Jesus, Lord of Creation - In Color - Now Published

This graphic is the cover art, which Norma Boeckler designed, along with all the illustrations inside.

Here is the Lulu storefront ordering link.

This is Norma Boeckler's website for the book.

I dreaded wrestling with the cover design software at Lulu, but one of the options was easy to use and provided explicit, clear instructions on making the graphic fit the cover.

Any PDF will contain the illustrations in their original color. I decided to make the printed version full color. However, I discounted the book to make it reasonable. All the books (except Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant) are non-profit, as much as Lulu allows. CLP also has a separate discussion guide.

The PDFs are all free and can be shared without fear of litigation, confiscation, or altercation.

If someone needs a number of CLPs, I can arrange a special price. I get the author's wholesale price and I can have them shipped directly from Lulu.

LPC, from Extra Nos, made an excellent suggestion for Justification. When that is completed, I will post an announcement. That will be very soon, since this is the fallow part of the teaching year. Relatively few classes are taught in January.

I expect a printable version of Justification to be ready in a week or so.

I have several improvements planned for Justification, so I will be labeling each edition and changing the title page somewhat to show the difference. If I wait for everything to be done and perfect, the manuscript will be in my estate rather than my Lulu Storefront.

Missouri Synod president to assist at Ladue parish church

Missouri Synod president to assist at Ladue parish church

Ladue is one of the wealthy suburbs of St. Louis.

The Emergents Hide the Sacraments

Narrow-minded Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "What Sasse Says: Sasse to Hebart, Christmas 1948":

As I recall, the "Statement of the Forty-Four" came about in the WWII era, when the Lutheran decline was above noted as starting. Instead of solving the problem in the way of Acts 15, "We will just have to agree to disagree and go home." The Jerusalem Council, on the other hand, said, "We're going to sit here and hash this out until we unanimously agree and are true to God's Word in such agreement."

Another point that keeps going through my head is the issue of the Lord's Supper. We are so poorly catechized today that I think people often take the Calvinistic/Zwinglian approach to the "Real Presence." Are we being punished, per 1 Cor. 11 for not taking seriously Christ's presence in the elements?

"...there is no argument as to what kind of consolation and confirmation in our judgment brings surer, more beneficial, and more effectual results. For we certainly ought not arrogate this judgment to ourselves, we who ought to depend on the word of Him of whom the Father has said from heaven: "Hear Him" [Luke 9:35]. But because the proper, simple, and natural meaning of the words of the last will and testament of Christ teaches the substantial presence of His very body and blood in the Supper, and because from this so many sweet and useful comforts come to our conscience, which through the opposing opinion are entirely taken away or torn down, we therefore rightly come to the point that we must fight to retain the proper and natural meaning of the testament of Christ lest such comforts be taken from the church. For what kind of comfort and strengthening is best suited and most necessary for us in out infirmity no one knows better than our true Good Samaritan, who heals all our infirmities. In addition to all other remedies for our infirmity He has instituted in His last Supper, in the form of His last will and testament, this ever-present anecdote, when He says: 'Take, eat and drink, this is My body, this is My blood.' And we must give pious and reverent attention to its benefit, use, and efficacy." -From "The Lord's Supper/De coena Domini," by Martin Chemnitz, Second Edition, 1590, pg. 186.

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GJ - I will be writing today about justification and the Sacraments. The Grow-ti-vational Lutherans hide Holy Baptism and Holy Communion because both take time, annoy the Babtists, and emphasize God rather than man. Now, that's a downer.

Anonymous Blogger Tim Glende with a tarted up Katy Perry.

Katy Perry does not look so good in the morning, as photographed by her new hubbie.

What Sasse Says: Sasse to Hebart, Christmas 1948

What Sasse Says: Sasse to Hebart, Christmas 1948

Sasse about American Lutheran synods:

That is the deep distress of our American sister churches, that they either live in a ghetto or that they sink into modernistic Americanism. I am deeply troubled over the development of the ULC in respect to theology since the dismissal and death of Knubel. What has occurred in Maywood, Springfield and Mount Airy, which I have visited again, can only cause concern for the future of these important branches of American Lutheranism. And in the ALC the decline is evident since Reu’s death. Bodensieck has taken his place.  

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GJ - Sasse saw the old guard being replaced by the moderns in the ULCA and ALC (Iowa, Ohio, and Buffalo Synod merger). In each case, the orthodox men were replaced by unionistic liberals. This same thing happened in the LCMS, and everyone remained in quiet denial.

Before WWII, American Lutherans were quite close in terms of doctrine, worship, and the theologians they admired.

Sixty years of unionism have splintered the Lutherans groups, like a hammer hitting a puddle of mercury. Hymnals and translations have multiplied. Every sect is a rainbow coalition of Pentecostalism, Unitarianism, and Romanism. Lutherans are the exception.

Doctrinal knowledge is feeble and fading fast.

The seminaries used to take farm boys and teach them Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. Now the task is too great, to get the city boys off their digital devices. Everything is dumbed down while tuition has reached Ivy League costs.

Happy New Year

Question: Why is this day not like any other day?

Answer: Because it is uniquely dated 1-1-11.