Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Often, Christians are confused about a Pastor speaking God’s forgiveness to others. Some (i.e., Protestants) say that only God can forgive sins. Such a statement is true, but neglects how God chooses to bring His forgiveness of others. This short theological pondering by Pr. Futrell may help someone better understand what God’s Word teaches. [...]
What are we to make of the traditional Lutheran position that Mary remained a virgin her entire life? This short theological pondering from Pastor Futrell helps us look at this teaching with historic eyes. From the time of Martin Luther’s excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church taught and believed that Mary [...]
From the beginning, when we first see God give His people instructions on worship, we find worship to be liturgical (following prescribed patterns, not free form of one’s own choosing). After giving His people the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), God told them to how to build an altar (Exodus 20:24-26). Then, He told them about [...]
This is a paper our pastor presented at the Springfield Circuit winkel of the Missouri District on January 15th, 2013. In it, he looked at prayers for those who have died in the faith (referred to simply as “the dead”) from a scriptural, confessional, and historical perspective. He also explored what we lost when we [...]
No Longer Missing In Action: The Apocrypha, The Lutheran Edition By Pr. Rich Futrell In 397 AD, at Carthage (today in Tunisia), the Church gathered to resolve an issue: what books being read in the Church are Scripture? Throughout the New Testament Church’s history, there was never complete unanimity on what books made up the [...]
This is an excursus that our pastor wrote for a study on the New Testament epistle of Jude. Excursus: Will the Real “Sola Scriptura” Please Stand Up! To make his theological points, Jude liberally referred to parts of the Old Testament, which his readers viewed as authoritative. He called on such authority to show [...]
Believe it or not, the Lutheran Confessions refer to the Apocrypha as “Scripture.” Yet, if you were to read through the Lutheran Confessions, you would find that they never even bother to list the books of the Bible. Why is that? Simply put, we did not have any argument with the Roman Catholic Church on [...]
The Didache is the earliest, non-Biblical document in the New Testament Church. It was complied by the Church to teach adult, Gentile converts aspects of the Christian Faith. The date of the Didache is as early as the mid-50s AD, after the Gospel of Matthew was written and had circulated, but the other three Gospels [...]
This is a theological paper that our pastor presented at his winkel in November 2011. Right now, it is at both LC-MS seminaries for a Gutachten, an assessment on its theology and proposed practice. To open or save the Word document, click on the link below. Infant and Early Communion, with Appendix