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by Flame (Author)
Why is it important for today's Christians to know about the Church Fathers? What's important about the Sacraments, like Baptism and Communion? And why should today's Christians truly care about them? Grammy-nominated Christian rapper FLAME asked himself these questions before coming to Lutheranism and seeing, firsthand, how important it is to know the history of the church. Study the early Church Fathers, Scripture, and Christian history alongside FLAME's conversational voice to see for yourself why their teachings from Scripture are important to study, and live out, today.
From FLAME:
"Shouldn't we know who God is? The nature of God's existence? The true nature of Jesus, the Messiah? The difference between God's Law and His Gospel? The nature of these rites He established that have been called the Sacraments? How those Sacraments ought to be enjoyed and applied? If the Sacraments are important enough for Jesus to implement, then we would do right to wrestle with how they have been historically understood and practiced to see where they fit into the Christian life." -page 11
"The Christian life is about Jesus. It is about serving others as unto Jesus in the many ways God has designed you to serve. Loving others as we have been freely loved by Jesus. Growing more in our identity as the baptized into Christ Jesus. But we are not isolated, thinking only about ourselves. Baptism, as understood by the apostolic and church fathers, is all about identity in Christ Jesus and the community of the saints, that is to say, the church. The Lord's Supper is a communal meal whereby we are all united in our Lord and to one another. This is why we should not catch our cues from pop culture or pop-Christian culture, serving self over anything else or remaining isolated from others." -page 37
