tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post4822699862300779427..comments2020-12-02T13:06:23.368-06:00Comments on Apologies and Confessions: A History LessonMichael James Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06666000367238039443noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-79096737828759383662013-05-02T06:29:39.827-05:002013-05-02T06:29:39.827-05:00Michael: I found this article very interesting to...Michael: I found this article very interesting to say the least. It was thought provoking in many ways. The last comment "His failure is a caution to faithful Christians today" also caught my attention, except I see it more like, he failed to caution faithful Christians...<br /><br />VICKIVicki Johnsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-74173610484176063982013-04-23T14:17:16.106-05:002013-04-23T14:17:16.106-05:00Nancy: Yes.Nancy: Yes.Michael James Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06666000367238039443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-48195589179289453462013-04-21T19:34:11.496-05:002013-04-21T19:34:11.496-05:00Informative, well researched article, Michael.
Th...Informative, well researched article, Michael.<br /><br />The article's last line cautioning faithful Christians caught my attention. Today's most important moral problems are abortion and same sex marriage. Are we failing "to bring a Christian witness to the public square" on these issues?Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13158911694151667981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-2844014702816117052013-04-08T22:46:15.798-05:002013-04-08T22:46:15.798-05:00Pastor Seybolt. Thank you for your kind reading of...Pastor Seybolt. Thank you for your kind reading of the essay.<br /><br />There was a lot of reading and thought put into this article, over a long period of time. (I am not very smart.) Many things I found had to be left out.<br /><br />For example, in Scripture we find slavery that is voluntary and involuntary, permanent and temporary. In Exodus, kidnapping a man for slavery or having a kidnapped man as your slave is a capital offense. Then in Ecclesiastes concubines are "a man's delight." <br /><br />All that being said, and much more unsaid, the only kind of slavery that is unambiguously promoted in Scripture is the slavery of the faithful to the LORD. We are "bought with a price." <br /><br />This legal metaphor, however, does not in anyway justify the racist slavery practices of the South. Distinctions must be made.<br /><br />(Please note. It is late and all the above citations and allusions are from memory. And I have the memory of an old man.)<br /><br />Thank you again for your kindness. Please follow the blog. This is the first in what I hope will be a series.Michael James Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06666000367238039443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-30618903786824275682013-04-08T22:32:30.168-05:002013-04-08T22:32:30.168-05:00Pr. Baseley. Most of your objections were answered...Pr. Baseley. Most of your objections were answered in the article, with citations, many of which were from primary sources. You have chosen to ignore all that and respond with sarcasm.<br /><br />You state [Walther]"uses at least one sermon, either for the day of repentance or a confessional address to rebuke political factions from either side..." Your source? All that I have read shows Dr. Walther to be using the Office to promote his political position. <br /><br />And the source for his statement about equality that you deem "right." Not that it really matters as the point your make is irrelevant to the kind of equality that was actually the goal of the Abolitionists.<br /><br />As for your observance of the legal metaphor of slavery applied to our Lord and His Chruch, I can only say that your exegesis is as bad as Dr. Walther's.<br /><br />Honestly, are you going to defend the South's racism and theft of labor from African Americans? That is pathetic. Because that is what Dr. Walther was defending.Michael James Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06666000367238039443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-4888544512623633102013-04-08T12:42:36.415-05:002013-04-08T12:42:36.415-05:00It didn't take an immigrant pietist to read th...It didn't take an immigrant pietist to read the Constitution in such a way that states felt they had a right to secede. A whole block of southern states read it exactly that way. They must also have been pietists. Prior to the civil war the verb associated with the United States of America was always a plural and after a singular; that change in grammar is significant. Perhaps Walther is more mainstream in his thinking of the time than you give him credit for. Maybe even having a better grasp of the Constitution and its INTENTIONAL LIMITS ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT than you! No couldn't be!<br /><br />As for the separation of church and state he uses at least one sermon, either for a day of repentance or a confessional address to rebuke political factions from either side trying to bring politicking into the church. But he does raise the point there that if the American ideal of freedom and equality is raised to be the highest ideal in this country that it would overturn every order and institution of God. He was right. Dang, Maybe he knows something more than people who call him names like "pietist."<br /><br />And isn't it a great thing that there were no abolitionist movements in Jesus day? Else he could never have become a slave on our behalf. And its a really good thing we live in a country now that has no slavery. Christ says everyone who sins is a SLAVE of sin, and now in America there are no slaves, which just goes a long way to prove there are no longer any sinners who need to be freed by a Savior / Son, except, of course, for us darn pietists!<br /><br />Oh how great to live in a world of such deep thinkers and away from such pietists like Old Walther. By the way, Walther knows Luther much better than you do. He even quotes Luther in the Festival Sermons. I, know, how ignorant, along with those darn editors in Weimar!<br /><br />Your dear friend,<br /><br />JRBaseley<br />Dearborn, MIUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13901858333564943001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36955204.post-27732950612371959682013-04-08T11:13:09.051-05:002013-04-08T11:13:09.051-05:00Thought-provoking material, Michael. I think Walth...Thought-provoking material, Michael. I think Walther's acquaintance with Federal law would have been cursory; that we would be hard-pressed to find him writing at length about it. As such I tend to lessen my criticism of his ignorance, which I, too, own in large measure. He opened his mouth, as it were, with some positive statements that in retrospect may better have been held.<br /><br />I got into a fine mess during my vicarage in an urban setting when the word slavery came up in Paul's letters. It was a virtual catalyst for verbal dress down whereby I lost control of the class . . . and I did not even comment one way or the other in regard to it's propriety.<br /><br />I do happen to believe that in the bigger scheme of things we are all slaves in one way or another until our baptisms are complete at the Last Day.<br /><br />Regards, and thank you for such thought-provoking material. It is refreshing to have my ideas challenged, and to some extent changed.Rev. David A. Seyboldthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18136975991273195248noreply@blogger.com