Christians have a weapon far more powerful than the combined crafts and assaults of the apostates: the Word of God. Conservatives should not aspire to take over the reigns of power. We end up accomplishing only what we concentrate upon (and often not even that).
When the Cloaca Maxima of Hell, Fuller Seminary, got ministers, members, and mission boards to think about numbers, all the energy and focus turned on "How do we increase our numbers each year?" Gone was any thought of being faithful to the Word of God and the Confessions. In a few years, Biblical and Confessional thinking became the enemy.
Nevertheless, the great power of the Word is revealed in the demonic hatred of the apostates toward any semblance of fidelity to the Scriptures. The wrath and vindictiveness of these people can be stunning. They are not nice people, as they pretend. They cry out "Slander!" when questioned about their false doctrine and run the crudest slander machines on the planet, making the secular politicians look tame.
Believers only have the Word and the Confessions. Satan cannot tolerate ordinary, weak, fallible humans having a weapon that will always defeat him, so he rages without mercy. He will tear apart pastor's families, divide friends, ruin people financially. All this is cloaked with sanctity, but there is no doubt about the malice behind it. That is why so many are afraid of synodical apostates. Pure poison is beneath the buttered words.
Therefore, believers will always seem to be in a weak and losing position. Faithful pastors will get the two-point calls to Forgotten Lutheran and Misbegotten Lutheran, in Buffalo Chip, Oklahoma. People will sneer at their misfortune, as they should. As Luther said, "What the world loves, God despises; what God loves, the world despises."
A faithful layman or pastor will fulfill the dream of Archimedes: "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world." The lever for the faithful pastor or layman is the Word of God. Archimedes' hyperbole is reality with the efficacy of the Word.
The Invocation of the Holy Trinity is calling upon the power of God. The Absolution is the Promise of God fulfilled. The Creed, the liturgical service, and genuine hymns all support the proclamation of the Gospel, justification by faith alone. The Votum is a prayer by Paul and by the pastor for all the worshipers in the Lutheran service. The Aaronic benediction is not a sign-off, a time for grabbing the coat, purse, and kids, but the blessing of God Himself: the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Each time we hear those words we should think of the Trinity implicitly taught already in Numbers 6--The Lord, The Lord, The Lord.
Who can predict what one baptism will accomplish when accompanied by the nurture of the family (and even without it)? One believer marries another or converts the spouse. In a few years, that one baptism has turned into 100 family members as people gather for the funeral of a matriarch or patriarch. Some family members drift away from the Gospel, but others are converted by marriage or association. No one will write this up in Time, Newsweek, or the National Enquirer: Baptism in Steam Corners, Ohio lays foundation for 100 Christians.
Lutherans have forgotten the cross. The cross consists of those experiences directly related to being faithful to the Word. Cancer is not bearing the cross. Heart disease is not bearing the cross. Nor is homework, as one seminary student suggested.
When the synodical pope kicks congregations and pastors out for questioning his ambiguous political statements, that is bearing the cross. When the district popes remove pastors for questioning Church Growth doctrine and support known false teachers, that is bearing the cross.
The Wisconsin Synod ministerium has an informal communication system (much like a prison) called the Grapevine. The pastors are deathly afraid of the Grapevine. The apostates feed excuses for their fellow-apostates into the Grapevine and pitch slander against the faithful in the same way. For example, the former seminary president was called senile by the Grapevine, because he opposed the NWC-DMLC Anschluss. While he was dying of a stroke, a highly respected pastor was called brain-damaged for writing against Church Growth. He published his article before the stroke, but the Grapevine does not care about facts.
We should be afraid of God, not the Grapevine.
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2 KJV
Benefits of Being a Faithful Pastor, Ascending Order
1. Frequents moves. The adulterous (whether spiritually or carnally, often both) cannot abide the Word of God. They keep pastors moving.
2. New friends. The political pastors will not associate with anyone tainted by dissent from apostasy.
3. Lasting friends. Those who love orthodox Lutheran doctrine are united across synodical lines.
4. Renewed friends. Some people turn away when the painful truths are made known, but return to say, "It's worse than anything you ever said or wrote."
5. Knowledge that God's will is accomplished through His Word alone and never apart from His Word.
6. Seeing God at work in the Means of Grace, pastoral visitation, and teaching.
There is an abundant supply of evil people in the visible church. As Rauschenbusch said, religion is powerful. When united with good, it is a powerful good. When united with evil, it is a powerful evil.
However, God is just. Time wounds all heels.
The temptation is great to compromise for a better position, a chance to leave the cares and concerns of a congregation. The warped and twisted nature of our world is revealed in that pastors long to leave the Means of Grace to sit around at synodical meetings dealing with everything except the Means of Grace - and for higher pay and benefits. The rich, black suits and oreo collars! The new model cars! Housing allowance! Trips around the world on the synod's budget! Hobnobbing with the nabobs of Wikiletics! Name-dropping: Maxwell, Sweet, McNeal, Warren--at a seminary reunion!
Unfortunately, ministers are not encouraged to think of their work as worthwhile. Even if no one else thinks so, each minister should realize the power of God's Word and the wisdom of the Confessions.
Reading small histories has always been a hobby. Booklets tell about one small group of Lutherans, a group of missionaries, a district, a synod that emerged from various trends and merged into a new one. My dissertation was about the Augustana Synod, which lasted 100 years. The puzzle is figuring out who those leaders were. Many mother churches are gone, due to demographic and doctrinal trends. I wonder, "What remains?" Those who liked to strut about because of their power are forgotten by everyone. The Word of God remains forever. When those leaders were faithful, the Gospel bore fruit one hundred-fold. The faithful of those years embarrass the mods of today. The faithful are forgotten but God's work and will remain. The faithful win by losing.
