Fritz a wonderful lesson – and esp. reading has a flow I found encompassing. If only …….. yes we can…
Weekly lessons in theology and public life • Since 2011
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Lesson 35: How Do We Determine God’s Word – Creed
Read MORE: Lesson 35: How Do We Determine God’s Word – CreedWith all the focus on the Bible (canon) we often pass over how the creeds go even further in determining what is and what is not the Word of God. In some ways the canon is like the Constitution and…
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Lesson 34: How Do We Determine the Word of God – Canon
Read MORE: Lesson 34: How Do We Determine the Word of God – CanonThe early church’s most obvious standard for controlling charisma is the canon or Bible. She approved certain sacred writings as norms for judging other versions of God’s Word. When I read how much the excluded gospels move from the fantastic…
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Lesson 33: How Do We Determine the Word of God – Charisma
Read MORE: Lesson 33: How Do We Determine the Word of God – CharismaPaul includes the “utterance” of wisdom and knowledge among the gifts of the Spirit or charismas (I Corinthians 12: 4-11). Over the years these have been described as just about any kind of direct inspiration- from a person feeling something…
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Lesson 32: How Do We Determine God’s Word?
Read MORE: Lesson 32: How Do We Determine God’s Word?Throughout our history the Church has determined what it accepts as the Word of God by balancing many elements of tradition: charisma, canon, creed, clergy, ceremony, custom, and community. She is constantly correcting the problems that develop when one or…
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Lesson 31: How God Operates Through Words
Read MORE: Lesson 31: How God Operates Through WordsI was going to demonstrate what I believe is the essential message God speaks in the Bible. I decided yesterday’s sermon does that for me. So here it is, a little longer than the usual lesson, but… When Jesus was…
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Lesson 30: How Does God Operate Through Words? Part 4
Read MORE: Lesson 30: How Does God Operate Through Words? Part 4Bob suggests we’ll always have false prophets, because we’ll always have people looking for religious interpretations that support their preconceived ideas and prejudices. I think we are bound to have more, because of the way modern media uses words. We…
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Lesson 29: How Does God Operate Through Words? Part 3
Read MORE: Lesson 29: How Does God Operate Through Words? Part 3Two weeks ago I suggested present day false prophets are either liars or bull-shitters. Bob added a third category- the truly stupid. Last week Myron agreed that “an informed consumer” is our best hope in overcoming these “wolves in sheep’s…
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Lesson 28: How Does God Operate Through Words? Part 2
Read MORE: Lesson 28: How Does God Operate Through Words? Part 2Last week Bob commented, “How do we separate these false prophets from those who truly proclaim the word of God? I think to do so we have to have a conception, an overall picture, of what Christianity truly is… So…
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Lesson 27: How Does God Operate Through Words?
Read MORE: Lesson 27: How Does God Operate Through Words?Enough about God operating through natural events and people! Let’s get to the bottom line. God operates in this world primarily through words. The religions claim words provide our contact with God. The ancient Vedas of the East say, “On…
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Lesson 26: How Does God Operate?
Read MORE: Lesson 26: How Does God Operate?I can best explain my position on suffering by enclosing below a short paper I wrote decades ago to start discussion at a Lutheran conference. I think the Christian faith is contrarian by nature. We have some trouble seeing that,…
Recent Comments
So forgiveness pre-requires understanding the mistakes of the past? here hear re this opposing this me-first, America-first, white-first, male-first approach>…
An extremely timely topic. Thanks, Fritz!