[lightman]

Ping.

I can't really call this a "Lutheran Ping" but please consider these words in light of the blatant revisionism of the ELCA's new hymnal Evangelical Lutheran Worship

I will say this for Bishop Spong. He recognizes the insidious nature and terrible influence of tradition. Form enough beautiful traditions in a family, a community, a church, a culture, or a nation -- and people might actually come to wonder what is behind those traditions, and undoubtedly the themes and eternal truths behind such things will be woven inexorably into the hearts of both child and nation.

[aberaussie]

How interesting that I read this to my husband yesterday and then today, at the LCMS church we are attending, the topic for the adult, pastor-led Bible study was how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophesies. I don't usually get to go to class with him because that is when our praise team prepares for the contemporary service, but we were not singing today.

Our pastor said there are 320 prophecies from the OT that Jesus fulfilled. From the study sheet that he handed out:

"Could such prophecies have been mere coincidence? Peter Stoner, in Science Speaks, calculates that the odds of any eight of these prophecies having been accidentally fulfilled in the life of one man would have been 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

Suppose we took that many silver dollars and scatter them across the entire state of Texas. They would cover the state to a depth of about two feet. Mark one...just one silver dollar with a red 'x'. Put a man in an airplane, let him fly anywhere he wants over Texas and jump out (we'll give him a parachute). How likely is it that on the first try he finds the one with the red 'x'? Exactly the same odds that the prophets had written just eight prophecies which would be fulfilled hundreds of years later in the life of Jesus Christ."

How sad that a prominent leader in the church is so certain that our God could not have done such an amazing thing.