274 So you see that we are absolutely forbidden to speak evil of our neighbor. Exception is made, however, of civil magistrates, preachers, and parents, for we must interpret this commandment in such a way that evil shall not go unpunished. We have seen that the Fifth Commandment forbids us to injure anyone physically, and yet an exception is made of the hangman. By virtue of his office he does not do his neighbor good but only harm and evil, yet he does not sin against God’s commandment because God of his own accord instituted that office, and as he warns in the Fifth Commandment, he has reserved to himself the right of punishment. Likewise, although no one has in his own person the right to judge and condemn anyone, yet if they whose duty it is fail to do so, they sin as much as those who take the law into their own hands without such a commission. 275 Necessity requires one to report evil, to prefer charges, to attest, examine, and witness. It is no different from the situation of the physician who, to cure a patient, is sometimes compelled to examine and handle his private parts. Just so, magistrates, parents, even brothers and sisters and other good friends are under mutual obligation to reprove evil where it is necessary and beneficial. (Large Catechism Eighth Commandment, Tappert, p. 401).
Author Archive: luther
Catechesis on Epiphany Five (St. Matthew 13:24-43)
On Wednesday nights, Trinity Lutheran Church (Herrin, IL) offers to both children and adults an opportunity for teaching with Learn-by-Heart at 6:30 PM and a catechetical service at 7:00.
In this video from January 30, 2019, we learned stanza 5 of “To the Name of Our Salvation” (The Lutheran Hymnal #116), questions one and two of Confession and the meaning from Luther’s Small Catechism. This service is designed to prepare God’s people for the theme of the upcoming Sunday Divine Service. The dialog sermon explains the Wheat and the Tares (St. Matthew 13:24-43), which is the Holy Gospel for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany.
The service concludes with “Responsive Prayer for Catechesis” (pdf link below). [Length: 1 hour and 3 minutes]
Bulletins: Catechesis-Epiphany-5-1-30-2019.pdf
Responsive Prayer: Responsive-Prayer-for-Catechesis-2019.pdf
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#20- The Power, Right and Authority to Marry
18 For one thing, it is taught among us with regard to those who desire to marry that all those who are not suited for celibacy have the power, right, and authority to marry, for vows cannot nullify God’s order and command. 19 God’s command in 1 Cor. 7:2 reads, “Because of the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” 20 It is not alone God’s command that urges, drives, and compels us to do this, but God’s creation and order also direct all to marriage who are not endowed with the gift of virginity by a special act of God. This appears from God’s own words in Gen. 2:18, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
(Apology XXVII, Tappert, p. 73).
Theology Summary Bible Class Pt. 39: Kingdom of Glory
The subjects of the kingdom of glory are the same as that for the kingdom of grace–believers and holy angels. The kingdom of grace is governed by means of the Word and sacraments administered by the pastoral office. The subjects of the kingdom of grace are translated into the kingdom of glory either at death or on the last day. The kingdom of glory is ruled by the Triune God directly. There is a difference in the mode of knowledge and conditions of their members. In the kingdom of grace, believers receive by faith through the Word the revealed knowledge of God, while in the kingdom of glory believers experience the beatific vision of the glory of God. While in the kingdom of grace believers experience cross and tribulation, but in the heavenly kingdom will share in Christ’s glory.
Handout 1: The-Third-Genus-King-p25-26-only.pdf
Handout 2: Kingdoms-Definitions.pdf
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#19- Parents Punish Evil in the Place of God
“179 “You shall not kill.” 180 We have now dealt with both the spiritual and the civil government, that is, divine and paternal authority and obedience. In this commandment we leave our own house and go out among our neighbors to learn how we should conduct ourselves individually toward our fellow men. Therefore neither God nor the government is included in this commandment, yet their right to take human life is not abrogated. 181 God has delegated his authority of punishing evil-doers to civil magistrates in place of parents; in early times, as we read in Moses, parents had to bring their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore what is forbidden here applies to private individuals, not to governments.
182 This commandment is simple enough. We hear it explained every year in the Gospel, Matthew 5, where Christ himself explains and summarizes it: We must not kill, either by hand, heart, or word, by signs or gestures, or by aiding and abetting. It forgives anger except, as we have said, to persons who occupy the place of God, that is, parents and rulers. Anger, reproof, and punishment are the prerogatives of God and his representatives, and they are to be exercised upon those who transgress this and the other commandments. (Fifth Commandment – Large Catechism -Tappert, p. 389).
Theology Summary Bible Class, Pt. 38: Kingdom of the devil
The kingdom of the devil is a kingdom of unbelief governed by the devil himself, who is a liar and murderer. The devil has not created anything, but only seeks by deception to get people to deny and/or misuse God’s gracious gifts. Revelation 12:9 says that he is “called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” According to Ephesians 2:1-3, even those later came to believe “were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
The Lutheran Confessions explain that “the punishment and penalty of original sin, which God has imposed upon the children of Adam and upon original sin…” includes not only “death, eternal damnation, and also other bodily and spiritual, temporal and eternal miseries…” but also “the tyranny and dominion of the devil, so that human nature is subject to the kingdom of the devil and has been surrendered to the power of the devil, and is held captive under his away, who stupefies [fascinates] and leads astray many a great, learned man in the world by means of dreadful error, heresy, and other blindness, and otherwise rushes men into all sorts of crime” (FC, Ep. I. Original Sin 13).
Thankfully, “… Christ was given to us to remove both these sins and these punishments, and to destroy the kingdom of the devil, sin and death…” (Apology, II 50). “For human nature is far too weak to be able by its own powers to resist the devil, who holds as captives all who have not been freed through faith. There is need of the power of Christ against the devil, namely, that, inasmuch as we know that for Christ’s sake we are heard, and have the promise, we may pray for the governance and defense of the Holy Ghost, that we may neither be deceived and err, nor be impelled to undertake anything contrary to God’s will. [Otherwise we should, every hour, fall into error and abominable vices.] Just as Ps. 68, 18 teaches: Thou hast led captivity captive; Thou hast received gifts for man. For Christ has overcome the devil, and has given to us the promise and the Holy Ghost, in order that, by divine aid, we ourselves also may overcome. And 1 John 3, 8: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (Ap IV, III, 17-18).
Handout 1: The-Third-Genus-King-p21-24.pdf
Handout 2: Kingdoms-Definitions.pdf
Handout 3: King-Chart-Throughout-Time.pdf
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14A Creation: Adam in the Garden of Eden
“Once we go through the anthropological, astronomical, biological, and geological history in the Bible, we explain how this history is true and confirmed by science. We then present the message of Christ, Cross, and Consummation that’s founded in that history” (Gospel Reset by Ken Ham, p.101).
#18- Table of Duties: Husbands, Wives, Parents, and Children
“Husbands – “You husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7). “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them” (Col. 3:19). Wives – “You wives, be submissive to your husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you” (1 Pet. 3:1, 6). Parents – “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, lest they become discouraged, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21). Children – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise) ‘that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth’” (Eph. 6:1-3). (Small Catechism -Tappert, p. 355-356).
Theology Summary Bible Class, Pt. 37: The Two Kingdoms (Grace and State)
In the kingdom of power, the Triune God rules without means according to His omnipotence and omnipresence. God has always been and will always be the King of heaven and earth. At the incarnation of the Son of God, the human nature of Christ was given authority in heaven and on earth. Although all things have been put in subjection to Him, not all things are subject to Him. “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor 15:25).
This class examined the two kingdoms: this world(the state) and grace (the church). In the kingdom of this world, God rules the subjects of this kingdom, both believers and unbelievers, by means of law and the governing authorities. Human reason is the guide for governance in this world. In the kingdom of grace, God rule the subjects of this kingdom, only believers, by means of the Word (both the law and the promise of the Gospel) and sacraments and the apostolic/pastoral office. Although these two kingdoms are distinct they are not mutually exclusive. The church is IN the world, but not OF the world (John 17:11-15).
Handout: Kingdoms-Definitions.pdf
Handout 2: King-Chart-Throughout-Time.pdf
Handout 3: Kingdom of Power, This World, and Grace, p.17-20
Overhead 1: One Page Overview of “Kingdom” in Scripture
Overhead 2: Walkthrough-of-Individuals-in-Two-Kingdoms.pdf
Overhead 3: Page 3 has Pope’s Three-fold Tiara
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#13A Creation: The Right Starting Point
So, the Jews had the right beginning. They had the right history. They had the right starting point of God’s Word (the writing of Moses, beginning in Genesis). They were on the correct ‘road’ and heading to an accurate understanding of the gospel. That ‘road,’ beginning with creation, the Fall of man, and the promise of the Seed and the Messiah (Genesis 3:15, Daniel 9:24-27; etc.), is the right foundation to understanding the message of who Jesus is and why He died and rose from the dead. This ‘road’ they were on led up to the message of the Cross, even though many Jews rejected the idea that Jesus is the Messiah” (Gospel Reset by Ken Ham, p.54-55).