Abortion and UOJ.Brett Meyer and LP Cruz, PhD

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Fix the FoundationsInstead of Painting Over the Cr...":

I read an article today by Pastor John Drickamer on whether aborted babies go to heaven or hell. He rightly stated that without the Means of Grace, the Word working through Baptism, the children remained dead in original sin, separated from God and condemned.

It struck me how this relates to the Lutheran Synod's promotion of the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification. I've been at a loss to explain why the Lutheran laity and clergy do not violently revolt against their money financing abortions through Thrivent. They seem to get more upset if congregation members don't show up to a church cleaning party or bake sale.

Most Lutheran laity and clergy believe and teach that unborn babies who are either murdered through abortion or die of unavoidable causes go to heaven. There is no Scriptural or Confessional basis for this teaching and it goes against original sin and the Means of Grace.

In steps UOJ. Now that they believe and teach that everyone following Christ's atonement are already forgiven, justified, guiltless and fully reconciled to God, what's to fear from not being baptized into Christ? UOJ teaches the babies were forgiven and saved even if they don't cognitively believe it. UOJ teaches only the unpaid sin of unbelief damns and since they don't believe babies are capable of unbelief - they're all saved.

So an appeal to stop financing abortions through Thrivent will fall on deaf ears - those murdered babies are already saved.

http://www.exposingtheelca.com/uploads/2/4/2/8/2428588/the_elca_abortion_policy1.pdf

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LPC has left a new comment on your post "Fix the FoundationsInstead of Painting Over the Cr...":

B.M.

UOJ has horrible consequences to ethics as well. Since babies are already forgiven even before the means of grace, then the UOJer has no compelling reason to oppose the abortion of babies with disabilities - by doing so, one sends the baby straight to heaven and then skip the difficulty of living with disabilities.

It is horrible, it promotes antinomianism and all sorts of immoral/wicked philosophies.

LPC

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GJ - Brett and Lito are both right, and there is a Pentecostal-Babtist connection, too. I was at a CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) performance, brought there by a future WELS missionary. The non-Lutheran leader did some of that Pat Robertson "someone is going to be healed" business. He also said, "We know heaven is filled with all those aborted babies." The crowd cheered and clapped.

His claim was based on the anti-Sacramental, anti-infant baptism posture of Babtists and Pentecostals. Babies are born innocent, so if they are executed, they go to heaven, they imagine.

That strikes me as a very cheap way to become indifferent to the abortion massacre sponsored by American society since Roe vs. Wade.

UOJ provides the same kind of excuse, by claiming that babies are born justified (Eduard Preuss, quoted with approval by Robert Preus in his UOJ days). What astonished me about that particular assertion was Jack Cascione reprinting the essay as if that could be a good, Confessional piece to lock down the orthodoxy of UOJ.

Robert Preus:

"All this is put beautifully by an old Lutheran theologian of our church,

"We are redeemed from the guilt of sin; the wrath of God is appeased; all creation is again under the bright rays of mercy, as in the beginning; yea, in Christ we were justified before we were even born. For do not the Scriptures say: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them?'’ This is not the justification which we receive by faith...That is the great absolution which took place in the resurrection of Christ. It was the Father, for our sake, who condemned His dear Son as the greatest of all sinners causing Him to suffer the greatest punishment of the transgressors, even so did He publicly absolve Him from the sins of the world when He raised Him up from the dead. "(Edward [sic] Preuss, The Justification of a Sinner Before God, pp. 14-15)

LCMS Seminary President Robert Preus, 1981.

Did anyone on the Concordia Seminary (Ft. Wayne) faculty see the insanity of that quotation? No wonder Eduard poped after seeing a brilliant red sunset. He was Eduard, not Edward, and Preuss with two s's, a distant relative of Robert.

Let me set the scene. I am baptizing a baby, by water and the Word, and he is already justified at birth? Why bother? Do I bend down and say, "You have to believe that you were already forgiven or it does not count. Could I see a hand up? Isn't that precious!"

My admonition to the congregation would be: "Little Damien was already justified, even before he was born. But he has made a decision today, so that he is not only forgiven, but also forgiven-forgiven."

The UOJ Stormtroopers would like everyone to think they are so much more doctrinal than ELCA, but they express the same Universalism in different terms. When a WELS pastor talks about the Gospel, he means UOJ or "pre-forgiveness" as Jeske recently claimed. When a pastor is abusing women and children in his flock, as one District President did, he is forgiven. But when a lowly miserable member or pastor calls him on it, that person is condemned to the uncharted depths of Hell.

The same Universalism which justifies the ELCA gay fest can be used to excuse the MLC gay video.

Pietism really caused the America to trust in abortions. It was better to end the life of an innocent baby than to face the sourpuss stares of the Pietists. When someone has said to me, "They had to get married," I always say, "Good, they gave life and a home to their baby, more chance than most get today."

Pietism is hot to condemn the wrong things. First of all, Pietism opposes doctrinal orthodoxy. That is like a physician opposing good medicine. It is not without cause that "sound doctrine" in the New Testament means "healthy doctrine" and false doctrine is "a cancer."

Pietism also has a constantly changing code of laws, where one action is the worst sin in the entire world, then modified in a few years, then dropped completely. Theatrical performances could be bad, so all theater was evil and a terrible sin to watch. Next, by reference, all movies were bad. Then some movies were bad. When a Methodist Pietistic minister was accused of going to a movie, he said, "I have to see what the devil is up to."

I grew up in an area where the future promoters of Church Growth (E. Free and E. Covenant, both based on Swedish Pietism) were deeply concerned about all dancing. A dance studio had its windows soaped over so no would would fall into Satan's snares while watching people learn the foxtrot. My teacher got in trouble for finding a open spot and--gasp!--looking into the dance studio. He caught it when he got home.

The Holiness Code (which never stayed the same, varying in denominations and eras) obscured the relationship between Law and Gospel. The Law condemned people for drunkenness, so the solution was more law - signing a pledge each year in church, "I will not touch a drop of alcohol." That made drinking alcohol a special temptation and the best way to drive parents nuts. The parents worried, "What will our friends and church members think if Buzz staggers home one night!"

The children or grandchildren learn the hypocrisy of Pietism and reject all of Christianity and any sense of morality. America moved from legalistic Pietism and the Holiness Code (no liquor sales on Sunday) to the feckless, Unitarian hedonism of today, where being stoned on meth is a basic human right.

If Pietism is a dirty word in the Lutheran Church, then UOJ should be too. UOJ, like Pietism, came direct from Halle University, the citadel of Pietism.

Blizzard Sign - DQ Blizzards Are Much Better

Fix the FoundationsInstead of Painting Over the Cracks and Dry Rot

What is more hypocritical? WELS working with ELCA? Or WELS working with the Salvation Army
and giving them funds?

Thrivent, Salvation Army, WELS

"Conservative" Lutherans have neglected the foundational elements of the Christian faith while aping the Arminians, Pentecostals, and New Agers.

The Reformation leaders were anxious to avoid the term "doctrines" because there is only one, unified truth called Christian doctrine. The Christian faith is not modular, like a Leggo construction kit, where certain articles can be ignored or removed altogether.

The following items have been neglected or ignored:

1. The Syn Conference churches have by-passed the best translation, the KJV, in favor of a disgraceful translation, the NIV, soon to be the ESV, another mistake. They could use the KJV 21, which is modernized but faithful to the sacramental passages.
   
2. The Syn Conference churches have also neglected Luther and the Book of Concord. The Ft. Wayne Hyper-Europeans seem to skip over the main men and writings of the Reformation in favor of the more obscure. Why are they afraid of Luther and Chemnitz? Why do Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect pretend to be Confessional when their pastors loathe or do not read the Confessions?
   
3. The lazy slug pastors must start studying the Bible, writing their own Biblical, Lutheran sermons, and visiting people. "A house-going pastor makes a church-going congregation." People come to church for the healing of the Gospel, not to attend another recruitment rally where they are blamed for the parish not growing.
   
4. If Lutherans cannot teach the efficacy of the Word alone, the Means of Grace, and justification by faith, they are utterly apostate and worse than the Babtists they criticize and emulate.
   
5. If WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect really believed what they say about ELCA, they would stop working with ELCA through Thrivent. Their testimony at this time proves they support the homosexual and abortion agenda of ELCA.
   
6. Naturally, if the three synods really believed their doctrine, they would have closed communion only and not close communion, semi-close communion, and demi-semi close communion.
   
7. They would also promote the Lutheran classics rather than their horrid, warmed-over Cal-Arminian monstrosities.
   
   

Fox Valley Debacle Proves WELS Does Have Doctrinal Discipline:They Punish Lutherans and Reward Apostate Bullies

Celebrity felon endorsements are always welcome.

I keep hearing from people who realize how corrupt the Wisconsin sect is. One layman identified Martin Spriggs copying Hybels' sermons verbatim, even down to the way they were expressed on the tapes. WELS responded by driving out this man's family and eventually making Spriggs the head of technology at The Guilt Factory.

As I proved on this blog, Limmer and Parlow also plagiarized Hybels. Yet Limmer is extolled by WELS, and Parlow is left alone. Parlow has copied the sermons of false teachers. He claims on the Changer listserve that God's Word works, so when will he try it?

Various eye-witnesses have shown that Glende and Ski have consistently plagiarized Groeschel, even using his graphics and outlines. I deal with plagiarism all the time. Is it deliberate? When people hide the evidence, it is a clear indication that they know they are cheating. I used to go to Glende's website for research. He hid the evidence. I saw some glimmerings in the bulletins posted, but I heard more was kept off the Net.

Plagiarism is deliberately using the original words of another person without attribution. The normal rule is five words in a row - that they should be in quotation marks and cited. Some also claim that key terms should be identified as belonging to another writer.

The excuse that a sermon was not 100% plagiarized is dishonest, devious, and worthy of rebuke. Nevertheless, the minions on the church council endorsed the concept. Deputy Doug Englebrecht excused plagiarism of sermons because "a lot of WELS pastors do the same thing." True, a lot of them are plagiarists (especially in Doug's benighted realm)--the Anything Goes District.

But the everyone does it fallacy is not valid. There are many deliberate murders each year. Does that make them defensible? St. Paul asked, "Should we sin more, that grace may abound? God forbid!" Englebrecht, Glende, and Ski are Antinomians. The Law is obsolete because everyone is justified before birth.

The UOJists should be oozing with grace, since they claim everyone is forgiven, but they are thuggish legalists instead. How can that be? There is a proper relationship between Law and Gospel, but they have no discernment about Biblical doctrine. They use certain words, always twisting them to make everything come out their way.

The evidence is abundant. For example, Glende has been publishing anonymous blogs for some time. He used to send comments as "Anonymouse," but I smoked him out, with some help from Lillo and others. Glende still has one of his blogs up.

I suggest that the Intrepids and their lawyer study that blog for signs of Glende's doctrine and integrity. Glende's blog shows:
1. He is a copycat. He has to use my blog name and pretend he is "the real Ichabod."
2. He has no Gospel content at all. Where are his sermons if he knows doctrine so well? Why does he condemn Yale when Uncle John Brug went there?
3. Why is he so angry and bitter? Having his buddy as his assistant and being able to fire the circuit pastor should make him happy. In a rather short time, Glende and Ski have gotten rid of:
a. Bishop Katie.
b. The assistant or associate pastor.
c. The circuit pastor.
4. Who appointed Tim Glende the judge of blogs? He decided he could edit Techlin's blog, too, and ordered him to change what was posted there.
5. Glende's record at NWC was that of a bully. When a sect glorifies their college football players, some of them get a big head.
6. Someone should tell Glende that the vicarage year is not equal to a year of higher education. A program the seminary students laugh at should not be held over the heads of the laity. Hardly anyone flunks seminary, especially at The Sausage Factory.
7. Shepherds do not beat the sheep, and yet Glende is afraid his congregation is dying. I wonder why.

Englebrecht does the quivering bowl of Jello routine quite well. I have seen the same performance in other Doctrinal Pussycats. He reserves his wrath for truthful blogging and faithful Lutherans.

Englebrecht has created a rotten district, and the entire Church and Change operation supports it. At the synod level, how long has any Changer been unemployed - five minutes? ten? What does FICL promote? Changer propaganda. The members are paying for a slick magazine that few read, so Changers can make money selling Fuller/Willow Creek doctrine to the innocent.

Gurgle said he had already dissolved Church and Change. And now he is working with Kudu Don Patterson, a Changer leader.

Continuous Snow and Bird-Feeding: Ten Inches of Snow Shutting Down Bella Vista. Snow Plows Called Back

Inside Looking Out, by Norma Boeckler

Yesterday we knew a storm was coming to our area, so we went to the Walmart in Jane, Missouri, across the line, for supplies. We bought another 25 pounds of black oil sunflower seeds and three more suet cakes, plus two bags of salt. We heard the main store in town, across from WM headquarters, was sold out of salt.

Sassy Sue and I filled the main bird feeder and refilled two suet feeders. A 92 cent suet cake lasts a month or so. The $13 bag of sunflower seed lasted several months.

We also filled the squirrel feeder and spread seed around the area near the front door. The deep chill was descending, and almost no birds stopped at the feeder the rest of the day.

We awoke to at least five inches of snow on the ground, and snowfall so dense we could not see past the yard. The birds were lined up like Packer fans who just heard season tickets were on sale. We never had so many feeding at once: about four male cardinals, three females, house finches, chickadees, sparrows, and woodpeckers. The woodpeckers always favor the suet, while chickadees will eat both foods. The bushes and sills were loaded with birds eating or waiting for some food.

A squirrel finished the corn immediately.

Suddenly all the birds flew away, not from anything I did. A blue jay sounded in the distance. I have heard of them scattering the birds from a feeder. I did not see him appear, but they have nested in that spot. The jays may have landed on the ground after they cleared the area. I have seen them picking up corn from the ground and eating it in the safety of the tree branches.

I looked at the area in front of the garage where I normally scatter some sunflower seeds. Bird tracks told me that my dependents were there, wondering about my generosity. I left a large amount before the snowfall yesterday. I thought, "If they don't come into the garage to remind me, they leave a message in the snow." So I cleared an area and gave them more.

The area around the front door was also alive with birds and a squirrel. They all feed together well. Fresh suet attracted a woodpecker there, too.

When people express astonishment at bird-feeding and watering, I share my surprise that they do not enjoy this inexpensive and edifying hobby. I spend about $2 a month on food by sticking to sunflower seeds and suet. Corn is extravagant but our grandson wanted it on the feeder again, so I was happy to indulge the tree rats. About $14 covers the winter corn supplies; after that, they are on their own. No more bail-outs.

Sassy enjoys bird feeding because it gives her a chance to charge the bushes and flush out some game. Snow has become boring to her. She wants to return to the dog park. Today even the snow plows were recalled from Little Switzerland - too dangerous for them to operate.

Bird-feeding in winter makes a difference, because they need more calories to stay warm and their normal food supplies are harder to reach. I read that our feeding is only 15% of their diet, so they depend on the Creator rather than us.

One reader buys grain and uses that. Any seed-bearing plant is also going to be enjoyed by most birds. They like bushes and the stalks of dead plants for perching while they look for food. My mother once asked, looking at the winter garden, with sunflower stalks still standing above the snow, "Why did you leave those up?" I said, "Two reasons. One is the birds love to perch there for preening and searching for food. Secondly, the plants rot into the soil and feed the worms all winter." She loved feeding the birds and photographing them, so that made sense.

We fed so many birds in Arizona that we scared a number of workmen. When they went outside, the white-winged dove population took off at once. They have a way of cheeping and noisily beating their wings. More than one man jumped back in shock at the commotion, especially when rounding the corner of the yard. The visual shock of 50 birds launching, combined with drumming wings and alarmed cheeping, did them in.

One reward was seeing them stacked up together, after a very cold night, like little toys, along the bay window. Rows and rows of them were tucked into the window ledges, several deep until the sun warmed them.

Hell, Michigan

GA Strikes Again

"I am really a Pietist dog playing an aggressive attack dog,
part of our secret GA initiation rites in WELS."

old-curmudgeon (http://old-curmudgeon.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Getting Rid of the Last Lutheran Member, St. Pete...":

This is a masterpiece of word games and mind games.

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GJ - I don't think the WELS clergy realize how much they continue to play the GA games they learn the first week of seminary, role playing, role reversal, lying, threatening.

WELS is a bullying sect, as people can see from the letters published so far.

Tim Glende was known as a bully among bullies at Northwestern College. Maybe someone should sit down, hold his hand, and tell him faults, so he knows he is already forgiven, that he was born justified, and is always forgiven (if he is Church and Change) no matter what. Un-brainwashed Lutherans can see how UOJ plays into this Antinomian attitude, which is not only evident in Glende and Ski, but also in the District Praesidium and the Synod President.

Many years later - "Be patient. We are working on it."

Declare yourselves in statu embarrassmentionis: "We are embarrassed to be in a sect where the leaders are embarrassed to be Lutherans and do everything possible to destroy Lutheran doctrine and individual souls."