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All Time Favorite Posts - Since New Stats Began - ... Sep 23, 2010 -  446 Pageviews

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Recycled UOJ Barf Apr 5, 2010, 6 comments -  89 Pageviews

Plan focuses on regional Lutheran elementary school for three existing church schools: Trinity Lutheran in Kaukauna, St. John's in Wrightstown and St. Paul's and St. Mark in Green Bay | postcrescent.com | Appleton Post Crescent

Plan focuses on regional Lutheran elementary school for three existing church schools: Trinity Lutheran in Kaukauna, St. John's in Wrightstown and St. Paul's and St. Mark in Green Bay | postcrescent.com | Appleton Post Crescent


Comment from LutherQuest (sic) - "Notice that all three are feeders for Fox Valley Lutheran High School. Fox Valley has been hurting for students as a result of the decline and closure of local elementary schools from the surrounding region. This decline is unescapable (sic), since baptism figures from while back tend to make each succeeding class size smaller than the previous. Fox Valley has made up for the loss in part by attracting foreign students, about 50-60 at any given time. Although they don't have a dormatory (sic), they've used the congregational support networks to find enough host families to take them in."

GREEN BAY — Several local Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod congregations may close their elementary schools to open a regional building.

The churches — Trinity Lutheran in Kaukauna, St. John's in Wrightstown, St. Paul's in Green Bay and St. Mark in De Pere— have met with members to discuss the possibility of closing their church schools to open one that would serve pre-kindergarten to grade 8.

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If the plan gets the go-ahead, Bock expects fundraising to take about a year with another year or so for engineering and construction. A new school could be open for the 2013-14 school year, he said, and the other schools would close.

"We want it to come across as a positive thing," said St. Mark Principal Jeremy Bock. "We can combine our resources to create a better school."

Combining resources could allow the school to hire a special education teacher or start music programs or programming for gifted and talented students, he said.
"Church schools are just too small to do some of those things, but that's what parents are looking for," Bock said.

The new regional school would sit on an independent campus and would not be tied to any congregation, nor would it be limited to just Wisconsin Synod, or WELS, families. Busing would be available.

A planning committee has pinpointed five potential sites: one along U.S. 41 and Brown County S, one along 41 near the Wrightstown exit, and three on a southern stretch of Lawrence Drive.

About a year ago, a group of pastors, teachers, laypeople and representatives of the Fox Valley Lutheran federation began meeting to discuss new ways to provide Christian education, Bock said. Fox Valley Lutheran High School in Appleton serves as the WELS secondary school for elementary schools in the Fox Valley and Green Bay areas.

"We're really looking for a new way to provide Christian education," Bock said.


Patti Zarling writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.



Read more: http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20101025/APC0903/310250130/Plan-focuses-on-regional-Lutheran-elementary-school-for-three-existing-church-schools-Trinity-Lutheran-in-Kaukauna-St-John-s-in-Wrightstown-and-St-Paul-s-and-St-Mark-in-Green-Bay#ixzz15scwKVJc

Biblical Concepts in the Lutheran Confessions Guard Against Doctrinal Error

Norma Boeckler's art can be viewed here.

First of all, the Lutheran Confessions begin with the Three Ecumenical Creeds, showing that the doctrine confessed in the Book of Concord is the historic Christian faith, not the opinions of a sect or cult. The Book of Concord is our treasure of God's wisdom, always relevant for Christians today, especially in these days of confusion and apostasy.

The Two Natures of Christ - Chemnitz wrote a masterpiece on this topic. The fundamental error of Calvin is his rationalistic confusion about the Two Natures. By teaching that the "finite cannot contain the Infinite," Calvin taught against the Real Presence in Holy Communion and also against the Two Natures. This rationalism erodes the doctrine of Calvin and turns it into Unitarianism.

Justification by Faith. By adding works as a requirement for salvation, the Church of Rome overturned the Gospel and turned Christ into Moses, Moses into the Savior, as Luther wrote. This semi-Pelagian heresy fuels all the errors of Romanism and creeps into Protestant theology as well. Sects often demand faith plus some work of the Law, violating justification by faith alone, apart from the works of the Law.

Efficacy of the Word versus Enthusiasm. God gave us certainty by binding His Holy Spirit exclusively to the Word. Faithfulness to God's Word is success, so no God-pleasing result can come from abandoning faithfulness to Him. Increasing the impression of success by apostasy is shameful, damaging to the ministers and their laity victims, deadly to all. In contrast, the humblest and poorest congregation is doing God's will and will bear the Fruits of the Spirit from doctrinal fidelity alone. We are not to judge results, as if we can order God around, but we must judge doctrine and practice.

The Means of Grace and Prayer. Because God has bound Himself to His Word, His Grace comes to us only through the Means of Grace - the invisible Word of teaching and preaching, the visible Word of the Sacraments. Those who want God-pleasing results in abundance only need to sow the Gospel seed in abundance. With the Internet today, this is easily (but rarely) done. The Sacraments are the best form of the Gospel for the uninitiated because they can be taught about God's will in binding His Gospel of grace to visible Means. Those who are ashamed of the Sacraments and hide them from Sunday worship are really confessing that they are ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, distrusting His efficacious Word, and substituting man's gimmicks for God's wisdom.

Prayer is the fruit of salvation, not the cause of salvation. When people are confused about the Means of Grace, they imagine they can pray Jesus into their hearts instead of realizing that Christ enters through the Gospel. They fear they must qualify with the right kind and correct fervency of prayer or they will not be forgiven. Instead, they should have the comfort of God's grace based upon the objective truth of Christ's atoning death and His resurrection from the dead.

We condemn. To continue in God's doctrine, revealed in the inerrant Scriptures, we must also condemn false doctrine whenever and wherever found. The Confessions contain many examples of false doctrine condemned in no uncertain terms. If we cannot discern false doctrine and reject it with clarity and conviction, we cannot maintain sound doctrine. Even a lowly maggot can distinguish between diseased flesh and healthy flesh. Believers should be just as discerning about doctrine, because this means life and death for souls.

Seventh Day Adventists Agree with WELS Kokomo And LCMS Brief Statement:Same Biblical Passages Misconstrued

"Study your dog notes, son, and stay away from those irrelevant old books, like the Book of Concord."


Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Of Justification | The Lutheran Church - Missouri ...":

Not only do all Lutheran Synods confess the same false gospel of Universal Objective Justification but they are not alone.

The Seventh-Day Adventists also confess this same Universal Objective Justification
http://www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/documents/Universal%20Justification.htm

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Analysis of the Doctrine of
Universal "Legal" Justification

Larry J. Kane
Introduction

According to the 1888 Message Study Committee ("1888 MSC"), the 1888 message reveals many "fresh, beautiful truths . . . that are not usually understood today."[1] One such "truth" is the concept that Christ's death at the cross accomplished a legal or objective justification which is universally and unconditionally applied to all men.[2] This doctrine is said to derive from the observations that Christ has borne the sins of "all men" and has died the second death for "every man." It is viewed as the basis for the present life enjoyed by all men. This legal justification, also referred to as a corporate justification, is distinguished by its proponents from justification by faith, or "experiential" justification, and should not be taken to imply universal salvation wherein all men would be saved, some even against their will. The especial merit of such universal legal justification, as seen by the spokesmen for the 1888 MSC, is that it provides foundational proof and an earnest of the loving initiative taken by God to bring about man's salvation. When the full import of God's initiative on man's behalf is recognized, it is believed to be pivotal in galvanizing the sinner's complete devotion to, and saving faith in, Christ.

I. Examination of Key Scriptural Texts

A number of scriptural passages are cited as authority for the doctrine of universal or corporate legal justification.[3] This essay first summarizes an analysis of the pivotal scriptures and whether they support this tenet of the 1888 MSC. Later sections explore ancillary issues implicated by a universal or corporate legal justification, including the dimensions of justification by faith and the extent of God's initiative for the salvation of men.

Romans 3:23, 24
One of the cardinal rules of hermeneutics is that a scripture must be understood within the overall context in which it is found if the writer's intent is to be accurately discerned. The necessity of this principle lies in the fact that it is not usually possible to include all essential components of a proposition within one or two sentences. Often, several sentences or more are necessary to fully express the concept at issue. Moreover, more complex scriptural themes usually have many facets, not all of which are addressed within the immediate context of a statement on the matter. Thus, the more reliable approach for reaching a complete understanding of a particular proposition is to review all relevant statements from scripture which bear upon the issue.

These interpretative principles must be violated if Romans 3:23-24 is to be read as supportive or a universal justification, albeit only a "legal" justification. If one were to isolate these two verses from their surroundings, one might think the two could be linked directly so as to construe them to say that "since all have sinned, all are justified freely." This is apparently the view of the 1888 MSC.[4]

However, the immediate context of verses 23 and 24 is a passage extending from Romans 3:20-31 expounding upon the theme of righteousness by faith. The broader milieu spans back to the beginning of chapter 2 wherein Paul, in comparing Jews and Gentiles in relation to God and His judgment, concludes that both are in the same predicament. God, being "no respecter of persons,"[5] judges both by the same standard: by whether their deeds are righteous or unrighteous. Such being the case, the problem is succinctly stated in verses 10 and 23: "There is none righteous, no, not one." "For all have sinned."[6] Thus, Paul rightly observes in Romans 3:20 that no person (no "flesh") shall be justified before God by the deeds of the law. All have sinned and, consequently, are already condemned under the law.

It is at this point, beginning with verse 22, that Paul introduces his insightful summary of the plan of salvation: There is a righteousness of God arising from a source other than the keeping of the law, "even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." This "righteousness by faith" is the direct, logical antecedent of the phrase "being justified freely by his grace" of verse 24. This justification, freely available through faith in Christ, stands in bold contrast to the unavailability of justification through observance of the law.

The mechanism by which the justification of verse 24 is freely provided is explained in the latter part of that verse and the following verse. It is the operation of grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, which is achieved by the sacrifice of His life as a propitiation. Significantly, this propitiation is stated to be effective for the sinner only through faith in His blood (vs. 25). It is the sacrificial death of the sinless Christ, as guilty man's substitute, which fully satisfies the penalty of the law and thus demonstrates God's righteousness and justice in remitting the sins of the believer and justifying him (vss. 25, 26).

From this we see that verses 23 and 24 of Romans 3 are not closely linked in parallelism such that the justification of verse 24 would be freely given, implied, to the "all" who have been found to be sinful in verse 23, as is advocated by the 1888 MSC. Instead, verse 23 is obviously a continuation of the last phrase of verse 22 and the combined passage is seen to be a parenthetical statement to emphasize that the "all" of verse 22 to whom righteousness is made available through their belief in Christ encompasses both Jew and Gentile, "for there is no difference, for all"-both Jew and Gentile-"have sinned."

This parenthetical remark harkens back to Romans 3:9-18 wherein Paul emphatically states that the Jews possess no moral superiority over the Gentiles for they all are under sin, none are righteous. Because all men, of all races and creeds, have sinned under God's law, there is no one who can be justified by the deeds of the law (vs. 20).

Consequently, Paul wishes to leave no doubt that "the righteousness of God without the law . . . which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all . . . them that believe" is equally relevant and essential to all men of all persuasions, Jew and Greek, free and bond, man and woman. Thus, the parenthetical sentence is added to accentuate the universal need. Verse 24 returns to the theme of verses 21 and 22: the righteousness (or justification) of God which is made available by faith in and through Christ.[7]

Dr. E. J. Waggoner, one of the principal articulators of the original 1888 message, is quite lucid on the interrelationship between verse 24 and verses 21-22. He comments extensively on Romans 3 in his seminal work, Christ and His Righteousness.<[8] On page 61 of this work, Waggoner declares: "The scripture that we have just been considering (Rom. 3:24-26) is but another statement of verses 21, 22. . . ."[9]

Since Romans 3:21-22 unmistakably describe righteousness (justification) by faith, we have Waggoner's unequivocal conclusion that one is "justified freely" (vs. 24) by faith alone. Nowhere in his discussion does Waggoner propose that the justification of verse 24 is different from the justification elsewhere described in verses 22-26. In fact, as mentioned below, his conclusion is quite the opposite: There is only one justification, that of faith (and, we must say, that which embraces both objective and subjective aspects).

Throughout the entire passage in Romans 3:21-31, Paul repeatedly identifies the key qualification to justification: that it is "by faith" in the redeeming Christ. (See verse 22, "which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all . . . them that believe"; verse 25, "propitiation through faith in his [Christ's] blood"; verse 26, "that he [God] might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus"; verse 28, "we conclude that a man is justified by faith"; verse 30, "one God, . . . shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.") Clearly, in the face of this consistent theme, there are no grounds on which to contend that the justification of verse 24 has a basis other than faith.

Any assertion that the justification described in Romans 3:24 is a universal "legal" justification, imputed without condition of faith, is manifestly at odds with Dr. Waggoner's understanding. As described above, Waggoner observes that Romans 3:24-26 is "but another statement of verses 21, 22." Thus, the justification freely provided by God's grace is the "righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." Commenting elsewhere on Romans 3, Waggoner further emphasizes this point in his declaration that the justification of verse 24 means "to be clothed within and without with the righteousness of God," that is, to encompass both the imputed and imparted righteousness of God, to include both objective and subjective justification.[10] Moreover, the verses cited by Waggoner to explain how justification is given "freely" unquestionably convey the conditionality of that provision. The gift, free through it may wonderfully be, still must be accepted by the recipient. He must respond to Christ's invitation of Revelation 22:17, "'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' That is, let him take it as a gift."

Romans 5:12-18
It is this passage, and specifically verse 18, that is relied upon most heavily by the 1888 MSC in support of the doctrine of a universal "legal" justification. Here again, the interpretation advocated by the 1888 MSC is not consistent with application of sound hermeneutic principles, including the understanding of a verse within its larger context.

Verse 18 reads as follows:

Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

This verse is construed by the 1888 MSC as teaching a universal legal justification on two grounds. For one, the structure of the verse is viewed as a perfect parallel: The judgment which came upon all men by Adam's sin is matched by the free gift which came upon all men unto justification of life through Christ's righteousness. As there is no exception with the former, so there can be no exception with the latter.[11] Second, that the gift unto justification is free is viewed by Waggoner as "evidence that there is no exception to its application.[12]

In beginning an analysis of Romans 5, one first must recognize that it is a continuation of the theme introduced in the third chapter, that is, righteousness by faith. As discussed above concerning Romans 3:23-24, the only justification presented in the third chapter is that which is accessed by faith in Christ and His sacrificial death. So begins the fifth chapter: "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."