Local Lutherans quit denomination | The Columbus Dispatch

Local Lutherans quit denomination | The Columbus Dispatch: "Local Lutherans quit denomination
Friday, November 19, 2010 02:52 AM
BY MEREDITH HEAGNEY

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH



An Upper Arlington-based church that was one of the 10 largest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) officially has left the denomination after disagreements over homosexuality.

Most members of the 5,800-member Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, which has three campuses, were troubled by what they viewed as the liberal drift of the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S.

On Oct. 31, members voted 558-28 to leave the ELCA. It was a second vote, as required; the first vote passed in June."

Celebrate!

The tenth annual gathering of LCMC, "Celebrate Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday Today and Forever", took place at Calvary Lutheran Church in Golden Valley, MN, October 3-6. This was indeed a time to celebrate as we thanked and praised God for ten years of His guiding LCMC, the milestone of over 500 congregations in the association, and a record breaking attendance of nearly 1100 members and guests.

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GJ - ELCA's answer is to pass new rules making it even more difficult to leave. Meanwhile my old pal from New Testament at Yale is taking over the bankrupt Wartburg (ironic, no?) Seminary, founded by W. Loehe.

WELS DP Robert Mueller called me a "trouble-maker" because I challenged the LCA about abortion and homosexuality before I left the LCA in 1987. He said angrily, "You cause trouble every where you go."

It took some time, but 500+ congregations now agree with me.

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John has left a new comment on your post "Local Lutherans quit denomination | The Columbus D...":

Rev. Jackson,

I attended a Lutheran Free Conference in St. Cloud, MN, on October 30th.

One of the presenters was a pastor of the LCMC. His presentation showed that the ONLY difference between the LCMC and the ELCA was the subject of homosexual clergy. It appeared that the LCMC and ELCA are in agreement on all other issues, including the ordination of women.

I live in the Twin Cities area and know that Calvary, Golden Valley is a huge congregation. The fact that it is LCMC means nothing more than that it is one of 500+ congregations that hold to all of the ELCA teachings other than practicing homosexual/lesbian pastors.

Where does the LCMC state that it stands against abortion?

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GJ - I am not sure that is true, because of many Internet posts I have seen from the departing ELCA people. However, they probably do have a weak adherence to the Confessions, which means they are less hypocritical than Missouri, WELS, and micro-mini synods. I am not defending the LCMC but I am promoting anyone's exit from ELCA.

I will write more in a new post. I did say previously that maintaining women's ordination will lead them back to an ELCA-like position, no matter where they are now.

Getting Started with Bird Feeding

Cardinals by Norma Boeckler

One reader bought some suet and a suet-feeder from Duncraft. He heard, correctly, that birds will take some time to get used to a new feeder.

One method will speed up the process - scatter lots of food around the new feeder. Use the window sills, the ground, nearby bushes and trees. Foods include any nuts, bread products, seed, and fat. A bird watcher could also put out various kinds of fruit - raisins, grapes, oranges, apples, berries. I always take the fruit we are not going to eat and add it to the bird banquet.

An abundance of food will create a racket, attracting birds, who will remember the location as a source of nutrition and socializing, where local gossip can be exchanged. "Seen any cats lately?"
"Has Sassy ever caught anything?"

I have a large bag of oranges and some older apples. I will cut the oranges and nail them near our primary bird feeder. I may nail up apples too. I have often rolled them into the woods, content to let the raccoons find them.

Animals draw attention to food and water but they seldom make pigs of themselves. Squirrels do not eat the entire corn cob. Birds like the cedar waxwing will land in a hawthorn bush, but they only eat some of the berries at each visit.

A bird bath will be noisy with birds splashing and chirping. One way to make it even more attractive is to suspend a dripping container over it so a high-pitched dripping sound communicates to wildlife that flowing water is near. They will find it anyway, but the dripping container is often used to increase the effect.

Narrow Minded Editorial

Tweedle-Glende and Tweedle-Ski, supervised by The Mad Hatter


Narrow-minded Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "Comment and a Correction from Ichabod Hisself":

Whenever I hear, "We're going to take this material and put a Lutheran twist on it," I about grind my teeth to the gums. For example, I received an email yesterday from CTSFW promoting a few guys from "Focus on the Family" coming to visit next week. Lutherans must not be able to discern Scripture, BOC, and "Luther's Works," because we must invite pietistic Arminian Nazarenes to educate us in how to balance family and ministry. Will "Focus on the Family" invite CTSFW to their studio in Colorado to promote the proper distinction between Law and Gospel?

This reminds me of an Islam seminar I attended at CTSFW a few years ago. Although it was very informative, one of the featured speakers was a Calvinist. He made light of that fact and joked about it a few times during his presentation, as if we should all think it's cute. How many "Lutherans" there thought it was cute? I don't know, as I don't recall how many snickers I heard.

Are Baptists ashamed of being Baptists? Are Arminians ashamed of being Arminians? Do Rome and Constantinople tiptoe around everyone else? Does Canterbury run around and apologize for their apostasy? One can only conclude that since Pietism is the default religion of sinful man, Lutherans must cower in the woodwork, since orthodox Lutheranism is the only confession in Christendom that teaches Salvation solely by God's Grace, not Faith-plus-works.

Even if I only have to "make a decision to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior," I have just made a pietist contribution of my own a condition for my salvation. If the Coast Guard rescues my dog-paddling tookus from the middle of the sea after my ship has sunk, do I say, "Boy, I'm sure glad I made a decision to grab that raft?" It's all about the Means of Grace.

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GJ - I invented a new doctrine to cover this - The Non-Reciprocity of the False Teachers. They want to tell Lutherans what is wrong with Lutheran doctrine and worship, and get plenty of money to do it, while selling books, tapes, and DVDs. They will not reciprocate in any way.

Ask Andy Stanley to sell a Lutheran book on baptismal regeneration and infant baptism! at his religious shopping center, Northpoint. Never! But WELS flocks to learn from him.

Throw in all the other false teachers adored by Missouri, WELS, the Little Sect on the Prairie, and yes - the horrid little CLC (sic). The same non-reciprocity applies.

Warning to readers--whether clergy, laity, or students--do not bring this up among peers. They will go crazier than bugs in a frying pan.

Too Much Estrogen in Luthertown - By Rogue Lutheran

"Too much estrogen in Luthertown
December 2, 2010 4:15 PM

I’m directing you to Ingrid Schleuter work titled A Trumpet Blast for Christian Men, 12-01-2010.

In the midst of the posing, effeminized, quasi-adolescent pastors who populate the “stages” of American seeker and emerging churches today, a sure blast from the trumpet from the godly pastors of old is a..."

Mother Teresa and the perils of mysticism — part 2 « Churchmouse Campanologist

Mother Teresa and the perils of mysticism — part 2 « Churchmouse Campanologist:

"Yesterday’s post introduced some disturbing insights into the late ‘holy’ nun, Mother Teresa, about whom little of a critical nature has been written.

Why that is, we do not entirely know.  However, as we saw yesterday, the woman suffered a continuing crisis of faith for most of her life, caused her own Sisters to suffer, hoarded vast sums of donations in a bank account and did little to care for the sick and needy."

Click the link for more...

Comment and a Correction from Ichabod Hisself

These are the best theologians money can buy. WELS and the Little Sect flock to them, pay them big bucks, and plagiarize their material.

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Questions about Hell and Universalism":

Another tragic mistake is drawing from the wretched material of today's Enthusiasts and trying to "Lutheranize" it. Eventually, an error is bound to slip through even if you were moderately successful in your effort.

We are all a whole lot safer with the examples cited: John's Gospel, the Augsburg Confession, and Luther's Large Catechism, etc. Knowledge of false doctrine is important for the sake of apologetics only. Only the Holy Spirit can grant discernment through the study of the Word.

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GJ - The comment above warns about the dangers of sanitizing false doctrine. The LCA pastors used to say about the latest fad, "How can we baptize this?" while grinning fatuously.

My correction comes from a serious error I have made. I wrote that there were two synods in WELS, Church and Change being the second, alternative administration. That was wrong.

Church and Change is the administration of WELS. Gurgle was the figurehead before, the candidate of the so-called conservatives, who finally ran him out before his buddies stole the silverware from the kitchen. Nothing else was left to take.

Schroeder is the figurehead of Church and Change now. They can complain about him while he leaves them alone. When the schools consolidate and close, he can take the blame.

Questions about Hell and Universalism

How can we know that hell and eternal punishment exist? Have you ever heard of a Universalist argument against eternal punishment?

Some say that most early Christian believed in universal salvation with maybe temporary punishment. I did notice one of their arguments was a rational standpoint like, "how can God be a God of love and eternally punish people". Universalists even go as so far as to say that the church changed the Bible to support hell...or that hell was a belief believed by the early civil leaders that influenced the church...so that the masses would have something to fear.

How would you defend the Biblical position regarding hell. When someone questions the authenticity of the Scriptures and how they came to be...I can have trouble and even doubt sometimes. How can I take comfort in knowing the Bible as we know it, is what God wants us to have for today and is not a scam?

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GJ - The Universalists are all around us. Tholuck, the mentor of Hoenecke, was a Universalist. Getting something wrong in the Word, such as claiming absolution without faith, based on God's mercy, is always going to lead to error.

Karl Barth, the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, taught Universalism in the guise of "the restoration of all things." Barth probably did only a small portion of the work, letting his live-in mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum do the hard stuff. Barth was not only an open adulterer, but also an avowed Marxist.

Confidence in the Biblical message comes from abiding in the Word. When people spend their time with heretics and heresies--and I don't just mean with Church and Change--the truths are supplanted by the semi-truths.

Dow Chemical keeps their factories from burning and exploding (most of the time) by using a layer of nitrogen. The value of nitrogen is its ability to supplant oxygen and prevent fires. Since an explosion is a fast fire, nitrogen also prevents explosions.

Universalists want to insert their propositions into the thinking process. The Biblical message remains but it goes off track because of false assumptions. If God is merciful, then why not forgiven the sins of the entire world? If God is all love, how can He have Hell to punish people? We are all sinners, so why do some go to Hell and others not? We are all too good to punished for eternity. Whatever works.

John's Gospel is the best antidote because it unites and integrates the Gospel message--all four Gospels at once--in the words of Christ. That is why apostate scholars have declared war against John for the last century.

John and Paul also show a remarkable harmony in many different ways, using different words to express the same concepts.

Another antidote is to read the Confessions and Luther. I suggest the early parts of the Augsburg Confession and all of the Large Catechism.

Reading heretical material to find out what's wrong with it is akin to eating poison to see if it really works.

Sometimes we have to study both sides of the issue, but the delving in false doctrine too long is fraught with danger. The Shrinkers are proof that someone can engage in activity and believe he is doing good while slowly leaving the Christian faith altogether.

Famous ELS/WELS Doctrinal Discipline on Display at the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie

Forgotten, but not gone. Bruce Becker was already hired by Jeske when he was canned at The Guilt Factory.

The Future of Christian Media
Friday, November 05, 2010

Hear two staff members from the television series "Time of Grace with Pastor Mark Jeske"- Bruce Becker, Director of Operations, and Jake Wagner, Ambassador Program Manager, at 7 p.m., Monday, November 8 in Honsey Hall room 129. Sponsored by the Christ in Media Institute at Bethany Lutheran College.