A Martyr’s Faith for a Faithless World
Here’s the next book. I wrote this one for Hannah. I want her to read it as she heads off to college. There are a lot of things that attack...
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Martin Luther’s Preface to Romans
This Epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word,...
Martin Luther’s introduction to Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians
First of all, it is good for us that we speak of the argument of this Epistle [to the Galatians]: that is to say, what matter St. Paul here chiefly...
How to be a theologian?
Pray, read the Bible, and suffer. Pretty simple. Here’s how Luther explains it: Moreover, I want to point out to you a correct way of studying theology, f...
Four Poems for Holy Week (plus nine more)
We have to stretch our words towards the mysteries of Holy Week. It takes the best of our humanity, hymns, music, poems, art, everything, strain to touch the gl...
G. K. Chesterton on the Silliness of the Slow-Motion Miracle of Evolution
I’m looking for that little paragraph where G. K. Chesterton talks about the “word” and the “promise” as the pillars of civilization. I haven’t found it. But I ...
The Day of Atonement at the Time of Jesus
You guys know I’m a big fan of Alfred Edersheim, especially his magnificent work On the Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Yesterday, to better understa...
456 Old Testament Passages considered Messianic by the Rabbis
You guys know I love The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim. There is a beautiful appendix (#9) with a list of 456 Old Testament passages.....
A Small Catechism on the Divine Call
Pastor Brian Flamme put this together. Great stuff! (I didn’t get his permission, so no one tell him I’m posting this here.) Q: What is the Divine C...
Justified by Works: The Lutheran Confessions on James 2:24
From James 2:24 [our opponents] cite, “Ye see, then, how by works a man is justified, and not by faith alone.” Nor is any other passage supposed to be more...
About Lent…
Here are some notes from Pr. Pless about the history of Lent. (Find all his church year notes here.) LENT: History The word “Lent” comes from an old English wor...
The Gospel is for Sinners
Here’s a classic, beautiful excerpt from C. F. W. Walther’s “The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel”. Thesis VIII. In the fourth ...
Ten Commandment Diagnostic Questions
One of the great gifts of the Ten Commandments is insight into our own failures. Like a doctor who tells us the bad, hard, and necessary news of a sickness...
Prayer
Here’s the link to the essay titled “St Paul and the Pastor’s Work of Prayer” : This was originally published in Seelsorger, A Journal o...
What’s the Big Deal about Baptism?
“Suppose there were a physician who had such skill that people would not die, or even though they died would afterward live forever. Just think how the world wo...
The Burning of Brother Henry (A Letter of Comfort from Martin Luther)
On December 10, 1524, a pastor and preacher, Henry of Zutphen, was beaten to death and burned for preaching the Gospel. Henry was a student and friend of Martin...
John the Baptist in Prison: A Meditation
from Alfred Edersheim’s Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah We are in spirit by the mount of God, and about to witness the breaking of a terrible storm. I...
Confessional Mirror
Ten Questions from the Ten Commandments: What am I afraid of? How are my prayers? What is my attitude toward worship? What is my attitude toward authority? ...
Progressive Mortification, How to Humble the Flesh
We want to do what is right, but there is something in that resists doing good. The Bible calls that our sinful flesh, and this article is about how we...
Martin Luther Tells the Story of How He Discovered the Gospel (or, perhaps, how the Gospel discovered him)
Here’s how Martin Luther discovered the Gospel in his own words. He gives this account in the introduction to his Latin Works, published in 1545. Meanwhil...