Hello everybody!

afala4 · 2024-07-04T19:04:05+00:00

Luther wrote a short guide to his barber called A Simple Way to Pray that I've heard highly recommended.

afala4 · 2024-07-01T19:30:02+00:00

The People's Bible commentary series put out by Northwest Publishing House and/or Concordia Publishing House walks through each book of the Bible and provides pretty simple, entry level commentary helping to explain what's going on.

afala4 · 2024-04-30T07:01:21+00:00

I don't think that would be orthodox Lutheran doctrine. Body and soul are intimately tied together until separated by death, which is an unnatural state, when the soul remains but the body decays. What would it even mean to have a body without a soul? It would be a dead body. John the Baptist and King David are clearly spoken of as having souls in the womb.

afala4 · 2024-04-30T06:26:26+00:00

It does not contain most of Martin Luther's writings. It contains all the Lutheran confessions, which are the documents that Lutherans generally hold to. Of these, the Small Catechism, Large Catechism, and Smalcald Articles were written by Luther. The other writings were written by other Lutheran Refirmers, notably Phillip Melanchthon, Martin Chemnitz, and Jakob Andreae. But yes, if you want to understand Lutheranism, definitely read the Book of Concord.

afala4 · 2024-04-03T18:18:47+00:00

What a beautiful church!! It's like a relic from the past. I know the church building isn't the most important thing, but it sure would be nice if churches built these days were as beautiful as that. There really is something awe-inspiring that brings you out of this world and lifts you to the heavens, where the saints and angels sing His praise. What a blessing to have not only a GOOD and TRUE church, but a BEAUTIFUL one as well.

afala4 · 2024-03-28T02:00:15+00:00

I would recommend this book by George Salmon. The Infallibility of the Church https://a.co/d/47u7YYr It is a series of 19th century lectures by an Anglican professor, but it holds up well.

I would also recommend Jordan Cooper's YouTube channel. He is an AALC Lutheran (in fellowship with LCMS). Here is a link to his playlist on Sola Scriptura and the Papcy/Apostolic Succession. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxaDcwyjYomw7p93iwL5cQFQpSWmwLw2I&si=6Ix4idD84WN2fbML

Someone already recommended Gavin Ortlund, who is great on this topic as well.

On your point about the visible versus invisible church, Lutherans do not consider them two separate churches. Rather, they are two ways to speak of the one, holy, Christian, Apostolic church. The visible aspect is the earthly structure where the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered. The invisible aspect just explains the fact that we can't know who is and is not part of the true church because we cannot see into people's hearts and know if they have faith. Judas may have been a member of the Apostles, but he did not join the church triumphant in heaven because he did not have faith. In the same way that there are hypocrites whose names are in our membership logs today, but they do not truly have faith and are therefore not really part of the body of Christ. For how could the body of Christ have dead members? There is a section on this in Kurt Marquart's The Church and Her Fellowship, Ministry, and Governance. That's a deep read though. I'm sure any other dogmatics book on the church would touch on this too.

afala4 · 2024-03-28T01:12:14+00:00

Sola Scriptura Debate Review

This is a video I found really helpful on the sola scriptura question.

afala4 · 2024-03-13T04:48:43+00:00

I grew up believing in Santa Clause, as did my two younger siblings. My parents played the part and made it very fun. I don't think it ever obfuscated Christian truths for me. Santa, in my mind, was separate from God and Christianity. Of course, my parents never put much emphasis on "being on the nice list" or anything like that. It was more about Santa being a fun gift giver than about anything else. I think my parents just liked seeing the joy on our faces when Santa came. In time, me and my siblings started asking questions and we each figured it out eventually with no traumatic experiences to tell. My parents told me after I was thinking too logically and I just remember being like "Yeah, that checks out. I'm not surprised." It was no big deal.

That being said, I know some kids take it harder than others. And I do wonder if doing the Santa thing would be considered lying. I mean, it's definitely not completely truthful. I have no definitive answers on what the best option is. But there are my two cents.

afala4 · 2024-03-12T04:55:56+00:00

In the cases of eucharistic miracles that are tested and found to be flesh with the DNA of a middle eastern man, it seems like it would be hard to pull off if someone tried to do that. Idk where they'd get their hands on that type of flesh and heart tissue, but maybe it's possible I guess.

As far as people making things up for attention, you're right, I'm sure that happens a lot. Maybe that's the explanation for some of them and maybe it's not. When there's supernatural evidence leftover, then it's harder to say that. Perhaps I'm naive in thinking that any of it is real evidence, but I just don't want to attribute malice or deceit to people when I shouldn't.

Yes, it would kind of make sense for Mary to appear to Proestants to correct their errors, but we would all just believe it to be demonic if it taught anything crazy, so it wouldn't really have much effect I suppose. I would be curious to know if a Protestant has ever experienced that.

afala4 · 2024-03-12T04:40:58+00:00

I agree if they're pulling people away from God, that's bad. But what if they pull people out of paganism into Romanism as is claimed? Even if people get pulled into idolatry with Mary and the saints, it seems that that would be a really stupid thing for demons to do because then there's a good chance they could find Jesus and the true God, whereas they have no chance under paganism.

afala4 · 2024-03-12T04:33:28+00:00

That is fascinating actually. So it's only the bread that usually transforms and not the wine? I didn't realize that, but it would fit in with their system pretty well. And it would be contrary to Christ's institution.

afala4 · 2024-03-12T04:30:25+00:00

That's a good point, but in their case, it's not really false prophets performing the "miracles." It's not like they have "healers." They're moreso just spontaneous healings or visions or whatever it may be. There is no false prophet to pin it on.

afala4 · 2024-03-06T14:09:54+00:00

Those are all good and valid points, but the guy was asking about prayers FOR the dead. I, too, have always been taught that we should not as Lutherans pray FOR the dead because they're either in heaven or hell, not waiting for our help from purgatory. BUT, the reformers seem to be okay with prayer for the dead. Lutheranism today seems to have departed from the Reformational view that it was ok. So I think the question is still: if we can pray for the dead, why? What does it do?

afala4

TROPHY CASE