The Three Outposts, part 10 – Conflicts between Church and Home (cont.)

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show

We continue discussing the conflicts between the estates of church and home with Pr. Joe Abrahamson. Why do pastors solemnize marriages as “agents of the state”? What place or interest does the church have in weddings and marriage? How does forgiveness take place in the home? What some cautions to hearing the confession of other people?





Read Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible study: “The Three Outposts, Your Mission: Study 6 – Church and Home”

The Three Outposts, part 9 – Conflicts between Church & Home

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show

In this installment of our series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we begin discussing areas of overlap and conflict between the three estates. Here we discuss the very real and timely overlaps and conflicts between the estate of the home (family) and the estate of the church.



Read Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible study: “The Three Outposts, Your Mission: Study 6 – Church and Home”

The Three Outposts, part 8 – The State

Round 46 May 11, 2015 

In part 8 of our series on “The Three Outposts” (three estates), Pr. Joe Abrahamson gives us the Scriptural teaching on God’s gift of, yes, government. How can government be more than a “necessary evil,” as Thomas Paine said? Is government really a gift from God? (The tax-man too? Seriously?) Why is government necessary, and how do Christians live under a sinful, wicked government?

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Read Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible study, “The Three Outposts, Your Mission, part 5: The State.”

The Three Outposts, part 7 - The Church and Ministry

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show- Round 42-March 30, 2015

In this installment of our discussion with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we take up the Office of the Ministry and how God calls His people to support the livelihood of their pastors. We also discuss matters of excommunication and church discipline, as well as answer a question submitted to steadfastlutherans.org.

Read Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible Study, “The Three Outposts, Your Mission: Study 4″ on the Church.

The Three Outposts, part 6 – The Church

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show-Round 41 

We continue our discussion with Pr. Joe Abrahamson on the estate of the Church. This time we focus on the Office of the Ministry and how God establishes it to serve the Church. Why is it important for pastors to be properly called? What does God’s Word say about who can hold the Pastoral Office?

The Three Outposts, part 5 – The Church

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show-Round 38 As we continue our series on “The Three Outposts: Your Mission,” with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we discuss the estate called “The Church.” When did the Church really begin? What is the purpose of the Church? How does Martin Luther teach on this estate in his Small Catechism?


 

The Three Outposts, part 4 – The Home

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show- Round 37

In part four of our series on “The Three Outposts: Your Mission,” Pr. Joe Abrahamson takes us deeper into the God-given estate of “The Home,” that is, domestic governance. Listen as we discuss God’s design for husbands and wives as well as parents and children. How can we Christians bear witness to Jesus in our homes and thus be a counter-culture?

The Three Outposts, Part 3

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show

 We resume our series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson on his Bible study titled “The Three Outposts: Your Mission.” Here we continue looking at the three estates – home, church, and state – in the Old Testament, especially during time of the united kingdom of Israel, the divided kingdom, and then the Babylonian captivity.

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Read Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible Study: “The Three Outposts, Your MIssion: Study 2″

The Three Outposts, Part 2

Steadfast Throwdown Radio Show

Pr. Joe Abrahamson continues discussing his Bible study on the three estates titled “The Three Outposts: Your Mission.” In this installment, we continue clarifying the three estates (“outposts”) and then see how all three estates are taught in the Old Testament beginning in the earliest chapters of Genesis.

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Read part 2 of Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible study.

The Three Outposts, Part 1

Round 31

Steadfast Throwdown

What are the three “outposts” to which God has called you to live the Christian life? What is your “mission” in each of those “outposts”? Join us as Pr. Joe Abrahamson outlines the three “outposts” (estates) to which God calls each of us and explains how our mission is to love our neighbor as God has first loved us.

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Study Pr. Abrahamson’s Bible study “The Three Outposts, Your Mission.”

Catechism Series, Part 14: Christian Questions and Answers

Round 28

Steadfast Throwdown

In this final part of our Catechism series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we discuss the “Christian Questions with their Answers.” Did Luther really compose them? Why are they not in some editions of the Catechism? How do these questions and answers help us prepare for partaking of Christ’s Body and Blood? Pr. Abrahamson also wraps up our series by saying the Catechism is not just for confirmation, but for all of life.

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Catechism Series, Part 13: The Table of Duties

Round 26

Steadfast Throwdown

In part 13 of our Catechism Series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we take a brief look at the “Table of Duties” in Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. How does this section of the Catechism instruct us in the “holy orders” to which God calls us? What are the “two kingdoms” and the “three estates” that this compilation of Bible passages present to us for daily living as Christians?

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Catechism Series, Part 12: Daily Prayers

Round 25

Steadfast Throwdown

In part 12 of our Catechism Series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we discuss the Daily Prayers part of the Catechism. How do we live out the teaching that God gives us in the Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer? We pray. Daily. Join us as we discuss how to pray according to God’s Word and in our home and family settings.

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Catechism Series, Part 11: The Sacrament of the Altar

Round 24

Steadfast Throwdown

In this latest installment of our Catechism Series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we continue discussing the Sacrament of the Altar. Pr. Abrahamson shows us how Jesus’ new covenant meal fulfills the old covenant, and we smack down the false teaching that the Lord’s Supper is only a symbol, or reminder, of God’s salvation.

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Catechism Series, part 10

Round 23: The Lord's Supper

Steadfast Throwdown

September 15, 2014 Randy Asburry Leave a comment

Pr. Joe Abrahamson continues his series on Luther’s Small Catechism. This time we discuss the Sacrament of the Altar. What is the Sacrament? What does it deliver? Who receives this sacrament worthily? What should Christians do when they visit another congregation in their fellowship? Should pastors ever not allow someone to commune? If so, why and how do they handle that?

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Catechism Series, Part 9

Pr.  Joe Abrahamson joins us to resume our series on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. In Part 9, we discuss the Fifth Chief Part (or is it the Sixth?) on the Office of the Keys and Confession. Who can hear confessions? Who actually forgives? And why would a Christian actually want to go to his or her pastor to confess sins?

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Luther's Small Catechism, Part 8: Baptism

Round 20

Catechism Series, Part 8

July 28, 2014 Randy Asburry Leave a comment

In this part of our Catechism Series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we discuss the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. According to the Bible, what is Baptism and what does it actually deliver? Why do some Christians actually make Baptism a work of us humans rather than God’s work of saving us? What is the role of faith in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism?

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Luther's Small Catechism, Part 7: The Means of Grace, the Sacraments

Round 19

Catechism Series, Part 7

July 21, 2014 Randy Asburry Leave a comment

In this installment of our Catechism Series with Pr. Joe Abrahamson, we discuss how God wants us to receive His grace, mercy, and forgiveness in the Sacraments. What are Sacraments? What do they actually give to us? Pr. Abrahamson outlines the differences between the Lutheran view of the Sacraments on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic and  Reformed views on the other hand. The last two might more alike that you think!

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The Catechism and the Home: Wilhelm Löhe

Luther emphasized that the Catechisms are meant not just for study by pastors, Church and school, but primarily for the Home. Fathers are to instruct their children and daily to pray the Catechism at home. The Church today cannot make the parents carry out this loving work. The Church can encourage, entreat, portray the value of this teaching. But as the cares and pleasures, the schedules and the concerns of this life take priority, the teaching of the young in the way of truth falters. And the young are taught to enjoy the good of this worldly life but loose hold on sin, repentance, and the forgiveness won by Christ, given to them in Word and Sacrament.

This is not a new problem. It is a persistent and old problem. And through the centuries the teachers of the Church have encouraged fathers, families to take up the Catechism for the benefit of the faith and salvation of their own households.

 In 1845 Wilhelm Löhe wrote:

How many, who are acquainted with the Small Catechism, know its preface which together with the introduction to the Large Catechism offers an incomparable, simple, yet truly religious method of catechetical instruction? And again, how many know both prefaces without having observed that the Catechism was written not only for the Church or school, but also for the home?

Home, school and Church become One Church through the dear Catechism. Why is the very important factor of the home omitted? That is the reason why the Catechism is memorized so miserably, and sounds so wooden and flat, because it is not considered as something intended for the home, nor for daily life, nor as a life philosophy, but as a lesson for children and the school room. As a watch-word belongs on the lips of all who are united in one camp, thus the Catechism as a spiritual watch-word should be on the lips of all.

The father, the children, the servants should use it; pray, learn, appreciate it. Thus it will become the cruse of oil of the woman of Zaraphath that does not fail. Yes, when the Catechism again becomes a book for the home, then the people will realize what a flood of strength proceeds from it for the Church and for all her undertakings. 

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe 1808-1872 in his Drei Bücher von der Kirche (1845)

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Found in:
Reu, M. 1929 Luther's Small Catechism: A History of Its Origin, Its Distribution and Its Use. Wartburg Press, Chicago. Page 251f

[I added paragraphing and typographic styles to make the text easier to read]

The Most Neglected Part of the Catechism

What is the most neglected part of the Small Catechism? According to Pr. Jordan McKinley, it’s not what you might think. He draws our attention to the repeated – and neglected – parts that say, “As the head of the family should teach….” Pr. McKinley also gives practical tips for how parents can teach the Catechism at home, especially in the context of family devotions.

Round 19 Steadfast Throwdown

July 21, 2014 Randy Asburry Leave a comment

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Read Pr. McKinley’s article, “The Most Neglected Part of the Small Catechism.”