Sunday, July 6. 2008Blogs and Allegiances
The Church is not a business, though some aspects of business experience are helpful when managing earthly aspects of the Church. Because of that, a Christian congregation is also not a business. Likewise, a synod or larger church body is not a business. The business world is a bit like the military world. Decisions are made by a few, and everyone else has to follow them. Dissent is not tolerated. The leader(s) determine the principles of the organization, and anyone who contradicts them is terminated or disciplined. This has been extended to publications. If an employee writes a book or blog that somehow comes against the principles or interests of his company, then he is in trouble. His allegiance, even in his privately published writings, is to his company. Personally, I think some companies have taken this way too far, but it's a free country. They have the right to be wrong, just like the rest of us. In the Church, our primary allegiance is not to our own congregation, nor to our synod, per se. That would be a kind of idolatry. It would be denominationalism, like backing the Red Sox only because you live near Boston, rather than because they have any particular virtue or skill. Applied to baseball, that approach is fine. Applied to churches, it's wrong. Some churches and synods are more virtuous than others, because they hold to the Word of God in doctrine and practice better than others. Continue reading "Blogs and Allegiances"
Posted by Jesse Jacobsen
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Thursday, May 15. 2008A Better Way to Discuss the PMWI've been trying to keep before us the possibility that the PMW can be improved over time by suggesting specific improvements to its parts. It cannot be denied that some had sincere and weighty objections to the PCM document before it was adopted, and became known as the PMW. It also cannot be denied that these objections were not all answered before the adoption took place, and that the circumstances of adoption reflected a serious opposition to the document. Though the point is arguable, I believe that these circumstances were the primary cause of the ensuing controversy that resulted in at least five pastors and more churches being separated from the synod. The objections and opposition to the PCM document that existed before its adoption continued afterward. Though this should not be surprising, it was regarded differently after the adoption than it was before the adoption. After the adoption, opposition to the document (now called the PMW) is regarded as a rejection of the synod's doctrine, which must place the opposition outside the synod's doctrinal fellowship. While in some cases this opposition has been treated with a measure of patience, that patience did not extend to those who expressed their conscientious objection to the PMW in the form of a statement, rather than in the form of questions and requests for clarification. Others (myself included) stated that the PMW would only be acceptable on the condition of a particular understanding of its meaning. Thankfully, that position has also been tolerated. It has been my hope that those with reservations or objections about the PMW would be able to continue discussing it, and finally make changes that would be acceptable to all. This could potentially restore the parts of the synod that have been severed, though the animus that was begotten in the PMW's adoption has produced other sins on all sides that may render complete healing impossible for some time. At this point, I will discontinue the thread I've been following, in which I have been suggesting for consideration certain changes to the PMW's wording. For those who have been reading that thread, it has already served its purpose. It should be apparent that further changes are at least possible, and may actually be desirable in some places. I suggest a different approach. Pastor Jay Webber, who is now on the synod's Doctrine Committee, has restated the PMW with the intention of changing its format, but not its doctrine. The new format is "thetical." That is, it is stated as relatively short, numbered statements that carry the thought sequentially from start to finish. This is the same format used by Martin Luther in several works, including the 95 Theses and the Heidelberg Disputation. It has also been used by the ELS in earlier doctrinal statements. Pastor Webber's thetical arrangement has some advantages. First, it isolates each point so that further discussion may focus on specific parts of the PMW's text unambiguously. Second, Pastor Webber has prefaced most of the theses with a statement of the particular context of each one, derived from the heading under which the statement is found in the original formatting of the PMW, and the heading's explanation in the text of the PMW. This explicit statement of context is invaluable in reading the statements, and may prevent some of the problems of interpretation that arose with the original formatting. Third, the thetical form of the PMW is technically not the PMW itself, so that strong criticism of it need not be regarded as a rejection of the synod's doctrine. I suggest that further discussion of the PMW focus upon the thetical form that Pastor Webber has provided. It may be compared and contrasted with the original form, and the theses themselves may be criticized and specified by number. Please allow me to note several things from my first reading of the thetical format of the PMW. Feel free to comment on these points as you like. My observations are not all of grave importance, but they are nevertheless food for thought. I'm surprised that there are so few. It speaks to the advantages of this thetical format of the PMW.
Friday, April 18. 2008Dissecting the 6th ImprovementI was wrong -- at least partly -- in my understanding of what was happening where the PMW says "This public use of the keys is the Public Ministry of the Word," at the beginning of the second section. (You might wonder why I waited so long to write this. Well, I've been busy with other things. Yes, even pastors who write on blogs have other priorities. I apologize if my timing has made you impatient.) I had suggested to replace it with the wording "The Lord Jesus established the Public Ministry of the Word for the public administration of the Office of the Keys." That was because I thought the PMW was stating scriptural truth here, and that's where I was wrong. It's not stating scriptural truth here. It's not even making the attempt. That's not to say that it's being unscriptural. Instead, it's being ascriptural. In other words, this sentence is orthogonal to the Word of God. Neither has any bearing upon the other. You may think that's a risky and bold statement to make. Not really. You see, the sentence "This public use of the keys is the Public Ministry of the Word" is really not a statement of doctrine at all. It's a definition for a term that does not occur in scripture. Do you remember algebra and geometry, where you had to show something step by step? It was also useful in some science classes, too. At the beginning, you might have had something like this:
Of course, that doesn't mean that X is always whatever it says. It only applies in the context of the proof or problem. It's a provisional definition of X. In this sentence of the PMW, we also have a provisional definition. One might suppose that it's a provisional definition of the subject, "this public use of the keys," but it's not. You see, that was already defined in section I. This sentence is a provisional definition of the predicate nominative, "the Public Ministry of the Word." It's not really trying to say anything. It was my mistake to think it was. So we see that this part of the PMW needs more work than I originally thought. Not because there's anything wrong with defining our terms. In fact, a repeated criticism of this very PMW document has been that it fails to define many of its terms, so we should be (and I am) happy to have discovered a definition. No, the problem is that this definition doesn't look like a definition. It looks like it's trying to state some kind of biblical doctrine. So, assuming we want such a definition, I have a new suggested replacement for this sentence:
On the other hand, this sounds pretty abstract, and it might not be such a good idea to use an abstraction as the basic foundation of the public office that we find concretely instituted by Christ. It may introduce unnecessary confusion on the question of what, exactly, Christ instituted. I'll have to ponder this some more, but I think Adolph Hoenecke's dogmatics may be helpful, because he writes some about the ministry considered abstractly versus the ministry considered concretely. It's worth another read. Tuesday, April 1. 2008A 6th Improvement for the PMWThe second section is entitled "The Public Ministry of the Word." It's a good title, especially understood in coordination with Article V of the Augsburg Confession:
We're not dealing with church-related offices that do not administer the Gospel or the Sacraments. When we call it "the Public Ministry of the Word," we're also including the Sacraments as a necessary manifestation of the Word; as Augustine called them, "a visible Word" (Apology XIII, paragraph 5). This sixth suggested improvement to the PMW is a small one. Part II begins:
While starting Part II with the word "This" makes Part I a prerequisite for Part II, this is not necessary, and may not be desirable. The effect is that Part II can't really be cited on its own, without Part I. What's more, it doesn't really explain what AC V means by the word "instituted," instead just stating the effect of that institution. It would make more sense, I think, to say exactly what we mean by that institution, something like this:
Note that the translation of the Augsburg Confession here differs a little from that of the Concordia Triglotta. I had thought that the PMW was following the translation in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, but it's not. I don't think it makes a serious difference, but does anyone know where this translation came from? Note also that the words "office" and "ministry" are interchangeable. Though they both can have more than one sense, even that variety tends to overlap. The difference is that "ministry" connotes service, while "office" connotes representative responsibility. In this case the office-holder primarily represents God, whose Word and Sacraments are administered, and he primarily serves others, in keeping with Jesus' example on the night He was betrayed. Tuesday, March 25. 2008When a Synod Errs...
Can an orthodox congregation remain part of that synod? Can an orthodox pastor? Speaking to that matter is Thesis II of the document "Communion Fellowship" in volume 1 of Essays for the Church by C.F.W. Walther.
I've read this before, and intend to read the section again when time permits. It serves as an excellent basis for discussion of several different circumstances in present-day Lutheranism. Tuesday, March 18. 2008LCMS Gets Tough on Fellowship
If you read this blog, you probably already know that today, the radio show Issues, Etc. was canceled by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Christians all around the globe are wondering why. I'm not, because it seems rather obvious. I could be wrong. What do I know? On the other hand, I can see a church by daylight. It's not that Issues, Etc. had fallen into some grave doctrinal error, and was unwilling to be corrected by holy scripture. It's not that Issues, Etc. was bad-mouthing or embarassing the historic identity of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, or any of its historic values. The problem is one of fellowship. The doctrinal and practical principles guiding Issues, Etc. are deemed by someone to be no longer compatible with the doctrinal and practical principles guiding the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. How can that be? The LCMS has changed, over time. It's not so surprising, because most things change over time. In the case of the LCMS, change has been happening for a long time already. Some of the confessional frogs have already left the simmering pot behind. (syncretism, anyone?) Others have not. I write this not to denigrate them. I respect them deeply, though I may have chosen differently. Issues, Etc. was having a profound cooling influence on the pot, and someone didn't like it. Well, now the LCMS can really turn up the heat. Watch out, CPH, or you'll be ablaze before you know it. I'm admittedly ignorant of LCMS politics on the whole. Doctrine concerns me more than politics. Yet we've had our share of politics in the ELS, too. What a waste. However, the great thing about being a Christian, and being a Lutheran, is that the biblical doctrine we treasure really is all that. It is the only genuine basis for unity, and if we give it more than lip-service, we will find that we are not alone -- even when we are. The dirty little secret is that all synods change over time. Practically speaking, an orthodox synod is a myth of modern Lutheranism. When someone claims his synod is orthodox, it would often be more accurate to say that his synod has become the measure of orthodoxy. These days, "orthodoxy" is seldom meant the way Walther meant it. It's relativized in the ELS, in the WELS, in the LCMS, and anywhere else that the word orthodox has more than historic relevance (that does not include the ELCA, unfortunately; watch for its disappearance in the LCMS too). That's why we should constantly learn the meaning of fellowship, as it is defined in the Lutheran Confessions. It's a good antidote for the myth of the orthodox synod (HT: RDP), and it's encouraging for those who are martyred by "orthodox synods." Kudos to Issues, Etc. for your faithful work. Perhaps we will soon be able to recognize church fellowship with each other. You are a witness for confessional Lutheranism. VDMA Tuesday, March 4. 2008Which ministry did Christ institute?There is a perception that this point has been hashed through thoroughly by this time, but that perception is mistaken. While statements have been made on the subject from time to time, they have not been directly answered. The closest to an answer that we have seen was in a paper delivered to the official General Pastoral Conference in 2006, entitled "An Exercise in Parsing." I understand the knee-jerk reflex that some will have when this topic is touched upon: "Quick! Quote the relevant part of the adopted statement, and wash our hands of the matter!" However, that reaction doesn't qualify as doctrinal discussion. Whether we like it or not, genuine discussion includes the possibility that either side might be won over, however strongly-worded their arguments may be. Quoting "the adopted doctrinal statement" is an attempt to end discussion, equivalent in effect to pulling rank. The only way to "win" in a theological discussion is to agree with clear scripture. Hopefully, both sides "win" in the end. So read this thoughtful explanation of the term "representative ministry" from a certain controversial figure in recent ELS history:
That quote came from a certain controversial writing, but has been mostly ignored because of the inordinate amount of attention lavished upon another paragraph (to the detriment and sorrow of all). Another writing from a month prior says this, explaining the problem the author had with the concept of a divinely-instituted "limited public use of the keys."
It should be noted that the author has focused in these quotations on part II.B of the PMW and any statements elsewhere that support it. This is how the concerns were addressed in the 2006 GPC paper:
And again:
And finally:
The answer given in this paper does not provide the scriptural basis for a divinely-instituted limited public use of the keys. It says that such a thing does not exist. Instead, there is a divinely-instituted use of the keys (not "limited public"), and the Church has freedom and authority to entrust a limited part of that use to certain individuals. Is that "representative ministry?" Yes, in a sense. (See how nuanced this discussion can be?) It is representative ministry, with the caveat that it is not divinely instituted. In other words, we may call it ministry simply because we need a word for it, and we want to call it that. By definition, it is ministry because it is a kind of service. I have wondered why our doctrinal statement would take such care to describe what is more a matter of our choice than a matter of doctrine. That is, why not just let II.B say that the Church has freedom to entrust certain ministerial duties to individuals alongside the "office of oversight," and call it finished? Do we have to pollute a summary of biblical doctrine with descriptions of what the Church has elected to do in her freedom? In my mind, this is one of the most important criticisms of the PMW. In its current form, it leaves itself open to the charge of teaching human traditions as though they were the Word of God. Friday, February 29. 2008A Fifth Improvement for the PMWFor a long time now, I've pointed out that testing the spirits (1 John 4:1) is not an exercise of the Keys. How do I know? Because sometimes the "spirits" that need testing don't belong to living people. For example, doesn't that passage apply when Christians are reading theological writing from the controversies of the 16th Century? Are they not to test those spirits? Yet, if a Christian, reading Calvin's Institutes or the Variata of Melanchthon, finds something doctrinally suspect, how is that an exercise of the Keys? Short answer: it's not. The Keys are for opening and closing heaven, but Calvin and Melanchthon are now beyond their influence. If they were still living, then maybe our reading and hearing them would eventually lead to an application of God's Law, but a Christian's own judgment of their teachings in itself would still not be a use of the Keys. It is evident where the confusion arose. Christians possess the Keys by virtue of being Christians, that is, having Christ as their God and Savior by faith in His Word. Christians also have a responsibility to judge the teachings they find on earth, a responsibility to test the spirits. Christians have many other things by virtue of their faith, but not all of them are the Keys. Presently, the PMW says this:
If it must be treated here, I suggest this wording instead:
Doesn't that make sense? Sunday, February 24. 2008Comment to "Analysis of Appeals Commission Report"
This is a comment submitted by Shawn Stafford, in reply to this post. I'm including it in its own entry because the formatting available in comments is so limited that it doesn't do the comment justice. Also, the post was so long ago, the comment could easily be overlooked. Without further ado...
Thursday, January 31. 2008Third Adjustment to the PMWWhile the first two changes were relatively easy to understand, this one you might have to ponder for a while, and I would fully expect some brotherly debate about it. The Bible uses some words in a way that makes their definition rather important. "Justification" and its cognates are an example, as well as "sanctification" and its cognates. We're careful about how we use these words, so that we don't cause unnecessary confusion. Other words can be just as important, though their special meaning comes from the way we use them, rather than the way they are used in the Bible. "Trinity" is a good example of that. In the PMW, the words "public," "private," "official," and "unofficial" are other examples. Those four words are really two pairs of opposites, and they are not defined in the Bible. AC XIV uses the word "public" to describe the sort of preaching, teaching, and administration of the sacraments that requires a regular call. My own observation has noted that the Confessions usually mean "with many people" when they use the word "public," and they usually mean "with few people" when they use the word "private." While we are not bound to this usage, it is still noteworthy. Meanwhile, the word "official" usually means "with authority pertaining to an office," while "unofficial" usually means "without the authority of any office." Continue reading "Third Adjustment to the PMW" Friday, January 25. 2008Change 2 for the PMWHere's what the PMW says under the heading "The Office of the Keys", with a block of citations omitted to make it easier to see the problem:
This is not quite as important a point as the grammar problem I noted last time. It's a matter of tightening up the PMW so that it says what's needed as directly and clearly as possible. This particular problem comes from the department of redundancy department. Unless someone can explain to me the benefit of saying the same thing twice twice, I strongly suggest not doing so. I would recommend that the first sentence be omitted altogether. If any of its citations are too precious to omit, they can be placed after the quotation ends, as references to what's said in the quotation from the Catechism. I hope that's clear enough. Hopefully, what I wrote is understandable. Friday, January 18. 2008Topics, and improvements for the PMWBoth of the Plucked Chicken's readers know that it tends to focus on matters of importance only within the ELS. In fact, a good bit of what I write about would be called "unimportant" by at least a few within the ELS. That's why I write about such things. It's why the Plucked Chicken exists. This is not a general-purpose blog, at least so far. I don't have time for recounting much from my own life, nor do I really think anyone would want to read it. Most of my personal interests are rather esoteric, and would therefore not be of interest to the general populace (any more than ELS matters are). But every group of people has a tendency to bury some topics that should be discussed, possibly in the vain hope that ignoring something will heal it. That doesn't work so well with infectious diseases or grave wounds in the body, and it doesn't work so well either in a body like the ELS. Healing requires attention, just as adopting a doctrinal statement requires complete, careful, and mutual deliberation. Such attention and deliberation have been wanting in the ELS. Hence, the Plucked Chicken. As I have the opportunity, I will note some improvements that could be made to the PMW. Here's the first. It says (verbatim):
That's not really a quote from AC V. It's a paraphrase. Do you see the problem? It says "but through their own preparations and works." To whom does that pronoun refer? Hmmm. I'll give you a minute to think about it. Remember, this is the actual quasi-sacred text of the PMW adopted by the
ELS in 2005, the same text that, if challenged, can excite such written
exclamations as, "What further need do we have of witnesses?" Continue reading "Topics, and improvements for the PMW" Monday, December 17. 2007Sacerdotalism and the Keys
In an article printed in the latest Lutheran Synod Quarterly, one of the ELS Doctrine Committee members provides a perspective on sacerdotalism. Classically defined, sacerdotalism occurs when we teach that an individual cannot freely and directly approach God (as in prayer), but requires the intervention of a third party -- a priest of some kind. It also occurs when we teach that God's spiritual gifts must always be received through an intermediary -- again, through some kind of priest. Thus defined, sacerdotalism contradicts scripture's teaching that every Christian is a priest in his own right (1 Peter 2:9). Scripture teaches that every Christian has full access to God in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and may receive His spiritual gifts through Word and Sacrament with no intercessor but Christ himself. There is, however, a useful distinction that the author may have overlooked. Continue reading "Sacerdotalism and the Keys" Friday, November 16. 2007What defines? What divides?
Norman Teigen highlights an address from ELCA bishop Mark Hanson. Bishop Hansen notes that the issue of (homo)sexuality might be seen as the defining issue for the ELCA, but instead, he wants "the Gospel of Jesus Christ" to define the ELCA. My first thought is to wonder what he means by "the Gospel of Jesus Christ." For Hansen, does this include Christ as an historical person, as described historically throughout the second article of the Nicene Creed? Does it include His virgin birth and bodily resurrection as historical facts? I only ask because numerous teachers in the ELCA deny these things. See this book for a well-documented, 15-year old snapshot of those teachings in the ELCA. News reports since that book was published have not shown that things are any better. But Hansen raises two important questions about fellowship. What does define a body like the ELCA? What does divide it? In the ELS, we hold that the unity of a church body is (ideally) defined by its unity in doctrine. God-pleasing unity occurs when different people believe, teach, and confess what the Bible says. It's up to us to figure out who they are by comparing their teaching and their practice to the teaching of the Bible. For us, the teaching of the Bible is critically important, since we apply Proverbs 4:13 in all seriousness: "Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life." For us, doctrine is life. (I make bold to speak for the entire ELS. If its members disagree, they may do so publicly.) However, a church body like the ELS and the ELCA is really established by articles of incorporation, not found in holy scripture. That means that the body can exist without regard for God-pleasing unity. (In the case of the ELCA, I see many points where its members disagree about fundamental points of Christian doctrine -- like the historic points listed in the Nicene Creed.) So neither the ELCA nor the ELS is really defined by biblical doctrine. They are both church bodies that exist by the will of mortal man. The difference is that the formation of the ELS has (theoretically) bound the synod to observe the biblical principles of church fellowship by requiring that its members and those formally "in fellowship" hold strictly to the biblical teachings. This is accomplished by means of the Lutheran Confessions, which agree completely with holy scripture. The Confessions serve as a means of comparing doctrine to discover whether God-pleasing unity exists. What defines a synod or "church" like the ELS or ELCA? The answer can be anything, because they are organizations of human origin. Officially, they are defined by their incorporation. In my mind, the ELCA is defined by its sad history of mergers and compromises of biblical teaching. To Bishop Hansen, the ELCA is defined by "the Gospel of Jesus Christ" -- whatever he means by that. To others, it is defined by its stance on homosexuality. Despite the disagreement between these points of view, the ELCA and the ELS are both really defined to the world in general by the aggregate of their words and deeds. They are equally fallible and open to criticism for their faults. The responsibility remains with individuals like you and me to examine their words and deeds in the light of holy scripture. (1 John 4:1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.") That is how God-pleasing unity is discovered. Bishop Hansen is concerned that if homosexuality defines the ELCA, there will be corporate division. Yet outward division can occur for a multitude of reasons, both good and bad. If some wish to depart from the ELCA about the issue of homosexuality, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Hansen's "Gospel of Jesus Christ." Lutherans in the ELS accept the Bible's perspective on homosexuality: that such practices are sinful, so that homosexuality challenges and ultimately can destroy faith in Christ. For anyone who agrees with the ELS, it would make perfect sense to separate from the ELCA, which has contradicted what the Bible says about homosexuality. It would uphold the Gospel. Friday, November 9. 2007Analysis of Appeals Commission Report
The commission's report comes in the form of a resolution, like the memorials I have previously posted on this weblog. This is convenient for analysis, because we can easily distinguish between the two resolutions (in the "be it resolved" parts) and the reasoning behind them (in the "whereas" parts). Here is my analysis. Comments are welcome. Continue reading "Analysis of Appeals Commission Report"
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Wed, 23.07.2008 20:22
Jesse- It was interesting to note the number of guideline c hanges at the convention wrt a dopting synodical statem [...]
Thu, 10.07.2008 09:42
On the issue of teachers and c alls, I believe we are saying the latter, but also that teac hers ought to be authori [...]
Wed, 09.07.2008 13:34
So, people read the Old Testam ent and concluded that a Savio r who was killed would rise ag ain in three days for th [...]
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I would submit that this "anci ent tablet" is probably anothe r sensationalist scam, as is c learly indicated by the [...]
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