Church Growth Produces Another Atheist: Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, As Corky Wrote

Evangelicals skewer the Emerging Church. Lutheran leaders lap it up - with some exceptions.

I wrote before about WELS Church Growther Curt Peterson joining Freedom From Religion to work against all religion. A layman wrote me:

Oh yes, the Freedom From Religion folks. It has ironically occured to me that they have a pretty high understanding of and respect for the efficacy of God's Word. Don't you think? Or Satan acting through them does. That's why they are always having it removed from public places and so forth. I looked up Curtis Peterson and saw an article and pictures of them removing the 10 commandments in Milwaukee I think. So THEY know how powerful it is and how it will and does change hearts and minds. I don't think it's really about the fear of those trying to get some "establishment of a state religion" thing.

The same friend wrote about another WELS Church Shrinker, who was welcomed to Columbus as a messiah by Wally Oelhafen. The Rev. Shrinker polarized the congregation before being exposed as a false teacher. Now he is an avowed atheist who sleeps in when his family goes to church on Sunday. "He will have nothing to do with God anymore and very matter of factly proclaims his atheism."

The studious layman said this about the Church Shrinkers:

I was just talking to an old friend this weekend. Much of the day we talked of the CGM stuff in WELS and such. I can only come to this conclusion, I think that some pastors and leaders that have been taken have been beguiled. Literally beguiled. That's the most accurate description I can give what I have seen. Is that an accurate way to say it in your opinion? I can't find any other way to express what I have seen in the last 15 years or so as it has slowly taken hold. What is even more interesting is that I read an interview my a music retailing magazine with KISS founder Gene Simmons (I can't stand the guy). Simmons's comments on getting more and more (in his case money and women) and marketing and greed could have easily been modified to be a message right from Fuller or Willow Creek. Just a different product. Basically "listen to your audience and give them what they want and sell them other things that they aren't expecting." I was amazed at how hard this hit me......the correlation I mean. From this devil man comes the same thing as the CGM/new paradigm church product.

Crashed on Tweetdeck

I resisted Twitter for almost a year, after trying it once. I am finding Facebook useful, so I thought that Twitter might be. My resistance crumbled when a good friend added himself as a Twitter follower.

I found it amusing that one of the Church and Changers added himself to my non-functioning Twitter. I had him figured as the guy who warned Pastor Rick that his giving statistics and Sweet were mentioned on Ichabod.

So I am linking a number of Twitters on the left. If you want to add yourself to mine, I will think of something intelligent to say. You can follow the Popcorn Cathedral of Rock from their Twitters, linked conveniently on the left. The links run a little behind for some reason.

Tonight's Psalm

KJV Psalm 4:2 O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?

Mid-week Lenten Service

The Risen Christ, by Norma Boeckler

Mid-Week Lenten Vespers


Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 6 PM Phoenix Time

Thursdays after tonight.
The Hymn #558 Tallis Canon
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 4 p. 123
The Lection Passion Harmony, TLH
The Sermon Hymn #245 St. Crispin

The Sermon – The Little Gospel
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45
The Hymn #376 Toplady

KJV John 3:10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Luther said about John 3:16 – This verse should be written in golden letters on the heart.
The context is interesting because the John 3 section is one of the more distorted passages in Protestantism. This is where many rest their claim, “You must be born again.” For them, that means an adult conversion experience.

The context and many related passages show that Jesus did not say, “You must have an adult conversion experience.”

He said, “You must be water-Spirit baptized,” and that is a very concise way of saying that baptism offers what God promises. In other words, it is a sacrament, to use our shorthand.

“You must be born from above” is the real meaning of Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus.

All false religion is based on being born from below, from man’s effort. Either he performs works and makes sacrifices to appease God or he accumulates virtue in some way to make himself acceptable to God. “Making a decision” is being born from below, from man’s intellectual effort. Fides formata (Roman Catholic) is faith with works added, or being born from below.

Being born from above can only come from the Holy Spirit working through the Word. The ancients, when they fell away from the revealed truths of God, wandered around trying to determine where God was to be found. They made up the most absurd legends and myths. Many of these stories are barely known because they are too absurd or crude to be told.

God had made His will known in the plainest way possible. His Word always accomplishes His will, (Is 55:8-11) so that means the Holy Spirit is never apart from His Word. There is no independent operation of the Holy Spirit, separated from the Word. And the Word is never without the power of the Holy Spirit.

That is – it must be God’s Word to have the power of the Holy Spirit. If a sermon is about “How to be popular and successful,” that is man’s word and devoid of the Holy Spirit. Worse is the attempt to bend an actual text and turn it into man’s philosophy. Man’s philosophy is always based on works and the Law. If someone wants to test that, listen to the language being used. Wait for – You must do this, and you cannot do that. That is law language.

I read a thesis where a liberal Lutheran applauded Robert Schuller’s maxim that “sin is not believing hard enough.” Schuller is an advocate for Napoleon Hill’s philosophy and for what Norman Vincent Peale plagiarized from an occult source. In both cases, the imagination has special powers to re-create the world (see also Nightingale Conant). In that little maxim sin and faith are both distorted so they serve another interest, which is opposition to God’s Word in the name of God. The conclusion is – You must believe harder. Believe in what? “Believe in yourself. Believe in the power of the your dreams.” Faith is turned into works, man-centered works.

In contrast, the Little Gospel is quite different. We call it the Little Gospel because it states the message of Christ in one, easy-to-memorize verse. When students learn Greek, they turn to John 3:16, because the verse is easy and enjoyable to translated. The words are very simple, plain and easy to understand.

The first phrase reveals the gracious love of God toward all:

God so loved the world.

Jesus, in John’s Gospel, also reveals how the world rejected Jesus and would reject His followers. But God’s love is far beyond man’s grasp. His love is all-encompassing, above and beyond man’s ability to understand. Grace means – free and without strings attached.

Instead of God loving us after we love Him, the reverse is true. We love God because He first loved us.

That He gave His only-begotten Son.

The phrase “only-begotten” is still the best, because “only son” is so quickly distorted by man. In the movie “Oh God,” Jesus is called God’s Son. But so is Moses and Mohammed. So what can that term mean? Only-begotten is very precise, pointing to “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…”

We are called children of God (as believers) and sons of God (as believers) but Jesus is the only-begotten Son.

That whosoever believeth in Him…

Unlike all the false religions of the world, the Little Gospel has no demand of the Law for salvation. No extra law requirements are added to “any person who trusts in Him for salvation.” Once again, whosoever is very precise in making it clear that no believer is excluded on the basis of prior sins or station in life. No one is too old or too young. Babies also trust in Him, from the moment of baptism, because they are born from above, by water-Spirit baptism.

should not perish
The issue is not whether we will die or not. The word perish sums up two concepts at once – both death and eternal condemnation. To show what “not perish” means, the opposite is stated.

but have everlasting life.

Everlasting life, eternal salvation – that rests upon God giving His Son to us, and that message of divine grace produces faith in His gracious love in Christ. In faith we receive the Promises of God, and those Promises in the Word produce faith in our hearts.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

In the verses following the Little Gospel are an explanation of justification without using the term which Paul favored. Only those who believe in Christ are forgiven, saved, and given eternal life. Those who do not believe on condemned for their non-belief. In fact, as another verse clearly states, they are not forgiven (justified) because the wrath of God remains on unbelievers.

KJV John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The Gospel of John is especially clear about the Biblical message – there are 1) believers in Christ, and there are 2) unbelievers. The world has only two categories, no more.

Finally, this passage includes the statement that false people hide their works because their works are evil. People laugh about my stealth term, but that is the best way to describe false teachers and their works. They always want to work under the radar. They hate being quoted. They hate having their work evaluated in the light of the Scriptures. They claim they can be more effective if they distance themselves from God’s Word. Sadly, they cannot bear to teach the whole counsel of God found in John 3:16. They always conclude, “Look at all the good things we have done in God’s Name.”

God says, “Look at what I have done for you, long before you ever existed.”

Spoiling the Egyptians - Luther via Walther

Figs From Thistles? Not According to Martin Luther


Luther, House Postil: "No one is so foolish as to go into a field full of thorns and thistles and look for grapes and figs. Such fruits we seek on a different plant, which is not so full of barbs and prickles. The same thing happens in our gardens. Seeing a tree full of apples or pears, everybody exclaims: Ah, what a fine tree that is! Again, where there is no fruit on a tree or the fruit is worm-eaten, cracked, and misshapen, everybody says the tree is worthless, fit to be cut down and cast into the fire, so that a better tree may be planted in its place. These tests, the Lord says, you must apply to the false prophets, and you will not make a mistake, no matter how good their appearance may be. If f wolf had put on twenty sheepskins, still you must know him to be a wolf and not be deceived by him."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, trans. W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House 1897, p. 412.