golter's mussings May 2021

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

  • You Better Get Up to Speed on This

    May 6, 2021

    In his summer of 2020 class at Trinity, Davenport, Dr. Peter Scaer warned the class. He told the pastors and the laity you better become of aware of it.


    What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)?


    Dr. Christopher F. Rufo, in a recent lecture at Hillsdale College, says CRT has its roots in Marxism, a class warfare or conflict of political theory. The war is between capitalists and workers. (https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/author/christopherrufo/).


    CRT has adapted this revolutionary theory to social and racial unrest. It has matured to today’s version of “white supremacy” as the real problem. White, male, and Christian…there’s the problem.


    Rufo lists a number of examples of CRT, how it works. “In Springfield, Missouri, a middle school forces teachers to locate themselves on an ‘oppression matrix,’ based on the idea that straight, white, English speaking, Christian males are members of the oppressor class and must atone for their privilege and ‘covert white supremacy.’”


    In an April 21, 2021, article, David Victor Hanson writes: “Recently, in the state of Washington, something called the African American Reach and Teach Health Ministry (AARTH) adjudicated vaccination appointments on the basis of race only (https://amgreatness.com/2021/04/25/the-new-antiracism-is-the-old-racism/).”


    Does this mean a 78 year old Caucasian woman would be told to go to the back of the line?


    CRT causes divisiveness, and spawns contempt, suspicion, and hatred.


    God created humanity, all are equally loved. “And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,” (Acts 17:26).


    God does not look at the outward appearance of a man but the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God loves His creation, every distinctive color, shape and personality.


    How boring if all the flowers of spring time looked the same? I marvel over God’s imagination in creating every one of His creatures uniquely, packaged differently.


    Different but loved and valued.


    Praise ought to erupt from our lips, not division.


    Race is not the essence of division. Sin is.


    Sin causes a division between God and man, and between people.


    The cure is not political correctness but repentance and the Gospel.


    Jesus Christ is the answer.


    Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

  • Laity Strong in Doctrine is Essentials

    May 14, 2021

    I’m still pondering St. John’s three letters, his little epistles that come right before the Book of Revelation.  Not until I preached upon them this last week, did I understand their inter connectedness.


    Second John (one chapter) is the cover letter for First John (five chapters). Both are targeted for the congregation(s) in the ancient city of Ephesus.


    Third John is a private correspondence to a trusted layman in the congregation, Gaius. The Apostle John trusts Gaius because he was “walking in the truth,” (3 John 3). The truth of God’s doctrine and teaching; everything else is Untruth, that which undermines or takes away the sweet Gospel of Christ.


    The apparent self-proclaimed pastor, Diotrephes, was full of himself. He was arrogant, rejecting the truth and tolerated if not promoted false teaching (see 3 John 9-10). If not a pastor, he was at least a powerful layman who controlled the congregation.  I think he was a pastor, for 3 John 10 says, he “puts them out of the church,” a likely reference to excommunication.


    I still recall talking to one of the older pastors who was intimately involved with Concordia Seminary’s debacle in the early 1970s, known as the Walk Out and Seminex. Forty of the forty five professors walked out. It’s been clearly documented the false teaching of those professors.


    In answering whether there was a real person named Adam, a professor responded, “No, I would say frankly not,” (see A Seminary in Crisis: The Inside Story of the Preus Fact Finding Committee by Paul Zimmerman, p. 85). 


    That older pastor told me. “Randy, it was the laity of the church who saved the Missouri Synod. When they heard what was preached and taught, they said this was not what they had learned in the Small Catechism!”


    We need trusted, well-grounded laymen in God’s Word and doctrine, and the Small Catechism.


    Every generation needs this.


    St. John the Apostle in the mid-90s A.D. and now the 21st century.  


    Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

  • The Amount Matters

    May 21, 2021

    The amount matters.


    I don’t know how you can see it any other way.


    The amount that you give to the Lord matters to Him.


    How else can you understand Jesus’ standing and observing what the widow gave, her amount, compared to others?


    Jesus says, “This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing…For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on,” (Mark 12:43-44).


    Jesus not only watches what you give, He says the amount reflects the state of your heart.


    Here’s a principle: The amount you give shows the engagement of the heart.

    Per Jesus, those who had much gave much. But by what they had, they gave very little proportionately. Oh, they gave much more than others amount wise. But according to how much they had they gave very, very little.


    I don’t know how one can interpret this holy text another way.


    Jesus says in another place: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matt. 6:21).


    The widow’s treasure was her Lord.


    Undeniable. You didn’t need to ask her.


    Jeff Anderson in his book “Plastic Donuts: Giving that Delights the Heart of the Father” writes: Wherever you invest your money, a force pulls you heart along with it…So if you spend an amount that matters very little to you, it will move your heart very little…the amount gets the attention of your heart,” (p. 38).


    And, might I say, the amount gets the attention of our Lord.


    Oh, boy, does this not reveal our clinging and possessing and treasuring everything else but Jesus and His work of spreading the Good News.


    Jeff Anderson asks this question: “Do your gifts engage your heart in worship? Do your gifts influence your lifestyle? Do your gift amounts matter to you? (p. 41).


    Good questions for prayerful reflection.


    The amount matters according to Jesus’ view of the widow’s giving. 


    Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran