Avsnitt
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Honor and loyalty serve as the foundation of any civilization worthy of the name and any culture worthy of respect. As these have faded from our culture, we have seen a rise of treacherous — and even treasonous — behavior and a concomitant decline in Christianity. If we are to rebuild what has been permitted to decay or has been maliciously destroyed, then we must re-inculcate honor and loyalty, and we must comport ourselves accordingly. The Christian, first and foremost among men, should be a man of unimpeachable honor, and honor and loyalty are virtually synonymous. But we must also have a frank discussion of betrayal and treason, and a meaningful redress of those who are guilty of such heinous crimes.
Show Notes
Guilt versus Shame cultures (map)
[You should still click the link for a better version.]
UN definition of “genocide”
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
Rape is referenced around the one-hour mark. This episode includes frank discussions of race. -
When things are proceeding as they should, when matters are rightly organized, power and authority are virtually synonymous, and they are at least reposed within the same men. But things in this life do not always proceed as they should. A king may lack the power to exercise his authority or he may abuse his power by exceeding his authority, and the same sort of problems may occur in the Church — a teacher or a cleric who was once faithful may turn from the truth and begin to teach falsely.
Unlike the prince or the magistrate who does possess some authority by virtue of his office, the teacher or the cleric possesses no authority with regard to the things of God simply by virtue of his office; rather, within the Kingdom of the right hand of Christ, authority is a matter of truth — the man who repeats God’s truth after Him wields authority when he does so, but only insofar as he does so. The words of a faithful teacher must be heeded because they are the very words of God, but the words of a false teacher must be rejected and the teacher shunned if he does not repent. It is not the office that commands authority, but the Word of God.
This is a necessary wisdom call that Christian men must make; we must assess whether a teacher or a cleric is holding true to the Word of God. Similarly, we must assess whether a prince or a magistrate has exceeded his authority and become a tyrant. With regard to the kingdom of the left hand of Christ, we may bear with error or even some level of wickedness, but no such thing may be tolerated with regard to the right-hand kingdom, for false teaching is an affront to God and must never be permitted to continue.
Show Notes
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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Eschatology is the study of the end of all things. Scripture speaks, in many places, about the end times and what will take place leading up to and in those days. However, such matters are not the core of the Christian faith, and no Christian man should dedicate all of his time to investigating such things. Far too many become obsessed with end-times prophecies to the detriment of their faith and those around them.
Nevertheless, these prophecies exist in Scripture and the end times are part of the totality of Christian truth — these matters cannot be ignored. What, then, are we, as Christians, to make of these prophecies, signs, et cetera? In this episode, we discuss the truly Christian approach to the end times (to include the ‘timeline’, as it were) and the related prophetic portions of Scripture. There is Christian profit to be found in every word from God, but some require more wisdom than others in the approach.
Show Notes
Daniel 7-12
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
2 Peter 3
Matthew 24–25
Revelation
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
Deism posits that God created the world, and then walked away — a sort of clockmaker with the Universe being His clock. To the contrary, Christianity advances a view of God as active in His Creation. Certainly, every single thing that happens in the Universe happens with God’s knowledge of it and permission for it, but, beyond that, God also actively intervenes in time — both to help and to harm.
The Book of Job is, perhaps, one of the clearest narratives of Divine (and infernal) intervention, but God acts in Creation from the beginning of Scripture to the very end. God is, however, not the only supernatural being who intervenes (or interferes, in the infernal case) in the affairs of men; Satan and his demons also exert their influence upon reality. If we cease to believe in the supernatural — and not just as some abstraction or intellectual conceit, but rather as something very real and significant —, then we fall below the level of Christian belief and veer instead into something akin to the Sadducees, who denied both the resurrection of the dead and the existence of the supernatural.
Part of the Christian life is recognizing the reality that we live in the midst of spiritual warfare, with a conflict that rages all about us, even if we cannot physically see it. But beyond this, when we minimize (or ignore) the intervention of God in His Creation, we cease to recognize God’s providence. Every good and every perfect gift comes from God, and we should give thanks for all that God gives us, from the smallest of gifts up to the greatest. And we should even rejoice in times of adversity, for God has promised that He works all things together for the good of those who believe.
Show Notes
the Small Catechism
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
“For unto us a Child is born and unto us a Son is given; dominion shall rest upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Angel of Great Counsel, for I will bring peace upon the rulers and well-being to Him. Great is His dominion — and there is no end to His peace — upon the Throne of David and over His Kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness, from now unto eternity. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.”
The Lord is a God of peace, and those who follow Him are to be peacemakers, but to be a peacemaker does not mean to be a doormat or to refuse to utilize violence when and where morally warranted. In this life, peace will always be imperfect, for we live in a fallen world wherein suffering is both inevitable and inescapable, but the eschatological peace found in Scripture, in God’s promises is an absolute peace. As Christians, we have the perfect peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, upon which we can rely — whatever may come in this life.
Peace applies to all of the estates and spheres of life, but it does not apply univocally or identically. The peace that is appropriate to the home and that which contributes to that peace is not the same as the peace that applies to politics, and the latter may be sacrificed more readily in pursuit of higher goals. These are matters of wisdom, and the Christian must know how to comport himself in the home, in society, in the State, and in the Church — peace applies to them all, but not equally and not identically.
Where there are higher duties (e.g., in the State, in the Church), then a false peace may be sacrificed in pursuit of those higher duties. In the State, security trumps peace; in the Church, Martin Luther may have put it best: “Peace, if possible; truth, at all costs.”
Show Notes
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
‘The life of man upon the earth is warfare, and he is born to trouble, as surely as the sparks fly upward.’ — Job 5,7
We live in a fallen world. We can speak of a perfect world — and that is assuredly our goal and our destination, as Christians —, but the realities of this world cannot be ignored — Christians are not exempt from living in the world. From the very beginning of our species — when wicked Cain rose up and slew righteous Abel —, violence has never left our shadow. Although it was most certainly not part of God’s original or intended design for Creation, violence is just as certainly part of its fallen state.
It is not that violence is itself a good; rather, it is that violence is sometimes required to protect the good. When a man enacts violence upon a home intruder to defend himself, his wife, his children, and his goods, he is using violence toward a righteous and morally praiseworthy end. Throughout the pages of Scripture, God Himself uses violence against His enemies — from the genocide of Canaan to the Final Judgement, God employs violence consistently and constantly. Although violence will be absent from the new Creation, it will never be absent from this fallen one.
As Christians, we must not condemn violence qua violence for to do so would be to condemn God, which is apostasy; rather, we must know how to apply wisdom to these matters so that we align our actions and our beliefs with what God has commanded — and He both proscribes and prescribes violence, depending on the circumstances.
It is also necessary for the Christian, in order that he might act in wisdom, to understand the law — to understand the differences between and among things like advocacy, incitement, and fighting words. These are not trivial, unimportant, or tangential matters, for the life of man upon the Earth is one of conflict; even times of peace are seldom entirely free from violence, and they are often ephemera. A man must always do his duty, and at times that duty may demand violence — the police officer who protects his city, the soldier who defends his nation, the housefather who defends his home.
We are not and cannot be more moral than God, and of Himself He says:
“The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name.”
Show Notes
Brandenburg v. Ohio
Wikipedia, Justia, Oyez, LII (Cornell)
See Also
Further Reading
Joshua
Judges
Parental Warnings
The word “ass” is used once at ~01:39. The term “pissed off” is used once around the same time. -
This week’s episode is a crossover with the Renaissance of Men podcast from Will Spencer. In a wide-ranging discussion (over more than six hours), we covered everything from the reasons we started the Stone Choir podcast and the state of the LCMS to (in the second part) World War II and conspiracy theories. This will be all you are ever likely to hear. Within hours of publication, Will pulled the content and disavowed us after coming under pressure from within the church. So it goes.
Show Notes
Parental Warnings
None. -
When confronting sin, the Christian must distinguish between the private and the public. The private or secret sin should generally not be published (and is subject to Matthew 18), but the public sin is generally already published (and is not subject to Matthew 18). The primary goal of confronting private sin is to retain or to regain the erring brother; the primary goal of confronting public sin is to rebuke the false teacher and to protect those who would otherwise be led astray.
In these matters, there are three core duties: the duty to God (which includes defending His honor and His truth), the duty to receive correction, and the duty to correct or rebuke. Confronting sin and correcting error are central parts of the Christian life. When theological or doctrinal controversies arise, there is both opportunity (e.g., for all parties to deepen in knowledge and faith) and danger (e.g., if false teaching is not rebuked and false teachers silenced, then wickedness may spread). How to approach specific situations is a matter of wisdom, but one that Christian men are absolutely not permitted to avoid.
Silence in the face of false teaching is complicity in it. Silence in the face of false belief on the part of a brother is indifference (i.e., hatred) of that brother. As iron sharpens iron, we must help our brothers to stay on the strait and narrow. And as the shepherd defends the sheep, so we must be watchful for false teachers.
Show Notes
“The Question of Procedure in Theological Controversies” by Kurt Marquart
The Large Catechism, the Eighth Commandment, Public Sin
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
In any conflict, there are at least two sides. In the life of man upon this earth, there is constant conflict with and against the world, the flesh, and the devil. As Christians, it is incumbent upon us — particularly as Christian men — to know what are our duties in this life; for a soldier, he must know his orders and where to execute them. If we are to oppose Satan and his forces, then we must know where he is attacking or where he plans to attack — this is the issue of target selection.
When we choose topics for this podcast, we choose them because they are places that Satan is attacking or places that Satan will (soon) attack. The goal is to prepare Christian men to fight back, to defend the Church and her children. In today’s episode, we discuss some of the ways a man can know where Satan is attacking, where Satan will attack, and how a Christian should and must respond.
If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
— St. Martin Luther
Show Notes
Information on veiling (This site also offers veils for purchase.)
See Also
“Binding Adiaphora” (tradition)
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
Marriage is fundamental not only to individual men and women, but also to society writ large. Without marriage, there are no families; without families, there are no nations. The first relationship between two human beings was marriage — of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Without marriage there is no future for the human race.
And yet we often gloss over the actual nature of marriage — partly in deference to modesty and partly because we have so long employed euphemism that many have simply forgotten what marriage actually is. In this episode, we have a frank discussion of the nature and essence of marriage and distinguish it from many of the things our society so often pretends fall under the umbrella of ‘marriage’.
It is advisable to screen this episode before permitting your children to listen to it.
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Show Notes
Ephesians 5
See Also
Further Reading
“On Sexual Immorality, Temptation, and Marriage”
“Disordered Loves”
[“On the Nature of Woman”](On the Nature of Woman)
Parental Warnings
This entire episode may not be suitable for young children. Parents: You should screen this one first. This is a frank discussion of the nature and essence of marriage, which, rather obviously, involved discussing sex. -
Love and duty are matters of concentric circles — to the closer is the greater duty and the greater love owed. In the previous episode in this series, we covered the facets of self-sacrifice love (agape) and charity (caritas); in this episode, we cover familial and brotherly or fraternal love, emotional (amor) and intellectual (dilectio) love, and piety (the historical, proper sense) and paternal love — three pairs, as it were. We call these facets, because it is not that love can be dissected and broken down into constituent parts; rather, it is that love is expressed in different ways between different people at different times. The love a husband has for his wife is not the same as the love a man has for his nation.
If we are commanded to love, then we must certainly understand what it means to love. We must know whom (and what) we must love and what is the nature and scope of that love. The world would deceive us by calling that which is not — and often even that which cannot be — love ‘love’. As Christians, we are commanded to be wise, and love — to whom it is owed and how it must or must not be expressed — is assuredly a matter of wisdom.
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Show Notes
Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs (Myth20c - Ep270)
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
“Homosexual fornication” and “sodomy” are used as descriptors for an example around the 40:00 mark, but the matter is not discussed in detail or explicitly. -
Love is a multifaceted thing. Sometimes this complex nature can be masked in English by the use of the umbrella term “love” (or even by the exclusion of concepts that really fall under that umbrella — e.g., “friendship”). In this first episode in our (planned) three-episode series on love, we discuss agape (i.e., self-sacrificing or sacrificial love) and caritas (i.e., charity), their interrelationship, and some of their connections to other facets of love (e.g., storge [i.e., familial love]).
Love is a matter of who is doing the thing, whom is receiving the thing, and what the nature and scope of the thing is. The love — more accurately, the scope and nature of the love — you owe to your wife (agape, eros) is not the same as the love you owe to your siblings (agape, philia) or to your nation (pietas). Love is a matter of wisdom, one that has fallen into neglect in Christian discourse.
All that is called love is not.
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Show Notes
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
Leadership is a natural aspect of the interrelationships of men. Any given group of men, left to its own devices, will form into a hierarchy, with a leader at the top. The modern world would have us deny this reality, because it runs directly counter to Egalitarianism.
To men, God has given many gifts, but He has given them unequally — this is part of His design, and we are not permitted to deny or to ignore it. The husband is the head of his wife — he must lead, and she must submit. The leader is the head of his group, of his organization, of his church, of his nation — he must lead, and those under him must support and follow. It is not a mindless, slavish following of orders that is commanded or in sight; rather, it is a right recognition of the existence of hierarchy and one’s place within it.
We are endeavoring to rebuild from the wreckage of a shipwrecked world, and the reestablishment of hierarchy and of leadership is no small part of that task.
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Show Notes
Exodus 18
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None. -
Christian men exist in two kingdoms (the right and the left ‘hands’ of Christ) and three estates (family, Church, and State). Many modern men neglect the fullness of this reality via excessive focus on the Kingdom of the right hand of Christ (i.e., the Church). Further, and perhaps worse, many pastors believe that their role in the right-hand Kingdom entitles them to honors, respect, or other deference with regard to the left-hand kingdom — it does not.
The domain of the pastor is the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. The domain of Christian men is all three of the estates of life — family, Church, and State. With regard to family and State, Christian men have many duties, but pastors have only one — silence. The role of the pastor is local and circumscribed; the role of Christian men is not exclusively so. The pastor qua pastor has nothing to say with regard to the State, to the kingdom of the left hand of Christ — that is the domain of Christian men.
As Christian men, we must work together on the issues facing us, and that regardless of which kingdom or which estate. Pastors have their role and we have ours; the former must learn their limitations and the latter must do their duty.
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Show Notes
“Headship, Authority, Agency”
Dunbar’s number
See Also
Further Reading
Augsburg Confession, Art. V
Augsburg Confession, Art. XIV
Parental Warnings
None. -
Knowledge is not what saves us, but faith cannot be devoid of content, for one must have faith in something. Part of being a Christian is, unsurprisingly, knowing the content of the Christian faith. Or, perhaps, this would be surprising to many, given the state of knowledge and belief among those claiming to be Christian — even among the best (in terms of knowledge and right belief) of those claiming to be Christian.
In today’s episode, we return to the state of the churches. This time, we examine the general state of knowledge and belief among Christians. Do Christians even know the basics of the faith? For most, the answer is very clearly: No.
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Show Notes
Ligonier — “State of Theology” Survey Results
Pew Research Center — “Religious Landscape Study” Survey Results
See Also
Further Reading
“The Apostle’s & Nicene Creeds, verse by verse” [PDF]
Parental Warnings
None. -
All that we have comes from God. As we covered in the episode on jealousy, we are, in fact, to be jealous, to be protective, of the things that are ours. However, this must be balanced against the fact that much of what we hold we hold in trust. There are things which are solely ours and there are things which are ours for the sake of serving God and neighbor.
Ultimately, we are stewards of this Creation, and we owe duties to God. One such duty is the duty to render thanks to God in the form of tithes. A tithe, simply, is an offering ‘off the top’ of a portion of what God has given us as thanks for the whole. How much we tithe, how we tithe, to whom we tithe, and other related questions are matters of wisdom. Unlike Old Testament Israel, we do not have explicit rules telling us what to tithe, when, and to whom. However, God does invite us to test Him by bringing in the fullness of the tithe, and where God invites us to test Him, it is not only foolish, but sinful, to refuse.
»“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.«
— Malachi 3:6–12 (ESV)
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Show Notes
Malachi 3:6–12
Genesis 4:3–7
Genesis 14:17–20
Genesis 28:18–22
Leviticus 27:30–33
Numbers 18:21–32
Deuteronomy 14:22–29
Deuteronomy 26:12–15
2 Chronicles 31:2–10
Luke 11:42–44
Luke 18:11–12
Hebrews 7:4–10
Philippians 4:14–20
Deuteronomy 16:16–17
Leviticus 5:11–13
2 Corinthians 8:1–15
2 Corinthians 9:6–15
Luke 21:1–4
1 Chronicles 29:3–9
See Also
Further Reading
“Let Us Test the Lord”
Parental Warnings
None. -
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
All that we have and all that we are flows from God, and yet, as covered in previous episodes, God acts in time via means. Your height and your intelligence, God transmitted to you via your ancestors, via your nation; your material prosperity, God transmitted to you via your forebears and your country; and your faith, God transmitted to you via faithful forebears and His written Word (whatever copies of which you may own, someone had to print). It is a tripartite inheritance that is bestowed upon us by God — biological, material, and spiritual.
The modern world, with its manifold lies — among them, the idea of the ‘blank slate’ — would have us believe that we are atomized individuals instead of parts of a greater whole. Each generation is a link in a chain extending back through Noah to Adam, and it is incumbent on each generation to faithfully pass forward the inheritance — preferably improved — that it received from those who came before. Without inheritance, there is no prosperity, there is no continuity, and there would be no salvation, for it is our adoption as sons of God that makes us inheritors of eternal life.
We must jealously guard our inheritance, faithfully preserve it, and dutifully transmit it.
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Show Notes
Numbers 27
Luke 12–15
1 Kings 21
Genesis 15
See Also
Further Reading
“inheritance” [Bible Hub]
kléronomia (inheritance) [Bible Hub]
Dowry [Wikipedia]
Parental Warnings
None. -
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
The modern world would have us believe that jealousy is a purely negative matter — we all know the tropes. Scripture teaches something entirely different. God tells us that one of His names is Jealous. To be jealous of the things that God has given us is not only not sin, but an affirmative duty for every Christian. You must be jealous of your wife, jealous of your children, jealous of your property, and jealous of every other good and perfect gift that has come down from the Father above.
To fail to be jealous is, in fact, to sin.
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Show Notes
Bible Hub: jealous
Bible Hub: envy
Bible Hub: zealous
Bible Hub Topic: Jealousy
See Also
Further Reading
The Magdeburg Confession [Amazon]
Parental Warnings
None. -
When the world demands that we speak falsely about the faith, we are required to speak the truth; when the world demands that we speak truthfully about the faith, but neglect certain truths, then it is those very truths the world tells us to ignore that we must profess all the more loudly. Satan, although he is the father of lies, does not always lie; where it is possible to do so, it is often far more effective to mislead with the truth — to lie by omission. This is what the world so often demands of Christians today.
If the world says we must call slavery sin, then we affirm that Scripture does not call slavery sin and even commands it in places. If the world says we must tolerate homosexuality or false religions, then we affirm that Scripture condemns such things as abomination. If the world tells us that it is fine to say that our sins crucified Christ, that the Romans crucified Christ, and that Pilate crucified Christ, but that we must not say that the Jews murdered Christ, then we affirm in no uncertain terms that the Jews murdered Christ.
There are no optional parts of Scripture — we, as Christians, are required to affirm the full counsel of God. To deflect with an irrelevant truth is no less a lie than an affirmative false statement. Whether you are fated to be a confessor or a martyr is in God’s hands, but it is in your hands to decide whether you will follow God or yield to the world.
There is no promise of salvation for those who apostatize by denying the Word of God.
If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace to him, if he flinches at that one point.
— St. Martin Luther, Confessor
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Show Notes
Scripture readings from the end of the episode:
Acts 7:51–53
John 8:34–47
Matthew 12:14
John 5:18
John 7:1
John 7:19–20
John 10:31
John 11:8
John 11:53
Matthew 26:3–4
John 5:16–17
Acts 2:22–25
Acts 2:36–41
Acts 3:14–15
Acts 5:27–33
1 Thessalonians 2:14–16
Luke 23:13–16
Matthew 27:20
Luke 23:18–23
Matthew 27:24–26
HB 1076 (the South Dakota law mentioned in the episode) [PDF]
IHRA definition of “antisemitism” (with examples)
See Also
Lex injusta non lex est.
Further Reading
Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article X
Anti-BDS laws
Parental Warnings
The word “masturbation” is used once in the middle of the episode. -
Technology is a part of our daily lives. In fact, technology has been a part of the daily life of man from the beginning. Whether that technology is relatively simple — a garden hoe or a flint knife — or incredibly complex — a nuclear reactor or a quantum computer — it is, nevertheless, technology, which is to say that it is a material application of science (i.e., knowledge) to achieve a human end.
Technology may be good, bad, or neutral, but it cannot be truly or fully assessed in the absence of an assessment of the attendant intention of the men who develop and deploy it. For the Christian, there are additional considerations. Some technologies bring with them intrinsic or even inherent risks, and this grows more pressing by the day. We must be intentional with our use of technology, and we must recognize that neither is all knowledge good nor is all ignorance evil.
Neither knowledge nor its material application (i.e., technology) is amoral. As Christians, we must be aware of the risks and of the right mindset with regard to technology and our use of it. The Church faces novel threats and we do not have the benefit of any insight from past Christians, for what we face they could not even conceive. We are in an uncharted land, because we are the ones who have been tasked with making the charts.
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Show Notes
See Also
Further Reading
“Before the Deluge”
Parental Warnings
We discuss the demonic in this episode. - Visa fler
