thoughts continued...

Patrimony. That is the word I use to describe what we, the churches of the Reformation have to be thankful for from the Church Historic, or Church Catholic.
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Transfusion of heathen ceremonies into Christian worship...

From the book "History of Romanism" by John Downling

In the words of a distinguished member of the establishment in Great Britain, Dean Waddington, "the copious transfusion of heathen ceremonies into Christian worship, which had taken place before the end of the fourth century, had, to a certain extent, paganized ( if we may so express it ) the outward form and aspect of religion, and these ceremonies became more general and more numerous, and, so far as the calamities of the times would permit, more splendid in the age which followed. To console the convert for the loss of his favorite festival, others of a different name, but similar description, were introduced; and the simple and serious occupation of spiritual devotion was beginning to degenerate into a worship of parade and demonstration, or a mere scene of riotous festivity."

These guys

Thinking about these guys lately
- Waldensians
- John Wycliffe
- Jan Hus
- William Tyndale

Facebook...no more

Pulled the trigger and decided to deactivate my Facebook account. I attempted to engage folks in various Reformed and Lutheran groups ( even Anglican ) only to run into people who became dogmatic on any and every issue without the slightest attempt to enter into a conversation/dialogue. This only caused me unneeded frustration.

My first step was to remove myself from those groups and simply read occasional news items or posts from a few friends. But I got tired of seeing pictures of food and hearing how awesome everyone was. All that was left were news items, which I was already seeing in my Blog Roll and/or Twitter feed.

So I'm out, I'm done with FB and actually breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe I'll try to get back on here and write more. Just to work out my thoughts. Seeing much in Christianity that concerns me. Yes, it is easy to pick out the bad in things, but that is where my heart is. Not picking bad out, but uprooting error and falsehoods before they get too deep and defending Gospel centered Christianity and not a politcally-co-opted western religion.

Lutheran versus Reformed

This has been really difficult for me to work out in my mind. I was part of a PCA Church plant in Rogers for obout 8 years and very involved. Now we're in the Lutheran Church ( LCMS ) for about 4 years and I'm really missing the love of and exposition of the Scriptures...exhortation, encouragement, etc. that I remember from years past.

I keep hearing this mantra of sorts over and over to the effect of "you're a saint and a sinner and thanks be to God, now go love your neighbor". There is not much speaking towards the realm of sanctification. And I'm not the only one seeing this, an ex-Calvinist now Lutheran pastor is seeing it as well http://justandsinner.blogspot.com/2013/04/progressive-sanctification-lutheran.html .

I'm also seeing tendency in the LCMS to be more like Rome, or be more like a non-denominational church. Kinda bizarre the tendency to push to the extremes. Those longing for Rome worry me, especially since I lost a good friend to Rome over the past year. My studies in the RCC and the Reformation lead me to a new appreciation for the various aspects of the Reformation and the differences between Luther and Calvin.

This all led me back to reading and listening to Ligonier, Westminster, RTS, you name it and I have been really enjoying it. I thought I should go back to the basics, so I started thinking about soteriology and I realized that Lutheranism seems awfully Arminian to me. 

Comparison
http://threehierarchies.blogspot.com/2005/08/lutheranism-between-calvinism-and.html

Reformed View
http://www.ligonier.org/blog/charles-spurgeon-calvinism-definite-atonement/

Lutheran View of Calvinism
http://www.orlutheran.com/html/calvinisttheology.html

sola scriptura

Random digging, uncovered this from a debate James White did with Patrick Madrid on the topic of Sola Scriptura

"We further see, the Scriptures can equip the man of God for every good work.  Now, Mr. Madrid, do you not believe that it is a good work to pray to Mary?  Yet, the Scriptures nowhere teach this.  Do you not believe that it is good to believe and teach that Mary was bodily assumed into Heaven?  Yet, the Bible does not teach this.   Do you not believe that the man of God should teach, in the Church, that the pope, in Rome, is infallible in his teaching office?  Yet, the Scriptures know nothing of such a concept.

 

We see then, that the Roman position is contradicted by that of the Apostle.  For he knew of no other rule of faith that was necessary so that the man of God could be equipped for every good work.  No other rule of faith, that is, than the Scriptures."

Election

Looking back through some of the Reformed material from my years before coming to the Lutheran church. Found this online describing Election and Predestination in the Lutheran Church

"What can we gather from the Lutheran Confessions here? First, it's very clear that grace in Lutheranism actually saves, apart from our 'acceptance.' We must receive it, to be sure. Yet this receiving is passive and is given by God alone (monergism) not in response to our willing (synergism). The main principle in Lutheranism regarding election is Christ crucified for us, given to us by grace alone in Word and Sacrament. Christ is all in all. Thus, in terms of election to salvation, we concur with the Calvinists. The elect are saved, by God's choice, by grace alone through faith alone. The Solid Declaration is clear that election is itself a cause. (SD, XI, 8)
We do not, however, accept the Calvinist doctrine of reprobation, as the Solid Declaration makes abundantly clear. (SD, XI, 78-82) Whereas election to salvation is all of grace and all of God, reprobation is all of sinful man and the devil, not of God. There is no reprobation to perdition in Lutheranism."