The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬

Former evangelical, now a confessional Lutheran and theology nerd. Deutschlernender. Cat lover. PhD student in the sciences. Seeking the fruit that lasts. ☧

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

We're not the only church, but we're the one with the richest and purest expression of Christianity.

We're not the only ones with the Bible, but we believe it in all its truth and purity.

We're not the only ones with history, but we truly have history on our side.

Be Lutheran.

[Joshua 🌹 @manofsteeele]

If someone walks up to you before the service and says "why should I be Lutheran?" You can't make a claim to being the only church, can't make a claim to the Bible as if we were Reformed, or history like the Orthodox because there's no one "gotcha" against everyone else

[Tom Schlund @Tom_Schlund]

At church my four year old grabbed my face, looked me right in the eyes and said, “The bread is Jesus’ body and the wine is Jesus’ blood”

Unprompted, out of nowhere. She gets it. Never underestimate what your kids learn when you go to church. 😊

[Catholic Lite ☧ 🦬 @BaptizatusSum]

If you would’ve told me 10 years ago that I’d be excited about going to church to confess my sins & be absolved by a man in a clerical & vestments I’d have thought you were crazy, cAuSe ThAt’S cAtHoLiC.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@DrJordanBCooper That being said, I also come from a place that's rife with "evangelical Anglicans", which even they struggle to define due to the doctrinal flexibility that's imbued in both traditions (and their mutual incompatibilities).

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@DrJordanBCooper As a former Evangelical myself, I think this is exactly it. Evangelicals already have the flexibility to pick and choose their doctrine. Anglicanism also gives that flexibility, so the change in doctrinal commitment is rather small - the biggest change is the new church building.

[Catholic Lite ☧ 🦬 @BaptizatusSum]

When sin & quilt weigh heavy & you are tempted to doubt your salvation, remember these words: I AM BAPTIZED! Throw them in the devil’s face. Let them be the greatest comfort to you, for they are your redemption.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@MattOsterndorf It's almost like people deep down want to convey that there's something more important about Baptism than just the water 🤔

[Rick Miller @Miller3333]

Gregory declares that we are to share and defend the doctrine of the Trinity. He describes the great mystery of the Trinity in multiple ways as he contemplates Them and to help us understand that it is One Godhead, yet Three Persons. Unified yet distinct. Father, Son, Holy Spirit

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@manofsteeele I mean, obviously there is meant to be nuance to what JMac is getting at here. But to say that God killed Jesus while the Jews did not is just contrary to what the Bible plainly says.

No point in forsaking the Bible for the sake of making a cool-sounding zinger.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@manofsteeele I'll let St Peter take this one, as he addresses the Jews at the temple:
"But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead" (Acts 3:14-15)

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@hoshuah @timesnewemma Ah okay, that's good to know.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@timesnewemma For example I'm from a synod (not in thr US) which isn't in communion with the LCMS, because it's the only synod available to me. I'm confessional as is my pastor, but I'd probably still be barred from LCMS altar.

I don't disapprove of closed communion but can see how it'd hurt.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@timesnewemma I think it's to do with feeling like an outsider to the church despite theological agreement. Even someone who believes it really is Christ's body and blood under the bread and wine may still be barred from the altar on a perceived technicality, like being from the "wrong synod".

[Dr Jordan B. Cooper @DrJordanBCooper]

@OleCade RC and Eva: If you encounter the demonic, be more virtuous, say this, do that ritual, etc.

Lutherans: Just sing A Mighty Fortress to the Devil and tell him he sucks because Jesus won.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@IfyNsoha Ahh never mind - just saw it was recommended already by someone else here 😜

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@IfyNsoha There's a similar book called "Between Wittenberg and Geneva", coauthored by Robert Kolb (Lutheran) and Carl Trueman (Presbyterian) which deals with both sides, though reading it I felt that it had more of an emphasis on the Reformed side - might be something to take a look at?

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

Interesting reflections in Sirach 3:21-22 about not venturing speculatively into the hidden God:

"Neither seek what is too difficult for you,
nor investigate what is beyond your power.
Reflect upon what you have been commanded,
for what is hidden is not your concern."

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

Prayers please for my sick sister. We chatted today and she's feeling very down and frustrated about her condition with no clear end in sight. Tried to hear her out as best I could, but it's hard knowing how little I can do to help.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@jwgrable2 But learning is still a part of it, though:

"We should fear and love God so that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it."

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

@tapanisimojoki Seems like quite a few people here may have assumed the Kantian axiom of "ought implies can". I wonder though if that really applies to God's law - we all ought to be above reproach, holy as God is holy, etc., but none of us can do so in practice.

[The Prayerful Pomegranate 🦬 @TPPomegranate]

"We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church..."

Baptists: "Yes, right! Our church is catholic, too!"

"... We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins."

Baptists: "Wait no not like that"