Wauwatosa Equals Upside-down Exegesis

Chinese Embassy in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

When I wrote against propositional theology earlier, one TBW (True Blue WELS) pastor alleged that made me a Wauwatosan.

No, Wauwatosa is a perfect example of inbreeding, propositional theology, and upside-down exegesis. We only need to look at the fruit of those years of line-breeding the same concepts. Someone summarized WELS this way:

1. We are never wrong.
2. When in doubt, see #1.

Wauwatosan doctrine is not even original. "The world has been declared righteous" is plagiarized from Missouri. Church Growth is xeroxed from Pasadena. They even had to import old whizzers like Hunter and Werning to teach CGM at the Church and Change Schwaermer-fest.

The current movement toward women's ordination is from Fuller, cell groups, and Willow Creek Community Church.

WELS' infallibility doctrine means they must continue to defend UOJ, CGM, women's ordination, and cell groups because their leaders have supported those items. If someone should withdraw approval from something Becker taught or Valleskey favored, that would be The End. The Day of Wrath. WELS fallible? That alone is the sin against the Holy Spirit.

WELS is destined to become Unitarian unless there is a widespread revolt equal to the Episcopalian slo-mo riot.

Source of Animal Pictures

The very first Thanksgiving.

I collect funny animal pictures and use them in teaching. They make me laugh, and I am glad to report others are laughing with me.

Left Foot of Fellowship Extended to 22 Priests: Moldstad Influence Denied

An Episcopalian Bishop Raises Moldstad's Bet: "I will see that 8 and raise you 14 more defenestrations."

Diocese of Florida Reveals Names of Inhibited Clergy

More than 5,000 Episcopalians have left the Diocese and TEC since 2003

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/14/2008

The Bishop of the Diocese of Florida, Samuel Johnson Howard, has sent out a letter, which VOL has obtained, inhibiting 22 clergy for "the abandonment of the communion of this church", including some retired distinguished clergy who were never informed of their inhibition until the letter landed in their mail boxes.

Here is the list:

The Rev. David C. Allert, Priest
The Rev. Charles S. Bailey, Deacon
The Rev. Gary R. Blaylock, Priest
The Rev. Charles H. Coit, Priest
The Rev. Gilbert T. Crosby, Priest
The Rev. Mark R. Eldredge, Priest
The Rev. Mark Travis Greenman, Priest
The Rev. Edwin C. Griswold, Priest
The Rev. George W. Hall, Jr., Priest
The Rev. Harald K. Haugan, Priest
The Rev. Dorothy Head, Deacon
The Rev. James L. Hobby, Priest
The Rev. Sharon S. Hobby, Priest
The Rev. W. Hall Hunt, Priest
The Rev. Neil G. Lebhar, Priest
The Rev. Patrina A. McCarty, Deacon
The Rev. Lawrence E. O'Connell, Priest
The Rev. William Earl Palmer, Priest
The Rev. James M. Parker, Priest
The Rev. Shawn E. Porter, Priest
The Rev. Leonard Eugene Strickland, Priest
The Rev. George W. Stockhowe, Jr., Priest

All these priests were inhibited on September 13, 2007, for a period of six months by Bishop Howard. On March 13, they will be officially deposed.

When one priest called and made an appointment to go see him, Howard ripped him to shreds for leading a Bible study at an Anglican congregation, VOL was told.

"Whatever happened to Jesus saying that 'he that is not against me is for me'? These are people who have given their whole life to the Episcopal Church and to be treated like that shows his true colors?" said a retired priest who lives in the diocese.

As of January 14, the Anglican Alliance of North Florida reported that 21 congregations. with 41 clergy, had left the diocese and TEC. The grand total for all departed clergy stands at 50.

Homosexual Bishop Earns $200k, Fires Priests

Fido just wanted to express himself, but other Episcopalian dogs shunned him. Fortunately, Fido appealed to the quota system and got himself a sinecure.

SEATTLE: Homosexual Dean in Hot Water over Cathedral Layoffs

Former Bishop of Arkansas to Examine Complaints at St. Mark's

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/14/2008

The Very Rev. Robert Taylor, Dean of St. Mark's Cathedral, a man living openly in a non-celibate homosexual relationship with another man, faces possible firing following a pay raise that brought his salary up to $200,000, while he laid off staff at the landmark cathedral.

St. Mark's Cathedral fell $100,000 short of its pledging goal in 2007, prompting the Lenten layoff of two priests from the staff. Angry parishioners forced the revelation that the cathedral dean receives more than $200,000 in annual salary and benefits. Almost every parish in the Diocese of Olympia in Western Washington has reported a decline in income during the past year.

Dangers of Propositional Theology

Miss Bucky the Cat Looked Everywhere for Bully,
The New Dog Just Arrived from Pasadena

One of the glaring defects of the old Synodical Conference is its tendency to state propositions as if they were Biblical doctrines and defend those statements at all costs. Here are some examples from the last century or so. I challenge anyone to find one such proposition in the Scriptures:

1. The only divinely mandated form of the Church is the local congregation. (LCMS)

2. At the death of Christ (alternately, when He rose from the dead), God declared the world righteous in Christ, whether anyone believed or not. (ELS-WELS-LCMS)

3. We do not know the moment of consecration. (ELS, WELS)

4. There is nothing in the Bible against women's ordination. (Brug, WELS)

5. God wants His Church to grow. (Fuller Seminary, WELS, ELS, LCMS)

L P Cruz Got It Right

UOJ Stormtrooper Shopping for a New Taser

Cruz wanted me to correct him where he was wrong - or wondering.

I hope my blog doesn't turn into a sedes doctrinae. One typo could ruin a whole continent.

Christ died for the sins of the entire world, for all time. That Biblical truth is affirmed by all the Lutheran confessions. The alternate, wrong view is that Christ only for the elect. That view is called Five Point Calvinism, defined by TULIP. Most non-Lutheran Protestants are not true Calvinists but Arminians, like the Methodists. Very few direct heirs of Calvin are Calvinists. They are Arminians, like the late James Kennedy or Billy Graham.

The Gospel Promises move people to faith and this faith receives the forgiveness won by Christ. Preaching and teaching distribute the treasure which is the Atonement. I dislike adding words to Biblical terms. It reminds me of "my personal friend," as if a friend could not be personal, or a "very physical football team" as if some are intellectual.

Notice how the false doctrine promoted by Walther, Pieper, Valleskey, Bivens, and Pope John the Malefactor must take on different names. Thus we have General Justification, Objective Justification, and finally Universal Objective Justification. Even the UOJ Stormtroopers have confessed in writing that the Scriptures and Confessions only know justification by faith.

The clearer the passage, the more opaque the UOJ discussion becomes. 2 Corinthians 5 means simply that the Atonement has reconciled God for all time because there is only one efficacious sacrifice. Christ took on all our sins but His righteousness comes to us only through the Means of Grace - not by thinking, inward preparation, or the independent operation of the Holy Spirit.

Active Meaning of God's Word

The Fiddler on the Roof has a long history in our family. We took little Ichabod to the movie when he was still in a baby seat. At the end of the movie, when the baby cries, he opened his eyes and echoed that cry. "Let my people go already." The audience heard it and laughed.

We played the record over and over at home.

Now I am reading the literature behind the movie and musical. We went to a live performance Saturday at the Arizona Broadway theatre.

The literature and muscial remind me of the constant theme of Judaism - that God's Word equals God's will. The Calvinists divorced Word and will by separating the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word.

"But the sacraments properly fulfill their office only when the Spirit, that inward teacher, comes to them, by whose power alone hearts are penetrated and affections moved and our souls opened for the sacraments to enter in. If the Spirit be lacking, the sacraments can accomplish nothing more in our minds than the splendor of the sun shining upon blind eyes, or a voice sounding in deaf ears."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 119. Insti. IV.xiv.9

"The nature of baptism or the Supper must not be tied down to an instant of time. God, whenever He sees fit, fulfills and exhibits in immediate effect that which he figures in the sacrament. But no necessity must be imagined so as to prevent His grace from sometimes preceding, sometimes following, the use of the sign."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 121. Against Joachim Westphal

"The offspring of believers are born holy, because their children, while yet in the womb, before they breathe the vital air, have been adopted into the covenant of eternal life."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 123. True Method of Reforming the Church

"We must establish such a presence of Christ in the supper as may neither fasten Him to the element of bread, not enclose Him in bread, not circumscribe Him in any way (all of which clearly derogate from His heavenly glory)...."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 128. Insti.IV.xvii.19

"Because saving grace is particular, according to the teaching of the Calvinists, there are no means of grace for that part of mankind to which the grace of God and the merit of Christ do not extend. On the contrary, for these people the means of grace are intended as means of condemnation. Calvin teaches expressly: 'For there is a universal call, through which, by the external preaching of the Word, God invites all, indiscriminately, to come to Him, even those for whom He intends it as a savor of death and an occasion of heavier condemnation' (Institutes, III, 24, 8)."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 118f.

The Lutheran view of uniting the work of the Holy Spirit with the Word is not true because of the brand name, Lutheran - but because of its Biblical truth. In Jewish stories a rabbi's word had the same force as God's Word. If a rabbi declared something, it happened immediately.

Lutherans have abandoned the Biblical view. The laity are as much to blame as the clergy. Visit any council meeting. The overwhelming concern is that the bills are being paid and everyone is happy. No one says, "At least we are faithful to the Scriptures and the Confessions." One can hardly distinguish between the clergy pandering to this view and the laity prioritizing buzz words from work.

Hence, no one has faith in God's Word or His wisdom. Instead, they boss God around just as they do their subordinates at work. They tell him, in prayer, which is even more ridiculous, "We want 10% growth in membership each year, for three years." I read that posted on a church bulletin board.

Fuller Seminary apostasy has so infected the denominations that no one has any resistance to the Fuller-trained dictators who bully their subordinates the same way they command God to part the seas for them.

Fiddler's perspective is entirely religious, even though the plot involves the marriage of three daughters and Russian persecution of Jews. God's Word and will are central to every aspect of the work.

The Church Growth Movement is entirely man-centered.

Is there a blessing for the Church Growth Movement?

There is a blessing for everything.

May God bless, and keep the Church Growth Movement far away from, us.

[Commas edited by Brett Meyer]
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Active Meaning of God's Word":

Although Lutheran clergy can shoulder some of the blame for misleading their flock, the laity are equally culpable. Many will not test the spirits and are willing to jump on the bandwagon of the latest fads. They are ripe for the picking from the Church Growth Movement. My opinion is that it is more than just the council meetings that are doctrinally weak. I served on the Board of Elders for three years. I had naively harbored the illusion that this was going to be where it was at when it came to doctrinal discussions. The other men on the board were well-intentioned good men to work with. A lot of our effort was just rubber stamping routine resolutions.
In my experience, the worst to serve on was the stewardship committee. Looking at individual giving records, statistical breakdowns or groupings of giving ranges vs number of giving units was all just a huge exercise in futility.

When you adopt the Reformed view of prayer as a means of grace, it is just a matter of time before you start bossing God around and demand numerical growth and an end to the congregation's financial woes.

Another aspect of this is incorporating anticipated growth in numbers and giving amounts so that you can qualify for a loan for that building project.
After awhile, it can be rather discouraging that so much of the activities on the boards and committees amounts to no more than busy work. Even heartfelt thanks from called workers cannot fill the vacuum inside those of us who long for solid, doctrinal teaching and discussion. Of course, to fill this void, there is always that latest Bible study from the synod on how to get along with your in-laws.

Hello, Mark? Do We Really Need WELS in Africa?

WELS announced that money was cascading into headquarters, so they were sending a new missionary team to Africa.

The Episcopalians have shown that the Third World is now trying to help with American apostasy. Where is the Episcopal Church alive and growing? Africa. Where do Catholic bishops actually believe in official doctrine? Africa.

Two things are odd about this African adventure of WELS. First of all, the impact is bound to be as great as stopping global warming by buying a Prius. (Yes, man-made global warming is a myth, but a greater myth is stopping the mythical effect with an over-enineered and under-powered Prius.)

Secondly, why export all that false doctrine to Africa? WELS is now a finger puppet of Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek. Why not let the liberal Reformed-Pentecostal sects spend their own money on sending the failed Church Growth Movement to Africa?

Worst of all, planting false doctrine in that fertile land is dangerous. Anyone can see how a few generations of Walther-veneration have turned the old Synodical Conference (ELS-LCMS-WELS) into Universalistic sects in union with Pasadena, Rome, and Barrington.

According to the Little Sect on the Prairie, the world is already saved. Why bother to send missionaries to Africa to tell them they are already saved? Just mail a few subscriptions to the Prairie Home Companion, aka, the Lutheran Sentinel?

My scenario would have the chief call in the elders. "Good news, my friends. The Wisconsin Synod is not going to send missionaries after all. They sent a telegram saying we are already righteous, already saved. We will be spared annual once-in-a-lifetime giving opportunities." The crowd cheers, "Huzzah!"

Confession Is Good for the Soul

Dr. GJ,

http://extranos.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-confess-i-read-dr-ichabods.html

I wrote about my confession that I do read your blog. Above is the link, if I made wrong statements, please correct me and please accept my apologies if I misunderstood, but thanks for the differing opinions in your blog. It provides balance and promotes truth.



LPC

***

GJ - I appreciate the thoughts and the link. I have no problem with posting other views on Ichabod, as long as they contribute to the discussion of theological topics. I have been charitable with the UOJ Stormtroopers, who only have anonymous ad hominem offerings to send. Still, it is my melancholy duty to love the unlovable, so I try to be forebearing with them.

If people wonder about the animal pictures... One readers enjoys them as much as I do, so I post whatever I think is funny. L. P. Cruz is an engineer/math guy, so I picked the one above.

The Left Foot of Fellowship, Episcopal Style

Presiding Bishop Jefferts-Schori:
"And your little dog, too."

The Bishop of San Joaquin has been inhibited by PB Jefferts-Schori. That means he is no longer a bishop. The trouble is, he left The Episcopal Church, USA for another jurisdiction. That indicates to me that the Episcopal Church is now so shatterred that normally compliant bishops are willing to face the fuss and cost of major court battles. That also involves its world-wide communion since the Archbishop of Canterbury has pope-like authority to invite, convene, condemn, absolve.

From Virtue Online:
"As a point of clarification, there is no confusion on the part of the Bishop of San Joaquin or the clergy, people, leadership, and convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin of their status. The claims of the Episcopal Church to have oversight or jurisdiction are not correct. The fact is that neither the Diocese nor Bishop John-David Schofield are part of The Episcopal Church. The Bishop is a member of the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone as of December 8th, 2007. The Diocese is a part of the Southern Cone. Neither the Presiding Bishop nor the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church have any further jurisdiction. Bishop Schofield is no longer a member of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church," said The Rev. Canon Bill Gandenberger, the bishop's Canon to the Ordinary.

The House of Bishops of TEC can indeed prevent Bishop Schofield from functioning as a Bishop in congregations of The Episcopal Church. However, they cannot invalidate his consecration as a Bishop in the Church of God, nor prevent him from functioning as such in congregations that welcome and affirm his ministry as their Bishop.

"The Bishop of San Joaquin has my friendship, my support, and my prayers during this time of turmoil in the life of our church," said Venables.

On January 11, Mrs. Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church formally inhibited Bishop Schofield. In the text of the inhibition, Jefferts Schori wrote: "I hereby inhibit the said Bishop Schofield and order that from and after 5:00 p.m. PST, Friday, January 11, 2008, he cease from exercising the gifts of ordination in the ordained ministry of this Church; and pursuant to Canon IV.15, I order him from and after that time to cease all 'episcopal, ministerial, and canonical acts, except as relate to the administration of the temporal affairs of the Diocese of San Joaquin,' until this Inhibition is terminated pursuant to Canon IV.9(2) or superseded by decision of the House of Bishops."

Jefferts Schori said she acted after the Title IV Review Committee certified that Schofield had abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church.

On January 9, Upper South Carolina Bishop Dorsey Henderson, committee chair, wrote to Jefferts Schori, telling her that the nine-member committee had met that day and that a majority agreed that the documentation provided to them "demonstrated that Bishop Schofield has abandoned the communion of this Church by an open renunciation of the Doctrine, Discipline or Worship of this Church."

Bishop Schofield responded to the announcement saying that The Episcopal Church's assertion that he had abandoned the communion of this Church is an admission that TEC rejects the historical Anglican faith.

***

No denomination has ever been as status quo as the Episcopalians. Unfortunately they mirror our society all too faithfully. They were the Royalists during the Revolution but became patriotic when the United States were formed into a republic. They went radical in the 1960's but resisted some of the worst doctrinal trends.

My impression has been that the national leadership always wanted to preserve some nod toward moderation, but that flew away with the election of Jefferts-Schori. Obviously the apostates loved her, since theological training and experience were almost absent from her resume as an oceanographer. I can go to Google images and obtain funny PhotoShops of her any day, as many have noticed.

Herb Chilstrom did the same for ELCA. He also rode into his dream job (presiding bishop) on the shoulders of the Lavender Mafia. In a few years the collapsing ELCA joined hooves with the Episcopal Church, USA, and pledged its subordination to those bishops who have even less doctrinal unity and integrity.