June/July Newsletter 2024
“We ask you brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come…” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2
In several of St. Paul’s letters, namely 2 Thessalonians and Galatians, Paul will end the letter with a sign of genuineness: writing the farewell greeting with his own hand in large letters. We know from Paul’s letters that Paul would dictate the letter to his scribe, also called an amanuensis, who would write down all that Paul would say. (see Romans 16:22 “I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.”)
But at the end, Paul would take the pen from the scribe, and scribble something in his own hand to prove to the Church that he was the one behind the pen. Much like how we sign letters we write with our own hand. This was and still is a safeguard from forgeries or fake letters seeming to be from Paul that could be used to hurt the faith of those reading.
From the earliest days, the Church had to safeguard the Apostolic message from liars and forgeries that sometimes claimed to come from the Apostles. The transmission of the New Testament is a fascinating history in itself, and one that gives us assurance to the books of the New Testament that we have in our Bibles. If you are curious about it all, I would love to talk.
But I bring this up, because from time to time, sensational claims are made concerning manuscripts that are found about other books that seem to add more details than what we have been given. For example, last month, a couple members of the congregation and also my family forwarded to me an article from the secular media titled, “German researchers decode earliest known written record of Jesus’ childhood.”
Sounds juicy right? Like, “why haven’t I heard this in church?!” kind of juicy. *Clicks article*
Except that it isn’t juicy. The manuscript in question is the Gospel of Thomas, a document which was rediscovered in 1945. Though we didn’t have a copy of the Gospel of Thomas in modern days until 1945, it was known to have existed before it was “discovered.” The early Church knew of its existence and spoke against it as a forgery. Though titled the Gospel of Thomas, it was not written by Thomas, but it reads like Christian fan fiction from the 200’s AD. In fact, the Gospel of Thomas quotes the other Gospels at times and mentions 10 of the parables that we do have in the other four Gospels.
Where did this text come from? The text came from Gnostics in the early 2nd century to even 3rd century who would claim that Jesus was not flesh and blood but a spirit or just appeared to have human flesh and blood (note here just how often Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John go out of their way to describe Jesus with flesh and blood, because they were dealing with Gnostics themselves). They had the Gospel of Thomas quote real Bible verses to gain credibility, but also add in details that they claimed they heard from Jesus in secret. Gnostics in the 2nd and 3rd centuries loved saying that Jesus told them secret things that only they knew, like Mormons do today.
Note here how the Gospels we have in our Bible tell us that Jesus told his disciples that what they heard from him should be said publicly to all, not secretly to just a select few insiders. The teaching of Christ is not a secret club where only certain members knew the truth; it is an outspoken word that everyone was to hear and be taught. St. Paul stresses to Timothy and Titus to train others who can teach the Church at large against this kind of secret teaching. We can tell in John’s Gospel, and 1 John, and Revelation, that St. John was writing against Gnostics who denied Jesus came in the flesh, which he calls the spirit of the antichrist.
Reading the Gospel of Thomas, you quickly realize how out of touch it is and written from the perspective of someone who never met Jesus, but knows the real Gospels enough to write vaguely about it. To show the level of off base here, the Gospel of Thomas even has it that Jesus stated that females are inferior to men and that Jesus would make women become like the spirits of men so they have a shot at eternal life. This thought comes directly from the idea of Gnostics who deny that God cares or loves the material creation he made.
However, there is one good use for the Gospel of Thomas, and that use is that it helps scholars compare the authentic Gospels to prove their veracity and their claims! When you hold a lie up to the truth, the truth shines brighter. As scholars look and compare them, they can notice the tell tale differences between someone who knows their stuff and were eyewitnesses as compared to someone who just takes a few details they know from arm’s length and spins a narrative that is more of a fiction. The Gospel of Thomas, and others like it, (there are others) are like the cute stories we have about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree that sound nice but are not true.
So, what should you do when you come across sensational claims about Jesus from writings that we do not have in our Bibles? First, ignore them. The media has a way to make it sound more incredible than it actually is, after all they need to do something to get you to click on their article. Second, take what is said with a grain of salt. The article sent to me put little claims like “The Gospel of Thomas was not included in the Bible” like it was a conspiracy to keep out stuff Christians didn’t like. In reality, the early Christians knew that these books were garbage, heretical, and not what the Apostles had taught them.
So, when the early Christians came across books that Gnostics claimed “This came from Thomas!” They looked at them and knew that these were lies. They took to heart what Paul said, “do not be shaken…by a letter seeming to come from us…” Take Paul’s advice do not be shaken, we have in our Bibles what we have because it is validated and good. Go in the peace of Jesus Christ your Lord whose voice is heard in the record we have from the Prophets and Apostles!
July Voters Meeting
The July voters meeting is coming up for July 21st at 10:30am after our 9:00am service. Mark it down should you desire to attend and be informed. Here is what we have on the docket for the meeting:
Those are the items on the docket currently. If there needs to be any other items added to the agenda, let us know two weeks in advance of the meeting so they can be added on. Thank you as always for your diligence and care and as always keep meetings, leadership and decisions in your prayers.
Fall Ministry
As we get into July, we are starting to plan and look ahead to all of our fall ministry. As disciples of Jesus here in Marshfield, pray for these things as we draw near to Bible classes, Sunday School, and Confirmation. Pray for God to grant those who attend the Spirit to know Christ and to be drawn to him and also for those to participate in them! I have been spending the summer preparing for Bible classes and fixing attention to Advent and Lent for next year
I will soon be sending out information to the second year confirmands as we prepare for another year, and reaching out to those who will be preparing to enter this year’s 1st year confirmation class. If you are a parent with young children or getting close to confirmation age, start preparing your children by attending service, praying at home, leading devotions and getting familiar with the Small Catechism. Discipleship is all about forming habits and disciplines that form a routine and pattern that is lived out.
Concordia Nebraska Choir
On September 8th, we will be hosting the Concordia University Nebraska Choir at 7pm. Concordia Nebraska is one of the Universities in the LCMS and the place where our beloved Tammy was trained in her days preparing to become a DCE.
They reached out to us asking if we would be willing to host a choir concert at our church. The leadership and I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity and said yes. It will also give a chance to spread the news to the community and raise awareness to the congregation about one of our colleges that we have that prepares people for work in the church and the world. So, mark your calendars for September 8th at 7pm! More details will be given as we get closer, but it is good to bring awareness now.
Church Smart Phone App
Did you know that our Church has an App for your smart phone? Everything that you need can be found on it. If you have a smart phone, download the Christ Lutheran Church App. Just search “Christ Lutheran Church, Marshfield” in your search bar and it should come up in the app store. The app has our worship service bulletins on it, you can watch old services/sermons, you can view church announcements and read minutes. My podcast, “The Belt of Truth” is on the app.
The app also allows you to give offerings online and schedule them, and there is also a Bible built in on the app as well. Everything that you could ever want to know or be informed about is on the app. The Church App is updated several times each week, almost daily, and can also connect you to our Facebook page, YouTube page, and our website.
The app is really a one stop shop for everything you could ever discover about our church, and it is a great resource that can connect you to so much more. Download the app today if you have not and allow for notifications that we sometimes send about services, bible studies, podcasts, and other important announcements to stay in the loop.
God’s peace to you all as we continue through the summer months, I pray that they are restful and also preparing you to spring back into action when we come to Rally Day on September 8th!
In Christ,
Pastor Andrew Belt
In several of St. Paul’s letters, namely 2 Thessalonians and Galatians, Paul will end the letter with a sign of genuineness: writing the farewell greeting with his own hand in large letters. We know from Paul’s letters that Paul would dictate the letter to his scribe, also called an amanuensis, who would write down all that Paul would say. (see Romans 16:22 “I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.”)
But at the end, Paul would take the pen from the scribe, and scribble something in his own hand to prove to the Church that he was the one behind the pen. Much like how we sign letters we write with our own hand. This was and still is a safeguard from forgeries or fake letters seeming to be from Paul that could be used to hurt the faith of those reading.
From the earliest days, the Church had to safeguard the Apostolic message from liars and forgeries that sometimes claimed to come from the Apostles. The transmission of the New Testament is a fascinating history in itself, and one that gives us assurance to the books of the New Testament that we have in our Bibles. If you are curious about it all, I would love to talk.
But I bring this up, because from time to time, sensational claims are made concerning manuscripts that are found about other books that seem to add more details than what we have been given. For example, last month, a couple members of the congregation and also my family forwarded to me an article from the secular media titled, “German researchers decode earliest known written record of Jesus’ childhood.”
Sounds juicy right? Like, “why haven’t I heard this in church?!” kind of juicy. *Clicks article*
Except that it isn’t juicy. The manuscript in question is the Gospel of Thomas, a document which was rediscovered in 1945. Though we didn’t have a copy of the Gospel of Thomas in modern days until 1945, it was known to have existed before it was “discovered.” The early Church knew of its existence and spoke against it as a forgery. Though titled the Gospel of Thomas, it was not written by Thomas, but it reads like Christian fan fiction from the 200’s AD. In fact, the Gospel of Thomas quotes the other Gospels at times and mentions 10 of the parables that we do have in the other four Gospels.
Where did this text come from? The text came from Gnostics in the early 2nd century to even 3rd century who would claim that Jesus was not flesh and blood but a spirit or just appeared to have human flesh and blood (note here just how often Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John go out of their way to describe Jesus with flesh and blood, because they were dealing with Gnostics themselves). They had the Gospel of Thomas quote real Bible verses to gain credibility, but also add in details that they claimed they heard from Jesus in secret. Gnostics in the 2nd and 3rd centuries loved saying that Jesus told them secret things that only they knew, like Mormons do today.
Note here how the Gospels we have in our Bible tell us that Jesus told his disciples that what they heard from him should be said publicly to all, not secretly to just a select few insiders. The teaching of Christ is not a secret club where only certain members knew the truth; it is an outspoken word that everyone was to hear and be taught. St. Paul stresses to Timothy and Titus to train others who can teach the Church at large against this kind of secret teaching. We can tell in John’s Gospel, and 1 John, and Revelation, that St. John was writing against Gnostics who denied Jesus came in the flesh, which he calls the spirit of the antichrist.
Reading the Gospel of Thomas, you quickly realize how out of touch it is and written from the perspective of someone who never met Jesus, but knows the real Gospels enough to write vaguely about it. To show the level of off base here, the Gospel of Thomas even has it that Jesus stated that females are inferior to men and that Jesus would make women become like the spirits of men so they have a shot at eternal life. This thought comes directly from the idea of Gnostics who deny that God cares or loves the material creation he made.
However, there is one good use for the Gospel of Thomas, and that use is that it helps scholars compare the authentic Gospels to prove their veracity and their claims! When you hold a lie up to the truth, the truth shines brighter. As scholars look and compare them, they can notice the tell tale differences between someone who knows their stuff and were eyewitnesses as compared to someone who just takes a few details they know from arm’s length and spins a narrative that is more of a fiction. The Gospel of Thomas, and others like it, (there are others) are like the cute stories we have about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree that sound nice but are not true.
So, what should you do when you come across sensational claims about Jesus from writings that we do not have in our Bibles? First, ignore them. The media has a way to make it sound more incredible than it actually is, after all they need to do something to get you to click on their article. Second, take what is said with a grain of salt. The article sent to me put little claims like “The Gospel of Thomas was not included in the Bible” like it was a conspiracy to keep out stuff Christians didn’t like. In reality, the early Christians knew that these books were garbage, heretical, and not what the Apostles had taught them.
So, when the early Christians came across books that Gnostics claimed “This came from Thomas!” They looked at them and knew that these were lies. They took to heart what Paul said, “do not be shaken…by a letter seeming to come from us…” Take Paul’s advice do not be shaken, we have in our Bibles what we have because it is validated and good. Go in the peace of Jesus Christ your Lord whose voice is heard in the record we have from the Prophets and Apostles!
July Voters Meeting
The July voters meeting is coming up for July 21st at 10:30am after our 9:00am service. Mark it down should you desire to attend and be informed. Here is what we have on the docket for the meeting:
- An update from the Land Committee. The land committee has met 8 times since late February. They will give an update on what has been explored and discovered since we have begun to meet. And they will also be seeking feedback on further options and questions.
- Christmas Eve Service Times. Currently on Christmas Eve, we have 10am, 2pm, 4pm, and 6pm service times. Based on factors such as help, music, attendance and such, the council and elders have discussed and have agreed to change the times to 10am, 3pm, 6pm. We are looking for feedback from members of the congregation at the meeting before me move forward with that.
- Constitution Change. For the third time, the District reviewed our constitution and wanted us to make an edit to it. We have done the groundwork to make the change in the constitution, will present it on July 21st, and then have to have a special voters meeting 14 days later to ratify the change. Hopefully, like times past, we just have a quick vote following service, which would be August 4th.
- We have a financial secretary now on council since the last voters meeting and she will need to be officially approved by the congregation.
Those are the items on the docket currently. If there needs to be any other items added to the agenda, let us know two weeks in advance of the meeting so they can be added on. Thank you as always for your diligence and care and as always keep meetings, leadership and decisions in your prayers.
Fall Ministry
As we get into July, we are starting to plan and look ahead to all of our fall ministry. As disciples of Jesus here in Marshfield, pray for these things as we draw near to Bible classes, Sunday School, and Confirmation. Pray for God to grant those who attend the Spirit to know Christ and to be drawn to him and also for those to participate in them! I have been spending the summer preparing for Bible classes and fixing attention to Advent and Lent for next year
I will soon be sending out information to the second year confirmands as we prepare for another year, and reaching out to those who will be preparing to enter this year’s 1st year confirmation class. If you are a parent with young children or getting close to confirmation age, start preparing your children by attending service, praying at home, leading devotions and getting familiar with the Small Catechism. Discipleship is all about forming habits and disciplines that form a routine and pattern that is lived out.
Concordia Nebraska Choir
On September 8th, we will be hosting the Concordia University Nebraska Choir at 7pm. Concordia Nebraska is one of the Universities in the LCMS and the place where our beloved Tammy was trained in her days preparing to become a DCE.
They reached out to us asking if we would be willing to host a choir concert at our church. The leadership and I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity and said yes. It will also give a chance to spread the news to the community and raise awareness to the congregation about one of our colleges that we have that prepares people for work in the church and the world. So, mark your calendars for September 8th at 7pm! More details will be given as we get closer, but it is good to bring awareness now.
Church Smart Phone App
Did you know that our Church has an App for your smart phone? Everything that you need can be found on it. If you have a smart phone, download the Christ Lutheran Church App. Just search “Christ Lutheran Church, Marshfield” in your search bar and it should come up in the app store. The app has our worship service bulletins on it, you can watch old services/sermons, you can view church announcements and read minutes. My podcast, “The Belt of Truth” is on the app.
The app also allows you to give offerings online and schedule them, and there is also a Bible built in on the app as well. Everything that you could ever want to know or be informed about is on the app. The Church App is updated several times each week, almost daily, and can also connect you to our Facebook page, YouTube page, and our website.
The app is really a one stop shop for everything you could ever discover about our church, and it is a great resource that can connect you to so much more. Download the app today if you have not and allow for notifications that we sometimes send about services, bible studies, podcasts, and other important announcements to stay in the loop.
God’s peace to you all as we continue through the summer months, I pray that they are restful and also preparing you to spring back into action when we come to Rally Day on September 8th!
In Christ,
Pastor Andrew Belt
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Advent 2023 Devotional: “Immanuel, Jesus with us.” Advent 2023: November 6Advent 2023: November 7 - PromiseAdvent 2023: November 8 - PeopleAdvent 2023: November 9 - PsalmAdvent 2023: November 10 - HymnAdvent 2023: November 13 - PresenceAdvent 2023: November 14 - PromiseAdvent 2023: November 15 - PeopleAdvent 2023: November 16 - PsalmAdvent 2023: November 17 - HymnAdvent 2023: November 20 - PresenceAdvent 2023: November 21 - PromiseAdvent 2023: November 23 - PsalmAdvent 2023: November 24 - HymnAdvent 2023: November 27 - PresenceAdvent 2023: November 28 - PromiseAdvent 2023: November 29 - PeopleAdvent 2023: November 30 - Psalm
December
Advent 2023: December 1 - HymnAdvent 2023: December 4 - PresenceAdvent 2023: December 5 - PromiseAdvent 2023: December 6 - PeopleAdvent 2023: December 7 - PsalmAdvent 2023: December 8 - HymnAdvent 2023: December 11 - PresenceAdvent 2023: December 12 - PromiseAdvent 2023: December 13 - PeopleAdvent 2023: December 14 - PsalmAdvent 2023: December 15 - HymnAdvent 2023: December 18 - PresenceAdvent 2023: December 19 - PromiseDecember 2023 NewsletterAdvent 2023: December 20 - PeopleAdvent 2023: December 21 - PsalmAdvent 2023: December 22 - HymnAdvent 2023 Devotional: Conclusion