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.
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