The Nihil Rule

Continue Reading: Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz - A Plea for America

" The gates of hell do not prevail, because the Church has hell under siege." TGC 214 — A Lutheran Kuyperian Vision? — Gottesdienst Weedon's Blog: Matthew 11:12 from Weimarische Bibel-Werk : But from the days of John the Baptist   (from the time when he began to fulfill his office)   until now the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence   (the Kingdom of God will be preached through the Gospel and everyone attempt to force an entry to it, Luke 16:16. Men seize the Gospel with determination like men taking a city. Luther: The consciences which have taken the Gospel to heart will allow no one to wrest it from them!)   and the violent  (the repentant sinners who in true faith stand against temptations by the power of the Spirit, and crucify and bring to nothing the evil desires of their sinful flesh)   take it by force  (press into the kingdom of heaven, from which it is apparent that John’s teaching and baptism have had a great effect).

Service of Installation for Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz

  Are We Still A Free Church? — Gottesdienst Koontz describes the American church as a state church so as to understand why the churches acted the way they did during the COVID pandemic. While our churches are not state-funded and while its "probably easier to lose one's call in our churches than for a mid-level bureaucrat in the US Department of Health and Human Services to be fired" we rely on tax benefits and school vouchers to make things work. While we don't slot into our nation's federal bureaucracies, "our subjugation need not be organizationally established". Shutting down churches, mandating masks, signup lists for worship, withholding the Common Cup - these are all indefensible actions of a truly Free Church. These actions defy the scriptural admonitions to not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25) to participate in the acts of the Church (Acts 2:42) and requires an Enlightenment approach to spiritualizing the words "together" and ...

Starting at T-8:52 from the end:  "I do not think it is possible in most American churches - because they have functioned as social clubs - but the reason that church really should just be - I will advocate the Anglican ideal, that Lutherans often aspire to but rarely achieve - which is the service is basically the same wherever you go, all the time - this is basically the same for Roman Catholics prior to the second Vatican Council. You can be quiet and peaceful even in a room with 250 other people when you all know what you are doing and are doing the same thing, and you don't have to think about it - you don't have to be self-conscious about it. The point of that focus on external conformity is to permit interiority, I didn't have to perform externally because I just do what I am supposed to do - whether I'm the priest or I'm attending or whoever I am, when the externalities are prescribed that permits interiority. I think that this is one of the basic mi...

  "Being alive entails risk. The concept of being safe as your primary value in daily life is not natural, it's not good, it's very unmanly in the sense that safety will not build strength: pain and sacrifice build strength of various kinds. Risk is necessary it is part of life.  Without sin we would still be risking ventures in taking dominion over the earth. There would be things that we would need to do that could go a variety of ways, even without sin. So, risk should be seen as an opportunity rather than something to be avoided at all costs. I think this is something - I mean you know lawyers can be extremely helpful people - I think the idea of being completely insulated from risk - financially, legally, etc - always means that you're playing inside the rules that have been set up by people who don't believe in the word of God, and a Christian simply can't live within those risk parameters."

"So if it's from the past there's always something sort of wrong with it okay and so you know if you're doing something that's kind of old you feel sort of guilty about it in a certain way or you feel the need to - I mean just look at some of our bulletins! We're always explaining things. Why do we do that, right? There are lots of there are lots of places where there are complex rituals that no one explains. I mean no one when you go into a baseball stadium no one says here's the infield fly rule. Here are the gestures that will help you determine how that's going to play out when it does occur, and this is the year in which the infield fly rule was put forth in major league baseball, and no one does that. Even though it could have a lot to do with what you're about to see. We spend all this time explaining what we do, and I think we partly do that because we feel awkward about it because we all feel like it's not really contemporary. I mean t...

"Soon the churches will be thronged or at least fuller than usual. As the people come into a sanctuary familiar or a little unfamiliar to them, ask yourself a few questions. What is the vaccination status of those people shuffling into unfamiliar pews? Have the college kids back in a church for the first time in months received their booster shots? Do these questions seem silly to you? They aren’t silly to many, including governments in Europe and Canada, not even to our own federal government, which speaks to the unvaccinated as if they are a class of demons destined to torture and to be tortured while the righteous vaccinated shall persevere through every trial . Such questions already shape policy in German Lutheran congregations now requiring one’s Covid-19 status to determine entry into the house of God (a policy commonly called 3G abbreviating the German words for “recovered,” “vaccinated,” and “tested”). That policy is recommended by the government and required by some con...

The Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz mentioned  Benjamin Franklin's letter to Peter Collinson regarding the immigration of German Lutherans to Pennsylvania, with applications to modern Lutheranism. The full letter is here . The relevant bit, highlights mine: I am perfectly of your mind, that measures of great Temper are necessary with the Germans: and am not without Apprehensions, that thro’ their indiscretion or Ours, or both, great disorders and inconveniences may one day arise among us; Those who come hither are generally of the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own Nation, and as Ignorance is often attended with Credulity when Knavery would mislead it, and with Suspicion when Honesty would set it right; and as few of the English understand the German Language, and so cannot address them either from the Press or Pulpit, ’tis almost impossible to remove any prejudices they once entertain. Their own Clergy have very little influence over the people; who seem to take an uncommon pleasure in ...