Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
Bethany Lutheran Worship, 8 AM Phoenix Time
The Hymn #44 by Koren, Gude Menighed
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 Ephesians 4:1-6
The Gospel Luke 14:1-11
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #467 by Grundtvig, Kirken den er
Unity in Truth
The Hymn #330 Wenn wir in hoechsten Noeten
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 #44 Guide Me
KJV Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
KJV Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2 And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? 4 And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? 6 And they could not answer him again to these things. 7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, 8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; 9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. 10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father: We beseech Thee so to guide and direct us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not exalt ourselves, but humbly fear Thee, with our whole hearts hear and keep Thy word, and hallow the Lord's day, that we also may be hallowed by Thy word; help us, first, to place our hope and confidence in Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who alone is our righteousness and Redeemer, and, then, so to amend and better our lives in accordance with Thy word, that we may avoid all offenses and finally obtain eternal salvation, through Thy grace in Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God. world without end. Amen.
Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [7 ones follow]
4 There is one body,
and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5 One Lord,
one faith,
one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all,
who is above all, and through all,
and in you all.
[Verses 4-6 each have a triadic structure and name the Trinity as Spirit, Lord, God the Father.]
UNITY OF FAITH, ONENESS OF GOD
Those who look down upon the Scriptures, as if they could write better themselves, should examine two verses of the six in this lesson. In verses 5 and 6 St. Paul confesses the Three-ness of the One God with a series of ones, seven in all. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are named, although not in that order. The ones not only include the members of the Trinity and the One God, but the ones also associate in that unity the body (the Christian Church), the hope we all have for eternal life, our unity of faith, and our common baptism.
The Scriptures not only reveal the unity of God, but also the Three-ness of the One God. We cannot explain it using our human reason. It is a mystery revealed by the Word of God. Man rebels against it, as he does with every aspect of God’s Word. The Socianians named in the Book of Concord were early Unitarians, denying the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. The ELCA dogmatics book, by Braaten and Jenson, claims, and I paraphrase, that the Trinity is “merely the Father, the man Jesus, and the spirit of the believing community.” That statement is Unitarian and contrary to all Christian confessions. I knew an LCA pastor who said, “The book was written to counter the wild radicals who wanted to toss everything out.” Something was left after Braaten and Jenson? Yes, they saw their effort as conservative and confessional, making anyone wonder what those words were supposed to mean.
St. Paul wrote this passage to emphasize a unity in the church that was based upon the unity of God. That unity can be experienced all over the world, as we do in our little congregation. The sermon broadcast and sent around the world. Those people read or hear the sermon because of a common desire to read the Word of God. The Word called every single one of us to faith.
The Holy Spirit, through the Gospel of Christ, called us to faith by proclaiming the promises of God, the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. God is One, so there can only be one truth. This unique truth creates unity in a world torn apart by divisions: racial, gender, class, age, and economic.
We experience that unity when people from all walks and all classes are brought together by the Gospel. The true Christian Church is invisible, not identified by synodical or denominational signs, or by independence, but by faith in salvation through the merits of Christ alone. It is ironic that man seeks unity by merging visible organizations. Unity can only come from a common confession of the truth of the Gospel.
One of the main sources of confusion today is derived from a lack of confidence in the unique truth of God’s Word. Truth is reduced to a patchwork of opinions, supposedly of equal value. However, once the concept of truth is reduced, one person’s peculiar version is promoted, at gunpoint if needed, and defended at all costs.
Confusion is closely allied with arrogance. Man creates confusion and then uses chaos to rule over other people.
In contrast, God’s truth is humbling. First of all, the Sword of the Spirit, sharper than any two-edged weapon, pierces into the joints and marrow, judging our thoughts and intentions. (Hebrews 4) When we repeatedly discover from the mirror of the Law that our hearts are dead toward God, that we rebel against Him in every way, that all our efforts are tainted by the Old Adam.
This judgment seems too harsh. We would rather do away with the Biblical doctrine of original sin. So it is not surprising that those who would diminish God would also deify man. They make man inherently good, or basically good, although Jesus said, “No one is good but God.”
We are all unified by original sin. No one is better than anyone else. The best we can do is pretend to be better and thank God we are not like others, like tax collectors and open sinners. In that regard we share the same judgment. God who is holy and just must punish sin. Eternal punishment is the payment for sin, even a single sin against God’s commandments.
We know that we rebel against the Law, even our own invented Law. We will say, “I must do this. I have to do this. I will do this by a certain time or else.” But we cannot muster enough will power to do what we claim we must do. If someone else tells us we must do it, we feel compelled not to. This is especially hard on children, who refuse to do what they have to do, on principle.
God’s Law produces a stronger reaction, as the Holy Spirit revealed through Paul in Romans. The Law works wrath. Sin becomes even more obvious, but the Law by itself cannot produce any remedy for sin or any strength to fight sin, even to resist temptation. The Apostle said, “The good that I would do, I do not. The evil that I would not do, that I do.”
All world religions provide a solution for this: more Law. They condemn the sinner for falling short of the Law and then command the sinner to perform certain works to make up for the sins. These works salesmen will never go out of business, because there are not enough works to make up for one’s sins. Each person is like the man who sold furniture at a loss. “We make up the difference on volume.”
But God provided for our great failings and weaknesses at the very beginning. When Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise by their disobedience to the Word of God, our gracious heavenly Father promised them and us a Savior. The contrast could not be greater. Adam and Eve not only lost Paradise for themselves, but condemned us to live under the shadow of their sin as well. No one deserved more wrath and condemnation than they, but God promised the seed of a woman, the Messiah, who would crush the head of Satan.
God saved people through faith before the crucifixion and after the crucifixion. For thousands of years, the Messianic promise of Genesis 3 was enlarged and clarified. The Gospel of forgiveness was proclaimed long before people saw the baby Jesus. They heard salvation, Yeshuah, throughout the Old Testament, and Yeshuah is the Hebrew or Aramaic equivalent of the name Jesus. Many promises were foreshadowed or explained. At first people knew about the “seed of the woman,” which we can see now as foreshadowing the Virgin Birth prophesy of Isaiah 7:14 – Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son…Immanuel. The Gospels clarified that Mary was that Virgin and Jesus that son, God With Us, Immanuel.
As Luther wrote, it was easier for people to believe in a Messiah they had not seen. It was hardest of all for John the Baptist to point to an ordinary looking man and say, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Generations of skeptics have examined every verse of Scripture, every hare-brained theory, to reduce Jesus to being fully human, only human, even if He is better than average in their myopic eyes. We should stop and meditate upon this mystery of God’s Word each and every day – true man and true God, the only-begotten Son, born of the Virgin Mary.
The apostle rests his request to the Christian church upon their call to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The doctrinal unity of the Bible calls for the humility and longsuffering of the believers. The Holy Spirit has built the Christian Church upon the rock which is Jesus, the Son of God. Our status as forgiven saints draws us together and gives us the peace that passes all human understanding.
The military might of Imperial Rome was not enough to squash the weak and driven Christian Church. The city of Rome is filled with ruins of that mighty empire which built thousands of miles of roads across Europe, united tribes, conquered and subdued enemies. The Coliseum, standing in ruins, was the site of the sacrifice of Christian martyrs, who provided fun for the crowds as they died. The more they died, the faster the Church grew, not through programs but through the Word.
The Word of God multiplied, as Luke wrote in Acts. One believer spoke to others. The converts spoke to more. Soon the Gospel was proclaimed across Europe and into India. It reached more people through persecution than through ease and comfort, when it was briefly “the Church at rest.”
So the Christian Church exists today only to proclaim the promises of God, the Gospel. The true church never tires of speaking about forgiveness. Our need for repentance never changes. No other knowledge compares to the knowledge of the surpassing riches of Christ Jesus, whose atoning blood washes away our sin.
Pride can keep us from accepting the doctrine of original sin, proof by itself of our sinful nature, when we try to deny it. Pride can also keep people from receiving the Gospel in faith. The Gospel is not for proud, arrogant, secure Law-saints. The Gospel is for humble sinners, their bones broken by the Law (Psalm 51) but rejoicing in the knowledge of God’s will. “Rock of Ages” expresses it in the simplest words, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”
Therefore our unity, in families, among friends, even in the congregation, comes from gathering around the treasure of the Gospel. Most treasures make people fight for the pile, to take the lion’s share. But this treasure puts people at ease, giving them comfort and balm for their wounds, forgiveness for their sins, hope for their worries, and the promise of eternal life.
Quotations
"Since, therefore, so much depends upon God's Word that without it no holy day can be sanctified, we must know that God insists upon a strict observance of this commandment, and will punish all who despise His Word and are not willing to hear and learn it, especially at the time appointed for the purpose."
The Large Catechism, Preface, #95, The Third Commandment, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 607. Tappert, p. 378. Exodus 20:8?11.
"Since it is God's gracious purpose to remove every hindrance to conversion by the means of grace, and it is still possible for a man at every point to continue in his opposition to God, a man is never without responsibility over towards the grace of God, although he may mock and say that, since God is the one who does everything for our salvation, then a man has no responsibility himself, as we see in Romans 9:19. Cf. Theses 17 and 18."
U. V. Koren, 1884, "An Accounting," Grace for Grace: Brief History of the Norwegian Synod, ed., Sigurd C. Ylvisaker, Mankato: Lutheran Synod Book Company, 1943, p. Romans 9:19.
"It is God the Holy Ghost who must work this change in the soul. This He does through His own life?giving Word. It is the office of that Word, as the organ of the Holy Spirit, to bring about a knowledge of sin, to awaken sorrow and contrition, and to make the sinner hate and turn from his sin. That same Word then directs the sinner to Him who came to save him from sin. It takes him to the cross, it enables him to believe that his sins were all atoned for there, and that, therefore, he is not condemned. In other words, the Word of God awakens and constantly deepens ture penitence. It also begets and constantly increases true faith. Or, in one word, it converts the sinner."
G. H. Gerberding, The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church, Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1887, p. 145f.
Law Causes Contrition
"In like manner Moses must precede and teach people to feel their sins in order that grace may be sweet and welcome to them. Therefore all is in vain, however friendly and lovely Christ may be pictured, if man is not first humbled by a knowledge of himself and he possesses no longing for Christ, as Mary's Song says, 'The hungry he hath filled with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away,' Luke 1:53."
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 149.
Gospel Only for Humble Sinners
"All this is spoken and written for the comfort of the distressed, the poor, the needy, the sinful, the despised, so that they may know in all times of need to whom to flee and where to seek comfort and help." Sermons of Martin Luther, II, p. 149.
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, September 13, 2008
The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
WELS Q and A - UOJ
Q: Ok, before I always thought that sinners go to hell, but then I found out as long as you accept Jesus your sins will be forgiven. I've also roamed around this one other Q&A site (yahoo answers) and heard from some people that sinning does not lead to hell but to death, now I'm not sure about this so can anyone clarify this?
------------------------
A: We would not put it this way: "Your sins are forgiven as long as you...". Not only might that sound like one is trivializing sin, it also makes it sound as though avoiding hell depends on something we do. Expressions like "accept Jesus," "accept Jesus as Lord and Savior," and "invite Jesus into your heart" are typical of decision theology, which views believing both as our decision and as our contribution to the salvation "transaction."That's not Scripture's approach.
We would prefer to say, "Your sins are forgiven! Believe it!" Jesus' work is objectively true; it's finished, and it applies to all. By emphasizing what Jesus has done, we encourage and strengthen faith by giving people something solid to believe in.
We would also not be comfortable with "Sinning does not lead to hell but to death." For an answer to why the condemned are in hell, please see the previous post at:
WELS contradicts this post, but quotes August Pieper, UOJist.
***
GJ - One aspect of WELS confused thinking is consistent with Moravian Pietism - start with the Gospel and move to the Law. In fact, their chief theologian and xerox artist, Paul Kelm, has advocated that approach in those words. Megatron, my ready-to-go database, remembers.
Luther said that teaching the Gospel without the Law will make people look at us the way a cow stares at a newly painted fence. How can anyone grasp the Gospel without a knowledge of sin?
UOJ advocates vacillate between universalism (implied or explicit) and decision theology. In fact, someone at the Sausage Factory was teaching Josh McDowell's moronic "Lord, Liar, Lunatic" to innocent young seminarians in 1987. Josh is not a Lutheran, but that seminary professor is not one either.
As the fuzz-merchants of WELS always say, "This answer c-a-n (draw out the word slowly) be understood properly." But it can also be misunderstood. The linked answer is edging closer to the truth. More clarity is definitely needed.
WELS and the ELS will have to repudiate UOJ, General Justification, the Kokomo Statements, and J. P. Meyer to achieve doctrinal clarity on the topic of justification by faith.
I see an effort to avoid the pratfalls of the past. That is commendable. Notice that the recently-favorite term of UOJ is missing. That is another good idea. Newly invented toxic terms do not add to the discussion.
One List of Books
Schottey has left a new comment on your post "NPH Fires Back":
oooh, not a pastor yet, but books I use are more around the lines of:
1) Greek/Hebrew Bibles - [GJ - good]
2) Concordia Study Bible as a "quick reference" for corresponding passages [GJ - garbage, NIV, denial of Messianic passages by noted apostate]
3) Concordia Trig - [GJ - good]
4) Luther's works - [GJ - very good, if they are used constantly]
5) Gerhard's Loci - [GJ - not as good as Chemnitz, but far better than Werning]
6) Chemnitz' Enchiridion - GJ - excellent, but that volume must be lonely for the Examination and the Two Natures]
George Will on the Pension Timebomb
Pension Time Bomb
By George F. Will
Thursday, September 11, 2008; Page A17
VALLEJO, Calif. -- Mayor Osby Davis, who has lived in this waterfront city across San Pablo Bay from San Francisco for 60 of his 62 years, says: "If you have a can that's leaking two ounces a minute and you put an ounce a minute in it, it's going to get empty." He is describing his city's coffers.
Joseph Tanner, who became city manager after this municipality of 120,000 souls was mismanaged to the brink of bankruptcy, stands at a whiteboard to explain the simple arithmetic that has pushed Vallejo over the brink. Its crisis -- a cash flow insufficient to cover contractual obligations -- came about because (to use fiscal 2007 figures) each of the 100 firefighters paid $230 a month in union dues and each of the 140 police officers paid $254 a month, giving their unions enormous sums to purchase a compliant city council.
So a police captain receives $306,000 a year in pay and benefits, a lieutenant receives $247,644, and the average for firefighters -- 21 of them earn more than $200,000, including overtime -- is $171,000. Police and firefighters can store up unused vacation and leave time over their careers and walk away, as one of the more than 20 who recently retired did, with a $370,000 check. Last year, 292 city employees made more than $100,000. And after just five years, all police and firefighters are guaranteed lifetime health benefits.
Even the City Council has at last faced facts and voted 7 to 0 for bankruptcy. "The day after they voted," Davis says, "I didn't go out of the house -- I was that embarrassed."
In other states, municipalities can pay for improvident labor contracts by increasing property taxes. But Vallejo's promises were made in the context of Proposition 13, which 30 years ago wisely restricted California politicians' reach for property taxes. In 1996, the Navy base in Vallejo closed, which probably pleased some local liberals who share the anti-military mentality of San Francisco, to which some Vallejo residents commute by ferry. Liberals who, Tanner says dryly, "want Vallejo to look a certain way," were pleased when Wal-Mart moved to an adjacent town, which now reaps the sales tax revenue.
Vallejo is an ominous portent for other cities, and some states, few of which are accumulating financial resources sufficient to fulfill pension promises they have made to employees. Are you weary of the crisis du jour -- subprime mortgages and all that? Get a head start on worrying about the next debacle by reading Roger Lowenstein's new book, "While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis."
"Next"? This crisis has arrived in Jefferson County, Ala., which includes Birmingham. Like Orange County, Calif., a few years ago, Jefferson County made risky investments in a desperate attempt to achieve asset growth commensurate with the cost of an infrastructure project. When San Diego was earning the sobriquet "Enron by the sea," firefighters could retire at 50 with 90 percent of their pensions -- almost full pay for not working during half of their expected adult lives.
Credit Suisse estimates that state and local governments have a cumulative $1.5 trillion shortfall in commitments for retiree health care. But it is the pension crisis that most dramatically illustrates Lowenstein's thesis about the slow accretion of power by the unions. Pensions "are a perfect vehicle for procrastination; in the financial world, they are the most long-enduring promises that exist." Human nature -- the propensity to delay the unpleasant -- rears its ugly head: When pension benefits come due, the people who promised them, thereby buying labor peace and winning elections, are long gone.
Vallejo's unions contend that the city is solvent enough to meet its obligations. But last Friday a court disagreed, holding that the city is eligible for bankruptcy protection. A lawyer for Vallejo says the unions will have to negotiate a "plan of adjustment." Other cities are watching, perhaps including the one across the bay.
San Francisco recently reported that 184 of its employees made at least $30,000 apiece in overtime in the first half of this year. A nurse at the county jail made $128,000 in overtime, putting him on track to top his total 2007 compensation of about $350,000. Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it in many places.
georgewill@washpost.com
Online Everything: Publishing Plans
I was hoping to switch university teaching to 90% online, and that is happening. The vast economic changes are disruptive for many people, but that causes them to go back to school for the bachelor's degree or a graduate degree. In Phoenix, most of the jobs were either selling real estate, building homes with fraudulent mortgage money, or selling no-doc liar loans. Obviously, reality made thousands of jobs disappear overnight, especially here and in California.
Online teaching is growing fast because it is so convenient for the military, for mothers who work outside the home, and for busy professionals. My former boss of bosses at one school, wildly successful, was hired to run my other school, which was already growing faster than kudzu.
Now I can earn a living at my desk at home: teaching online, banking online, publishing online. A year ago I was hoping for jobs in Tucson (240 miles round-trip) and Yuma (400 miles round-trip).
Publishing is going in three directions:
1. I am going to make every book and article available for free: PDFs on Lulu.com, e-books from other sources, files on my redesigned website.
2. I am providing printed books on Lulu.com at a reasonable cost. That allows people to buy a book with a credit card from anywhere in the world.
3. I will get the broadcasting files in order and post them properly, but that will come later.
Publishing is non-profit. There is a little income, easily used up by research and equipment costs. But publishing Lutheran materials is enjoyable, fulfilling, and a lot of fun. I would rather write for free than get a lucrative sinecure for promoting books of dubious value.
Broadcasting on the Internet
Several ministers have asked about broadcasting on the Internet. Two were Wisconsin Synod. One was Assembly of God. I was marched into the skill by a savvy layman, and I am glad for the experience. I am also showing people how this works in education technology classes.
Broadcasting on Ustream is free.
The location needs broadband - either DSL or cable. Most congregations have one or the other form of broadband. (Broadband means the size of the pipe is much bigger, which is what audio-video demand.) The audience must have broadband as well. That should be no problem overall since only a small portion of the US market is still using dial-up. Even Diablo is getting broadband. He is the last hold-out in his state.
Good lighting is very important.
A basic web camera costs $75, but better equipment should provide higher quality sound and video.
A new computer is essential, but not that expensive. The dual-core computers are almost like four-computers-in-one. Someone can get by with an older computer, but there will be a lot more problems. Feeding the signal from the computer is far more complex an operation than getting it from the source. A church buying a new one should get dual-core and maximum RAM, plus a good UPS (battery back-up). I would not let the acolytes put all their favorite video games or other programs on the computer.
Every video file can be recorded and saved.
Yes, it is new and different. Everyone will balk at the idea, as I did. There will be problems in getting it going properly. Nevertheless, the cost is laughably low. The technology mirrors the parable of the Sower and the Seed, where the seed (Word) is broadcast.
Can Anyone Untangle This Mess?
By His perfect life and His innocent sufferings and death Jesus has redeemed the entire world. God thereby reconciled the world to Himself, and by the resurrection of His Son declared it to be righteous in Christ. This declaration of universal righteousness is often termed "objective justification." One has this justification as a personal possession and is personally declared by God to be righteous in Christ when he or she is brought to faith in Him as Savior. This is often called "subjective justification". If the objective fact of Christ's atonement is not personally received by faith, then it has no saving benefit for the individual. We reject as unscriptural any teaching that people can be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ. See 1 John 2:2, 2 Cor. 5:19, John 1:29, 2 Pet. 2:1, John 3:16-18, 2 Cor. 5:19, Rom. 4:25, 1:17 and 5:1-2.
And yet, the same congregation speaks of the Means of Grace:
We confess that God has instituted certain Means of Grace through which He announces and bestows the forgiveness of sins and the blessings of life and salvation, and through which the Holy Spirit works faith in the individual sinner to receive these blessings.
The previous paragraph stated that the entire world has been declared righteous, so grace comes to every single person without means. Luther called that Enthusiasm, separating God's Spirit from the Word. The Book of Concord called it Enthusiasm, confirming Enthusiasm as the foundation of all false doctrine. The Wisconsin Sect and the Little Sect on the Prairie lovingly call this form of Enthusiasm Universal Objective Justification.
Not one passage in the Bible speaks of justification without faith, forgiveness without Means.
Where did this ELS-WELS-LCMS schmozzle of contradictory, man-made opinion come from? More will be revealed in the coming weeks as the Ichabod research team unveils startling but logical sources. Doubtless more research will be needed to support some claims. Intellectual influence is a tough subject.
As orthodox, confessional Lutherans, we embrace as our primary confessions of faith the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, namely, the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; the Augsburg Confession and its Apology; the Smalcald Articles (including the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope); Luther's Small and Large Catechisms and the Formula of Concord (Epitome and Solid Declaration). We accept these Confessions, not in so far as but because they agree with Scripture, and we believe that they are a correct exposition of the teaching of God's Word. Adherence to these confessions, drawn from Scripture, is in keeping with St. Peter's exhortation: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Pet. 3:15). See also Heb. 13:7-9a.
The above paragraph is the repeat-after-me formulation, but those words contradict what was written above. The sacred cow of WELS-ELS-LCMS is UOJ, which is nowhere to be found in the Book of Concord. LutherQuest (sic) used to try proving UOJ from the Book of Concord. That was more of a ludicrous quest.
What about Chemnitz, or Gerhard? Melanchthon? UOJ fans used to cite Gerhard dishonestly, but they also quote the Bible deceptively, so the minor gambit is not as blasphemous as the major move: inventing a universal declaration which is invisible to everyone but the brainwashed.
What about Robert Preus? He rejected UOJ, citing Calov, whose works are crusty enough with age and obscure enough to fool most people into believing that someone over in Europe, someone orthodox, actually promoted UOJ.
More later. I appreciate the interest many people have in this topic. UOJ is declining with the Church Shrinkage Movement.
When Did Obama Jump the Shark?
On one of the later episodes of "Happy Days," Fonz jumped over a shark while waterskiing. If a plot or stunt is so ludicrous that the most loyal fans are appalled, a television show is running aground. Therefore, Jumping the Shark has become synonymous with the turning point of a failed effort.
When did Obama jump the shark?
Some recent thoughts on the Internet:
Throwing his grandmother, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and Tony Rezko under the bus - those are probably multiple shark jumps.
He flubbed a line so thoroughly that most people could tell he was being prompted by an ear bud. He said, "I can't hear myself!" as he poked it tighter into his ear.
The European tour galvanized American opposition simply because Eurabia was portrayed as wanting him so much.
At Saddlesore Community Church, he could not respond quickly and decisively to pertinent questions. His arrogance about when life begins ('above my pay grade") antagonized everyone.
He called his nomination a day when "the planet began to heal and the oceans stopped rising."
The styrofoam Greek temple at the Democrat convention and the trashed flags are another possible benchmark.
Naming Joe Biden, a true clown, while assailing Sarah Palin through his cronies, proved how wise his leadership might be.
Two of the better shark moment nominations are:
1. Writing about himself when he was only 35 years old.
2. Posing at a bowling alley and looking like a girly-man. Some of us have seen a lot of bowling. That video clip was funnier than Dukakis in a tank, Kerry in a bunny suit.
Friday, September 12, 2008
NPH Fires Back
Mark Buske has left a new comment on your post "Run--Do Not Walk--To View the Latest WELS Typo":
Pastor Jackson,
I was excited the other day when you posted my comment about the Triglotta in electronic format with Bente's Introductions.
Then I open my RSS reader today and find you criticizing NPH for not checking our spelling. Interestingly enough, the page you point to is at www.logos.com and is not an NPH page. We didn't use the lovely phrase, "taylor-made;" that's from Logos.
The "after-shock" price you quote is actually the combination of all the volumes in print, and not if the customer purchases the disk separately.
Anyway, thank you for the publicity.
Mark Buske
NPH Marketing Director
***
GJ - Round One. I have to admit. He is right. Logos edited that page. Techies cannot spell. The title of the page in the browser is NPH, so I am sure Buske is leaving some phone messages at Logos headquarters right now. "You are making us look like idiots!"
Round Two - the huge, inflated price is the printed material price, as he said:
"The equivalent print volumes of these resources are valued at $2,115.59!" I would dispute the 59 cents, without fear of contradiction.
The post-production price is somewhat higher than the grand total pre-publication price:
$2,115.59 printed;
$524.95 post-pub CD-ROM;
$399.95 blue light special, pre-pub CD-ROM.
If someone wants all these resources, the CD-ROM set is ideal for portability, research, etc. I love reading real books, but I favor the computer for research. If NPH would favor me with information about how well Logos print-to-CD works with copy and paste, I will be glad to post that information. The WELS students might want to offer their experience.
Congregations should be buying these resources for their seminary students, pastors, and teachers.
My suggestions for divinity students and pastors:
1. Luther's works first.
2. Triglotta and Bente second, (but just as important).
3. Lenski third.
4. Boxer shorts if there is any money left. (Old NWC joke: "All you need is Lenski, the Triglotta, and boxer shorts....")
Charity Begins in the Senate - With Your Taxes
Biden Gave Average of $369 Annually to Charity in Last Decade
upi via email no link | 9/12/8
Posted on Friday, September 12, 2008 11:36:40 AM by NativeNewYorker
Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Delaware Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, and his wife reported giving less than half of one percent of their income to charity during the past decade, below the national average, tax records show.
A Biden spokesman said the couple has given more to charity than they claimed on their taxes.
Biden and his wife, Jill, earned $319,853 in adjusted gross income and paid $72,787 in federal taxes last year, including $2,721 in alternative minimum taxes. They claimed $995 in deductions for charitable giving, about triple what they deducted in any of the nine previous years. Over the past decade they reported giving an average of $369 to charity.
Their deductions for charitable giving -- about two-tenths of one percent of their income -- is lower than the national average of about 3.1 percent, according to JustGive.org, a nonprofit organization that connects donors with charities.
``That lack of charitable giving at that level of income would definitely be outside the range of what we say is normal,'','' said Russell James, a professor at the University of Georgia who researches charitable giving.
Biden spokesman David Wade said the deductions on the tax forms ``are not the sum of their annual contributions to charity.'' The Bidens ``contribute to their church, and they also contribute to their favorite causes.'' He said the Bidens also do volunteer work with military families and for other causes.
***
GJ - Biden's train trips to and from DC cost taxpayers $200 a day.
What Moves Missouri?
The LCMS is a puzzle. How did such a large group of putative Lutherans lose their way?
Several causes might be listed.
- German Lutherans felt a great cultural and language kinship with the German Reformed, but also as doctrinal allies against Romanism. Opposing the Antichrist was a hallmark of Protestantism at one time. The declaration of the pope's infallibility (Pope Pius IX) shocked and appalled Europe in the 19th century.
- The old Synodical Conference was extremely weak on the efficacy of the Word. This blindness led the synodical partners large and small into UOJ, receptionism, Pentecostalism, and eventually the Church Shrinkage Movement.
- In the early 20th century, the liberal/conservative split about Biblical authority had the conservative Lutherans viewing the Reformed as allies once again.
- This partnership continued during the Seminex crisis. The Preus-Marquart contingent would show up at Biblical inerrancy conferences where the only thing the rainbow coalition agreed upon was infallibility.
- Once de-sensitized about the Reformed, Missouri had no qualms about sending their leaders to Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek. Salesmen like Kent Hunter and Waldo Werning served as Synodical Conference recruiters for the cause. Since the executives of all the Lutheran groups were recruited first, they had no trouble urging their minions to sign up, rewarding them with promotions, protecting them from the scandals they stirred up so effortlessly.
- Once in the third stage of false doctrine, the various synods made sure their Church Shrinkage buddies moved into seminary positions so that anyone questioning Fuller Seminary was attacking Holy Mother Synod. Only then did they study the Church Shrinkage Movement. They frowned a bit but found it - just wonderful. WELS had the best sense of humor, having its most Enthusiastic proponent of Fuller doctrine study Fuller doctrine and declare, "Let us spoil the Egyptians in Pasadena." But, the tide is turning. Fads come and go. The Church Shrinkage Movement has destroyed more congregations than the Chicago Fire. Lazy-minded Boomer pastors are dying and retiring, letting the younger pastors clean up their messes.
Holy Father, Holy Smoke
I was looking at the Christian News website, which stays the same for months at a time.
One page has a big to-do about the Pope and District Pope Benke, who has the guts to admit he is ecumenical everywhere he goes. Yes, I know Benke is an apostate. But I prefer honest apostates to dishonest ones, those closeted Calvinists who run off to Fuller and Willow Creek, bragging to their friends, denying it to the public.
Benke is an official bad guy at Christian News, for those who read it even less often than I do. Benke is ecumenical, hanging around with ELCA (like ELDONA) and Romanists (like ELDONA) and other thoroughly bad dudes like Neuhaus.
Speaking of ecumenism, another page quotes LCMS Pastor Don Matzat, an avowed Pentecostal, so deep into Enthusiasm that he must have swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all. Christian News is glad to quote him:
“While the pre-millennialists, the Calvinists, the Arminians, the mystics, the prosperity teachers, the Pentecostals, and the Charismatics all have their theology widely promoted in over 3,000 Christian Bookstores around the nation, we who claim to have the pure Gospel, seemingly feel that our truth is neither worth promoting nor relevant to the popular issues being so widely discussed and debated. Rather than promoting what we believe for the welfare of the wider church, we pick fights among ourselves, ignoring the Christian world and the issues debated…The only legitimate vehicle that exists whereby Missouri Synod Lutherans are enable to speak a word to various Christian issues is Christian News. For this reason, God bless Herman Otten”
(Rev. Don Matzat, LCMS pastor, St. Louis MO).
The bizarre content of this quotation is worth preserving forever, since Otten sent me one Matzat book where Don boasted that the Holy Spirit spoke to people in dreams (always favorable to his cause), told people to give him big checks, and otherwise worked everywhere except through the Word. Otten marked the false doctrine in the book, so Herman was not unaware of the Don's precession into Pentecostalism.
Even better, Matzat (the good guy on this page) is the counselor, helper, and supporter of Benke, the bad guy on the front page.
Dizzy yet? There's more.
Matzat accused Waldo Werning of false doctrine in Christian News. Holy smokes - that is worse than Werning accusing Cascione of false doctrine, or Cascione accusing Werning. What do all three have in common? Christian News - a beacon orthodoxy in a sea of false doctrine.
That reminds me of a famous sermon quotation from Northwestern College: "I dreamt I was floating on a mattress in a sea of iniquity - and I was THIRSTY!"
Thursday, September 11, 2008
In Memory
The Story of the National Anthem
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Gratuitous Lenski Comments
Schottey has left a new comment on your post "Run--Do Not Walk--To View the Latest WELS Typo":
A few things Pastor
1) I have Lenski's full set in print and I like them as well but my biggest problem with him is that he treats matters of exegetical work as matters of doctrine (as if people are going to hell if they translate a participle as means instead of manner)
2) Having the WLQ translated was a great help. It is not nearly as "synod line" as you make it out to be.
3) The people's bible is a "non-professional" commentary it is for the common lay person so of course it is based on the common lay-persons (sic) Bible.
4) Your comment on the sermon studies was funny but not to the point, I highly doubt Parlow's heisted sermons are on the CD.
Finally, the price is so high because they are also selling licenses to Logos software with each copy. Logos is an expensive piece of programming that WELS pastors have been blessed to have access to but ANYTHING on Logos costs a pretty penny--I bought the Concordia last year and would get the Triglott but I already have it in print.
***
GJ - Among Upper Midwest Lutherans, WLQ is valuable as a theological journal. I would find it handy for quoting some of the more outrageous errors of WELS. One is Brug's pronouncement about nothing in the New Testament opposing women's ordination (a frequent theme in their conference papers). Another is Valleskey's ghastly essay endorsing the Church Shrinkage Movement. Valleskey even claimed that the Deformed "downplay the Means of Grace." Then, using the same doctrinal discernment, we could say, Luther downplayed salvation through works. When I asked Sparky Brenner (professor, Sausage Factory) about this grotesque essay, Brenner told me "Write WLQ a letter" and "Gawrisch has not been healthy" and is behind in his editorial work. I wondered whether the theological faculty had any role in disseminating false doctrine and invented church history. As Reu noted, hiding doctrinal differences is the mark of a unionist. Brenner and his wife were in shock that I questioned Holy Mother WELS. Apparently they were not bothered that the path to teaching at Mequon was smoothed by study at Fuller Seminary.
WLQ is great, but Lenski is...?
To be True Blue WELS, one must respond to Lenski's name with a gratuitous comment or two. The normal one is "He is not good on justification." That is because Lenski taught correctly about justification by faith, but WELS is utterly and consistently wrong on justification. Lenski was firm about his scholarly findings, but I would not accept the hyperbolic Straw Man fallacy offered by young Schottey. All the conservative seminaries had great respect for him and honored him. His work continues to be in demand today, everywhere except in his original synodical home (now ELCA).
Lenski knew the doctrinal history behind each passage of the New Testament, so he discussed that in light of his exegesis. Lenski knew that the efficacy of the Word was the sole (or soul) foundation for all pastoral work, a Biblical insight lost today among the management gurus and snake-oil salesmen of synodical fame.
My Lenski set is behind me in my working office. I use Lenski, Luther, or the Book of Concord for sermon ideas.
I disagree with Lenski's opinions about the New Testament manuscripts. All the professors of that era were bewitched by three con artists: Wescott, Hort, and Tischendorf. Wescott and Hort's so-called rules for the text are best explained by the effects of alcohol or drugs. They are hilariously wrong. Tischendorf just happened to find two manuscripts that suddenly became the best NT ones. And yet, we know more about Obama's hidden background than we do about the birth of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. According to the genius types who gave us the NIV, all the manuscripts from the 1100 year-old Byzantine Empire, which was Christian and Greek, are bad because...because...there are so many of them and they agree with each other. And we know where they came from. No fun there.
I appreciate Schottey's willingness to post comments in his own name.
---
Brian P Westgate has left a new comment on your post "Gratuitious Lenski Comments":
What were Lenski's opinions on the New Testament manuscripts? Basically in line with Wescott, Hort, and Tischendorf? I've never heard that discussed before.
***
GJ - If you read plenty of Lenski, you will find sections where he decided what should be in the text or excluded from the original. He got carried away at times. He seemed very much in line with the three frauds listed above. Why not have everyone play around with the text? That is how the current version is put together now. Three out of five votes will get a verse excluded from the NT - just like blackballing in a fraternity. I use BibleWorks software: KJV, and Byzantine NT. Twenty years ago I was soft on the NIV, until a student began pointing out how many blatant translation errors were there.
I enjoy Lenski's literal translation in his commentaries. They affected how we talked around our home after reading certain passages. "Be thou continually brushing thy teeth" was one Lenski-ism. I like Lenksi for discussing the meaning of the grammatical distinctions, not just showboating about grammatical rules. When I heard a discussion in class--at the Sausage Factory--about whether a genitive was objective or subjective, I said to another person, "Did Paul ask himself which one he was using or did he just write?"
Lenski's daughter, Lois Lenski, became famous for children's books. We buy them when we can find them.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Run--Do Not Walk--To View the Latest Logos Typo
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Good News at Northwestern Publishing House":
If you hurry, you can still get the massive The Northwestern Publishing House Electronic Library while it is still available for the launch.
[GJ - The pre-release price is $400. The everything printed price is $2115. I checked twice. Hey folks, a CD costs about 80 cents to produce.]
***
GJ - First - the typo. "It's almost as if these commentaries were taylor-made (sic) for electronic release!" Mrs. Ichabod is the granddaughter and daughter of tailors. Even though English was her third language, she laughed out loud about the latest typo. Everyone makes mistakes, but one expects a publishing house to do a little editing after the initial thrill of posting a page is over. OK, Mark, Logos goofed, but they have not fixed it yet. Spell-checking all of WELS is taxing on my resources.
[September 12, High Noon. The books are still taylor-made, so I suggest buying them for a saylor, or Norman Maylor, or a needy jaylor. Maybe for someone who lives in a traylor.]
Second, these disks are not a deal, even at the pre-publication price.
WELS commentaries based on the NIV? Two strikes against the People's Commentary.
The Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, also known as The Pope Speaks? Save your money, kid.
Sermon Studies? I downloaded a whole set of sermons from Kelm/Parlow. They must be good, because I found copies of them all over the Net.
Franzmann? - I liked the portions I used, but he is another UOJ fanatic.
Triglotta with Bente? - That is the one CD I would recommend to anyone.
NPH has Lenkski in print or on CD, $300 for now. That is worthwhile, a true classic.
Luther's Works 55 volumes on CD is only $200. That is a steal - a useful format, portable, and the best theologian of the Christian Church. Let's see - People's NIV Commentary or Luther? Not an agonizing decision.
This will probably sell a few copies of the good stuff from NPH. We only have two eyeballs and one brain. Why waste time on the ruminations of the minor figures of Lutherland?
In short:
1. Luther first, last, and always.
2. The Triglotta and Bente, because the Book of Concord is a conference of the finest theologians in the Christian Church.
3. Lenski is the best, most consistent, and reliable writer on the New Testament as a whole.
As they used to say at Northwestern College, those three (plus boxer shorts) are all you need to be a good pastor.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Closeted Calvinists Embedded in the Church Shrinkage Movement
still appeals to Lutheran apostates.
Librarian types like to distinguish between Zwingli and Calvin, but their doctrine was quite similar. Zwingli was first and rather crude in his pronouncements. Calvin came later and wrote more refined prose. After Luther died, the crypto-Calvinists took over Luther-land and chased the genuine Lutherans away, as much as possible. They did this by claiming to be the real Lutherans, the ones who cared about the Church. They lied and manipulated.
Zwingli and Calvin are the same because both divorced the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word. They were Enthusiasts, a cohort condemned in plain, clear language by Luther in the Smalcald Articles.
The gurus of the Church Shrinkage Movement are closeted Calvinists who hold the same doctrine. The closeted Calvinists reject the efficacy of the Word and teach against efficacy wherever possible. Where are the sacraments among the closeted Calvinists? Has Pastor Jeff (Gunn) ever had a communion service? The question alone should sound Klaxon alarms throughout the sect.
Examine the chief theologians of WELS and Missouri. Valleskey wants to grow figs on thistles, in the name of "spoiling the Egyptians," a phrase stolen from Larry Crabb, who stole it from Augustine. Does anyone write his own material in the CGM?
Kent Hunter (DMin, Fuller) argues that shepherds do not have sheep, rather sheep have sheep. Thank you, Church Doctor, but where is that in the Gospels? Second Pasadenians?
Paul Kelm (DMin, St. Louis) writes that the Word is efficacious, but not effective. His course at Wisconsin Lutheran College, required for graduation, was full of required Reformed reading. WLC had the gall to require the course and to overlook the artificial insemination of its students. Closeted Calvinists do not believe in The Word, but they do believe in unlimited quantities of their word.
Waldo Werning--official xeroxer of the Church Shrinkage Movement--has never seen a Zwinglian concept he does not like.
Larry Olson is still listed in WELS as a Dr, even though he admitted in Christian News that he did hardly anything at Fuller to earn the prestigious DMin degree. How does a paucity of effort make someone a Dr. of Theology? Of course, he is not. Like Kelm, he wants people to think he is. So Church and Change lists him as Dr. Lawrence Olson when no one in academic life accepts a degree invented to get people back into seminary for continuing education.
Recently there was a Gratuate (sic) Faculty Conference at MLC, where he works, posing the question: Can anyone spell in WELS?
This Will Make Your Monitor Blur
Meeting Chloe Nolan
National Review ^ | 9/9/08 | K-LO/ElRushbo
Posted on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 5:49:20 PM by pissant
This exchange is from today's Rush Limbaugh Show:
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that —
...
So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?"
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.
Schroeder Post Corrected
I was browsing through old posts and saw that my original post about Mark Schroeder (WELS Synod President) and TELL was in error, especially since someone sent the whole document. (For some reason, I do not keep copies of TELL.) I had more than than single sentence from my database, so I could not let the original post stand.
I corrected the original post, as I recently pointed out to a friend.
I hope this will encourage WELS to retract its "spoiling the Egyptians" position on the Church Shrinkage Movement, UOJ, and various other errors.
Good News at Northwestern Publishing House
Mark Buske has left a new comment on your post "Triglotta at NPH":
NPH did release the rights to the printed version. CPH, I believe, is planning to do this as an on-demand title, but I'm not sure they are ready with this yet.
The electronic version being talked about in previous posts includes Bente's Historical Introductions as noted and uses the Libronix Library System by Logos (www.logos.com).
Mark Buske
NPH Marketing Director
---
GJ - Signed comments are always welcome. They will be reproduced verbatim, especially when alerting people to important doctrinal books.
Old Synodical Conference
Some readers probably think the purpose of the old Synodical Conference was to restore the teaching of the Book of Concord and Lutheran doctrine.
Maybe not.
New research from the Ichabod global network has some surprising information for everyone.
Everything will start to make sense:
1. UOJ, its crafts and assaults.
2. Receptionism.
3. Church Shrinkage Movement.
4. Sinuflecting to Rome, often via Constantinople, with a pit stop at ELDONA.
Good News in the ELS
Pope John the Malefactor, world traveler, did not extend the Left Foot of Fellowship to anyone last month, according to his newsletter, published at the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie.
The ELS should apply for a Schwan grant for an auto-focus camera. No?
Ichabod Does Spell-Check for the Entire Internet
The pastor no longer "wears a rob" (sic) at St. Mark's DePere (WELS), but an alb.
I think Bailing Water caught this first.
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ichabod Does Spell-Check for the Entire Internet":
I have not seen an alb at St Mark's; pastors wear suits.
***
GJ - Has anyone heard a Lutheran sermon at St. Mark's? That is the real question.
Come On, Baby, Light My Fire
Cringe inducing, from Augsburg1530
Posted on June 18, 2008 by Mollie
I go to a church that is a member of the Southeastern District. We’re Ablaze!
An Ablazing Event!
The congregation of St. John’s, Farmville VA has received a firetruck and repurposed it to be a witness tool in the community. They will be dedicating it for mission on Sunday, June 29 at the 10:00 A.M. service. Pastor Joel Giese says: “The idea is simple. People, children especially, like fire trucks. They will come to see the truck and we have the opportunity to speak about Jesus. As the vehicle moves to and from events, it acts like a rolling billboard. I believe it will spark interest. The best part is that it is easy and fun. Who knew that easy and fun could be used to describe Evangelism?!”
***
GJ - What do all these gimmicks have in common? Deformed theology. According to their best theologians, God's Word is dead until we make it come alive by making it appealing, germane, and reasonable.
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Eighth Commandment
284] All this has been said regarding secret sins. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it.
The Book of Concord, Large Catechism, Eighth Commandment
Woman Turns to Islam After Lutheran Seminary Experience
This Woman Was Disappointed by an ELCA Seminary
Anyway, times were changing. I found a Lutheran seminary which accepted me. After graduating from the university, I packed up and headed to Chicago to begin my training for the ministry.
I had some very positive experiences in Chicago. I got along well with my two roommates, and made other friends. I studied Latin with a Polish priest who couldn’t hide his excitement when he learned that the newly-selected pope was Polish. I listened to lectures by scholars at the nearby University of Chicago, and even landed a job dusting the apartment of one old professor. I heard Handel’s Messiah performed in an old cathedral by a professional choir. I soaked up the atmosphere of life on the Southside of Chicago.
But my studies were disappointing. One professor told us that while Christian scholars had determined that the Bible was not infallible, we should not tell our parishioners this. When I asked questions, I was told to “simply believe.” Then there was the seminary social life–parties, drinking. I packed up and left Chicago after one semester, extremely disillusioned.
New DPs in WELS
Lord God, You have appointed me as a Bishop and Pastor
in Your Church,
but you see how unsuited I am to meet so great and difficult a task.
If I had lacked Your help, I would have ruined everything long ago.
Therefore, I call upon You:
I wish to devote my mouth and my heart to you;
I shall teach the people.
I myself will learn and ponder diligently upon Your Word.
Use me as Your instrument -- but do not forsake me,
for if ever I should be on my own, I would easily wreck it all.
Wayne Mueller To Guide Conference in Glendale: Don't Fail To Miss This One
10/21/2008 - 10/23/2008 - Arizona/California District Pastoral Conference, Grace, Glendale, Arizona. From the district calendar.
Adam Mueller is a big cheese at Church and Change, the official agency of apostasy in WELS. I kept a graphic about Church and Change, where Olson, Gunn, and Mueller appear on the same page.
Someone will a terrific sense of humor invited me to this conference, which is just a few miles from our home. I should invite this humorist to stay at our home, enjoy our pool and hot tub, and brag about it at Grace, Glendale.
I will definitely come to the conference if Wayne Mueller denounces the Church Growth Movement, Church and Change, and Justification without Faith (UOJ).
---
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wayne Mueller To Guide Conference in Glendale: Don...":
I dare you to go. You don't have the ___ to show up.
***
GJ - I had to delete A. Nony Mouse's crudity. That is how the WELS Church Shrinkage pastors talk and write. Obviously this poor soul was hovering over the Ichabod site, waiting for something to say. Perhaps the Luther quotes will convert him to the faith one day. Wesley used to say, "If you can't convert them, at least make them angry." Part I is completed...
I went to a WELS conference in Tucson 10 years ago. Valleskey avoided me and later complained I should have talked to him. When he gave his famous "spoiling the Egyptians" essay in Pennsylvania, reprinted in WLQ, I had to walk at flank speed to keep Valleskey from running away from me. He denied attending Fuller when I asked him directly, although I knew he studied at Fuller. He bragged about it at Apostles. At the Pennsylvania conference, I sat down with him at dinner, where he again avoided talking to me. One of the CG drones, Schuman, ran interference for Valleskey.
Two Alerts
Pope John
The ELS Newsletter, The Pope Speaks, has not yet been published for September. We are looking for the latest victims of the papal purge. Not even Holy Father in Rome has given the Left Foot of Fellowship to such a large percentage of the ministerium. Perhaps the delay comes from B16 asking for advice on how to be a walking disaster while getting re-elected.
UOJ
A contact so deep undercover that he communicates through another undercover source--lost yet?--has notified me of a UOJ document he will soon expose. Stay tuned. That is all I know.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Worship Wars II: There Must Be Saxs Among You
Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Leonard Sweet Disciple - On WELS Worship Wars":
Pastor Mark Schewe of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church actually stepped down from the pulpit during one Service in order to play the saxophone with other church members and then taking the pulpit again following their session. Nothing quite says "Public Minister of the Word" like squealing on a saxaphone until your cheeks turn red.
Brett Meyer
***
Pastor Rick would approve, but my cheeks would be cherry red with shame.
Obama as a Boy, Dressed Muslim, Says His Brother
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Obama as a Boy, Dressed Muslim, Says His Brother":
That's not Muslim dressing, that is the traditional garb of Indonesia, and as an ethnic, cultural article of clothing, has no direct ties to the Muslim faith. This is a wholly inaccurate, and culturally ignorant assertion to make.
***
GJ - I reported what the story said. The source is Obama's own brother, not an anonymous name-caller. The brother said Obama was a Muslim and dressed as a Muslim. Obama has denied ever being a Musliim, but his brother disagrees. In this case I will trust the named source. A Muslim is someone who professes the faith of Islam, regardless of dress.
Another Obama as a Muslim Video
Because this clip is translated, it is impossible to verify the content. Stay tuned to see if the news outlets deal with this, whether it is true or false.
Obama: "My Muslim Faith" - Corrected by Clinton's Flack
Is Obama a Muslim? His father and step-father were Muslims. He enrolled in a Muslim school in a Muslim country - Indonesia. His identity papers in Indonesia identified him as a Muslim. Islam allows someone to lie about his faith as long as he is still true to it. If the Democrats had vetted him more carefully, these issues would not be raised after the nomination.
In this clip he referred to "my Muslim faith," a slip he did not even notice. Stephanopoulos had to correct him before he tried to correct himself. My first posting had an 11 second clip. This new one is 17 seconds and shows how inept Obama was at trying to rescue himself from his verbal pratfall.
He is also famous for referring to traveling the "57 states." That is an odd number. Some people suggest he was thinking of the organization of 57 Muslim states. That may be a stretch since this Harvard lawyer cannot speak without a teleprompter.
There are still questions about Obama's birth certificate. More important is - what does he stand for?
Most of the evidence points toward Obama being a Muslim believer, past and present. Many Black Americans, without Arabic-African fathers, have turned to Islam.
You read it here some time ago - McCain will be president.
Sermon - The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
Bethany Lutheran Worship, 8 AM Phoenix Time
The Hymn #267 by Luther – Waer Gott nicht mit uns
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 Ephesians 3:13-21
The Gospel Luke 7:11-17
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn # 479 Fahre Fort
God at Work
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 # 376 Toplady
KJV Ephesians 3:13 Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
KJV Luke 7:11 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. 12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. 14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. 15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. 16 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. 17 And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.
Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father, who didst send Thy Son to be made flesh, that by His death He might atone for our sins and deliver us from eternal death: We pray Thee, confirm in our hearts the hope that our Lord Jesus Christ, who with but a word raised the widow's son, in like manner will raise us on the last day, and grant us eternal life: through Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
God at Work
Ephesians 3: 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
People think of St. Augustine (354-430) as a religious leader of the distant past, but he was once a famous, hedonistic pagan. His mother Monica gave him Christian instruction as a child and prayed for his conversion to the faith. Augustine’s unique intellectual gifts made him a powerful intellectual leader and the finest orator at a time when rhetoric was the pathway to fame. He was so brilliant that he felt the Scriptures were beneath him. In addition, Christianity was one of many religions of his day and not very successful in the marketplace of ideas. Monica never ceased her prayers. Another burden in her life was an unbelieving husband. One day, as Augustine felt the weight of his sins, he was overwhelmed with a sense of contrition. Weeping under a fig tree, he heard a child’s voice sing out a Latin song, “Tolle, lege. Take and read.” The song had no religious content, but Augustine felt compelled to pick up the Scriptures where he read the damning words of the Law and the comfort of the Gospel:
KJV Romans 13:13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
J-131
Augustine wrote: “I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.” Augustine then went to tell his mother Monica, who “leaped for joy triumphant, and she blessed Thee, Who art ‘able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.’” (Ephesians 3:20) [24]
Monica prayed to have a believing son, but God gave her something she never imagined, a son who became one of the greatest of all teachers of Christianity. Augustine became a bishop and served the African church, writing such classics of the faith as his Confessions and The City of God. It is impossible to study Christian thought apart from Augustine or find a topic he did not write about, using the gifts abundantly given him by God. At the last bookstore I visited, not long ago, I saw a well known highly respected biography of Augustine in paperback, a testimony to the kind and loving Father Who blessed Monica far beyond her ability to think or ask. That power gave her, like many heart-broken mothers afterwards, the faith to pray, the hope to find comfort in waiting, and the patience to wait for the effectual working of the Triune God, who can use a child and a secular song to fashion a bishop and theologian out of a rogue.
J-131
"In like manner, St. Paul says that God's ability is thus proved, in that He does exceeding abundantly above and better than we ask or think. Ephesians 3:20. Therefore, we should know we are too finite to be able to name, picture or designate the time, place, way, measure and other circumstances for that which we ask of God. Let us leave that entirely to Him, and immovably and steadfastly believe that He will hear us." [25]
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p.179f.
J-132
"A very fine example of the power of prayer is provided by Monica, the mother of St. Augustine. She asked for nothing in her prayer for her son except that he might be liberated from the madness of the Manichaeans [pagans] and be baptized...But the more she prayed, the more stiff-necked and stubborn the son became, and her prayer seemed to her to have become a sin. But when the time for hearing her solicitous prayer had come (for God usually defers His help), Augustine is not only converted and baptized but devotes himself entirely to the study of theology and turns out to be such a teacher that he shines in the church to this day, teaching and instructing the church. Monica had never asked for this. It would have been enough for her if her son had been freed from error and had turned Christian. But God wants to give us greater blessings than we can ask for, as long as we do not weaken in our prayer."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald M. Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959 II, p. 1094. Genesis 17:19-22.
In world religion class we have discussed the problem of emphasizing the institution rather than the Gospel.
If we step back and look at the preaching of the Apostolic age and the Reformation, the only concern was the Gospel. There certainly were factions and groups, as Paul said there must be, but the emphasis was upon the Gospel.
The Christian faith is simple, plain, and easy to learn. Someone can study the Scriptures all his life and never learn more than a fraction of what God says, but the basics are clear.
God shows us the way we really are through the preaching of the Law. If the Law is taught clearly, according to God’s Word, we see ourselves in a mirror. That destroys our self-righteousness, our claims to be perfect, or the idea we can earn favor with God through our good works.
Just like medicine, we first need a proper diagnosis. I just read about Robert Novak hitting a biker and not knowing it. He said a mob started to form. Novak was taken to a hospital and learned he had a mass in his brain. Several other things happened before he realized what his diagnosis was. Until he accepted that, he did not consider surgery and the possible healing required.
Non-sinners (in their minds) may hear the Gospel and find it interesting, but they hear without comprehending, like Novak at first. When they know the true nature of man, they want the comfort of the Gospel.
The Gospel teaches us that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary for one reason only – to die for our sins and be our Savior.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believed in Him might not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Paul says in this verse (Eph 3:20) – The power of the Gospel is at work (effective) in all who believe.
The Gospel is always at work in believers, moving them to pray and do good works.
As I said many times before, God urges us to pray but also moves us to pray with His Gospel promises.
One is here in this lesson, which is one of the best known about prayer.
God is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”
The hesitation everyone has in praying has its foundation in doubt, doubt about His Word, doubt about His power, doubt about His love.
Can human reason rise about these doubts? – not at all. Human reason and experience are the reasons for the doubt. We think we know and we draw conclusions based on our limitations and experience.
God extinguishes doubt with His Promises.
First of all, God is able to accomplish exceeding abundantly… Normally we would say that is not very good writing. Paul does a lot of that. But he does so in expressing how God is above anything we can imagine, in grace, in forgiveness, in love, in mercy, and in power.
There is nothing impossible for God’s Word.
The best example is God taking someone dead to the Gospel and producing a new Creation, a believer, given kinship with Jesus, and the promise of everlasting life that goes with the forgiveness of sin.
God does not stop with those abundant blessings, but promises far more in this verse alone.
How can someone not pray when God promises so much. How much from our perspective? “Above all that we ask or think.”
The power is at work among believers because the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christian. The Holy Spirit accompanies the Word in reaching people. No one becomes a believer except through the Holy Spirit. Preaching takes place through the Holy Spirit guiding the minister and the audience both.
The Holy Spirit’s work draws attention to the Father and the Son, moving the believer to prayer and good works. The Holy Spirit moves people to pray and helps people pray.
When we ask God for anything, the Holy Spirit urges us through the Gospel Promises.
Are we not worthy to ask? Christ has made us His worthy brothers, so that God sees His beloved Son when we ask in His name.
Is God not able? The more we understand, the more we see what God has already done and can do.
Does God love us? Yes, the Word tells us that God loves us because we love His Son. His chief quality is to love and forgive us. So we should always expect the best from Him, even when things seem grim at the moment.
"A third answer to our enemies is: We are certain that wherever the Word of God is proclaimed, the fruits of the same must exist. We have the Word of God, and therefore the Spirit of God must be with us. And where the Spirit is, faith must obtain, however weak it may be."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 274. Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Ephesians 3:13-21,