The Didache now moves into what brings one into the community (communion) of Christ: Baptism. To understand this New-Covenant act, we need to look at its Old-Covenant predecessor, which baptism superseded and replaced. As God used an act of His choosing to bring someone into His Old Covenant, it’s easy to see how He would […]
The Baptism of Jesus
January 8, 2012 by
The Bible begins with baptism. It starts out, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Over the ancient and chaotic creation, there was Spirit and water, water and Spirit. That’s baptism! Do you remember Jesus speaking to Nicodemus at night? What did He say? Jesus said, “I […]
John 3:1-15: Born of Water and Spirit
June 19, 2011 by
Our Lutheran father in the faith, Philip Melanchthon, wrote, “The mysteries of God are to be adored, rather than investigated” (Loci Communes, 1521 edition). He is correct. For after confessing the faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed, who can fully explore, let alone, understand what we just confessed? In the Athanasian Creed, we […]
Lent 3: Baptism isn’t Magic: Luke 11:24-26
March 27, 2011 by
“When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, he roams through waterless places looking for rest, and not finding rest, he then says, ‘I’ll go back to the house I left.’ After returning, he finds the house swept and put in order. Then, he goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than himself, […]
Epiphany 3
January 23, 2011 by
Intro Naaman, the Syrian, was the Commander in Chief of the armies of Aram. He was a decorated war hero with many victories under his belt. But he had a serious problem: he had an appalling skin disease, for which the Syrian doctors had no cure. So what happens? Naaman pays a house call on […]
Baptism in the Early Church: Part 3
December 17, 2010 by
DID THE EARLY CHURCH BAPTIZE INFANTS? Of the five existing apostolic churches, all currently baptize infants. This leads one to conclude that the apostolic church baptized infants–unless the practice of infant baptism developed later and then spread to all the apostolic churches (historically unlikely, but possible). Some modern-day scholars strongly oppose the idea that the […]
Baptism in the Early Church: Part 2
December 17, 2010 by
HOW THE EARLY CHURCH BAPTIZED Of the five existing apostolic churches, three baptize by, or prefer, immersion. The Roman Catholic and Syrian Orthodox Churches baptize by affusion. However, the Syrian Orthodox Church calls immersion an “old practice” it used to perform.[1] And so, historically, the apostolic churches prefer to perform baptism by immersion. However, what […]
Baptism in the Early Church: Part 1
December 17, 2010 by
Baptism and the Early Church: The “How” and the “Who” A paper presented to the Springfield Pastors’ Circuit of the Missouri District, Jan 12, 2010 By Pr. Rich Futrell This paper takes a brief look into the early Christian church practices on baptism. The historical era looked into will be after the period covered in St. Luke’s […]
Confessing Christ to Someone Near Death
December 1, 2010 by
Someone in my parish asked, “Pastor, how do I confess Jesus Christ to someone dying in hospice?” This is what I shared. With someone in hospice, there’s no need to dance around the subject of death. Most likely, the person knows something is seriously wrong with him and that he is dying. See this as an opportunity […]
