Did They Really Save Michigan Lutheran Seminary?

Old MLS Campus. They modernized their campus, but it is not located in the best part Saginaw.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Here Are Good Passages to Plagiarize":

Unrelated post:

Posted on mlsem.org...total enrollment is under 200...that breaks down to about 50 students per class....did they really save MLS??

With its festive Thanksgiving for Ministry service, MLS opened its 99th year as a prep school on Sunday, August 24.

Pastor Peter Naumann, president of the Dakota-Montana district, preached on 2 Timothy 3:14-17, reminding the new tutors to rely on the power of the Word in their ministries.

Tutors Andrew Naumann and Amanda Dunn were the only new faculty members at MLS. Prof. Rebecca Berg was recognized for her ten years of service at MLS.

The school year opens with an enrollment of 197, including 47 freshmen.

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GJ - I wrote about the school in 1987, when they had about 320 students (as I recall). Students = tuition = salaries.

One of the most read Ichabod posts is Kuske's analysis of synod spending and the preps. I am no accountant, but it seems that the Gurgel-Mueller administration raised tuition through the roof and kept surplus funds to run their wild schemes. Gurgel, who had the spiritual gifts of leadership, was forced to leave his position. Perhaps he had another spirit.

The now-dead appeal of the preps was a reasonable cost for high school education. Now the charges are jacked up so high that anyone will gasp at the cost. Enrollments tumbled when the tuition hikes forced on the schools took their effect.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Did They Really Save Michigan Lutheran Seminary?":

Dear Pastor Jackson,

Do you think if WELS could develop a comprehensive plan to develop and recruit future called workers more effectively from the area Lutheran high schools(many of which now have dorms) that we really need MLS? I understand the emotions and even the blame that gets passed around but I have never believed that we couldn't do our recruitment differently and maybe more effectively.

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GJ - I am not the one to decide these things. There is a great opportunity ahead for schools, to expand into online education, even at the high school and lower levels. Several areas present themselves. Homeschoolers may want or need (due to secular education persecution) certified supervisors. Some children do not perform well in schools and may want the benefits of online. Others are so far ahead of the rest that they can use special attention.

Online provides a chance to get people through college or taking post-graduate classes.

The WELS budget has an inordinate amount spent on stewardship and computer technology. Some of that applied to online education would bring dividends.

WELS needs, first of all, a thorough doctrinal review and reformation. Schools are even more damaging when they are used, as the Sausage Factory is, to promote false doctrine.

Lenski Available - 20 volumes

Matthias Loy, a Leader of the Old ALC

Lenski is being reprinted, 20 volumes, for $500. I recall it being available from Christian Book Distributors (same company) for less, also as a reprint.

Here is the new link.

On that page you will see books written and illustrated by Lois Lenski. She was the daughter of the professor.

I used to visit a pastor who was trained by Lenski. He was the retired pastor of the congregation in Delaware, Ohio, where Matthias Loy (one of my favorite hymn writers) served as pastor.

That congregation is now safely in the bosom of the ELCA.

The old ALC (1930 merger) was a German, conservative component of The ALC (1960) merger. People might think of TALC as Norwegian because of its contingent from the Norwegians. But there was a significant population of German Lutherans.

Capital University in Columbus had their own seminary (Trinity ELCA now, more mergers). Lenski was a district president of the old ALC and also a professor at the seminary. The people he trained replaced him with a liberal New Testament professor and formed a committee to silence Lenski on inerrancy. Imagine that!

Trinity Seminary has a "Lenski Room" but has forgotten him. His commentaries are still used in WELS, Missouri, and parts of The ALC for decades. He combined an unusual knowledge of all doctrinal issues with a precise explanation of every New Testament book.

Lenski rejected the fraudulent claim (Universal Objective Justification) that God declared everyone in the world forgiven, whether they believed or not.

Sausage Factory students will say, whether asked or not, "Lenski has problems with justification." One must marvel at the irony of a synod claiming to be Biblical, enamored of Lenski, finding Lenski wrong on the key Biblical issue: justification by faith.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Lenski Available - 20 volumes":

I don't know if you saw this, but on the CBD page in the product description page this is part of the description of Lenski's commentary: "Arminian in doctrine, maintains a rigid approach to Greek grammar, and follows an amillennial interpretation of eschatology. " Arminian in doctrine? Am I off base for saying that calling Lenski's work "Arminian" would be inaccurate to day the least? The desription is credited to something called "The Minister's Library".

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GJ - No, I did not see that. Non-Lutheran Protestants seldom grasp Lutheran doctrine. That is another reason Lutherans should avoid studying under them. Roman Catholics are pretty hopeless too. I had Frank Fiorenza (Catholic) before he was appointed to an endowed chair at Harvard, Hauerwas before he became even more famous at Duke.

True Calvinism is rare today because the entire system is impervious to Biblical insights. They get the Two Natures wrong, predestination wrong, the Sacraments wrong.

An obvious reaction to Calvinism is Arminianism, the prevalent form of Protestantism. Instead of teaching double predestination, the Arminians teach decision theology. I do not have statistical data, but I imagine the most popular position is that God has done something (the Atonement) so man must complete the transaction by making a decision about it. This is also called synergism.

Lenski was not an Arminian, but I imagine the reviewer was either commending or condemning Lenski for holding that position.