The Revered Doctor Norman Nagel was a pastor in post-WW II England. He said of those standing in line at churches to get help for physical needs that they were standing in the wrong line. That sounds harsh, but just because something sounds harsh or even is harsh doesn’t mean it is untrue. Continue reading
This is the title of a 1976 movie and 1974 book based on a true WWII era event. A ship with over 900 Jews sailed from Germany to Cuba in 1939 because of the rising tide of anti-Semitism. Cuba wouldn’t receive them neither would the United States. Eventually some European countries accepted some but the book suggests that some 600 ended up dying in concentration camps. I pair this book with another written by Rev. Dr. John Warwick Montgomery titled Damned Through the Church.
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You know when a person says something and then says “but” that he is about to modify, and usually in a bad way, what he has just said. You would think “ever learning” has got to be a good thing. Not so says St. Paul in 2 Timothy 3:7. He speaks of those “ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Continue reading
That wasn’t his nom de guerre. Martyr was. There was a reason for that. He was an apologist not a satirist. About the same time Justin Martyr was making a defense for the Christian faith Juvenal was satirizing the Roman Empire. Justin was martyred for his apologetics; Juvenal might have been exiled, but he wasn’t murdered. I watched a Lutheran satire on Mormons. It is spot on regarding the point of attack, but I still wish I hadn’t watched it. Let me tell you why. Continue reading
The Reverend Doctor Jeffery Kloha has been pilloried for asserting the plasticity of the New Testament text. I don’t agree in general with his paper that makes the argument and I don’t agree with how he reaches the following conclusion, but he is right. People have a “plug and play” (My illustration and words not his.) mentality in regard to the Scriptures Continue reading
What do yeast, holes, and pregnancy have in common? There really is no such thing as a “little” of any of these, and if nothing is done they will only get bigger. Sane people want the mother to grow bigger and bakers depend on the yeast growing, but everyone knows the Little Dutch Boy was right. His quick reaction stops the hole in the levee from getting bigger. We didn’t act in time to stop syncretism. May we act in time to stop gay marriage. Continue reading
So Simon and Garfunkel lamented in their 1968 song. Having read the biography of the Yankee Clipper, Mickey Mantel, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial, history can have all of them save for Stan the Man. My lament is for the deaconess who wrote a VBS curriculum on the first century church in 2000 and the Reformation era in 2001. Where have you gone whatever your name is? Continue reading
There is such a word. Merriam-Webster online defines it as follows: with “womanly constancy or spirit.” I couldn’t find the word at all in my 1973 Macmillan Dictionary or in my 1983 unabridged Webster’s. Methinks this is another word made up by the feminists under the banner of equal rights, but the closest synonym in these dictionaries to womanfully is womanish. Most women would consider it an insult to be called womanish. To be described as womanly or feminine or ladylike is not. But if you call a female “a princess” or “a girly-girl” you crossed over again to the insulting. Continue reading
In the late 1950s Johnny Mathis sang “Chances Are.” I’ve never liked that song. Though it ends with the line “The chances are your chances are awfully good!” I always thought there shouldn’t be that much chance connected to that much professed love. Continue reading
The LCMS, Inc. or some such entity connected with this behemoth wants to do for your church’s finances what LCMS, Inc. has already done to your doctrine. Don’t let them. Continue reading
