What Does This Mean?

Do you think only Lutherans are going to heaven?

On the heels of my writing that the LCMS and those in our global fellowship are the only right teaching church, folks will hastily and uncharitably say things like, “I bet you think only Lutherans are going to heaven!”  or “Pastor’s gonna be surprised that there aren’t only Lutherans in Heaven.”

Of course, that’s neither what I believe nor what I teach.  We think of ourselves as smart and witty when popping off like that.  “There you sit, like butter in sunshine,” encumbered in wit neither by speed nor sharpness. (Luther’s Works AE, Volume. 40, p. 252, © CPH, St. Louis, MO)  It’s really just the rude and disrespectful talk over to which our sinful tongues are given.  The eighth and fourth commandments warn us against such idle claptrap.

There will most certainly be Non-LCMS Lutherans in heaven.  We trust here not in the false teachings of other Christian churches.  Instead, we trust in the felicitous inconsistency.  Luther coined the term, but we understand its use better from Francis Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics (Vol. I: p. 6, 72, 84, 87-91; Vol. II: p. 156 © 1950, CPH)

The felicitous inconsistency is a happy accident, a result differing from what false teaching is likely to deliver: unbelief and hell.  The felicitous inconsistency is the teaching in Christianity that where the Word of God is heard, true faith may spring-up in contradiction of false teaching.  This is no guarantee.  It’s our hope and prayer that the Lord grants faith to those who hear and preserves them in that faith.  This hope and prayer flies against the false teaching in heterodox churches.  It isn’t a thing we ought to expect or into which we ought to place our trust.

Loving our family, friends, and neighbors requires us to encourage them away from false teachers and heterodox churches.  Simply being in a “Christian” church is good, but it’s certainly not good enough.  In love, we ought to want our loved ones to hear only right teaching.  We should want the Word of God AND right teaching entering their ears and hearts together rather than simply hoping God will preserve them.

Even in orthodox churches like our LCMS churches, Jesus warning about wheat and tares still holds true (Matthew 13:24-30).   There will still be unbelievers gathered with the faithful until the last day.  Only then the Lord will finally sort us into the fire and into salvation.  Fear not! If this worries you, that’s great news.  The unbelieving tares don’t care about their salvation one bit.  That’s not you.

All that being said, there will certainly be non-LCMS Lutherans in heaven.  But, in heaven we will all finally be Lutheran.  In heaven we will all finally trust in grace alone apart from works.  We will never doubt the salvation won on the cross, delivered in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and sealed with us in the bodily resurrection.  And, there will not be one unbeliever among us.

Hang tight, there’s more to be said about this felicitous inconsistency concerning the false teachers too. In Christ all will finally be one, just not quite yet.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
And
Mission Planting Pastoral team
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX

©2023 Jason Kaspar. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

When you think of “Worship,” what do you see in your mind’s eye? What do you associate with the term? Do you see “pomp and circumstance”? Do you see a well ordered ritual activity? Do you see hymns and songs of praise? That is all fine and good. But none of that conveys what worship really is.

Worship is reliance, at least that is what Luther and the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church convey. It also is part of the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods,” implies that there is nothing or anyone else upon whom we ought to rely for the needs of body and soul or for the things which lead to everlasting life.

In the Old in particular we have a few instances were the Lord God wants Israel simply to be silent as He works to save them. Exodus 14:14 is a prime example. Israel need only to be silent while the Lord fights for them. Abraham and Sarah are also another example even earlier in the Pentateuch. In their situation, rather than relying solely on the Lord and waiting for Him to act. Sarai persuaded Abraham to take Hagar as a surrogate of sorts. Sarai sought to short-circuit the promise of God and bring it about in a quicker fashion. That is not relying on God. That is not proper worship of the Lord. To worship Him properly is to rely upon Him. What is proper worship is seen in the woman who seeks out Jesus when her daughter is oppressed by a demon. She relies on any word that Jesus speaks. She does not expect a full meal, but merely a bit of the crumbs of His mercy. She lives and breathes that come from the very Word of God made flesh. The woman worships Jesus as she relies upon Him to do what He has promised to do, which is to save her and her daughter from eternal death.

That is why Jesus is adamant when He cries out to those who are weak to come to him so they would have rest. He cries out that He is the bread of life. He is the one that one drinks from in order to have life. He wants you to rely upon Him for your very life!

Since He has accomplished your salvation, receive it from Him. Seek out His absolution. Seek the preaching of His Word. Pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread,” and mean it. To rely upon Him for mercy is to trust Him and His promises. To trust Him is to worship Him. Jesus always delivers what we need for both body and life. Hence, we too can and should see relying upon Jesus as worship of Him.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

©2023 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

I frequently get some version of this question, “Do you really think the Lutheran Church* is the only right church?” (*the LCMS and those Lutherans in our global fellowship)

Yes, I do.  And, you ought to thank the Lord if your pastor isn’t some unfaithful, vow-breaking squish, who believes one thing and says another.  Summer is the season of installations and ordinations in the LCMS.  Nearly every weekend from mid-June through August, there will be such an event at an LCMS congregation.  The Vows taken by your pastor and the others like him are these:

“Do you believe and confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice?  Yes, I believe and confess the canonical Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” (LSB Agenda, p. 165)

What does this mean?  This means that the Christian faith must never embrace what scripture condemns and never condemn what scripture extolls.  There are a good number of Christian churches and pastors falling outside of this first vow.  Anyone denying infant Baptism or infant faith, denies scripture’s plain teaching.  Anyone denying Baptismal regeneration, denies the scriptures.  Anyone denying the forgiveness of sins and the true, bodily presence of Jesus in Holy Communion, denies the Word of God.  Anyone engaged in the ordination of women into the Holy Ministry, despises the Word of God.  Anyone teaching the re-sacrifice of Jesus in the mass, rejects the scriptures.  This list is far from exhaustive.

“Do you believe and confess the three Ecumenical Creeds, namely, the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, as faithful testimonies to the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and do you reject all the errors which they condemn?  Yes, I believe and confess the three Ecumenical Creeds because they are in accord with the Word of God.  I also reject all the errors they condemn.” (ibid.)

What does this mean?  All heresies rejected in the creeds, we reject.  In current terms, that means things like the constant, popular, gnostic view of death.  Death is not a release of the soul from the body.  Death is the unnatural, violent separation of soul from body.  Death is not the final destination.  The resurrection of all flesh and the restoration of soul and body together on the last day is the completion of all things promised to Baptized Christians.  Also, the creeds may not be rejected by Christians, as some do (Joel Osteen, many Baptists, et al).

“Do you confess the unaltered Augsburg Confession to be a true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church?  And do you confess that the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord—as these are contained in the Book of Concord—are also in agreement with this one scriptural faith?  Yes, I make these confessions my own because they are in accord with the Word of God.” (LSB Agenda, p. 166)

What does this mean?  This is where the rubber meets the road.  The Lutheran Confessions are correct in their entirely.  Lutheran Pastors vow this BECAUSE they are the right exposition of and in accord with the Word of God.  As stated above, we can identify errors in other Christian confessions.  In my short 47 years upon the Earth, I have neither discovered an error in our confessions, nor been shown one.  If I or any other Lutheran pastor were convinced of such an error, we would be bound by the first vow to the scriptures alone to fight ceaselessly and publicly against the error, or leave the Lutheran Confession.

“Do you promise that you will perform the duties of your office in accordance with these Confessions, and that all your preaching and teaching and your administrations of the sacraments will be in conformity with Holy Scripture and with these Confessions?  Yes, I promise, with the help of God.” (ibid.)

What does this mean?  All Lutheran pastors are bound by these vows to conform themselves to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions of the Unaltered Book of Concord (1580 AD).  We must condemn what they condemn and extoll what they extoll.  There is no wiggle room or lateral movement.  Lutheran pastors are or are not faithful.

Christians teaching a different confession are in error.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
And
Mission Planting Pastoral team
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX

©2023 Jason Kaspar. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

1 — Lutheran theology teaches that worship is Divine Service (In German, Gottesdienst). God comes to us to give us his gifts: He puts his name on us (Invocation), forgives our sins in confession and absolution. He creates and strengthens our trust in him to keep his promises in the reading, reciting, preaching of his word in sermons and song. He gives us the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in the Lord’s Supper, where he gives us his body with bread to eat and his blood with wine to drink. We respond in thanksgiving with our praise, offerings and the dedication of our lives to his service.

2 — Because God is absolutely holy and we are sinners, we cannot stand in his presence and live. So, because he loves us, while we are still living in a sinful world, God comes to us wearing masks. He became man in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Before his birth, he appeared in the form of the Angel of the Lord. He spoke to us through his prophets. He gives his grace through means — His Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and absolution. He uses the voice and the hands of men he calls to be Pastors to draw us to him, to sustain our faith and escort us to the hands of the angels who will carry us on our last day to be with Jesus forever. In Divine Worship, he literally comes to us, especially in the Bread and Wine of the Lord’s Supper, where he is really present to gives us his body to eat and his blood to drink for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

In ancient times, temples were built as places where people could make sacrifices to their gods to win a favor, to convince a god to leave them alone or to obtain the power they wanted to get an edge over fate or their enemies. Most pagan temples contain a golden image of the god or goddess to which the worshipper bowed down or made a sacrifice.

Often priests would communicate with the god for the worshipper, obtain a prediction of the future for them, or engage in ceremonies that would act like magic While God’s temple was similar in shape and style to Phoenician temples, its purpose was quite different Here God Himself lived in the form of the Shekinah Glory — the pillar of cloud that followed the people of Israel during the Exodus. His people would make sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins — sacrifices that point to the sacrifice of God’s Own Son. People did not come to the temple to bribe God, but to strengthen their relationship to Him.

Yet that sacrifice was still in the future. God was separated from His people because of sin. Only priests could enter the temple itself. Everyone else stood outside. Even the priests could not ordinarily enter God’s presence in the Holy of Holies — only the High Priest entered once a year. For the rest of the year, a thick curtain separated the world from its God.

When Jesus completed the final sacrifice on the cross, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. God now lives with His people. In our churches, therefore, there is no barrier between the altar and the pews. God comes to be with us and lives with us each week. He gives us the forgiveness of sins in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He feeds us with His Word. Now the gifts of God come to us first and without strings attached. Our gifts now are given with thanksgiving, so that God may use them to bless others. In a real sense, though, our churches are not temples. Our hearts our God’s temple. Churches are places we gather with God and each other.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Encore Post: David was a good man. He was a soldier who defended his king and his country. The people loved him and loved King Saul because of him. Prince Jonathan was his best friend. Princess Michal loved him and married him.

Yet King Saul was jealous of him. Like most kings, he was afraid of anyone that might take his kingdom from him. Because Saul saw David as a threat, he missed out on the good things a loyal and talented son-in-law could bring him. So Saul tried to kill David. Jonathan and Michal warn David and help him escape Saul’s grasp. The future king seeks out Samuel and together they hide in the wild areas near Bethlehem. For awhile, he hid in various Philistine cities and eventually returned to caves near Bethlehem. Members of his family and four hundred fighting men gathered with him there.

Soon Saul would send an army to look for David and eventually led them. They played a cat-and-mouse game for some time. Twice David snuck into Saul’s camp and took a personal item from him. Each time he would display the item to Saul in the morning to prove his loyalty. Eventually, Saul gave up the effort to catch David and went after the Philistines. Saul, Jonathan and most of Saul’s sons died in battle with them.

David would have been justified to take the throne from Saul. No one would blame him if he killed Saul. But David loved God and Saul. He remained loyal until the day Saul and Jonathan died. Even when he had chances to kill Saul, he spared the king. After their death, he assumed the throne of Israel. For the rest of his life, he protected the disabled son of Jonathan.

©2020 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries tocosmithb@gmail.com.

A Thirty-Five year old sermon outline I found going through my papers:

Baptism of Wesley and Lucas Smith
Sermon on Mark 10:13-16
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
October 9th, 1988
St. Luke Lutheran Church
Winamac, Indiana

Text: “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them, and He blessed them.”

1. Baptism is for little children too.
   a. Little children have a place in the heart of Jesus.
   b. Above everything else, infants are people who trust.
   c. God is the one who acts in baptism.
   d. Baptism begins the life of faith in the heart of the Christian.
2. We sometimes keep children from coming to Jesus.
   a. We adults are temped to make a career of telling children what they cannot do, because it is easier for us that way.
   b. When we do bring children to baptism, we sometimes do not follow through on our promises to God to raise them as Christians.
   c. We often undermine a child’s trust by our “experience” and by our failures.
   d. We must take our responsibility to raise our children seriously, for He will call us to account.
3. Yet God calls children own in Baptism.
   a. In baptism, God children as His own.
   b. In the waters of Baptism, they are united to Jesus in His death and resurrection.
   c. God has promised to care for them by His Spirit and keep them in the faith.
   d. From these assurances, we draw the strength to bring our children to Jesus.
   e. In all this, we can look forward to the day we are together with him forever.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

When Jesus looked out over the people to whom he ministered, it moved him deeply. They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without shepherds. He called on them to pray that the Lord of the Harvest send workers into the harvest field of souls. (Matthew 9:35-38) During the last few months and years, Lutheran congregations throughout North America have been doing just that — praying that God would send them faithful shepherds. In April, God answered many of those prayers. He called pastors to serve them. This month, he began to send them into the harvest field of souls. Four seminaries, two in the United States and two in Canada, helped future pastors complete their education with integrity and graduate. Now, as has happened for over a century and three quarters, these pastors make their way to the flocks placed in their care. Pray for safe travel and wisdom to use the gifts given them to care for Christ’s sheep.

Soon an even more ancient rite will take place in about one hundred places around that continent. Called ordination, these new pastors will be recognized by the Church as men sent by God to care for his people. As their fathers in the ministry did for them, other pastors, mostly from neighboring congregations, will place their hands on the new pastor, thereby designating the new pastor as ministers of the word and sacraments. In an unbroken line stretching back through two thousand years to the day Jesus breathed on the Apostles the Holy Spirit and the church of Antioch laid hands on St. Paul, one generation entrusts to the next to take up the yoke of Christ. In symbol of this, a red stole will be placed on the shoulder of the new pastor.

At an ordination and installations in every new field of service these new pastors will enter into the course of the ministry. The people of God, normally those for whom the pastor is called to care, will hear the new pastors makes solemn vows to God, to his Church and to the people he is to serve. He promises to teach according to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, to live a life according to God’s word and other things. The people of God promise to pray for him, care for him and to obey him when he teaches and preaches in harmony of God’s word. Together they witness to the world in word and deed to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. They proclaim the gospel so that many will respond in faith and become God’s children, too. Continue to pray for them, for the work has only begun.

Yet in many places, there is no pastor to bring God’s gifts to his people or shortly will be without a pastor. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, therefore, that he would send laborers into the harvest field of souls.

©2020, 2023 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com