Stepping out of nondenom land into confessional Lutheranism shocked me into realizing the depth that a shared confessional foundation can facilitate. Language is so much more consistent, clear, and concise. My wife and I are starting our LCMS membership class this Sunday 😁
Congratulations on your journey. I went to the information class three times, lol. Its like going back to school, but better. It is original Christianity.
As someone who started off in the Lutheran church as a teenager and then left to visit many other denominations over the next 30 years only to return to the Lutheran church 10 years ago with my Pentecostal raised wife (who loves being in a Lutheran church BTW) we did a lot of nodding during this talk. We have been in many of those churches you mentioned.
Beautiful. Just pre-ordered 3 copies for the congregations in our little circuit. Can't wait to read it. Thank you, Pastors, for bringing this to our attention.
I definitely want this book! Sounds very insightful, and the delivery seems respectful. I do wonder tho as God takes us where we're at, if He uses these churches as an outreach until you reach spiritual maturity. Then one would church shop/doctrine shop as they become more aligned with the word.
Love the Lutheran doctrine (read BoC last year and was blown away) but can't stand how liturgical it is and how the pastor does almost everything during the service.
Word and Wisdom. :) Listening for the word and often in society Jesus is left out. Listeners, sheep listening for the Shepherd and often the sheep realizing the word is not quite right from these speakers.
Stay in our lane. This comes to mind as the replies to my written emotions of listening to this talk yesterday evening. We are all unique creations of God. Each to their own vocation and purpose in the church within that vocation. Everything useful and what is beneficial comes to mind. Shepherd and Sheep and knowing when to lay down. This was actually a bot of a hard analysis video to me. It had me feeling guilty and ashamed as I looked at my own walk in life in faith. What I have done and left undone and what is possible for me to change and what to let go of and what to cling too. Trusting the Pastor. The called and ordained servant of the word. Trusting that He is trained correctly. Accepting other denominations of Christian Faith. They are our neighbors. We are called to love. Doctrine. Heritage. Tribal. Omnipresent, Omnipotent. Jesus. Our Lord and Savior. For You. Called and ordained means a lot in my understanding. How many people actually go to the Seminary to listen and learn? Lean not on your own understanding. Your words are not my words, and your thoughts are not my thoughts. To find ourselves here commenting. To whom shall we turn. Always, back to Jesus. Like we are having a time on the thrashing floor and the wheat is separated from the chaff. I wrote a song at the moment words flowing called Stuck in Your Rom. Just this last month ago. To flow the word of God in song. It is what it is. The word in me. I without realizing in a garden of envy, malice, hatred and enmity. Can I recognize these things in my garden of life? Please, God help. In realization. I, a sinner. Love covers a multitude of sin. Humbling. To listen to that which is good from the descriptions of the family portrayed in the book. I see myself as being that family in the journeys of life. The transitions from the devotion table of our family and out into the world, every day of life. Almost 70 years of growth and transition and wrestling with the word and the world and the interpretation and the glue and balming of the spirit into my heart onto my lips and in the labor of my hands, and what is the true reward? Trust. God's word has never failed. It does the work it sets out to do, and I and my family have been given this rich heritage and non changing word. I am the same forever. Heaven and earth shall change, but my Word remains the same forever. The spirit of the law and the letter of the law. Trusting and knowing our own propensities for sin. Confessing as we go, through all the stages of life. The word speaking to our needs and showing us the way. Jesus the way the truth and the life, no one comes unto the Father except through the son. This talk and book release and the thoughts into it. Like a picture of life. God with us all the way. Trusting in His promises. Amen. Thank You, Good Shepherds. Back to the Garden.
New Covenant Whole Gospel: How many modern Christians cannot honestly answer the questions below? Who is the King of Israel in John 1:49? Is the King of Israel now the Head of the Church, and are we His Body? Who is the “son” that is the “heir” to the land in Matthew 21:37-43? Why did God allow the Romans to destroy the Old Covenant temple and the Old Covenant city, about 40 years after His Son fulfilled the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 in blood at Calvary? What the modern Church needs is a New Covenant Revival (Heb. 9:10) in which members of various denominations are willing to re-examine everything they believe and see if it agrees with the Bible, instead of the traditions of men. We need to be like the Bereans. It will be a battle between our flesh and the Holy Spirit. It will not be easy. If you get mad and upset when someone challenges your man-made Bible doctrines, that is your flesh resisting the truth found in God's Word. Nobody can completely understand the Bible unless they understand the relationship between the Old Covenant given to Moses at Mount Sinai and the New Covenant fulfilled in blood at Calvary. God is not now a “racist”. He has extended His love to all races of people through the New Covenant fulfilled by His Son’s blood at Calvary. The Apostle Paul warned against using “genealogies” in our faith in 1 Tim. 1:4, and Titus 3:9. What brings all local churches together into one Body under the blood of Christ? The answer is found below. Let us now share the Old Testament Gospel found below with the whole world. On the road to Emmaus He said the Old Testament is about Him. He is the very Word of God in John 1:1, 14. Awaken Church to this truth. Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by husband unto them, saith the LORD: Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Is the most important genealogy in the Bible found in Matthew 1:1 (Gal. 3:16)? Is God's Son the ultimate fulfillment of Israel (John 1:49)? Why has the modern Church done a pitiful job of sharing the Gospel with modern Orthodox Jews? Why would someone tell them they are God's chosen people and then fail to share the Gospel with them? Who is the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15? What did Paul say about Genesis 12:3 in Galatians 3:8, 3:16? Who is the "son" in Psalm 2? Who is the "suffering servant" of Isaiah 53? Who would fulfill the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34? Who would fulfill the timeline of Daniel chapter 9 before the second temple was destroyed? Why have we not heard this simple Old Testament Gospel preached on Christian television in the United States on a regular basis? Once a person comes to understand the New Covenant promised to Israel and Judah in Jeremiah 31:31-34, which is found fulfilled by Christ during the first century in Hebrews 8:6-13, and Hebrews 10:16-18, and specifically applied to the Church in 2 Corinthians 3:6-8, and Hebrews 12:22-24, man-made Bible doctrines fall apart. Let us now learn to preach the whole Gospel until He comes back. The King of Israel is risen from the dead! (John 1:49, Acts 2:36) We are not come to Mount Sinai in Hebrews 12:18. We are come instead to the New Covenant church of Mount Zion and the blood in Hebrews 12:22-24. 1Jn 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. 1Jn 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 1Jn 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. The following verses prove the Holy Spirit is the master teacher for those now in the New Covenant. Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Mar 1:8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Act 11:16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. 1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. Watch the UA-cam videos “The New Covenant” by David Wilkerson, or Bob George, and David H.J. Gay.
Yes, the "lane" of Word and Sacrament is the ministry from the Pastor and the heart of the Church. But the deacons, the men, the women, the children, in their gifts and vocations, are in the "service lane", trying to get drivers to merge in. Unfortunately, some Lutheran pastors ignore the callings of their members. They believe that they are the only callings that really matter. Pastors, please don't discourage the creative people in your congregation. God wants to use ALL of us in our food pantry, coffee, puppet, sports leagues, guitar, and toilet cleaning ministries callings to draw others to Christ. These ministries that you think are silly/funny are the way I can start a conversation about Hebrews 12:22-23 worship. Your job is to keep us from just staying in one lane or the other and to teach the difference.
So well put. Pastors unfortunately default into this to the detriment of gifts their congregation has to offer. Things like "only a pastor can teach confirmation" Thinking like this doesn't end well long term for the "little c church" The LCMS is declining and this is a factor that has contributed due to this mentally.
The church is the body of belivers who have entered the new heavens and earth ,kingdom, the new Jerusalem and tabernacle with God its a spiritual church not a building or denomination 😊 Rev 21:2-3 ISV 2 I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See, the tent of God is among humans! He will make his home with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.
I was pretty disappointed by this. At my seminary, we were taught that the marks of the Church are the Word and the Sacraments. But you seem to be identifying these as "false" churches based on some external aspects of ministry. Ironically, when Jesus wants to point out those who are saved, he points to their external works. Naturally, we cannot see their faith which is invisible. We can only see the fruit. So some of these churches appear to have the fruits of faith. Fellowship, charity, etc. Are those things to be taken as evidence *against* them?! Pastor Richards says that he didn't really focus on the preaching. As far as I can tell he didn't focus on the sacraments. So how then can he conclude that these are "false" churches?
A congregation can take ANY good thing and make it into an idol. Even their Lutheran School, or their excellent doctrine. People can be out of balance. But if the Word is there, if Baptism and the Lord's Supper are given faithfully, then the Church is there.
@MattRichard I'm glad to hear it. Unfortunately it seems to me that this interview gives people rocks to throw at anyone who is not conducting ministry in the way they think is best. I've got a friend who serves in campus ministry who wears a style that has the university logo block letter superimposed on the cross. Clearly, he's an idiot. BUT his preaching is about Christ, and the Sacraments are administered faithfully. He's doing a foolish thing, but his congregation is not a "false church." Sadly, the skinny jeans, the praise band, the expensive decorations, the social ministry, even (in my experience) the parochial school can all be seized upon by critics to say, "See? This is what they're ALL about!"
Funny story, since you are using Campbell for church stories, the professor I had for studies on Christian denominations jokingly referred to Alexander Campbell as AC-DC, since he founded the Disciples of Christ. 😂
Which mail slot is mine? Have you ever went and tried to get a good pair of shoes that fit? How often have you went home with shoes that hurt you forever. Other shoes squeak. Or you get shoes that you simply did not spend enough time to get them right and seldom wear them and every time you do your feet hurt. At 29:14 and this comes up. Time to stop and reflect a little. Can we play the video backwards? :) Ok the Shepherd knows His sheep and the sheep their Shepherd. The wandering minstrel Lutheran and visiting churches because other minstrels invited them or, they, the minstrel wanted to take communion and slowly doctrinal issues worried them usually after realizing with their experience of fellowship with Christians had them enter into sanctuaries the Lutheran kid never went into. To realize. wait a minute, this doesn't feel like church. It's a rock concert. Or a turkey dinner. Good doctrine and how it sticks to us and sometimes to everything else. Always listening for the word of God and often confused because the word doing it's work has one thinking. This doesn't fit. I don't fit. Even in our Lutheran Churches. Make a real friend at church. He was in the liturgical service stand up sit down etc pray kneel confess and what we do in the Lutheran Church. Jesus is your friend. Church is for communion and the correct intermingling of law and gospel and mingling with church members? Well. Back to the Yacht Club and living aboard. Missions. Always far away places like quilts Mom sent to South America or Africa for 90 years. Cutting up sheets for leper colonies. An amazing mite box and our leftover allowances for the needy. Where is the faith? In out heads, on our minds in our hearts, on our tongues. Where is the real Church. Ok now to listen further. How often in so used to listening for a familiar word as in the Gospel and all the lunch bag lets downs of minstrels who know about Jesus and maybe are baptized and in their self-improvement courses and wanting to monetize their content plagiarize and forget it is all in the word? Then sad because they know it has been done better, and we know better and are looking for the leadership to take it to the next level of fruits and works! Meat potatoes and as usual too much time at the sweets table as children in the church. Dating myself here. :) Back to listening. Maybe sit down or stand up. Which hat and confession as it seems I am in all of them. Maybe even a Samaritan. A good one. :) In the garden. Then add in the poor children who have never been to church and are drug addicts and damaged. Lord deliver them and is too
Your Mothers a ! Yes. Your Fathers a what? Yes. All sinners. Yet we honor our Fathers and Mothers that it may go well with us. Like hate your life and your family. Context in the contradictions and what the word really means. Oh for good Pastors.
If all Christian churches would stop the nit-picking over who is right and focus on our central belief in Jesus Christ, just think of the power of Christ we could carry.
Really? Why do you think saint Paul was always nit-picking? We should just focus on our central belief in Jesus? So we can team up with mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses? Then we can carry this "power" that you covet? Could we rule the world with our combined power? I'm not convinced yet could you elaborate on your plan? I think nit-picking and being right is more important than illicit alliances with blasphemers and heretics, just to wield imagined power. Do you think Luther should have just agreed with the pope and Rome, because of all the power they carry?
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:6-9 NKJV For the Apostle Paul, getting the Gospel right at least was pretty important.
Been to many churches, many denominations....the Church is gone, even Churches that claim to be Lutheran..How to get rid of an Evangelical Church... Take down the sign and all you have is a movie theater. The Unity of the Church is Christ...not music and a narcissistic speaker..
You're both right. We should avoid trite worship songs that are man-centred or nothing but feelings. We should avoid executing traditional hymns badly solely for the sake of tradition. We should sing songs that glorify God and teach the faith well and do that to the very best of our ability.
Sorry. You can dismiss me as a snob, but there are 'tells' I use to judge a person's intelligence. If I was shopping around for a church (like the Campbells) ... a process I've actually indulged in on more than one occasion throughout my peripatetic existence, and which we used to refer to as being an "ecclesiastical tramp" ... on that 'journey', searching for a new church home, I am looking for an articulate message from the pulpit. If, within the first few minutes, I hear the word "exscape", I know that I'm risking a future fraught with frustration because here's a clergyman basically incapable of critical self-evaluation. He doesn't listen to himself, so why should I listen to him? If you can joke about misplaced priorities (and the actual phrase involves mispronouncing both words: "em-pha’-sis on the wrong syl-la’-ble"), then I'll be so bold as to correct your diction. The word is "escape". It contains no 'k' or 'x' sounds. Hey, first impressions are lasting impressions. When you presume to pass judgement on the authenticity of other congregations of Christians, it is hard to avoid the themes that surfaced in your discussion here, thinly veiled, but present nonetheless: contempt, dismissal & ridicule. As you flaunt your erudition, you ignored the most obvious Greek word: ekklesia. To have a conversation like this about the "real church", using weighted words like "false" & "true", without investigating the essential definition of believers gathered together, signals a focus on institutional structure rather than the nature of the actual community of Christians. We are not all the same. It is variety in worship options that allows the opportunity to find a path to salvation that resonates with one individual but not another. And it was ever thus. That's why we know about Paul - thanks to the letters he wrote to different churches defined by the cultures that they were situated in. Pluck that plank out of your own eyes, and try to embrace the promise that "in my Father's house, there are many rooms". Try and contemplate the notion that these are not cookie-cutter cubicles. They vary in dimension. They are designed, decorated & furnished differently. Celebrate how inviting that is. Don't denigrate it. Proclaiming the word & sacraments is an invitation. Admission doesn't involve being authenticated by a liturgical checklist. I'm beginning to suspect the two of you belong to the Church of Smug.
Stepping out of nondenom land into confessional Lutheranism shocked me into realizing the depth that a shared confessional foundation can facilitate. Language is so much more consistent, clear, and concise.
My wife and I are starting our LCMS membership class this Sunday 😁
LETS GOOO. I'm glad God led you gjys to that. Gain wisdom, and lnsight. And fight the good fight!
Congratulations on your journey. I went to the information class three times, lol. Its like going back to school, but better. It is original Christianity.
Thanks be to God!
As someone who started off in the Lutheran church as a teenager and then left to visit many other denominations over the next 30 years only to return to the Lutheran church 10 years ago with my Pentecostal raised wife (who loves being in a Lutheran church BTW) we did a lot of nodding during this talk. We have been in many of those churches you mentioned.
Encourage one and other, speak the truth in love, bear each others burdens. Thanks Pastors Matt and Bryan from Latvia.
I loved listening to every single minute of this video. Thank you so much. Blessings to you both, and praise be to God.
Beautiful. Just pre-ordered 3 copies for the congregations in our little circuit. Can't wait to read it. Thank you, Pastors, for bringing this to our attention.
I definitely want this book! Sounds very insightful, and the delivery seems respectful. I do wonder tho as God takes us where we're at, if He uses these churches as an outreach until you reach spiritual maturity. Then one would church shop/doctrine shop as they become more aligned with the word.
I love you both!!! Greetings from Greece.
Great interview and book pre-ordered. Thanks to both of you.
God bless our Christian family.
Loved hearing this discussion! Can't wait to read this book.
My book arrived yesterday! Can’t wait to dive in
Love the Lutheran doctrine (read BoC last year and was blown away) but can't stand how liturgical it is and how the pastor does almost everything during the service.
Thanks, padre. Original Christianity is the purest.
Great conversation!
Love the discussion 😊
Thank you. 👍
Looking forward to reading this one
Word and Wisdom. :) Listening for the word and often in society Jesus is left out.
Listeners, sheep listening for the Shepherd and often the sheep realizing the word is not quite right from these speakers.
Tabasco sauce and a pitch fork...That's gold.
It has been standing up for the last 2000 years..
Stay in our lane. This comes to mind as the replies to my written emotions of listening to this talk yesterday evening. We are all unique creations of God. Each to their own vocation and purpose in the church within that vocation. Everything useful and what is beneficial comes to mind. Shepherd and Sheep and knowing when to lay down. This was actually a bot of a hard analysis video to me. It had me feeling guilty and ashamed as I looked at my own walk in life in faith. What I have done and left undone and what is possible for me to change and what to let go of and what to cling too. Trusting the Pastor. The called and ordained servant of the word. Trusting that He is trained correctly. Accepting other denominations of Christian Faith. They are our neighbors. We are called to love. Doctrine. Heritage. Tribal. Omnipresent, Omnipotent. Jesus. Our Lord and Savior. For You. Called and ordained means a lot in my understanding. How many people actually go to the Seminary to listen and learn? Lean not on your own understanding. Your words are not my words, and your thoughts are not my thoughts. To find ourselves here commenting. To whom shall we turn. Always, back to Jesus. Like we are having a time on the thrashing floor and the wheat is separated from the chaff. I wrote a song at the moment words flowing called Stuck in Your Rom. Just this last month ago. To flow the word of God in song. It is what it is. The word in me. I without realizing in a garden of envy, malice, hatred and enmity. Can I recognize these things in my garden of life? Please, God help. In realization. I, a sinner. Love covers a multitude of sin. Humbling. To listen to that which is good from the descriptions of the family portrayed in the book. I see myself as being that family in the journeys of life. The transitions from the devotion table of our family and out into the world, every day of life. Almost 70 years of growth and transition and wrestling with the word and the world and the interpretation and the glue and balming of the spirit into my heart onto my lips and in the labor of my hands, and what is the true reward? Trust. God's word has never failed. It does the work it sets out to do, and I and my family have been given this rich heritage and non changing word. I am the same forever. Heaven and earth shall change, but my Word remains the same forever. The spirit of the law and the letter of the law. Trusting and knowing our own propensities for sin. Confessing as we go, through all the stages of life. The word speaking to our needs and showing us the way. Jesus the way the truth and the life, no one comes unto the Father except through the son. This talk and book release and the thoughts into it. Like a picture of life. God with us all the way. Trusting in His promises. Amen. Thank You, Good Shepherds. Back to the Garden.
How do these churches compare to the 7 churches found in Revelation?
Is good to cure,but not was must.good to prevente?
Like a confession. Guilty as we say in the confession.
31
New Covenant Whole Gospel: How many modern Christians cannot honestly answer the questions below?
Who is the King of Israel in John 1:49? Is the King of Israel now the Head of the Church, and are we His Body? Who is the “son” that is the “heir” to the land in Matthew 21:37-43? Why did God allow the Romans to destroy the Old Covenant temple and the Old Covenant city, about 40 years after His Son fulfilled the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 in blood at Calvary?
What the modern Church needs is a New Covenant Revival (Heb. 9:10) in which members of various denominations are willing to re-examine everything they believe and see if it agrees with the Bible, instead of the traditions of men. We need to be like the Bereans. It will be a battle between our flesh and the Holy Spirit. It will not be easy. If you get mad and upset when someone challenges your man-made Bible doctrines, that is your flesh resisting the truth found in God's Word. Nobody can completely understand the Bible unless they understand the relationship between the Old Covenant given to Moses at Mount Sinai and the New Covenant fulfilled in blood at Calvary.
God is not now a “racist”. He has extended His love to all races of people through the New Covenant fulfilled by His Son’s blood at Calvary. The Apostle Paul warned against using “genealogies” in our faith in 1 Tim. 1:4, and Titus 3:9.
What brings all local churches together into one Body under the blood of Christ? The answer is found below.
Let us now share the Old Testament Gospel found below with the whole world. On the road to Emmaus He said the Old Testament is about Him.
He is the very Word of God in John 1:1, 14. Awaken Church to this truth.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Is the most important genealogy in the Bible found in Matthew 1:1 (Gal. 3:16)? Is God's Son the ultimate fulfillment of Israel (John 1:49)? Why has the modern Church done a pitiful job of sharing the Gospel with modern Orthodox Jews? Why would someone tell them they are God's chosen people and then fail to share the Gospel with them? Who is the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15? What did Paul say about Genesis 12:3 in Galatians 3:8, 3:16? Who is the "son" in Psalm 2? Who is the "suffering servant" of Isaiah 53? Who would fulfill the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34? Who would fulfill the timeline of Daniel chapter 9 before the second temple was destroyed? Why have we not heard this simple Old Testament Gospel preached on Christian television in the United States on a regular basis?
Once a person comes to understand the New Covenant promised to Israel and Judah in Jeremiah 31:31-34, which is found fulfilled by Christ during the first century in Hebrews 8:6-13, and Hebrews 10:16-18, and specifically applied to the Church in 2 Corinthians 3:6-8, and Hebrews 12:22-24, man-made Bible doctrines fall apart.
Let us now learn to preach the whole Gospel until He comes back. The King of Israel is risen from the dead! (John 1:49, Acts 2:36)
We are not come to Mount Sinai in Hebrews 12:18. We are come instead to the New Covenant church of Mount Zion and the blood in Hebrews 12:22-24.
1Jn 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
1Jn 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1Jn 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
The following verses prove the Holy Spirit is the master teacher for those now in the New Covenant.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Mar 1:8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Act 11:16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Watch the UA-cam videos “The New Covenant” by David Wilkerson, or Bob George, and David H.J. Gay.
Are the Lutheran numbers down from 10-15 years ago?
Depends where you look, but most places, yes.
Forgiveness of sins and eternal life
Yes, the "lane" of Word and Sacrament is the ministry from the Pastor and the heart of the Church. But the deacons, the men, the women, the children, in their gifts and vocations, are in the "service lane", trying to get drivers to merge in. Unfortunately, some Lutheran pastors ignore the callings of their members. They believe that they are the only callings that really matter. Pastors, please don't discourage the creative people in your congregation. God wants to use ALL of us in our food pantry, coffee, puppet, sports leagues, guitar, and toilet cleaning ministries callings to draw others to Christ. These ministries that you think are silly/funny are the way I can start a conversation about Hebrews 12:22-23 worship. Your job is to keep us from just staying in one lane or the other and to teach the difference.
So well put. Pastors unfortunately default into this to the detriment of gifts their congregation has to offer. Things like "only a pastor can teach confirmation"
Thinking like this doesn't end well long term for the "little c church"
The LCMS is declining and this is a factor that has contributed due to this mentally.
The church is the body of belivers who have entered the new heavens and earth ,kingdom, the new Jerusalem and tabernacle with God its a spiritual church not a building or denomination 😊
Rev 21:2-3 ISV 2 I also saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See, the tent of God is among humans! He will make his home with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.
Read Mark, and inwardly digest 😂 49:20
I just learned about a church that sponsors a single's cruise! Good grief! Talk about a loss of mission focus!
/sarc off
I was pretty disappointed by this. At my seminary, we were taught that the marks of the Church are the Word and the Sacraments. But you seem to be identifying these as "false" churches based on some external aspects of ministry.
Ironically, when Jesus wants to point out those who are saved, he points to their external works. Naturally, we cannot see their faith which is invisible. We can only see the fruit.
So some of these churches appear to have the fruits of faith. Fellowship, charity, etc. Are those things to be taken as evidence *against* them?!
Pastor Richards says that he didn't really focus on the preaching. As far as I can tell he didn't focus on the sacraments. So how then can he conclude that these are "false" churches?
A congregation can take ANY good thing and make it into an idol. Even their Lutheran School, or their excellent doctrine. People can be out of balance. But if the Word is there, if Baptism and the Lord's Supper are given faithfully, then the Church is there.
As you will see in the book, the false churches are condemned based on what they are lacking: the Word and Sacraments.
@MattRichard I'm glad to hear it. Unfortunately it seems to me that this interview gives people rocks to throw at anyone who is not conducting ministry in the way they think is best. I've got a friend who serves in campus ministry who wears a style that has the university logo block letter superimposed on the cross. Clearly, he's an idiot. BUT his preaching is about Christ, and the Sacraments are administered faithfully. He's doing a foolish thing, but his congregation is not a "false church."
Sadly, the skinny jeans, the praise band, the expensive decorations, the social ministry, even (in my experience) the parochial school can all be seized upon by critics to say, "See? This is what they're ALL about!"
Funny story, since you are using Campbell for church stories, the professor I had for studies on Christian denominations jokingly referred to Alexander Campbell as AC-DC, since he founded the Disciples of Christ. 😂
I find this very interesting it gives me fuel for my friends that do go to different churches
Which mail slot is mine? Have you ever went and tried to get a good pair of shoes that fit? How often have you went home with shoes that hurt you forever. Other shoes squeak. Or you get shoes that you simply did not spend enough time to get them right and seldom wear them and every time you do your feet hurt. At 29:14 and this comes up. Time to stop and reflect a little. Can we play the video backwards? :) Ok the Shepherd knows His sheep and the sheep their Shepherd. The wandering minstrel Lutheran and visiting churches because other minstrels invited them or, they, the minstrel wanted to take communion and slowly doctrinal issues worried them usually after realizing with their experience of fellowship with Christians had them enter into sanctuaries the Lutheran kid never went into. To realize. wait a minute, this doesn't feel like church. It's a rock concert. Or a turkey dinner. Good doctrine and how it sticks to us and sometimes to everything else. Always listening for the word of God and often confused because the word doing it's work has one thinking. This doesn't fit. I don't fit. Even in our Lutheran Churches. Make a real friend at church. He was in the liturgical service stand up sit down etc pray kneel confess and what we do in the Lutheran Church. Jesus is your friend. Church is for communion and the correct intermingling of law and gospel and mingling with church members? Well. Back to the Yacht Club and living aboard. Missions. Always far away places like quilts Mom sent to South America or Africa for 90 years. Cutting up sheets for leper colonies. An amazing mite box and our leftover allowances for the needy. Where is the faith? In out heads, on our minds in our hearts, on our tongues. Where is the real Church. Ok now to listen further. How often in so used to listening for a familiar word as in the Gospel and all the lunch bag lets downs of minstrels who know about Jesus and maybe are baptized and in their self-improvement courses and wanting to monetize their content plagiarize and forget it is all in the word? Then sad because they know it has been done better, and we know better and are looking for the leadership to take it to the next level of fruits and works! Meat potatoes and as usual too much time at the sweets table as children in the church. Dating myself here. :) Back to listening. Maybe sit down or stand up. Which hat and confession as it seems I am in all of them. Maybe even a Samaritan. A good one. :) In the garden. Then add in the poor children who have never been to church and are drug addicts and damaged. Lord deliver them and is too
Your Mothers a ! Yes. Your Fathers a what? Yes. All sinners. Yet we honor our Fathers and Mothers that it may go well with us. Like hate your life and your family. Context in the contradictions and what the word really means. Oh for good Pastors.
If all Christian churches would stop the nit-picking over who is right and focus on our central belief in Jesus Christ, just think of the power of Christ we could carry.
Really? Why do you think saint Paul was always nit-picking? We should just focus on our central belief in Jesus? So we can team up with mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses? Then we can carry this "power" that you covet? Could we rule the world with our combined power? I'm not convinced yet could you elaborate on your plan? I think nit-picking and being right is more important than illicit alliances with blasphemers and heretics, just to wield imagined power.
Do you think Luther should have just agreed with the pope and Rome, because of all the power they carry?
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”
Galatians 1:6-9 NKJV
For the Apostle Paul, getting the Gospel right at least was pretty important.
Been to many churches, many denominations....the Church is gone, even Churches that claim to be Lutheran..How to get rid of an Evangelical Church... Take down the sign and all you have is a movie theater. The Unity of the Church is Christ...not music and a narcissistic speaker..
So the church is gone because you've been to many of them and did not like what you saw? Define many. 40, 100, 1000?
No, please, no out of tune organs. Shiver me timbers
No, please, no Hillsong, Elevation CCM, LCMS. Stop selling out our rich music heritage!
You're both right.
We should avoid trite worship songs that are man-centred or nothing but feelings. We should avoid executing traditional hymns badly solely for the sake of tradition.
We should sing songs that glorify God and teach the faith well and do that to the very best of our ability.
Sorry. You can dismiss me as a snob, but there are 'tells' I use to judge a person's intelligence. If I was shopping around for a church (like the Campbells) ... a process I've actually indulged in on more than one occasion throughout my peripatetic existence, and which we used to refer to as being an "ecclesiastical tramp" ... on that 'journey', searching for a new church home, I am looking for an articulate message from the pulpit. If, within the first few minutes, I hear the word "exscape", I know that I'm risking a future fraught with frustration because here's a clergyman basically incapable of critical self-evaluation. He doesn't listen to himself, so why should I listen to him? If you can joke about misplaced priorities (and the actual phrase involves mispronouncing both words: "em-pha’-sis on the wrong syl-la’-ble"), then I'll be so bold as to correct your diction. The word is "escape". It contains no 'k' or 'x' sounds. Hey, first impressions are lasting impressions.
When you presume to pass judgement on the authenticity of other congregations of Christians, it is hard to avoid the themes that surfaced in your discussion here, thinly veiled, but present nonetheless: contempt, dismissal & ridicule.
As you flaunt your erudition, you ignored the most obvious Greek word: ekklesia. To have a conversation like this about the "real church", using weighted words like "false" & "true", without investigating the essential definition of believers gathered together, signals a focus on institutional structure rather than the nature of the actual community of Christians.
We are not all the same. It is variety in worship options that allows the opportunity to find a path to salvation that resonates with one individual but not another. And it was ever thus. That's why we know about Paul - thanks to the letters he wrote to different churches defined by the cultures that they were situated in. Pluck that plank out of your own eyes, and try to embrace the promise that "in my Father's house, there are many rooms". Try and contemplate the notion that these are not cookie-cutter cubicles. They vary in dimension. They are designed, decorated & furnished differently. Celebrate how inviting that is. Don't denigrate it. Proclaiming the word & sacraments is an invitation. Admission doesn't involve being authenticated by a liturgical checklist.
I'm beginning to suspect the two of you belong to the Church of Smug.
Thanks for the correction. I didn't realize I pronounced the word wrong.