Aaron Simms's Blog, page 28
July 20, 2013
Thoughts on Creation
Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible begins and ends with creation? It’s most obvious in Genesis 1, when God speaks forth His Word and creates everything, with His Spirit hovering over the surface of the waters, ordering the new creation according to the Father’s will. Then, in Revelation 21 we see, through the vision given to the apostle John, the new heaven and new earth. God is doing something to creation in Revelation. But, we don’t really think about these things much do w...
July 17, 2013
History of the Divine Service
The Divine Service that the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod uses in worship has links all the way back to the early days of New Testament Christianity. The Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox rites have similar connections. Ultimately, liturgical churches worship in a manner that derives from the practices of the early New Testament Church.
After Pentecost, the apostles and other disciples were sent throughout the world to carry out Christ’s charge to baptize and make disciples of all nations (M...
July 16, 2013
Travels in China
A couple years ago (Nov. 2011) I had the opportunity to go to China for about a week for work. My itinerary was to spend a couple days in Shanghai, followed by a few days in Beijing, and then return home. I flew out there by myself, but then met up with a couple other guys from work (two Brits and a Swede) as well as our host from Hong Kong.
In order to cut down on the cost to get to China, I ended up flying from Atlanta to Los Angeles, then from Los Angeles to Seoul, then from Seoul to Shangh...
July 12, 2013
Travels in Russia
In March 2012, I had the opportunity to go to Russia for a week for work. In college, I had studied the Russian language for a couple of years and I have read a lot about Russian history and culture, so it was very exciting to finally get to go there!
I was a little nervous before I went, because one of my friends had been to Russia a few weeks before me and had accidentally overstayed his visa, so he was not allowed to leave. He didn’t discover his visa problem until he got to the airport the...
July 10, 2013
Why Batman is the best superhero
I bet you didn’t expect to see this topic on a Lutheran pastor’s blog. However, I was trying to explain to my wife the other night why Batman is the best superhero. I mean, I like Superman, Spiderman, and the others, but Batman is the best. In order to be Superman, you have to have been born on the planet Krypton. In order to be Spiderman, you have to have been bitten by a radioactive spider. But, anyone can be Batman.
That’s what makes Batman the best; you could actually be Batman. You just n...
Things you didn’t know about the early Church – Part 3: Christian witnesses
This is a continuation of some interesting things about the early Church that you may not know. This post focuses on Christian witnesses to Jesus.
1. In the 90′s AD, Clement, bishop of Rome, wrote a letter to the church in Corinth
Clement mentions the letters that the apostle Paul had previous written to the church in Corinth, urging the Corinthians to consider again Paul’s words to them in those letters. Clement also quoted from the Gospels and talked about the Trinity. Clement also writes: “T...
July 9, 2013
Things you didn’t know about the early Church – part 2: Jewish witnesses
This is a continuation of some interesting things about the early Church that you may not know. This post focuses on Jewish witnesses to Jesus.
1. Jewish rabbinic texts claim that Jesus practiced sorcery and magic
The Jewish text of b. Sanhedrin says that Jesus was killed because he “practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.” Another text says that Jesus practiced magic. There seems to be a recognition here of Jesus’ miracles (explained away as sorcery) and the fact that he said he was...
Things you didn’t know about the early Church – Part 1: Roman witnesses
Over the course of about 7 years I worked on a book called “On This Rock: What People Really Believed about Jesus Christ in the Early Church… and Why it Matters.”
The reason it took so long was that I went back through a number of primary sources from the first few centuries of the New Testament Church, both Christian and non-Christian sources. My goal was to demonstrate that the early Church always considered Jesus Christ the Son of God who died and rose, and that even non-Christians testifie...
July 8, 2013
What’s a Lutheran? Is that like a Jehovah’s Witness?
Living in Georgia, Lutherans are somewhat rare. My wife was actually asked the questions in the subject of this post by one of her friends. In the Midwest, Lutherans are as numerous as the sands on the seashore. In the South, though, Lutherans are as rare as a sand-dollar. We tend to be viewed as different, maybe even odd (or, perhaps that’s just me that people consider odd!). So, I put this list together to provide my Christian brethren of other persuasions a quick guide to Lutherans. This i...
