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Heaven on Earth: The Gifts of Christ in the Divine Service
Heaven on Earth will deepen your understanding of the Divine Service and why it remains the Church's chief worship service. The author shows how the Divine Service has its roots in the worship of both the Old and New Testaments and explains how the liturgy is thoroughly anchored in Scripture. You will come to a greater appreciation for the rich treasures that Christ gives to His people as they gather around His Word and Sacraments.
307 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
32 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Arthur A. Just Jr.
9 books8 followersDr. Arthur A. Just Jr. is professor of exegetical theology and dean of the chapel at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He studied at Union College in Schenectady, New York (B.A.), Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, Indiana (M.Div.), Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut (S.T.M.), and the University of Durham, England (Ph.D.).
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 10, 2025
The Lutheran version of Schmemann's For the Life of the World. Absolutely superb, and easily one of the most recommendable overviews of what Lutheranism means. It also doubles as a very helpful introductory overview of the history of Christian worship and the development of the liturgy.
March 21, 2024
4.5 Winsome, and even thrilling, this book (excepting the last chapter) is a song of joy for the superabundant, storytelling feast of service God gives to us through His Word and Sacrament every Sunday - "a living heritage and something new."
Here's a brief taste:
1 Theology of worship:
What is foremost in our worship is not our service and sacrifice to God, but His service and sacrifice for us. God does not need our worship and praise and service, but we do need His service, His presence, His gifts of forgiveness. Worship is a celebration of His salvific presence. Liturgy is first and foremost the activity of God.
2 Historic Liturgy:
Rituals themselves are neither dead nor alive - those who participate in them make them appear as living and vital, or dead.
3 Jewish origins of Christian worship: Although Jesus was critical of many aspects of Israel's religious life, He never spoke against their liturgical life. Christian liturgy grew out of Jewish worship rites.
4 The Table Fellowship of Jesus: Worship in the NT Church is a continuing table fellowship with God that reaches back into the Old Testament and looks ahead to the wedding supper of the Lamb in heaven.
5. New Creation:
Sacraments are the new miracles of Jesus because they testify to the bodily presence of Christ in His creation bringing in the new creation.
6. Psalms in worship:
To understand the Psalms as Scripture's song sung in the presence of God is to understand that Jesus Christ is the center of the Old Testament, its purpose and its goal.
7 Christian concept of time:
The Christian concept of time is filled with Jesus' presence as He enters our lives and into our space and time. Eschatologically, the eucharist is a participation in the end of time - an actual foretaste of Heaven, not just an expectation of its future coming. Historically, it is a meeting with the crucified and risen Christ *now* present with His Church - not just a recollection of the events of His career.
8 Baptism:
We tend to trust only those things that come to us through our minds, not realizing that our senses together with our minds will provide the richest experience of reality.
9 Liturgy of the Word:
To be reading the same texts on the same Sunday as other Christians throughout the world is a passive but significant expression of our common confession that Jesus is Lord and Savior of the whole world.
10 Liturgy of the Lord's Supper:
It is the Lord's Supper, not ours; He does the giving and the feeding, and we simply receive these gifts in faith and to His glory, recipients of heaven itself in our very bodies.
11 Historic Liturgy among Lutherans: This wonderful book tragically loses a star for the whiggish character of this chapter (a term coined by Christian historian Herbert Butterfield to describe tidy 'just so' storytelling that assumes the inevitability of certain outcomes), and the perplexing gaff of referring to the Christianized (albeit Arian) Gothic "barbarians" as animists at the time of the invasion. Possibly he conflated these historical events with missionary ventures?
Here's a brief taste:
1 Theology of worship:
What is foremost in our worship is not our service and sacrifice to God, but His service and sacrifice for us. God does not need our worship and praise and service, but we do need His service, His presence, His gifts of forgiveness. Worship is a celebration of His salvific presence. Liturgy is first and foremost the activity of God.
2 Historic Liturgy:
Rituals themselves are neither dead nor alive - those who participate in them make them appear as living and vital, or dead.
3 Jewish origins of Christian worship: Although Jesus was critical of many aspects of Israel's religious life, He never spoke against their liturgical life. Christian liturgy grew out of Jewish worship rites.
4 The Table Fellowship of Jesus: Worship in the NT Church is a continuing table fellowship with God that reaches back into the Old Testament and looks ahead to the wedding supper of the Lamb in heaven.
5. New Creation:
Sacraments are the new miracles of Jesus because they testify to the bodily presence of Christ in His creation bringing in the new creation.
6. Psalms in worship:
To understand the Psalms as Scripture's song sung in the presence of God is to understand that Jesus Christ is the center of the Old Testament, its purpose and its goal.
7 Christian concept of time:
The Christian concept of time is filled with Jesus' presence as He enters our lives and into our space and time. Eschatologically, the eucharist is a participation in the end of time - an actual foretaste of Heaven, not just an expectation of its future coming. Historically, it is a meeting with the crucified and risen Christ *now* present with His Church - not just a recollection of the events of His career.
8 Baptism:
We tend to trust only those things that come to us through our minds, not realizing that our senses together with our minds will provide the richest experience of reality.
9 Liturgy of the Word:
To be reading the same texts on the same Sunday as other Christians throughout the world is a passive but significant expression of our common confession that Jesus is Lord and Savior of the whole world.
10 Liturgy of the Lord's Supper:
It is the Lord's Supper, not ours; He does the giving and the feeding, and we simply receive these gifts in faith and to His glory, recipients of heaven itself in our very bodies.
11 Historic Liturgy among Lutherans: This wonderful book tragically loses a star for the whiggish character of this chapter (a term coined by Christian historian Herbert Butterfield to describe tidy 'just so' storytelling that assumes the inevitability of certain outcomes), and the perplexing gaff of referring to the Christianized (albeit Arian) Gothic "barbarians" as animists at the time of the invasion. Possibly he conflated these historical events with missionary ventures?
March 30, 2024
Like my reading companion for this book (@R.L.S.D.), I give it 4.5 stars.
(I was about to continue by saying, “All the stars come from the wonder…” and then just about threw up in my mouth at how dumb that sounded. But then it struck me funny, and it’s true. So I wrote it anyway.)
Reading this in tandem with Grace Upon Grace, my wonder, awe, gratitude, and awareness of what is happening in the sacramental church service have exponentially increased. This book (both these books) have increased my devotional experience of church — which is important to me for obvious reasons, but also because I love that I can share my story with Christians who may have had negative experiences with ritual. Arthur Just particularly emphasizes that when ritual is “dead,” the problem is with us — not with the ritual. The rhythms of the divine service — the repeated words, repeated confessions, repeated forgiveness, repeated songs — these are anchors for the soul, meat for our (often) skin-and-bones faith, full of the emotion of thousands of years of church history but not dependent on our feelings on a given Sunday. The whole service is about feeding the hungry with the gifts of Jesus: namely, His Word and His Supper. I’m reminded of Herbert: “You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: / So I did sit and eat.”
Just loses half a star for an occasional tone that I’m especially sensitive to; I know these parts wouldn’t be winsome for those who might engage the book with skepticism. But these moments are not many. He also sounds like he wrote the last chapter with the publisher standing over his shoulder with a stopwatch. He is careless in several places with content and tone — an unfortunate conclusion to an otherwise beautiful (if a little dense) reflection on how Jesus loves His church.
(I was about to continue by saying, “All the stars come from the wonder…” and then just about threw up in my mouth at how dumb that sounded. But then it struck me funny, and it’s true. So I wrote it anyway.)
Reading this in tandem with Grace Upon Grace, my wonder, awe, gratitude, and awareness of what is happening in the sacramental church service have exponentially increased. This book (both these books) have increased my devotional experience of church — which is important to me for obvious reasons, but also because I love that I can share my story with Christians who may have had negative experiences with ritual. Arthur Just particularly emphasizes that when ritual is “dead,” the problem is with us — not with the ritual. The rhythms of the divine service — the repeated words, repeated confessions, repeated forgiveness, repeated songs — these are anchors for the soul, meat for our (often) skin-and-bones faith, full of the emotion of thousands of years of church history but not dependent on our feelings on a given Sunday. The whole service is about feeding the hungry with the gifts of Jesus: namely, His Word and His Supper. I’m reminded of Herbert: “You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat: / So I did sit and eat.”
Just loses half a star for an occasional tone that I’m especially sensitive to; I know these parts wouldn’t be winsome for those who might engage the book with skepticism. But these moments are not many. He also sounds like he wrote the last chapter with the publisher standing over his shoulder with a stopwatch. He is careless in several places with content and tone — an unfortunate conclusion to an otherwise beautiful (if a little dense) reflection on how Jesus loves His church.
June 10, 2016
Beautiful explanation of the liturgy
Dr Just does a masterful job of explaining the depth and catholicity of the Lutheran Divine Service. Great review for pastors, very accessible to laity.
Dr Just does a masterful job of explaining the depth and catholicity of the Lutheran Divine Service. Great review for pastors, very accessible to laity.
March 16, 2025
Excellent read, wish I had read this back in college. This book has incredibly helpful information on almost every part of the LCMS’ liturgy, eye opening sections on the early church and what their liturgy looked like, and a great understanding of scripture and how it informs the liturgy. I have to say the sections on Word, Baptism, and Communion were stellar, and the section on the Christian understanding of time went from kinda dry to incredible over 5 pages. The final section of the book where he tracks the development of the liturgy from the first century to today was so good I want a whole book on it. The final chapter kinda started to lose me, it was just redundant to get a conclusion that said “hey you who just read a whole book on traditional liturgy, we should keep the traditional liturgy”. Yes Dr. Just, you convinced me in chapter 1.
4/5 stars, I only took off a star because the writing was dense and felt like it was written for a seminarian. Definitely will come back to this book.
4/5 stars, I only took off a star because the writing was dense and felt like it was written for a seminarian. Definitely will come back to this book.
December 14, 2025
“The time has come for Lutherans to stop apologizing for their liturgical heritage. Instead, we need to proclaim the gifts we inherit in our worship life as Lutheran Christians who continue the catholic tradition.”
This book works on several different levels. In the first place, for any Lutheran who seeks to see the truly divine in our liturgy, it provides the details needed to connect the dots between the Word, the Sacraments, and our history. Second, it advocates for the liturgy not as a simply inherited way of doing things, but as a biblical bridge between Christ and his Church on earth (hence the title). Third, it makes the case that our liturgy as biblical and apocalyptic truly gives the gifts of Christ’s works to the world—it is in a sense how we evangelize (bring Christ to the world) and for that reason we should not bring the world to the liturgy. It is through the liturgy that we receive the means of grace now and always.
This book works on several different levels. In the first place, for any Lutheran who seeks to see the truly divine in our liturgy, it provides the details needed to connect the dots between the Word, the Sacraments, and our history. Second, it advocates for the liturgy not as a simply inherited way of doing things, but as a biblical bridge between Christ and his Church on earth (hence the title). Third, it makes the case that our liturgy as biblical and apocalyptic truly gives the gifts of Christ’s works to the world—it is in a sense how we evangelize (bring Christ to the world) and for that reason we should not bring the world to the liturgy. It is through the liturgy that we receive the means of grace now and always.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2014
This is a book by a true liturgical scholar who has a deep knowledge of both how the liturgy of the church was influenced by Old Testament worship, and also how the church continued to shape the liturgy throughout the years. It is common for books on liturgy to either deal exclusively with Biblical theology, ignoring the rich, living tradition of the church; or exclusively with historical theology without shedding light on the biblical grounds on which things were introduced. Ultimately, New Testament worship is eschatological, with Christ bodily present in both Word and Sacrament and Arthur Just makes the case from both the Bible and the traditions passed down by the church in her wisdom. This is the best book on liturgy I have read so far.
July 16, 2015
Very deep - laymen, keep your dictionary handy. Given my rare 5-star due to it's relevance, importance, readability, value, gift, etc. Arthur Just uses Christ Himself to translate scripture AND the history of Christianity into the Lutheran liturgy. If you are unfamiliar with Christianity, or perhaps even Lutheranism, you might find it helpful to first read Chad Bird's Why Lutherans Sing What We Sing.
I wish every congregant at church would read this, and hope all Lutheran pastors have already read it.
I wish every congregant at church would read this, and hope all Lutheran pastors have already read it.
November 11, 2020
Chapter 11 is particularly good.
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August 10, 2011Just does a tremendous job defending the Divine Service as well as explaining from Holy Scripture and the history of the Christian Church the need for orderly, liturgical worship that is a "living heritage with something new". The last chapter is worth the price of the book as Just walks the reader through a history of the Church and how the liturgy has adjusted (sometimes for good, sometimes for bad) as the Church grew. My one complaint is Just's vigorous defense of using the three-year lectionary. Yet my complaint doesn't ruin the integrity of the work. This book is as close to a seminary level class on the history of the liturgy as laymen will get without attending seminary. Recommended for pastors and laymen who wish to learn more about the Divine Service beyond the basics.
January 21, 2010
Why we go to church and worship the way we do.
January 11, 2015
Excellent! Worth re-reading annually
January 8, 2018
This is absolutely the best book on liturgy and its meaning that I think anyone could expect. It is written well, is clear and to the point, and (to top it all off) is beautifully designed and readable, outside and inside. Highly recommended for everyone interested in the theology and, to an extent, history of the Divine Service.
August 10, 2019
This book formed the basis for my summer bible class on Lutheran liturgy and worship practices. The author did a great job in breaking down the elements of the worship service and made the case for the liturgical church to continue. The church service is more than a meeting place; it is the manifestation of the New Testament church on earth as Christ calls His bride around Word and Sacraments.
December 22, 2019
Practical - Logical - explanation of why we do what we do
Well presented argument for embracing a confessional form of worship that focuses on Jesus and away from ourselves. A great resource for the historical liturgical content. I have a deeper appreciation for the gift the Church has handed down to this generation.
Well presented argument for embracing a confessional form of worship that focuses on Jesus and away from ourselves. A great resource for the historical liturgical content. I have a deeper appreciation for the gift the Church has handed down to this generation.
March 9, 2022
The conclusion is especially evangelical and strong. The whole book is informative, even for this pastor's wife. You should read this book because "Jesus Christ is the treasure of our liturgical heritage through which we receive the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. To speak of Christ as the treasure of our worship is to simply follow Jesus in the way He spoke about Himself" (277).
June 8, 2020
Inspirational and Profound
I was looking for something to deepen my worship and prayer life. This book gave me that and more. Through this study of the roots and content of liturgical worship I gained deepened and renewed faith.
I was looking for something to deepen my worship and prayer life. This book gave me that and more. Through this study of the roots and content of liturgical worship I gained deepened and renewed faith.
March 18, 2025
As a cradle Catholic, I learned a lot about liturgy! I recommend this book to all Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Episcopalian Christians, as well as those who are interested in the history of liturgy and how it relates to our spiritual lives.
December 1, 2021
An excellent primer on the concepts of liturgy and worship. While some may find Just's approach too academic, I love the intellectual rigor of it.
April 2, 2023
An amazing resource to connect how God delivers His grace to us in the Divine Service.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews