God is not a Penn State fan

There have been so many editorials, opinions, comments that I am starting to wonder if I could actually say anything new or profound about the scandal. That having been said, I think we need to recognize what the scandal says about ourselves as individuals in a society that has been high-jacked by what I would say is a rather liberal view of what is permissible sexuality and a demand for political correctness that overrides being theologically correct. Political correctness requires that we be diplomatic, that is to say, recognizing when we should say nothing. Many church people being very diplomatic, vote with their feet. I have been sitting in the pew wondering if I am still a Lutheran. We have been silence when we should have been shouting.

The irony is the Lutheran doctrine of Sola Scriptura has inevitably led to this liberalism sanctioned by a new interpretation of scripture which I deplore. Theology has changed to meet new circumstances, something that St. Luke recognized, even it those who made the change do not recognize it.

This liberalism has made it possible for someone to credibly say I was horsing around with the boys. I am hoping and praying that we recognize that this new liberalism and the defense which it has spawned is horse manure.

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Why two different Greek words for Jerusalem III?

In Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity: The World of the Acts of the Apostles by Hans-Josef Klauck and Brian McNeil, we read our 1st insight into the use of two different Greek words for Jerusalem. “Besides this, Luke employs two forms of the name of the city. He uses the indeclinable word Jerusalem, which is to be considered Biblical Greek and more strongly evokes the Old Testament Jewish horizon; he also employs a Greek version of this, the declinable noun Hierosolyma, which would suggest to a Greek reader the word hieron, i.e., the temple at the heart of the city, and perhaps even the name Solomon, the builder of that Temple.”

Luke’s use of the Greek word Ἰερουσαλήμ for Jerusalem 26 times must mean that Luke is the most Jewish of the four gospels since Matthew and Mark only use Ἰερουσαλήμ once while John does not use the Greek word Ἰερουσαλήμ for Jerusalem.

More importantly, the declinable noun Hierosolyma, which would suggest to a Greek reader the word hieron, i.e., the temple at the heart of the city, and more likely remind people not about the temple built by Solomon but of the temple built by Herod the Great. Thus when Luke uses the Greek word Ἱεροσόλυμα in verse Luke 23:7 which says “And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time” he is alluding to the temple built by Herod the Great.

However Luke uses the Greek word Ἱεροσόλυμα for Jerusalem on three other occasions in his gospel for which an explanation is wanting.

This is a work in progress.

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