Many have asked for practical steps that can be taken to form this class of gentlemen I have been talking about. Here are some: 1. Ideally, it starts in the home. If you are a father, live in such a way that you inspire virtuous, faithful, and refined living in your own children. Pass on a love of learning and of proper behavior toward others. Teach your kids to love the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.

I do not understand the desire of these "trad" men to have a wife who does not have any thoughtful ideas or opinions. Such a life sounds excessively dull. You do realize that you have to actually *talk* to your wife, right? Like, more than anyone else in your life?

What Scripture says about the importance of using gracious speech:

Since people often ask me about how to make sure a jacket looks good, here are some very basic rules: The first is simple: do not wear synthetics. Suits like this look cheap, they're stiff, and they don't drape naturally. Further, synthetics will make you sweat. A lot. If it isn't wool (or cashmere, or cotton), don't buy it.

Claim: I forced the AALC to kick out a pastor who was ministering to the Alt-Right.

Reality: A non-ordained man began an organization whose stated purpose was to infiltrate and take over Lutheran congregations with far right ideology. This included forcing out pastors from their pulpits if they preach against racism. This supposed secret club identified themselves by wearing berets. Yes. Seriously. They had a plan of getting the "normie" conservatives to trust them by hiding their real views until they gained enough trust to then start "red pilling" them

I don't usually share things about my personal life (purposefully), but I could use some prayer at the moment.

I've been dealing with chronic fatigue for as long as I can remember, but since the beginning of this year it's been far worse. I've had a lot of testing done, and nothing too clear has been found. I was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia, which is really just left unexplained.

It was found that I have some structural issues with my sinuses, which *might* be a cause of my sleep issues, so I'm getting a turbinate reduction surgery

The Gottesdienst article isn't good, and that isn't because of its theological conclusion.

The problem is that there isn't even an attempt to deal with the significant texts used in the other side of the debate. If you are going to make an argument that women should not write theological articles, you have to deal with the fact that Paul gives instructions to women who are praying and prophesying in Corinth (1 Cor. 11:5) seemingly in the company of men (which is precisely why they must be wearing head coverings).

Started going through the new Large Catechism essay by essay. I'll be using this thread for my thoughts on this while I read through it (this may take a while). The introductory material was all good. The historical background to the text itself and to catechisms generally is going to be very helpful for readers.

For what it's worth, @gavinortlund is absolutely right regarding the veneration of images in the early centuries of the church. Nearly all early Christian polemics against paganism make it explicit that one of the distinctives of Christian worship is that unlike the pagans, Christians don't venerate images. The Synod of Elvira (305) rejects the use of images altogether in a worship context.

We certainly have evidence of some early images that Christians used (though they're quite different from later iconography), but I don't know a single early

The idea that Western theology and philosophy is synonymous with white or European identity is an obvious historical falsehood.

The founder of western theology, Tertullian, was North African. The most influential Christological thinker, Athanasius, was African. The most influential thinker for the entire Western tradition after the life of Paul, Augustine, was African. The recovery of Aristotle in the middle ages was the result of the work of Arabs.

Lots of talk right now about the Galli, Dreher, and Trueman articles. For what it's worth (and it may be worth nothing at all), these are my thoughts on the discourse. 1. I don't like the posture of a lot of these conversations that continue to just throw around terms like "evangelical elites." There are plenty of evangelicals on the more conservative end of the spectrum that had direct access to the white house in the last administration.

The problem with Rome's doctrine of justification in brief: Bellarmine is extremely clear that there is no assurance of salvation in the Roman system. One can have "conjectural certainty," or a general trust that one is in a state of grace, but this can never be known for sure.

Back in 2012, I published my first theological article as a newly graduated Masters student. The first response to this article was a series of comments accusing me of heresy by a much older theologian with a PhD in my own synod (I was an LCMS member at the time). I then received a call to my first congregation, and wrote what I then believed to be a rather harmless blogpost (I was a complete nobody at the time, and didn't think anyone would care) on sanctification. This completely blew up, and I had dozens of LCMS pastors accusing me

In light of the tweets earlier, seeing spiritually abusive people in so many circumstances has made some of the primary characteristics and behaviors of those particular individuals really clear. Here are ten of them: 1.They tell you that they have truth that you won’t hear anywhere else. They say things like, “you will only hear the real gospel from me,” or “the rest of the church doesn’t really get this.” This serves the purpose of making them indispensable to your spiritual life.