The State is the left hand of Christ; it is that final prepositional phrase — that imports so much of the meaning — that is often ignored. As Christians, the ‘political’ realm is not a realm of indifference or adiaphora — and this is particularly true for Christian men. We are not called to separate ourselves from the world (except with regard to righteous behavior), but to be engaged in the world — put another way: to be in the world but not of the world.
Where Christians retreat, Satan advances. The times are evil and the Church must respond accordingly. It is incumbent on the Christian man to do his duty, and such duty most certainly includes a political dimension.
So what may Christians do with regard to the kingdom of the left hand? What must we refrain from doing? What is merely permissible? In this episode, we lay the foundation for a series on government, on the political, on the left-hand kingdom.




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Show Notes

Gottesdienst: On Resisting the Government:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3







See Also

The Magdeburg Confession






Further Reading








Parental Warnings
We discuss capital punishment — primarily in the context of Scripture — in this episode.

The Left Hand of Christ

Two Lutheran (LCMS) men bring a theological lens to the world, and relate the state of the world back to theology. Topics are timely, challenging, and fearless. We’ll probably make you nervous, sometimes make you angry, but never leave you bored. We are the stones who cry out.

Education

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Higher Education

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Educational Technology

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

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Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Love and duty are matters of concentric circles — to the closer is the greater duty and the greater love owed. In the previous episode in this series, we covered the facets of self-sacrifice love (agape) and charity (caritas); in this episode, we cover familial and brotherly or fraternal love, emotional (amor) and intellectual (dilectio) love, and piety (the historical, proper sense) and paternal love — three pairs, as it were. We call these facets, because it is not that love can be dissected and broken down into constituent parts; rather, it is that love is expressed in different ways between different people at different times. The love a husband has for his wife is not the same as the love a man has for his nation.
If we are commanded to love, then we must certainly understand what it means to love. We must know whom (and what) we must love and what is the nature and scope of that love. The world would deceive us by calling that which is not — and often even that which cannot be — love ‘love’. As Christians, we are commanded to be wise, and love — to whom it is owed and how it must or must not be expressed — is assuredly a matter of wisdom.




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Show Notes

Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs (Myth20c - Ep270)





See Also







Further Reading







Parental Warnings
“Homosexual fornication” and “sodomy” are used as descriptors for an example around the 40:00 mark, but the matter is not discussed in detail or explicitly.

Love: Family, Friends, Tribe, and Nation

Love is a multifaceted thing. Sometimes this complex nature can be masked in English by the use of the umbrella term “love” (or even by the exclusion of concepts that really fall under that umbrella — e.g., “friendship”). In this first episode in our (planned) three-episode series on love, we discuss agape (i.e., self-sacrificing or sacrificial love) and caritas (i.e., charity), their interrelationship, and some of their connections to other facets of love (e.g., storge [i.e., familial love]).
Love is a matter of who is doing the thing, whom is receiving the thing, and what the nature and scope of the thing is. The love — more accurately, the scope and nature of the love — you owe to your wife (agape, eros) is not the same as the love you owe to your siblings (agape, philia) or to your nation (pietas). Love is a matter of wisdom, one that has fallen into neglect in Christian discourse.
All that is called love is not.




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Show Notes







See Also







Further Reading







Parental Warnings
None.

Love: Sacrifice and Charity

Leadership is a natural aspect of the interrelationships of men. Any given group of men, left to its own devices, will form into a hierarchy, with a leader at the top. The modern world would have us deny this reality, because it runs directly counter to Egalitarianism.
To men, God has given many gifts, but He has given them unequally — this is part of His design, and we are not permitted to deny or to ignore it. The husband is the head of his wife — he must lead, and she must submit. The leader is the head of his group, of his organization, of his church, of his nation — he must lead, and those under him must support and follow. It is not a mindless, slavish following of orders that is commanded or in sight; rather, it is a right recognition of the existence of hierarchy and one’s place within it.
We are endeavoring to rebuild from the wreckage of a shipwrecked world, and the reestablishment of hierarchy and of leadership is no small part of that task.




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Show Notes

Exodus 18





See Also







Further Reading







Parental Warnings
None.

Leadership

Christian men exist in two kingdoms (the right and the left ‘hands’ of Christ) and three estates (family, Church, and State). Many modern men neglect the fullness of this reality via excessive focus on the Kingdom of the right hand of Christ (i.e., the Church). Further, and perhaps worse, many pastors believe that their role in the right-hand Kingdom entitles them to honors, respect, or other deference with regard to the left-hand kingdom — it does not.
The domain of the pastor is the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. The domain of Christian men is all three of the estates of life — family, Church, and State. With regard to family and State, Christian men have many duties, but pastors have only one — silence. The role of the pastor is local and circumscribed; the role of Christian men is not exclusively so. The pastor qua pastor has nothing to say with regard to the State, to the kingdom of the left hand of Christ — that is the domain of Christian men.
As Christian men, we must work together on the issues facing us, and that regardless of which kingdom or which estate. Pastors have their role and we have ours; the former must learn their limitations and the latter must do their duty.




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Show Notes

“Headship, Authority, Agency”
Dunbar’s number





See Also







Further Reading

Augsburg Confession, Art. V
Augsburg Confession, Art. XIV





Parental Warnings
None.

Ecumenism in the Trenches

Knowledge is not what saves us, but faith cannot be devoid of content, for one must have faith in something. Part of being a Christian is, unsurprisingly, knowing the content of the Christian faith. Or, perhaps, this would be surprising to many, given the state of knowledge and belief among those claiming to be Christian — even among the best (in terms of knowledge and right belief) of those claiming to be Christian.
In today’s episode, we return to the state of the churches. This time, we examine the general state of knowledge and belief among Christians. Do Christians even know the basics of the faith? For most, the answer is very clearly: No.




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Show Notes

Ligonier — “State of Theology” Survey Results
Pew Research Center — “Religious Landscape Study” Survey Results





See Also







Further Reading

“The Apostle’s & Nicene Creeds, verse by verse” [PDF]





Parental Warnings
None.

The Left Hand of Christ

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