Systematics

In 40 Questions About Heaven and Hell, Alan Gomes surveys the Old and New Testaments to present a comprehensive picture of the afterlife. The question-and-answer format makes it easy to find answers to specific questions on heaven, hell, the intermediate state, the final judgment, and life in eternity. Readers will find solid answers to many vital questions:

What should we conclude about those who claim to have seen heaven or hell?

Is it possible for us to communicate with the dead?

Is there such a place as purgatory?

What will our resurrected bodies be like?

What will we do in the eternal state?

Will there be animals in the eternal state?

What is hell like?

How can a God of love send people to an eternal hell?

Did Jesus "descend into hell" like the Apostles' Creed says?

Study notes point to additional resources for learning, and reflection questions at the end of each chapter make the book ideal for small group studies.

Burnt-out believers and spiritual secularists have given up any hope that an engaging and meaningful spirituality can be found in a single Christian denomination. So rather than attending worship at a local church, they attend to their spiritual needs elsewhere. Instead of being fed by a single denomination, they feast upon a smorgasbord of spiritual beliefs. And while these disaffected believers have not rejected the existence of God or the need for meaningful spirituality, they have strongly rejected whatever it is they think the church today has to offer.

Lutheran pastors, professors, and students of the Reformation look to Martin Chemnitz for the first and best defense of the Formula of Concord's theology. Just as the Augsburg Confession had its "Apology" (defense) by Philip Melanchthon, so the Formula of Concord had its famous "Apology" written by Chemnitz and his associates.

Description: ""The Church, who is she?"" asks Bo Giertz in this book, which, he adds, ""is first of all for those who have some notion of the life which is present within the church walls and also have some desire to understand that life better and know more about it."" If you're among the tens of thousands who've read Giertz's bestselling novel The Hammer of God about ordinary people in their relation to the Church and her message, then you know his ability to engage you in the dramatic events of everyday life. Giertz shows the same engaging ability, when he in Christ's Church takes you on a walk from her biblical roots toward her glorious future. Endorsements: ""Christ's Church demonstrates the resilient vigor of Bo Giertz's literary work. First published under the dark clouds of an erupting world war in 1939, Christ's Church has not lost its power to convict and comfort. If anything the vitality of Giertz's book is even more potent in our day of pluralism, doctrinal indifference, and inbred suspicion of all religious institutions. Confident of the church's oneness in Christ, built secure on the foundation of the apostolic Word, Giertz sees the church as a living legacy of God's faithfulness. This is a book that speaks with clarity and conviction to seasoned Christians at home in the Father's house as well as to those who stand outside but peep in the window, seeking a glimpse of life lived in God's family"" --John T. Pless Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana ""One of the most insightful thinkers in the rich tradition of Swedish theology, Bo Giertz drew deeply from the biblical roots of the church's understanding of itself out of the midst of his daily routine as parish pastor. Anchored in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Bo Giertz's succinct but penetrating synthesis of biblical teaching on God's people assembled by the Holy Spirit rings true around the world seventy years after its composition. Giertz aids readers to embrace the catholic practice of the church and to bring the Gospel to those around us at the beginning of the twenty-first century."" --Robert A. Kolb Missions Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri-- About the Contributor(s): Bo Giertz (1905-1998), Bishop of Gothenburg in the Lutheran Church of Sweden, was voted the most influential Swedish church leader during the 1900s. He penned no less than thirty books. Christ's Church was his first, written at the age of thirty-three.

A translation of Walther's famous treatise on church and ministry.

A modern dogmatics text, Confessing the Gospel: A Lutheran Approach to Systematic Theology presents readers with contemporary discussions of pressing issues and current challenges in the last several decades of the Church's life.

The 18 essays in this volume offer a cross-section of Preus's research and commentary on the doctrine of justification and on the Lutheran Confessions and their application in the life of the church today. Also included in this volume are 4 reflections on the life and ministry of Robert Preus provided by David P. Scaer, John Stephenson, Kurt Marquart and Daniel Preus.

Preface and introduction written by Klemet I. Preus, Robert's son.

The Christian does not live in a vacuum, says the author, but in a world of government, politics, labor, and marriage. Hence, Christian ethics cannot exist in a vacuum; what the Christian needs, claims Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is concrete instruction in a concrete situation. Although the author died before completing his work, this book is recognized as a major contribution to Christian ethics.

The root and ground of Christian ethics, the author says, is the reality of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. This reality is not manifest in the Church as distinct from the secular world; such a juxtaposition of two separate spheres, Bonhoeffer insists, is a denial of God's having reconciled the whole world to himself in Christ. On the contrary, God's commandment is to be found and known in the Church, the family, labor, and government. His commandment permits man to live as man before God, in a world God made, with responsibility for the institutions of that world.

How do we know and speak about God's relation to this world? Does God reveal himself through his creation? This book recaptures a Christian vision of all reality: that the world is full of divine signs that are openings into God's glory. Bringing together insights from some of the tradition's greatest thinkers--Edwards, Newman, and Barth--Gerald McDermott resurrects a robust theology of creation for Protestants. He shows how and where meaning can be found outside the church and special revelation in various realms of creation, including nature, science, law, history, animals, sex, and sports.