LPC has left a new comment on your post "The Means of Grace - As Requested by Lito Cruz of ...":
Hi Pr. Greg,
Wow, I enjoyed reading this. As I said to my friends, it is this blog that made me appreciate the effectiveness of the Means of Grace.
When I was a charismaniac, we would have testimony time. I was spiritually diverted back then because we would have people coming to service telling us how they got "saved" looking at a beautiful sunset. I remember people being so touched by this testimony I imagine some of them even being teary eyed listening to this.
This is the height of Calvinism. For in Calvinism, God is so Sovereign he can lampoon even his own Means of Grace. The amazing thing is some Lutheran pastors believe this too!!!
Today when I remember that incident, I now reject it and count it as weird and wacko thing.
Thanks for doing a special request post on this, I appreciate it.
LPC
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LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "The Means of Grace - As Requested by Lito Cruz of ...":
If I were to establish the Icha-poll, this would be in the top ten; solid doctrine...right by 'The Gospel in a Few Simple Steps.'
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GJ - I fell asleep for a few hours, after working on Justification and TSW all day. Waking up to posts like these is great for mental energy. I wrote that section for the book because of Lito's request, and I added The Gospel in a Few, Simple Steps to the justification book because of Joe.
The synods are so in love with themselves that they do not allow people to look across the great gulf between our age and 80 years ago. Seeing the enormous rear end of Church Growth in Columbus forced me to look at the earlier years of the Lutheran Church.
Henry E. Jacobs wrote a fine communion hymn, which is in The Lutheran Hymnal and many others. He also wrote an examination book for future pastors. If all the Lutheran pastors (ELCA down to the micro-minis) knew that book well, we would have a vibrant health church today, instead of a sick, greedy, lawsuit-ridden set of decaying corporations. Jacobs belongs to the Muhlenberg (LCA-ELCA) tradition.
Krauth and Schmauk are also from that tradition, and they have wonderful, wise things to say about the way things are falling apart right now. We would be better off studying those three men instead of Kelm, Larry Olson, Stetzer, and Sweet.
Someone suggested LOVE as the name for ELCA when it was forming - Lutherans of Various Exegeses.
LOVE should be the official name of the Thrivent/ELCA/WELS/LCMS/ELS combine. They all agree about one thing - not the Means of Grace - but Grace Without the Means of Grace: Universal Absolution.
As Brett Meyer (his real name) was anxious to point out, the position of the LOVE combine is exactly the same as the Pre-Forgiveness of the Unitarian-Universalists.
