New Blog Link

I added a blog link on the left side of the first page:

http://extranos.blogspot.com/

The author is LP, who has posted many good insights about UOJ. Some readers are doing extra research about UOJ, so that makes it more convenient for people to be in touch.

I am going to try to get copies of the Vernon Harley (LCMS pastor) essays on UOJ posted in some way. I lost my copies.

Leadership Includes the Laity and Pastors

No zebras were harmed during this particular shooting.

Someone posted a few comments critical of Synod President Mark Schroeder's leadership of WELS. With the possible exception of Church and Change, most WELS members and pastors are favorably impressed with the SP's performance.

I thought the critical comments missed the mark completely. As one 19th century Lutheran sociologist (Stuckenberg) wrote, "Authority is not taken. It is given." Too many individuals and congregations have handed over all authority to their synod and a handful of leaders.

A few individuals I know through this blog have done the opposite. Without having any titles, they have contacted various Lutheran leaders and asked them about doctrinal issues. People with some authority have also taken action instead of waiting for one person to do everything for them.

Many have provided information for all Lutherans through the information they have sent me for publication, often after many hours of research. The posts with the highest number of comments are usually those supplied by a vast network of informed Lutherans.

Freddy Finkelstein started his own blog. I hear many encouraging comments about ff's blog and Brett Meyer's posts on Icabod.

The faithful teaching of the Word and our study of the Confessions will yield God's results in God's time. It will also bring the cross.

One couple I know from long ago said, a few years back, "Gurgel doesn't want to hear from us again." They made a point of expressing their disapproval of his unionism. The ex-SP left office because he was urged to do so, encouraged by the downside of refusing to leave. Likewise, the previous Arizona-California DP was advised to leave office, and he did.

Seminary Deflation - Seabury Did It - Concordias Discussing It

Here is one compromise - High Mass on a surfboard resting above a plastic bag-covered garbage can - the fusion of tradition and trash. I find it revolting, but I am old school.

Northwestern Acquires Seabury Seminary Buildings, Land

Use of residential and classroom facilities will continue.

By Charles R. Loebbaka

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University has purchased the buildings and land owned by Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, officials from the University and Seminary announced today (July 17). Some of the buildings are on land already owned by Northwestern that had been leased to Seabury; the remainder of the land is adjacent to the Northwestern-owned property.

The property encompasses the block bounded by Sheridan Road on the east, Orrington Avenue on the west, Haven Street on the north and Garrett Place on the south, with the exception of two houses that are not currently owned by Northwestern or Seabury. Northwestern already owns more than half of the land. All of the land purchased already is exempt from property taxes.

Northwestern has no plans to propose changes in zoning, which governs the use of the buildings, said Eugene S. Sunshine, Northwestern’s senior vice president for business and finance. Those buildings that are currently used for classrooms, offices and other academic purposes will continue to be used in that manner. Buildings used for residential and related purposes will continue to be used for those purposes, Sunshine said.

Northwestern students have been living in one of the residence halls on the property since last March when Seabury leased a portion of one of its residential buildings to the University. That use will continue next fall, and Northwestern students eventually will occupy the other residence hall as well.

Northwestern will lease back a portion of the administrative building and residential buildings to Seabury, which is changing from a residential-based seminary with full-time students to offering degrees and courses through short residential and online courses.

“With this agreement, we’re doing several important things,” said the Very Reverend Gary Hall, Seabury’s president and dean. “We’re positioning ourselves for a new mission as the People’s Seminary, meeting the demands of a changing world and church, providing flexible education to all -- clergy, church professionals, lay community and congregations. In addition, the sale allows us to eliminate our debt, balance our budget so that we will enter our new life with adequate resources to fund our ministries,” he said.

“We’re very pleased to have worked out this arrangement with Seabury for acquisition of the property and its continued use for the same purposes,” Sunshine said. “This will provide the University with contiguous space needed for academic and residential uses without having to acquire land that is currently on the property tax rolls.”

 

***

GJ - The mainline seminaries are tumbling, in spite of their enormous endowments and gender bender inclusiveness. They should be packed from admitting men and women into the ministry, straights and gays into the preaching office. Instead, just the opposite is happening. Church and Change take note. People are abandoning the most with-it denomination of all. They are headed for traditional, yea even liturgical services. They want to worship God instead of self.

UOJ Stormtroopers Illustrating How They Get Their TheoryFrom the Scriptures And The Book of Concord

UOJ Twister

1. Put you hand on everyone in the world is forgiven.
   
2. Good, now emphasize that everyone in Hell is a guilt-free saint.
   
3. Next - explain how each person has to make a decision about this eternal truth.
   
4. Now for the big stretch - Luther taught this! Watch it, watch it, watch it, you are going to fall.

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L P has left a new comment on your post "Scaery Rationalism - Typical Non-Biblical UOJ Argu...":

DK, You cannot conduct a sane discussion with UOJers. For UOJers, UOJ is true, end of story. In my field, if you offer no proof for your theorem, this is called hand waving. Also you cannot get away and say "this is obvious or trivial". LPC

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L P has left a new comment on your post "Scaery Rationalism - Typical Non-Biblical UOJ Argu...":

DK,

but I can't shake the feeling that this is a circular argument.

Yes indeed DK, in UOJ, you believe you are already righteous and so you are. Try suggesting that to a UOJer and see if you do not get bullied to submission.

I was a babstistcostal before, we had the same type of reasoning from the stable of Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Hagin, the prosperity preachers.

Believe that you are already healed, prosperous etc and so you are and if you are not, it is your fault, you just did not exercise your faith enough.

This is the reason why UOJ to me, after a while, sounded similar to the Word-Faith Prosperity preachers.

LPC

Scaery Rationalism - Typical Non-Biblical UOJ Argumentation

DK has left a new comment on your post "Trying To Fathom the Newest ELCA Breakoff":

Hi Professor, this is a little off topic, but I was wondering if you'd help me parse out a quote from David P. Scaer's essay "The two sides of justification".

>>"Unless justification is prior to faith but without ever denying that it actualizes itself in faith, the gospel is no longer indicative in describing an already existing condition of God’s contentment with the world, but it becomes a conditional offering of terms that must first be fulfilled before and in order for the sinner to be justified. Conditional justification, even if it is dependant (sic) on faith, is no longer an act that God universally accomplished for all men in Christ: it degenerates into separate happenings occurring in the life of each individual believer. The theocentric or Christocentric view of justification is lost to an anthropocentric one."<<

Maybe I'm slow, but I can't shake the feeling that this is a circular argument. Isn't he really saying that: "justification must happen prior to faith (i.e. it's Universal) otherwise it wouldn't be Universal."?

In any event I disagree with him. If Faith is created solely through Word and Sacrament, how can he claim that "justification given as a result of faith" makes justification Anthropocentric? 

***

GJ - Scaer began with the assumption that Walther's Easter Absolution sermon is the ruled norm. When I took Klemet Preus' class on argumentation, we had to list logical fallacies we heard. I listed a few from Scaer's class. Klemet said, "That was too easy, using Scaer."

This Scaer quotation is a Straw Man fallacy. Scaer offered up a false version of justification by faith and demolished his own Straw Man. In fact, he poured scorn on the Biblical concept - not a good way to build up UOJ. So it does appear to be circular reasoning. The trouble with logical fallacies is that their definitions overlap so much.

The boogey-man is faith. The UOJ Stormtroopers assume faith is a virtue or a meritiorious work. In this case, the argument misses the entire emphasis upon receiving the Means of Grace in faith. Therefore, Scaer made forgiveness conditional, gliding from justification by faith to synergism. And yet his own final result is synergism or semi-pelagianism.

The Holy Spirit creates faith through the Gospel Promises. Man receives forgiveness in faith (justification by faith). The Atonement means that Christ has already paid the price, not that the entire world has been pronounced forgiven. Confusing the Atonement with justification is typical of Calvinists, who cannot grasp the Means of Grace.

In the double-justification scheme of Knapp, Walther, Kokomo, and Scaer, everyone is already forgiven. But to be really forgiven they have to accept the truth of universal absolution. That is synergism at best, although most synergists would be shocked at the universalism of UOJ. Synergism means that man cooperates in his salvation.

No wonder Ft. Wayne pastors run screaming to Rome and Constantinople! A few lost along the way turn to Pentecostalism and Babtist dogma. UOJ, Romanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Pente-babtistry are flavors of Enthusiasm.

Another Incoherent Defense of the WELS Gay Video

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wisconsin Lutheran College Paper Defends "Party in...":

Ichabod can continue to deny change, but it will come. It is much more than just MLC and WLC, it is Lutherans who realize that we have become so old school in our ways that we are losing our youth. While the video may have been one extreme Ichabod is indeed the other, for you cannot have one without the other. C&C is appealing to the next generation, those who are living for Jesus through confessions, services, and reaching out to others. Not waiting for them to see our sign and come in.

Also, Ichabod is accusing them of knowing what FIP meant, not truly being repentant, and that they were simply upset that they got caught, which is absurd. Other than God, who can know men's hearts? While we may, in Christian love judge their actions, Christ alone is in charge of judging the motivation of the students and no one else.

It is probably related to Beavis and Butthead's in the first place, who will continue to defend the contemporary changes in the WELS. It is the rock and roll churches who are so blatently corrupting Lutheranism. Correct?

***

GJ - I remember District VP Schroer phoning me and shouting, "You are judging men's hearts. Only God can do that!" What was my crime? I quoted various WELS Church Growth gurus and matched their verbatim statements with Fuller quotations (thanks to Megatron). Worse, I also printed Book of Concord statements to contrast Fuller and WELS with Lutheran doctrine.  Patiently, I pointed out to Schroer that we can--and must--judge published doctrine (Book of Concord, Large Catechism, Eighth Commandment). As a young pastor, Schroer thought it was unionism to watch Lawrence Welk. I thought it was torture, but that is another topic.

Let me hasten to point out that I did not participate in filming the video or uploading it to You Tube. Advocates for this video continue to bring up the topic they supposedly want buried. WLC not only published an editorial on this topic, but printed it on the first page of the student newspaper.  What better way to keep it alive?

I found the supposed interview in "The Sword" a farce. A real journalist, even a sophomore reporter, would have checked out both sides before objectively siding with the MLC students. The students sounded resentful, pouty, ready to cry.

I found the college students' excuses difficult to believe. I teach college students year around, and I know they are savvy about finding out information on Google. The excuses contradict the other statements in the editorial. The students innocently created a parody of another video! Why did they make it even gayer than the first one, if they just fell off the beet wagon?

The MLC video is rather professional, so these Internet-digital savvy guys did not know what they were doing? I am not judging their flinty hearts but their mushy alibis.

"Party in the MLC" is the wave of the future, according to the comment above. That will draw the young, say the wizards of Church and Change.

I see a bunch of old white liberals on the board of Church and Change. The CG founders in WELS are retired and soon to retire, older than dirt. Their AARP cards are worn and smudged.

"Attracting the young" is a dubious argument. MLC claims that the Fire Island Pines guys just loved the knock-off of their video. And why not? They probably watched it more than any other demographic. What a recruiting tool!

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wisconsin Lutheran College Paper Defends "Party in...":

Obviously what this group of students did was, more or less, not the best decision.

But how do the actions and words of these MLC students, or even the words of the author of the article in the WLC student newspaper honestly represent the views/opinions of their colleges or that of the WELS as a whole?

The students at MLC obviously didn't consult with the administration before they posted the video. And was the author of article at WLC really defending such actions, or simply explaining the events of this issue as an example of how what you post online has its consequences?

There are likely plenty of students who lower their heads in shame in regard to what their classmates at MLC have done. Likewise, there are likely plenty of WELS Lutherans who don't completely agree with everything done in the synod or what their president says.

Faith is an individual thing, between a person and God. That relationship will ultimately affect what they do and say to others, the decisions they make, etc.. And they may belong to a certain religion, group, or even sect, but the whole does not always believe the exact same thing as the individual because everyone's relationship with God differs. No religion is perfect because everyone has fallen short of God's glory.

Trying To Fathom the Newest ELCA Breakoff

2009 Convention: Sodom and Gomorrah are reconciled with ELCA.

When the ALC, LCA, and AELC were taking their last steps into merger, to create ELCA in 1987, my family was leaving the LCA. I was never a part of ELCA and made it clear why. I published Out of the Depths of ELCA in Christian News. WELS was embarrassed that I wrote about their favorite partner in ministry. They even had Kincaid Smith (ELS) phone to warn me against any further publishing in Christian News.

I have reposted news from ELCA, from time to time, but I am not in touch with current dissenter trends. Word Alone has been gathering dissenters for some time and guiding them into independence. I am puzzled that The Core is doing the same thing, while working with Word Alone.

Meanwhile, Word Alone says: "This new website is meant to provide practical guidance to those interested in affiliating with LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ) and/or the proposed "Free-Standing Synod" of Lutheran CORE."

When Herb Chilstrom was the Minnesota LCA bishop, there were moves to pack up and leave the LCA. That dust-up concerned the porno tapes shown to entire families when a child was being counseled for sex offenses, under the auspices of Lutheran Social Services or another agency. The Minnesota Synod grew in numbers during that time and Herb became the first ELCA Presiding Bishop. Wikipedia says: "With Lowell O. Erdahl, he is the author of Sexual Fulfillment: For Single and Married, Straight and Gay, Young and Old (2001) ISBN 0-8066-4047-2." The odd couple promoted their book together. Awkward.

Merger itself provided almost no ripples. I heard of a few congregations (ALC) leaving. The LCA people were overwhelmingly in favor of merger, no matter what the warning signs were. Some of the former leaders did some squawking afterward. The Ft. Wayne seminary treated one of the LCA bishops as a god for stating the obvious. The same man made fun of inerrancy when he was in charge.

Readers can only imagine my shock when I read that one of the leaders of The Lutheran Core (not to be confused with Ski's money-gobbling operation in A-town) is Kenneth Sauer. I hardly knew him, but Sauer was the new bishop of the Ohio Synod, LCA, soon after I was ordained. Later, I heard him speak when Missouri had a free conference to promote another Sauer as their Synod President. Kenneth Sauer defended the obsolete and ridiculous JEDP thesis about the Pentateuch, because a "three-stranded cord is stronger."

Kenneth Sauer was re-elected a bishop in ELCA, when they divided the state up, due to its large concentration of ALC and LCA congregations. ELCA ended up with more jurisdictions than the ALC and LCA had separately. ELCA also ended up with half the total income of the two combined (roughly). They aimed at $150 million in 1987, but now are at $70 million. Those figures are probably off, but the trend is obvious, especially when inflation is considered over 20+ years. ELCA just cut 10% out of the new budget and anticipates more cuts.

Kenneth Sauer, an ambitious man, was head of the Conference of Bishops, ELCA. He was mentioned as a possible Presiding Bishop at times. In other words, Sauer was as loyal as a puppy and ready to wag eagerly at every ELCA notion.

All the leaders of The Lutheran Core were active in the ministry when I pointed out the present and future apostasy of ELCA, during its ignoble birth. Paull Spring was an ELCA bishop. The pastors and other leaders were silent for the longest time. Their political success implies that they were robotic loyalists for the last 20 years until something woke them up. The pastor often quoted from the ELCA convention (as a dissenter from the overwhelming vote) was also an old guy. When did he wake up to the smell of brimstone and fire (Genesis 19:24)?

Naturally I see a parallel in WELS with the born-again opponents of Church Growth apostasy. I wonder where they were 1987-1992, when I published hundreds of articles exposing the doctrine of Fuller Seminary and the aping done by WELS, the ELS, and the LCMS. I recall one of them saying and writing, "Greg, you should write about Enthusiasm and CG. Here are the passages." Did he ever write about CG? No. Did his foxy silence and consent help his career? Yes.

Two factors work together to leverage apostasy. One is the extreme nastiness of the Left. There is a Satanic energy in apostasy, which never hesitates to engage in the worst sins to advance their cause. In the name of love and unity, they divide and sling mud. Nothing is too low for them. Crying "slander!" when doctrinal issues are addressed publicly, they engage in backdoor campaigns against anyone in their way.

The other factor is the willingness to compromise with the Left to appease them for the moment. How enticing. Should I say something or accept the call I always wanted?

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A freestanding' synod?

With the 2009 Churchwide Assembly’s decisions on human sexuality (September, page 18), the ELCA has “fallen into heresy,” said Paull E. Spring, chair of Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform). The group planned to discuss becoming a “freestanding synod,” carrying out ministries apart from the ELCA, at a meeting scheduled Sept. 25-26 in Fishers, Ind. (after presstime). The group also may consider conversations with CORE member congregations and reform movements in the U.S. and Canada toward a possible reconfiguration “of North American Lutheranism.” Lutheran CORE is a coalition of pastors, laypeople, congregations and reform groups in the ELCA.

Martin - 10/6/2009
I disagree with Mr. Spring and believe that "with the 2009 Churchwide Assembly's decisions on human sexuality the ELCA" has risen above heresy and has looked deeper into the word of God in the Scriptures. Homosexuality is one of several sexual issues in the Scriptures that we ignore or no longer practice. For example, we now do not allow prostitution or polygamy or concubines things discussed in the Old Testament.

We ignore Jesus and Paul on the matter of divorce. Jesus tells us that for a man or woman to divorce and marry another is adultery. Paul tells us bishops and deacons should only be married once. We have pastors and other church leaders, including members of church councils, living in adulterous relationships and have been married more than once and we overlook it.

For the ELCA to allow pastors, council members, and other leaders who have been divorced and remarried and to perform ceremonies for second or subsequent marries and to not allow homosexuals to be pastors or perform "commitment ceremonies" for homosexuals is hypocrisy. The ELCA has taken a step away from the hypocrisy.

There are a half-dozen verses regarding homosexuality and to focus only on these an ignore the deeper message of love for God and neighbor of Jesus and Paul is the heresy. What the ELCA has done is to affirm the message from the Holy Scriptures and I stand as proud to be a part of the ELCA.

Paul - 10/19/2009
Bishop Paull Spring was absolutely correct. The ELCA has indeed fallen into heresy. It has disregraded the clear witness of the Holy Scriptures in order to take up a new "social gospel," so that decisions can be made based on how people feel. For some, the ordination of practicing homosexuals "feels" right. For many others, holding fast to God's Word (no matter how painful) is the only option for Christians.

The ELCA has rejected the Holy Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions, and its own Constitution (2.03), and now finds itself mired in apostasy. In making room for the blessing of PALM same-gendered relationships and ordination of the same, the ELCA has become a splinter from the one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

As the faithful look to protest this state of apostasy, they are encouraged and strengthened by the witness of the Holy Scriptures, by the Lutheran Confessions and by the faith and witness of our forbears-- for the sake of our children's children.