What Has Lutheranism to Offer?

VIDEO: Earlier this year, Glen Scrivener (Speak Life) and I had a conversation about some of the distinctive teachings and emphases of Lutheranism.

Who’s Doing the Good I Do?

Is it the case that the Christian does not repent but "is repented"? Is it the case that the Christian does no good works, but that the only good works of the Christian are those of Christ? This is what the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church have to say on the matter: 9. Likewise…

Law and Gospel—Taxis or Praxis?

The proper distinction of the Law and the Gospel in God’s Word is, according to the Lutheran understanding, the mark of a true theologian. Confuse, mix, or otherwise mishandle them, and the Gospel will be lost. And when the Gospel is lost, faith is destroyed, and salvation is lost also. Plenty has been written on…

Eating and Eating

Listening to an outstanding sermon (mp3, in Finnish) by the Rev. Markus Pöyry, a very gifted young pastor serving a Luther Foundation congregation in Finland is to blame for the following: I wrote this post quite some time ago about my misgivings concerning the term 'spiritual eating' to refer to the reception of the promise…

I suppose I have arrived

... having appeared on Issues Etc. They interviewed me about Lutheranism in the United Kingdom. I wasn't 100% happy with how it went on my part, but I hope it's not entirely unhelpful. And if people know a little more about the joys and challenges of being a Lutheran in the UK as a result,…

The thing about Hermann Sasse…

... is that when he deals with the issues of his day, he could as well be writing for our day! I have just finished reading Union and Confession (tr. Matt Harrison; LC-MS Office of the President, 1997). It's written in response to the Barmen Declaration. Yet it could be written about the Lutheran churches…