GOLTER'S MUSINGS FEBRUARY 2019

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

  • Confessing the truth

    febrUARY 7, 2019

    It’s Takes Courage… To confess.


    Especially in the face of opposition.


    President Trump spoke plainly about a “culture that cherishes innocent life.” He did this before the whole nation. In the face of opposition. This took courage.


    The unborn and born are at the very center of the heart of God. He intends to baptize them into His Son’s saving blood and to teach (Matt. 28:18-20).


    A government which abuses its God-given derivative authority is unfaithful to God and to society. God works through the government to establish peace and order (Rom. 13:1-4) and the church to save souls (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-49; John 20:23). The devil works through both institutions to work disorder and chaos. His ultimate desire is to exterminate the church, which is not possible.


    The public proclamation against third-term abortion and the allowance to kill a newborn (infanticide) is only a pause, I suggest. The American momentum of wickedness remains in a downward spiral.

    Several thoughts:


    1. God laughs in the heavens at such rising opposition (see Psalm 2:1-6). He will build His Church (Matt. 16:18). Remember how the congregation of unbelievers attempted to build a tower to the heavens (Gen. 11)?


    2. God works the best with an outwardly weak, broken Church, as He did with His Son hanging from the Cross. This foolish message remains God’s tool to convert souls (1 Cor. 1:18-19).


    3. The reversal of abortion laws may happen, but not likely. Infanticide was quite common in the first century during the early days of the Christian Church. Alvin Schmidt (“Under the Influence: How American Christianity Transformed Civilization,” p. 49) details how large families were rare in those days because of infanticide and, that “infant girls were especially vulnerable,” (Ibid). The Church kept confessing the sanctity of life, speaking the truth in the face of opposition. The Council of Lerida (Spain) in 524 condemned abortions (Ibid p. 59).


    Cultures after the Greco-Roman society practiced infanticide, including other acts of hatred against life: child abandonment, abortion, human sacrifice and suicide (Ibid p. 71).


    What shall we do? Emboldened by Christ Himself, the Church confesses the truth about life for the unborn and born and, life in Christ for all sinners.


    Confess, but also do.


    Schmidt details how Afra of Augsburg in the late third century, formerly a prostitute, “developed a ministry to abandoned children of prisoners, thieves, smugglers, pirates, runaway slaves, and brigands,” (Ibid p. 53).


    Broken and bruised consciences abound.


    It takes courage to confess…we can do no other.


    Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran

  • Jesus is the answer

    FEBRUARY 14, 2019

    Christianity is the Only Practical Religion.

    

    In what way?


    As in every church, pastors make visits to those who can’t make it to the Divine Service. The Word is preached, and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood is given. Veterans of the cross, those who have been through the struggles of life, rejoice when the pastor visits them with God’s gifts.


    I asked one of those veterans the other day, “What would you tell a young Christian?” They said, “Christianity brings much comfort. It sets you up for the future.”


    To clarify, I asked, “Do you mean heaven itself?”


    They said, “Yes,” without hesitation.


    Their words own much wisdom. Comfort certainly is not restlessness or anxiety. Comfort means that the heart is at peace, and the conscience is quiet. God no longer holds my sins against me.


    For this veteran of the faith, this was most important. When your body is failing, and the mind is getting cloudy, a person is looking for certainty that there is hope and a future. The dread of death is ever present, if one is honest.


    Christianity offers and gives this only in Jesus Christ, whose death defeated death.


    “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting…But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor. 15:54c-56).


    The old man, Zechariah, and the 84-year-old Anna in Luke 2 both believed in the usefulness of Christianity. They saw their Savior in the baby Jesus when His mother brought Him to the temple. Old age has a way of clarifying what’s most needed. The veterans of the cross look outside of themselves only to Jesus.


    No other religion in the world is practical in this way, for no other religion offers Jesus Christ as the sole answer for sinners.


    This exclusive claim is always offensive to pluralistic societies. There is no absolute truth. There are many gods. Every religion is just as valid as the other we hear.


    No.


    Christianity is the only practical religion.


    Pastor Golter is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Lutheran