Luther - Infant Baptism

"I still maintain, as I have maintained in the Postil (SL 11, 496f.) that the surest Baptism is infant Baptism. For an old person may deceive, may come to Christ as a Judas and permit himself to be baptized. But a child cannot deceive. It comes to Christ in Baptism as John came to Him and as the little children were brought to Him, that His Word and work may come over them, touch them, and thus make them holy. For His Word and work cannot pass by without effect; and in Baptism they are directed at the child alone. If they were to fail of success here, they would have to be entire failures and useless means, which is impossible."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. 50. Letter to two ministers, 1528.

Chemnitz - On Holy Communion

"The body of Christ is to the sick a medicine, to pilgrims a way; it strengthens the weak, delights the strong, heals weariness, preserves health. Through it man becomes more gentle under reproof, more patient under labor, more ardent for love, wiser for caution, more ready to obey, more devoted to giving of thanks."
Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986, II, p. 234.

Luther - On Baptism and Faith

"How beautifully the apostle in these strong words extols the grace of God bestowed in baptism! He refers to baptism as a washing, whereby not our feet only, not our hands, but our whole bodies are cleansed. Baptism perfectly and instantaneously cleanses and saves. For the vital part of salvation and its inheritance, nothing more is necessary than this faith in the grace of God. Truly, then, are we saved by grace alone, without works or other merit."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 154. Early Christmas Morning. Titus 3:5.

His Mother's ELCA Congregation Could Not Get a Straight Interim Pastor

ALPB Forum

I do know that earlier this year when it came to appointing an Interim Pastor in my mother's congregation, each of pastors suggested by the Synod for the congregation's consideration is gay and partnered -- although one of them (who supplied, but was not chosen as interim) wasn't identified as such until he was ordained last month.

Throwing Gausewitz Under the Bus:UOJ Reveals Its Ugly Fruit

When WELS taught the Gospel, justification by faith, through the Gausewitz catechism, the fruit of the Spirit was evident.

Outsiders find this as bizarre as I do - the UOJ fanatics are nasty, devious, and dishonest. Their coven is located at LutherQueasy, where they have often bragged about how obnoxious they are.

They have no sense of humor. When I called them SpenerQuest, I was rebuked and told the name of the discussion board was "Lutherquest."

When I proved how deceptive they were, the participants covered up the evidence with tons of posts.

When some friends of mine produced a blizzard of posts opposing their methods, they had the vapors and installed a check-in system.

UOJ wants to be full of grace and the Gospel, so they say everyone is born already justified. The essence of UOJ is universal absolution, however it may be expressed. They declare every single person forgiven of sin, without and before the Gospel Word, without the Means of Grace, and (most of all) without faith.

The UOJ Stormtroopers mock justification by faith by calling traditional Lutherans "faithians." They declare, with great pomp and ignorance, "Your faith is in faith, not in the Gospel." Or, "You regard faith as a work, as a virtue in man, as merit." These Stormtroopers have more straw men than a collection of Oz books.

UOJ has been the dogma behind Church Growth in WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie. The misbegotten CLC (sic) loves UOJ and CG too.

WELS and Missouri work so well with ELCA because they share the same dogma. ELCA calls it all grace. The Syn Conference calls it God's universal verdict of forgiveness. Neither side bothers with Biblical exegesis, which contradicts their propaganda.

But - do not get in the way of their all grace or universal verdict of forgiveness. They will make you feel like Gausewitz, as you feel the bus tires run over your face.

So much Gospel in the Big Four (I am flattering the Little Sect) should yield fantastic results over time. The Big Four combined UOJ with the Church Growth Movement, which should be like Miracle Gro.

Even with excessive pump priming from Thrivent, the foundations, and rich adulterers, the Big Four are broke, shrinking, and polarized. Their clergy are largely ignorant of the Scriptures and the Confessions.

The pastors do not visit their own members! They visit the gym instead.

UOJ is not the Pearl of Great Price. UOJ is not the Gospel. Knapp's message is the anti-Gospel, the heart of mainline Protestant apostasy, the lazy man's Gospel, as Medium Rare wrote.

"No DWIs in my district. Not on my watch."

One Eponymous Archon Apologizes for WELS and Missouri

One Eponymous Archon (https://me.yahoo.com/oneeponymousarchon) has left a new comment on your post "Comments from 29a, Who Is So Secretive That He Doe...":

Dear Dr. Jackson, and in this case your dear wife also -

On behalf of all WELS members, and LCMS members, I wish to apologize for the totally unwarranted, mean-spirited, and loathsome attack upon you, using the nasty tactic of your children, now assuredly in heaven, by grace, through faith. This was lower than low. Rev. McCain should hang his head in complete shame.

I am no longer a member of either church body, though I was for many years, first in Missouri, then in Wisconsin. Here in CA, there are very few true Lutherans left. Still, I feel humiliated by McCain's feeble attempt to discredit you. What has American Lutheranism come to that such a man holds a position of responsibility? Truly sad and disgusting. But then again, I'm only -

One Eponymous Archon

***

GJ - That is very kind of you, OEA.

I feature McCain's eructations because synod officials treat everyone that way, if they feel the urge. They get away with it because they do it on the sly and hide their tracks. One LCMS District Pope screamed at one of his pastors for fighting against a known child molester going back into the ministry. The DP slammed his briefcase on the pastor's desk to make his point. On the way out of the pastor's office, he stopped a member of the congregation and said, "Your pastor is one of the finest men we have."

How is that for crazy-making behavior, for unethical and anti-Christian thuggery?

I could repeat many stories like that, pastors who have phoned me for hours trying to get past the way they have been treated. And the wives and children? No one wants to repeat things out in the open, because it opens old wounds.

I am happy that I can work independently and provide a safe forum where people can express themselves.

Why Did They Kick This Charmer Off the ALPB Discussion Forum?

I'm too sexy for my tie, too sexy for my tie, too sexy.

Paul T. McCain (Ptmccain) Member Username: Ptmccain Post Number: 104 Registered: 4-2009

Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2011 - 8:31 pm:    Unfortunately, Tim, Jackson is entirely responsible for any scrutiny or comments his actions merit. I do not believe him, for a second, that the name Bethany was not chosen quite purposefully for his fake church. Further, the fact that he is so agitated about any criticism, just goes to show how insecure he is and how desperately he wants attention. Like I've said before, Jackson had never had a good, solid Lutheran theological education and hence he has no solid grounding in the doctrine he claims to defend. He is a great example of how a person can hold to the inerrancy of the Bible but get its central message wrong. I'm amused that he has nothing but lies to fall back on. I vividly recall the day he called my office in St. Louis and sounded quite desperate to meet with me, not telling me what it was about. He showed up and I was expecting him to ask me about getting some help theologically. This was just about twenty years ago, mind you. I think he had been booted out of the WELS, or maybe it was before he went to the WELS, but at any rate, what did he show to up to talk about? Life insurance. He wanted to peddle Northwestern Life Insurance to me. Sad and pathetic.

***

GJ - Paul T. McCain is a needy nerd. Anyone who wastes his time posting on LutherQueasy is saying, "I'm a loser, but at least not as bad as my fellow losers."

I began using the ALPB Discussion Forum for the latest Lutheran news. As readers can tell, that is my source for the exits from ELCA and a few other items. I was struck by the thousands of posts from Paul T. McCain (Pope Paul the Unlearned). He seemed to have many posts on each thread.

Secondly, I was impressed by how often he picked fights with people, demanding answers to suit his contentious mood. The ALPB forum is quite polite overall. A few get touchy here and there. McCain was a stand-out performer, a drama queen. Everyone got tired of his rude and puerile behavior, so they gave him a time-out.

There is even a thread for reducing his time-out penalty. That went on for a long time.

He disappeared, then re-appeared as Amsdorf.

Finally he was kicked out for good, from what I can see. His hoof-prints all over the ALPB Forum, so anyone can check it out as a lurker. Here is the link. You can even search on his name and on Amsdorf.

The McCain-Barry-Otten administration prepared the way for Kieschnick, who really drove the stake into Missouri. However, good ol' Jerry would not have been elected without the 9 years of preparation wrought by McCain and Barry. They followed the familiar pattern of using people and throwing them away, demanding loyalty from the conservatives they abused while kissing up to the Left.

I realize most people would not read LQ unless I mentioned it. As LI said, "When does LQ ever come up among Lutherans? Does anyone care?"

But their tantrums are good for readership here, so I am obliged to return the favor. I reckon that people benefit from coming over to read about UOJ, pancake legalism, and Blank verse.

Drama queen

Stan Hauerwas Was Disgusted by the Willow Creek CG Takeover of His Methodist Congregation. CG Encouraged by the Denominational Leaders

My ethics professor and dissertation advisor, Stan Hauerwas, wrote Hannah's Child, A Theologian's Memoir.

Stan Hauerwas is not a Lutheran and does not understand Lutheran doctrine, as witnessed by his memoir. He grew up Methodist, attended Catholic mass at Notre Dame, where he communed, and married a Methodist minister after his first wife died. However, he is the most theological of the modern theologians.

His response to Church Growth in Methodism is instructive. He and his wife loved the previous woman minister, Susan, at their Methodist church at Duke, Aldersgate, an almost Lutheran name. Susan retired due to Altzheimer's Disease.

The new minister, Paula, was fresh from Duke Divinity School. She was a drama major in college.

"The outreach and pastor-staff committees were called together to hear her plan for the future. She had been to a church-growth seminar. She told us she knew how to make the church grow.. First, we needed two services. We woudl have a contemporary service at nine and a more traditional service at eleven. Second, we would have a phone-a-thon, during which we would call 20,000 people at random. That would ensure that the church would attract two hundred new members. Sociologists had confirmed such a result." (p. 258)

"Most new people would be attracted to the church because of the activities and pastoral services the church could provide, not because of a sense of belonging to a community." (p. 258) [GJ - Kelm's "felt needs?"]

Stan went on to say:

"I was stunned by her plan for the church. I said little at the meeting, other than blurting out 'over my dead body' when she said that she was going to lead a delegation of our members to Willow Creek Church in Chicago to see how a church that utilized these methods works. The pastor at Willow Creek is said to have once declared that there is no cross in the church because 'it gets in the way of the gospel.' I could not believe this was happening. Everything I detested about mainline Protestantism in both its liberal and conservative modes had come to roost in the church I loved." (p. 258f.)

The proper thing to do is meet with the person, and Stan did that. To put this in Lutheran terms, this was like Robert Preus making an appointment to see the new pastor. Hauerwas is world-famous among the mainline denominations, the Catholics, and the medical ethicists.

"I waited a few days and made an appointment with the pastor. I told her that what she was proposing was against everything I was about. She accused me of being against evangelization. Surely I wanted to bring people to Jesus. I hate that kind of pious language. But I told her the problem was not that she wanted to bring people to Jesus, but that she wanted to do so with means shaped by economic modes of life incompatible with the gospel. She asked me how I could be so critical of what she was trying to do. She had, after all, graduated from Duke Divinity School. I told her that I found it profoundly embarrassing that she was a graduate of Duke Divinity School. What in the world were we doing to produce people who did not seem to have a theological clue about what they were ordained to do?" (p. 259)

***

GJ - Does this sound familiar, WELSians? Missourians? Little Sect on the Prairians?

1. The denomination decided the parish should be bigger.
2. The brand-new pastor knew that the right methods would produce the desired results.
3. This Phone's For You, widely used by WELS, was proposed as the way to gain 200 new members at once.
4. The pastor would take a bunch to Willow Creek, just as Don Patterson took a bunch to Exponential. WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect also sent their leaders to Fuller, Willow Creek, and heaven-only-knows.
5. Opposing this is the same as being against evangelism.
6. Meeting with a Shrinker is like meeting with a terrorist, except you can negotiate with a terrorist.

Stan summarized WELS in Columbus in the 1980s, although he would have been appalled that DP Mueller and VP Kuske had a notorious ex-pastor, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, take charge of the effort.

Moreover, the Fuller/Willow Creek false teachers of WELS had themselves promoted to ever-higher levels of leadership, one man scratching the other man's back.

But this happened only because the laity and pastors did nothing, said nothing, and went along with the racket. Stan and his wife openly opposed all these moves and told the minister why. Mrs. Hauerwas would not participate in turning Holy Week worship into chancel drama. The couple left the congregation when discussions failed. Stan wrote about it too, rather than keeping quiet to be the company man.

Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect have thrown away their Lutheran heritage while boasting about their greatness.

More Enthusiasm

CEF Grants

The Board for Home Missions (BHM) Executive Committee has selected six mission congregations from a list of 20 requests to receive part of a $1 million grant to help with purchasing land or constructing a worship facility. The BHM received this one-time grant from the WELS Church Extension Fund in February.

The congregations include Peace in Jesus Vietnamese, Boise, Idaho; Spirit of Life, Caledonia, Mich.; Christ, Denver, Colo.; Amazing Love, New Lenox, Ill.; and Trinity, Woodbridge, Va. All these congregations currently worship in either a storefront or a rented facility.

“This gift helps these churches get to a point in their ministry more quickly than if they had to raise all the funds themselves,” says Rev. Keith Free, BHM administrator.

The recently approved mission in Moncks Corner, S.C., will receive assistance with the purchase of land and payments on the construction of a worship facility.  “Moncks Corner is a mission church that will have land and a worship facility much sooner than the typical mission,” Free says. “While we know only the Holy Spirit builds the Church, we give thanks this new mission will have the opportunity almost from the get go to share the name of Jesus Christ from its own church rather than from a storefront.”

For more information on how you can be a part of the ministry of WELS Church Extension Fund, go to its Web site: www.cef.wels.net.

***

GJ - I always smell a skunk when a WELSian starts with "while we know...." That is a good indication that the opposite thought will be expressed. Free is sufficiently ambiguous to keep us from discerning what he really meant.

It would be Biblical, Lutheran, and confessional to say, "Only the Word builds the church." I do not think there is room to say that the Word is enhanced by money and a building from the get-go.

WELS has been baptizing the Church Growth Movement for 34+ years by adding "through the Holy Spirit" or "the Holy Spirit in the Word." The main emphasis is the core thought, which is - "These congregations will grow faster by having buildings."

Given the brick and mortar spree funded by Schwan, the ELS and WELS should be bursting with new members at this point. In fact, the multiple-millions spent on congregational buildings, urged by Church and Change, pimped by Cornerstone, should have done the same for those parishes. In fact, they are choking on their debt.

Comments from 29a, Who Is So Secretive That He Does Even Use a Name

These guys attacking your daughter are sickos. These guys cannot, if you will, justify UOJ so they go after these girls. How low can they go. Remember they ask the pope or emperor if he wanted to dig up Luther's body and one of these guys said his fight was with the living not the dead.

Tell Mrs. Ichabod I do not have an answer for her as to why they are doing this other than to say my mother always said people like these would someday answer for their actions.

You both carry a heavy cross for standing up for word. I sometimes wonder how you do it but you show me and many others what true confessional or orthodox Lutheranism is all about.

29a

***

GJ - Mrs. Ichabod said, "Those UOJ people have the same confession of faith as the atheists and Unitarians - there is no Hell."

Not only is their behavior appalling, but their fellow bloggers have no problem with what they say.

More Exits from ELCA.Insights about Synodical Bullying

Synod road-kill in ELCA looks like synod road-kill in the Wisconsin Sect.


ALPB Forum

Back to the thread topic, which is not "All Charles All the Time!"

From David Barnhart's blog:

4. Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, Concord, NC passed second vote to leave the ELCA and afffiliate with the NALC 113-50.
5. St. Mark Lutheran Church, Cherryville, NC failed to pass first vote to leave the ELCA, 39-31.
6. Peace Lutheran Church, St. Joseph, MI passed second vote to leave the ELCA, 105-4 and voted unanimously.
7. Samhold Lutheran Church,Gonvick, MN, voted June 5 to join NALC. They had previously passed second vote to leave the ELCA.
8. Pleasant Union Lutheran Church, Kittanning (Rural Valley) PA passed second vote to leave the ELCA and join NALC, 26-0.

Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Rob Buechler

The figure is 200 ELCA congregations willing and wanting to call such persons as their pastors.  Such was reported by Bishop Ullestad (NE Iowa) at a congregational consultation; he had asked Bp. Rimbo of MNYS “How many congregations in the ELCA will call a pastor in a publicly accountable lifelong monogamous same-gendered relationship?”  Bp Rimbo said “I’ll get back to you.”  After he had checked with others, he got back to Bishop Ullestad and told him: “About 200.”  [The upshot to that story is that when Bp Ullestad shared this with  the two congregations he was jointly consulting, he seemed to think that this would calm the waters, underscoring his point that “this won’t affect your congregations”; the general response was “for 200 congregations the ELCA has inflicted this conflict on itself—while losing over 500 congregations already and many more that will be leaving.”  ]

Ken Kimball

Someone picked a nit, and missed the point. There is an almost total lack of respect or concern among the revisionists of the ELCA and an unwillingness to listen to the theological objections of the traditionalists. When it comes to respecting our beliefs, the revisionists show us none. However, the revisionists do respect our "feelings". They respect them by saying, "We share your burdens". They respect them by saying, "We respect your bound conscience". The problem is that we traditionalists demand that our deeply held beliefs be respected, and instead, all that the revisionists offer is some vague sort of lip-service "respect" for our feelings. 


George Erdner

In Loving Kindness, We Extend the Left Boot of Fellowship

Monday, June 6, 2011

Excommunication - An Open Letter to the Members of Holy Word Lutheran Church

Dear Members of Holy Word,

As Lutherans, we believe that the Holy Spirit is never separated from the Word or the Means of Grace.  It is mentioned throughout Scripture and in the Lutheran Confessions in the explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles Creed.  Note that the forgiveness of sins is here and not in the Second Article; it is a work of the Holy Spirit:

"I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true."

As Lutherans we also believe this statement to be true and the hallmark of our faith:

"The sinner is justified by grace for Christ’s sake through faith."

You can not separate that sentence in any way shape or form or you end up teaching falsely.

And this from The Apology IV, 57; it talks of the object of our justification and the remission of sins through faith alone:

"57] And throughout the prophets and the psalms this worship, this latreiva, is highly praised, although the Law does not teach the gratuitous remission of sins. But the Fathers knew the promise concerning Christ, that God for Christ's sake wished to remit sins. Therefore, since they understood that Christ would be the price for our sins, they knew that our works are not a price for so great a matter [could not pay so great a debt]. Accordingly, they received gratuitous mercy and remission of sins by faith, just as the saints in the New Testament.

More on justification hence forgiveness through faith alone.  Apology XII, 53 &54:

53] For the two chief works of God in men are these, to terrify, and to justify and quicken those who have been terrified. Into these two works all Scripture has been distributed. The one part is the Law, which shows, reproves, and condemns sins. The other part is the Gospel, i.e., the promise of grace bestowed in Christ, and this promise is constantly repeated in the whole of Scripture, first having been delivered to Adam [I will put enmity, etc., Gen. 3:15, afterwards to the patriarchs; then, still more clearly proclaimed by the prophets; lastly, preached and set forth among the Jews by Christ, and disseminated over the entire world by the apostles. 54] For all the saints were justified by faith in this promise, and not by their own attrition or contrition.

Nowhere in Scripture or the Confessions does it say that the forgiveness of sins/justification is imputed to anyone before they were born as Pastor Patterson preaches and teaches.  The work of the Holy Spirit is working faith and the forgiveness of sins.   We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  (Rom 10:17)  If we are not yet born, how do we hear it?

Since you are entrusting your spiritual welfare to the leadership at Holy Word, you are culpable to their actions on your behalf.  I have stood on Biblical truth and the Book of Concord, your profession of faith.

This from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod website concerning excommunication:

"Congregations must excommunicate members who have sinned and refuse to repent even though their fellow Christians have warned them according to the steps described in Matthew 18:15-18. An excommunicated person cannot attend the Lord's Supper or exercise any rights of membership in the congregation.

A member can be excommunicated only if his (or her) action is clearly against God's law, if it is proven that he is guilty of sin, and if he has refused warnings to repent. Scripture says an impenitent person has no forgiveness of sins. Excommunication, therefore, does not simply exclude an individual from membership in the congregation, but declares that the offender has excluded himself from eternal life since no impenitent person has forgiveness of sins and no unforgiven person can enter heaven.

The congregation excommunicates a person in the hope that this drastic step will lead the sinner to come to his senses and repent. The excommunicated person will then be welcomed back to the congregation.

Excommunication, therefore, is an act of love for sinners, aimed at saving them from the eternal consequences of impenitence.

When the case has not yet proceeded to the point of excommunication, a pastor who knows that a person is impenitent should warn him or her not to come to communion, since it offers forgiveness only to the repentant. Those who come without repentance bring harm upon themselves by misuse of the sacrament. Exclusion from the Lord's Supper has the same evangelical purpose as excommunication: to bring the sinner to repentance. The pastor can take such action only if the guilt and impenitence of the person are clearly established but the congregation has not yet had an opportunity to act on the case."

Where have we broken God's Law?

We pray you realize the graveness in all of this.

In His Grace,
Joe and Lisa

Can LutherQueasy Be Read As Pure Comedy?Sure!

Considerable thought goes into each LutherQueasy post.
Spelling and grammar do not count.

Timothy Blank (Timothyblank) Intermediate Member Username: Timothyblank Post Number: 428 Registered: 11-2004

Posted on Tuesday, June 07, 2011 - 12:58 am:    Mike, Indeed, I too hope he realizes his error. Jackson is a very intelligent man with so much potential for good, but he refuses (sic) read Scripture, Luther, the Confessions, and our Lutheran fathers in their clear testimony concerning Christ's objective work on the cross. Pastor McCain, I have agreed with the substance of what you have said, but I think you would be well to refrain from making mention of Jackson's deceased daughter. Whatever the reason for his naming his internet congregation "Bethany," I think we must stick to calling him out for his doctrinal deviations.

***

GJ - Since Thy Strong Word is available free on Lulu.com, Blank has no excuse for his silliness.

TSW is the only book where all the UOJ quotations are gathered together, as well as the clear refutations of that Pietistic pratfall. Studying both sides of the issues, plus the Biblical texts in Hebrew and Greek - that is called research.

This is top secret--shhh--a Preus is using TSW in his effort to prove UOJ is in the Book of Concord. Why would a Preus use my book? Because no one else has spent years gathering everything into a database and printing it so conveniently - with all the citation material.

I think I had 1500 quotations, so many that I had to number them as I used them, to keep from repeating myself.

I published Blank's odious essay, because I am not afraid of doctrinal error brought out into the open.

The UOJ Stormtroopers argue their side of the issue, with their talking points endlessly repeated, never dealing with the material that obliterates their fantasies.

Notice how they present opposition to their error? They put everything into quotation marks. Robert Preus' repudiation of UOJ is clear in Justification and Rome, so they put repudiation in quotation marks without supporting their contention.

I like calling attention to LQ fulminations, because laity have to deal with similar efforts in various synods. See Joe Krohn's experience. He raised some issues and found himself excommunicated by the District VP, Don Patterson, a man groomed for years to be the District Doctrinal Pussycat.

Notice the content of Blank's advice. "Whatever the reason" suggests that my own description of the naming of Bethany Lutheran Church may be questionable. McCain was not there and he clearly lied, then called his version "sick."

McCain is the one who lied about his associations with Herman Otten. He denied up and down that he covertly sent Otten the materials from Barry, so they would appear like magic in Christian News the moment they came out in Iowa. Otten has the correspondence between Pope Paul the Unlearned and his tabloid. Perhaps it is time to examine what was said and when.

As I wrote before, Otten bragged to me that McCain was working secretly with him. McCain boasted to me that he was working secretly with Otten. When McCain got his reward, a high-paying job under Barry, he told me to keep it a secret from Otten. When Otten told me about McCain's job, I said, "I know. He told me. And he told me not to tell you."

Otten actually thought he had an ally working for him at the Purple Palace. I wonder what lies were told him to make him think that.

Missing too from McCain's oh-so-informative posts are such facts as this:
1. He wrote me from his Iowa parish, praising my articles in Christian News.
2. He asked me to review the Marquart book on the Church. When my review appeared in Christian News, which is what McCain wanted. the book sold like hotcakes.
3. McCain also agreed to review my book, Liberalism, which he praised. The review was in Christian News.
4. McCain invited me to visit at the Purple Palace. I believe we also had a lunch together. I brought up insurance once, and he claimed to have $1 million in coverage already. That was the end of discussing the matter. He lied (surprise!) about that too. But why not? He lied to Otten, lied about Otten, and blew a fuse when I said Barry was soft on CG.

My Wife Wonders Why McCain, Glende, and Lindemann Have To Attack Our Daughters

From a reader: "McCain has no competency for biblical scholarship, He has no competency for the pastoral ministry because he never was one, he has no competency as a theologian because he is not one. So of course the little obsequiously fawning pissant has to come up with some slanderous crap like that. It's like the little boy that has been intellectually boxed in a corner by his mommy and for the lack of anything else to say explodes in You Gunky."

My wife asked, "Do you attack McCain's children?" I said, "No."

She wondered, "Why is he attacking our daughters?"

Mrs. Ichabod is going through extensive neurological tests, which means driving three hours to Little Rock, to the University of Arkansas Medical School, where a team is doing tests and gathering a medical history. We have been living in a puzzle, where some of the best neurologists in the world have been unable to come up with a diagnosis for Bethany and Erin Joy.

Part of gathering a complete medical history involves ordering our daughters' autopsy reports to be sent to UAMS. That also stirs up many memories, since certain doctors have been less than helpful. Most have been exceptional. We have outlived three of them already.

Needing an autopsy is not a pleasant experience for a mother. If you think the pain goes away, then you do not know what it means to be a mother...or a father. The vultures at LutherQueasy are still cackling over their great wit and discernment.

McCain has successfully dodged pastoral work his entire adult life. His only nominal call consisted of running Al Barry's campaign for Synod President, via full-time contact with Herman Otten. After that, McCain kept himself in office work.

And yet, McCain calls Bethany Lutheran Church a fake congregation and me a fake pastor. The Waltherians say a call makes a man a pastor, and the size of a congregation makes no difference. Why would McCain expose his ignorance so brashly?

McCain is contemptuous of our tiny operation, and it is small. A donated camera broadcasts 60+ services a year, free, over the Net. Instead of spending a million dollars on a mission start, plus oodles of money on salary and perks, Bethany has a tent-making ministry. There is some precedent for that, I understand.

I am contemptuous of someone who did nothing about St. John, Ellisville, a stone's throw from the Purple Palace, when it was both a Missouri Synod congregation and a member of the Willow Creek Association. I think doctrine is more important than the size of a mortgage. But I never went begging to a known adulterer for the loot to start a vanity journal.

I have an idea for all the Purple Palace drones who dress up in clerics when they are only clerks and bloggers. Starting with the Synod President, they should go out to the small, poor, under-served LCMS congregations in their own area on Sunday. Each Sunday they should preach an original sermon and give generously from their over-stuffed salaries.

Instead of congregating in their rich suburban churches, where they can preen around the coffee urn and play the role of celebrity clergyman, they should be ordinary pastors who lead the liturgy, preach the sermon, and actually visit the members.

Herman Otten, McCain's old political partner, has pointed out how many millions have been spent on huge district offices, the Purple Palace, and exploding staff salaries. Missouri lives off Schwan, Thrivent, and the foundations. The offering money does not go toward spreading the Gospel but feeding the middle-aged spread of the office staff.

When the trotters are in the trough all the time, the lupine start to look porcine.

Linked from Joe Krohn

C. F. W. Walther


http://www.lutherische-bekenntnisgemeinde.de/About%20the%20Doctrine%20of%20Justification%201872.htm

About the Doctrine of Justification

1872

[Presented and adopted at the first Convention of the Evangelical-Lutheran Synodical Conference in 1872, Proceedings, pp. 20-68. The following are the main theses of this statement of faith.]

THESIS I

The doctrine of justification is the most eminent chief article of the Christian faith, one the right understanding of which is for the salvation of the individual – and the pure proclamation of which is for the welfare of the church as a whole – of incomparable importance and absolute necessity.

THESIS II

The Reformation of the Church through Dr. Luther had its starting point in a renewed understanding, by God’s grace, of the pure evangelical doctrine of justification and in a corresponding uncorrupted proclamation of this article of faith.

THESIS III

In the pure doctrine of justification, as our Lutheran church has presented it again and again from God’s Word and placed it on the lamp-stand, it is above all a matter of three points: 1.) Of the doctrine of the universal, perfect redemption (Erlösung) of the world through Christ; 2.) Of the doctrine of the power and efficacy of the means of grace; and 3.) Of the doctrine of faith.

THESIS IV

As in Adam all men have fallen and come under the wrath of God and eternal damnation as punishment for sins, so also all men are truly redeemed from sin, death, devil and hell, in Christ as the second Adam, and God is truly reconciled with them all.

THESIS V

As through the substitutionary death of Christ the whole world’s debt of sin was wiped out and the punishment for it was endured, so also righteousness, life and salvation have been brought again for the whole world through Christ’s resurrection, and have come upon (über) all men in Christ as the Substitute of all mankind.

THESIS VI

This grace, forgiveness, righteousness, life, and salvation, acquired again for all men by Christ’s work of redemption, God brings to men in the Means of Grace. For the evangelical promise, which is contained in the Word of the Gospel and in the holy Sacraments, is not an empty sound or a content-less promise, but a powerful communication (Darreichung) and giving of all the goods which God promises in this Word of His grace.

THESIS VII

The Gospel therefore is not a mere historical narrative of the accomplished work of the redemption, but much rather a powerful declaration of peace and a promise of grace on the part of God towards the world redeemed by Christ, and thus at all times a powerful Means of Grace, in which God for His part brings, proffers, distributes, gives, and presents the forgiveness of sins and the righteousness acquired by Christ, even though not all to whom God issues His serious call of grace accept this invitation of the reconciled God, and thus also do not become partakers of the accompanying benefits.

THESIS VIII

The holy Absolution is a preaching of the Gospel to one or more definite persons, who desire the comfort of the Gospel. Absolution is therefore also at all times valid and powerful (kräftig – efficacious) in itself, for God therein declares Himself, through the mouth of His servant, as a God truly reconciled through Christ’s blood and death, and thus distributes for His part the gift of forgiveness and righteousness to all, who are being absolved, although many do not become partakers of the gifts of grace proffered in the Gospel, on account of their unbelief.

THESIS IX

The means, through which alone man comes into actual possession of the gift of grace acquired by Christ and proffered in Word and Sacrament, is faith, which believes God’s promise of grace and thus appropriates to itself the gift of the merit and righteousness of Christ offered in this promise of God, and comforts itself with the benefit of Christ as His Sin-canceller and Savior.

THESIS X

Faith in Christ therefore makes righteous and saves, not because it obtains such and exceeding reward with God as a splendid work of man, and as satisfaction for sin reconciling God with men, but because it is, from man’s side, the taking hand, which actually grasps and accepts the treasure of the merit of Christ and thus of forgiveness, righteousness, and salvation, which are proffered and given in the promise of grace. Nor does faith justify and save before God because God is willing, out of free grace and love, to let it count as a meritorious work of righteousness and of obedience to God’s Word, but because the treasure of the merit of Christ, which even the weakest faith grasps in the promise of the Gospel, embraces in itself truly a perfect satisfaction for all guilt and punishment of sin, as well as a perfect obedience towards all requirements of the Law of God.

THESIS XI

The faith of the individual does not by its power bring it about that the evangelical promise of grace, which God speaks in the Word of the Gospel of Absolution, becomes really valid, efficacious, and true, but it simply clings to the promise of grace and forgiveness as a divinely true and efficacious one, and by thus accepting the promise of God, it thereby at the same time grasps the gift of righteousness and salvation, and has what the words say and express.

THESIS XII

When an individual sinner through faith grasps the promise of the Gospel in Word or Sacrament, and thus appropriates to himself the treasure of the merit of Christ for his justification and salvation, then he is also regarded, accounted, and declared to be such by God as in a forensic action before the judgment seat of God, so that the sinner now for his own person has part in the merit and the righteousness of Christ for his salvation, and is thus also personally righteous and an heir of eternal life through the personal possession of the benefit of Christ.

The 1932 Brief Confession Was the Beginning of the End for the Syn Conference: Dishonest Exegesis, Amalgamation of Pietism and Lutheran Doctrine

The publication of the 1932 Brief Statement turned into an excuse for basing Syn Conference doctrine on Knapp's Pietistic doctrine rather than Gausewitz and Hoenecke, both sainted, or the Missouri Small Catechism in German and English.

"Now, then, if the Father raised Christ from the dead, He, by this glorious resurrection act, declared that the sins of the whole world are fully expiated, or atoned for, and that all mankind is now regarded as righteous before His divine tribunal. This gracious reconciliation and justification is clearly taught in Romans 4:25: 'Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.' The term dikaiosis here means the act of divine justification executed through God's act of raising Christ from the dead, and it is for this reason called the objective justification of all mankind. This truth Dr. Walther stressed anew in America. He taught that the resurrection of Christ from the dead is the actual absolution pronounced upon all sinners. (Evangelienpostille, p. 160ff.)" part one
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1951, II, p. 321. Romans 4:25

"The resurrection of Christ is, as Holy Writ teaches, the actual absolution of the whole world of sinners. Romans 4:25: 'Who was raised again for our justification.' At that time we were objectively declared free from sin."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1951, II, p. 348 Romans 4:25.


The Bronze Age Missourians see the Brief Statement of 1932 as the turning point in LCMS history. After that was published, everything started to go downhill. I believe they are right, but their beloved BS is the reason why.

Missouri has produced statements from time to time. During the Civil War with Seminex, they passed a statement that no one remembers or mentions, except for the apostates who denounce it.

I understand that Sasse was concerned about the 1932 BS supplanting the Book of Concord. He was correct to be worried, because that has happened.

The UOJ fanatics always retreat to their citadel, the 1932 BS.

I will try to be compassionate for a moment. I realize many people have understood Objective Justification as the Atonement or Redemption. Therefore, SJ is justification by faith.

I thought so myself and used OJ/SJ in the first edition of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant. That ambiguity allowed the real UOJ advocates to advance their cause as Enthusiasm spread with Unionism.

Oddly, the Bronze Age Missourians (like Herman Otten and William Bischoff) were quite comfortable with Calvinist apologetics. The 1932 BS and the Walther-Pieper circle made them comfortable with Calvinistic thinking, almost immune to thinking about the efficacious Word and the Means of Grace.

Walther himself was quite an amalgamation. He taught Luther and sounded Luther-like in many of his writings, but not consistently so. He blended Pietism with Lutheran doctrine, and that Pietism won out in the most important area - justification by faith.

Missouri and WELS Catechisms
The LCMS catechism still in print (KJV, no author) and the old Syn Conference catechism (Gausewitz) show that justification by faith was taught in the earliest days and continued to be taught for decades.

Frauds like web-pals Cascione and McCain pretend otherwise. Their synod publications prove them wrong. UOJ began in Pietism and rose to dominance as the CG Unionists took over the Syn Conference.

WELS Apostasy
The Wisconsin Sect is quite small and compact. That leverages false doctrine, since any criticism involves a tribe of offended relatives - and they are all related.

Jungkuntz had quite a personality cult going and he married a Kowalke (professor's daughter). He dazzled them in WELS, Missouri, and proto-ELCA. He was one of the top Seminex leaders and he adored UOJ, as much as Cascione and McCain.

A little study of WELS leaders in the last 50 years will show that the Church Growth leaders were also the UOJ advocates. They won the battle for the NIV, for a putrid feminist hymnal, and for on-going Fuller education with Church Growth programs.

Brett Meyer Tipped the Scale, Emmaus
We planned to have someone at the Emmaus conference. Brett Meyer is a friendly guy who is willing to discuss doctrine with anyone. He brought 60 copies of Luther versus the UOJ Pietists: Justification by Faith. He gave away 50 copies. Additional copies have gone to college students and others, including people in the CLC (sic).

Joe Krohn and others have raised issues about doctrine and practice with leaders who do not wish to deal with anyone as adults. One person wrote me:

"Where do we get these people as leaders? What ever happened to ministers with a modicum of scholarly training? They all were cloistered since birth in their respective nunnery and like so many children of the 60's and 70’s were enabled by mommy daddy that throwing rocks is ok if it makes you feel better. To argue in a forum takes guts, work and scholarship which none of them have. It's like most of the WELS ministers around my age 57—65. When asked what they did during the Viet Nam war, almost the universal answer was, 'Well mommy and daddy sent me into the ministry to avoid the draft.' When my relatives hear that, we have all that we can do to refrain from choking the little jerks but do not because their mommies and daddies have passed on and they have nobody to cry to (other than mother synod)—and all that is, is nursing on the devil’s breasts."

Built on a Bluff, UOJ Doth Stand
As anyone with a Bible can see, Pieper promoted his UOJ toxin with anti-Biblical exegesis. Romans 4:25 proves that the entire world has been absolved, justified, declared innocent. DP Buchholz would add, saved.

Here is the passage.

KJV Romans 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Romans 4:24 is what they constantly denounce, without quoting it. They love to purr over Walther and Stoeckhardt, but seldom remember that Luther guy, who preached that believing is justification. I could mention John's Gospel, but why pile on with such dunces?

All of Romans 4 describes Abraham as a man of faith, who was justified by faith.

Leaving the chapter at 4:25 (an artificial division), the apostle Paul says:

KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

But the UOJ Stormtroopers continue to quote Romans 4:25 and base their cowardly Universalism on a studied misunderstanding of a decidedly clear passage.

Arguing from anti-exegesis, getting away with it since 1932, has given UOJ permission to do whatever they want with the Word of God.

WELS Students Mocking Nudists at NWC

grumpy has left a new comment on your post "Herman Otten Flacks for the SynodsAgain":

Weird...I remember a friend who went on to Northwestern College from MLS...he said that there was a group of guys who had a "naked club". After school they would strip down to the buff, chanting "naked...naked", and them play billiards in the game room, watch tv, etc, all just sitting around naked....I guess the dean finally had to have a talk with them and tell them to stop it...while no homosexuality was involved, it was leaving a door open that really should not have been left open.

But dancing is definitely a sin...go figure....

Grumpy "The older I get the less I understand" Lutheran

Herman Otten Flacks for the SynodsAgain

Pastor Herman Otten is repeating WELS lies about their disgusting video.
Now the video is a deliberate mocker!
Before the students could not tell Liberace from Tiger Woods.

A Brief History of the Party in the MLC Video.

A WELS member wrote me and gave me the link to the video. He was too disgusted to watch all of it.

The video was gayer than lavender hose, quite deliberately so. I looked over the data on the YouTube video and saw it was an homage to another video Party in the Fire Island Pines.

Fire Island has long been known as a homosexual resort, with features about it on mainstream TV and a recent history on cable TV.

Comparing the two videos, the Martin Luther College (WELS) version was almost a frame by frame copy, except it also added one student grabbing his crotch...twice. Michael Jackson's grab was relatively mild compared to the WELS version.

When I linked the video on this blog, MLC and Willowcreek's Liberal College took notice. Dozens of comments came in.

Soon an article appeared in the WLC student paper, claiming that the students did not know what they were doing. Compare that claim, which was obviously a lie, to the current deception.

The students were rather sullen in their comments, but claimed they were taking the video down from YouTube voluntarily, under no compulsion from the college. The students were shocked, I heard, that I read their student paper.

The video was picked up by homosexual sites, since many people know how to copy and upload anything on YouTube. But YouTube no longer showed it as active.

Soon the video was uploaded again, twice - on YouTube and on Facebook, where a special fan page was created for the video. The YouTube link is there right now.The FB page also posted the original, Party in the Fire Island Pines.

The Facebook fan page has almost 1400 fans.

I mentioned WELS hypocrisy on this issue when I reviewed Randy Engle's Rite of Sodomy, volume 1.

Brett Meyer met WELS SP Mark Schroeder at the Emmaus conference. Mark's face turned red when he was going to say something about me to Brett. He thought twice about it and said, "I should tell Greg directly." Brett agreed with that, but I have not heard from Mark. He used to phone and email me, but I imagine the spin was not working well for him.

Herman Otten knows me phone number and email address. He just emailed me today. But he did not ask about the video and its history. Nevertheless, he thinks he knows all about it from Mark Schroeder.

Notice the new lie about Party in the MLC:

"CN has been told that the video criticized by Jackson was created for a homecoming skit entertainment several years ago as a mockery of the gay lifestyle, not an endorsement of it. none of the students responsible for the skit approve anything relating to homosexuality. Unlike most denominations, the WELS strongly opposes homosexuality." Christian News, page 1!, June 6, 2011.

Lie Number One versus Lie Number Two

Anyone can watch the video and see if the students knew what they were doing. They can compare it to the original, which they plagiarized, and judge whether any straight person would miss the flagrant displays.

Lie Number One - "We did not know Party in the Fire Island Pines was a gay video," published in the WLC student newspaper.

Lie Number Two - "Party in the MLC was a deliberate mockery of the gay lifestyle." How could they mock what they did not comprehend?

Otten apologized to Schroeder for printing the truth about the WELS video.

Wait, There's More
Life is full of irony. In the same issue, on the same page, in the choice upper right-hand corner is a blurb about What's Going on among the Lutherans, by Patsy Leppien and Kincaid Smith (drive-by DMin in Church Growth). Smith referred to it often as his book. Ahem.

Otten praised John Brug (Tim Glende's uncle) for endorsing the book. What courage! What scholarship! John is a nice guy, but his endorsement was no more than saying water is indeed wet and can freeze when chilled long enough.

If the reader opens up the book, he will see a paragraph thanking me for all the research I did for the book. I was happy to help out in every way possible. Working with Patsy was a delight, and she worked very hard at making everything clear, the facts invulnerable to attacks from the liberals.

When Jay Webber found out I was helping, he had a hissy fit, shouting about why he was not asked. He was a seminarian. I was a PhD in theology. That might have been one reason. I probably offered to help, since I was writing Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure at the same time.

I also had the research for Out of the Depths of ELCA behind me. Pastoral experience in the LCA provided some perspective.

My book about ELCA, published before ELCA came into being, was a complete issue of Christian News. Otten sent it everywhere and sold copies of it for many years. My name was on it. I did not hide behind a fake name or let people think Otten wrote it.

WELS was profoundly embarrassed about my effort. They were in bed with ELCA via AAL and LB (soon to be merged into Thrivent).

I do not recall any courageous scholars supporting the truth about ELCA when I published in Christian News. The WELS leaders, Mark Schroeder included, use CN for spin but despise it the rest of the time.

I published hundreds of articles against Church Growth, quoting WELS sources, in Christian News. I do not remember any courageous WELS scholars admitting there was a problem. In fact, when I complained to Brug about Valleskey giving the paper about Church Growth, he immediately went to David's house to tell on me. I know, because Valleskey bragged about it.

Not Done Yet
I have been told that the petition to discipline Mark and Avoid Jeske will not go through if it is connected with Ichabod.

All I did was publish the petition and the link.

Typical WELS: "Do what we say, as a favor, while we call you a liar for telling the truth, after demanding an apology from Otten because you told the truth."

Two words: mattress room.

Join Me in Signing the Petition about Mark and Avoid Jeske

 This is the link.

Synod Convention Memorial - Time of Grace

Memorial to the Synod in Convention Re: Time of Grace Ministry Whereas (1) Time of Grace Ministry has actively sought and obtained the status of a Recognized Service Organization (RSO) from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS); and Whereas (2) Time of Grace is listed in the Yearbook of the LCMS as a Recognized Service Organization; and Whereas (3) Leaders and representatives from Time of Grace regularly appear at LCMS events and congregations to promote the ministry of Time of Grace; and Whereas (4) The administrative board of Time of Grace includes at least one member of the LCMS; and Whereas (5) The LCMS, according to its official bylaws and policies, considers its RSOs to be “valued partners of the LCMS,” views the services of its RSOs as “a profound extension of the LCMS’ mission and ministry,” and expects its RSOs to “respect and not act contrary to the doctrine and practice of the Synod” and to “foster the mission and ministry of the Synod and engage in program activity that is in harmony with the programs of the boards of the Synod;” and Whereas (6) An organization cannot truthfully and honestly carry out joint mission and ministry with two synods that are not in fellowship with one another, pretending to “walk together” with both; and Whereas (7) The practices of Time of Grace are examples of the very unionism over which the bond of church fellowship between the WELS and the LCMS was formally severed in 1961; and Whereas (8) The speaker and chief writer for Time of Grace is Pastor Mark Jeske, who with his congregation, St. Marcus Evangelical Lutheran Church of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a member of the WELS; and Whereas (9) Time of Grace maintains that it is not affiliated with any denomination or part of any denominational structure; and Whereas (10) Such an arrangement implies that it is possible to be a member of the WELS while leading a religious organization which will confess no denominational ties; and Whereas (11) Time of Grace has established a presence in most (if not all) of the Twelve Districts of the WELS; and Whereas (12) Time of Grace has pursued the introduction of its services and ministry into the world mission fields of the WELS; and Whereas (13) Scripture instructs us to present a clear confession of our doctrine and practice and to affiliate ourselves only with those church bodies whose doctrine and practice conform to the entirety of God’s Word (Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 4:16); and Whereas (14) The Southeastern Wisconsin District presidium is charged with oversight of doctrine and practice of the pastors, teachers, congregations and other entities of our fellowship within its district; and Whereas (15) Time of Grace has not provided to the Southeastern Wisconsin District presidium documentation from the LCMS regarding the non-RSO status of Time of Grace; and Whereas (16) The Southeastern Wisconsin District presidium, in two years of dealing with Time of Grace, has been unable to convince Time of Grace of the need to withdraw its RSO status or change its unionistic practices; therefore be it RESOLVED (a) That the Synod in convention recognize Time of Grace’s relationship with the LCMS as unionistic, confessionally unclear, and therefore unscriptural; and be it finally RESOLVED (b) That the Synod in convention encourage the presidium of the Southeastern Wisconsin District to take immediate measures of loving Christian discipline toward Time of Grace and its leaders, calling on them to terminate their LCMS RSO status and to return to biblical practices and a clear confession regarding their walk together with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. 

 

Mr. Mark Bannan - Salem, Owosso, MI Rev. Thomas J. Bernthal - Peace, Sahuarita, AZ Rev. Theodore G. Bodjanac - Resurrection, Phoenix, AZ Rev. John F. Boehringer - St. John's, Watertown, WI Rev. Luke Boehringer - Gethsemane, Davenport, IA Rev. Jon D. Buchholz - Emmanuel, Tempe, AZ Rev. Johann Caauwe - Trinity, El Paso, TX Rev. Michael T. Carr - St. Peter, Clovis, CA Prof. (em) Daniel Deutschlander - St. Mark's, Watertown, WI Rev. Rodney E. Dietsche - Peace, Green Lake, WI Rev. Christopher S. Doerr - Grace, Waupun, WI Rev. Ross Else - Emmaus, Phoenix, AZ Rev. Paul C. Fetzer - St. John's, Clare, MI Rev. Thomas Fischer - Loving Shepherd, Milwaukee, WI Rev. Lester G. Fritz - Zion, Van Dyne, WI Michael Hefti - Faith, Radcliff, KY Rev. Roy W. Hefti - St. Paul's, Bangor, WI Rev. Stephen Hein - Christ, Prescott Valley, AZ Mr. Kenneth S. Jamka - Trinity, Sierra Vista, AZ Mr. Kurt W. Knurr - Trinity, Sierra Vista, AZ Rev. Ronald G. Koehler, III - Grace, Tucson, AZ Rev. John R. Koester - Trinity, Temple, TX Rev. Robert Koester - NPH, Milwaukee, WI Rev. Roger L. Kuerth - St. Luke, Watertown, WI Rev. Paul J. Lidtke - Bethlehem, Oshkosh, WI Mr. Harold I. Mears - Emmaus, Phoenix, AZ Mr. Kevin Needham - St. Paul's, Saginaw, MI Rev. David A. Nottling - St. John, Fox Lake, WI Rev. Mark D. Ochsankehl - Trinity, Winslow, AZ Rev. Aaron Odya - St. Peter's, Eldorado, WI Rev. David J. Salinas - St. John, Victorville, CA Rev. Paul Schaefer - St. Peter's, Plymouth, MI Rev. Neal Schroeder - Divine Peace, Renton, WA Rev. Paul Schulz - Grace, Safford, AZ Rev. David R. Seager - Loving Shepherd, Milwaukee, WI Rev. Gregory Sluke - Trinity, Redgranite, WI Rev. James Strand - St. Paul, Bloomer, WI Rev. Johnold J. Strey - St. Mark, Citrus Heights, CA Rev. Jeffrey W. Suhr - St. John, Appleton, WI Rev. Donald Swartz - Mt. Olive, Monroe, WI Rev. Benjamin Tomczak - St. Mark, Duncanville, TX Rev. Clayton G. Welch - Faith, River Falls, WI

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Public Service Announement from NY Congressman

Let's Not Get Too Scornful about ex-ELCA Entities Working with ELCA.Missouri, WELS, and the ELS Are Doing the Same

Concordia St. Louis survived many decades without a cathedral honoring Marvin Schwan, ladies man.
Inset - Pope Paul the Unlearned raising his consecrated and consecrating hand to bless the seminary he did not attend.

Common Sense for a Senseless World has left a new comment on your post "Another Successful Vote To Leave ELCA,While Leavin...":

To clarify, Shepherd of the Hills intends to continue in partnership with St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, a Laotion (sic) congregation well grounded in traditional Lutheran Theology, the Shishitony Parish in Tanzania, Serenity Inn in Milwaukee, a half way house for recovering drug and alchohol (sic) addicts, and Lutheran World Relief, an organization supported by many Lutheran denominations. None of our benevelence (sic) will be sent to Higgins Street (sic - Road). All donations and support will be forwarded directly to those ministries. While we acknowledge the errant teachings that are permeating the ELCA, we also acknowledge that some of their ministries actually do promote the mission of Christ in the world and that many of their congregations continue to uphold solid Lutheran teachings and preach the pure Gospel of Christ to the world.

***

GJ - I was a bit snarky in the headline for the story linked above, and the writer made a good point in his response. Everyone is working with ELCA through Lutheran World Relief and Thrivent: Missouri, WELS, the Little Sect on the Prairie, and--gasp!--the CLC (sic).

Any sect working with Thrivent is supporting the goals and agenda of ELCA...and the Salvation Army, plus Habitat for Humanity.

Apparently Thrivent loot is now so enormous that the Big Four are nothing more than branch offices of the insurance company. I base that on the reported $50 million a year from Thrivent that Missouri receives (Emmaus conference quotation attributed to SP Harrison). I will be glad to amend that if there is evidence to the contrary.

The Church of the Augsburg Confession, headquartered in Bella Vista, Arkansas, is not working with Thrivent or Lutheran World Relief. That makes our little parish an object of scorn and derision.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Let's Not Get Too Scornful about ex-ELCA Entities ...":

I was at the Emmaus Conference distributing free copies of Luther VS The UOJ Pietists - Justification by Faith book. LCMS President Harrison proudly and happily announced to the attendees that the LCMS received, "$50-60 Million dollars in 2010 from Thrivent."

Brett Meyer

Your Thrivent Dollars at Work

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Addie J. Butler

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Dr. Addie Butler, Philadelphia, PA, has been a member of the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans board of directors and its predecessor since January 1999. Dr. Butler serves as a member of the Audit and Governance Committees of the board.

Butler served as the assistant to the vice president for academic affairs, Community College of Philadelphia until 2007. In this role she helped oversee instructional and academic issues for the college's 40,000 students. She served in various administrative capacities at the college since 1979. Butler has twice received the Community College of Philadelphia's Leadership Award.

A native of Philadelphia, Butler earned a B.S. degree from Howard University, an M.S. degree from Pennsylvania State University, State College, an Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, she received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Muhlenberg College, an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Susquehanna University and an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Wagner College.

Butler has served as vice president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and serves on the board of trustees of Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Formerly, Butler was vice president of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA, member and secretary of the board of trustees of Lutheran Social Mission Society, and president of the African-American Lutheran Association, Philadelphia Chapter.

Butler is a member of Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Philadelphia, where she is chair of the music and worship committee, facilitator of adult education programs, and chair of the stewardship committee.

Thrivent and Missouri, WELS, ELS.Not To Mention ELCA!

Another Successful Vote To Leave ELCA,While Leaving One or Both Feet in the Door.Pietism Reigns Supreme

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Another Successful Vote

The following is the official statement of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church of Richfield, WI.

On June 5, 2011, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, of Richfield WI, voted 158-3 to change its synodical affiliation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), to the Augustana District (AD) of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC).

We look forward to working with LCMC, an association of congregations which share our primary commitment to reaching others for Christ. Through the Augustana District, we will be working with congregations which share our strong commitment to classic Lutheran theology and practice.

We want to express our gratitude for our many years of partnership with the ELCA, and will continue to work with them in a variety of ministries.

In many ways we are happy that our congregation remained unified throughout the discernment process that led to the vote to leave the ELCA and join the LCMC.  We are also saddened that so many are still at risk of the errant teachings that are overtaking the church that many of can thank for helping lead us to Christ.  I pray that one day, those leading the ELCA will turn away from the world and look to our Lord for guidance.  In the meantime, I for one, will continue to have them in my prayers, especially my brothers and sisters in Christ that remain within this wayward church.

Jim Becker Responds To California

The Sausage Factory Class of 1970 was packed full of Shrinkers, marked in yellow, who are now WELS leaders. Gaze upon them and weep.

norcal763 has left a new comment on your post "About Joe and Lisa Krohn Being Kicked Out by WELS ...":

Dear California:
Thank you for your sacrifice all those years ago. I, too, left WELS recently, but I took the "admonish, mark, and avoid route." My beef was with the Synod, and I didn't want my Pastor or congregation caught in the middle, so they didn't have an opportunity to excommunicate me. I was spared the stress of Joe Krohn and yourself.

I've learned that when you choose the hill you want to die on, very few people will bury you with honors, even when they agree with you. I do it for me. And people don't generally change. Think how hard it is to keep a New Year's Resolution, some of which involve changes that could save your life (smoking, etc.),and how easily they are broken. And you WANT to change. It's easy to see how much harder it is to change those who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo.

I wrote a letter to the congregation saying we were marking and avoiding the Synod, but had nothing against THEM, and I sent a more detailed report to those who had, in the past, been sympathetic to my grievances. One was ongoing involvement with Thrivent, and I understand that was actually brought up and discussed at a board meeting. I was amazed, but nobody followed me out and it's back to business as usual.

Alot of people miss us, and the Pastor's family even invited us to their son's graduation reception at the church, and we went. His wife and daughter stop by our home occasionally when they are out for walks. We still do things with a couple who we were good friends with, and they keep "putting the heat on" for us to come back.

So it's amicable, but we miss our church family. Because communion in WELS is a confession of doctrinal unity, I can't "commune" with the likes of 'Ski' and Glende because they are false teachers. And even if we just went back from time to time without communing, I won't worship from the feminist hymnal because I consider it blasphemous that they changed the Creed. Anyway, that's my story, for what it's worth.

Conform and the world conforms with you; stand and you stand alone.
Jim Becker

DP Rutschow is one of the Gang of Four, also Class of 1970.
The supernatural glow is Enthusiasm.