Stone Choir

‘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. Subscribe to the podcast here. Show Notes Ephesians 5 See Also Further Reading “On Sexual Immorality, Temptation, and Marriage” “Disordered Loves” “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. Subscribe to the podcast here. 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. Subscribe to the podcast here. 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. Subscribe to the podcast here. 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. Subscribe to the podcast here. 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. Subscribe to the podcast here. 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.