Blogroll Update

After adding the most recent additions to the Big Blogroll O’ Vark®™© to my links, I thought I’d mention again the usefulness of such resources to fellow bloggers.

Our links to each other help move all of our blogs up in the search engines. This means that when people hunt for topics about which we write, they’ll find solid confessional Lutheran resources rather than the dreck and drivel produced by so many others. So whether you use all or part of the BBOV or have your own list of favorites, consider adding and maintaining a good list of confessional Lutheran blogs on your own site.

Consider this if you never seem to get around to adding to your own blogroll: Taking a few minutes to set up a blogroll (and keeping an existing list current) certainly honors others’ labors. In addition, it also comes back to help you to a wider readership as the backlinks grow and the search engines find you more easily. God willing, this finally gives all of us more readers and additional opportunities to proclaim Christ, to give proper honor to godly vocations, and to bury some of the internet’s garbage under piles of Lutheranism.

And should you wonder if all of our keyboarding ever accomplishes anything more than inciting the trolls or confounding our non-blogging friends, family, or congregations, stay tuned for the next post, where you’ll meet a concrete example of such writing bearing fruit.

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Doing the Judgment Day Math

According to certain people, if you don’t read this column before the weekend, you’ll never have the opportunity. That’s because they’ve been spreading the word that the world will end on Saturday. They do this by tallying certain selected numbers from Scripture and using linguistic leaps of logic to tell us that Jesus clearly said one thing yet actually meant quite another.

Of course, there’s nothing novel about these predictions. Almost as soon as Jesus ascended on the fortieth day of His resurrection, His followers started wondering when He was coming back. There’s nothing wrong with wondering — and truly much commendable about hoping that the day is near — but once we start attempting to pin down a date, we also start leaving behind God’s clear Word in favor of human assumptions.

What could be more authoritative for Christians than Christ’s own words? I can make only one clear interpretation of what He said in the week before His crucifixion: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (Matthew 24:36)” Likewise, after His resurrection and immediately before His ascension, He told the disciples, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. (Acts 1:7)”

Throughout the New Testament, the writers warn believers to be ready but never tell them when their anticipation will see fruition. Instead, they keep pointing to the Savior. At times they urge the Church to stand firm and at others to move forth boldly, but always to be “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2)”

The most specific signs of the end times have been surrounding mankind almost since the fall. Consider, for instance, Matthew 24:6-7. Jesus said, there will be “wars and rumors of wars.... Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” These are the signs of a decaying, dying world. However, they’re also “but the beginning of the birth pains. (v. 8)”

When we concentrate on the Author of Scripture, He turns our eyes away from this world and its signs and toward Himself, the Fulfillment of prophecy and the Keeper of the divine promises. Holy Baptism, attention to the Word, faithfulness in attending a church that proclaims the Gospel truth in love, and receiving Absolution and the Lord’s Supper bring far more blessing than playing guessing games with God.

Not only does He command us to be faithful until the end (instead of saying, “Why bother?”). He also enables us to remain faithful, strengthening us through His Church, His Gospel and His Supper until the Day of the Lord is revealed. Even the Bible’s splendid and most terrifying visions exist only to keep us constantly on guard.

The speculators cause two major problems. First, many well-meaning people are taken in by them. History is filled with examples of false prophecies of the End Times leading numbers of people into giving away all they have and rushing away to a predicted sacred spot to await Jesus’ return. The other negative consequence is probably much more wide-spread and damaging: It leads to disregarding the certainty of our end on earth, whether on Judgment Day or on the day we die.

Every false prophecy in the name of Christ brings that name into disrepute. Already I’m reading humorous invitations to join in the post-rapture looting of the property left behind by those who’ve been taken away. Eager to poke fun at a perceived band of kooks, some are also taking lightly their Creator.

Additionally, the Bible warns not only of that final “great and awesome day of the Lord. (Joel 2:31)” It also reminds us that our personal ends may come at any time and that we shouldn’t be encumbered with the things of this world at the expense of eternal treasure. For example, Jesus told the story of the rich man who thought to add to and hoard his wealth with no regard of final judgment: “God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ (Luke 12:20)”

Bottom line: “No one knows.” It might be Saturday. It could also be today or tomorrow. And whether or not you’re reading this on Wednesday or Sunday, perhaps I might not be here to receive your comments. You and I — and all believers — will be much better served by “looking to Jesus” than to internet gurus, Mayan calendar makers, or Bible numbers-crunchers.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. (Acts 16:31)” Believe anything else and your eternal life is in jeopardy, no matter when your end — or that of the world — happens to arrive.

And should you be reading this in the weeks, months, or years ahead, please try dealing gently with those who initiated this false prophecy of the End and with those who succumbed to their lies. For they, too, are lost sheep who definitely need the loving guidance of the Good Shepherd.

For more from this blog, see The End of the World and “Kooks on TV” and earlier posts linked from it.

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles.

Send email to Ask the Pastor.

Walter Snyder is a Lutheran pastor, conference speaker, author of the book What Do Lutherans Believe, and writer of numerous published devotions, prayers, and sermons.

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Why Doesn’t Easter Settle Down to One Date?

From the Archives

Q: Some people have told me that the way the day Easter is determined is by what day there is a full moon in March. Is this true? I also wanted to let you know that I find your “Ask the Pastor” wonderful and for all denominations, not just Lutherans. Thank you very much.

A: You are very much welcome! Basically, you’ve been told correctly, but there’s more to the calculations and a lot more to the history. We’ll look at our past so as to lead up to our present method of determining when we will celebrate Easter. This also determines when we begin Lent, as we will see in an upcoming post.

In the early days of the Church, the Good Friday-Easter events were commemorated every week. A vestige of this remains in most churches, with our regular Sunday services. This is why many churches that observe Lent do not include Sundays in its 40 days, since no celebration of the Resurrection, even weekly, well fits a penitential season. It also explains why certain churches fast (or restrict the diet) on Fridays. Every Friday was to be a reminder of the Savior’s death, while each Sunday was a new celebration of His resurrection. Later, the Church began to focus on an annual Easter observance.

With scattered congregations, differing languages and theologies, and often poor communication, the date of the annual remembrance of the Resurrection was argued about. With all the early Christian defenses of the humanity and the deity of Jesus Christ, you might be surprised to learn that they fought almost as hard over the date of Easter as they did over the person and nature of Christ.

Much of the Eastern Church, basing its calculations on the date for Passover, commemorated the death of Christ on the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, which could be any day of the week. The West focused on his Sunday resurrection, commemorating His death on the preceding Friday. The Western Church judged that the East’s practice over-emphasized His death at the expense of His resurrection. The dispute almost broke the Church apart before the Council of Nicea ruled against the Quartodecimans (the 14thers), who were then treated as heretics.

The Nicene council then moved to establish one date, based not on the Hebrew calendar and the time of Passover, but on the western calendar. The decree was that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal (spring) equinox — unless that full moon falls on a Sunday, when the date is moved one week later. The date was refined in later days, when our current calendar came into effect.

However, even this agreement isn’t perfect. The Western Church bases its calculations on the Gregorian Calendar. Meanwhile, Eastern Christianity, by and large, uses the Julian Calendar for liturgical purposes. Therefore, East and West rarely celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection on the same day. In fact, in the forty-one years from 1982 through 2022, Eastern and Western Christendom share a same-day celebration only ten times. Otherwise, the observations may be anywhere from a week to more than a month separated from each other. Just once during this span, in 2010 and 2011, do we see back-to-back years where the churches agree on the day.

A recent development leads to more “controversy” about the day on which Easter falls. In the United States, Daylight Saving Time recently was extended, from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday and then to the last Sunday in March. Since this happened, there is a possibility that Easter will fall on the date of the time change. The time change regularly causes problems with people forgetting to reset their clocks and coming to church an hour late — and those who attend are still tired because of a short night’s sleep. It becomes worse when our worship includes Saturday night’s Easter Vigil or a Sunday sunrise service commemorating the women’s early visit to the tomb.

See also Notes on the Christian Calendar and Setting a Date for Easter.

Send email to Ask the Pastor.

Walter Snyder is a Lutheran pastor, conference speaker, author of the book What Do Lutherans Believe, and writer of numerous published devotions, prayers, and sermons.

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Updated from newspaper column #22

The Good Book and Good Books

From the Archives

I’ve learned any number of things since leaving school for the “real world.” If you’re out of school, you’ll probably say the same for yourself. If you’re still in school and haven’t yet discovered this truth, I’ll break it to you gently: You never really get out of school. Every day brings new learning, and many of the tests are much more serious.

Not all of the information is earthshaking. Some is common sense; much is mundane. For instance, in all my years of college and seminary, no one ever taught me that a shovel is an essential item for the pastor’s study. It took months of being buried by offers from This, That, or The Other Company before I got a handle on the mail.

The ministry is a reading-intensive calling. However, I find some publishers wanting to push that intensiveness to intensive care. I mean, just carrying the printed ads and catalogs home is enough to put me in the hospital. Commentaries, Bible studies, sermon helps, and more — some people seem to think that I can’t preach or teach without their latest offerings. What they don’t realize is that my trash can often ranks right behind the Bible as a tool for effective ministry.

Still, there’s plenty of good reading to be found. Separating this wheat from the chaff brings us to this week’s question.

Q: The Christian book stores and catalogs are full of choices. I’m looking for devotional reading and for help with some of the difficult parts of the Bible. How do I find something that’s right for me?

A: Not too many years ago, few people would have had this question. Pastors and lay people alike would have gone to their church bodies’ official book catalogs, ordered what they wanted, and been done. Now, Christianity is “big bucks,” and countless publishers are competing for your devotional dollars.

Along with the blessing of having real options come some problems. First of all, there are often too many choices. For a given topic, there may be several adequate texts. As Ecclesiastes 12:12 says, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

With the glut in publishers and their products comes also the problem of wolves in sheep’s clothing. We are warned about false prophets — and Satan can utilize the printing press quite well. Many cults and Christian fringe groups, as well as people completely removed from Christianity, have produced materials that seem to be solid, Biblical, and orthodox. Only close study reveals some of their errors.

In my own congregations, I recommend first those devotions, studies, and commentaries published by our church body’s Concordia Publishing House. Then, I keep my eyes open for quality works from others. If the saving work of Christ is not central, then I’d say, “Avoid it.” If Scripture is used as a springboard for human speculation, again I’d say, “Avoid it.”

As you seek to build your own Christian library, start with what you know — and with whom you know. If a publisher or an author has previously been a good read and has stayed true to the Bible, assume the same for current works unless proven otherwise. Ask people whom you respect what they read and what they got out of it. Most folks enjoy being consulted as experts.

In picking devotions, personal preferences are probably more important than in other works. Private or family Bible study and meditation needs to fit your personality, your age, and your station in life. If you have a chance, read a bit of what you’re considering buying before taking it out of the store. However, Christ’s work for you should still be the central theme of any good devotional series.

Concordia Publishing House (CPH) of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod is one good source for devotions, Bible studies, and study Bibles. Portals of Prayer is an excellent series of daily meditations published quarterly and the new Lutheran Study Bible has outstanding resources both for learning and for devotions.

If establishing a stronger, more formal personal or family devotional life interests you, see what I wrote concerning The Why and How of Home Altars.

You also mentioned wanting to work through some of the more difficult to understand parts of Scripture. To this end, I recommend William Arndt’s Bible Difficulties and Seeming Contradictions. It is printed by CPH, and you can order it online through most Christian and secular book stores. Also quite helpful is the Hard Sayings series from InterVarsity Press.

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version™, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles.

Send email to Ask the Pastor.

Walter Snyder is a Lutheran pastor, conference speaker, author of the book What Do Lutherans Believe, and writer of numerous published devotions, prayers, and sermons.

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Revised and updated from newspaper column #20

A Loving God in a Disaster Filled World

From the Archives

I thought this a good time to bring this question out of the archives as we continue our Easter celebration even in the aftermath of earthquakes, tsunamis, and killer tornadoes.

Q: Why do evil things happen to good people?

A: This question comes to pastors more often than almost any other spiritual query. As I visit sick and, especially, dying people, I ask, too. Why this saintly person? Why not that other “not-so-good” person?

Others’ (or my own) pain and suffering reminds me of my grandparents’ deaths. One grandfather died slowly, fighting for breath as emphysema overtook him. The other went suddenly with a massive heart attack. Prepared for the first, our family’s pain and shock was lessened somewhat. Similarly, one grandmother died of liver cancer, which filled her body with pain. Near the end, every little movement of the hospital sheets across her skin brought agony. The other slipped quietly away in her sleep. Again, the family’s pain was lessened in the former’s passing, since we had time to prepare and to begin our mourning while she was still with us. But her own physical pain was much greater.

Searching the Scriptures, we find the basics: Pain, suffering, and death entered the world because of Adam’s fall into sin. Each of us earns the “wages of sin,” which, Paul reminds us, “is death. (Romans 6:23)” Each of us faces toil and hardship, whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual.

While we know this by faith and by intellect, the specifics bother us. And comparisons — a form of unscriptural judging — often trigger our problem: Why did the most overtly God-fearing, practicing Christian among my grandparents suffer the most painful death? Why did she, years before, have to watch her husband slowly strangle under his failing lungs?

These events can cause even strong believers to ask, “God, why’d You do this to such a saint instead of to that sinner down the street?” Why do we sometimes still cry over memories, years after a final hospital visit, long after a coffin was lowered? It’s not fair, is it? When we get in God’s face and start yelling our rage, our pain, our frustration, where’s our answer? Why doesn’t He give us a clear sign?

Maybe, though, He already has; perhaps He even gave us multiple signs, if we would only remember where to look and how to see.

Look first at Job: Remember his terrible suffering. Remember also a God who basically says to this righteous man (and to us): “Mind your own business. When you’re God, then you can make the rules.” We keep running up against One who says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. (Isaiah 55:8)” The Psalms are likewise full of laments at personal or societal suffering, when no end seems in sight. Yet when we look closer, we see hope glimmering. These same Psalms which complain about the pain also say, “Yet will I still praise God.” And so will we.

God sometimes uses suffering as a teaching tool. Pain may turn us from what is unnecessary or wrong to Him who is truly the One thing needed. He even uses our afflictions to draw attention and praise to Himself. Remember the healing of the man who was blind from birth in John 9. Jesus was asked whose sin it was that caused the blindness: Was it the parents’ fault, or did God anticipate a future infraction in the man and punish it in advance? Neither, is what Jesus said. This happened so God could be glorified, said the Savior — who then proceeded to heal the man.

Ultimately, we’ll never have a full answer in this life as to why bad things happen to good people — with one great exception. Otherwise, even the beauty of the Easter Gospel at a funeral, even all the other Bible words of hope and consolation sound trite and hollow when our pain is so great. The exception is in the totally unwarranted agony of Jesus. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)”

We know why He suffered. He paid the price demanded for our failure. His loss was our gain, His pain our pleasure, His agony our ecstasy. Sitting in the rubble of his life, Job could still look forward to his Savior’s day and say, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (19:25-27)” The hymn based on this Scripture concludes: “He lives, all glory to His Name! He lives, my Jesus, still the same. Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives!’”

He lives, and because He lives, we shall live also (cf. John 14:19). In the worst of times, we know we have One on our side who’s already faced the same terrible pain, who’s already shouldered the same staggering load, and who’s already crushed sin, death, and devil beneath His almighty foot. He is the clear Sign that God loves us. He has shown us the height and the depth of His love for us. “All glory to His Name!” Amen.

Search this blog for related columns, including Why Suffering and Death?

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version™, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles.

Send email to Ask the Pastor.

Walter Snyder is a Lutheran pastor, conference speaker, author of the book What Do Lutherans Believe, and writer of numerous published devotions, prayers, and sermons.

Technorati Tags: pain | death | suffering | disaster | mercy | grace | love | justice | Christ | Jesus | God | Pastor Walter P. Snyder | Walter Snyder | Ask the Pastor

Expanded from newspaper column #15