I hate reading online religious blogs that always mock people, putting the worst construction on their words and actions. Recently I have figured out how to block those sites on my Internet searches, making it unlikely that I will run across them again, even by mistake.

In contrast, I love reading online blogs that discuss what's going on in the world in the light of God's Word. Sometimes I read a blog post that is so insightful, so biblical, so Lutheran that I wonder whether the blogger and I actually have the same confession of faith.

One hundred and fifty years ago—before blogs—Lutherans would read what people were writing in religious print publications and wonder the same thing. Back then they used free conferences to find out if they actually had the same confession of faith. "Free" did not mean that the conferences did not cost anything. "Free" meant that they were meetings of people whose church bodies had not declared fellowship with one another, binding themselves together to do their gospel work. At the free conferences, people discussed religious matters in order to clarify thinking and find out whether they were actually in fellowship.

Jesus prays for believers in him to be in fellowship. Talking about his disciples, he says, "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you" (John 17:20,21). I find out whether a person believes in Jesus through the message of the apostles by listening to that person's confession of faith. With just a little research, I can find out whether that person belongs to a church that takes Jesus seriously when he says, "and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20).

"Everything I have commanded you," the entire Scriptures, seems like a lot of things to investigate. But Lutherans have often observed that if you get a few key things correct, like the doctrine of justification, everything else usually falls into place. Our churches teach that human beings cannot be justified before God by their own powers, merits, or works. But they are justified as a gift on account of Christ through faith. Faith trusts that they are received into grace and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. God reckons this faith as righteousness (Romans 3, 4).

More and more I am running across bloggers who get justification right. I suppose their blogs themselves could serve as online free conferences. But I'd like to get together in person with those people in modern free conferences in order to clarify thinking and find out whether we are actually in fellowship.