Comment by Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon, English Lay Preacher

From Slice of Laodicea, another blog about apostasy:

Spurgeon Gem for Today

Heresies in the Christian church come never from the city missionary, never from the faithful pastor, never from the intense evangelist; but always from gentlemen at ease who take no actual part in our holy war.

–C.H. Spurgeon

My Comment: The heretics of today who undermine the authority of Scripture drift from conference to conference to book signing to yet another conference. They fly first class or in their own jets, they have huge advances from their publishers and they live very, very comfortable lives. It isn’t difficult being a false teacher. Satan always makes sure that there is plenty of money and that there are plenty of followers to reward such men and women. But their final reward is what matters, and I tremble to think about it. How much better to soldier on here, to take the incoming missiles and the affliction and yet to do it with our Savior by our side. We have all eternity to rest.

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GJ - Are they talking about Leonard Sweet? Church and Change? The Church Growth Gurus?

Slice of Laodicea Has Some Words about the LCMS

LCMS Invites Emerging Guru Dan Kimball **Updated**

Apparently finding God in His Word is no longer enough. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is inviting emerging church guru Dan Kimball to address a youth ministry conference. This is the same Kimball who had his book, The Emerging Church, forwarded by neo-liberal heretic Brian McLaren. Brian McLaren does not believe in a literal hell or the substitutionary atonement of Christ and believes that monogamous homosexual relationships are A-Ok. (See McLaren featured at the “gay” Open Door Community Church in Arkansas. Scroll down on the last link to see “Pastors” Randy and Gary snuggling up together.) Does the LCMS feel any longer that spiritual affiliations are important? They would not allow a conservative Baptist or Reformed pastor in the door to preach, but they are allowing Dan Kimball who asks gay-supportive, substitutionary atonement denying Brian McLaren to write a forward for his book, to tell them how to reach youth? Is the Holy Spirit so absent in church now that they are reduced to asking men like Kimball how to conduct ministry?

Kimball supports the stampede back to mysticism with labyrinths, eastern-style meditation and Lectio Divina. He leapfrogs the Reformation and tells us we need to go back to the Desert Fathers to learn how to experience God. I somewhere missed that section of the Book of Concord where it tells us that we meet God in the silence and our imaginations. Emerging church authors and leaders routinely dismiss the Reformation and its biblical Solas as irrelevant. “We are in postmodern times now. That’s outmoded modernity. Everything must change now. Re-imagine church. Redefine the Scriptures as narrative instead of Divine fiat. Who ever said Scripture Alone was true anyway?” Having researched the emerging church for years now, I can say authoritatively that they are waging the biggest assault on Scriptural authority than we’ve seen in the last 100 years.

The thought of bringing emerging church guru, Dan Kimball, into the LCMS to teach ought to be ringing alarms bells at the headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. Oh, wait a minute. Those are the same people bringing Dan Kimball in. Looks like it’s time for another Reformation, this time in the Lutheran church.

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GJ - Notice how naive the writer is about the LCMS (or substitute WELS, ELS, and the micro-minis)! Missouri welcomed a feminist, pro-gay, pro-abortion preacher in the pulpit. Was anything done? She became the Lyman Beecher lecturer at Yale Divinity (the best homiletics gig in America).

Watch the St. Louis seminary president swooning as Leonard Sweet talks about himself, sounding like one of those elderly hippies who over-ingested banned substances.

The video can be found here.

Sweet-hearts in WELS invited him to speak in 2005 (Church and Change).

The four-letter synods crawl into the laps of the false teachers and coo at them, so one more heretic is hardly a crushing blow to orthodoxy. Each wave of apathy from the clergy and laity prepares the way for the next worse teacher of falsehood. Synod minders like Rev. Mouse are not as keen to defend false doctrine as they are to attack personally those who warn others. Synod minders like Mouse are not pro-Church Growth Movement. They are anti-anti-Church Growth Movement, a subtle difference.

Comments and Questions from a WELS Layman

Well so far I have gotten through about 140 pages of Thy Strong Word. I am enjoying it. Thank you for being able to put into words what I have been trying to verbalize myself for sometime. I have come to these conclusions in the last 5 years or so.
1. God may be testing the WELS to show if they really believe and trust in His Word.
2. Many people do not know even know what Confessional Lutheranism is, therefore how would they be able to refute the trends. I would suspect pastors as well.
3. Many have been duped with the idea that "the content doesn't change" with regards to the contemporary style services. I still remember in the ALC it was what was left out and not taught that left me wanting.
4. There seems to be great confusion of how God the Holy Spirit works and builds His Church.
5. There is a degree, it would seem, of envy and jealousy toward the churches out there that are leading the way with their "great numbers." That alone should make the alarms ring.

My one question thus far has to do with a statement in in introduction. "we now belong to the largest Lutheran synod of all, the 5,000,000 people who are Lutherans but refuse to attend the synodical franchise actively engaged in publishing." Could you explain this to me. Are you saying that there are 5 million confessional Lutherans with "no home?" Also how is that number quantified?

Have you ever gone to the web site - Slice of Laodicea? Just google that. They are definitely not Lutheran, but they bring out many concerns about the "Purpose Driven Church" etc. They also have a national radio broadcast.

Thanks again. This book confirms what I have learned by personal observation and experience in the last 17 years. I'll have to find a copy of the book that Kurt Marquart wrote. I think you should consider doing an abbreviated work, say of 150-200 pages or so that is more summary in nature and less intimidating for many who would be interested in what your driving at with this book. Not that it is a difficult read. It's very readable and it gives lots of great Lutheran and Biblical quotes. I have always wanted to ask Kincaid Smith if he ever thought of doing a book called What's Going On With Confessional Lutherans.

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GJ - This anonymous layman sent me the signed email copied above. He asked about the largest synod. The 5 million Lutherans mentioned in Thy Strong Word are those people who call themselves Lutherans but will not go to church.

I doubt Kincaid Smith will admit anything going wrong among confessional Lutherans. He was a nasty part of driving Rolf Preus out of the ELS. When I need a hatchet man, I will phone Kin. If I need a writer, I will contact someone else.

Note to new Ichabodians - the complete text of Thy Strong Word is linked on the main page. The book is also found at Thy Strong Word. Also, portions of the book are being published on Lulu.com. My editor and I decided on omitting the Greek citations. So far the justification chapter is published (chapter five). No one else has gathered all the quotations (within reason) supporting justification-without-faith and those quotations from the Bible and the Book of Concord that refute UOJ.

Step One for Church and Change - Expletive Deleted

Now that people have reacted appropriately to the cheap shot from Church and Change (about Pastor Bartling), the sound file has been removed. Perhaps all the downloads ground their server to a halt!

Step Two - Church and Change should issue an apology on the same website:
Apologize for the so-called sermon, especially the intentional insult of Pastor Bartling, causing the bovine audience to laugh.
Step Three - Apologize to WELS and the ELS for the conference.
Step Four - Dissolve the apostate lobby in order to find time to read the Book of Concord.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Step One for Church and Change - Expletive Deleted...":

1 John 2:18-19 (King James Version)

18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Pastor Mark Bartling - A Man I Know

Church and Change attacked Pastor Mark Bartling (retired WELS pastor) in the so-called sermon given at the end of the conference.

I have known Pastor Bartling for many years. He was LCR at one time and joined WELS. He is one of the rare pastors who will publish in favor of sound doctrine. Pastor Bartling is the kind of man anyone would want to have in a confessional Lutheran congregation. As one layman wrote to me, "Does anyone know what confessional Lutheran means now?

Bartling's sin was publishing criticism of Church and Change in Christian News. The point of the alleged sermon was, "We won. You lost. They closed us down in 2005, but we registered this conference on the official WELS website, showing how proud Wisconsin is of our work. Nyah. Nyah."

This kind of attitude is typical among the Church Growth apostates. They have been spitting in the face of faithful Lutherans (WELS-ELS-LCMS) for decades while people say, "It seems humid in here." They know the pastors do not have the guts to stand up to them, so they are arrogant and stupid. Read Luther's statements on false teachere here on Ichabod.

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WELS teacher has left a new comment on your post "Pastor Mark Bartling - A Man I Know":

Dr. Mark Braun, I know Pastor Bartling and you are no Pastor Bartling.