled with this one.  I had to spend a lot more time in the Book of Concord than I thought I would.  What the quote of Martin Luther in the Large Catechism says to me is that the contributors to The Lutheran Confessions took it as self-evident that Jesus rose bodily from the dead, and that we will as well.  The Apostles' Creed says that we believe in the resurrection of the body, so they did believe it.  Imagine. 

The Scripture reference for this is Luke 24: 36-43.  In this resurrection appearance, the apostles think Jesus is a spirit after his resurrection.  First Jesus tells them he is "flesh and bone".  Then to prove it, he eats a piece of fish in their presence.  Given the lengths to which Jesus went to demonstrate that he was bodily raised, and given the clarity of The Apostles' Creed that we believe in "the resurrection of the body," it may seem odd to post on the topic of whether Jesus bodily rose from the dead, and that we will as well.  But Gnostics are alive and well in the world today.  (Gnostics believe that physical is "bad" and spirit is "good" so there is no bodily resurrection for Jesus or for us.)  And each year at this time of year Drs. Crossan and Borg of The Historical Jesus Movement (and The Jesus Seminar) gain notoriety and money by selling the conclusion that despite what the confessors found self-evident, somehow Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead. 

Most of the topics I have raised in this blog come from actual "discussions", either face to face or digitally.  The discussion last week was a proposition that there is no evidence for The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is something we have to just accept on "blind faith" because there is no evidence.  Two years ago, after reading Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ" and Josh McDowell's "The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict," I wrote a closing argument (rebuttal summary) in the hypothetical case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.  As a disciple of C. S. Lewis, obviously I am convinced that there is evidence for our belief that The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an historical fact, in the sense that it actually occurred in history.  (I have that presentation on DVD BTW.)  It is not surprising that The Historical Jesus proponents would deny a bodily resurrection, since they also deny the divinity of Christ.  The post earlier on the divinity of Christ came from a discussion at a leadership event in which a pastor shared that he did not believe that Jesus is God because Dr. Crossan had demonstrated that he is not.  Really?  These heresies go together.  And they both have the same intent: an attempt to set aside the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as The Way and The Truth and The Life.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event in the history of history. It demonstrated that Jesus was exactly who he said he was, and that God keeps God's promises.  Don't allow the wild speculations of a handful of scholars steal your hope and joy this Easter season.  He is risen indeed.  And because he lives, we too shall live.

I believe in the resurrection of the body.

Let's review.

I am planning my next post on The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As I head in to that post, I thought this would be  a good time to review what I have attempted to demonstrate from The Lutheran Confessions, and from Scripture, so far.
Let's review.

1.  The Lutheran Confessions (including the ancient creeds) continue to be important to our faith walk today.  They not only define what it is to be Lutheran, they define what it is to be Christian.

2.  Jesus is Eternal God, just as the Nicene Creed sets forth.  This is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion "in the history of history."

3.  Jesus died for our sins, as satisfaction for our sins by His blood.  There are differing "theories" of atonement, descriptions of HOW this works, but THAT it works is essential.

4.  The writers of the Lutheran Confessions wrote believing that there will be a hell and there will be human beings that inhabit it forever along with the demons.  We "chuck" this doctrine to our own peril and the eternal peril of those we love (which ought to be everyone).  Jesus spoke quite a bit about hell and damnation.

5.  The writers of the Lutheran Confessions took at face value the declarations in Scripture that angels and demons actually exist and actually impact the lives of human beings.

6.  Martin Luther referred to the good that we do as "faith active in love."  The Lutheran Confessions make it quite clear that we live out our faith in acts of love and obedience, what Luther also referred to as "living wet" - living out our baptism every day.

7.  Jesus is the only way to heaven.  He said so (John 14:6) and the confessors believed Him.  Is is possible that God has another way?  God is God.  But again, we are responsible for The Message that has been shared with us.  We don't deny the words of Jesus Himself because we find them unpopular.

8.  Our human natures are totally stained by sin.  God created our human natures "good" and they remain so, but the stain covers them completely.  The reason Jesus is the only way, the reason His death matters eternally, is that only His blood removes the stain.  There is no where else to go.

I have argued at the beginning of this blog that our ordination oath obligates us to teach in accordance with The Lutheran Confessions.  Some have stated that they do so "in so far as they are a faithful exposition of scripture."  But I posted the oath below to demonstrate that those words do not appear in the oath.  Instead we confess that they ARE a faithful exposition of Scripture.  And for each of these points I have gone the next step to demonstrate that they do in fact faithfully convey the teachings of Scripture, our norm of faith.

As Resurrection Sunday approaches, what my Latvian brothers and sisters call, Lieldienas (The Great Day) we will look closely together at what The Lutheran Confessions set forth regarding the center of Christian Faith, the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thank you for walking with me.

St. Valentine and St. Patrick

I love the stories of St. Valentine and St. Patrick.  I love remembering them on their "day".  But the celebration is always made bittersweet for me by the ironic cultural trappings we have used to surround these days.

About a hundred years after The Apostle Paul's life was ended by the emporer in Rome, there was a priest in Rome by the name of Valentine.  When the emperor banned marriage for soldiers conscripted in the Roman army, Valentine let it be known through the Christian underground that he was willing to perform secret marriages before God for Christian soldiers.  He was eventually discovered, arrested, tried, and the Emperor Claudius took his head (he was a Roman citizen) in the same manner of Paul's execution.  He died for the sake of love. The date of his death was February 14th.  Valentine (later sainted by the church) stood for Christ in a pagan culture, against paganism, for the truth of Jesus Christ.  And how do we remember St. Valentine's Day - the day of this great saint of God in Jesus Christ?  Cupid, pagan god of love.  Cupid was his Roman name.  In the "original" Greek he is Eros, god of erotic love.  St. Valentine stood in the Name of Jesus Christ, the one true God of agape - unconditional God-love.  I Corinthians 13.

Hundreds of years later, a teen named Patrick was at home in the area now France, when he was captured by raiders and taken as a slave to the island of Ireland.  He lived among the pagan people of Ireland for many, many years, his young adulthood, before finally escaping back to his homeland.  But God the Holy Spirit moved on Patrick's Christian (Christ-loving) heart, filling it with love for those who had captured and enslaved (and often brutalized) him.  Patrick became driven to return to the island of his enslavement with the Good News of Jesus Christ, who is The Way, and The Truth, and The Life.  Pouring out his life for the people of Ireland and being "marked for death" more than once, he started over 300 churches in Ireland to the honor and glory of The Name.  He battled paganism and superstition across Ireland.  And how do we remember St. Patrick's Day in our culture?  Leprechauns (and, or course, public drunkenness). 

I love the story of St. Patrick for another important reason.  The Holy Spirit - GOD - drove St. Patrick to Ireland because the people there were NOT OK.  THEY were enslaved in darkness of paganism and superstition, and God would have that end. So God sent Patrick with The Truth about Jesus Christ, the ONLY way to heaven, so that the peoples of Ireland could be welcomed into what really is the one true faith.  Of course there is truth in all religions.  To concede that is to concede nothing.  All other religions are simply in error when in comes to the person, the nature, the work of Jesus Christ.  (I discussed this at some length below in the post on why Jesus really is the only way, and will not repeat it here.)

The point is this.  As the followers of Jesus, until we get that the Good News we have to share can't be gotten anywhere else and can't be given by anyone else (other than the followers) we have not yet begun to do what Jesus commissioned us to do.

Soli Deo Gloria - to God alone be glory.
Blessed St. Patrick's Day. 
(BTW, St. Patrick's Breastplate is pretty easily available online, but if you would like me to send you the very readable and poetic version I discovered and formatted for use in worship and meetings, let me know and I would be happy to send it out.)

Total Depravity?

TOTAL DEPRAVITY?

 Formula of Concord: 2, 1, 6

  First of all, it is true that not only should Christians regard and recognize as sin the actual violation of God’s commandments in their deeds, but they should also perceive and recognize that the horrible, dreadful, inherited disease corrupting their entire nature is above all actual sin and indeed is the “chief sin.” It is the root and fountainhead of all actual sins. ^c Luther calls this a “nature-sin” or “person-sin,”²⁵ in order to indicate that even if a human being thinks, says, or does nothing evil (which is, of course, after the fall of our first parents, impossible for human nature in this life), nevertheless, our entire nature and person is sinful, that is, totally and thoroughly corrupted in God’s sight and contaminated by original sin as with a spiritual leprosy. Because of this corruption and on account of the fall of the first human beings, God’s law accuses and condemns human nature and the human person. Therefore, Luther concludes, we are “by nature children of wrath” [Eph. 2:3*], of death, and of damnation, if we are not redeemed from them through Christ’s merit.

Formula of Concord: 2, 11, 85

 For this reason the human being who is not reborn resists God completely and is totally the slave of sin. The reborn, however, desire to practice God’s law according to their inward self, but see at the same time in their members the law of sin, which resists the law of their mind. Therefore, they serve God’s law with their mind but the law of sin with their flesh (Rom. 7[:22*, 23*, 25*]). In this way one may explain and teach the proper understanding of this matter thoroughly, clearly, and appropriately.

Formula of Concord: 1, 1, 3

On the other hand, we believe, teach, and confess that original sin is not a slight corruption of human nature, but rather a corruption so deep that there is nothing sound or uncorrupted left in the human body or soul, in its internal or external powers. Instead, as the church sings, “Through Adam’s fall human nature and our essence are completely corrupted.”⁶ The damage is so indescribable that it cannot be recognized by our reason but only from God’s Word. The damage is such that only God alone can separate human nature and the corruption of this nature from each other. This separation will take place completely through death, at the resurrection, when the nature which we now have will rise and live eternally, without original sin—separated and severed from it—as it is written in Job 19[:26, 27], “I will be covered in my own skin, and in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold.”

These provisions of the Formula of Concord deal with "original sin." So first of all, YES, the Lutheran Confessions teach that "original sin" is something very real.  With regard to the concept of total depravity, it can come down to definitions.  The Formula of Concord is also clear that human beings in the civil arena have some capacity to make good and right choices.  Humans can do good works.  But when it comes to being in a relationship with God, when it comes to overcoming sin, humans bring nothing to the table.  It is not that human nature, created in the image of God, created "very good" has become evil.  It is that sin is a stain on human nature.  And the stain is complete.  It's not a spot or two.  All of human nature is all covered in sin.  And only Jesus can separate the good human nature from the stain of sin.  (This goes back to the "Atonement" post below, because God accomplished that through the blood of Christ.)  The Confession in the old red Service Book began "I am by nature sinful and unclean."  That language was changed in the green hymnal, "We confess that we are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves."  I have no problem with this.  I can see how the language in the old red hymnal could be confusing in that someone might think that human nature IS evil.  Being in prison to sin, and in bondage of slavery, is a good image. 

The reason this is so important is that only those who recognize that they are "in bondage to sin and cannot free themselves" recognize they need a Savior.  This accounts for much of the "all ways lead to heaven" position that I addressed in a post below.  If we can all just "do a little better" or all "move in the right direction" then not trusting in Christ, but trusting in some other "guru" is all one.  But we are not going to get to God by "trying harder" or "doing better" or "moving in the right direction."  We are going to get to God the way God prescribed, in and through Jesus Christ, who is Savior and Lord (and eternal God).  There is no other way.  Only a Savior can save us from sin.