Faith Lutheran Church and Return to Wittenberg will host the Festival of the Annunciation Service on March 25th at 6:30pm.

The Annunciation is one of ten principal feasts of Christianity. It commemorates the announcement of the Messiah’s birth by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. It takes place on March 25th every year, exactly 9 months before Christmas Day.

Join us for this special event. We will welcome guest musicians and service assistants from Return to Wittenberg.

Before the Service around 5:30pm, there will be a fellowship meal in the church basement.

This article comes from The Center of Apologetics and Worldviews at Bethany Lutheran College. It is from a series entitled “Q&A Leading to Christ.”

A focused way of asking this question is: Can we explain the existence of life without recognizing that its creation was a miracle? When prominent atheist turned agnostic Richard Dawkins was asked how life began, he replied by saying he had no idea. Indeed, the most important mystery in biology today is the creation of life. Is it, then, a miracle?

Why is life a mystery? All life requires information storage devices known as chromosomes. Their DNA and proteins are too tiny to be seen by the naked eye, or even under a normal microscope, yet DNA has a sophistication and complexity that scientists have barely figured out. Given the amazing sophistication and complexity of DNA and given that even the simplest living organisms contain DNA, what are the chances that the DNA necessary for life could come about by random circumstances? None whatsoever. To suggest that DNA could have come into existence by random materialistic forces is to leave the real world behind and descend into the world of fantasy.

But as amazing as DNA is, the information it carries is even more astonishing. How can information be created by non-living matter? It can’t. Because of this difficulty for evolutionists, well-known scientist Michael Behe has observed that one-third of academic biologists now conclude that Darwin’s theory is inadequate to explain life. These biologists know, among other considerations, that Darwinism cannot explain the information necessary for life. Such scientists typically keep their views to themselves, however, in order to avoid the persecution they will face if they make their viewpoints public.

Darwin avoided the question of how life began. Darwin and his early followers incorrectly assumed the cell was a simple structure. Today’s scientists, by contrast, have concluded that cells are extraordinarily complex. Cells can make enzymes, make a cell membrane, move about, digest things, react to hot or cold, reproduce, etc. This means that even a single-celled organism is extraordinarily complex—far more complex than the computer with its word-processor that I am using to describe it. Nature alone cannot create complex information.

The big question of our time is not the origin of species. The big question is the origin of information, and we cannot explain the origin of information without seeing its creation as a grand miracle. Can materialistic science (a world without miracles) explain the information within lifeforms? It cannot. A world without miracles must be a world without life. The Apostle Paul said it this way:

For His [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. (Romans 1:20)

As Paul said, when we observe the amazing complexity of life, the existence of God and his miraculous creation are “clearly seen.” God and His miracles are obvious from observing what He has created. Those who refuse to see the miracle of life are unable to see its divine origin.

When we realize that all of life is a miracle, then other events such as the resurrection of our Lord, or the Red Sea crossing, do not seem all that surprising. As criminal investigator J. Warner Wallace realized, a fair-minded investigation must follow the evidence to where it leads:

If the evidence pointed to the reasonable existence of God, this certainly opened up the possibility of the miraculous. If God did exist, He was the creator of everything we see in the universe. He, therefore, created matter from nonmatter, life from nonlife. He created all time and space. God’s creation of the universe would certainly be nothing short of…miraculous.

Is this a reasonable conclusion? The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:20 says it is. King David expressed the same idea in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” A fairminded study of the world we live in leads to the same conclusion. We make no apologies for recognizing it as true.

Allen Quist is author of The Reason I Believe: The Basics of Christian Apologetics and also Evidence That the Bible Is True: The Apologetics of Biblical Reliability.

Learn More:
www.els.org/apologetics

Titus 3:1-8

1Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready to do any good work, 2to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, to be gentle, and to display every courtesy toward all people. He Saved Us 3For at one time we ourselves were also foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by many kinds of evil desires and pleasures, living in malice and jealousy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, 5he saved us—not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life. 8This saying is trustworthy. And I want you to insist on these things, so that those who believe in God are intent on keeping busy with good works. These things are honorable and useful for the people.

Water & The Word Made Flesh

Titus 3 is the historic Epistle lesson for Christmas morning.  I don’t often bring Christmas into Advent, but I think it’s really appropriate here.  But, maybe it actually doesn’t seem too appropriate for Christmas morning.  Because it doesn’t talk about Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.  It doesn’t talk about Mary.  It talks about Baptism.  But let me read verses 4-5 again: 

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, ⁵he saved us—not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit.

When the Love of God…appeared…He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.  

This is Christmas.  Because Christmas for us is no mere reenactment.  Christmas is utterly pointless if all we’re doing is reenacting Jesus’ birth.  Just gathering around, singing songs, spiritually remembering a Christmas from long long ago.  If Christmas for us is simply an act of my will or emotions, it’s pointless.  And it becomes no different than any mythical story.  Give me Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny if it’s all about reenacting and getting caught up in a story of morals and good cheer.  Pointless.  Utterly meaningless.    

But where Christmas meets us in our lives is in baptism.  

Baptism also is utterly meaningless if it’s simply my reenacting of Jesus’ burial and resurrection by coming in and out of the water.  If baptism is the action of my will or emotion to dedicate myself to God, I mean can’t even dedicate myself to finishing whatever house project I start the same day.  I don’t know if I’ve ever completed a project all the way.  I get to about 98% and say, “ah good enough.”  This is why Baptism is God’s work, God’s dedication to me.  God is not only starting a project, but He’s going to bring it to completion.   

When you are baptized, Christ builds a temple here on earth.  Christ appears and creates His dwelling place not just on earth, but actually in you.  Christ is born.  He created His own dwelling, He finishes it, and He loves it.  He says it is good.  You are that project, that dwelling.  And He loves you.  You are His and He is yours.  He is in you and you are in Him.

And in this way, what we have is better than the shepherds!  The shepherds had to run to find Him.  Christ got tired of waiting.  He doesn’t even let you come to find Him.  He comes to you.  He is born in you.  

And this is entirely His doing. Just as He was born of Mary through the Holy Spirit by the power of Words of God spoken by the angel Gabriel, so He is born in you by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.  Christ is conceived by the Holy Spirit in your heart through Baptism.

It is amazing to me the lengths that protestant Christianity goes to to deny this, to deny the work of God in Baptism.  They want Baptism to be all about your work: ‘baptism can’t save…only Christ can save.”

Well, exactly.  You mean the Christ who created the world?  The Christ who created His own mother?  The Christ who created the cross He was nailed to and the rock into which He was buried?  You’re telling me that Christ can’t create a temple in your heart through baptism?

Of course He can.  Baptism is absolutely Christ’s work through the power of the Word.

This is so comforting and so evangelical.  This is why we in the Lutheran church don’t question the validity of baptism done by other Christian churches.  If someone comes to us and they are baptized in the name of the Trinity, no matter what church they were baptized at, we say great! It’s weird that some get upset about closed communion, when almost any other church you could go to would question whether or not your baptism actually counted.   No matter when you were baptized, no matter if you remember it, you’re still baptized.  

Consider that even a Baptism performed by the type of evil person Paul mentions in our text – “foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by many kinds of evil desires and pleasures, living in malice and jealousy, being hated and hating one another” – while such a person might be an atheist and they may be living outside of their own baptism, a baptism performed by them would be no less valid, because it doesn’t depend on them – but on the Word of God.

Last week, we heard about the Pharisees who came to John the Baptist.  They asked him why he was baptizing if he wasn’t the Christ.  John replied, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know.”  In other words, “I’m just the guy pouring on the water.  It’s Christ who is actually doing the baptizing.”

“For that sacrament, even in the hands of wicked men, is known to be of Christ.”  

But that doesn’t mean you can’t deny your baptism.  A wicked man, who joins his body to the corrupt world, cannot be part of the holy, uncorrupt, body of Christ – the Christ who was born and is born in us as we are reborn in Him.  

A man, who is baptized in a heretical church in the name of the Holy Trinity, even though His baptism was real, if he doesn’t abandon his heresy, he’ll lose his place as a temple of Christ.  

In the same way, a covetous man, an idolatrous man, who has been baptized in the same name does not become the temple of God unless he abandons his covetousness or idolatry.

For us to say that it doesn’t matter what happens after I’m baptized, would be like saying it didn’t matter what Jesus did between His birth and His crucifixion.  Paul doesn’t say, “He saved us…so do whatever you want,” but gives Christ both as our example and our enabling agent: “Having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life.”

Baptism and conversion/repentance go together.  In both cases we are born in the same way that Christ was born of Mary: through the power of the Holy Spirit by the Word of God.  But even though one of them may be lacking or missing, it doesn’t mean the other is lacking also.  The infant who is unable to repent by her action or the thoughts of her heart, is still baptized.  And of course, the Thief on the Cross in whom was worked a change in heart by his conversion through the Holy Spirit, is still renewed and reborn.

And so through my Baptism, Christ gives me rebirth and renewal.  While Baptism itself happened only once, this rebirth and renewal happens again and again and again.  Every day my filthy slate is not simply scrubbed clean, it’s made brand new.  There’s not even a smudge or smear from anything being wiped clean and missed, because it’s brand new.  I am remade and reborn daily in the image of God, in the image of the perfect and holy Son of God born in a manger.  

So, St. Paul reminds us what Christmas looks like every day of our lives.  What it looks like to be born in Christ and for Christ to be born in us.

“Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready to do any good work, ^2to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, to be gentle, and to display every courtesy toward all people.”

When we live a life of repentance, Baptism and Christmas actually starts to mean something for us.  We incarnate Christ to other people in our lives.  We incarnate Christ to our parents when we honor them, we incarnate Christ to the person in need when we show charity, we incarnate Christ to our spouse when we love them as Christ first loved us.  “Those who believe in God are intent on keeping busy with good works,” because in this Christ becomes incarnate to the world. The love of God appears.  

Baptism becomes the enabling agent, the source, the well from which I can draw to live a life worthy of the Gospel, to live as a reborn son or daughter of God, an heir, “in keeping with the hope of eternal life.”  I need baptism as much as I need Christmas.  

By God’s grace you and I have both every day.  The kindness and love of God our Savior has appeared.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit.  Christ is born. 

In Jesu’ nomine, Amen.

This article comes from The Center of Apologetics and Worldviews at Bethany Lutheran College. It is from a series entitled “Q&A Leading to Christ.”

In my house, we watch Frosty the Snowman any month of the year; that’s how much my toddler loves it. I enjoyed watching Frosty as a child and I still do as an adult, but Frosty is very much a children’s story. My toddler will ask to watch it, or sing the songs, or act out the parade on any given day. The songs, animation, and story all particularly appeal to young children. Yes, Frosty the Snowman is a children’s story. It is a nice, family-friendly, nostalgia-inducing Christmas story, but it is just a children’s story.

What about the very first Christmas story? Is the birth of Jesus just a children’s story? A virgin is visited by an angel, becomes pregnant, gives birth among animals, and angels tell lowly shepherds that the Son of God and Savior of the world has just been born in the little town of Bethlehem—is that just a children’s story? Is it a make-believe story which can do no more for us than any other make-believe story?

No, the story of Jesus’ birth is nothing like make-believe stories. It is an historical account communicating real benefits to both children and adults, people of all ages. Holy Scripture is better attested to than any other ancient document. It records this divine event which was foretold many years in advance. This coming Savior was promised to Adam’s line (Genesis 3:15), and then more specifically to Abraham’s line (Genesis 26:4), and finally to David’s line (Jeremiah 23:5-6). This coming Savior was prophesied to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). This coming Savior was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). All this, and more, has come to pass. Just a children’s story? No, not even a story at all, but a factual record of God’s work in human history for people of all ages.

The four Gospels and Acts, which record the life of Jesus and the ministry of His apostles in detail, are historical accounts. They were drawn from eyewitness testimony, not folklore developed from oral tradition. Non-Christian writers in the decades that followed also corroborated the basic facts concerning the life, ministry, and death of Jesus. Such extra-biblical writers noted that the same Apostles and Evangelists who insisted that Jesus had risen also were willing to die for that message. Prominent among those writers are the Jewish historian Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus. Clearly, Jesus was a real, historical man—an unusual and amazing man, too, because He also was the Son of God.

History and the Bible both reveal that Jesus came, but the Bible, with its “Good News” or Gospel message, uniquely explains why His coming matters. The Son of God took on human flesh for your salvation. The law of God demands that you live a perfect life and it demands that you be punished in hell if you do not live such a life. Without the Son of God coming as your substitute, you would be doomed to hell because you are sinful, but the Son of God has come as your substitute. He lived a perfect life. He bore the punishment for your sin, and rose from the grave— winning forgiveness and eternal life for you.

The Son of God became as we are—assuming, partaking in, our flesh. The tiny head which Mary lovingly kissed would one day wear a crown of thorns. The little hand which wrapped around Joseph’s finger would one day be pierced by a nail. The baby Jesus was placed in the wood of the manger so that one day He would be nailed to the wood of the cross. His precious, divine blood would be shed to conquer sin and death’s hold on you. Jesus was born to live and die for you. Rising back to life, Jesus defeated sin and death for you. Jesus was born for your salvation.

To you this night is born a Child
Of Mary, chosen Virgin mild;
This little Child, of lowly birth,
Shall be the joy of all the earth.
(“From Heaven Above to Earth I Come,” ELH, 126:3)

Pastor David H. Locklair serves at
Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church in Portage, Indiana, and Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hobart, Indiana. His articles for the Christ in Media Institute connect superhero mythology to Christian apologetics (www.christinmedia.org).

Learn More:
www.els.org/apologetics-resources