Berry grew up in Moline and said Mayberry RFD reminded him of home.
What's the connection with this post? None.
LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Grace Does Not Equal Forgiveness":
"Terms must be distinguished unless they are synonyms. The Holy Spirit chose to communicate the Gospel in the most precise and flexible language on earth - Greek."
That is a statement that should resonate with clergy and laymen alike. There is no excuse for a bad translation or interpretation. God's word means what it says and says what it means. If the Bible doesn't speak in a certain way, then why should we?
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GJ - Joe Krohn and Brett Meyer brought up the issue of how to speak about religious terms.
God speaks with the greatest clarity, but man muddles things up by shading meaning and changing meaning, too.
For example, the term infallible was always used for the Scriptures until the apostates began redefining the word as "infallible in doctrine, but not in history or geography." After infallible was watered down, conservatives began to use inerrant. The apostates (like David Preus, former ALC President) gloated that inerrant was a new word, and they were troubled (wink, wink) about a new word for the Bible. In fact, the Latin words for inerrant and infallible are both used in the Book of Concord - by Luther!
The apostates also do not like using anything post-Luther. That is their excuse for ignoring the Formula of Concord. But relax folks - the entire Syn Conference ignores the Formula of Concord, too. For most the of the leadership, the Book of Concord is a closed book, as interesting as an old edition of the Physician's Desk Reference.
The Bible speaks clearly about all issues. To say the Bible is confusing and contradictory is to attack the Word of God itself. I have noticed the current false leaders returning to Roman Catholic argumentation to sustain their errors. According to the Lutheran clergy, only they--the priesthood--can interpret the Word. For example, Jenswold and Glende (both Fox Valley) have both laid claim to their infallibility because they have studied Greek! Oh my! Our groundskeeper knows Greek too, a bit more than Jenswold and Glende put together. God speaks clearly in His Word, so any layman with a faithful translation can debate Christian doctrine.
In fact, I find the laity much more astute than the clergy about doctrine, because no one has taught them repeat-after-me talking points.
WELS/LCMS/ELS Talking Points from the Church of Rome
- The Word of God is not clear to you dopes, so the clergy must explain it to you.
- Holy Mother Synod is the ultimate authority on the Word, even though convention actions are the result of political lobbying and subject to reversal and change.
- No one should dare to offend the great and terrible Oz by questioning his clerical authority.
- This is a g-r-e-y area of Scripture.
Faithful Lutherans are faced with the problem of discussing Christian doctrine with a vocabulary and mindset corrupted by the clergy. The answer is to rely on faithful translations (KJV, Concordia Triglotta) and faithful books.
