Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, podcast theologians. Pastor Wolfmieler here, St. Paul and Jesus Deaf Lutheran churches in Austin, Texas, come and visit.
[00:00:07] Answering your questions. Although maybe before we get into your Q, this is a Q and A podcast. But before we get into it, I published a little essay this week called Barrier breakers versus Distinction Keepers, A Thought Experiment toward the Problem in the Missouri Synod.
[00:00:20] I'd love your feedback on that. It's on the substack you can find on the website wolfmuller Co.
[00:00:26] Should be one of the recent articles there.
[00:00:29] Thinking about how there's two different theological impulses and those lead to this polarization. There's the barrier breakers, which, see, they're kind of driven to get the gospel out there. They see everything is getting in their way, including the various theological distinctions. Let's blur those distinctions to get the gospel out there. That's bad. There's the distinction keepers and they like, look, we got to keep these lines clear for the sake of the gospel.
[00:00:53] The result is, I don't know, we're fighting. I, I so I'm looking for different, a different set of language because missional and confessional doesn't hold up. No one will claim it, but I think the barrier breakers will say, yeah, that's actually me and the distinction keepers. Like, I think I'm a mostly a distinction keeper. Like in the brain I'm a distinction keeper, and in the heart I'm a bear. I, I don't know, that's other people to decide, but I think I'm a distinction keeper.
[00:01:18] Yeah, that's me. I'll claim it.
[00:01:21] Anyhow, your feedback on that essay would be great. You can sign up for the substack, by the way, on the website wolfmeelo Co. And I was thinking, you know, on this Q and A podcast, here's the media idea, by the way.
[00:01:32] Pastor Packer and I, who I miss, we would do the Q and A podcast, video and audio. That was great. But I thought to myself, you know, the video seems to work better if you have one topic and the long format podcast where you go through a various range of theology questions. That seems, that seems a lot of fun. So today we got questions on the Book of Concord, sanctification in the Law, Christian Reconstructionism, which I don't think I know anything about, the Resurrection, the Synod of Dort, which I also don't know anything about, the Garden of Eden, which I've never been to, the New Testament Jews, Trinity and the Messiah and the way it works, by the way, when you send in a question, it comes into my little Workbook space, workshop space here on Notion. And it says the person who sent it and the topic, and I don't even know the question.
[00:02:19] And I decided that I would just go for it and. And not read the questions before we start recording, because if I did, it would take five days looking into something and there'd never be a podcast. And that's how Pastor Packer and I used to do it. He would just ask the question. I never knew what the questions are going to be, but I always was, you know, he reads so much stuff. I always felt safe, but let's just do it.
[00:02:42] And. But I always.
[00:02:45] So, so that's my idea now. Let's just do it. Let's just try to answer these questions. If I'm winging it, and if I don't know, I'll just tell you. I don't know.
[00:02:53] So that's. So that's the idea of this podcast, that while you're running or walking or doing the dishes or driving to church or whatever, and you want to think about some theology and reflect on some things, that's what this is for. And the hope is to pull out one of these questions here and there that would be good for making a YouTube video and to make one YouTube video a week out of it. That's my. That's my big plan. And then to try to do some more stuff with Packer, trying to figure out what that would be best, but also hoping that his podcast that he and Pastor Flammy are doing would be a helpful thing to add to the media landscape of confessional Lutheranism. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, that's the.
[00:03:30] That's the idea. And I thought I should ask you all, my dear listeners, if you like that idea or not. If you're like, we're just this. We're just listening to this because we've listened to every episode of Issues etc and fighting for the faith and. And the word of the Lord endures and everything else. And this is all that's left. So I said I should ask for feedback, but there was no feedback. Anyway, I fixed it. So if you go to Wolfmother Co, hit the contact button. You can send me a note, a question, you can give feedback, and I'd love your feedback on the forms. I know you all want Packer to come back too, so I've got that feedback already, so you don't need to tell me that.
[00:04:07] We'll see how this goes. So, anyway, that'd be great to see how this goes. And we can Adjust it to make it the best. So these are going to be our. I got 168 questions here, waiting for answers. I want to see if I can get through seven of them today.
[00:04:21] We'll see if we can go fast. Maybe 10. Here comes from don't say my name.
[00:04:26] Who asks? Dear Pastor Wolfmuller, are the Latin and German translations of the Book of Concord given equal weight and considered of equal authority? What happens when there's a difference in translation? This is an in the woods one. Here's the example, though, that comes in the email. Article 28, paragraph 5 of the Augsburg Confession in German reads to administer and distribute the sacraments. In the Latin it says simply to administer the sacraments.
[00:04:52] I ask this as the German translation has greater specificity and would appear to exclude laymen like elders, from distributing Holy Communion even when under the oversight of the pastor. Most discussions around the topic I've seen focus on a more generic translation in keeping with the Latin translation where the single verb to administer is only mentioned. Okay, so maybe three different questions.
[00:05:15] One is which language of the confessions is authoritative? The second is does this affect how we faithfully distribute the Lord's Supper? And the third is kind of broad thoughts on distribution of the Lord's Supper. The answer is all of the documents of the lutheran confessions. The 10 documents. Well, the three creeds.
[00:05:40] Well, this might be true too. I think when the Book of Concord was published, the creeds were published in German.
[00:05:47] And I so I think the official version is the German version, except for the Augsburg Confession, which has both Latin and German.
[00:05:57] So both documents are understood to be the official confession of the Lutheran Church. Because I wonder if I refine this. If you go back to what was presented was the both the German and the Latin before Charles V at Augsburg. So I think both have authoritative status now. That means that we should use them to understand one another. And I think that even if you have the German to administer and to distribute the sacraments, the thing that it's talking about is not I would understand even the German to be not talking about who's touching the consecrated bread and the consecrated wine, the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus to give them to the people, but rather who is the one who is doing this work.
[00:06:49] So I can't see that in any place in history there would have been only pastors who were doing the handing out of the body and blood.
[00:06:59] There was the tradition in Wittenberg where the bell would ring when the words were spoken and people would run from church to bring the body and the blood to the people who were sick.
[00:07:09] So it's. It's all happening under the authority of the office. This is how I would even understand the German, which is going to be official here.
[00:07:19] Why do they say, though? Because this comes from our.
[00:07:23] Our understanding of the. Of the call Article 14 of the Augsburg Confession, which says we don't permit a man to preach or to teach or to administer the sacraments unless he's been rightly called.
[00:07:37] And so we understand that those parts of the office which belong to the public proclamation and distribution of the Lord's gifts, both preached as well as the gift of the Lord's Supper, that those properly belong to the office, and so they should be done by the man put into that office.
[00:07:59] It comes from Romans 10, and it's a different word in Romans 10, but it's where our doctrine comes from.
[00:08:05] Paul says, how can they believe unless they've heard?
[00:08:09] And how can they hear unless they've been preached to? And how can they be preached to unless they are sent as it's written? How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news.
[00:08:22] So for the sake of saving faith, the Lord calls men or sins men in this office to do the foolishness of preaching. That's First Corinthians, so that the world might be saved.
[00:08:37] And we understand that because the Lord's Supper is a proclamation. When you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim his death until he comes. Because the Lord's Supper is always a public thing. There's never private supper. It's always given for you, plural given for y'. All.
[00:08:54] Because preaching publicly and administration of the sacraments belongs to that public preaching office, that it ought to be done only by men who are in the office.
[00:09:03] That's where our theology comes from. And I think it's right. It's a hundred percent right.
[00:09:08] And it's comforting, both for the people who are receiving the gifts and for the man who's giving the gifts. I mean, it's a tremendous thing to take the body and blood of Jesus into your hands and to hand it out to the Lord's people. And you would never dare to do such a thing unless the Lord had institute. Instituted that and put it in place. And you have this confidence I'm called to do this.
[00:09:34] So I think that it's. Back to the original question. I think it's good that there's pastoral oversight, especially in regards to admittance to the Lord's Supper, that the pastor is the one deciding this person is communing and this person is not and that if he has extra sets of hands to help him do that, as by extension, I don't think that that would violate the Latin or the German of the particular text. Hope that's helpful.
[00:10:01] Next question from Keith, who says on the sanctification, on sanctification and the law, this says, I'm glad to help you test this new contact form. Oh, this is one of the original questions. 3 related questions I'd like to prevent. Okay, Keith, Here we go. 1. In your view, what is the daily experience of sanctification for the baptized believers? Is it primarily a life of visible moral improvement, or is it chiefly a life of daily repentance, being put to death and raised again in Christ through word and sacrament?
[00:10:31] 2. What direct citations from the Book of Concord define third use of the law as a distinct non accusing guide for the regenerate rather than as a continued accusatory function that drives them back to Christ?
[00:10:46] 3.
[00:10:47] If the law always accuses lex semper accusat, then what exactly is the law guiding the regenerate towards? If its voice is always condemning, what can it produce in the Christian that the gospel alone does not already give? Wow, Keith, thank you.
[00:11:04] First question, what's your daily experience of sanctification? I think it depends on the day, I really do. And it depends on your vocation and it depends on your calling.
[00:11:14] And I suppose sometimes it depends on how things are going.
[00:11:18] So sometimes our spiritual life and struggles and temptations are right in front of us.
[00:11:26] Like there might be a temptation that just hits you right in the face and you have to fight against this thing to do what is right and to not do what is wrong. Other times you have to. It sneaks up on you. Like this guy this morning, driving, dropping the kids off at school. And Zoom cuts me off and it's.
[00:11:47] And here I am, it's you know, 7:05 in the morning. And what am I? I'm not ready for that. Come on, buddy, you know, wait till the afternoon. That's when these things are supposed to happen. So like you're just walking along and something and you find yourself in the middle of some sort of situation.
[00:12:02] Part of our sanctification is. Is in other words, it's kind of this. What is your instinct, what is your thoughts, what are your particular actions and how does it go?
[00:12:13] A lot of times our sanctification is like this. You realize that for years or for weeks or for hours or whatever, you've been doing something wrong and foolish and stupid and sinful and you didn't even know it. And now all of a sudden something happens where you realize that that way of thinking or, or that way of talking that hurts people or it troubles people or whatever. And then you, now you're with your own sin. What are you going to do? What are you going to do about it? Sometimes we're studying the Scriptures and we're reading and we realize, boy, I am lazy or I am earthly minded or I'm bitter or whatever it is.
[00:12:49] So I think the Lord has us each in an individual class and he is teaching us to despise the flesh. This is a huge part of sanctification that we mostly don't talk about. Is it? Part of our sanctification is we more and more are disgusted by our own sinful nature, by the thoughts and desires and even words and ideas and plots that come from our sinful flesh. We're disgusted. That's part of our mortification. And that our longing to serve the Lord and his people shows up more and more so that we have this life that is finding joy in. In service outside of ourselves.
[00:13:31] So I don't think that there's an either or here. Visible moral improvement should be part of it. Although we realize also that part of our sanctification is a recognition that the corruption of our sinful flesh goes all the way down. But we don't. Another part of our sanctification is that we don't despair about that and we thank the Lord that we begin to love and serve. This is the language that our, our Lutheran fathers used about the life of sanctification. Is that it's begun, is that it started, is that it's never finished, it's never complete. It won't be until the, until the resurrection.
[00:14:06] But that we will.
[00:14:08] But that we will in fact have opportunity to do good to people around us and to suffer quietly for them, etc.
[00:14:17] Okay, now the second question is, what particular parts of the Book of Concord are we looking at now? I gotta hold on a minute. Let me go find some.
[00:14:28] We have this beautiful article 6 of the formula of Concord, which the topic is the third use of the law. And it lays it out for us like this. Right at the beginning. God's law is useful A, because external discipline and decency are maintained by it against wild disobedient people.
[00:14:43] That's the curb of the law. B, likewise, through the law people are brought to A knowledge of their sins and also C, when people have been born anew by God's Spirit, converted to the Lord and Moses, veil has been lifted from them.
[00:14:56] They live and walk in the law.
[00:14:59] Now, there's a disagreement about that, but here's the affirmative statement which I think gets at the thing that Keith is looking for. A direct citation from the Book of Concord define third use of the law as distinct non accusing guide for the regenerate. It says for an explanation and final settlement of the disagreement, we unanimous unanimously believe, teach and confess that people who truly believe and are truly converted to God, justified Christians are liberated and made free from the curse of the law.
[00:15:29] Yet they should daily exercise themselves in the law of the Lord. As is written, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
[00:15:39] The law is a mirror in which God's will and what pleases him are exactly portrayed. This mirror should be constantly held up to the believers and and be diligently encouraged for them without ceasing.
[00:15:51] So the problem is, I think that the problem in Keith's question here is that the third use of the law, which belongs to the Christian, is only given to the Christian who also has the sinful flesh.
[00:16:10] So insofar as we are still carrying around this sinful nature, this old Adam, the flesh, the law will always go over there and accuse it.
[00:16:22] But the law which always accuses lex semper accusat does not only accuse. And here's, I think, some examples which are put forth for us in the Book of Concord.
[00:16:33] Because a lot of people will say, well, the first use of the law, the civil use, is no different than the third use of the law, the guide for Christians. But it is different in this way, especially that the unbeliever cannot pray.
[00:16:46] You can't pray without faith if you don't believe that God's there, even if I mean prayer doesn't count. So that the command to pray and call upon the Lord is third use of the law.
[00:16:58] You can serve your neighbor in some outward way, but to truly have a sacrificial affection for them, this is something that can only be worked by the Holy Spirit in the regenerate heart of the believer. So that command to love your neighbors yourself, that's really a command for the Christian, or to commend yourself to the Lord in the midst of suffering, to suffer quietly and to commend yourself to the Lord when you're dying.
[00:17:25] This is only possible by faith. In other words, faith, trust in the Lord's promises opens up an entirely new vista of works that are not even possible or accessible to the unbeliever to trust in the Lord when you're dying, you cannot do if you don't trust in the Lord at all.
[00:17:46] So the third use of the law taps into those good works which are there in the law, but are inaccessible apart from faith. They only are available after we believe.
[00:17:59] Now, will we do these things perfectly? Answer no. No.
[00:18:04] But it gives us joy in knowing what the Lord has commanded us to do in receiving the Holy Spirit, who helps us to do these things. And even though we cannot complete the command of love, we can begin it. We can start.
[00:18:25] The third question here is the voice of the law is always condemning. What can it produce in the Christian that the Gospel alone does not already give? The answer is that the Gospel, while it motivates our good works, it does not direct them. The Lord is pleased to direct the good works of the Christian through the law when he says, love your Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbors yourself, so that the Lord himself is pleased to give commandments that give direction to the love and service that flows from the Gospel, and we praise the Lord for it. That's why we have all these great verses extolling even God's law and instruction.
[00:19:05] Good question, Keith. All right, that was three questions. I don't know how to count that. Here's the next one on Christian Reconstructionism. Oh, boy. This is from Rick. Was Calvin the first Christian reconstructionist? Given his political influence in Geneva, what did he get right? What did he get? Wrong answer.
[00:19:24] I don't know.
[00:19:25] I don't.
[00:19:28] I don't. I probably shouldn't even answer this question at all until I know what reconstructionism is. But there's. Maybe I'll briefly think about what is the connection between our Christian confession and culture. Maybe that's a way to think about it. Because.
[00:19:45] Because coming out of the. Because coming out of the Reformation, the. The Lutherans were objecting to the Pope's claim that he had both temporal and spiritual authority by divine right.
[00:19:58] And the Lutheran said, no, no, first of all, that does not belong to the Pope. That's not, in fact, unum sanctum, this very famous Catholic bull from 1306 or whatever. 1302. 1303. Oh, something.
[00:20:13] And you got to go look it up. It's really pretty amazing. And in there, the. The Pope claims to have both swords, authority to rule both the spiritual kingdom, the church, and the temporal kingdoms of the world.
[00:20:29] And the proof text is from the night in which Jesus was betrayed. And he says, remember how he said, don't take a Sword. Now take a sword. And Peter says, here are two swords. And Jesus says, that's enough.
[00:20:40] And the. And the unum sanctum says, thus Jesus gave to Peter both swords. Oh boy. I remember I was talking to my Catholic friend about that and he's like, yeah, that wasn't our best moment. That unum sanctum caused some problems. Yeah, it did. So that the Lutherans are saying that there's two different authorities. There's spiritual authority, which is the wielded in the church by all those that the Lord gives authority in the church by the sword of the word. And then there's temporal authority which is given to rulers and princes and whoever else is in charge. And that's the sword that Paul talks about in Romans 13. The Lord does not give the sword in vain.
[00:21:18] Now, at the beginning of the church, the Christians had nothing to do with that sword except for they were getting the sharp end of it all the time. I mean, when Paul wrote to the Romans, it was probably Nero who had the sword. And Nero was killing Christians like crazy. So there was this big distinction between Christians and temporal authority. But there's a way, and this is also Augustine's teaching and really the medieval church that comes out of this comes out of Constantine when no longer were the Christians considered illegal and that it actually the moral benefit of Christianity became an obvious thing to those who were ruling and said, hey, it's good for Christians to be citizens and citizens to be Christians. It's good even for Christians to be rulers. And that became closer and closer. So that now coming out of the Middle Ages, we had Christian rulers, Christian princes, Christian countries.
[00:22:14] So a big part of the Reformation was what are we going to be? And it had to do with, well, what is the ruler? The piece of Augsburg had this in there, where the first diet of Speyer had this in there. All the wars that came out of the Reformation times had this idea what are we going to be? And it was connected to what is the ruler.
[00:22:33] Now Luther comes along and this is a complicated thing and guys have spent their lives studying it. So I'm not going to do it justice and I'll get critics just. So let me just start preface by self criticizing it. I'm not going to give this the full treatment that it ought to be given. But Luther is able to do two things. Number one, he's able to recognize that there's these two different authorities, the word and the sword, two different governments, two different realms, what's sometimes called two kingdoms, the right hand and the left hand. And that the Lord governs the world through both of them.
[00:23:11] But what Luther could not have ever imagined is that the left hand kingdom, the temporal authority, would not have a vested interest in supporting the church and the preaching of the word, etc. Etc.
[00:23:29] So that these two kingdoms are not separated from one another. They're distinct, but they're not separated from one another.
[00:23:37] Now in the United States, we have this separation of church and state, and I think Christian reconstructionism wants to push back against that, and I suppose so do I. But it's a dangerous pushback because so. And maybe my response to this is just overly practical and not either historical or theoretical or theological. But it's my same response whenever guys, fellow pastors in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod say we need bishops.
[00:24:10] And I said, who?
[00:24:12] Like, it sounds like a good idea to have a bishop until you think about who the bishop is going to be and then you're like, oh brother.
[00:24:19] So it's the same response like, we need more Christian rulers. Fine. Who.
[00:24:26] Who's it going to be? What we need is. What we need is the wisdom of the Lord's Word making its way into every realm of our own lives. And what we probably need to start with is Christians letting the Lord's Word sanctify their own interactions and especially their own civil interactions.
[00:24:49] So those are my thoughts on.
[00:24:51] Not this question. I didn't answer the question, but I. At least there's some church and state thoughts. Okay, hopefully that's helpful. It's probably not. Rick, you should probably send that kind of question to Jordan Cooper. He's the guy who knows all that stuff. Here's a question from Scott who says, will table talk be back in the resurrection?
[00:25:16] Is it dead? And was a blessed memory. Oh boy. Thank you, Scott, for this question. I miss table talk radio. In fact, Evan and I talk every now and again and just every time that we. I do something with this AI Chatbot. I think how great it would be to be doing table talk radio now.
[00:25:36] I mean table. If you don't know the podcast that I started with man, probably 17 years ago and Evan Gaglein was the Lutheran's most famous theological game show, Table Talk Radio. You can find archives. Someone told me that they go back and listen to those once a week. They go listen to an old retro version of table talk radio, which is crazy. I thought you're nuts. But then I did it. I just went and flipped on a random thing and it was, it was pretty funny. We would goof around a bunch and talk about the theological buzzwords. Law and. Or Gospel, Ten Commandments in the news, Iron preacher, a bunch of stuff like that.
[00:26:16] It's great.
[00:26:17] Anyway, the question is, will they be back in the resurrection? I don't know. You know, it stopped when I got so sick with COVID and then.
[00:26:27] And then Evan and Mandy made the really difficult decision to.
[00:26:32] For Evan to resign is from the Office of Holy Ministry.
[00:26:36] Was. Is just tough. It's kind of a. Figuring out the family situation. So.
[00:26:41] And. And I said, hey, do you want to keep your toe in theology and keep doing table talk radio? But we talked about it a little bit, but it didn't really make sense. And I think we both knew.
[00:26:52] In fact, I think we both are surprised how long it lasted. We both knew that it was only for a time that we would probably go out grow out of it. And.
[00:27:00] And I suppose we were looking for some.
[00:27:03] You know, it's kind of like you got to get some college kids to do that kind of stuff.
[00:27:07] But the college kids these days are too serious.
[00:27:12] Here's one. Here's another question I'm not gonna know the answer to use it. Don't use my name says Synod of Dort. What is the LCMS response to the Synod of Dortmund?
[00:27:25] Oh boy.
[00:27:27] The Synod of Dort was back part of the.
[00:27:32] This is where the tulip comes from. And this is where the church was trying to fight it out with Calvinism. So I suppose this is the way to think about it is what is the Lutheran response to these five points of five point Calvinism and the responses to it.
[00:27:52] I wonder where Dort is.
[00:27:54] I wonder what you call someone from Dort.
[00:27:59] A Dort. A Dortian.
[00:28:03] Now I'm in table talk radio mode, goofing around. So they. They have to figure out, you know, what are we gonna do with free will. You got Jacob Jakob Arminius, who's like the anti Calvinist Calvinist. And so they're like, what are we going to do with this guy? So they get together and they come up with the.
[00:28:23] The five points of Calvinism. The Canons of Dort. Let me look this up here.
[00:28:28] 16, 19 canons of door tulip T. Total depravity. U Unconditional election. L Limited atonement I Irresistible grace P. Perseverance of the saints. I wonder if Dort is in Holland. That would be kind of nice. Isn't that where all the tulips are?
[00:28:47] So total depravity is a way of expressing original sin. Even the Calvinists will say total depravity does not mean complete depravity but it does mean that we do not have a free will to serve God.
[00:29:02] And in some ways, the Lutherans would agree with the Calvinists on total depravity. Here's where we don't agree with. We do not agree that the image of God is something essential to humanity.
[00:29:15] So this might be also in the wounds, in the weeds.
[00:29:21] But the more I think about this, the more I think it's important.
[00:29:26] So the Lutherans and the Reformed. It's really the Lutherans and the Reformed are against free will theology.
[00:29:34] We do not believe that it is our choice to prepare for grace, to accept grace, to receive grace, to participate in the Holy Spirit, who's working grace in us, to not reject grace, etc. We do not believe that we have a free will to do anything in connection with our justification.
[00:29:57] We're only free in rejecting it in all these different ways. We're enemies of God. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. The mind of the flesh does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, nor can it. First Corinthians 2:14, the chief verse on this. So the Lutherans and the Reformed agree on that, on total depravity. And that's probably enough to say. But this image of God is really interesting because the Reformed see that humanity is the image of God. And so that image of God is marred or covered or distorted, but it is still there. The Lutherans understand the image of God in which we're created. They say that we are essentially imageable. In other words, we are impressionable, but we can bear the image of others so that we bear the image of Adam, we bear the image of the devil. And then when we are converted and baptized, the image of God has begun to be restored in us, and it completely will be restored in the Resurrection. So we do disagree. The Lutherans and the Reformed do disagree about the image of God here, but that's maybe a side point. So total depravity. Okay, fine.
[00:31:05] Unconditional election.
[00:31:06] This means that God chooses to elect whom he will.
[00:31:11] Great. And it's not by looking forward, intuitu fide. That means in view of faith, to see who will choose him, and then he chooses them in a reverse sort of backwards thing. No, the Lord chooses whom he's going to elect.
[00:31:25] And we agree with that to a degree.
[00:31:30] But the problem is that the Calvinists go and make the logical leap that says if God is choosing some, then that means he's choosing others to be damned. Like a military muster. You're in you're out, you're in, you're out. Like choosing teams on a softball team or something.
[00:31:48] Or they'll even. Sometimes we'll say, well, God chooses whom he's going to elect. And by the act of choosing some, he then by default does not choose others.
[00:31:59] And here the Lutherans jump up and say, okay, the Bible only speaks of the election of grace.
[00:32:06] The Bible will only let us say, God chooses whom he will save.
[00:32:13] He does not choose whom he will damn.
[00:32:17] And the Calvinist and everybody's response is, well, that doesn't make any sense. And the Lutheran response to that is, we know, we know it doesn't make any sense, but we're constrained by the Scriptures here. Particularly because the Lord will say that it is the free choice of all those who are damned to be damned and condemned. And it is not the free choice. It is the free choice of God to choose those whom he would save. And it gets to this question, why some and not others?
[00:32:45] Why are some saved and not others? Kri ali ali nun why some, not all? Why some and not others?
[00:32:52] Why are. If salvation is completely the work of God, and if God desires all to be saved, then why are not everybody saved?
[00:33:00] And the free will theologians answer it and say, well, it's not just the work of God, it's the work of God and man. Synergism, it's cooperation. No, the Bible doesn't allow it. Grace alone. The Calvinist says, well, God must not desire everybody to be saved. He chooses some and not others. We say, no, universal grace. God desires all to be saved. The universalist says, well, then everybody's saved. We say, no.
[00:33:23] The Bible warns about condemnation, but those three doctrines of the Scripture cannot fit together. Grace alone, universal grace, and the truth of condemnation.
[00:33:34] But they're all taught in the Scriptures. So we just have to say, all right, we'll just let it stand.
[00:33:39] We'll let it. Not only can it not be answered, but it must not be answered because every answer is wrong. So we have to stop at some point and say, God unconditionally elects people, but only to salvation, not to condemnation.
[00:33:53] So we're like 90% on the T, we're like 50% on the U.
[00:33:59] We're like negative 100% on the L, which is limited atonement. And that is that Christ's death effectively secured salvation only for the elect.
[00:34:09] And here we see the essential error. Well, one of the essential errors of Calvinism is that it starts with predestination and sorts everything out from there.
[00:34:19] So it says, well, because God chose some to be saved and not others, then that. And because God is the one doing all of the saving, then the saving work of Jesus is only efficacious for those who are elect.
[00:34:35] That's limited. And that is the worst doctrine of Calvinism. The idea that Christ died only for the elect rather than that his death was for the sins of the world. Like John the Baptist preaches behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now the Calvinists will deal with that by saying, well, that means sins all over the world. In other words, it wasn't for a particular nation or particular people, but it was for all people. But not.
[00:34:58] But not all people in all people.
[00:35:03] This is the answer. Or the other Calvinist response is, well, the death of Jesus was sufficient to save all people, but not all people were chosen to be part of that saving.
[00:35:19] Whatever. However you're trying to get around it. You're trying to get around it and here's the problem. You're trying to make it make sense, which is laudable. But the problem is the scriptures will sometimes not fit for a reason.
[00:35:36] In other words, the Lord wants us to worship him by trusting him when it doesn't sort itself out.
[00:35:43] So limited atonement. So total, total 90% unconditional lesson, 50% limited atonement, negative 1000% irresistible grace. The Holy Spirit unfailingly brings the elect to faith. Here we're about 15% because while we do believe that it is the Holy Spirit working through the Word to convert the heart and make willing the unwilling and to save us by grace, you're saved through faith and that not of yourself. It's the gift of God.
[00:36:15] Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We do believe that all of the Lord's saving works are done in weakness and therefore resistible. It's part of the very nature of the gospel when it's the suffering and death of God, that the Word also comes in a humble way and can be despised.
[00:36:36] Now that it is not despised is the pure work of the Holy Spirit through the power of the gospel.
[00:36:43] So we say, okay, look, the grace of God does come to convert us and when it converts us, it is not resisted, but it doesn't come irresistibly.
[00:36:57] So we would probably say irresisted grace, not irresistible grace.
[00:37:02] As if the Lord comes to us in a forceful way by the gospel.
[00:37:06] The very nature of the promise is that it's gentle or even weak P perseverance of the saints.
[00:37:15] This has to do with the idea that you can't fall away.
[00:37:20] This cannot be sustained by the Scripture. So I think we're going to say let's go with 15% on perseverance of the saints because there are these beautiful Bible passages that say, hey, God is going to finish what he started.
[00:37:34] He's going to keep us trusting in his mercy and his kindness.
[00:37:38] No one will snatch you out of my hand. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have this confidence in the Lord, but we also have the warnings. The one who thinks he stands, beware lest he falls. We have those who shipwrecked the faith. We have the parable of Jesus. This is the most clear.
[00:37:55] When the seed goes out and some falls on the rocks and it grows up quickly and the sun beats it down. And when Jesus is explaining it, he says, these are those who receive the Word with joy and believe it.
[00:38:06] But then when persecution comes because they have no roots, they fall away.
[00:38:12] So they believe for a time. In fact, that's the language Jesus uses. They believe for a time.
[00:38:18] So we must confess the Scriptures do not let us say that anything else, that it is possible for a person to believe for a time and then to fall away.
[00:38:28] But that's not told to us so that we would lose the assurance of our salvation.
[00:38:34] By repentance means sorrow over our own sin and trust in the mercy of Christ. By repentance, we are held in the Lord's mercy.
[00:38:45] So when someone says, can you lose your salvation? Where our our response is, why do you ask?
[00:38:52] I think there's probably three reasons why people ask, can I lose my salvation? Number one, it's because they're plotting some sinful thing and they want to know if they can get away with it and still go to heaven. Answer, no. Look, yes, you can lose your salvation and you do that, you're gonna. That's how the Scriptures would teach. But then there's the other questions. Like I'm having these deep qualms of conscience because I feel the depth of my own sin and I wonder, how can God possibly save me? Well, that kind of sorrow and repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit in his Christian people.
[00:39:28] And we then trust that the Lord is not casting us away, but forgiving us all of our sins.
[00:39:34] Can you lose your salvation in that situation? No, that repentance is indication that the Lord saving you.
[00:39:42] The third is that we're reading the Calvinist blogs and asking questions on the contact form okay, great question. Synod of Dort. There you go. So what do we say? T.
[00:39:54] What do we say? That was it t. 80% u, 50% l. Negative 1000% u. L. I was 15% p was 15%.
[00:40:09] We are.
[00:40:10] We're probably 6% tulip even. Isn't that wild too? Because in general, the Lutherans and the Reformed would be pretty close to each other.
[00:40:22] But you start digging into this doctrine of salvation. And if you build up a doctrine of salvation based on election, it you. That train goes off the rails in a lot of different directions. Real quick, Kate asks the Garden of Eden. Was the Garden of Eden a mountain?
[00:40:44] Moses wrote in Genesis that the rivers in the garden flowed downward and eventually separated into four other rivers.
[00:40:51] I've been reading Four Mountains by Michael Niebuhr, an Anglican minister. I've been in the LCMS for decades. Never heard or even thought about it. Thanks for all your teaching. Past, present, future. I don't know. I don't know.
[00:41:03] It had to been beautiful. It's a. It's a really interesting thing to think about the Garden of Eden. Luther. Whenever Luther talks about it in his Genesis commentary, he says, we just don't even have the capacity to understand these things. It's part of the fall, as we don't even know how far we've fallen.
[00:41:18] It's a terrible thing. But the more we meditate on the garden, the more we think about it, the more wonderful it seems like it becomes.
[00:41:25] Most times, rivers are merging, you know, so you have four rivers or two rivers, and they flow into each other.
[00:41:31] But in the Garden of Eden, you have this massive river that separates like a delta, you know, like the Nile when it gets to the. To the. And it splits in all these different ways.
[00:41:42] So it must have been so well provided for in every different way. And that the Lord started the garden. But there's this. Must have been a wildness around the garden. And now it was going to be Adam and Eve's work to extend the garden so that the whole world becomes this beautiful garden city, which is the picture that we have in the resurrection, in the new heavens and the new earth. This river that's flowing with the tree of Life on both sides and the temple, and it's this beautiful garden city.
[00:42:12] Will the Lord make it? I don't know this book or this idea of the mountain, but that's what those are my thoughts.
[00:42:19] It's also nice to note. How can you imagine that the last chapter of Genesis so parallels with the first two chapters of Genesis so that We've come full circle and we're back at the Tree of Life. So that when the Lord sent Adam and Eve out of the garden and barred their way back by the cherubim with the flaming swords, he didn't do that so that they would never go back there, but so that they wouldn't go back there in their sin.
[00:42:47] But everything that follows from Genesis chapter three onward until the very end is for the Lord to bring us back to the garden and in perfect fellowship with him and rejoicing in Him.
[00:43:05] So beautiful.
[00:43:08] Kate, you can read well for everybody. You can read Luther's Genesis Commentary online for free if you go to the download section of my website wolfmuller. Co Luther's Genesis Commentary. The first four chapters is available and you can download that PDF for free or you can order it on lulu.
[00:43:28] Only the first volume of Luther's Commentary was in the public domain, so we got that published.
[00:43:33] I'm trying to figure out how to do the whole commentary. It's eight volumes in the American edition, and it's just great. The other place to get into Luther on Genesis is the Worldwide Bible class. Every Wednesday morning, Nate asks the New Testament Jews, the Trinity and the Messiah. Whoa.
[00:43:49] Greetings, Pastor. I've been wondering about how the Jews of the New Testament understood the Trinity, giving the writings of Moses, the Psalms and the prophets.
[00:43:57] I'm fascinated how the reaction to Jesus by devout Jews like Simeon vs. Saul vary so greatly. Thanks for all that you do. There is a book, it's on my shelf in my office at church titled I Believe the Old Testament Trinity.
[00:44:20] And it talks about it's pulling from rabbinic writings that show at least that even the late rabbis had a sense of the plurality of God within the unity of God.
[00:44:33] And this is something that we can maintain clearly from the words of the Scriptures. For example, when the Lord says in the beginning, let us create man in our image, what is that referring to? There's really probably three options that are given, maybe four options that are given.
[00:44:51] One option is that there was multiple gods. That's pagan, clearly rejected by the Bible. The other option is that it referred to the angels, but we are not created in the image of the angels, so that has to go out. The third option is that there is this grammatical thing called the royal we like the queen says we love this dinner or something like that. That's later.
[00:45:13] Whatever.
[00:45:14] The only option remaining is that there's a conversation within the singularity of God, within the singleness of God, there's at least two who are Speaking.
[00:45:27] And so the plurality within the unity of God is already right there. And it's extended. As Chemnitz says, we see it in the creation of man. When it says God created man in his own image. He created him male and female. He created him, create, create, create. We have this threefold creating which points to the. To the tri. Unity of God. When Luther wants to give a proof text for the doctrine of the Trinity, he just says Genesis 1:1.
[00:45:52] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the Spirit of the Lord was over the waters. And the Lord said so already. You have God, the Spirit of God and the speaking of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We see this threefold repetition all the way through the Old Testament with the angels, holy, holy, holy.
[00:46:14] With the Psalm 67, for example, God shall bless us. God shall bless us, and the ends of the earth shall fear him. There's a triple blessing that's there.
[00:46:23] And I think maybe the best place to look for this is in Hebrews chapter one and two, where the preacher is going to pull out all of these Old Testament passages where God is speaking to God.
[00:46:38] Sit here at my right hand and I'll make your enemies your footstool. Psalm 110, you are my son. Today I have begotten you all of these beautiful passages where we have this conversation between, in this case, the Father and the Son.
[00:46:57] And it's understood then that there is only one God, one maker of heaven and earth, one eternal.
[00:47:04] But that one eternal is.
[00:47:08] There's a plurality in that one eternal being.
[00:47:12] So that the Trinity is there in the Old Testament, I think, much more explicitly than we are used to thinking it.
[00:47:19] And I think that the faithful. So, for example, if you were to talk to David or Moses or Isaiah, that they would have confessed this too. And there's proof that that was bouncing around in the rabbis.
[00:47:32] Now, the Pharisees were really defined by their rejection of Jesus.
[00:47:41] So even late stuff like Daniel, when the Son of Man comes to the ancient of days, and you have that implication of Father and Son, that's there.
[00:47:49] Jesus references that. And the Pharisees freak out.
[00:47:53] You will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds. They knew he was claiming to be God, they knew exactly what he was claiming, and they just freak out. And Phariseeism then develops into a radical rejection of the plurality within the Godhead. And so Judaism now is basically defined by this radical monotheism that won't permit a plurality and then is explaining all these passages away.
[00:48:19] But I think that there is a way. For there was a way that even in New Testament times that that Judaism was ready for this doctrine that here is the Son of God also made man. Amazing. Those are two great mysteries of the Christian faith, plurality and unity. The doctrine of the Trinity and that the second person of the Trinity has become man and been made flesh.
[00:48:46] All right, we did it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Counting Keats. That's 10 questions.
[00:48:53] That's the Q A podcast. Thanks for. Hey, thanks for hanging out. This is really a lot of fun. Hopefully the feedback will let you guys tell me that you are bored out of your minds and I should stop doing this immediately or that we should keep going.
[00:49:06] Don't forget to subscribe to the Wednesday whatnot that's over on the website to try to send out a email every couple of weeks with stuff I'm looking at and thinking about. So that's there for you as well. And keep in touch if you have questions add to the list. I'm checking 161 right now, so we'll see when we get back next week what it says as well. So thanks so much. God's peace be with you.
