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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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..."

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