1517 Blogcast

Somehow we have accepted the idea that struggling, searching, and digging to find spiritual answers implies a dangerous lack of faith. We hide behind the safety of a belief that cannot be disproven, the security blanket of a worldview that can never be questioned or falsified. We don’t have to pay attention to any competing claims. We already know in advance that we’re right, so there’s no need to entertain any questions.

The end times and eschatology can get sublimely confusing and if you aren’t careful you can soon lose the forest for the trees and the Gospel for the “signs of the time.”  So what’s the Gospel take on the End Times? How do I find comfort in this doctrine while remaining faithful to the historical, Christian witness?

Believing is to trust that the promise of forgiveness is addressed to you and for you through the proclamation (preached Word), water, bread, and wine, and not due to anything good or evil in you, before or after conversion.  The promise is dependent on God’s faithfulness to it. This is the Christian faith once delivered to all the saints. It points us outside of ourselves.

God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. The thrust of a spear plunging upward piercing the side of God, perforating his bowls, puncturing his heart, collapsing his lungs: this becomes the message of God. The nastiest bit is the Gospel, the good news, your salvation. It’s the foolishness that God could die that our sins could be forgiven by another man’s blood, that salvation is found in the death of a criminal. No glory, just a cross, bowels, blood and bone, the suffocating stench of death, and your salvation where God becomes the propitiation of man.

The thing is though, compared to Jesus, nobody's love burns as hot. Compared to Jesus, our love seems depressingly uninspired. But there must be some sort of way we can work ourselves up to Jesus levels of love. There must be some sort of way we can open ourselves to become conduits that God's love can flow through.

This is an excerpt from Martin Luther’s Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (1535), translated by Haraldo Camacho (1517 Publishing, 2018), 109-111, Used by permission.

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The story told in Luke 24:13-35 happens weekly in our church services. Listen to how two disciples' 7 mile journey and meeting with the resurrected Jesus sets a pattern for Christian activity from that time until the present

What happened at the first council of Nicea and why is it historically important? Listen to learn more about the events that lead up to the council and the controversy that was discussed. 

When guilt becomes our totem, it dictates our idea of right and wrong and enslaves us to the fear of what happens when we open our eyes tomorrow morning. Will we make the same mistakes? Will we make worse mistakes? How much more guilt can we possibly bear?

Yet thanks be to Jesus Christ, He is our light, our salvation, and our totem. This is our reality—whether we wake or sleep, we will live with Him forever.

This post takes up the second insight Mordor has for Christians engaging in evangelism and apologetics. The insight is the effect that follows from battle with Mordor because no one recovers from a descent into Mordor this side of Valinor, and no one can fruitfully engage with non-believers without experiencing cognitive dissonance and altered views of the self, the church, and society this side of Eden.