God in the Hands of an Angry Sinner
No one can mangle a question faster than Frosty Bivens, the Waldo Werning Professor of Church Growth at the Mequon Sausage Factory. He was asked about masculine and feminine in the Holy Trinity.
One part of his answer had to do with the gender of the words in Hebrew, Greek, etc. Someone with only a slight knowledge of foreign language realizes that the gender of the word does not indicate the gender of the thing itself. Does parthenos (virgin) in Greek indicate the person is male because the noun is masculine? Utterly ridiculous.
Here is a pronouncement from the Oracle of Mequon:
Most adequate approach
Christians understand that the Father and the Spirit don’t have gender in the same way humans do; God is neither male nor female. Yet we maintain that masculine terminology be normative with reference to God because that is how God has revealed himself in Scripture. Of greater importance is the creating, redeeming, and sanctifying work of God for all humanity. We rejoice in that above all else.
I think Frosty is still trying to justify the absurd feminist Creeds they foisted upon WELS in Charismatic Worship. "Creating, redeeming, and sanctifying" are the new words used by feminists for work of the Holy Trinity. As always, WELS is up to date, 20 years late. The words themselves are not wrong. They have been ill used so often by so many opponents of the Holy Trinity that a Lutheran should avoid them. Many ELCA baptisms today are conducted "In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sanctifier." A Hindu could use the same words. The specific Biblical formula is the actual name of the Holy Trinity - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Fuller Seminary would be proud. They have a special committee to deal with students who do not accept the ordination of women and feminist theology. I trust that Frosty and his WELS kindred did not fall into the clutches of those harpies.
PS - The WELS hymnal turned "and became man" into "fully human," a rendition offered by Wisconsin's favorite group of unionistic, non-Lutheran, apostates. The synod was forced to use this version, they claim. I can imagine that. A bunch of committe members from this pan-denominational study committee walked into the Love Shack, their leather pants perfectly matching their Calvin Klein glasses. They stomped their Guccis and declared, "Use fully human or we will cancel your retreat at Fire Island."
ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Sausage Factory Wisdom
WELS Would Appoint Him to be a Church Growth Consultant
Convicted Pedophile Episcopal Priest to Host Spiritual Retreats with Presiding Bishop's Blessing
by David W. Virtue
May 14, 2008
A convicted and defrocked pedophile Episcopal priest is being allowed to conduct spiritual retreats - two of them in an Episcopal facility with the blessing of Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, TEC's Presiding Bishop.
In an exchange of correspondence with David Clohessy, National Director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Mrs. Jefferts Schori, through her Pastoral Development Officer Bishop F. Clayton Matthews, said that Mr. Lynn C. Baumann could function as a spiritual retreat master on the understanding that "Mr. Baumann's contact (is) to adults only".
Buffer Space Helps Bethany Lutheran Worship
From one of our readers, Grey Goose:
Anyway, the buffering on the recording came along about every two sentences. (I hadn't experienced that at all earlier.) So I right-clicked on the picture and got a box with a Settings choice for the Adobe Flash Player on my machine that Ustream must use.
Clicking on Settings, I learned that the buffer space was very small. I set it for Unlimited. From then on, everything was fine again.
I mention this in case others comment on too frequent buffering. Resetting the Adobe FP buffer space might give them a helping hand. But one has to leave the BLW site and return to it for the new setting to take effect.
***
GJ - Ichabodians - try this to get rid of the hiccups. There are things on my side to improve and also variables from home to home and along the Internet path. This is so new that college students look at me with awe and wonder when I describe it to them. It is gratifying to be ahead of the 20 to 30 year-olds in something technological. I remember when we had only two TV channels to watch. I had to walk all the way cross the room to change the knob from 4 to 6. I was the family remote control.
California and the Planet of the Apes
George Taylor: "You Maniacs! You blew it up!"
Poor George Taylor got back home to Earth, only to find that the nuclear holocaust had buried the Statue of Liberty.
Earthlings today, especially Baby Boomers, are busy with their demolition efforts. They dismantled the Lutheran Church years ago. Now synodical leaders can pretend to be conservative while running off to Fuller Seminary and promoting gay lib. According to Fuller alumnus Frosty Bivens, one should not suggest that a homosexual orientation is wrong. However, he does think it is a lie to tell the truth about his Church Growth education. As Luther opined, "When right is wrong and wrong is right, nothing can help anymore."
The California Supreme Court decision (4 to 3) to bless homosexual marriage is one more non-surprise in a long series of ethical retreats initiated by the churches of America. Like their mainline counterparts, the conservative synods paved the way for the California decision decades ago when they abandoned sound doctrine for the fads of the day.
The problem does not center on the issue of the moment, but the foundation for making decisions. Our country was founded on the principles of natural law, that right and wrong are derived from divine Creation. Once that concept was removed from Christianity and Judaism, anything could be decided. The turning point was not Roe versus Wade, but much earlier, when evolution became the accepted stance of most denominations.
Fuller Seminary succeeded in attracting all synod leaders (ELCA, ELS, WELS, LCMS) precisely because those synods were already apostate. The Fuller education drive began in the 1970s. No one really objected at the time. Dr. Robert Preus and the Concordia, Ft. Wayne faculty endorsed Church Growth principles. Preus offered a Church Growth degree at The Fort. Kincaid Smith said his Ft. Wayne D.Min. was all Church Growth.
When there was some chance to follow through and fight Church Growth ecumemnism along doctrinal lines, the conservative Lutheran pastors and laity ducked into their rabbit warrens and shivered, hoping to escape synodical wrath. However, the pan-Lutheran Church Growth Mafia was not so passive. They hammered every critic until he was declared legally dead. Werning, Hunter, Valleskey, Olson, Koenig, Tiefel 1, Tiefel 2, Bivens, Oelhaven, Sweet, and Adrian were One in the Spirit, One in the Lord.
Stay tuned for "Tch tch" sermons this Sunday. Woe is us. The California court decision shows how bad things are. Thank God we are so conservative. We are so conservative we never admit having pastors who have died of AIDS. Etc. Etc.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Apostates Do Not Like This Kind of Criticism
The Fad-Driven Church
by Todd Wilken
Monday, October 6, 2014.
LAKE FOREST - Rick Warren, author of the best selling, “The Purpose-Driven Life,” has written his last book. Warren announced Saturday that he is leaving publishing, “I’m just feeling led in a new direction now. My books will still be out there, it’s just that I won’t be writing any more new ones.” Warren is pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest.
The mood is somber as several dozen clergy gather outside Warren’s Saddleback church. Many wear Hawaiian shirts, a look Warren made popular among pastors a decade ago. Some take turns reading aloud from their Purpose-Driven Life Journals.
Warren’s withdrawal from publishing follows a similar move this year by Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community church near Chicago.
Warren has dominated Christian publishing for a decade. “The Purpose-Driven Life” has sold 24 million copies since 2002. Warren’s other books include “Practical Purpose: How to Do Life Purposefully,” and “A Purpose-Driven Retirement.” Hybels’ books, “Becoming a Contagious Christian,” “Beyond Contagious: Six Signs of an Infectious Christian,” and “The Epidemic Christian” were also best sellers. In March Hybels also announced the end of his Willow Creek Leadership Summits.
Mark Jones has been pastor at Metropolitan Family Fellowship in Ventura since 2004. “I feel a little betrayed. I mean, I’ve pretty much based my entire ministry on Warren and Hybels’ stuff. I don’t know what I’m going to do now. And I can’t imagine what I’m going to tell my congregation.”
Jones is looking for something to fill the expected void in his ministry. “It’s not like my congregation is going to put up with just interpreting Scripture every Sunday. That’ll hold their interest for about two seconds.”
A representative of Zondervan, Warren and Hybels’ publisher, responded to Saturday’s announcement, “Rick’s decision is obviously going to impact our bottom line. If worse comes to worst, we can always go back to selling Bibles.
The dictionary defines a fad as “a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal.” This could just as well be a description of congregational life of many Christian churches today.
There is a new book, a new program or a new emphasis every year or so. It’s all anyone can talk about; it’s all the preacher preaches about — for a while. Then, as quickly as it came, it’s gone. As eagerly as it was received, it’s abandoned and forgotten.
Welcome to the Fad-Driven church.
At first this might not sound like a problem. Some Christians can remember when the Church didn’t jump from bandwagon to bandwagon every year or two. But for others, this is all they have ever known. For them, it is hard to imagine what the Church would be like without the constant ebb and flow of church fads. For them, the long list of church fads represents their personal history as a Christian: Spiritual Gift inventories, Spiritual Warfare, Promise Keepers, Weigh Down Workshop, The Prayer of Jabez, the Left Behind series, Becoming a Contagious Christian, a long succession of evangelism and stewardship programs, and most recently, The Purpose-Driven Life and 40 Days of Purpose. There are many Christians for whom this list (give or take one or two) is Christianity.
Some church fads come and go, some come and stay. A few are genuinely harmless; most contain serious theological errors. All are popular — while they last. In the fad-driven church, “exaggerated zeal” has replaced “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”[i]
In the course of hosting Issues, Etc. I’ve examined most, if not all of the recent church fads. I am always surprised — not by the fads themselves, but by something else. I am always surprised by how uncritically churches accept a fad, how enthusiastically churches embrace a fad and how carelessly churches abandon a fad. That is why this article isn’t about the fads themselves, but about the kind of churches that accept, embrace and then abandon fads.
The Life Cycle of a Church Fad
Every fad has a life cycle. The fad is first accepted, then embraced and finally abandoned. For the fad-driven church, this life cycle is a way of life.
The cycle begins with acceptance. The fad-driven church is practiced at this. Too close an examination of the fad at the outset might raise too many questions. “After all, this book is a best-seller!” “Thousands of churches are doing it, how can we go wrong?” Accept first, examine later, if at all. This acceptance may come through the pastor’s active promotion or through grassroots popularity. Either way, the fad spreads like wildfire in the congregation.
The cycle continues with enthusiastic embrace. By “enthusiastic” I don’t mean excitement or emotion, although those things may be involved. What I mean is that the fad-driven church embraces its latest fad with creedal intensity. While the fad has currency, it is an article of faith. Belief in the fad becomes a mark of loyalty to the church. During this phase of the fad’s life cycle, critics of the fad may be dismissed as unloving, judgmental or unconcerned for saving souls. At the very least, they are viewed as troublemakers and obstacles to the church’s mission. During this phase, in some cases, the fad may dictate what is preached, the content of Bible study or even the focus of congregation life.
The life cycle ends with the abandonment of the fad. Some fads have a built-in expiration date (40 Days of Purpose), most simply linger until something better comes along. The fad-driven church may cling with a martyr’s fervor to the fad while it lasts, but everyone knows that its days are numbered. Sooner or later it will have to be abandoned.
Accept the fad, embrace the fad and abandon the fad. This is the life of fad-driven church.
There are exceptions to this life cycle. In a few cases, a fad doesn’t die; it grows into something bigger than a fad. It grows into a movement. The Church Growth movement, the Charismatic movement and the Word-Faith movement all started as fads. Now they are something more. Advocates point to their movement’s longevity as a sign of its truth. They forget that the Church’s history is littered with many fads-turned-movements — Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism to name only a few — we call them heresies.
I have often been critical of church fads at the height of their popularity. After several encounters with fad defenders, I noticed something. The seasoned member of the fad-driven church will defend his fad today. But he will happily abandon the same fad six months from now. I realized that the fad itself is inconsequential; everyone knows that it will be forgotten sooner or later. Christians caught in the cycle of church fads must defend a particular fad, because by doing so, they are defending their willingness to accept, embrace and abandon fads in general. They are defending their fad-driven-ness
A Lack of Discernment
The need for discernment in the Church is one the most frequent admonitions of Scripture.[ii] Paul’s warning to the Ephesians is typical:
We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.[iii]
The Church is supposed to stand immovable against “every wind of doctrine.” By contrast, the fad-driven church is a windsock. If you want to know which way the wind is blowing, the latest teachings, the newest programs or the most current methods, just look at the fad-driven church. If you want to know what the fad-driven church will be doing next, just walk through your local Christian bookstore or page through a Christian publisher’s catalogue.
In the fad-driven church, books, programs and seminars are evaluated primarily by their sales, popularity and attendance records, rather than on their theological merits. “False teaching? Why would so many churches be reading this book if it contained false teaching?” “Why would so many attend this event if there is anything wrong with it?” Can millions of Christians be wrong? Yes, they can.
Ironically, the fad-driven church often excuses its lack of discernment in the name of saving souls. It justifies its appetite for fads in the name of evangelism. “Whatever it takes” is the creed of the fad-driven church. “Whatever it takes to reach the lost” is supposed to be a courageous new strategy for evangelism. But “Whatever it takes” isn’t a strategy. “Whatever it takes” is an admission that you have no strategy. Sinners aren’t saved by “whatever,” sinners are saved by what Jesus did at the Cross. “Whatever it takes” is just another way of saying, “Whatever people want,” or “Whatever everyone else is doing.” Rather than seeking the lost, the fad-driven church is just seeking its next fix.
Some advocates of church fads take the “Eat the meat, spit out the bones” approach to false teaching. They claim that practicing discernment means spitting the “bones” of error while eating the “meat” of truth. There are several problems with this approach. First, this assumes that a church fad contains only isolated false teachings, like so many bones in a fish. But many church fads don’t just contain false teaching; they are based on false teaching. Promise Keepers is based on the idea that sinners can keep promises and ultimately keep God’s law. Weigh Down Workshop is based on the idea that man is saved by his works. The Prayer of Jabez is based on the idea that God answers prayer because of the character of the one who prays. The Left Behind series is based on the idea that national Israel is the key to Bible prophesy. Becoming a Contagious Christian is based on the idea that conversion is an act of the human will. The Purpose-Driven Life is based on the idea that you can earn God’s favor and heavenly rewards by your works. These fads don’t just contain false teaching; they are based on false teaching.
Second, the “bone-spitting” approach assumes that the errors of the latest church fad will be obvious to everyone. Often they are not. In the 2nd century, Irenaeus battled the fad of Gnosticism. He observed:
Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself. [iv]
The “inexperienced” are still infants in the faith. Would you give an infant a fish to eat knowing that there were bones in it?
Finally, the “bone-spitting” approach fails to recognize that a continuous steam of fads will erode the church’s ability to discern truth from error. With every new fad, the fad-driven church grows less sensitive to error. With every new fad, the fad-driven church grows less able to recognize the truth. In time, the fad-driven church is unable to discern the true Gospel from a false gospel. Paul found this to be the case among the Corinthians:
If one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. [v]
This is the bottom line. A church willing to tolerate some false teaching will eventually tolerate any false teaching — even a false gospel, a false spirit and a false Jesus. For this reason, when it comes to false teaching, Scripture’s command isn’t to “bone-spit,” but to avoid it altogether. [vi]
Desperation
The Church’s fascination with fads is nothing new. The prophet Jeremiah described a similar situation among God’s people in his day:
My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate," declares the LORD. For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. [vii]
The people had committed apostasy: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters. And apostasy led to idolatry: to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
First, and most importantly, Jeremiah tells what apostasy is. Apostasy is replacing God’s fountain of living water with man-made cisterns. It is replacing the message of God’s Grace with a message of human works. In the case of many church fads, it is shifting the focus from Christ to the Christian.
Paul encountered apostasy in Galatia. The Galatians had an “exaggerated zeal” for circumcision. Rather than dismiss this as a harmless fad, Paul warned them in no uncertain terms:
I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. [viii]
This is what many church fads do. There is the subtle legalism of Promise Keepers or the overt legalism of Weigh Down Workshop. There is the Christ-less prayer of Jabez or the Christ-less prophecy in the Left Behind series. There is the man-centered view of Justification in Becoming a Contagious Christian or the man-centered view of Sanctification in The Purpose-Driven Life. In every case, God’s Grace in Jesus Christ takes second place to human works, and the focus shifts from Christ to the Christian.
Whenever or however the Church downplays the certainty of Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection in favor of the uncertainty of human works, it commits apostasy.
This is why the fad-driven church is so desperate. In Jeremiah’s words, when you forsake the living waters, you will drink anything to quench your thirst. When the Church forsakes the truth of Gospel, it will try anything, it will buy anything.
This also explains the response I often get from my fellow pastors when I criticize the latest church fad: “Well, sure it contains false teaching, but what’s your alternative?” Notice: these are the words of someone who doesn’t believe there is an alternative. These are the words of someone who is desperate. These are the words of someone who thinks that he has no choice but to drink polluted water from a broken cistern.
Idolatry is the inevitable consequence of apostasy. Os Guiness’ has written recently about the “idol of relevance” and accurately described the mentality of the fad-driven church:
Whatever is is not only right but a great deal better than what was. And of course, whatever is next must be a great deal better still…. The past is beside the point, outdated, reactionary, stagnant. In a word that is today’s supreme term of dismissal, the past is irrelevant. Everything Christian from worship to evangelism must be fresh, new, up-to-date, attuned, appealing, seeker-sensitive, audience-friendly, and relentlessly relevant, relevant, relevant. “All-new,” “must-read,” “the sequel that is more than equal” —the mentality is rampant and the effect is corrosive. [ix]
Rather than making the church more relevant, this mentality only makes the fad-driven church more susceptible to fads and more desperate,
Relevance without truth encourages what Nietzsche called the “herd” mentality and Kierkegaard “the age of the crowd.” Further compounded by accelerated change, which itself is compounded by the fashion-driven dictates of consumerism, relevance becomes overheated and vaporizes into trendiness. [x]
Guiness’ final observation is an uncanny paraphrase of Jeremiah’s lament:
Feverishness is the condition of an institution that has ceased to be faithful to its origins. It is then caught up in “a restless, cosmopolitan hunting after new and ever newer things.” [xi]
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. This explains the short life span of so many Church fads. It is the result of desperation. The fad-driven church’s new cisterns are broken. They can’t hold water. Even while the last drops drain from the old cistern, the fad-driven church must desperately dig a new one. But the new cistern is as leaky as the old one, so the digging must go on.
Nothing to Offer, Nothing to Say
William Inge said, “Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” Take away the fads, and what of the Church is left in the fad-driven church? In some cases, what’s left isn’t the Church at all, but a collection of principles, practices and ideas that don’t add up to anything resembling the Christian faith. Rather than “the pattern of sound words,” [xii] there are only the remnants of past fads.
In the name of saving the lost, the fad-driven church is trading the saving message of the Gospel for the newest gimmick. If such a church does reach the lost, will it have anything to say that can save them?
What does the fad-driven church have to offer to its own members? Sure, the next sermon series is new, but is it true? Sure, the next book can sell, but can it save? Will the fad-driven church give Christians Jesus or Jabez, lasting forgiveness or the latest fashion?
And for the member of the fad-driven church who has known nothing but fads, will these fads leave her a Christian on her deathbed (or will she be left wondering what that whirlwind of best sellers, seminars, video sermons and three-ring binders was all about)?
“The church that wraps its identity and mission around the evanescent desires of finicky consumers will run the risk of creating a church as ephemeral as those desires.” [xiii] Will the fad-driven church remain the Church? In its “exaggerated zeal” for all things new, will it hold fast to the unchanging message of the Cross?
Fad or Faith
We live in an age of pious distractions. We live in an age of church fads. The fad-driven church has structured its life around the trends and innovations of the day. Christian publishers and the mega-church gurus are ready to provide something new as often as masses demand it. But St. Paul encourages and warns the Church:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage— with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. [xiv]
The Church has something better than any fad. The time has come. Ears are itching. Ears are turning. The Church must take up Paul’s charge. Now more than ever the Church must preach the Word and ignore the fads.
Many in the fad-driven church believe that preaching the Word is impractical: “If just preaching the Word worked, people would be lining up at our door.” Others in the fad-driven church believe that preaching the Word is outdated: “It may have worked 50 years ago, but not today.” Others believe that preaching the word is just too simple, Rick Warren has said as much,
We've all heard speakers claim, "If you'll just pray more, preach the word, and be dedicated, then your church will grow." Well, that's just not true. I can show you thousands of churches where pastors are doctrinally sound; they love the Lord; they're committed and spirit-filled and yet their churches are dying on the vine. [xv]
This is nonsense. How can a church that is preaching the living Word of God be “dying on the vine?” Paul tells the Church to preach the Word not because it is the most practical way, or the most current way, or the simplest way. Paul tells us to preach the Word because it is the only way.
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. [xvi]
G. K. Chesterton said, “The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer. It keeps the key of a permanent virtue.” That key is the Gospel, the message of the forgiveness of sins purchased at the Cross, with the blood of Jesus.
That key is the Gospel proclaimed to every sinner every Sunday. That key is the Gospel poured out on every sinner in Baptism. That key is the Gospel provided to every sinner in Jesus’ body and blood in His supper. Yes, this Gospel is popularly believed to be impractical, outdated, and simplistic. But it isn’t. Rather, this Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.” [xvii]
Without this Gospel, the Church is at the mercy of every new fad. However, with this Gospel, the Church really is beyond the times.
As I write this, my 12-year-old daughter is convinced that hip-hugger bell-bottoms are the greatest idea in fashion history. I don’t have the heart to tell her that I used to think so too. She thinks her father looks old-fashioned and lacks all sense of style. I don’t have the heart to tell her that I look back at pictures of my bell-bottom days and laugh. I don’t have the heart to tell her that someday she will do the same. The Church is an old man who has been wearing the same clothes in the same style his whole life. He refuses to change with the fashions. He simply lets the fads pass him by. Yes, he seems behind the times. But look again at what he is wearing. He is clothed in Christ.
[i] Jude 3.
[ii] Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 14:29; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Galatians 1:9; Philippians 1:8-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Timothy 4:6,16; 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2:15; 4:3-5; Titus 1:7-14; 2:1; 1 John 4:1; Hebrews 5:14.
[iii]Ephesians 4:14-15.
[iv] Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haereses, I, 2, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, ed., Hendrickson, 1994.
[v] 2 Corinthians 11:4.
[vi] Galatians 2:4-5; 5:9; 1 Corinthians 5:6; Philippians 3:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Timothy 4:6-7; 6:20-21; 2 Timothy 1:13-14; 2:16-18; 3:1-17; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 3:17-18; Revelation 2:14-16.
[vii] Jeremiah 2:11-13.
[viii] Galatians 5:3-4.
[ix] Os Guiness, Prophetic Untimeliness, A Challege to the Idol of Relevance, Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003, pp. 40, 76.
[x] Os Guiness, Dining with the Devil, The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993, p. 63.
[xi] Guiness, Dining with the Devil, p. 63
[xii] 2 Timothy 1:13.
[xiii] Philip Kenneson, James Street, Selling Out the Church, The Dangers of Church Marketing, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997, p. 20.
[xiv] 2 Timothy 4:1-4
[xv] Rick Warren, “Rick Warren Interview” at http://www.pastors.com/portal/news/August/RickInterview.asp
[xvi] 1 Corinthians 1:21-25. Also Matthew 24:14; Luke 24:46-47;Romans 10:17; 16:25-27; 2 Corinthians 4:5; Colossians 1:25-28.
[xvii] Romans 1:16.
The Rev. Todd Wilken is (used to be) the host of Issues, Etc.
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GJ - A reader sent me the link, which is from the canceled radio show. I tried to get to other documents, but the server said, "No, no." The main page is there. I assume that Rick Warren leaving the book business is a joke, like the date. Why would Kieschnick not like this clever essay?
One blogger wrote this:
You are not free to criticize the synod?
From a while back, Scott at Die Schreiben von Schreiber has a post that may seem unrelated to the Issues Etc. cancellation. But I think it says more about it than anything we've seen out of synodical headquarters so far. He quotes Pres. Kieschnick, from a 2006 appearance at an LCMS Ohio District convention:
“You are NOT free to preach or teach publicly that Synod is wrong on ANY given issue.”
Kieschnick reportedly repeated the statement slowly to give listeners a second chance to catch it.
Given that Todd Wilken and guests were openly critical of a lot of the things the Kieschnick administration is enamored of -- even though they tended not to criticize the LCMS directly.
And incidentally, does this mean synodical leaders will go after pastors who've signed the petition supporting Issues? Their signatures are a clear indication that they believe the synod is wrong on at least one issue.
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GJ - No one can differ from Holy Mother Synod! That is news? All the synods are the same, from mighty ELCA to the puny off-scourings of the Synodical Conference. The reason to start a new synod is to create a bunch of mini-popes in micro-districts.
These innnocents grew up in a time of synodical stupidity, apostasy, and Stalinesque tyranny. Why are they surprised now?
Kieschnick has them where he wants them. As long as they talk about radio, budgets, and the fate of two or three men, the synod will win...again.
One little Word of doctrine can defeat them.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Bailing Water Blog Incites Ad Jacksonem Fallacy
Bailing Water calmly discusses Wisconsin sect news and issues. The responses are hilarious. Here are a few:
Anonymous said...
Seems to be more of the same (an Ichabod want-a-be)--Lutherans who seem to never be satisfied and in my opinion jettison the 8th commandment in this blog-sphere in the name of orthodoxy. Should spend more time sharing the gospel than bitch'in about people who don't the way you like.
Just shout'in
[GJ - The post above was incoherent enough to attract another illiterate - below.]
April 20, 2008 9:31 PM
Anonymous said...
Just Shout'in,
"Icabod [sic] want-a-be"? You've got to be kidding, really. Jackson slanders at will (please don't make me re-read his rants to illustrate this). These "Angry Lutherans" comment on public matters. Please illustrate where this group has jettisoned the 8th commandment as you opine. Even if a feather or two is ruffled, as a Wisconsin Synod letter writer to Logia once said, we should be more concerned about God's name than our own. This was in response to someone ripping on him (not Him). And how do you know that they spend more thim "bitch'in" (sic) than "sharing (sic) the gospel"?
R. Flanders
Anonymous said...
R. Flanders writes,
And how do you know that they spend more thim "bitch'in" (sic) than "sharing (sic) the gospel"?
or "time?"
R. Flanders
April 28, 2008 3:07 PM
Anonymous said...
So where did you get your information from? You're acting like Jackson at Ichabod. You just make the statement (or charges), without any proof. Who sponsored the event? When was it held? Who was invited? You've got to tell us more than this. Remember the Eighth Commandment?
April 28, 2008 7:22 AM
John said...
I received the information from a WELS pastor and "staff" minister who were in attendance last week in Orlando, FL at this church planting seminar.
April 28, 2008 11:45 AM
Anonymous said...
And then you have Greg Jackson over at Icabod [sic] who it seems is going Eastern Orthodox. Check out the icon he used on his most recent post. (That is enough proof according to his standards that he is sailing the Bosporus.)
Rick Warren Is All Wet,
And WELS Slobbers All Over Him
From Bailing Water:
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The WELS Challenge
WELS pastors take up the challenge of growing the church. Several heavy hitting WELS pastors took to the road to find out the latest trends going on under the protestant tent. At least one of the pastors in attendance sits on the presidium of a synodical district.
I hope that in a future issue of Forward in Christ (one of those in attendance is a contributing author to FIC) or maybe in the presidential newsletter we will hear a recap of this event and how we can follow in the footsteps of such great leaders as Rick Warren.
http://www.exponentialconference.org/
Session #5b: with Rick Warren: The Challenge - You've heard the scriptures and been through the workshops. You've learned about the biblical principles of reproducing churches, vision, disciple making, community, missional movements. You've networked with people who share your passion for reaching people and showing them the way back to Jesus Christ. Now what? Rick Warren will help answer that question as he closes Exponential 2008 with a time of challenge and commitment.
WELS Pastors attend Exponential Conference in Orlando
Several WELS pastors from across the country gathered together last week at an ecumenical conference (but they didn't pray with 'em).
http://www.exponentialconference.org/
These WELS pastors sat at the feet of nationally known Church Growth gurus including Rick Warren and Ed Stetzer.
People like to shout out that we won't let Leonard Sweet preach to us at WLC. Since the growth leaders can't come to WELS colleges the cutting edge pastors visit these national seminars.
If you want further details about the wonderful ideas presented at this conference contact a pastor at the local WELS congregation in Maitland, FL, our your own local church planting WELS pastor.
Episcopal Bishop Sues Congregation
COLORADO SPRINGS: Church Property Dispute Unresolved. Trial Ordered
Church Will Continue to Stay in Hands of CANA Priest
News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May 14, 2008
A judge of the El Paso County District Court of Colorado ruled that a property dispute between Grace Church & St. Stephen's and the Episcopal Bishop and Diocese of Colorado cannot be resolved by summary judgment and must go to trial court.
Judge Larry E. Schwartz ruled, however, that Grace Church and St. Stephen's legal argument for ownership of the property is valid as they have been a valid, non-profit corporation recognized by the State of Colorado since 1973.
When asked if the majority of the congregation that stayed with Grace Church could remain on the property, the Rev. Don Armstrong told VOL that it means precisely that. "We do stay in the building. A trial date is currently set for Feb 24, 2009. In the mean time, our congregation continues to flourish. God is adding to our numbers day by day. More people are worshipping each Sunday at Grace Church than all the other Episcopal Churches in Colorado Springs combined. Our new programs have been met with great enthusiasm and our congregation's spiritual health is the best I have ever seen it."
Armstrong said he was very pleased that Judge Schwartz is hearing this case. "He has a reputation for thoroughness and precision, which these circumstances require. We trust that whatever the outcome, it will have been well adjudicated. Defrockings, personal law suits, character assassinations, and false claims being used by Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori and her bishops is not only un-Christian, but un-American.
"Unlike the ecclesial court in Colorado that thought it could adjudicate civil matters in a religious court, Judge Schwartz is not going to try to adjudicate religious matters in a civil court. The decision here will be based on Neutral Principles of Law, and that part of this ruling we consider to be very wise and hopeful.
"Although our opponents have a complicated house of cards for an argument, our case is relatively straight forward and clear because it is the truth. We look forward to the final outcome, although that itself is over a year away."
Judge Schwartz's decision was in response to a hearing held on May 2, 2008, at the El Paso County Courthouse in which 18 members of Grace Church and St. Stephen's requested that personal lawsuits brought against them by the Episcopal Bishop of Colorado be dismissed.
In May of 2007, Grace Church and St. Stephen's voted to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) in a congregational election. Of the 370 votes cast, an overwhelming 342, or 93%, voted for Grace Church and St. Stephen's, one of the oldest Episcopal Churches in Colorado, to leave the Episcopal Church over its departure from traditional Christian beliefs and practice.
Since that time, the Episcopal Bishop, Rob O'Neill, and the Diocese of Colorado have sued the corporation of Grace Church and St. Stephen's, 18 individual members and lay-leaders of the congregation, and an affiliated elementary school, St. Stephen's Classical School, for the 17 million dollar historic landmark church building in downtown Colorado Springs.
UOP To Start Canadian University
The University of Phoenix has started a Canadian university.
The Ontario branch will issue diplomas that read, "You have earned a bachelor's degree, eh?"
PS - For those who do not know - Ontario natives end most of their sentences with a long "a-a-a-a-ay?" For reasons yet to be explained, it is spelled "eh."
Minneapolis Bridge Almost Completed
the new I-35 bridge in Minneapolis.
Bridge construction superintendent Norm Teigen said recently, "One more coat of paint on the house and we'll be finished."
Norm liked this update!
Famous Lutheran Church Musician
Dies at 89
+ Lutheran Kantor on Jaraslov Vajda - 1919-2008 +
The Concordia Publishing House website reports that Dr. Jaraslov Vajda died on May 10, 2008. I first encountered his hymns with the now familiar “Go, My Children, With My Blessing”.
Some of us recently sang or read his Ascension hymn “Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels” (LSB 491) . The doxological verse to this hymn is a fitting closing to a long and productive service to God and the church.
Alleluia, alleluia! Oh to breathe the Spirit’s grace!
Alleluia, alleluia! Oh, to see the Father’s face!
Alleluia, alleluia! Oh, to feel the Sons’ embrace
Candadian Lutherans Lead the Way
To Perdition
By Hilary White
NEWMARKET, Ontario, May 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Christian doctrine pertaining to sexual morality held by the Evangelical Lutheran Church In Canada (ELCIC) is “discriminatory” and “unjust”, according to Holy Cross Lutheran church in Newmarket, Ontario. The small church congregation is issuing a direct challenge to the ELCIC and is breaking with the doctrines of the Christian religion by announcing it will ordain to the ministry an active homosexual who is “married” to another man.
Lionel Ketola, will be ordained to the Lutheran ministry on May 16th. Their ceremony, Holy Cross admits, is an act in defiance of the policy of the ELCIC that says those who are “self-declared and practicing homosexuals” may not serve as ordained ministers.
The willingness of Holy Cross to ordain Ketola can be seen as a direct challenge to the ELCIC, which refused to accept him as a candidate in 1988 because of his refusal to give up his sexually active lifestyle. In a grant application to cover the cost of Ketola’s internship, the Holy Cross council wrote that they saw their efforts as a corrective “witness to the ELCIC as well as to the communities in which we serve”.
The church has affiliated itself with a group, Lutherans Concerned In Canada, that is pursuing the goals of the homosexual movement’s agenda within the Lutheran Church.
The ELCIC responded in a letter, saying that the action of Holy Cross “marks a serious breach” of the church’s obligations to abide by the ELCIC constitution.
Bishop Michael J. Prysewrote to the Holy Cross Council “with a heavy heart,” but made no direct objection on moral grounds to the church’s determination to endorse homosexuality. He wrote, “With you, I am committed to work toward ending practices that preclude the full participation of all God’s people in the life of the church, regardless of sexual orientation”.
Prysesaid, however, that the process should go more slowly and with greater consultation, objecting only that the action may “do irreparable damage to the already fragile connecting fabric of our church”.
In 2006 Holy Cross announced that the “openly queer-identified” Ketola would be allowed to serve a year long internship as vicar. The church secured financial assistance to fund the internship from a group called Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) that promotes the ordination to the Lutheran ministry of persons “of all sexual
orientations and gender identities in Lutheran life and ministry”.
Ketolais supported by the Extraordinary Candidacy Project (ECP), a homosexual activist organization which certifies the credentials of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates for ordained ministry in Lutheran Churches. Holy Cross calls the ECP “a hopeful alternative for openly queer people who wish to serve in public ministry and refuse to comply with the ELCIC’s unjust policy” that requires that pastors conform to traditional Christian sexual morality.
Holy Cross proudly announced that “Lionel and his husband Steve Loweth, a 42-year-old music publisher, were married on New Years Eve 2003. Steve is active in leadership in a downtown Toronto congregation of the Anglican Church of Canada.”
The willingness of Holy Cross to embrace the homosexual doctrine will not surprise some who have watched as the ELCIC has “progressed” into greater liberalism.
In a letter dated May 1st, Astrid Neumann, a member of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Surrey, British Columbia, wrote that she was leaving the congregation and that the church’s slide away from the traditional doctrines of Christianity was “the most horrific experience of my life, bar none”.
Neumann wrote of the Lutheran church’s questioning of core Christian beliefs. “I can’t fathom that there are debates about whether or not Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus, if Jesus is or isn’t the only way to the Father, that hell may or may not exist, that everyone will go to heaven regardless of their beliefs or unbelief, etc., and many other debates about what I mistakenly thought were core beliefs”.
“Everything has become iffy. We are left with the end result that the Bible can’t be trusted, there is no Truth, and everything is relative.”
***
More than you want to know about this development.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Andromeda Galaxy
Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 38:2 Who [is] this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38:8 Or [who] shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, [as if] it had issued out of the womb?
Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
Job 38:10 And brake up for it my decreed [place], and set bars and doors,
Job 38:11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; [and] caused the dayspring to know his place;
Job 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Job 38:14 It is turned as clay [to] the seal; and they stand as a garment.
Job 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.
Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Job 38:18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Job 38:19 Where [is] the way [where] light dwelleth? and [as for] darkness, where [is] the place thereof,
Job 38:20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths [to] the house thereof?
Job 38:21 Knowest thou [it], because thou wast then born? or [because] the number of thy days [is] great?
Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
Job 38:23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
Job 38:24 By what way is the light parted, [which] scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
Job 38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, [where] no man [is; on] the wilderness, wherein [there is] no man;
Job 38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste [ground]; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
Job 38:30 The waters are hid as [with] a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Job 38:32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Job 38:34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
Job 38:35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we [are]?
Job 38:36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
Job 38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
Job 38:40 When they couch in [their] dens, [and] abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.
Job 39:1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? [or] canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
Job 39:2 Canst thou number the months [that] they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
Job 39:3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
Job 39:4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.
Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
Job 39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
Job 39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
Job 39:8 The range of the mountains [is] his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
Job 39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength [is] great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather [it into] thy barn?
Job 39:13 [Gavest thou] the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
Job 39:14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
Job 39:15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
Job 39:16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though [they were] not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;
Job 39:17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
Job 39:18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.
Job 39:19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
Job 39:20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils [is] terrible.
Job 39:21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in [his] strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
Job 39:22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
Job 39:23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
Job 39:24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that [it is] the sound of the trumpet.
Job 39:25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
Job 39:26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, [and] stretch her wings toward the south?
Job 39:27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?
Job 39:28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.
Job 39:29 From thence she seeketh the prey, [and] her eyes behold afar off.
Job 39:30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain [are], there [is] she.
Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct [him]? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Enjoy God's Creation from the Internet
See the universe from your computer with Microsoft Worldwide Telescope.
Download the free software here.
When I was in Sturgis, Michigan, a retired scientist, a pioneer in his field, talked me into getting the largest reflector telescope I could afford. I got a 10 inch, which was 3 times better than his 6 inch reflector (Meade). Some thought it was 10 inches long. No, it stood about 6 feet tall, the mirror being 10 inches across.
We had great fun finding the Messier objects like the Crab Nebula. Photographs look better because the film is saturated with light. Nevertheless, there is a peculiar joy in guiding a scope from one celestial landmark to another until the mirror holds a nebula or galaxy. I used to show people the rings on Saturn, craters and mountains on the moon, the satellites of Jupiter.
My favorite was to get people to see the second and third smaller galaxies held by the gravitational pull of the largest one, the Andromeda Galaxy. I will have to post that photo later.
Jastrow was quoted in the Yale Divinity magazine as saying, "Evolution is like saying a tornado went through a junkyard and produced a working model of a 747 jet."
Jastrow was an astrophysicist.
How To Subscribe
Here are some basic lectures, so simple that even a grandparent can understand.
This link to You Tube will show you how to subscribe to blogs.
This is about Wikis. The number one theologian for Missouri and WELS, Leonard Sweet, is a professor of wikiletics. Seriously.
Social networking lesson.
Social bookmarking.
Google docs.
One way to view God's Creation is Microsoft's WorldWideTelescope. You need to download the free software.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Listen to This David Virtue Lecture:
The Episcopal Church
This video lecture about the Episcopal Church is worth watching.
All the Episcopalians who worship on a Sunday in America (about 800,000 out of 2.4 million on the list) would not equal one diocese in Nigeria. The world-wide Anglican communion is now mostly young, mostly Black. Nigeria has around 18 million Episcopalians, and they are conservative.
Norm Supports Norm
Why won't Norm Teigen work for Al Franken? Al is so famous and oh, so funny. Someone observed that the last time Franken made someone smile was around 1990.
Franken has some tax and legal problems. He did not pay taxes and workman's comp in about 17 states. He did not pay the health insurance premiums of his employees. His Air America was awash in other claims of fraud and misuse of funds. I never heard anything from Air America, but its audience never seemed to break into four figures, from what I heard.
Meanwhile, Norm Teigen is smiling. His pictures of the campaign are fun to see.
Some think that Al Franken might be forced to withdraw as a candidate, in spite of his traits being so well represented in the US Senate already.
More Laughs from WELS
Report to the Twelve--Soon to be Fifteen--Shrinking WELS Districts
Knee-slapper from WELS COP Report
Fuller alumnus James Huebner will lead the development of policies and procedures for called workers. And - get this - continuing professional education. Why not send everyone else to Fuller Seminary? The District Mission Board members went. The WELS leadership went. The World Mission guys went. Do not forget Willow Creek, that other WELS center of higher education.
More Proof That Hard-Working CG Guys Produce Results
After 30 years of Church Growth at the Sausage Factory in Mequon, enrollments are expected to decline 25% in four years, from 160 to 120. Valleskey, Kelm (worked for Valleskey), and Bivens built their careers on CG. Any CG professor who retires from the seminary is replaced with someone even worse.
Tuition Hikes Sucker-Punch Enrollments
Both preps have lost a big chunk of students, due directly to enormous tuition hikes under Gurgel-Mueller. Both prep schools charge $8,000 a year tuition. LPS engages in all kinds of ridiculous commercial fund-raising tactics besides. Declining prep enrollments will add to additional declines at MLC and the Sausage Factory.
Church Growth in Brazil
After 21 years of Fuller-inspired effort, the WELSian Brazil church has two (2) congregations and 200 souls. Oh no! For a fraction of all the money spent, the Mission Board could have flown in a bunch of illegal immigrants, given them money to build a village, and had 1,000 people to brag about. Just think, Ichabodians, Missionary Starr was not content to build a Brazilian national church the slow-poke old-fashioned way. When people came into the WELS center and asked about Christ, they were ushered into a room where a video tape played. A farmer asked Starr, "You played them a tape? A tape?"
Breaking News - WELS - Breaking News
One of the new WELS reports has this shocker in it. Sit down while reading this. Oh, you are sitting down. Then stand up and shout. But read the bold part and sit down again.
Specific issues suggested for study Year One first half: Trusting the Means of Grace Year one presents a study examining a simple question: What is the raw power of God's word both to convert and to harden? Concerns have been raised about a growing lack of confidence in the Means of Grace in our midst that is seen in an increasing interest in techniques and methodology as a means toward ministry ends. Considerable concern has been raised about adoption of styles and methodologies from other church bodies and dabbling in church growth methods, without a full understanding of the connection between the outward style and the false theology that underpins it. On the other hand, concern has also been raised about a spirit of contentment with mediocrity, using the pretext of trusting the Means of Grace as a smokescreen for poor preparation, fear of change, and lack of creativity and innovation. Both ends of the spectrum need to be studied and properly articulated. Preliminary Report, Ad Hoc, p. 31.
Obviously, Valleskey's team got to mangle a perfectly good idea and slander their fellow pastors - again. Read the bold print. Anyone who signed his name to this blasphemy is not a Lutheran, just a Pentecostal marketing executive in sheep's clothing.
They are going to study the Sacraments and the influence of Pietism. That is like asking wolves to study the problem of predation in the flock. As Paul warned, there will be wolves from within and without to scatter and murder the flock.
Look over the colorful seating chart for the deck chairs on the sinking WELS-tanic. I just noticed that adding one little letter makes it the WELSatanic.
Fellow sufferers, this is your chance to change the direction of the Wisconsin sect by studying doctrine. If the members and pastors can stay on the track of doctrine alone, they can create a revolution. If they accept the idea that doctrine is a spectrum, from lazy and contented orthodoxy to hard-working, prepared Church Growth, they will execute another denominational pratfall.
The premise of the bold print is that Church Growth people improve the church through their hard work, preparation, fearlessness, innovation, and creativity. The boneheads who signed this slander should take note of who got caught plagiarizing the bad sermons of false teachers - their heroes: Kelm, Parlow, and a few others. That is a matter of public record.
Turtle on a Fencepost Report - from WELS
There is an old saying, "If a turtle is on a fencepost, it did not get there by accident." For those who graduated from Prairie, the saying means this: Actions have consequences, so we can often determine the cause from the effect.
WELS has a new report or two.
I will summarize some items:
- Worship attendance has slumped from 193,000 to 174,000 in the last 15 years. In other words, when I left WELS, attendance tanked. The Church Growth Movement continued to prosper.
- The shrinking Wisconsin sect needs three (3) more districts and three (3) more district popes.
- They are going to be proactive, a management cliche worn out over 30 years ago. Let pray that they take it to a new level, think outside the box, and speak truth to power.
Hold the presses! Breaking news. See the new post above for a shocker!
***
Kovaciny-Mouse has left a new comment on your post "Turtle on a Fencepost Report - from WELS":
"In other words, when I left WELS, attendance tanked."
I hope people can see what you're really all about. It's all about you, Dr. Jackson, isn't it? ...And it always has been.
GJ - At least Toad of Toad Hall (The Wind in the Willows) had a sense of humor. And he finally repented. Kovaciny, like his peers in the Little Sect on the Prairie and WELS, thinks he has done nothing wrong.
I inserted the logical fallacy to provoke an outburst from the humorless and to elicit a few chuckles from the normal readers. It never hurts to have a straight man who reads every post.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Day of Pentecost
Live Lutheran Worship Service, Sundays, 8 AM, Phoenix Time
The Hymn #221 by Luther – Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott
The Invocation p. 15
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual Acts 2:1ff
The Gospel John 14:23-31
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #225 – Italian Hymn
The Sermon
Day of Grace
The Hymn #307 Old 124th
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #370 Magdalen
KJV Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
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. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou almighty Son of God: We beseech Thee, send Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, through Thy word, that He may rule and govern us according to Thy will, comfort us in every temptation and misfortune, and defend us by Thy truth against every error, so that we may continue steadfast in the faith, increase in love and all good works, and firmly trusting in Thy grace, which through death Thou hast purchased for us, obtain eternal salvation, Thou who reignest, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
Day of Grace
The Day of Pentecost marks 50 days after the Passover. The title literally means 50, but to followers of Christ it marks the beginning of the Christian Church.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is remarkable because of its absence in Israel. The Holy Spirit departed from Israel because of the apostasy of God’s chosen people. Apostasy means falling away from the faith, those who were once believers but turn into enemies of the faith.
The best way to think about Pentecost is as the continuation of the work of the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of time to the end of all history. The Holy Spirit spoke to Israel through the prophets in the era of the Old Testament.
KJV Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
KJV 2 Samuel 23:2 The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
The Holy Spirit came upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost. It is also the gift for all those who believe in Christ. One reason we baptize infants is to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit, planting faith in their hearts and giving them God’s guidance in their daily lives.
Notice how the self-described Pentecostals pervert the meaning of this day in several ways. Of course, one way is by not observing the Day of Pentecost, because it is “too Catholic” to mention any special days, except for Christmas and Easter. Also, a Pentecostal will always oppose infant baptism and really treat all baptism as unimportant.
God says, “This is how you will receive the Holy Spirit,” but the Pentecostal says, “I don’t want to hear about it.”
How can I say that water baptism is Spirit baptism. In John 3, Jesus said, “Unless one is waterSpirit baptized, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. The passage reads this way in the KJV:
KJV John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
The English rendering is “born of water and of the Spirit” but the Greek text puts these words together without the article. The effect of this is to emphasize the unity of water and Spirit baptism. The Pentecostal and the Lutheran Pietist will say, “I was baptized but I was not a Christian yet.” Or he may say, “I was a Christian but not a REAL Christian.” Both statements blaspheme God’s Word, because the person who is baptized by water and the Word is also baptized by the Holy Spirit.
This is a great comfort, because all baptized people may return to their baptism as the reason for their sorrow for sin and their plea for forgiveness. The confession of sins is really a response to our baptism, so every liturgy begins with a recollection of our baptism. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Grant this Lord unto us all.” That is a key part of the absolution pronounced by the minister.
How sad that so many people despise the work of the Holy Spirit in baptism and deny it to their children. I have never denied baptism to a child, because it is God’s work alone. The parents may neglect their responsibility, but God does not. The child who is baptized still has the power and guidance of God. That is why so many people fall away from the Means of Grace for years and yet feel moved to worship again.
Another error of the Pentecostals is their insistence upon tongue-speaking as their sacrament. Notice how they deny the very clear sign of God’s grace and Holy Spirit. Either one is baptized or not. We have baptism certificates that say, “on this day you were baptized.” It is objective and divinely ordained. Tongue-speaking must be learned. It is not difficult to learn. But then the problem is: how much is enough? One Pentecostal said you had to be flat on your back on the floor yelling glory, glory, glory. He did not like people just raising their hands in church to say they were smitten by the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals have many dozens of factions. Tongue-speaking does not unite them.
But baptism unites all Christians. No matter how divided the denominations are, we still have this one reality, that anyone properly baptized is a Christian, whether he is baptized in a Methodist, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox church. Proper baptism means using the correct Trinitarian formula and not feminist bastard-English, such as baptizing in the name of the Creation, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
This great unity means that we can discuss the Gospel with anyone, because the true Gospel brings believers together. Today very few know what the Christian faith means, and we want to know more when we discuss it. So all discussions about the Word of God are good in developing genuine unity and (also) honest separation. I cannot be a part of Lutherans who deny the work of the Holy Spirit, so I would rather have that out in the open than hidden in the name of creating a false unity.
In this light we can see why the Bible will use “Word” and “Holy Spirit” as synonyms. In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit is always through the Word and never apart from the Word. The Word is always divine, always powerful and effective.
KJV Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
KJV Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
This also makes the work of man very paltry and inconsequential. Look at what people do to “gain others for Christ.” They have celebrity guests, special plays, special celebrity music, humor, holy laughter, phony miracles, dancing in the spirit (so-called), gift Sundays (when children get gifts for bringing a friend to church), cookie and bakery Sundays, Masonic Lodge Sunday (gets the Lodge to church, for once), girl scout Sunday, boy scout Sunday, Campfire girls Sunday. They try everything except the Word of God and end up with the fruit of man’s wisdom by using gimmicks. They are really saying, “We are ashamed of the Gospel. We do not trust God to do His will through His Word.” One of their common forms of self-praise is to say “This program is anointed by the Holy Spirit” or “This program is very anointed.” How bizarre to deny the Word being anointed by the Holy Spirit and then claim that man’s word is “very anointed by the Holy Spirit.”
Pentecost for a faithful Lutheran is a glorious day of grace. The believer says, “Every time I hear the Word of God I hear the Holy Spirit.” Both the minister and the congregation know that the Holy Spirit is at work during every baptism and communion service. If they happen to have a baseball game, they do not nudge each other say, “This will bring in the new members.” If they pave the parking lot, they do not say, “Now that is going to do the job. We will pave today, build a new addition next year.”
I once got the Episcopalian paper. They announced a new goal: Double their membership in 10 years! They called this, and I am NOT making this up, “A Big Hairy Audacious Goal. A BHAG.” In the same issue they had a display ad for their feminist lesbian activist seminary at Harvard. A feature article said that the homosexual agenda was dividing the denomination. An editorial favored the new unionism agreement with ELCA. I thought, “People will line up for blocks for that combination of activism, unionism, and trendy thought.”
The Day of Pentecost marks the birthday of the Christian Church. The apostles began preaching the Gospel. Thousands were converted and baptized. Persecution followed, but this drove the Gospel across the paved network of highways built by the Roman Empire that did not tolerate the faith of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
God does not ask us to measure His work or decide whether it is successful according to the Big Hairy Audacious Goals of recent Fuller graduates. Instead, He allows us to enjoy His success and glorify His name for accomplishing what we could never do.
Pentecost Quotations
"For neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe on Him, and obtain Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted to our hearts by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the Gospel. The work is done and accomplished; for Christ has acquired and gained the treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if the work remained concealed so that no one knew of it, then it would be in vain and lost. That this treasure, therefore, might not lie buried, but be appropriated and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be proclaimed, in which He gives the Holy Ghost to bring this treasure home and appropriate it to us. Therefore sanctifying is nothing else than bringing us to Christ to receive this good, to which could not attain ourselves."
The Large Catechism, The Creed, Article III, #38, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 689.
"For now we are only half pure and holy, so that the Holy Ghost has ever [some reason why] to continue His work in us through the Word, and daily to dispense forgiveness, until we attain to that life where there will be no more forgiveness, but only perfectly pure and holy people, full of godliness and righteousness, removed and free from sin, death, and all evil, in a new, immortal, and glorified body."
The Large Catechism, The Creed, Article III, #58, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 693.
"But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no holiness [sanctification]. Therefore all who seek and wish to merit holiness [sanctification], not through the Gospel and forgiveness of sin, but by their works, have expelled and severed themselves [from this Church]."
The Large Catechism, The Creed, Article III, #56, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 693.
"Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is offered to the end that we shall daily obtain there nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here. Thus, although we have sins, the [grace of the] Holy Ghost does not allow them to injure us, because we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but [continuous, uninterupted] forgiveness of sin, both in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other."
The Large Catechism, The Creed, Article III, #55, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 693.
"Therefore, before the conversion of man there are only two efficient causes, namely, the Holy Ghost and the Word of God, as the instrument of the Holy Ghost, by which He works conversion. This Word man is [indeed] to hear; however, it is not by his own powers, but only through the grace and working of the Holy Ghost that he can yield faith to it and accept it."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, II, Of the Free Will, #19, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 791.
"But as the Confutation condemns us for having assigned these two parts to repentance, we must show that [not we, but] Scripture expresses these as the chief parts in repentance and conversion. For Christ says, Matthew 11:28: Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Here there are two members. The labor and the burden signify the contrition, anxiety, and terrors of sin and of death. To come to Christ is to believe that sins are remitted for Christ's sake; when we believe, our hearts are quickened by the Holy Ghost through the Word of Christ. Here, therefore, there are these two chief parts, contrition and faith."
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XII (V), #44, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 263. Matthew 11:28.
"But if ordination be understood as applying to the ministry of the Word, we are not unwilling to call ordination a sacrament. For the ministry of the Word has God's command and glorious promises. Romans 1:16 The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Likewise, Isaiah 55:11: So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please...And it is of advantage, so far as can be done, to adorn the ministry of the Word with every kind of praise against fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own...."
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XIII (VII), #11, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 311. Romans 1:16; Isaiah 55:11.
"But Christ was given for this purpose, namely, that for His sake there might be bestowed on us the remission of sins, and the Holy Ghost to bring forth in us new and eternal life, and eternal righteousness [to manifest Christ in our hearts, as it is written John 16:15: He shall take of the things of Mine, and show them unto you. Likewise, He works also other gifts, love, thanksgiving, charity, patience, etc.]. Wherefore the Law cannot be truly kept unless the Holy Ghost is received through faith...Then we learn to know how flesh, in security and indifference, does not fear God, and is not fully certain that we are regarded by God, but imagines that men are born and die by chance. Then we experience that we do not believe that God forgives and hears us. But when, on hearing the Gospel and the remission of sins, we are consoled by faith, we receive the Holy Ghost, so that now we are able to think aright."
Augsburg Confession, Article III, #11, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 159.
"The Holy Spirit works through the Word and the Sacraments, which only, in the proper sense, are means of grace. Both the Word and the Sacraments bring a positive grace, which is offered to all who receive them outwardly, and which is actually imparted to all who have faith to embrace it."
Charles P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, Philadelphia: The United Lutheran Publication House, 1871, p. 127.
"The Holy Spirit teaches man better than all the books; He teaches him to understand the Scriptures better than he can understand them from the teaching of any other; and of his own accord he does everything God wills he should, so the Law dare make no demands upon him."
Sermons of Martin Luther, III, p. 280.
"The Holy Spirit is given to none except to those who are in sorrow and fear; in them it produces good fruit. This gift is so precious and worthy that God does not cast it before dogs. Though the unrepentant discover it themselves, hearing it preached, they devour it and know not what they devour."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 281f.
"He allows the affliction to remain and to oppress; yet He employs different tactics to bestow peace; He changes the heart, removing it from the affliction, not the affliction from the heart. This is the way it is done: When you are sunk in affliction He so turns your mind from it and gives you such consolation that you imagine you are dwelling in a garden of roses."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 285. John 14:23-31.
"Thus true spiritual leaders fight. They strike Satan dead and rescue souls from him; for to pierce Satan to death is nothing else than to rescue from him a human being whom he has taken captive by deceitful teachings. And that is the right kind of spiritual tactics."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 289. John 14:23-31.
"Neither is he [Satan] truthful; he is the spirit of lies, who, by means of false fear and false comfort having the appearance of truth, both deceives and destroys. He possesses the art of filling his own victims with sweet comfort ; that is, he gives them unbelieving, arrogant, secure, impious hearts...He can even make them joyful; furthermore, he renders them haughty and proud in their opinions, in their wisdom and self-made personal holiness; then no threat nor terror of God's wrath and of eternal damnation moves them, but their hearts grow harder than steel or adamant."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 302. John 14:23-31.
"Again, with truly pious hearts, which in many respects are timid and tender, his [Satan's] practice is just the opposite. He tortures them with everything terrible that can be imagined, martyring and piercing them as with fiery darts, until they may find no good thing nor comfort before God. His object in both cases is to ruin souls by means of his lies and to lead them to eternal death."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John N. Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 302. John 14:23-31
"Therefore, let God's Word be of more authority to you than your own feelings and the judgment of the whole world; do not give God the lie and rob yourself of the Spirit of truth."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 304. John 14:23-31.
"In the eyes of the world, and even in her own estimation, she has not the appearance of a prosperous and well ordered organization; rather she is a scattered group of poor, miserable orphans, without leader, protection or help upon earth. All the world laughs at her and ridicules her as a great fool in thinking that she is the Church and comprises the people of God. Furthermore, each individual is so burdened and oppressed in his need and suffering as to feel that no one else lies so low or is so far from help as he."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 304f. John 14:23-31.
"It will not do for individuals to formulate their own ideas of conduct, act accordingly and then say that the Church is led by the Holy Spirit."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 320. John 14:23-31.
"Secondly, it is shown here that this Word precedes, or must be spoken beforehand, and that afterwards the Holy Spirit works through the Word. One must not reverse the order and dream of a Holy Spirit who works without the Word and before the Word, but one who comes with and through the Word and goes no farther than the Word goes."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 329. John 14:23-31.
"We hear God's Word, which is in fact the preaching of the Holy Spirit, who is at all times present with it, but it does not always at once reach the heart and be accepted by faith; yea, in the case of those who are moved by the Holy Spirit and gladly receive the Word, it does not at once bear fruit."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 330. John 14:23-31.
"Likewise, in the matter of preaching, we must make selection that order may be preserved. But since all who are Christians have authority to preach, what will be the outcome? for women will also want to preach. No so. St. Paul forbids women to put themselves forward as preachers in a congregation of men and says: They should be subject to their husbands."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 375. 1 Timothy 2:11-12.
"Paul does not speak of opposing or antagonistic doctrines, but of those placed beside the true doctrine; they are additions, making divisions. Paul calls it a rival doctrine, an addition, an occasion of stumbling, an offense and a byway, when on establishes the conscience upon his own goodness or deeds. Now the Gospel is sensitive, complete and pre-eminent: it must be intolerant of additions and rival teachings."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 376. Romans 16:16-17.
"The world desires such wolf preaching, and is not worthy of anything better since it will not hear nor respect Christ. Hence it is that there are so few true Christians and faithful preachers, always outnumbered by the members of the false church."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 385. Deuteronomy 29:19.
"For you do not find Him; He finds you. For the preachers come from Him, not from you. Your faith comes from Him, not from you. And everything that works faith within you comes from Him, not from you."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. 345. Matthew 21:1-9.
"(3) Hollazius (ib.): 'The Word of God, as such, cannot be conceived of without the divine virtue, or the Holy Spirit, who is inseparable from His Word. For if the Holy Spirit could be separated from the Word of God, it would not be the Word of God or of the Spirit, but a word of man. Nor is there any other Word of God, which is in God, or with which the men of God have been inspired, than that which is given in the Scriptures or is preached or is treasured up in the human mind. But, as it cannot be denied that that is the divine will, counsel, mind, and the wisdom of God, so it cannot be destitute of the divine virtue or efficacy.'"
Heinrich Schmid, Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans., Charles A. Hay and Henry E. Jacobs, Philadelphia: United Lutheran Publication House, 1899, p. 505.
"The Lutheran theologians, in general, had reason to illustrate very particularly the doctrine of the operation of the Word of God, in order to oppose the Enthusiasts and Mystics, who held that the Holy Spirit operated rather irrespectively of the Word than through it; and to oppose also the Calvinists, who, led by their doctrine of predestination, would not grant that the Word possessed this power per se, but only in such cases where God chose...."
Heinrich Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans., Charles A. Hay, Henry E. Jacobs, Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1889, p. 511.
"Mrs. Barnhill looked at me and said, with such a loving look in her gray eyes, 'Oh, Grace, Christ said, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,' and, my dear, you have no way of approach to a holy God unless you come through Christ, His Son, as your Saviour.' "The Scripture which she quoted," Mrs. Fuller continues, "was the Sword of the Spirit, and at that moment Unitarianism was killed forever in my heart. I saw the light like a flash and believed at that moment, though I said nothing. She had quoted God's Word, the Spirit had used it, and, believing, I instantly became a new creation in Christ Jesus. She might have talked and even argued with me about it, but instead she just used the Word." [conversion of Mrs. Grace Fuller, wife of Charles Fuller, Old Fashioned Revival Hour broadcast, founder of Fuller Seminary]
J. Elwin Wright, The Old Fashioned Revival Hour and the Broadcasters, Boston: The Fellowship Press, 1940, p. 54.
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