Talks with Dad Rod

Ted asks about what it would mean for sinners to hear their sins absolved in the sermon every week. Rod talks about what pastors are called to do from the pulpit, the truth of the relationship between sinners and God's law, and the hope of God's answer to our failure. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/talks-with-da...

Ted asks about how sinners should perceive the law and the Gospel. Rod talks about the claims of the law and what it does to all sinners' standing before God, across all cultures, St. Paul's teachings about the works of Jesus Christ, and who the good news of Christ's Gospel is for. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist...

Ted asks about struggling to determine God's plan for my life and for work. Rod talks about 'talking to God' and getting answers back, how Reformation thinkers approached questions like these, and the idea of 'breaking through' to a transcendent God in some kind of mystical experience to determine His secret will for me. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Join us for our 1517 Podcast Network fu...

Ted asks about Rod's path of faith after becoming an agnostic after his church experience. Rod talks about going to the University of Washington as an agnostic, what turned him back to the idea of theism, the idea of a conflict between science and the Christian faith, and how his connection to the hard sciences affected his path to being a Christian apologist. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES:...

Ted asks about Rod's experience in church in his youth and what it did to his faith. Rod talks about Lutheran pietism and how law-focused and improvement-focused teaching and preaching affected him, and how that church experience affected his view of God and the Christian faith even when he was older in college as a pre-med student. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Join us for our 1517 Podcas...

Ted asks about the idea of having a vocation related to our faith along with our regular vocations. Rod talks about the Lutheran doctrine of vocation, and how freeing it can be for people to learn that God is pleased with our daily (secular) God-honoring vocations for our neighbors. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Gene Veith, "God at Work" - https://www.amazon.com/God-Work-Redesign-Christian...

Ted asks about people's skepticism and struggle to consider the truth of Christianity. Rod talks about the kinds of experiences people may have in their pasts that influence their perspective, and what we learn from St. Paul about engaging with some people, and what is helpful to speak about. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/vide...

Ted asks about the value of exhortation. Rod talks about what exhortation is, and what value it has for us sinners, and what our focus should be for our neighbors. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Gene Veith, "God at Work" - https://www.amazon.com/God-Work-Redesign-Christian-Vocation/dp/1433524473/ref=sr_1_2 Outline of Gene Veith's "God at Work", edited by Dr. Rod Rosenbladt - https://1517-da...

Ted asks about how we can know we're doing precisely what God wills for us. Rod references the old Magic 8-Ball toy about how we are tempted to approach our understanding of God's will for us, and talks about Reformation theology in opposition to our naturally mystical inclinations. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Gene Veith, "God at Work" - https://www.amazon.com/God-Work-Redesign-Christian...

Ted asks about who the Gospel is for. Rod talks about what Christians should expect their faithful lives to look like, from Scripture, what church is for, and how most seminaries are not properly preparing future pastors to deliver what Jesus intends for them to give to His flock. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/...

Ted asks which statement of our sinful condition is accurate. Rod talks about inherited sin versus the sins we commit, what the difference is, how deep our sin really is, and what the Good News is for us and what 'The Great Exchange' is. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: "Sensible Christianity" by Dr. Montgomery - https://shop.1517.org/products/sensible-christianity-mp3 Support 1517 - https://...

Ted asks whether lusting for someone is adultery, reading Matthew 5:27-28. Rod talks about self-justification, what Jesus' words reveal to sinners about the truth of the law when we try to find a loophole, and what sinners' natural desires are versus being given a savior. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/talks-wit...

Ted asks about what it meant for Jesus to appear to His disciples and lead with blessing them with peace, twice. Rod talks about how the Christian claims turn on the resurrection, and discusses the question of what could cause him as a Christian to give up his faith. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: "Sensible Christianity" by Dr. Montgomery - https://shop.1517.org/products/sensible-christiani...

Ted borrows a question from a hymn title that asks why Jesus has to die, as if He sinned. Rod talks about how the Bible testifies throughout that Jesus, the Spotless Lamb, would come to take our punishment in our place, and how Scripture affirms that Jesus' sacrifice was the only way to save us. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: https://hymnary.org/hymn/LSB2006/439 Support 1517 - https://www.1...

Ted asks about whether we should pray for time to amend our lives. Rod talks about what sinners contribute to their salvation, the idea of a 'mulligan' confession, what gifts we are to receive in church, and where our true hope lies. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/talks-with-dad-rod Explore more 1517 podcasts -...

Ted asks about good news when we can't seem to shake sinful, even blasphemous, thoughts. Rod talks about which prevails in the end, Jesus Christ or our sins, the true difficulty we sinners can have with dark thoughts, who we are given to talk to, the confession and absolution service in a Lutheran hymnal, and the comfort we can receive in the promises we are given in Scripture. Produced by: Rick R...

Ted asks about the idea of attending a church where the Gospel isn't being preached. Rod talks about what Jesus Christ intends for sinners to receive in His church, what obligation we are under to attend a church where those gifts are not being delivered, and what confusion there is in modern churches regarding law and Gospel. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.o...

Ted asks if we as Christians need to get busy in order to gain or maintain our salvation. Rod talks about sanctification versus justification (using a two-column idea), what weight believers' works have regarding their salvation, and how Reformation theology is different than what many churches in America are teaching and preaching. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www....

Ted asks about if our Christian faith is purely a gift of God. Rod talks about how the Reformation began with a doctrine of sin that was solidly Biblical, and what God speaks into the darkness of the human heart. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/talks-with-dad-rod Explore more 1517 podcasts - https://www.1517.org/...

Ted asks if believers should expect their sinning to lessen after coming to faith in Christ. Rod talks about what the law demands of sinners, whether sinners can meet those demands, recognizing the terrors the law can create, and what Good News there is for sinful believers. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/talks-...

Ted asks about correcting others when we feel like we are right and they are wrong. Rod talks about being in a church of Germans, and how Germans perceive things, how we sinners are tempted to treat each other, how we Christians (and by extension Jesus Himself) are often perceived when we do that, and what we are actually called to bring to our neighbors. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Supp...

Ted asks about our role in accepting salvation and having faith in Jesus Christ. Rod talks about the truth of the sinner's role in their salvation and coming to faith in Jesus Christ, and what God does for and to us and in us from outside of ourselves. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/videos-playlist/talks-with-dad-rod Explore mo...

Ted asks about looking to our own fruit and seeing that it's bad, and what does that mean. Rod talks about how sinners incline to moralism and synergism, how we are natural fruit-measurers who prefer to look to ourselves, and what good news there is for people who struggle with fears that their fruit is revealing that he or she is a 'bad tree', as Jesus described in Matthew 7:16-20 and Luke 6:43....

Ted asks about what it means if our pastor goes through struggles of faith. Rod talks about how he perceives a pastor who is always 'winning', versus a pastor who is 'assaulted', and speaks of his memories and experiences with his friend and peer, James Nestingen, who died recently, and some experiences with his own father. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/...

Ted asks about the value of the idea of 'right' and 'wrong'. Rod talks about how shifting toward ethics and moralism can poison the Gospel, references what we see Jesus do when He made wine for the wedding at Cana, and asks what if it was in that spirit that our culture perceived Christianity. Produced by: Rick Ritchie SHOW NOTES: Support 1517 - https://www.1517.org/donate https://www.1517.org/vid...