“Pastor, I just want to be with the Lord in heaven and for all of this to finally be over,” Ella exclaimed with an earnestness that let everyone know she meant it. This was her third round of chemotherapy, and the will to fight the good fight had diminished with each drop of poison introduced […]
Wednesday, 31 August, 2016 by Brian W. Thomas
This sounds like the setup to a joke, but the punch line is true: What do you get when you combine an outlaw Bible professor, a runaway nun, and a dilapidated Augustinian monastery? The first Reformation parsonage. The Black Cloister, known today as Luther Haus, was built in 1504 with the support of the elector […]
Friday, 29 August, 2014 by Brian W. Thomas
Martin Luther is widely known as the church reformer par excellence. In just over three years, the world will celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, marking the beginning of the Reformation. There is no doubt that such an occasion will stir up a renewed interest in the Reformer’s life, […]
Tuesday, 01 July, 2014 by Brian W. Thomas
At the end of a recent Ultimate Fighter Championship match, the victor looked into the camera and said, while pointing to a very large tattoo of a cross on his arm, "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me." I'm pretty sure St. Paul did not intend for these words written to […]
Thursday, 01 November, 2012 by Brian W. Thomas
The past decade has seen exponential interest in the interconnection of ecclesiology and missiology, especially with the increase of church planting in the Western hemisphere where Christianity has otherwise seen its influence wane. Standing as the adjectival nom du jour to describe this phenomenon is the word "missional." Articles, books, and conferences abound in an […]
Wednesday, 02 March, 2011 by Brian W. Thomas
Recovering the Message of Scripture In this special section of our "Rightly Dividing the Word" issue, nine pastor-theologians help shed light on some popular texts of Scripture that tend to lose their true redemptive-historical significance in a culture of interpretive narcissism. In the past decade numerous studies have highlighted the sad demise of biblical literacy, […]
Wednesday, 01 September, 2010 by Brian W. Thomas
It has been well over a century since C. F. W. Walther's classic The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel was written. While it continues to be reprinted and is familiar among conservative Lutheran clergy, it is written in a scholarly tone for seminarians, bearing the marks of its age. Like an old family heirloom, […]
Wednesday, 01 September, 2010 by Brian W. Thomas