Torches and Pitchforks

Bush was getting an amnesty bill ready for Congress and Arizona Senator Kyl was supposed to favor it.

I was near a congressman's office when I stopped to take an insurance exam. I walked in and said to the assistant, "If he votes for this bill, there will be pitchforks and torches brandished, and I will help lead them."

He said, "I take it that is a no for you." He smiled.

He added, "There are many more like you. This does not have a chance."

There are many ways to stop apostasy, but wishing it away does not work. Another failure is hoping for someone else to do the work.

If enough people show enough spine to speak against an error, the church politicians will cease for a moment.

About 20 years ago, the Methodist Church released the list of hymns for their new hymnal, which included "Strong Mother God." As liberal as that mainline church was, with all the defections over the years, the phone lines were so jammed that no calls could come through or go out. And that lasted for two weeks.

The LCA/ALC had a similar reaction over their hymn-list, which was going to include a free version (O Mighty God) of How Great Thou Art instead of the Billy Graham HGTA. They had 20,000 letters when 20 letters are considered a landslide. They bought the Graham version and--chuckle, chuckle--used it as a selling point when promoting the Liberal Book of Weirdness.

If large groups of people can go ballistic over a hymn list (and they should), they can also do the same when their leaders fail to maintain discipline. One WELS observer said, "The only thing heard is the sound of silence. Grand Inquisitor Englebrecht is likely heating the tongs for the Fox Valley Five."

James Asks About the ELCA Iceberg Calving the LCMC and NALC.Chips Off the Old Block

Mark Hanson was a mere local bishop when he ordained Anita Hill.
Identifying with the Lavender Mafia was a great career booster for Hanson.
Minnesota is a hotbed for ELCA apostates, not just the WELSian ones.


James has left a new comment on your post "ELCA Coming Unglued - Lutheran Papacies Do Not Las...":

Phase I of the break from the ELCA:

Of all those congregations that leave the ELCA, most are joining the LCMC and NALC. If NALC and LCMC still share the same heterodox beliefs as the ELCA (with the exception of support for homosexuality), then what has been accomplished?

Sorry, I just don't get it.


Phase II of the break from the ELCA:

Perhaps a majority of people will eventually realize that they will need to leave the LCMC or NALC ("ELCA-Lite" churches) for a confessional Lutheran church (LCMS, WELS, TAALC, etc.)

Your thoughts about NALC and LCMC, Dr. Jackson?

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GJ - They all vary as much as icebergs that calve from a glacier. The two new splits have already planned using the ELCA seminaries, just as one of the earlier splits decided to use Fuller! Oh...my...Groeschel.

I applaud the congregations and pastors leaving ELCA. But, by keeping women's ordination, all of them are continuing the same downward plunge. WELS and Missouri have women's ordination, too. They are just engaging in probing operations now, an example here and there, to reduce opposition and say, "No one objected before. We have been doing this for years."

It worked for Church Growth and a host of other inanities.

Women's ordination is not the biggest mistake--because there are so many--but it reveals an attitude toward the historic teaching of the Scriptures and Confessions. They will pick and choose, turn the time machine back a few years.

Those who see this imagine the answer is Eastern Orthodoxy or Rome, helped by their sinuflecting professors at St. Louis and Ft. Wayne.

The situation is not not hopeless, but the momentum is 99% the wrong way.

I noticed that the Lutheran Ministerium-USA held a conference where they gave about seven papers on the Means of Grace. They seem to be moving toward a serious confessional stance, but I know very little about them.

WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect have ignored countless opportunities to be synods where the Lutheran Confessions are studied and followed, doctrinal issues debated in the open. Marvin Schwan unwittingly sealed the lids on their coffins by leaving a billion bucks so they could build some shiny mausoleums in his memory. And they did!

Almost all the blogs are political, controlled and managed by factions jockeying for power or keeping the apostates in power.

The WELS pastors and laity are in a state of paralysis from the dragon's toxic stare, even though they see the characters behind him: Kelm, Gurgle, Ski, Jeske, and First VP Huebner. WELS replaced one CG VP (Wayne Mueller) with one who studied at Fuller
and mocks the efficacy of the Word.

Intrepid Lutherans: Lutheran Martyr: The story of Dr. Robert Barnes as a lesson in the realities of “Political Unity”

Intrepid Lutherans: Lutheran Martyr: The story of Dr. Robert Barnes as a lesson in the realities of “Political Unity”

Lutheran Martyr: The story of Dr. Robert Barnes as a lesson in the realities of “Political Unity”

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I happened to find myself rereading, this weekend, the opening pages of Neelak S. Tjernagel’s biography of Dr. Robert Barnes (~1495-1540), Lutheran Martyr. Dr. Barnes was an Englishman, who lived during the reign of King Henry VIII. Like Luther, Barnes was an Augustinian – though at Cambridge. Following in the footsteps of Erasmus, he left Cambridge for the continent to acquire an education at Louvain, returning in 1523 with his Doctor of Divinity. Recognized for his scholarship, his order made him Prior of his house, a position he used to introduce the classical learning he had been exposed to at Louvain. Of course, knowledge of Luther and his theology was not hidden on the Cambridge campus, but, being Roman Catholic, such theology was officially forbidden and rejected. Knowing that it was being discussed anyway, at times the University even conducted searches for heretical books or pamphlets that may have made their way from Germany. For this reason, scholars often met off campus, to study the text of the Bible and discuss theology. One place they met was the White Horse Inn. Among the group who met there was Dr. Barnes, who was the indisputable leader of that group, Thomas Cranmer, who would later become Archbishop of Canterbury, and William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale – important Bible translators and publishers – along with many others who would later be referred to as theCambridge Reformers.

More Barnes here.

***

GJ - There is "saying" and there is "doing." If the Intrepids really believe this, they will all show up at the Jeske conference (as many as possible) and also at the Englebrecht meeting later. Same issues, same people.

Jeske and Ski Flip the Bird at WELS, Again.March 10 Change N Die Conference Unchanged.Intrepids Silent

The WELS Conference of Pussycats met, specifically over the Jeske-Ski pan-demon conference.

Nothing has changed.

The synod that will accept Groeschel-plagiarism as a good thing will also endorse, by their silence, the Change N Die conference.

Ski and Jeske are just being open about their unionism. WELS leaders pose as Lutherans but they are monetarians. Money talks, doctrine walks.

The only honest minister at Change N Die is the ELCA pastor. ELCA does exactly what it says. They voted on homosexual and lesbian ministers, then welcomed them back in while kicking out the straights. ELCA loves unionism, and they practice it with gleeful abandon. They have doctrinal agreement with the United Church of Christ. "You don't believe anything? Neither do we! Let's commune together."

WELS/LCMS are against unionism but practice it with ELCA and everyone else.

WELS is against the homosexuality of ELCA, but posted a homosexual themed video made by future ministers at the College of Ministry, the maladroitly named Martin Luther College. The video was yanked for a short time, then posted back on YouTube and also on Facebook.

And you thought Gurgle was weak?

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norcal763 has left a new comment on your post "Secret WELS Plans for 2017 Revealed:Apology to the...":

"In order to reach a...budget of $38 million....PLANS WILL BE PUT IN MOTION (relying)solely on the grace of God..."(oxyMORON)..."PLANS WILL OFFER SPECIFICS ON HOW TO DO THAT.." (solely on the grace of God)oxyMORON! ..."POINTEDLY DIRECTING ALL TO THE 'WHY'...PERCENTAGE OF INCOME OFFERRED...(solely on the grace of God)-oxyMORON!

Now WELS is going to "pointedly direct" the faithful in how to be joyful while we shake 'em down, using the cross and the empty tomb-the most sacred living symbols in Scripture. Every WELS member should ask this self-invited intruder if the Synod will use these generous gifts in a manner worthy of the cross and the empty tomb. But, hey, an every-member visit! Dr. Jackson says pastors should do more visitations! And who says nobody reads Ichabod?

And to celebrate 500 years with no indulgences, Synod can indulge in more offerings! I mean, who started the Reformation anyway? And instead of praying for the dead, through estate planning the dead can be "joyful stewards" too.

This is even bigger than the Jubilee Bailout! In these days of rising unemployment, hyperinflation, and the possible collapse of the dollar, it's reassuring to know that WELS is just too big to fail.
Jim Becker

Ken Howes Defended UOJ in Christian News, 3-7-2011, Page 15

The talking points are the same, along with "I don't see that" and a few other refusals to engage the arguments against UOJ.

Here is a datum no one can dispute: The Missouri catechism taught justification by faith alone, decades before F. Pieper got UOJ into the Brief Statement of 1932. Before that, various brief statements did not mention UOJ. Sasse was concerned that the 1932 statement would supplant the Confessions, and it certainly has. Americans prefer junk food to the real thing.

Another datum is difficult for WELS to face. Their favorite catechism, perhaps their only one for years, was the Gausewitz. No UOJ can be found there. But there it is in the dreadful, expensive Kuske catchism.

UOJ did not appear until the unassailable Halle University, center of Pietism, taught it in the lectures of Georg Christian Knapp. The double-justification scheme of the Olde Syn Conference follows the Knapp wording, which was in print before C. F. W. landed in the Big Easy.

LCMS/WELS and the NIV
I may post more on Biblical translations soon. A WELS pastor admitted that all their precious books will be obsolete soon because the NIV will de-rez in 2012. They are not allowed to print their old false doctrine with the old NIV. Ditto Missouri. And get this, sports fans. The new, new NIV is loaded with feminist language, which is the reason for finding another bad translation. Who changed the hymnal while focusing on putting feminist language into it? Yes - WELS, as Victor Prange admitted. What the LCA/ALC did first (though not so stupidly), and WELS did next (really bad), the NIV will do decades later. So ban them! The logic is so Syn Conference.

Watch WELS and Paul McCain agree on another pea-brained Living Bible type version. It will not have "King James" in its title, although there are about six to choose from, including the very conservative KJV 21.

Once they finish agonizing over this, they will get to print new versions of everything and all the old books will be obsolete.

My translation - a publishing goldmine.

All my books are and will remain KJV.

The Miracle of the Pancakes

Shrove Tuesday pancakes are a doctrinal issue in the CLC (sic).
Kurtzahn, WELS-CLC-WELS, can help with this sticky subject.

Shrove Tuesday is a harmless way to use up the fat before Lent, not unlike the Jewish practice of using up leaven. "Shrove" comes from the practice of writing down one's confession of sins, the term being a corruption of the German word for write.

In the tiny, aging Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic), Circuit Pope Steve Kurtzahn managed to make pancakes sound felonious, a common problem with legalists. They invent their own commandments while ignoring the Ten Commandments. Thus a known adulterous, incestuous layman can destroy his family and be taken with utmost seriousness by the CLC (sic) clergy.

As the WELS Church Lady says, it is wise to stay away from them. In fact, Kurtzahn promoted himself back into the WELS after wrecking a number of CLC (sic) congregations.

Kurtzahn is now a regular on LutherQuest (sic), where the participants oscillate between truculent ignorance and psychosis.

Various Minor Items

I was happy to receive a bonus from one of the universities, making it two out of two in a few months. The previous one was for being in the upper percentile of their instructors, according to HAL, their never-sleeping statistics gathering computer. The new one is for scholarship and other activities. I thought, "This is good." They delay actual payment for one year, pending another year of work. That is even better, because they are trying to hang onto senior instructors.

Most of my teaching is in religion now, for various reasons. One school is limiting instructors to master's/PhD in the teaching area, so that limits me to religion and the graduate school in education. The other school has a large religious instruction program, so I have taught about 15 different classes, but mostly Biblical classes. No one has condemned me for teaching Lutheran doctrine, so you can rest assured they are not owned by WELS, Missouri, or the Little Sect on the Prairie. In fact, the students love having quotations from Luther, Gerhardt, and other orthodox Lutheran writers.

Additional trial copies of Luther versus the UOJ Pietists: Justification by Faith are being sent out. Gifts to send more out are always welcome. I can mail a copy for $12, direct from Lulu.com. We should have a larger order ready for the May Trifecta, when the ELS, WELS, and LCMS get together (without ELCA, for once).

Kudos Needed for Justification
I could use back of the book comments for Justification, to replace the mega-photo of me. You may make them anonymously, which will make them more interesting. I doubt whether any seminary professor is going to endorse justification by faith.

More research will be revealed in a future edition.

Ash Wednesday and Mid-Week Service Schedule

By Norma Boeckler

Our Ash Wednesday service will be at 7 PM Central.

The remaining mid-week services will be at the same time.

We have FDR's Daylight Savings in Arkansas, so we will shift with the country on March 13th. Arizona did not, so that always caused consternation and confusion.

Secret WELS Plans for 2017 Revealed:Apology to the Pope Delayed Until 2030

http://www.wels.net/sites/wels/files/long-range-plan.pdf