Hope for a Time Like This (Sermon)

By Matthew L. Becker “Christ Jesus was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” – First Peter 1:20-21 Hope is in…
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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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A Lutheran Pope?

Editor’s Note: In his recent “missive” to the “2013 convention delegates and other friends” President Harrison indicates that he has appointed a group to develop revisions to the current LCMS procedures for addressing dissent within the church body.  Because Rev. Dr. Matthew Becker was twice found not to be guilty of advocating false doctrine when…
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For the Record

Matthew Becker Back in the spring of 2011 an LCMS pastor forwarded to me an email that he had sent to his district president (English) and the President of the Synod (Pr. Matthew Harrison), but not to my district president (Northwest). In this email the pastor accused me of publicly teaching false doctrine. This individual,…
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The Creator’s Tapestry (Review Article)

By Matthew Becker The Creator’s Tapestry: Scriptural Perspectives on Man-Woman Relationships in Marriage and the Church arrived in today’s mail. This CTCR Report, adopted in Dec 2009, attempts to fulfill the 1995 LCMS Synod Resolution 3-10 that called upon the Commission “to prepare a comprehensive study of the scriptural relationship of man and woman.” One…
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Concordia: A Reader’s Edition (Review Article)

By Matthew Becker Concordia: A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord, ed. Paul McCain et al. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005). The editors of Concordia state in an appendix that their “text for the Book of Concord is not a new translation from the original German and Latin texts” (p. 680).  Rather, Concordia…
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Jesus the Law-Breaker

By Matthew Becker My friend, Dr. Edward Schroeder, often asks the question, “How does one commend good works without losing the gospel promise?”  I think that is a good question.  Nonetheless, as many others point out, we Lutheran Christians have not done a very good job of rightly and effectively joining the two aspects of…
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Wittenberg and Missional Ecumenism

By Matthew Becker Last October an article appeared in the Lutheran Witness that claimed “Luther’s home city (Wittenberg) includes no Lutheran congregation.” The article quotes Matthew Harrison, executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care: “There are people with deep Lutheran sentiments in Wittenberg, but there is no congregation organized and operating under the…
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