Wes is back to continue the Lutheran Theology series with Andy. This episode of Reconnect covers the Material Principle of Lutheran Theology (Justification), The Work of the Holy Spirit (Sanctification), Good Works, and the Doctrine of Election.

Andy sits down with one of the campus pastor's at Concordia University Irvine, Jonathan Ruehs, to discuss a show they both really love, The Walking Dead!

Andy answers some listener questions about Lutheran theology that really are about the the divisions of Lutheranism in America.  Also a question about Lutherans and their lack of focus on end time teachings was addressed.  He then closes with more points on the Teachings of the Lutheran Church he created to be recognized as being qualified to teach Theology in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod: Christian Identity, The Bondage of the Will, and The Doctrine of Christ. 

The Nature of God

The doctrine of the Trinity states that there is only one God, yet God exists in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6; Matthew 28:19; and 2 Corinthians 13:14)  All three persons of the Trinity are eternal, not created, nor made.  The Father begets the Son.  The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.  The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son who send him. 

In addition to being eternal (Psalm 90:2; Exodus 3:14; John 1:1; Romans 1:20; and Revelation 22:13), all three person of the Trinity are each omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-13 and Jeremiah 23:23-24), omniscient (Psalm 139:1-5 and 1 John 3:20), omnipotent (Luke 1:37 and Ephesians 3:20), immutable (Numbers 23:29 and Malachi 3:6), and love (1 John 4:8). Concerning the character of the Triune Lord, all three persons are holy (Isaiah 6:3 and 55:8-9), good (Psalm 145:9), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), merciful (Micah 7:18 and Luke 1:50), gracious (Joel 2:13), and patient (2 Peter 3:9).   

The Origins of the Universe

Scripture teaches that God created all things out of nothing by his spoken word (Genesis 1, Psalm 33:6, and Hebrews 11:3).

Scripture teaches that God created all things in six days and that he rested on the seventh, which is the basis of the Sabbath command for man to work for six days and rest on the seventh. (Exodus 20:9-11; 31:15-17) Each day of creation was an evening and a morning. (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31) The immediacy of creation through God’s spoken word also supports a six day creation period. 

The LCMS rejects theistic evolution. Man came from God’s direct and intimate work of creation, not from his hand of involvement in millions of years of death in the animal kingdom. (Genesis 2)  Scripture also teaches that death entered the world through one man’s sin (Romans 5:12), not through God’s process of creation. 

The Fall into Sin

The doctrine of Original Sin teaches that all men are sinful, inheriting a sinful nature from the moment of their conception. David writes, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5, NIV).

Every human inherits Adam’s guilt and the wrath that comes with it. Paul writes, “By our very nature we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else” (Ephesians 2:3, NLT).

God’s response to original sin is the new Adam, Jesus Christ.  “For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many” (Romans 5:15, NIV)!