Bruce Church Is Optimistic

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "This Is Your Hero - Mark Jeske - WELS and LCMS":


If you look at the history of the Synodical Conference, one can discern that the Pietist-Calvinist doctrinal overlay of the BoC that Walther pushed was not what most Lutherans in America believed, much less in Germany where no one believes in UOJ anymore. Walther's view on slavery was Calvinist, too, since one ought not mess with the status quo since that would contradict God's will concerning what station people hold in this life and the next.

Since UOJ was an overlay against the will of the people, Waltherian logic and the authority of the pastor had to push aside the beliefs of the unlearned masses, who were immigrants to American and thus vulnerable to this type of manipulation. Hence, to this day no one is allowed to criticize the pastor except in very limited contexts. The rule book on this came out of Alice and Wonderland.

If the pastor were really one with the people in doctrine, this all wouldn't be necessary. Of course, pastors will say that people swore they believed what the WELS taught, but here this is another manipulation since no one went over with them the pros and cons of what Walther taught, or even said it was controversial. It's similar to how evolution is taught in public school as fact without letting on that real scientists doubt it or disbelieve it. But no matter. I'm sure that eventually, with the help of the internet, the Calvinists will be exposed and tossed out on their cans.

Library Liquidation Sale - First Set - Alison Weir on Henry VIII, Wives, Children, Court

I am going to list sections of my library for sale, because most people will not want to order boxes of books at a time. If the link is still up, the books are still available. I will keep the links on the upper left hand corner of the blog page.

The first set is one of my favorites, but it looks brand new. I am a fanatic for proper care of books. So all my new books are still new and only a few are beaten up by previous owners.

Leather books by Easton are well crafted and built to last forever. This Alison Weir set is one of their most attractive, bound in black, red, and gold on the covers and gold-leafed on the edges, with a silk marker in each one.

Volume I - The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Our Lutheran history is related to Ann Bolyn's influence on Henry, and the flight of Protestants to America stems from the Protestant/Catholic division in his own household.

Volume II - The Children of Henry VIII. The birth and death of Henry's children changed the empire. Edward rules as a Protestant and died very young. Bloody Mary ruled as a persecuting Roman Catholic, and also died rather young.

Volume III - The Life of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth ruled forever as a moderate Protestant, shaped by the execution of her mother and her first lover. The pope defended her, saying "She only rules one island and only part of that, yet all of Europe is afraid of her." She could ream out a foreign ambassador in perfect Latin. She supported the real Shakespeare, the Earl of Oxford, and defeated the Spanish Armada.

Volume IV - Henry VIII, The King and His Court. Henry changed during his rule, from being a foolish, spendthrift, athletic and handsome young man to being a disgusting, bloated, but successful king.

A lot of historians are boring, unable to give up a single note-card or trivial fact. Weir has combined fascinating details with a dramatic narrative in each book. Anyone interested in royalty, English history, or the influence of the Tudor Monarchs will love this readable set.

Price - $50 plus shipping.

Contact - gregjackson1948@qwest.net

Note - this set has been requested. The link will be removed once the sale is final. Look for more listings soon.

He Forgot the Sic

God Speaks Clearly

Spock influenced Ken Berry to get involved in Hollywood.
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?

***

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.

No Excuse for Everyone Being Asleep on This, Eh?

When Franklin C. Fry was head of the ULCA, then the LCA, seminary tuition was almost zero for everyone.


bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Mercy! - The LCMS Budget Is Corrupt Beyond Belief":

In the last few years two Preus sons opted for the LCC seminary at St. Catherines in Canada because it's much cheaper than Ft. Wayne, and they are still there. Students (and their wives) can stay in Canada or commute from the US which is only 15 miles away.

Here's what Daniel Preus of the Luther Academy had to say about his son who left Ft. Wayne sometime in 2008 or before. That son did not complete all four years there and didn't go into the ministry:

At the Texas Confessional Lutheran Free Conference XIX in Texas, on Sep 5, 2008, Rev. Daniel Preus told the audience at 1 hr, 3 min, and 44 seconds into the presentation (it's on MP3):

I will say this: we need more pastors...I'm a little bit sensitive to this because my son went to the seminary and couldn't afford to continue. He left. You have seminarians who are now graduating with debts of fifty to seventy thousand dollars. And I think the problem that we need to look at, which is not how many men are graduating, the problem is the church is not providing, our Missouri Synod is not providing for the education of ministerial candidates. Have I said that clearly enough? We are not taking care of the education of our ministerial candidates. And I think if one wants to give credibility to this Ablaze! movement, you would make it the first priority to cover entirely all the tuition of seminary students. And you would not make it the obligation of the seminaries to come up with the money, but that the church would do it.

Rev Daniel Preus, Luther Academy
http://www.lutheracademy.com/about-us/officers2/daniel-preus.html

Google Map

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GJ -

In Ontario, even the German Lutherans end many sentences with "Eh?" Everyone drinks Molson beer there, eh?

I wonder if Missouri will end up with a group of pastors affecting the Ontario accent. The Canadians are wonderful people and their soldiers are great warriors. Too bad they are stuck with so much socialism and government control. Most of our bad American ideas are imported from Canada and Britain.

Long ago, seminary tuition was extremely low. But the schools discovered they could lay off all their costs onto student debt, using many of them as cash cows to milk while they were students, only to force them out before being able to use their degrees. I could name three men I know who fit that description, and I am not well versed in all the people run through the LCMS seminaries.

Besides that, I recall a time when people worried about having enough pastors and wanted to keep their pastor. But the "conservative" leadership, the same ones who took free educations and ran up the debts of the next generation, played games with calls and meddled in congregations. Dysfunctional members learned they could work with the DP or his hatchet-man to get rid of a pastor who offended them by preaching against adultery-or-for sound doctrine. Liars and adulterers love one another and work in perfect harmony.

Congregations and synods do not honor the pastoral office because they despise the Word. For example, the Wisconsin sect sends their graduates out consumed with righteousness through the Law. Like the Calvinists they are, the faculty members teach the men that the Word is dead on its own. The students need to make it come alive, as in real, relevant, and relational. The utter lack of action about The CORE and many clones (CrossWalk in Phoenix) proves how little SP Schroeder cares about sound doctrine when money is on the line.

For years God has been sending the ELS, WELS, and LCMS the same message, "You think money will solve your problems? I will let you have lots of money while you let your church bodies fall apart." I was not getting all anointed and becoming a prophet. Luther did that too, rephrasing passages of Scripture.

To repeat myself, half of SP Harrison's supporters voted to continue working with ELCA. Everyone knew the liberal half of Missouri would go for that, but half of the conservatives who voted to depose Kieschnick felt the same way. How can any Christian church body work with ELCA, an abortion provider and gay marriage promoter?

Any group that will work with Thrivent - that is who. Thrivent insurance is umbrella group that allows everyone to work with ELCA - and rewards them for it.

WELS is so deep into apostasy that they raise money for a heretical sect - The Salvation Army.

I went to seminary in Ontario, eh? Tuition was $150 per year and they gave scholarships to cover other costs.
And no, I was not an RCMP. This is a Photoshop.