A Squirrel in the House

Newsletter article for March 2005

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There once was a group of tenants who rented a house. One day a squirrel got into the house and began to make a mess. The squirrel chewed holes in the tenants belongings, knocked over the furnishings, and made a great mess in the house. The tenants complained to the landlord and he sent a housekeeper to clean up the mess and deal with the situation.

When the housekeeper arrived at the house he saw what the problem was right away. He quickly began planning to get rid of the squirrel and clean up the mess in the house. But when he told the tenants what he was going to do they strongly objected. They thought the squirrel was “cute” and they had really grown attached to it and didn’t want to get rid of the squirrel, despite the damage it was doing in the house. The housekeeper had never before heard such nonsense and tried to reason with the tenants, but they wouldn’t let him remove the squirrel so that he could clean up the house. The housekeeper was determined to clean up the house because he worked for the landlord and not the tenants, but so as not to upset the tenants too much too quickly he resolved to move slowly.

The housekeeper thought he would first try to clean up a little bit of the mess the squirrel had made so that the tenants would see how good it was to live in a clean house, and then he would also explain to them all the good benefits of squirrel removal so that they would appreciate when the squirrel was gone. This was the plan, but it didn’t go quite as he had hoped. Whenever the housekeeper tried to clean up the mess the squirrel had made, or repair the damage it had done the tenants objected. They had grown so attached to the squirrel over time that they had gotten so used to the squirrel’s destruction that they couldn’t bear to live without it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper lift one finger to do the work that he had been sent to accomplish.

The housekeeper tried to show the tenants that keeping a wild animal in the house was self-destructive, and it violated the terms of their lease, but they dismissed the words of the housekeeper by calling him such things as “insensitive” and “uncaring.” Some of the tenants might have listened to the housekeeper, but the other tenants told them that the real problem was the housekeeper, and that all their problems would go away if the housekeeper left. So the housekeeper found little support among the tenants.

Most of the time the tenants listened politely to what the housekeeper told them about all the benefits of letting him remove the squirrel and cleaning up the landlord’s house where they lived, but they didn’t believe a word of it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper do his work.

As time went by some of the tenants did grow weary of living in a house which was increasingly being torn to bits by the squirrel and its progeny. The squirrel had made a nest and there was a whole family of squirrels just destroying the landlord’s house and despoiling the tenants’ belongings. A few tenants decided to move out, and a little later, a few more tenants moved out. The housekeeper couldn’t blame them for leaving. He would have left himself except that the landlord had given him a job to do and he wanted to see the job accomplished. He also wanted the tenants to see the wisdom of getting rid of the squirrel so that even if they moved somewhere else they would not bring such destruction to another of the landlord’s houses.

When the tenants saw that people were moving out they began to get upset and again blamed the housekeeper. The housekeeper thought that this was just more of their nonsensical rationalizations, but there was a bit of truth to their complaints. The housekeeper had not done his job and people were leaving. It’s not that people wouldn’t have left if he had done the job in opposition to the tenants, but he had tried to accommodate the irrational and self-destructive desires of these tenants, and in doing this he hadn’t done his job.

The housekeeper began to do what he had been sent to do. He found all the squirrel nests in the house and removed them and all squirrels that he was able to find. Then he started to clean up and repair the damage done by the rodents. The tenants had a fit! They complained about what the housekeeper was doing. They told how other tenants in other houses lived in similar squirrel squalor, as if that would excuse their own misdeeds. Then they proceeded to call the housekeeper all kinds of nasty names. They tried to turn all of the other tenants against the housekeeper and the landlord by telling lies about him. When they saw they couldn’t intimidate him from doing his job they began to conspire secretly how they could sneak more squirrels into the house without the housekeeper or the landlord knowing about it.

When the situation had gotten so bad that the house was beyond repair the tenants still tenaciously kept at their destructive ways. They complained that they had hit rock bottom, but they didn’t believe they were really at rock bottom because they still felt that everything would be better if only the housekeeper wasn’t there to clean up the mess that they had allowed to grow, and they still tried to get the housekeeper kicked out of the landlord’s house. A squirrel is not a person, but they loved that squirrel and its destruction more than they loved the housekeeper or the landlord.

What do you think the landlord will do to those wicked tenants? (See Matt. 21:33-44)

Feeling Good can Kill You!

Newsletter article for August 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There is a war going on. Actually, there seem to be several wars going on all at the same time. The war that I would like to consider here has been labeled the “Culture War”. This war is being fought between Christianity and Culture. It is not a new battle. It has been fought since the beginning. Holy Scripture describes it as the “great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).

Although the Culture War is being fought for the hearts and minds of all Christians, it is parents who are engaged in the most important battles. I say that this is the most important because in the culture wars it is the children who are most vulnerable, and it is also vitally important that our children stay on the Christian side of this war, rather than being recruited for the other side.

Why is this called a “war”? Saint Peter describes it in this way, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11) Scripture frequently describes antagonism between the world and faithful followers of God. The “world” are those who follow their sinful desires against God’s commands. Christians are those who, though they are also sinners, by the grace of God live by faith in Jesus and by His grace they do what God commands. The war is what happens when the world tries to turn Christians against God through temptation to sin.

Make no mistake, this really is a war. The worldly side in this culture war would like you to believe that it is something completely different, that is, something which is really harmless and benign, when in fact if the battle is lost it is very deadly. Saint Paul describes it in this way, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.…We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (1 Cor. 10:4-5)

The battles in this war can be most clearly seen in temptations to such sins as sexual immorality and the pleasures of illicit drugs. The world tempts us with such things by trying to get us to believe that such things are good for us because they make us feel good. There is a bit of truth to that, but as they say, “a half truth is a whole lie.” It is true that there is probably nothing that is more pleasurable than drugs such as heroin or cocaine, but the lie in this is shown by the fact that it is a one-time “high,” you can never feel that good again. After the initial pleasure then the person is hooked and driven by a powerful desire to feel that way again, but such a thing can never be attained, and as the person seeks to feel good he or she is destroying their body.

Another front in this culture war is fought concerning sexual sins. God has given us sexuality as a blessing for married couples so that they may “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (see Gen. 9:7). Jesus taught that the Holy Scriptures show us that God intended marriage to be as long as they both shall live (see Matt. 19:4-6), but the world says, “if it feels good, then what harm can it do?” The harm that these sins can do is seen in the betrayal of marital vows, or the betrayal of the physical intimacy between lovers, and also in sexually transmitted diseases, in broken families, and fatherless children and orphans.

In a way, these are relatively easy battles for Christian parents to fight. We can easily show our children that if you take drugs then you might wreck your health or die. We can easily show our children that if you commit adultery then your life will be changed in any of a number of ways, none of them worth the momentary pleasure of the sin. Our children may not listen to us, and still may fall into the temptations of these sins, but the consequences of these temptations are easily seen and can be easily taught. The real tough battles in the culture war are the spiritual battles. These are the temptations to sin against the First Commandment (“You shall have no other gods.”)

The difficulty with fighting spiritual battles is that the bad consequences are not seen. Unlike the physical consequences of other sins, the result of losing the spiritual battles cannot be seen by anyone in this life. No one knows what hellish things that others experience, so when people lose the spiritual battles it is hard to point that out to our children and say, “See, if you turn against God in this way then this will happen to you, too.” The worldly culture tempts us to sin against the first commandment in much the same way as it tempts us to sin against the other commandments. We are told, “Try it, you’ll like it. It feels good, and it won’t hurt you one little bit.” In a way, it can be very fun to follow false gods, but again there is a terrible price to pay in the end.

Parents have a difficult job in fighting the war between Christianity and culture. The best weapon we have is God’s Word. As we teach and live according to God’s Word, then we arm our children to fight and become victorious in the culture wars. One simple, useful, practical way to help our children is to use the word, “no.” If we learn to say “no” to our children at the right time then we can teach them to learn some self control to deny themselves some of the pleasures of life. This is important because if we are comfortable denying ourselves some worldly pleasures then we can be comfortable denying ourselves the destructive pleasures of sin. There are many ways that feeling good can kill you, but if we train ourselves and our children to say “no” to the pleasures of the flesh then with the help of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be victorious in the culture war against Christianity.

Reconciliation

Newsletter article for June 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Reconciliation is a word which has weighed heavy on my mind lately. Perhaps it has been on your mind, too. It means to become friends again. Obviously this assumes that something has happened between friends which has broken their friendship or even in an extreme case has made them enemies. The opposite of reconciliation is estrangement or alienation. The ultimate cause of estrangement is sin, and because we are all sinners estrangement is not all that strange to us. Since estrangement is familiar to us then reconciliation also ought to be familiar to us, but people’s sinful pride gets in the way of that far too often.

In my consideration of the word “reconciliation” I did what I often do, I went to the Holy Scriptures to see how God uses this word. This is a good habit to get into. I learned this from a good friend. Jesus himself had the habit of going to the Holy Scriptures to deal with events in His life. He did it to teach. He did it to answer questions (both honest questions, and evil ones intended to entrap him). He did it to withstand temptation. He did it when He was dying, and He did it after he was resurrected from the dead. Jesus was familiar with the Bible because He was familiar with God. If we wish to be a member of God’s family then we also ought to be familiar with the Bible.

When you use your concordance (or computer Bible word search) it is important to keep in mind a few simple rules of Bible interpretation. Jesus was a very good interpreter of the Bible. He was the best, and although this also is one way in which no one can fully measure up to Jesus, it is not hard to properly interpret the Bible. The people who make it hard are the ones who don’t believe God’s word. It is actually quite simple. Proper Bible interpretation all comes down to the answer to this simple question: “What does the Bible say?” It really is that easy. The hard part comes when, in our sinfulness, we don’t like what the Bible says and we try to make it say what we want it to say instead of what it really says. We saw that a couple months ago in an unauthorized article in this newsletter which quoted Bible verses about praise, but did it in a way which ignored the context of the verses and really said something opposite to what the those passages really teach about the true praise of God. The rules of Bible interpretation are simple, but they are absolutely important.

I found nine occurrences of the word “reconcile” in its various forms in the NIV Bible. Several of the passages (Matt. 5:23-24; Luke 12:58-59; Acts 7:26; and 1 Cor. 7:11) encourage or command people to become friends again with each other. As I said above, this is to be expected in a sinful world in which our pride is a great sin. There are many other Bible passages which show reconciliation and how it should be handled such as Matt. 18:15-17 and Genesis 45:4-7, but for this essay I am simply focusing on the passages which use a form of the word “reconcile.” The passages which are most helpful to us estranged sinners are the other passages which describe our reconciliation with God. You may find these in your Bible at: Romans 5:10-11; Rom. 11:15; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:14-18; and Colossians 1:15-23. You may not think that the verses which tell us how we are reconciled with God would be more valuable to us in reconciling with one another, but that would be wrong. God’s ways are not the same as the world’s ways, and Christians especially need to be reconciled with God before we are reconciled with one another.

We are all estranged from God because of our sinfulness. Remember how Adam and Eve were kicked out of God’s garden paradise after they sinned against God’s command (Genesis 3). The estrangement of sin is severe, and there is nothing we can do about it. Romans 5:10-11 reminds us that our sin makes us God’s enemies, but we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Jesus. It is Jesus who has made us friends again with God. He has endured the punishment for our sins so God is no longer angry over them, and he has also forgiven us for causing him to suffer. The effect of Christ’s reconciliation is that we can have access to God’s heavenly paradise where we shall live in peace and happiness forever.

Because of Christ’s reconciliation, St. Paul told the believers in Corinth (2 Cor. 5:16-21) that we now regard no one from a worldly point of view. If Christ went to the cross and the grave in order to make us friends again with God the Father, then our estrangements here on earth are petty and small by comparison. They may not seem small, but we may quickly learn from experience that things aren’t always what they seem. If we look at our estrangements from God’s point of view they all are small and easily overcome. The key is forgiveness. Here again we learn forgiveness from Jesus. We learn in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt. 18:21-35) that Jesus has forgiven us so much, that if we treasure His forgiveness then it is relatively easy to forgive the little things which keep us apart.

Reconciliation is easy for Christians because Jesus enables us to do it all the time. Reconciliation is impossible for unbelievers because they reject the forgiveness of their sins through Jesus Christ, and so therefore they reject the forgiveness of one another. Christians rely on God’s forgiveness every day of their lives so reconciliation is quite familiar. I pray that God would lead all sinners at St. Timothy to repentance so that they may joyfully receive Christ’s forgiveness, and having received this treasure they may also share that forgiveness and reconciliation with one another. I include myself in this, but it would be a tragedy for me to be the only one to repent. I repent of my sins daily, but I am not here to be the only one who receives Christ’s forgiveness and reconciliation. I am here to lead Christ’s sheep to the green pastures of His paradise. Christ has taught me that the way to paradise comes only through faith in His forgiveness and reconciliation. Read the Scripture passages which I have referenced above. May Christ lead you to repentance of all your sins, and receive the blessings of His forgiveness and reconciliation.

Unity

Newsletter article for May 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)

It is no big secret that there is a decided lack of unity at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. This certainly cannot please God, who wishes unity among His people just as He has unity in Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The blessings of unity are obvious. Peace and harmony among God’s people is certainly “good and pleasant” as David writes in the Psalm. The curses of disunity are also obvious. Anger, distrust, accusations and similar things are very unsettling and difficult to deal with. Everyone can agree that unity is better than disunity, but then we must ask, “What is the basis for this unity?”

The Formula of Concord was written around 1580 during a time of disunity in the church. It sought to explain what ought to be the basis for unity in the church. The Formula goes on at length discussing several issues about which there had been disagreements, but a simple summary about what brings about true unity in the church is found in Article X where it says that there should be unity among Christians “as long as there is mutual agreement in doctrine and in all its articles as well as in the right use of the holy sacraments.” The true unity in the Christian church is found in agreement with the teachings of Holy Scripture, no less, and no more.

This should first make perfect sense to us because Holy Scripture is God’s Word, and if we cannot agree about the truth of God’s Word, then either one or both of the parties in the dispute have put themselves in opposition to God. There can never be peace when people set themselves against God, even when there is agreement to disagree about the truth of God’s Word.

It would seem a simple thing to base unity on agreement about the doctrinal teachings of God’s Word, and it would be, but for the interference of sin. Because all people are sinners we don’t want to believe what God tells us. We would rather seek to justify ourselves rather than admit that we are wrong and submit to our Lord’s instruction. This is why Jesus prayed to God the Father, “May [those who believe in me] be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved me.” (John 17:23) Jesus knew that believers are sinners and need God to bring them to “complete unity.” Christ’s purpose for this unity is so that unbelievers would know that Jesus has been sent by God to bring forgiveness and salvation to them so that they would trust in Him and be saved.

St. Paul encouraged the church in Ephesus when He wrote, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit– just as you were called to one hope when you were called– one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:3-6) Here again, the basis for our unity is in the true teachings of God’s Word. Scripture teaches that there is only one Lord, and there is only one saving faith in that Lord, and one Holy Baptism where that Lord makes us His own people because God is Lord of all. To deny the Lord’s means of grace is to deny Him, and to deny Him is to cause disunity and discord, and, given what Jesus said above, lead people away from their Savior toward their condemnation.

Fortunately Jesus has taken steps to prevent this. He has provided us with shepherds to keep us on the path that leads to eternal life. St. Paul again says, “It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:11-13) Here again, the unity comes through the “one faith” in Jesus Christ, and “the knowledge of the Son of God”. This “knowledge” refers to the correct teaching of Scriptural doctrine. This is one of the main reasons why the Lutheran Church insists on an educated clergy. Pastors need to remain faithful to God’s Word so that they can keep Christ’s sheep headed in the proper direction. The “rod and staff” of the shepherd is a comfort in Psalm 23 because the shepherd leads us “through the valley of the shadow of death” in safety as we follow Christ to salvation.

May God bless the Pastor of our congregation to show us the true path to salvation as God gives us in Holy Scripture, and may God bless the congregation to hear with the ears of little children (Matt. 18:3) so that they may dwell in unity in Christ’s Kingdom.

Chaos in Christendom

Newsletter article for December 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

It has been said that chaos begets chaos. Forgive me for not knowing the source of that saying, but it is often true. When all the structures that keep our lives in order have vanished then our sinful nature sees an opportunity to exert itself and unless one possesses a good amount of self control then we only add to the chaos. Lutheran doctrine teaches that the first use of the Law is that our sinful nature is kept in check by the threat of punishment. We don’t wish to be punished, so we don’t do what is wrong. This is obviously not the same as doing right, but it keeps things relatively safe and orderly in a world where few people even care to obey God. An example of this self-perpetuating chaos is when those who enforce the law are rendered incapable, such as during times of war or other great disaster. The ongoing quagmire in Iraq is an example of this. Chaos can also erupt during power outages, and I think we can all be thankful to God that during this summer’s massive blackout that there were relatively few instances of looting and thievery. There were some reported examples of these, but compared to the scale of the blackout it could have been much worse.

I bring this up only as a general example of how lawlessness brings about more lawlessness and chaos. There seems to be a growing chaos in the church. Now when I say the “church” I mean what used to be called “Christendom” or the visible church on earth. Among the True Church, that is all the believers in Christ throughout the world, things are as good as they always have been because the believers in Christ live by faith, and not by sight, and we know that Christ is Lord of all and has everything in control, even when everything seems to be spinning out of control.

Yet, it is still disturbing to read reports of apostasy and growing division within Christian denominations. The hearts of Christians throughout the world must hurt for our brothers and sisters who are affected by public denials of the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. We have been hearing a lot lately about a growing rift in the Episcopal Church over Sixth Commandment (marriage and sexuality) issues. These reports hit close to home for Lutherans for at least two reasons. First, the news reports say that if there is a denominational split then it would be the biggest since the LCMS lost about 100,000 members in the early 1970s. And second, regardless of what happens among the Episcopal Churches, it would seem that the LCMS is threatening to soon follow.

It is true that the issues are quite different on the surface, but underneath the root causes are the same. Actually all division and false teachings and chaos in the church has a similar cause, and that is the sinfulness and unbelief of some who call themselves “Christians,” but we can go further than that to note that underlying a lot of controversy in Christian churches worldwide is a lack of trust in, and obedience to, God’s Word. Among the Episcopal leaders who approved the appointment of a bishop who is an avowed practicing homosexual, they could only have done this if they denied the clear teaching of God that such things are “detestable.” Now this wouldn’t concern us too much unless chaos begets chaos. When unbelievers and heretics see others getting away with such sins then they are emboldened and then try to do something similar where they can.

“God tempts no one to sin, but we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although we are attacked by these things, we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.” In this way, Martin Luther explains the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer in his Small Catechism. The thing about temptation is that it is most effective when you don’t realize it is happening to you. Temptation to sin is always dangerous, and we all have our weaknesses where we sometimes fall into sin even when we know we shouldn’t, but we are most vulnerable when we don’t realize that what we are doing is a sin.

The devil can be sneaky. St. Peter compares him to a lion prowling around seeking for someone to devour. If you don’t know the lion is there then you are easy prey. That is why in my catechism and membership classes I devote quite a bit of time to teaching the ten commandments. In tempting us, Satan tries to get us to believe that sin is somehow desirable. If he can get us to think that committing a sin is somehow a “good” thing to our eyes then he has won, and we have lost. If we want to sin then the devil doesn’t have to do anything to get us to sin, which he can’t do anyway because God has mercifully limited his powers, but because of our sinful nature we are only too ready to cooperate to our own downfall. The phrase, “the devil made me do it” is just a cop-out and is completely untrue. All the devil can do is lie to you. If you believe him it is your own fault. Our trouble with temptation is that we all too often believe the lies of Satan and fall into temptation and sin.

We are not without defense against temptation, however. God has given us a powerful weapon against sin and temptation and the devil. That weapon is the Holy Scriptures. The power of the Holy Bible to work against Satan is the power of God because the Bible is God’s Word. Since the Bible is God’s Word the more we know the Bible the more we know God, and the more we know and love God the better we can recognize and resist the work of the devil because Satan is always opposed to God even when he pretends not to be.

The trouble nowadays is that most people don’t know or don’t believe in the Scriptures and because of this they have no chance against the temptations of Satan. This is even a problem in the church. This is no more clearly illustrated than in the recent controversy in the Episcopal Church where they have ignored the clear teachings of Holy Scripture and have elevated an openly homosexual priest to a position of leadership as bishop in the church. In this controversy there is no shortage of faithful Christian Episcopals (and others) who have given a true Christian witness to the sinfulness of this action, and yet the Episcopal church has proceeded. Their justification of this disgrace is in the interest of diversity and a kind of “love” which is foreign to God and His holy Word, but which is right at home with the devil.

One local Episcopal priest wrote a column for the Detroit Free Press recently in which he wrote that this situation was an “embarrassment.” But it was very strange that what embarrassed him was not the fact that his Church had abandoned even the pretense of obedience to God and His good will for us, but instead, he was embarrassed by the faithful Christians who objected to the appointing of this bishop. In the column which was a little shorter than this essay this man denied the authority of God’s Word because it was several thousands of years old; implied that the Old Testament laws were not God’s Word, but the ancient bias of “a priestly cult”; and called St. Paul a “homophobic … mid-First Century AD Pharisaic Jew-turned-militant-Christian” who presumed to “dictate the very will and law of an unseen God.” He also called the Bible a “bin for discarded concepts and notions” and finally he denied that God created the universe in seven days as He said He did.

This is of course an extreme example, but this shows where temptation can lead when it is unchecked by God’s Word and the repentance that comes from the proper preaching of God’s Word. The only way that such an obvious sin can be so vigorously defended by otherwise good people who call themselves “Christian” is if they deny the authority of God in the Bible. If the Bible is not God’s Word then it is probably outdated and unreliable and can be replaced by something else. In the case of the Episcopal Church the Word of God is apparently replaced by something of Satan’s devising. That is the only way that good “Christian” people could defend something that God calls “detestable” and which goes against all Biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality.

Of course my purpose is not to bash the Episcopals. There are plenty of faithful Christian Episcopals. Many of them seem to be in Africa, but wherever they may be (God bless them and give them strength) they are not afraid to speak the truth even though they are condemned by the American liberals as backward and foolish. Such is the lot in life for faithful Christians in an age where sin is seen as a good thing and what is truly good is despised. No, my purpose here is to illustrate the dangers of temptation.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is not yet in danger of following in the footsteps of the Episcopal Church, but with the events of the past couple years we have started to head in that direction. Remember that it begins with a denial of God’s Word as a living and valid authority. When God’s Word doesn’t have authority then God doesn’t have authority in our lives, and we replace His rule with something else. Usually we place ourselves in that place first, doing what is right in our own eyes, but in doing so we open the door to Satan to do what he wants in our lives. Satan doesn’t come to good Christian people and tell them to commit all kinds of disgusting sins such as homosexuality. No one would fall for that. Instead he starts off small and works his way to greater and greater sins until we are far off of the path of God’s righteousness that we can’t remember any longer what it is like to truly be obedient to God. That is the real tragedy of the Episcopal situation. Many of their new bishop’s defenders truly believe that they are doing something that is pleasing to God even though God calls it “detestable.” In our own Church we are alarmed by this year’s resolution of the charges against the Atlantic District President in which the Dispute Resolution Panel ignored the clear teachings of the Scriptures which determined that President Benke was guilty. Instead, they somehow exonerated him by a faulty interpretation of some lesser man-made rules which really should have had no authority in the case. If this is allowed to stand then our own Denomination will fall down the slippery slope toward an end which only God can see. God’s Word gives us our only hope for salvation and rescue from sin and its consequences. Pray that God will keep us faithful and standing firm against the temptations which seek to destroy us.

Lutheran Church Growth

by Carl F. W. Walther (The first president of what later became the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) The following is from Walther’s 1883 address at the dedication of the new Concordia Seminary building in St. Louis. The full text occurs in Concordia Journal, July 1989 (Vol. 15:3), pp. 222-230.

Newsletter article for August 2003

When our synod, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio , and Other States, thirty-six years ago met for the first time in the God-blessed city of Chicago , it was a small, despised little band of only twelve poor congregations. The church which in this country still called itself Evangelical - Lutheran lay in utter ruin. The teaching of our church was unknown territory for it. The small number of preachers who still knew something about it and wanted to stick to it were considered people with limited mental capacities, and the hope was that they would soon die out. The Lutheran Confessions were hardly known even by name anymore, and they were considered documents of earlier unenlightened times, now long obsolete. Instead of Luther’s doctrine in this church that called itself Lutheran, the teaching of Zwingli and obvious rationalism was in vogue, coupled with fanatic methods of conversion. Hardly a single preacher had an orderly call into office according to God’s Word; almost all of them were engaged only for one or a few years. Immortal souls were entrusted to unprepared, immature men on a trial basis, while Christian parochial schools were abolished and Lutheran youth were in typically heathen fashion entrusted to an irreligious state. In short, the so-called Lutheran Church of our country was dead at that time, the laughingstock of all the sects, who, like hungry nightingales, came for the funeral.

When our synod at that time came forward with the watchword then unheard of: Gottes Wort und Luthers Lehr vergehet nun und nimmermehr [“God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine pure will now and evermore endure”], it was not only the anti- Christian papacy, not only the united - evangelical community of mixed religions, not only the fanatic sects, but above all the local so-called Lutheran church that would lead to Rome, and with great certainty they predicted an early, inglorious extinction for us, an outlandish growth and un-American intrusion.

And it is true, our prospects were really very dreary. To want to transplant the Old Lutheran church, which submitted to every letter of the Word of God, to this land of untamed love for liberty seemed in real fact to be a completely hopeless, worse than foolish undertaking. But far from letting itself be made to falter, our synod did not ask: What must we do to become large and numerous? But it only asked: What must we do to be found faithful before the Lord of the church? Our synod knew that success was not in its hands. Success is therefore left to God.

And what happened? The very evil plans of our enemies did not materialize for them. When the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod did not preach a new doctrine but proclaimed nothing but what they, the congregations, had learned from Luther’s Small Catechism; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod brought them the greatest message that a preacher can provide, namely the certainty of the grace of God and their salvation; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod were not trying to lord it over them in popish fashion but on the contrary first tried to get them to understand their wonderful Christian freedom and their holy congregational rights; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod did not seek their own temporal advantages but were interested only in immortal souls; when the congregations saw that the preachers of our synod prefer to suffer hunger and anxiety, prefer to suffer shame, persecution, and exile rather than to depart from “God’s Word and Luther’s doctrine” even in one letter; behold, then one congregation after another joined our synodical union. The mustard seed took root, shot up joyfully, and gradually assumed the stature of a mighty tree, under the shady boughs of which the birds of the air live. The Old Lutheranism, scoffed at because of its original diminutive stature, yes, even laughed to scorn, gradually, among the hot battles in America , became a power so that finally everyone who wanted to be really Lutheran had to get used to the idea of agreeing with the doctrine of our synod. The old treasured books of our church, in the forefront its confessional writings and the works of Luther, were dusted off, carried from house to house, and enthusiastically read and studied by our people. Like a prairie fire that true Lutheran faith and Lutheran life and conduct not only again spread irresistible across the land, but God also granted us unity of faith and a joyfulness of faith together with an intimate brotherly love, so that the days of Luther seemed to have come back among us. Wherever a little Lutheran church grew up like a fruit tree, even on a lonely prairie, there immediately also a little Lutheran schoolhouse grew up like a young shoot. The old pure songs, full of the power of faith and excitement of love, as they were sung by our fathers, resounded again with their charming old tunes. In short, the true Lutheran Church, for which dirges had already been sung all over the world, revived here of all places, came up out of the grave, and in more than a thousand places in our great union of states planted the victory banner of the pure Gospel. For years already the Macedonian call “Come over to help us” sounds in our ears from all directions. An ever increasing stream of Lutheran immigrants, also those of our German language, is flooding over our land and settling here, so that almost week after week new congregations are founded which to a large extent apply to us for teachers in church and school. And not only within our new fatherland, but even from the land of our forefathers, yes, even from the remotest countries of the earth that well-known call for help comes over to us and profoundly moves our hearts.

Everywhere doors are opened to us for entrance with the joyful news of the free grace of God in Christ for all sinners. Even though hundreds of workers have already been sent out into the great harvest from our institutions, the requests for such workers have on that account not become fewer in time but rather steadily more numerous, so that finally, with saddened hearts we have no longer been about to satisfy most of these requests. And so it finally also came about in this institutional building, that the present number of students, though insufficient, could no longer find room. A larger (Seminary) building became a matter of unavoidable necessity.

Gospel Reductionism

Newsletter article for February 2003

© 2003 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

When is the Gospel a bad thing? This ought to be a trick question, but more and more the Gospel is being used to rationalize all kinds of things which God describes as sin in His Word. In this article I wish to teach you a new phrase which I think faithful Lutheran Christians will (regretfully) soon be hearing more often. The term is “Gospel Reductionism” and in learning what it means you will learn that the answer to the question above is that the Gospel is a bad thing only when it is misused.

The term “Gospel Reductionism” refers to a method of Biblical interpretation which ignores God’s Law and places the sole authority in the Gospel for theology and practice. I believe that this idea is peculiar to Lutheranism because only Lutheran theology has made such a sharp distinction between the Biblical doctrines of Law and Gospel. Lutherans have long known that in Christian preaching and teaching the Gospel must predominate, because although God’s Law and Gospel work together for our salvation, only the Gospel really can save us. The trouble with Gospel Reductionism is that it goes a step or two further, and is in reality a new teaching.

Now, when I say it is a new teaching I don’t mean that it is “new and improved.” In theology “new” is ALWAYS a bad thing. Any “new” teaching is false teaching because it is man-made, and not from God. The Holy Scriptures warn God’s people about the false teachings of men (see Mark 7:6-7) and it warns that the time will come when people will not put up with good, sound doctrine, but instead will gather around them teachers who will tell them only what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3-5). There is something about Gospel Reductionism which is attractive to many pastors, teachers and lay-people in the LCMS. I believe that I myself may have been influenced by it in ways I am only beginning to understand. As I write this I have been studying this for about a month, and I know it is not Biblical, and therefore wrong, but I caught myself giving a reductionistic answer in a recent Sunday Bible study, and I had to correct myself when I realized what I was doing.

The trouble with Gospel Reductionism is that it makes the Gospel the only authoritative part of Scripture. This wouldn’t be so bad except that God gave us His Word as both Law and Gospel. Both teachings are authoritative as God’s Word, but the reductionists dismiss the Law as something useless, or even harmful. What is more, the reductionists also broaden their definition of the Gospel to include anything which might possibly be construed as beneficial — even things the Bible says is harmful and sinful. The proponents of Gospel Reductionism claim that they are faithful to God and to the Gospel, but in truth they are faithful to neither. God gave us both Law and Gospel so that we might be saved, and if we ignore either one of those teachings then we disobey God and are in danger of being eternally lost.

There is a tension between Law and Gospel which must be maintained always in our teachings. If we lost the Gospel then we would either despair of salvation because God’s Law accuses and condemns our sin, or we would become complacent and self-righteous thinking that we could gain salvation by obeying the Law in some minimal way. On the other hand, if we don’t acknowledge the authority of the Law then we won’t see a need for a savior and so Jesus becomes meaningless to us and we will grow to despise Him.

You can identify Gospel Reductionists these days because they are the ones complaining most often about “legalism” in the Synod. True “Legalism” is a valid danger and concern, and we ought to avoid it. Legalism is the result of a kind of “Law Reductionism” where the Gospel is dismissed as authoritative in place of the Law. However the Gospel Reductionists cry “legalism” about any application of the Law, including many good God-given ways of disciplining sinners and calling them to repentance. This is actually quite clever (in a Satanic sort of way) if you can get away with it. If you don’t acknowledge God’s Law (or even a part of it) then you can do whatever you want to do and nobody can say anything contrary because that would be considered legalistic or irrelevant. The trouble with this is that although you might be able to get away with this for a little while, you won’t get very far trying to convince God about the benefits of this, and everyone will have to answer to God some day.

Lutherans have a great blessing in our traditional doctrine of the dynamic working of God’s Law and Gospel. If we would ever truly put our trust in God’s Word and use it the way He intended then there would be no stopping the Lutheran Church, though many would try. Many well-intentioned people have been led astray by this “Gospel Reductionism.” People have been complacent in their sins because they do not acknowledge the Law of God and His Word which calls on them to repent. God’s Law is a good thing, but although no one likes to be reminded of sin, it is a necessary part of the Christian life. Only in using the Law properly can we truly appreciate the salvation we have in Jesus.

Why Doctrine Matters

Newsletter article for September 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 12:28

God is not a fundamentalist. There are not a set of fundamental teachings which God values over any other. God’s teachings are ALL important, and God required the Israelites of the Old Testament to obey all of His laws, even the ceremonial laws. For the selfish person who thinks that he is the center of the universe, this may sound harsh and uncompromising, but God had a good reason for His uncompromising stance. As He said above, if we keep God’s regulations as He wants us to then things will always go well with us and with our children. God’s purpose in giving us His Word is so that things will always go well with us. God isn’t being mean or nasty (He isn’t capable of being mean), instead God tells us this for our benefit because He loves us.

God knows what is best for us. He created us, after all, and God wants what is best for us. God knows that if we follow His plan, as He created us to do, then things will work according to His plan and we will be happy. God also is the only one who can save us when we sin against His commands, and that is also why He wants us to love and worship Him above all else.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Galatians 1:6-9

These are some very strong words from St. Paul. Here he proclaims eternal damnation to anyone to teaches a gospel other than what he preached to the church in Galatia. This would again seem the height of arrogance, except that what Paul taught the Galatians was the Word of God. Paul wasn’t teaching something that he invented, or some new educational theory. He was preaching the Gospel of Christ as Jesus had told him to preach. The false teachers in Galatia were perverting the Gospel and were evidently leading people away from Jesus. That is why Paul declared that anyone who preaches a different Gospel would be damned, because there is no salvation except that which comes from Jesus.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3

Not every teaching that claims to be from God actually does come from God. This is why John gives this warning, but he also tells us how to test the doctrine to know that it has come from God. Those who speak God’s word truthfully must acknowledge Jesus as Lord and God. Similarly, no messenger from God would deny God’s Word either, even in the smallest degree.

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 1 Timothy 4:3-4

These verses do much to describe the situation in our world today. Even in the Christian Church, there are a seeming multitude of denominations and each one teaches something different. This certainly cannot please Christ because each different denomination gives credibility to some false teaching which can lead people away from the truth, and lead them to put their faith in something which cannot save them. Only Jesus can save us from our sins.

“Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’" John
8:31-32

Walking the Middle Road

Newsletter article for June 2002

© 2002 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Many are the times in life when Christians must walk the middle road. This is the road where to step to the right or to the left would lead them into forbidden territories which lead to temptation, sin, and destruction. You would think that such a middle road should be the easy road to travel, but often it is the most difficult because as the Christian walks the middle road there are those on the right and on the left who try to tempt, and tug, and pull you over to their side. They want to pull you into the muck and mire in which they wallow.

There is a debate currently going on in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod about where this path is located, and how do we walk down the correct path, without being dragged down to one side or the other. The debate is not whether or not to walk the middle road on this issue, but the debate is about just what actions and public witness define the middle road.

These are the dangers which lie on either side of this middle road. To walk to the one side means to give in to the world and become more like the world. To do this we must deny God’s Word and say that anything the world does is all right, despite what God has commanded. God condemns this in James 4:4 which says, “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” When the Bible talks of the world in this way it means everything which comes from and follows our sinful nature rather than God’s commands. Instead of indulging our sinful nature we ought to fight against it and do what is godly and right.

To walk to the other side means to withdraw from the world and try to have nothing to do with worldly things. Jesus himself shows that this is not what he wants in John 17:15 where he says, “My prayer is not that you [God the Father] take them [His disciples] out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.” Jesus wants us to be engaged with the world and be witnesses to the truth about His love and salvation. Jesus doesn’t want us to withdraw from the world and isolate ourselves, instead he wants us to influence the world to do good and to show them that He is the only way to salvation. Jesus also says in Matthew 10:32-33, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

It is true that Christians should not always walk the middle road. Sometimes God asks us to stand firm and take a strong stand on one side or another. For example, It is the greatest insult to God to even give a hint that there may be some other god who is worthy of praise, or that there may be some other way to heaven. God says, “You shall have no other gods.” (Exodus 20:3) Jesus also tells us that there is no other way to be saved except through faith in Him. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Holy Scripture also tells us that “Salvation is found in no one else [besides Jesus Christ], for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” There is no room for compromise with these truths, and although the world may not like it, we Christians must stand firmly and confess these truths, no matter what the consequences. This is both for our personal benefit, as well as for the benefit of those who hear these truths and believe them and put their faith in Jesus. Jesus says in Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” There is no middle road here for the faithful Christian.

Please keep our Synod in your prayers that God may grant wisdom to bring an end to any controversy, and prevent schism. Pray that God would keep all our pastors and Synodical officials faithful to Jesus and His Word above all else, and keep His church united in the one true faith. Please pray that God would strengthen the LCMS that we would actively engage the world and boldly and effectively testify to the saving power of Jesus Christ as the true and real solution to all our troubles, all our fears, all our sin, all our sorrows, and all our pain.