Leonard Sweet (Methodist) is near the top, just below the Fuller Seminary mascot. Reggie McNeal is in the middle. The founder of Church Growth in the Synodical Conference is on the bottom - Donald McGavran, Disciples of Christ. Their theology glorifies man and disparages Lutheran doctrine. All three get better press (among Lutherans) than Luther, Chemnitz, Melanchthon, and Gerhard combined.
Someone who never gets anything right asked about apostasy. His straw-man response was: "Are you accusing all the pastors and professors of WELS of being non-Christians?"
My answer is - No, just the leaders of WELS, the Little Sect on the Prairie, and the LCMS.
The term apostasy comes from the New Testament, which is why A. Nony Mouse knows so little about it.
KJV 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (apostasia) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The term in Greek literally means "falling away." An atheist cannot be an apostate. A Hindu cannot be an apostate. Someone must have saving faith and then lose that faith. The prime objective of all mainline seminaries has been to turn believing students into apostates. One seminary chaplain (former LCMS, then ELCA, now Roman Catholic) published an article bragging about that goal.
The genius of the old Synodical Conference leaders (LCMS, ELS, WELS) has been their ability to posture as conservatives (in contrast to ELCA, as they work with ELCA) while bowing and scraping to McGavran, McNeal, and Sweet. ELCA venerates the Baptist-Pentecostal wing too, but they generally prefer the Church of Rome.
Many of these leaders have lost all faith in Christian doctrine. Proof is their constant measuring of material results (which God denies them in His wrath or His humor) and their disparaging of spiritual treasures. Moreover, the passage from Fuller Fever to outright apostasy is impossible to measure. Who knows exactly when a man decides that Christianity is a joke but his training suits him for no other vocation? We can only measure them by what they say they believe. That is where the claw and fangs emerge from the fleece.
Apostates lie about their beliefs, unless questioned closely. I know of three Mequon seminary professors who were trained at Fuller facilities; only one admitted it consistently. Someone who studies at Fuller and either denies it or brags about it (depending on the audience) is far along the road to apostasy. The brother professors who know and yet pretend not to know are just as bad.
By now most people realize that Concordia Seminary St. Louis went slowly apostate, with the old conservatives saying nothing for decades. Rehwinkel tried to stir the faculty up about false doctrine, but the only result was his exile to foreign seminaries. (How original!) The end result was the explosion and a repetition of the same debacle.
WELS is apostate because the synod allows Church and Change to organize its conference, even worse when registration takes place through the official WELS website. The ELS is apostate for saying and doing nothing, not that they are pure otherwise. Missouri is simply retro-ELCA, a few years behind their big sister.
The Good News is - this was all predicted long ago in the New Testament.
