This week on the word of the Lord endures forever we launch into the Prophet mica with the Lord is coming,

exile is coming, woe to oppressors, do not preach, and rulers denounced.

Join me, pastor Will Wheaton, for the word of the Lord indoors forever,

your daily 15 minute verse by verse Bible study on demand demand listen at the word endorsed

or on your favorite podcast provider. There is a saying sadly popular among some Lutherans that Christianity doesn't move us from vice to

virtue it moves us from virtue to Christ and it sounds good at the beginning

doesn't it but it's a false dichotomy. Well scripture never pits Christ against virtue. In fact

scripture calls us to virtue and talks about our struggle not only against vice

yes but also toward Virtue.

Welcome back to issues, etc. I'm Todd Wilkin.

Joining us to talk about that struggle against Vice and for virtue Dr. Michael

Febercorn, he's pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in St Charles, Missouri, he earned his

master of Divinity and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Concordia Seminary and is author of the new book

Battle of the Soul Luther Reforms Vice and Virtue. Dr. Feiber Korn, welcome.

Oh thank you. Good to be with you. Why have the ideas of vice and virtue been rejected by some Lutherans today?

Well, I think the primary reason is we haven't talked about them a lot.

They're in Luther but they've sort of been discarded by our emphasis on the categories of

long gospel as a hermonitic and an interpretive tool for the scriptures, which they are incredibly

valuable, but I think we've lost a little bit of sight about the idea of how we are formed

as Christians.

Also a lot of people hold to this understanding that when you preach the gospel and

it regenerates a Christian heart, that sort of these good works, these virtuous qualities

...