Brief Autobiography - Gregory L. Jackson

Mayflower Moving Van: Cf. Jonah 1:1ff


Apologia pro vita sua - In Defense of His Life 

An ELCA pastor wanted to know about my spiritual journey, so here is a brief version:

I was born a Lutheran, at Moline Lutheran Hospital, in 1948, but baptized at Plymouth Congregational Church in Moline, Illinois. My family changed to the equally generic Disciples of Christ congregation when I was eight.

I did not like my family's church so I asked a friend about his congregation, which was Salem Lutheran Church. So, at the age of 16, when my family got out of the car to go to First Christian (Disciples of Christ) I walked across the street to Salem. "Where are you going?" they yelled. I said, "Salem." I joined Salem by adult confirmation. I thought the liturgical service was great. The hymns were far better than the sentimental slop at First Christian. Salem was officially LCA but still Augustana Synod. The pastor was J. Erik Holmer.

My search for college was shallow and brief. I had visited Augustana, where my mother graduated. I applied and was accepted. Tuition in 1966 was $1,000 per year.

I met my future wife the first day of classes. Chris and I have been married for 38 years.

I did not care to attend the newly merged Chicago Seminary and my wife's relatives lived around Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. We were married about 15 minutes after graduating early from Augie, November, 1969. We honeymooned in Springfield, Illinois, and headed for Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. Our huge first year class had 10 students, one of the biggest ever. Tuition was $150 a year, but I had a scholarship from Salem for more than that.

Seminary was easy, so I took a double-load of classes and independent study. Chris earned a master's in German literature from the University of Waterloo. I began my own translation of the New Testament to learn more Greek. My intern (vicar) supervisor was Henry Opperman. Like Holmer, he was quite conservative. He was ULCA and had a low opinion of the Augustan Synod. I was able to finish college and seminary in a total of six years. I was the seminary conservative. Just as I was graduating in 1972, gay activism was starting at the seminary.

I wanted to earn a doctorate and thought about the University of Toronto, not far away. I really wanted to attend Princeton, but Opperman suggested Yale. He knew Paul L. Holmer from Yale, from serving on the same board. The seminary shunned Holmer when he came for an accreditation visit. I wonder why! I was dispatched to be the greeter. The rudeness of the seminary appalled me. My wife and I invited him to our basement apartment. He said, "How would you like to attend Yale?" He talked up Yale and mentioned many authors I knew. I thought it sounded great. He said, "See you next year." I was accepted just when I had given up hope. I was actually in the local bishop's (district president's) office, asking about a call in Canada. My wife phoned to interrupt. I was accepted.

More good news followed when we learned our first-born son was on the way. That was just before leaving Canada. So we went to Yale Divinity with no job, a huge tuition bill ($2,000 for the year) and a baby. No insurance. No problem. Yale gave us a plan that covered the delivery, and Canada made up the co-pay. Canada loaned us money. Yale loaned us money. I got very good at borrowing.

My Yale professors were very conservative in their treatment of the Biblical texts. They emphasized the content of the Scriptures rather than the liberal theories about (or against) the Bible. I worked at an Augustana Synod church down the hill, literally, from Yale Divinity. Harold Wimmer was a liberal in every respect. He loathed conservatives of all types. Holmer encouraged me to stay for a PhD, but Martin was born and I thought immediate graduate school was just too expensive. I got on the call list and accepted a call to a bi-lingual church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Our daughter Bethany was born in Cleveland and soon showed signs of trouble. She began weakening at the age of 6 months. We got the diagnosis of neurological degeneration at the same time I was accepted at Notre Dame for a PhD program. The hefty tuition bill of $3,000 per year would be paid by a scholarship. The LCA was somewhat helpful about helping graduate students - not enough to whelm anyone. I got a part-time call in Sturgis, Michigan, about 50 miles from Notre Dame.

Two things made me far more conservative during those years. One was facing the constant struggles of our daughter Bethany. Life and death issues place a lot more focus on religious topics. As one of the few Lutherans at Notre Dame, I was expected to know all about Luther. I knew Bainton from Yale and loved studying Luther. Trying to discuss Luther with people who knew next to nothing made me more studious. My dissertation involved an Augustana Seminary professor, so I had to study American Lutheran issues for a period of four years.

By the way, several Waterloo Seminary and Notre Dame professors were bewitched by Paul Tillich. From them I learned to loathe phony left-wing theologians, Tillich most of all, Karl Barth almost as much.

Notre Dame and our daughter Bethany made me increasingly conservative as the LCA became increasingly liberal. I believe the end of hopes for a merger with the LCMS helped the LCA go radical faster. Also, the LCA got the worst radicals from Seminex.

Having a disabled member of the family has been a 30+ year experience: first Bethany, who lived six years; then Erin Joy, who lived seven years; now my wife, who became disabled in 1994.

The ELCA pastor asked about women's ordination. It was approved in the LCA in 1970, once Franklin C. Fry died. (He would not even discuss the topic.) Very few women parish pastors were ordained until the 1980's. We knew the first one in Michigan. She did not last long in the parish, but I was followed by a woman in Sturgis and by another in Midland.

I finished the PhD in 1982, when I was serving in Midland. I was not looking for a teaching job. My research skills were sharpened by Notre Dame and I knew what real Lutheran doctrine was. The rush toward merger was sickening because the worst aspects of all parties were being featured. What disgusted me most was the pro-abortion stance of the LCA (far worse in ELCA now), plus the constant support of Communist revolution, and the emerging Lavender Mafia. Homosexual activists took over the Michigan Synod, LCA, before I left. I proposed two memorials at my last meeting. The pro-life memorial got 50 votes. The anti-sodomy memorial got even fewer votes.

I entered LCMS colloquy but had my doubts after seeing the Indianapolis convention where Bohlmann was re-elected. I switched to WELS, which had good and bad results. I knew WELS would be parochial, small-minded, petty, and probably anti-intellectual. I was far too optimistic. The sanctimony of WELS is beyond belief, especially when measured against its constant plagiarizing of Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek doctrine.

The good I learned from WELS was Lutheran doctrine. Every lie, dirty trick, false claim, and slander sent me back to the Book of Concord, Chemnitz, Walther, Pieper, and Luther above all. When Wayne Mueller claimed in writing that there was no Church Growth in WELS, I began documenting all the quotations. WELS pastors sent me seminary material. Sure, they ducked like rabbits who spotted a hawk's shadow when anything happened, but at least I had the documents.

Erin Joy died when we were in Columbus, Ohio, in the WELS parish. When I opposed Paul Kuske's efforts to put a clergy adulterer back into the ministry, WELS spread the story that I went insane when Erin died. (Various friends told me what they heard from the famous WELS grapevine.) I would argue that only insane synod leaders would put an amoral man back into the ministry. That was also when my wife became disabled.

I was disgusted with the pathetic leadership of the Michigan District of WELS, the constant lies of the praesidium, and the cowardice of the pastors. I resigned from my call and went to St. Louis for three years. I got along with life insurance sales but went back into the parish in the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic). This CLC is just the backside of WELS, just as enchanted by the Church Growth Movement and UOJ as the Wisconsin sect is. I was fired over a Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner, which gave me the chance and the need to start an independent congregation.

So I would say I learned Lutheran doctrine at Notre Dame and Lutheran orthodoxy in Columbus. I did not learn Lutheran orthodoxy because anyone in Columbus represented or taught that stance. It was just the opposite. The clergy did everything possible to undermine Lutheran doctrine in any form. That made me study where it all went wrong. That led me to intensive reading in Luther and writing several books.

It was strange to have the District Pope acting like I had VD because I published Lutheran doctrine. The same District Pope encouraged every possible manifestation of apostasy, from Crossroads Community Church and Pilgrim Community Church to Lutheran (sic) Parish Resources in Columbus.

Being independent is a challenge filled with many blessings. God provides. He even provides until He provides. We left Canada with a baby on the way and no job. We left Holy Mother WELS with a disability and short-term health insurance. At every step there has been insurance coverage for my wife. Her coverage is the best it has been and she is fairly strong after a series of setbacks in 2007.

I suggest to pastors that they follow God's Word and let Him do His work. If He wants a pastor to stay in that place, nothing will move that minister. If He wants that pastor to move, nothing will keep him there. Jonah found out the hard way.

Education
1966 - Moline High School, Illinois
1969 - Augustana College, Illinois, BA in Latin and Greek
1972 - Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, MDiv in Biblical Studies
1973 - Yale University, STM in Biblical Studies
1982 - University of Notre Dame, PhD in Theology and Biblical Studies
1995 - Chartered Life Underwriter, American College
1999 - Computer certifications: CCNA, CIW Associate, Linux+, A+, N+, i-Net+
2006 - MA, Distance Education, University of Phoenix
2009 - Twenty hours toward an MA, Journalism, Regent University

Former professors: Otto W. Heick, Paul L. Holmer, Robert Wilson, Abraham Malherbe,
Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza and Frank Schussler-Fiorenza, Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder.

Attended lectures by:
Martin Marty, Sydney Ahlstrom, Roland Bainton, Helmut Thielicke, Robert Preus, Klemet Preus, Kurt Marquart, David Scaer, Elie Wiesel, and Henri Nouwen.

Met or listened to:
Paul Y. Cho, Billy Graham, Grady Wilson, D. James Kennedy, Laurens van der Post, Jaroslav Pelikan, Richard J. Neuhaus (and his father), Jack Preus, Herman Otten, Al Barry, Herb Chilstron, James Crumley, Robert Marshall, and David Preus.

Books
Spiritual Well-Being of the Elderly (contributed)
A. D. Mattson, Augustana Historical Society (dissertation)
Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure, Northwestern Publishing House
Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant
Angel Joy
The Wormhaven Gardening Book
Thy Strong Word
Jesus Priceless Treasure
Jesus Lord of Creation
Brenda Kiehler 

Creation Gardening

The Lost Dutchman's Goldmine

The Sermons of Martin Luther - edited

Gems from Luther's Sermons
Periodicals
Articles published in The Lutheran (LCA), Purpose (Mennonite), Lutheran Standard (ALC), Lutheran Forum, Christian News (banned for teaching Justification by Faith), Nortwestern Lutheran (WELS), Lutheran Spokesman (CLC - sic), Lutheran Journal, John Milton Magazine, Lutheran Digest, Canada Lutheran (LCA).

Ordained in 1973. Pastoral work: 1973 - present, except for 1992 - 1995.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Brief Autobiography":

Oh please! Who cares? I want to puke!

GJ - The ELCA pastor cares. But thanks for the excellent coda to my Jonah reference.

Welcome, SpenerQuest fans. Where would Justification without Faith be without Enthusiasts like you?

Presiding Bishop Jefferts-Schori's Christmas Card

The Three Wise Women - And Where's Joseph?
To the Clergy and 2007 Convention Delegates,

The members of your Standing Committee thought you should be aware of this.

The Presiding Bishop has done something which defies explanation. This is the Christmas card she sent to Bishop Iker and presumably other TEC bishops. Given the increasing polarization in TEC (and the Anglican Communion) today, the only reason we can see for her to make this choice is that she is only interested in pushing the polarization just that much further.

The Presiding Bishop is an intelligent woman, so this reinterpretation of Scripture to exclude masculine images must be intentional. This card illustrates in many ways the core problem of the General Convention Church. Scripture cannot be made to conform to us, we must conform our lives and our faith to Scripture. We will continue to stand for the traditional expression of the Faith.

The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth

***

GJ - Notice how the mocking attitude is found in each denomination. The Episcopalian Presiding Bishop cannot keep herself from lording it over the traditionalists, and the radicals cheer her on. How much different is that from SP Kieschnick in the Missouri Synod, Mark Hanson in ELCA, and Church and Change in WELS?

These are Jefferts-Schori's views on Creation and salvation, from Time Magazine:

What is your view on intelligent design?

I firmly believe that evolution ought to be taught in the schools as the best witness of what modern science has taught us. To try to read the Bible literalistically about such issues disinvites us from using the best of recent scholarship.

Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?

We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.

To My Friends and Enemies

God the Father, by Michelangelo

95] From this our explanation, friends and enemies, and therefore every one, may clearly infer that we have no intention of yielding aught of the eternal, immutable truth of God for the sake of temporal peace, tranquillity, and unity (which, moreover, is not in our power to do).

Nor would such peace and unity, since it is devised against the truth and for its suppression, have any permanency. Still less are we inclined to adorn and conceal a corruption of the pure doctrine and manifest, condemned errors.

But we entertain heartfelt pleasure and love for, and are on our part sincerely inclined and anxious to advance, that unity according to our utmost power, by which His glory remains to God uninjured, nothing of the divine truth of the Holy Gospel is surrendered, no room is given to the least error, poor sinners are brought to true, genuine repentance, raised up by faith, confirmed in new obedience, and thus justified and eternally saved alone through the sole merit of Christ.

Closing of the Book of Concord

Formula of Concord - Election - Means of Grace

The Sower and the Seed, by Norma Boeckler

76] Moreover, the declaration, John 6, 44, that no one can come to Christ except the Father draw him, is right and true. However, the Father will not do this without means, but has ordained for this purpose His Word and Sacraments as ordinary means and instruments; and it is the will neither of the Father nor of the Son that a man should not hear or should despise the preaching of His Word, and wait for the drawing of the Father without the Word and Sacraments. For the Father draws indeed by the power of His Holy Ghost, however, according to His usual order [the order decreed and instituted by Himself], by the hearing of His holy, divine Word, as with a net, by which the elect are plucked from the jaws of the devil. 77] Every poor sinner should therefore repair thereto [to holy preaching], hear it attentively, and not doubt the drawing of the Father. For the Holy Ghost will be with His Word in His power, and work by it; and that is the drawing of the Father.

Formula of Concord - Election

The Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, On Election

29] And this call of God, which is made through the preaching of the Word, we should not regard as jugglery, but know that thereby God reveals His will, that in those whom He thus calls He will work through the Word, that they may be enlightened, converted, and saved. For the Word, whereby we are called, is a ministration of the Spirit, that gives the Spirit, or whereby the Spirit is given, 2 Cor. 3, 8, and a power of God unto salvation, Rom. 1, 16. And since the Holy Ghost wishes to be efficacious through the Word, and to strengthen and give power and ability, it is God's will that we should receive the Word, believe and obey it.

30] For this reason the elect are described thus, John 10, 27f : My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life. And Eph. 1, 11. 13: Those who according to the purpose are predestinated to an inheritance hear the Gospel, believe in Christ, pray and give thanks, are sanctified in love, have hope, patience, and comfort under the cross, Rom. 8, 25; and although all this is very weak in them, yet they hunger and thirst after righteousness, Matt. 5, 6.

Jefferts-Schori Extends Left Foot of Fellowship to 87 Year Old Bishop

Pope John the Malefactor Taught Me How; I Will Show Him How Often

OKLAHOMA: Oldest Bishop in the Episcopal Church Served Deposition Papers

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/19/2008

The oldest bishop in the history of The Episcopal Church, who has served as both priest and bishop for more than half a century, has been served a notice of deposition by Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, for abandoning the communion of the Episcopal Church.

The Rt. Rev. William A. Cox, 87, now a resident in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told VOL that he has been served the papers and has 60 days to respond as to why he should not be tossed out of the church. The purging of orthodox bishops from The Episcopal Church is now in full throttle.

"I resigned from the Episcopal Church House of Bishops last year and was offered a safe spiritual haven to minister by the Archbishop of the Southern Cone," Cox told VOL. "He has included me as one of his own under his jurisdiction."

Cox said he got the letter from Mrs. Jefferts Schori 10 days ago. "She told me that the Title IV Review Committee said I had abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church." The letter was dated January 8.

Dear Bishop Cox,

Following your letter of March 28, 2007 advising me that you were resigning from the HOB and intended to continue active "episcopal ministry" under the ecclesiastical authority of the Presiding Bishop of the Province of the Southern Cone I asked the Title IV Review Committee to review the matter and to consider whether or not your action demonstrated that you had abandoned the communion of this church within the meaning of canon IV.9.

On May 29, 2007 the Review Committee sent to me the enclosed certification that you had abandoned the communion of this church.

I must now give you notice under canon IV.9 that if you fail to demonstrate to me within two months from today that you have not abandoned the communion of this church I shall be required to present the matter to the HOB at its next meeting in march 2008 for consideration as to whether or not you should be deposed from the ordained ministry of this church.

(I do not express any opinion regarding your status as an ordained person in any other church.)

Faithfully,

Katharine Jefferts Schori.

"I have not responded," Cox told VOL. "The letter enclosed a memorandum from the title IV. 9."

Asked what he would do, the orthodox bishop told VOL, "I don't know. I will talk to my Attorney, Mr. Wicks Stephen, and consult with him and see what response we will make.

"I think it is clear from the letter, and it is my understanding, that the letter implies that since I am now under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Argentina that they are not going to transfer my papers."

When VOL asked if Mrs. Jefferts Schori had been in touch with him, Cox said she had never talked with him. "She was in Oklahoma recently but did not get in touch with me."

Asked about a trial for his previous actions, Cox said he doesn't believe that will now happen. "They will depose me along with bishops Andy Fairfield, David Bena, John-David Schofield in March when the HOB meets."

When asked why he performed the previous consecrations that got him into so much hot water, Cox explained, "I went to Kansas and ordained and did confirmations and later confirmed in Oklahoma when I saw that people who had differing views and who decided that they wanted to worship in a different communion became anathema to the people in The Episcopal Church. They were outsiders and so what they were doing was prohibiting me from ministering to these people they considered outcasts and outsiders. My understanding is that Jesus always went to the outcast and I could see no reason why the Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi, when he asked me personally to do that, as an act of Christian ministry, that I shouldn't do it."

Asked about the value of diocesan boundaries, Cox said, "These diocesan boundaries are not going to be worth much any more and when we all stand before the Judgment Throne, we will have to acknowledge that we are brothers and sisters in Christ."

Asked how he felt about the actions of the national Episcopal Church, Cox told VOL, "I have not allowed myself to become angry about what has happened. This is my 35th year as bishop. I served as Bishop Suffragan of Maryland (1972 - 1980), Assistant Bishop of Oklahoma, (1980-1988). I also served as assistant bishop to Bishop Ben Benitez (Texas) and later with Bishop Claude E. Payne when he became diocesan bishop. I have also served as a parish priest at St. Matthew's in Austin, Texas.

"I have served the Episcopal Church for 16 years as a priest and 35 years as a bishop. I have served my Lord faithfully and I am not ashamed of anything I have done."

Bishop Cox said he will turn 87 on January 24th.

Weather Report, Twin Cities

From Norm Teigen:

The wind chill is thirty five below zero in Minneapolis

It's cold this morning but there are signs of a slight warm up. The wind chill could warm up to twenty below zero. The warming house at Lake Nokomis [where the Pond Hockey tournament is being held] lost heat this morning because the diesel fuel was turning into jelly. The problem was remedied according to local TV news.

***

GJ - It is so sold in Minneapolis that the politicians have their hands in their own pockets.

Phoenix is sunny and 60 degrees.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

The Seventh Commandment.

Thou shalt not steal.

What does this mean?

Answer

We should fear and love God that we may not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get them by false ware or dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and business [that his means are preserved and his condition is improved].

***

The Eighth Commandment, Large Catechism, Book of Concord:

284] All this has been said regarding secret sins. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it.

***

A. Nony Mouse has left a new comment on your post "Thou Shalt Not Steal":

...and you're not stealing any images for your blog?

GJ - Right click, save picture as... I did not claim to have photographed these two Church Growth Enthusiasts. Their photos are not copyrighted. If they object in writing, I can always change them. My attorneys--Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe--advised that trademarks and copyrights need to be displayed for protection.

WELS objected to having their lavender cross copied. My attorneys said they needed to have a TM near it, for TradeMark. Of course, it does look a little silly to trademark a cross. Nevertheless, I removed the logo and replaced it with a dollar sign. Likewise, Steve Kurtzahn's touchy webmaster in the CLC had objections about their graphics, so I made a quick change. Those are the only two objections I have received...so far.

And, since you didn't ask, I write my own sermons.

Blog Power - St. Mark's DePere Takes Down Plagiarized Sermons

Bailing Water and Ichabod have discussed the plagiarized sermons posted on the St. Mark's DePere, Wisconsin website, as if one or the other pastor wrote them. Both sermons were nearly verbatim from a Baptist website, as BW pointed out.

St. Mark's is the big WELS Church Growth congregation, full of cell groups, women teaching men, all the cutting edge things learned at Fuller and Willow Creek.

I have contended that the Church Growth people despise the Means of Grace. If they trusted in the Word and sound doctrine, the two pastors would write their own sermons, not steal them from the Baptists.

Lutherans have lost their confidence in the Word, so God is taking away the little they have.

Pseudo-Mike, who sounds exactly like Paul Kelm wrote this:

Is it CGM when we learn how to remove or reduce barriers to communicating the gospel clearly? If I better know the mind of an unbeliever, might I better be "all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some?" If I give thought to having adequate parking at our church knowing that if I don't the first-time visitor might drive off, does this mean I am a CGM flunkie? Or is it possible that I'm so in love with Christ and his powerful Word that I will bend over backwards to remove every possible barrier which might keep a person from coming into contact with the Word and hearing it clearly?

So in love with Christ sounds weird.

If someone loves Christ, he loves His Word and keeps (guards) His Word. The Greek word for keep is the same one used for guarding something. We guard treasure; we do not steal someone's garbage. Skunks steal garbage.

KJV John 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Someone cannot truthfully say he loves Christ when he downplays error or promotes error.

ELCA Questions Answered

Founded Upon the Rock, the Word of God,
by Norma Boeckler
From an ELCA pastor, who sent a very polite email, signed it, and gave the name of his congregation:

Also you are clear about who are the past greats in Lutheran theology. What I would like to know is this: Are there any living published Lutheran theologians whom you would endorse as completely orthodox in their teaching and consistent in their practice of fellowship? Similarly, what would you suggest a young man who has graduated from college and wished to study for the Lutheran ministry in the USA do? Is there any seminary that is safe to go to and if not does that mean it is impossible to study theology under the instruction of others and one must do it completely on one's own?

***

GJ - My view of theological writers is summed up in a few words - the deader, the better. I am sure there are some, but I pay no attention to current writers. I agree with Walther - Not many but much. I would rather read Luther and Chemnitz over again than pick up a new book. Here is another good saying - The closer to Luther, the better the theologian. I find it interesting that there is so much blather about everyone except Luther and Chemnitz. Gerhard is a fine theologian, but he does not compare to those two major contributors to the Book of Concord.

Which seminary? They are all over-priced. I wonder where the clergy have been while the tuition was jacked up everywhere. Debt-ridden graduates cannot afford to buck the system. They have an expensive degree which is useless in the business world.

I used to like the two Concordias, but their product has gone Fuller/Roman/Eastern Orthodox. The so-called Confessional Lutherans from those seminaries are really Recessional Lutherans, leading their members to Pasadena, Rome, or Constantinople.

Bethany and the Sausage Factory teach Universalism via UOJ. Their graduates seldom, if ever, think about issues. The Bethany graduates who think are expelled from the Little Sect on the Prairie.

No, I would not waste a fortune on the Lutheran seminaries. The alternative to a formal education at a synodical school would be one of university divinity schools, like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Duke. Sometimes a good deal on tuition is available. The faculty is going to be apostate for the most part. All my professors at Yale were conservative: Dahl, Malherbe, Wilson, Holmer. They were much more conservative than my LCA seminary and college professors, and they were also known as conservative at Yale. The dean vowed never to hire another Lutheran. Now those professors are retired or dead. Two Yale professors began each class with prayer, something that never happened in the LCA.

Self-study or study with an expert is possible. In colonial days a young man lived at a parsonage and studied with the minister. They called these arrangements the School of the Prophets. Often the young man spirited away the parson's daughter in the bargain. I am sure the parson and his wife wept and winked at the same time.

Perhaps the entire synodical enterprise must come unglued for it to be reborn. I know ELCA has spawned more break away congregations in population than the entire Little Sect on the Prairie.

Some say the mini-micros are a good argument against leaving: LCR, CLCs, ELDONA. I believe there is no excuse for financial or personal support for wrongful activities. No more giving to synodical slush funds is a good start. Better would be non-attendance at events. Imagine a gathering where only half showed up. The pall over the meeting would be, well, appalling.

Favorite Toast in the Episcopal House of Bishops: "Bottoms Up!"

Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.

San Joaquin Bishop Fights Back in Verbal Slugfest with the Episcopal Church

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

www.virtueonline.org

1/15/2008

"I feel betrayed. This isn't Christianity. This is power politics. Whatever the American [Episcopal] Church does, doesn't apply to me. That's their laws for their people."

With these words, the Anglo-Catholic Bishop of San Joaquin kicked off what looks to become a major legal and ecclesiastical battle that will undoubtedly wind up in the secular law courts, a major public relations disaster for The Episcopal Church.

"Here I am standing up for the Bible and for the morality that comes out of the Bible and I am the one being inhibited and he [Gene Robinson] is the one being celebrated," said Schofield on public television recently. He acknowledged the potential lawsuits that will undoubtedly follow.

"This is an attempt to grab property, money and power. I think Jesus gets lost in all of that," he said.

Bishop Schofield intends to fight back at the church that cast him out. He sees a financial and legal battle looming. He and the majority of the diocese are prepared to fight.

This past week, Schofield got a letter from Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the Episcopal Church, and the Title IV Review Committee saying he had been inhibited and to stop preaching, saying mass and to cease all ministerial work in his diocese.

Schofield has refused. He and his diocese have voted to break with the American Episcopal Church and to align themselves with the Evangelical Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and their primate, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables.

For Schofield it is business as usual. He will not cease any of his ecclesiastical activities despite the threats, inhibitions and whatever else is thrown at him.

He is resolute because what is at stake are the souls of men and women. They supercede whatever institutional loyalties others might have.

After all, we might be called on to die for our faith. That means we lay it down for Jesus and the gospel and not for an institution like the Episcopal Church that has gone wildly astray. One would not lay down one's life for Gene Robinson or his behavior, or for Millennium Development Goals or some half-baked covenant that no one can agree on to try and keep everyone at the Anglican table.

Lukewarmness and compromise are things that St. John railed against in the Book of Revelation. He saw with clarity what happened when people abandoned their "first love", and the terrifying results, if their lampstand was removed unless they repented.

The Anglican Communion is a crossroads.

If GAFCON is the Church in Philadelphia, "I know your works, Behold I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut...you have kept my word and have not denied my name," then LAMBETH might be the church in Sardis, "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead."

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death," wrote St. John.

Bishop Schofield has it right. Jesus HAS been lost in all the litigation. For all its sins, The Episcopal Church is withering and slowly dying. Weekly, more parishes leave and more dioceses will depart an erring church.

Bishop Schofield is only doing what St. John asked the churches to do then as now, "hold fast what you have until I come."

Distinguished List of Fuller Grads in WELS

No, this is not contemporary worship. It is blended worship. We blend the amps with the snare set, the charismatic songs, and
the Dare-To-Succeed sermon series.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Why Is the Lutheran Church a Two-Headed Calf?":

WELS is so bad that no one can deny how Fuller-centric it is.

Actually, basically everybody can.

***

GJ - OK, Rev. Mouse. You asked for the list. Here it is:

David Valleskey, former president of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, attended Fuller Seminary and bragged about it in his worship bulletin at Apostles.

Frosty Bivens, seminary professor, bragged about studying at Fuller and following CG methods at a circuit meeting in Midland, Michigan.

Larry Olson earned a D.Min. at Fuller Seminary, qualifying him to teach at Martin Luther College in New Ulm.

Norm Berg studied at Fuller Seminary, enlightening him for his work as Mission Board Chairman. He admitted that in a letter to me.

Joel Gerlach, former seminary professor, admitted studying at Fuller in his letter to Herman Otten.

Reuel Schulz was known for studying at Fuller.

Fuller Seminary sent out a letter to all WELS pastors, listing all the leaders of the sect trained at Pasadena. That caused enormous consternation but nothing else.

Wally Oelhaven and Fred Adrian both had hissy fits when I dared to criticize the Church Growth Movement in a conference paper. I thought they would explode. They admitted studying at Fuller, but that did not change their theology, they claimed. Wally promoted CG (especially the cloned tomes of Werning) every chance he got. Adrian supervised the vicar who went to the state prison.

James Huebner, Paul Kelm, and Larry Olson were trained as Parish Consultants at Fuller Seminary, according to Huebner.

One might assume from their public drooling about Church Growth that Robert Hartman and Ron Roth attended Fuller. A WELS pastor said that was true of the current head of the mission board.

I understand all the foreign missionaries were either sent to Fuller or forced to study Fuller material.

I copied hundreds of Church Growth quotations from WELS into Megatron, my quotation database.

Lutheran Parish Resources was started in Columbus by VP Paul Kuske and DP Robert Mueller to promote the Church Growth Movement. The Michigan District started two stealth CG congregations, both miserable failures. Kuske started Pilgrim Community Church (HA!) and Mueller started Crossroads Community Church. Kuske's flopped in record time. Crossroads is a non-Lutheran congregation now (HA! HA!). (Read your church history boys. The generic Protestant Lutheran congregations of the 19th century turned Congregationalist or worse in a few years.)

WELS started TELL specifically to promote the Church Growth Movement. That little rag morphed into the Mission Counselor's Newsletter, which was even more fanatical in its support of Fuller doctrine and methods.

Currently there is the Church and Change Apostasy Unit in WELS, cheerfully promoting women's ordination and false doctrine, with the blessings of the Wayne Mueller family, father and son. Is it an exaggeration to say Church and Change is devoted to Church Growth? The 2005 conference was canceled, amid showers of tears--from the Moose Report to the hallowed halls of the Sausage Factory--but scheduled again for 2007 and 2009. Will the WELS pastors have the guts to gut the monster? No. Leonard Sweet will return in triumph.

An ELCA pastor sent this bit of wisdom:

As someone who was forced to listen to Leonard Sweet for four hours, WELS was lucky that his presentation was dropped. He is all smoke and mirrors even from a liberal perspective.

The Marks of the Church

Augustine Refuting a Heretic
Joe Abrahamson has left a new comment on your post "From Michael Schottey":

Greg,
Among the many great and wholesomely thought provoking theological issues you raise and consider, you had to write:

"[GJ - Definitely. The Fuller grads would not give their lives for the Faith, but they will kill and lie to preserve the errors of Church Growth.]"

I'm saddened by this remark. Donatism marks true Christianity by a person's willingness to give his life for the faith. Lutheranism marks the Church by the right preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments. (AC VII:1)

Please adjust your sights by the marks of the Church, so that your view of who might be willing to give his life for his faith does not interfere with God's own external means of Grace.

***

GJ - I do not see the connection. The question was whether I thought the Church Growth people were like the Pope, would rather see the whole world condemned that give up their errors. Would I say the same about Fuller grads?

That was supposed to elicit a "No" from me. The CGM WELS/ELS/CLC/LCMS/ELCA leaders do not give a fig about whether they destroy the true Church. They have their political buddies, their ecumenical embraces, and most of all - the loot. Their tentacles are wrapped around every fund in Lutheranism right now.

As you know from the archives, confirmands used to swear they would give up their lives rather than the truths of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. That was a regular part of confirmation.

The Church began with martyrs. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." More accurately, "The more you mow us down, the faster we grow." Now the visible church makes martyrs, as you know. That is a sure sign of apostasy.

Ichabod locutus est, causa finita est.

Joe Abrahamson Responds about Confessional Subscription

Joe Abrahamson has left a new comment on your post "Why Is the Lutheran Church a Two-Headed Calf?":

Greg,
I think the article is "Are We bound only to what the Confessions Teach?" (found in Our Great Heritage Vol. 1, p. 434-6)

According to the note in Our Great Heritage the article was printed in The Northwestern Lutheran (vol. 60, 1973; p. 353 and written by Arnold Koelpin.

It is a poorly written article that allows way too many interpretations.

My best construction on the article is that it was meant to address such issues as Abortion and Homosexuality which are not covered in the Book of Concord.

But the unfortunate conclusion that is left to the general reader is not a Confessional Lutheran response. The emphasis on what Scripture Alone teaches allows the reader to inject his own interpretation of Scriptures to be considered true over and against the Lutheran Confessions.

The article states:

"Practically speaking, what does this mean for us? To appeal to a common subscription to the Lutheran Confessions in support of unity may be evasive of the truth." (p. 435) I wonder which Confessional Lutheran subscribing with a quia subscription could ever argue in this way. If the Lutheran Confessions are a correct interpretation of the Scriptures (in a quia subscription, then there is no second-guessing what might be meant on a theological issue.

But if the subscription is quatenus "in so far as the Confessions agree with Scripture" then this article in Our Great Heritage would be more accurate. Perhaps the author (Koelpin) thought that all his readers were more likely to have a limited subscription to the Lutheran Confessions. If that is the case, this would be very sad, and very telling about what the author believed the readership in the WELS would consider normal.

The article goes even further by defining the so-called "Historical Subscription" to the Lutheran Confessions in a way that makes it normative for WELS. The article mis-quotes the Formula of Concord with the words:
"As the Formula of Concord states, these other writings (creeds and confessions) are 'mere witnesses and expositions of the faith, setting forth how at various times the holy Scriptures were understood in the church of God by contemporaries with reference to the controverted articles, and how contrary teachings were rejected and condemned." (p. 435)

The quotation from the Formula of Concord is from the Epitome (par. 8).

But Koelpin's selective quotation ignores the previous paragraphs which set down as the standard of judgment in all controversies the three ecumenical creeds: the Apostles' Creed, The Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed (sec. 3); The first Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apology, The Smalcald Articles with the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (sec. 4); and the Small and Large Catechisms of Dr. Martin Luther (sec 5).

Most of the problems (heresies) of Christianity have already been dealt with in the Lutheran Confessions. Especially and specifically the inerrancy of the Church and the Pope (who ever is considered by the congregations to be the head of the Church or Synod). The Means of Grace through the Divinely Instituted Ministry is established in these documents over and against any modern Church Growth attempt at replacing the Means of Grace. And almost any internal theological issues facing the synods of our contemporary period are already discussed and solved in the Lutheran Confessions.

I suspect that Donatism has reared its ugly head again. And the so-called Lutherans are looking for other marks of the Church than the "Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly administered." (AC VII:1)

Sorry this is so long. I just felt a need to blather.

Joe Abrahamson

***

GJ - Thanks Joe. (He is an ELS pastor.) If pastors start signing their names to intelligent comments, I may have to shut this thing down. The drama will be gone.

I remembered correctly. I would have posted a citation, but the books were given away, pulped, or used as kindling in my fireplace. They were very dry, so they burn well.

My problem with the decaying remnants of the Synodical Conference is this - adoration of recent documents, which are used as the norma normans of the sect. For example, I was talking to Jeb Schaefer (former editor, NWL). We were discussing the growth of women in authority over men in WELS. He said, "Have you read Whitey's essay on ritual law?" The clear implication of his question was that an essay by the former seminary president was the canon for judging all such issues. Once a seminary professor makes his solemn declaration, especially in in WLQ, the issue is settled for all time. Church Growth theology is fabulous (Valleskey). The Reformed only downplay the Means of Grace (Valleskey). The New Testament says nothing against the ordination of women (Brug).

Many in the LCMS think the Theses on Justification are the last word on justification. Thus they supplant the clarity and force of the Book of Concord. Anyone who criticizes them is abgeschnitten, cut off from the Kingdom.

Webber Uses Church of Rome Gambit: UOJ Always Taught by Lutherans

Alone in his room at the Off-Ramp Inn, the UOJ Stormtrooper wonders if it is all worth it.

Jay Webber, M.Div. Ft. Wayne, has pasted some quotations on LutherQuest (sic), trying to prove that Lutherans have always believed in justification without faith.

Roman Catholics use the same arguments. The Church, they claim, has always taught the Assumption of Mary, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and the infallibility of the pope.

Has the Lutheran Church always taught Receptionism? The error of Receptionism is based on the same fundamental problem of UOJ, denying the efficacy of the Word. The Christian Church has always taught the efficacy of the Word and justification by faith.

Notice that Webber has not quoted from the Book of Concord. The problem with the stray Luther quotations is manifold. One is the translation, which can always be debated. More importantly, Lutherans do not subscribe to the Weimar Edition or the Corpus Reformatorum. They subscribe to the Book of Concord. Otherwise pastors would be praying to Mary because Luther prayed to Mary in his otherwise fine commentary on the Magnificat.

Justification in the Bible and in the Book of Concord = justification by faith.

Another problem with Webber's argument is his failure to offer the other side of the question. That is a logical fallacy called special pleading. The UOJ Stormtroopers quote the same sources over and over, then quote one another, creating an impression of unanimity. In Thy Strong Word I mustered every UOJ statement I could find, and that has convinced more than one pastor that forgiveness without faith is a base falsehood. They were appalled at the UOJ position when it was laid bare.

I am suprised Webber did not quote the ELS statement on UOJ: the whole world is saved, too, a natural consequence of everyone being forgiven.

Robert Preus
Robert Preus, PhD, taught Webber, so let us pay attention to Dr. Preus instead of Master Webber:

From Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant (second edition):

However, Preus clarified the true meaning of justification in his final book, Justification and Rome, which was published posthumously. Preus wrote this definitive comment:

"But the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the sinner takes place when the Holy Spirit brings him to faith through Baptism and the Word of the Gospel. Our sins were imputed to Christ at His suffering and death, imputed objectively after He, by His active and passive obedience, fulfilled and procured all righteousness for us. But the imputation of His righteousness to us takes place when we are brought to faith."

Preus immediately followed the statement above with a quotation from Quenstedt, one of his favorite orthodox Lutheran authors:

It is not just the same thing to say, “Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us” and to say “Christ is our righteousness.” For the imputation did not take place when Christ became our righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is the effect of His office. The imputation is the application of the effect of His office. The one, however, does not do away with the other. Christ is our righteousness effectively when He justifies us. His righteousness is ours objectively because our faith rests in Him. His righteousness is ours formally in that His righteousness is imputed to us.

Preus also quoted Abraham Calov with approval:

Although Christ has acquired for us the remission of sins, justification, and sonship, God just the same does not justify us prior to our faith. Nor do we become God's children in Christ in such a way that justification in the mind of God takes place before we believe.

Justification by faith, in the original sense, was taught in the official catechism of the Missouri Synod, and then was gradually changed:

#305 Why do you say in this article: I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins? Because I hold with certainty that by my own powers or through my own works I cannot be justified before God, but that the forgiveness of sins is given me out of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also true justification. Psalm 130:3-4; Psalm 143:2; Isaiah 64:6; Job 25:4-6 (Q. 124).

Let Us Prey...Upon the Means of Grace Lutherans

UOJ Stormtroopers Revealed a Weak Spot
When One of Them Turned Disco

This is beginning to sound like the big arguments about 7 years ago, when Gregory Jackson and his disciples were shooting off their cannons against OJ on this board. That was a stressful time on this board; it led to LQ becoming a "private posting" board, and it also led to a number of posters being banned from LQ.

Methinks that it's not that hard for sinful, human beings to take a doctrine, like justification, and read into it more than what Scripture clearly says about it.

Boettden
Full Name: Dennis Boettcher, LCMS pastor
E-mail Address: pastordb@charter.net

***

GJ - How many people say "Methinks"? Here is a recent Ichabod post:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Reasons for WELS-LCMS-ELS Apostasy":

Methinks you frequently stumble into a position that is dangerously close to Osiander, cf.

Try reading "The Fire and the Staff" by Klemet Preus for a clear explanation.

Notice that these UOJ Stormtroopers had to ban people from their precious website because UOJ was questioned? They were understandably stressed out from being challenged and knocked off their memorized positions.

Their defense of UOJ this round is:

1. Read our posts.
2. Read the official declarations of our Holy Mother LCMS.

Perhaps someone has quoted Luther on LutherQuest (sic). I doubt it.

From Michael Schottey

Golden Ardie Award Winner

Michael Schottey has left a new comment on your post "Justification by Faith - Lutheran Layman":

Rev. Jackson,

Its been a while, allow me to put myself out for public ridicule.

I have read your site for a while now, and although I have taken a elongated vacation from my own blogging and even commenting on "Bailing Water" et al. I have continued to read and absorb.

People like to say general statements like "You break the 8th commandment" or "what about your tone?" and its a knee jerk reaction that they're not ready to defend. Allow me.

I have never doubted nor contended against your love for the Word, nor of our Lord, nor of the sheep being led astray.

But what of the lost shepherds?

There is certainly a difference between Pastors "in error" and false preachers. Luther said that the Pope would rather see the whole world condemned that lose the errors of the mass. Are you really ready to say the same about the Fuller graduates? [GJ - Definitely. The Fuller grads would not give their lives for the Faith, but they will kill and lie to preserve the errors of Church Growth.]

My problem is not with your "defensor fidei" role. My problem is twofold.

1) Many of your anecdotes are, in essence, old hat. Yes, you come up with new and interesting news...but then you continue to harp on it again and again. For all you know the sins that you mention have been confessed and absolved. I understand that you want the information in the daylight, where all may be seen. But the weakness is in the blog atmosphere. I would suggest creating a document with all your evidence and leaving a link to it along the side of the site...that way people can easily find it and the men being implicated can as well. Because...

2) The purpose of the law is to show men their own sins...not simply to bring them to the minds of others. The goal should be to the repentance of all men, shepherds included.

***

GJ - Many of my observations are breaking news, as a matter of fact, and they have had an impact on WELS. I like Michael because he signs his name, unlike Rev. Mouse and a few others, such as Pseudo-Mike. Some effects of this blog:

1. Church and Change is no longer linked from the WELS.net website.
2. The WELS pastor in Corona, California deleted his praise of Leonard Sweet.
3. The Moose Report denied supporting Leonard Sweet, disingenuously, but at least she did show some sense of shame and returned to her quilting. Alleluia.
4. The effort to close Michigan Lutheran Seminary failed, and this blog helped a little.
5. WELS laity and pastors are waking up to the fraud of forgiveness without faith, without the Word, without the Means of Grace - Universal Objective Justification, the favorite false doctrine of the Church Growth Movement.

As for #2, Michael needs to study the Large Catechism, which can be found in the Book of Concord. WELS is not bound to the Book of Concord, but that is another story.

Egregious public sin should be rebuked in public to warn others. For instance, when District President Ed Werner went to state prison for molesting girls in his own congregation, that should have been a news item in FIC - False-teachers in Collusion . Ditto When Scott Zerbe went to state prison. Ditto when Al Just went to prison for murdering his wife and Tabor did not go for murdering his. Repentance, Michael? Some WELS pastors still insist Al is innocent, that his wife really did die from rolling over on a steak knife in bed a zillion times. Mrs. Ichabod is not convinced. Neither am I. Neither was the jury. Tabor was a chief suspect in his wife's murder but was allowed to move to a new call out of the state.
The police chief regretted never nailing Tabor. The pastor's mistress went to prison, but he did not.

Floyd Stolzenburg was forced to resign from the LCMS ministerium, but WELS put him on the fast track to become a WELS pastor, thanks to the Michigan District, DP Robert Mueller and VP Paul Kuske. (I might add, plus the timid silence of all the pastors, a truly mute chorus.) Stolzenburg had a rich WELS buddy and a passion for spreading false doctrine. "Just the man we need in Columbus," they shouted. You may think I am making this up, but one WELS bigshot came to Columbus and suggested FS was the ideal man to run the new evangelism program. FS was recommened by VP Paul Kuske to become the pastor of Emanuel Lutheran, Columbus, after being turned away from many other calls (various denominations) that he pursued, according to his old LCMS DP. The LCMS DP said he was very unhappy that WELS took on Floyd.

So you see, Michael, that is not old news but a continuing carbuncle in the Body of Christ. Floyd even connected himself with the Little Sect on the Prairie, sponsoring Roger Kovaciny in the Ukraine with Jay Webber. Someone got a Schwan grant to match what Flody's congregation gave to Thoughts of Faith for a new church building. I wonder what the faithful would have said about the origins of that money. When I began featuring the Kovaciny-Stolzeburg-ELS connection in my doctrinal bulletins (pre-Ichabod), the references to Kovaciny at Emanuel's website disappeared. Coincidence?

Meanwhile, those WELS and ELS leaders--so concerned about the 8th Commandment--have spent the last 30 years slandering anyone who got in their way. The pastor to the Love Shack staff was called "brain-damaged" for questioning the Church Growth Movement in his essay. The former seminary president was called "senile" by the same bunch. I see no evidence of repentance.

The result of these methods is to confirm false teachers and adulterous pastors in their sin. They know the synod will back them and undermine their critics. The bigger the scandal, the more likely WELS will cover it up and attack anyone who asks about it. Moreover, faithful pastors are discouraged from doing their jobs and silenced.

When people post on the Internet about the homosexual predators of the Catholic priesthood and their enabling leaders, I answer, "True, but the Lutherans are not better, and their ministers can marry." In fact, one of the worst offenders in the Catholic hierarchy, Archbishop Weakland, was sought out by WELS to be a featured, public speaker for Wisconsin Lutheran College. Explain that one.

People have suggestions about how I can write even more material for free, but I have to make a living. I am a tent-maker, like Paul. I doubt whether anyone else has provided as much raw data on the Internet as I have. The links are on this page for very large websites full of quotations, histories, and opinions. My name, address, and phone number are attached to all my material. For some reason, the Church Growth fanatics choose to remain anonymous.

Justification by Faith - Lutheran Layman

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Truth and Love in WELS":

Mike, in all honesty Pastor Jackson is not being loveless. He is in fact doing what all of Christ's Shepherds are required to do. Not only does he communicate the truth of Scripture but he also protects the sheep by educating them to the dangers in the false doctrines that are being taught in our churches today. In 2005 I contended with Pastor Buchholz over his preaching of UOJ to my church. The discussion lasted many weeks and in the end he agreed that the WELS needed to teach Biblical Justification in the words of Scripture. Two months later he gave his presentation on Justification to the 2005 WELS Convention where he declared the whole world forgiven and justified the moment Christ paid the all sins. Is that an act of love when he taught false doctrines to the Pastor's and laity of the WELS? Is it love for anyone in the audience who by the grace of God was able to discern the error but did not love their fellow man enough to risk being shunned in order to stand up for Christ's true doctrine?

In 2006 I contended with Pastor Schewe when he shared the reading of the liturgy with the women of the church. We contended for many months. Was it love when he declared God's Word concerning women in the church as being a grey area? Was it love when Pastor Buchholz called my wife and told her that I was being legalistic and as the Pharisees were condemned for it I too would be condemned to hell if I continued. That she would be under the same condemnation if she obeyed my judgement in this regard? Is that love? Did any WELS pastor who was brought into the discussion contend with me for Christ's command, no they didn't. For the sake of unity and man made peace they didn't contend with me but stood with those who see God's Word as indefinite, unclear and open to their interpretation in their era of Christian Freedom.

Where are the thousands of faithful lay people supposed to turn when the pastors of the ELS, WELS and LCMS reject God's efficacious Word for the worm ridden doctrines of men? Where are we supposed to turn when the pastorate ridicule the Lutheran Confessions which were built on the one true Rock and Foundation of the Christian Church? Where do we turn when the pastorate turn God's church from a place where God's feeds us with His Word and Sacraments to a place where we learn to live a Godlier life and live it to it's fullest? Well we turn to Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions and our Orthodox Lutheran Fathers. And in doing so we migrate also to those few in the pastorate who, out of love for Christ and their fellow men, contend daily against the false doctrines of the world and seek to feed Christ's sheep His true Word. For I tell you that Christ's sheep hear his voice in the true unpolluted doctrines and follow Him and those who are in Him. Those who continue to lean on man's wisdom and the wisdom channeled from Satan into the doctrines of the church growth guru's will suffer God's wrath for their rejection of His Word. Is it love if Pastor Jackson remains silent when he sees these things happening? No, and neither is it love if you remain silent. Are we not to use God's Word to instruct and reprove false doctrine so that the individual can in Godly contrition be brought back into the fold?

Pastor Jackson exposes the publicly professed false doctrines that are being taught so that all who care to listen can learn to discern the truth. To try and cover up or protect those who are leading Christ's sheep away is hatred for Christ and those who He has called according to His grace. Public proclamation of false doctrine is the crime, not exposing it and teaching the laity about it is the crime, exposing it is true love and concern in Christ and does not break the 8th Commandment.

By the grace of God, in Christ,
Brett Meyer

Why Is the Lutheran Church a Two-Headed Calf?

Left Head: "There's Rome, but I don't want to explain my wife to everyone. Eastern Orthodoxy is the way to go. I can have everything without the ignominy of poping."

Right Head: "I can stay right here with my pension plan and beer buddies. All I need to do is bow to the latest Church Growth fads. Gotta remember. We were a CG church. Then we were Courageous. Then Purpose-Driven. Now we are Missional. Listen to the iPod - I am a winner. I am the best. Accept no negatives. Wait. When were we Willow Creek Association?
Officially never. That's the ticket."

The Lutheran Church (and I do mean all branches, from ELCA to the micro-mini groups) became a two-headed calf because it lost its fidelity to the Confessions. Some would say, "The Scriptures first." I agree with Schmucker that the creeds go first, then the adherence to the Scriptures.

Satan attacks where we are weak. No one is going to get far by attacking the Scriptures directly. That is why the LCMS apostates fared so badly in the battles around Seminex. The Church of Rome tried to argue from the Scriptures during the Reformation, as Chemnitz observed. They were clobbered in every debate, so they began to attack the clarity, sufficiency, and efficacy of the Scriptures. Everything is so hazy that we need an interpreter - the Pope himself.

Wauwatosa (WELS) is another papacy. They pretend to argue from Scripture but they really mean - starting from our view of everything. They even say, "In our circles (one circle), this means..." Bow and scrape to the WELS prelate.

Satan knows that people fall into hero worship rather easily. Once that is established, the synod cannot back away. Thus Walther must be correct about everything he ever wrote. Pieper was chosen by Walther, so he must be infallible too.
The ELS and WELS are too clever to fall back upon older thinkers, who are too Lutheran. They make idols out of recent leaders. No one dares question an idol set up by Holy Mother Synod.

Instead of teaching the Book of Concord thoroughly, all the synods use the 1580 Confessions as a rabbit's foot. WELS has even officially repudiated the Book of Concord in one of its execrable sets of books, either Our Great Heritage (sic), or their Wauwatosa set. Pope John the Malefactor, the malignant menace of Little Sect on the Prairie, is obedient to WELS, so any pretense of confessional integrity in the ELS is a belly-laugh. The ELS saying is, "They drink beer in Milwaukee. Moldstad burps in Mankato."

ELCA had a pretty understanding of doctrine, if we go back to the glory days of the General Council. The first thing to do was not the Scriptures, but the Confessions. When the three parts of the Muhlenberg tradition (General Synod - boo hiss; General Council - hoorah; United Synod of the South) united to form the ULCA in 1917, the confessionals compromised to bring the groups together again. The attack against inerrancy began after that. Armies often knock off the pesky trouble-spots first, for training and protecting the flanks. A weak confessional base will not defend the Scriptures.

Look at what has happened in the old Synodical Conference (ELS-WELS-LCMS). No one blanched when their pastors and professors-to-be began earning degrees at Fuller Seminary, Notre Dame, and other Roman schools. No one trembled when Church Growth programs with obvious false doctrine sprouted at all the schools and synods. The clergy wanted to fight about trivia, not doctrine. The clergy wanted political battles to back their friends and feather their nests, not doctrinal war where they might have to take up the cross daily.

The biggest trend in all the Lutheran synods in the last 30 years has been the return to union with the Reformed, in every way possible. The ELS has entertainment worship and CG pronouncements. WELS is so bad that no one can deny how Fuller-centric it is. WELS has a jump on Missouri in women's ordination, cell groups, entertainment evangelism, open communion, poor finances, and looming catastrophe.

The response to apostasy of the Reformed model has been to join Rome or Eastern Orthodoxy. Every time I loook at the Missouri conservative blogs, I see an infatuation with infant communion (EO), robes (EO, Rome, and La Cage), Mariolotry (EO, Rome), and the Patristic Fathers (EO, Rome).

Lutherans no longer know what it means to be Lutheran.

***

A. Nony Mouse has left a new comment on your post "Why Is the Lutheran Church a Two-Headed Calf?":

Lutherans no longer know what it means to be Lutheran.

if (sic) you're the best example of what a lutheran (sic) is, i (sic) want no part in it.

***

GJ - Please use the shift key when appropriate. The true Church is invisible.

***

A. Nony Mouse has left a new comment on your post "Why Is the Lutheran Church a Two-Headed Calf?":

You wrote:

"WELS has even officially repudiated the Book of Concord in one of its execrable sets of books, either Our Great Heritage (sic), or their Wauwatosa set."

"There you again," as Ronald Reagan used to say. How can you make such a charge without any proof? It shouldn't surprise me, though. You haven't changed.

***

GJ - I cannot do all your homework for you, Rev. Mouse. You are lazy. The essay title is something like "Are We Bound by the Book of Concord?" The answer is clearly "NO!" The essay is probably in Our Great Heritage (sic). It may be in Wauwatosa. I had all six volumes but there was a paper recycling drive, so I donated them.

I agree with the author who said, "It does not matter what your subscription to the Confessions is. It matters what you believe, teach, and confess. Is it the whole truth?"

Cute? Let's Have Another Look

The Venerable Mary Grave-Reeves, age 41,
California Bishop, El Camino Real,
which translates as
the Royal Road to Apostasy

Spouting Off has left a new comment on your post "Left Foot of Fellowship Extended But Blocked":

The one on the left is actually pretty cute. Kind of like a young Martha Stewart who joined the clergy.

Chalk this one up to "you know you are getting old when..."

***

GJ - The correct angle, from a distance, with hair combed down, will make a model out of a venerable female bishop.

Left Foot of Fellowship Extended But Blocked

"They call us Babes in Arms.
We're really Babes in Armor."


PITTSBURGH: Attempted Coup to Unseat Bishop Fails

By David W. Virtue

www.virtueonline.org

1/15/2008

An attempted coup by US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, her attorney David Booth Beers, and liberal parish priest Harold Lewis to unseat Bishop Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, failed recently when three canonically required senior bishops refused to sign inhibition papers that would have prevented him from functioning as a bishop.

The back room attempts to fast track and inhibit the evangelical catholic bishop, saying that he had abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church, had all the makings of Tammany Hall politics. It all fell apart when bishops Leo Frade of Southeast Florida, Peter Lee of Virginia, and Don Wimberly of Texas refused to go along with the public lynching. (It is not known at this time how many of the three bishops did not give consent).

The charges that Bishop Duncan has abandoned the communion simply do not hold up. When he heard the news Duncan said, "Few bishops have been more loyal to the doctrine, discipline and worship of The Episcopal Church. I have not abandoned the Communion of this Church. I will continue to serve and minister as the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh."

The Title IV Review Committee acted with alacrity to give Mrs. Jefferts Schori what she wanted, drawing up a 41-page brief in near record time. By contrast, it took the Title IV Review Committee almost a year to inhibit revisionist Pennsylvania Bishop Charles E. Bennison for conduct unbecoming a priest with charges that included his failure to stop his brother from having sexual relations with a 14-year old girl - a minor.

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GJ - See how little it takes to stop a tyrant? All the trembling Lutheran pastors-- secretly blogging, secretly emailing, secretly meeting--should do a little blocking instead of punting.

Former Rep Siljander Charged

Ex-Lawmaker Charged in Terror Conspiracy

Jan 16 03:42 PM US/Eastern

By LARA JAKES JORDAN

Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) - A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

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GJ - I was just trying to recall the weird guy who met with me and a few others when he was campaigning for the House seat. He was sitting at a table in the fellowship area of my church in Sturgis, Michigan. The previous Representative was David Stockman, famous or infamous in the Reagan administration.

Siljander went from being a Falwell trooper to a Muslim apologist. The liberals and academics loved him in his new mode. Now they will cast him as a Reagan Republican.

What Would Spener Say, III The Final Installment, Part One

"If you speak that way, no one will ever join.
We need l-o-v-e and entertainment."

KJV Matthew 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: 3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. 4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, 6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. 10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Truth and Love in WELS

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "What Would Spener Say?":

Truth and love?

The WELS shows neither. What truth is there when the WELS promotes Universal Objective Justification? That the moment Christ paid for the sins of the whole world, God declared the world forgiven, righteous and justified. This doctrine makes God into a liar and Christ into an underachiever. Have you led your sheep away from this blasphemous doctrine? Would you risk your call, your house, your wife and family and the respect of your fellow pastors and congregation in order to stand up for Christ and his true doctrine of forgiveness, righteousness, justification and salvation by faith alone in Christ's all sufficient work? If you haven't yet, then don't speak of truth and love. Matt. 10:32-42

For apart from Christ there is no truth and apart from Christ there is no love. But where Christ is and where his Word is taught in all of it's truth and purity then there is truth,love and peace through God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Brett Meyer

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Would Spener Say?":

Maybe "Mike" can explain why a WELS pastor in Green Bay continues to "borrow" sermons from Baptist and Methodist preachers.

Bailing Water

What Would Spener Say, II? Channeling Paul Kelm

"If you keep quoting Luther and Paul, I'll have another hissy fit."

"Mike" has left a new comment on your post "What Would Spener Say?":

GJ - "This WELS pastor is being disingenuous, but I appreciate his public display of how WELS responds to everything less than starry-eyed adoration."

ME - This is exactly what I mean by putting the worst construction on everything. Is not doing so sin? You presume to know me and my motivations, yet you do not. Since you do not, you assume the worst and write your post against the straw man you presume me to be. Then, ironically, you accuse me of a straw man argument.

GS - "The straw man fallacy is typical for the Wisconsin sect. This Mike, who is a regular reader, knows what I would have said to the Apostle Paul and then announces what I would have said. Notice the implication: WELS is the Apostolic Church! Yes, reborn before our misty eyes."

ME - I have no misty eyed idealistic view of WELS. She has her faults as does every human institution.

In the bulk of your post, you go on to repeat your main themes and tirades. You ignore my points about your loveless, uncharitable posts which regularly break the 8th Commandment. (This includes your response to me.) My suggestion is, then, that you remove the plank from your own eye. I imagine you might be pleasantly surprised at what a response you might get when you approach others in humility, love and charity. By all means, continue to be direct and non-yielding when it comes to the truth. But you will not find a license for breaking the 8th Commandment no matter how right you are.

My point in bringing up the apostle Paul is that IF a WELS / ELS person were to express ideas, programs, seminars, etc. that help pastors and congregations better become "all things to all people" would you not scream "Fuller?" If not, I would appreciate a positive statement from you (or a link) regarding what you think churches should do to be all things to all people.

Despite your uncharitable view of me, the truth is I believe as you do that it is impossible for human beings to strengthen, improve on, or empower God's truth. It is efficacious and powerful in and of itself. Do you agree it is possible for us to muffle his truth, keep it from reaching a person's ears, or fail to communicate it clearly? Is it CGM when we learn how to remove or reduce barriers to communicating the gospel clearly? If I better know the mind of an unbeliever, might I better be "all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some?" If I give thought to having adequate parking at our church knowing that if I don't the first-time visitor might drive off, does this mean I am a CGM flunkie? Or is it possible that I'm so in love with Christ and his powerful Word that I will bend over backwards to remove every possible barrier which might keep a person from coming into contact with the Word and hearing it clearly?
Greg, a simple yes / no question: Are you taking other people's words and actions in the kindest possible way?

Was there shocking behavior in the early Christian churches to which Paul wrote? And how! What was his response to it? Do you see your response to shocking behavior in Lutheran churches to be in the same spirit as that of the apostle Paul?

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GJ - Note the bolded section above. I added the bold because it is pure Paul Kelm, who has made a career out of affirming Biblical, confessional truths and repudiating them in the next section with his clever Yes...but... That does not prove Paul Kelm wrote this. By now he has made so many disciples than any WELS pastor could have written this. The short-fusedness is very Kelmish. I will leave it at that.

The pathetic shallowness of efficacy but is the most disturbing part of this message. Was the Apostle Paul converted by a paved parking lot or by the Word of God? Is WELS shrinking because the parking lots are full? The empty lots should be a distinct marketing advantage.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What Would Spener Say, II? Channeling Paul Kelm":

"Mike," don't even bother trying to get anytwhere with someone with a personality disorder as serious as Greg Jackson's. You're just banging your head against a wall. No matter what you say or write, he'll twist it and spin it. This man is no preacher of the gospel--he doesn't even know what the gospel is. He has wrecked every church he has served. Someday he will be answerable for all his lies and half-truths, and it won't be to me or to you.

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GJ - Rev. A. Nony Mouse should take his own advice and give up posting. It's a pity that I quote Mouse. Yes, pity is the word. I know he needs attention, just like the little boys who make prank phone calls anonymously. Funny how he wants to advise "Mike" via a moderated comment. That means I must post his stuff so he can be in contact with "Mike."

Mouse is another expert on the 8th Commandment. My favorite comment from him is: "You don't have the guts to publish my comments. Signed, Anonymous."

Ichabodians - there you have the sect that suports wife-murderers and child molesters. They are in bed with ELCA but denying it. In bed with Rome, but excusing it. In bed with Fuller and loving it.