The Kingdom Ours Remaineth

Robert Schmidt “We won’t worry about the election. We are Lutherans and believe that there are two kingdoms. Though Trump won one, he didn’t, and couldn’t touch the other.” That’s the Kingdom of God’s grace.” But what does God’s grace include? Might it have something to do with the Old Testament promises about a new…
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Here I Fall

Why a Life-long Lutheran Fled the LC-MS Mark Woodworth Mark G. Woodworth is an Illinois attorney who holds a J.D. and a Ph.D (with a concentration in organizational analysis) from Saint Louis University. He and his wife, Teresa, reside in Geneseo, Illinois. Daystar has asked me to write an essay about why I, a life-long…
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A Remnant’s Vision

Robert Schmidt The last gavel has been struck; the convention is over.  No more licensed deacons and plans are underway to find an easier way to rid the Synod of honest dissenters.  Moderates are mostly retired and  mission minded folks are concentrating on better practices, not a better administration.  Three years from now there will…
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“Not” – Resolution 4-06 Task Force Report

Robert Schmidt The 2013 convention of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) resolved that the president of the Synod establish a task force to resolve questions about the service of licensed deacons serving congregations of the Synod with the word and sacraments of Christ. The task force recently issued a report in response to the convention’s…
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Implications of the Advisory Nature of Synod

Rev. Dr. Norman Metzler Emeritus Professor of Theology Concordia University, Portland The Daystar Journal has recently published three articles explicating the congregational polity of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and its advisory nature.[i] They have made clear that while the Synod was organized around the concept of local congregational autonomy, that autonomy has been increasingly challenged…
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Theological Echoes and Tensions in Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship[1]

Matthew L. Becker  Matthew L. Becker is an associate professor of theology at Valparaiso University. In addition to teaching courses in modern systematic theology, he also offers courses on the Lutheran Confessions and the history of Protestant theology. He recently wrote an introduction to Christian theology, Fundamental Theology: A Protestant Perspective (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2015), and…
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