Can War Be Just?
Current discussions of an unprovoked “first strike” against another country challenge the historic just-war ...
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2021 Life Conference: Outreach through Life Ministry
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More Sanctity of Life Resources
Addressing Issues of Moral Complicity
Should a mother consent to having her child immunized with a vaccine that was developed many years ago from ...
That They May Live
Assisted-suicide and euthanasia present the church, society, families, and individuals with one of the most ...
From Healing to Relief of Suffering
The Christian response to medical ethics today is to speak the Word of truth to empty lives that believe lies that ...
What Is a Stem Cell?
Are we to consider the human body divorced from what it means to be a human being? Is the human body merely the ...
What Child Is This?
This is an edited and adapted version of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations report on “Marriage, Family and Human Cloning.” It speaks not only of cloning but also briefly touches on artificial insemination, surrogacy, and in vitro fertilization.
What Can We Say That Is Lutheran in Bioethics?
A Lutheran response to issues in bioethics is always one of Law and Gospel. Law is necessary to constrain the weak ...
Transhumanism: Humans Without Bodies
Transhumanism puts faith in technology and holds onto the hope that humans can conquer death and become immortal ...
Stem Cell Research: Theology
Christians are neighbors to the unborn embryo. Because we are forgiven by His grace through faith, the ...
Smuggling Theology Into Discussions of Ethics
Ethical relativism in issues of bioethics betrays a serious fault. It does not make allowances for the ...
New Technologies, Old Questions: How to Stay Human in the Post-Christian Church
Developments in emerging technologies will lead to vast changes in the way we live. How do we ensure that ...
Informed Consent
Christians who give informed consent have an opportunity for faith in God’s care through their time of weakness. ...
More Family Resources
The Child As a Gift of God
Commended by the 2019 LCMS convention, this paper examines the many subtle ways that American culture rejects life as a fundamental gift of God and instead sees “having a baby” as a human accomplishment.
The Social Doctrine of the Augsburg Confession and Its Significance for the Present
In this essay, Hermann Sasse describes the theology of the “two regimens” (more commonly called “two kingdoms”) of the state and the church. Sasse addresses the widespread misunderstanding of the kingdom of God.
Christian Citizenship
We are all citizens of two kingdoms. One is the kingdom of this world. Christian citizenship will advance the cause of movements that strengthen the guarantees of order and law, keep separate church and state, keep sacred the institution of marriage, and protect the morals of youth.
The Christian: A Citizen of Two Kingdoms
Every person is a subject of two kingdoms — one spiritual, the other earthly. Both the godly and ungodly are citizens of an earthly kingdom or country. However, Lutherans are not always as great a blessing to their country as they should be.
Vocation: Fruit of the Liturgy
In Martin Luther’s teaching on the dual existence of the Christian, we observe a connection with the teaching of the two governments or two kingdoms. The Christian does not seek to escape or withdraw from the world as in monasticism, but rather he lives out his calling in the particular place where God has located him.
Masks of God
Luther puts it strongly: Vocations are “masks of God.” On the surface, we see an ordinary human face — our mother, the doctor, the teacher, the waitress, our pastor — but, beneath the appearances, God is ministering to us through them. God is hidden in human vocations.
Your Family Vocation
Every Christian — indeed, every human being — has been called by God into a family. Our very existence came about by our parents. Martin Luther said, “God has given this walk of life, fatherhood and motherhood, a special position of honor, higher than that of any other walk of life under it.”
God at Work
Every Christian has a particular calling from God. With the doctrine of vocation, ordinary relationships, the 9-to-5 routine, taking care of the kids, the work-a-day world — the way we spend most hours of the day — become charged with the presence of God.
Wages for Sin
Marriage benefits are starting to go to those who are “shacking up.” As marriage becomes unnecessary — not just for job benefits but for adopting children, inheriting property, and being socially acceptable — the whole nation will be “living in sin.”
Tossing the Last Taboo
Christians dare not opt out of the culture wars, especially while influential culture makers are trying to normalize sex with children. If Christians let the world go its merry way into the black hole of depravity, we will be putting their children in genuine danger.
Homosexuality in Christian Perspective
We dare not permit the church’s public teaching on the matter of homosexuality to be taken over and determined by a desire to “affirm” every person in whatever state he or she may be. That is not the gospel.
God and the Gay Lifestyle
Homosexual behavior, like any sin, can be forgiven. That’s quite a different thing, of course, than to say that such behavior is OK.