Hymn Video from Necessary Roughness

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GJ - WELS members may not watch this or sing along. CLC (sic) members may, as long as they deny they were watching it. They can say, for example, "I just wanted to find out what Satan was up to."

ELS members may hum along, because their canon lawyers have determined that humming is not the same as singing.

Promoting Sanity - Another Feature of Ichabod

LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Henry Eyster Jacobs Explains the Word of God Trump...":

These kind of posts keep me sane...

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GJ - I was thinking of several laity at once, not to mention some pastors. A scholar is not someone with a lot of degrees. The word scholar comes from the Greek term for leisure.

A true scholar uses his spare time to pursue learning. Many PhDs are not scholars. They rest on their diplomas and never do any original research. Most MDivs avoid scholarship, because learning creates turmoil and the cross. Nevertheless, some pastors are genuine scholars, and some help with this blog.

The Lutheran sects devote most of their energy to controlling people and parishes, keeping up appearances. They want their pastors and laity to be robotic cows that can be milked and finally slaughtered when convenient.

The synod suck-ups shun me, so they save me the time and energy involved in shunning them. Their behavior is udderly predictable (see above paragraph). No wonder they listen with awe and wonder to Dr. Moo excusing the NNIV porno-feminist Bible.

If a pastor or layman questions the latest idiocy of the sect (such as the NNIV), the individual is bullied and ridiculed if flattery does not work. Principled objection is countered with excommunication. In WELS, it begins with secret probation, when all comments and associations are scrutinized and recorded. Next is double secret probation, when friends stop talking or act surprised that said iconoclast is still breathing or showing up at church events. The last step is expulsion, accompanied by abuse of all family members and friends.

The Wisconsin sect and ELCA also punish congregations for opposing them in any way.

"Now he is on double secret probation."

Richard Gurgle Proves My Assertion

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Henry Eyster Jacobs Explains the Word of God Trump...":

"They teach their boys to worship Holy Mother Synod. No matter which sect they belong to, theirs is the best, the greatest, and the most perfect. The others are pitiful, even though they are remarkably similar in abusing people and teaching false doctrine."

Obtained a copy of the spring 2011 WELS Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, a publication of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Can you feel the love from reviewer Richard Gurgel of the LCMS' revision of Walther's Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible?

"...this reviewer had one concern. Especially in the front matter (biography of Walther, etc.), it is his impression that there was a strong reticence to say anything that would reflect poorly on Walther.... this reader was at times uneasy by what he felt bordered on the worship of men.... Along with the tendency to place Walther on a pedestal, at times in both front matter and elsewhere, this reviewer detected a related spirit of boasting about Lutheran orthodoxy. Those reading this book from other denominations might get the impression that the Lutheran church's nose is up in the air..."

So, this is "Holy Mother Synod worship" on both sides. On WELS' side with Gurgel's condescending comments re Walther and "Lutheran orthodoxy," and on the other side, if Gurgel's critique is correct.

Can the WLQ ever review something from the LCMS without some kind of "yeah, but" in it?

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GJ - No, they cannot avoid the "yeah, but," which they probably consider polite. The normal anecdote has all Missouri pastors as idiots. One theme is Missouri giving up their preps (just as WELS is doing now). Another theme is Missouri going easy on the Biblical languages (which WELS began with the Mary Lou College takeover of NWC).

WLQ has led WELS into the adoration of the Church Growth Movement. Wendland and Valleskey began the dishonest betrayal of Lutheran doctrine. Panning helped with his "the jury is still out" comment. That is simply too funny, given that the LCMS and WELS leadership studied together at Fuller Seminary.

Paul McCain says no one should believe Walther kidnapped children because the descendant of Bishop Stephan is a lesbian. All Cretans and synod suck-ups are liars, but orientation is not definitive proof of dishonesty. Either it happened or it did not happen.

Likewise, Stephan was known for being caught with women in the middle of the night, long before he led his pilgrims to Perry County. That could get a man shot in modern St. Louis. Back then it was especially notorious. Yet Walther swore life-long allegiance to Bishop Stephan - before being shocked to learn the man was a serial womanizer. Suddenly, Walther the disciple drove out Bishop Stephan.

Henry Eyster Jacobs Explains the Word of God Trumping a Seminary Degree

"Holy Scripture carries with it its own evidence of its divine source and authority. While the historical evidence of its claims is to be gratefully cherished, and affords the proof of highest probability, Holy Scripture speaks with absolute certainty to those to whom it portrays the deepest secrets of their hearts, and whose felt wants it completely supplies. The inner testimony of the Spirit is the strongest and most convincing of all arguments. The fact that this is always at hand and universally applicable, raises it above all arguments that depend upon the researches of the learned. Here is an argument that the humblest and most unlettered apprehend with no less force than the profoundest of scholars."
Henry Eyster Jacobs, The Elements of Religion, Decatur: Repristination Press, 1997, p. 28.

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GJ - This quotation explains why so many laity run circles around the clergy in Biblical knowledge and understanding. The clergy--especially the mediocre students--like to claim an MDiv as proof that they know more. Here Jacobs shows why the the power lies in the Word and not in the sheepskin.

An abusive priest-sect like WELS is always eager to bully the laity into submission, based on their descent from Mount Sausage Factory and their official positions in one of the fastest dying cults in the Western hemisphere. The CLC (sic) is racing it to the bottom.

I feel real sorrow for people like the attorney from St. Peter, Freedom. He knows the truth from the Word of God, but he is ordered to play by a set of rules that do not apply to the clergy, the Circuit Pastor or the Doctrinal Pussycat. The SP is working on it - give him another 30 years or so.

Here is the great shame of the Syn Conference seminaries. They teach their boys to worship Holy Mother Synod. No matter which sect they belong to, theirs is the best, the greatest, and the most perfect. The others are pitiful, even though they are remarkably similar in abusing people and teaching false doctrine.

The LCA had the same triumphalistic attitude. They took their superiority right into a black hole of rapid decline on all fronts.

When laity try to get the clergy to deal with justification by faith, they are ridiculed and intimidated. Luther explained this well - the apostles were not spared, nor was the Son of God. The cross is painful because it is the cross, not a temporary annoyance.

The cross is God's gracious plan, to purify our faith, to deepen our trust in His Word - not in human institutions. In Luther's day, the Catholic Church was the only Christian entity. The pope had spiritual and earthly power over his subjects. Clinging to the Word meant abandoning all the securities and verities of life. It is better today in many ways, but the feeling of jumping off the cliff is similar.

Those who trust in human institutions quickly adapt to the fad of the day, from Bible translations to various movements. They juggled the Word of God and impress themselves with their clever arguments, fed to them via the official synod talking points.

In contrast, those who place the Word of God above all will resist the fads and movements of the moment. They are taught by the Holy Spirit in the Word, not by wolves beating them with sheepskins.