Oh, I'd like to welcome all the WELS pastors visiting today.
I'll show you how we do church."
Narrow-minded Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "Le Grande Swindle - Or Swindoll":
One time when listening to my local "Christian" radio station, I heard Chuck Swindoll. He was making fun of the Real Presence. His analogy was that if he pulled out his wallet and showed you pictures of his grandkids, was he actually showing you his grandkids? Wow! I guess 1 Cor. 11 is not in Chuck's Bible.
Perhaps this is why the Lutheran synods downplay the importance of the Eucharist. They are influenced by the pietists of American Evangelical Protestantism that replace or distort God's Word with reason and logic. The concept of the Trinity is not logical, so why believe it? What about a virgin birth? Ever seen one? What about Christ being fully God and fully man? Oh yeah, it's called Faith, thanks be to God.
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GJ - This is a good illustration, because Swindoll is a Pietist from the Evangelical Free sect. The rationalistic explanation of Holy Communion comes from Calvin, who also mocked the Real Presence in his Institutes.
Objective justification also comes from Calvinism, as Sig Becker admitted in his essay.
Therefore, the WELS attraction to Swindoll comes from his rationalism, not from his fidelity to the Word.
Jesus said, in Greek, "This is my Body, given for you for the forgiveness of sin."
The Calvinistic Pietists deny both the Real Presence and the forgiveness. The emergent WELS/LCMS/ELS congregations--that model themselves after Swindoll, Groeschel, and Hybels--also denigrate Holy Communion, by not offering it or by hiding it.
