Unposed Emmaus Photo Revealed

"You get 50 to 60 million bucks a year for selling Thrivent insurance?"
Matt Harrison, "Yes, we do. Peddling insurance is good for our synod!"
"Then how much is ELCA making on the deal?"
"$100 million, easily."
Pope John the Malefactor, "All we get are free napkins."
SP Schroeder, "You need to join the Salvation Army, John. Hahahaha."
Matt Harrison, "Or join Habitat for Humanity. Build some houses. Har."

Our Top Secret Contact - 29A - Offers This Assessment

I like the picture of the synod of the planet of the apes.

The NIV, the Kuske catechism, and finally CW has sent WELS into the apostate crowd. Whether they believe that or not.

29a

***

GJ - They sold CW as attracting the younger crowd. But the same Shrinkers were busy dumping their new hymnal, the organ, the liturgy, the creeds, and original sermons. The way to succeed, they imagined, was to ape and to plagiarize their heroes - Leonard Sweet, Craig Groeschel, Andy Stanley, and worse.

Another New Dogma from the Syn Conference: The Immaculate Reception

These handy kits are available at Babtist supply stores everywhere. WELS even offered them briefly in a supplemental catalogue.

"It should perhaps be mentioned also that some of our Lutheran teachers limited the real presence to the moment of eating and drinking.  This, too, goes beyond the specific words of Christ."   

Review of Bjarne Wollan Teigen, TheLord's Supper in the Theology of Martin Chemnitz, W. Gawrisch, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1987, 84, p. 155.

Those who support UOJ have also crawled into bed with Receptionism, whether they admit it or not. If the hand of the communicant--instead of the powerful and efficacious Word--can effect the miraculous change in the earthly elements of Holy Communion, then God can declare the entire world forgiven without the Word, without the Means of Grace.

At least Sig Becker, Mequon, was a consistent Enthusiast. He divorced the Holy Spirit from the Word in UOJ and in Receptionism.

I heard various Syn Conference leaders saying, "We do not know the exact moment of consecration." I had to agree with them. They did not know the moment of consecration and never would, because they did not comprehend the most basic doctrine of the Scriptures, the efficacy of the Word. They looked at the plain words of the Bible the way a cow would look at a newly painted fence, stunned and bewildered.

Someone who is only an Enthusiast about justification, but not about Holy Communion, is still an Enthusiast and doubly dangerous. He does not understand or teach justification by faith in the Sacraments. How can he? The newborn was already declared forgiven, before he was born, so Holy Baptism has nothing to do with the Old Adam or anything else. Holy Communion is merely symbolic, because the communicant is already forgiven.

One pastor on LutherQueasy said this about confession and absolution: "I told him that he was forgiven before he even came to confess." So, maybe he can keep that luscious secretary on the payroll?

Twenty Years and Counting: Stupidity from the Sausage Factory

Reuel Schulz supposedly earned two STMs at Mequon, yet he also studied under Pentecostal Pete Wagner at Fuller Seminary. After reading the recent history of Mequon, anyone can conclude - "The faculty promotes anti-Lutheran Enthusiasm while calling themselves confessional Lutherans."

Larry Olson's congregation never grew, so WELS hired him to teach Church Growth at its shrinking college. He earned a DMin from Fuller Seminary, the first of the Shrinker-Enthusiasts in WELS with a drive-by degree: Rick Krause, Paul Calvin Kelm, Steve Witte, John Parlow added to the shame.

Walther commanded, "Make a decision for Christ," so people rightfully call him the Father of the Syn Conference. The great thing about being born already forgiven is the way one can ignore adultery, kidnap a few kids for their own good, evade arrest warrants, and usurp the adulterer. Walther dishonestly organized a mob against Stephan and robbed him, rather than moving forward in a Christian, brotherly way. As his disciples will say today, "Matthew 18 is for suckers and losers - mobs are more fun and far more effective."

No wonder they worship the grounds Sig Becker once occupied as the Zwingli Professor of Enthusiasm:

1. He published against the efficacy of the Word in WELS' battle against their own brother in Mankato, B. Teigen, who proved with genuine scholarship that the Syn Conference was wrong about their Receptionism. One WELS pastor told me, with a straight face, "The elements become the Body and Blood of Christ when the communicant receives them."
   
2. He supported the excommunication of two WELS families who dared to question the precious but obviously new dogma of Universal Objective Justification.
   
3. He published this bald-faced lie, when anyone with a superficial knowledge of the Gausewitz catechism realizes the falsity of this unsupported claim. Why support the lie with quotations? Research makes one late for dinner.
   
   

Wikipedia Knows More about the KJV Than the Sausage Factory Professors

Wikipedia on Tyndale, which became the KJV

The chain of events that led to the creation of Tyndale’s New Testament started in 1522. It was in this year that Tyndale illegally acquired a copy of Martin Luther’s German New Testament. Tyndale was inspired by Luther’s work and immediately set out to imitate Luther’s work but in English.^[3] He made his purpose known to the Bishop of London at the time Cuthbert Tunstall. Hewing to his Catholic faith, for which he would later be imprisoned, Bishop Tunstall refused Tyndale permission to write this heretical text. After this rejection Tyndale moved to the continent and ended up in Hamburg where he completed his New Testament in 1524.^[4] During this time period Tyndale frequented Wittenberg where he consulted with Martin Luther and his associate Melanchthon.^[3]

Asking about Walther and Calvin

Northwest SD Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "Dr. Lito Cruz on Predestination. Chemnitz Delivers...":

Calvinists would believe in Double Predestination and thus there is no Gospel, as it could be predestination to destruction or in the case of the Waltherian all are predestined for life according to Romans 11:32-33 ; only if I believe as Walther did. This would be as unscriptural as Calvinism and make Walther and Calvin twins separated at birth but at different sides of the spectrum and essentially Rob Bell universalists then Atheists.

I remember Nagel once saying in a sermon that what God wants to do he cannot do by force. If faith is cultivated by Godly force it is coercion and not faith. Coercion leads one to be universalistic and then atheistic because there is no need for Christ or his merits. Am I on to something here?

***

GJ - The running and planting quotation from the Formula of Concord, below, is very good. Chemnitz dealt with the Calvinists more than Luther did, because Calvin pretended to be Lutheran until Westphal flushed him out of the tall grass.

I do not like dealing with speculative theology. There is a difference between what God could do and what He does do through His gracious will. Lutherans have neglected the efficacy of the Word and the Means of Grace. That should be our focus.

The priestly elite is threatened by an articulate, informed laity.

AC V - Asking about Holy Communion

AC V said...

Inquiring minds want to know: Does Holy Communion grant the actual forgiveness of sins or the assurance that sins have been forgiven? If the full treasure of God's forgiveness is fully ours by faith worked by Word and Sacrament, then what need is there for Word and Sacrament? In other words, after conversion do the means of grace work the forgiveness of sins, or the assurance that sins have been forgiven? Give us an illustration on how it works.

***

GJ - The Word conveys Christ and His benefits to us, so Holy Communion as the visible Gospel grants forgiveness. I believe the wording about assurance is meant to be a dodge, and it fits well with WELSian UOJness.

I am trying to recall the CW wording, from tippling Tiefel, but I never used the book.

Once the UOJ clergy teach that everyone is already forgiven, Hindu and Eskimo alike, without faith, the rest does not matter. WELS has been so good at pronouncing everything adiaphora that doctrine is also a matter of indifference.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Leaders, Trained by Fuller Seminary, Doub...":

AC V, the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification goes so far as to confess that it's only the declaration that "your sins are already forgiven" that is capable of creating faith.

Remember that it was DP Buchholz, who will go down in history as the one who exhumed Siegbert W. Beckers bones to ensure that this generation would completely abandoned Justification by Faith, who taught that faith could only be created based on forgiveness already declared and never on the promise of the forgiveness of sins through faith.

Note that it was under the so-called Conservative (W)ELS administration (Buchholz and Schroeder) that the first family since Kokomo have been excommunicated for confessing Justification by Faith Alone and showing that Justification without and before faith is neither taught in Scripture or confessed in the Book of Concord. Certainly a monumental event in the degradation of the (W)ELS.

***

GJ - WELS has no sense of irony - excommunicating for doubting their precious UOJ, which claims they were were born forgiven. As Joe Krohn has recorded on his blog, he and his wife were glad to discuss the doctrinal problems with Patterson and the elders. Patterson refused and excommunicated them.

The other excommunication, in Appleton, took place because Rick Techlin followed what WELS leaders insisted upon.

Because WELS is stuck on its priestly infallibility, the chances of resolution are slight.

Let My People Go Already.Moses As a Dude

Mo-Mentality

Moses was a man's man. He yelled at people, went on long desert hikes, hit things when he was upset, and beat people up. On the other hand, he was sometimes a wimp, a coward, and made a lot of excuses, yet God made him into a leader. What can we learn from Moses?

Title	Date	CrossWalk Notes
Origins	6-05-2011	Notes:
		Download:
Getting It	6-12-2011	Notes:
		Download:
Strength	6-19-2011	Notes:
		Download:
Faith	6-26-2011	Coming Soon!
Heart	7-03-2011	Coming Soon!
The Goal	7-10-2011	Coming Soon!

Jesus is his rice. Seriously, dude.

Be a Clown, Be a Clown, Everyone Loves a Clown.

This was old, trite, hackneyed 50 years ago.

Lenski is evil, according to Tim Glende, so we can ignore his entire New Testament commentaries. JP Meyer is much better.

Nevermind JP Meyer. He is old and irrelevant.

Returning to the Plain Words of Scripture And the Doctrinal Witness of the Book of Concord

"Now, although both, the planting and watering of the preacher, and the running and willing of the hearer, would be in vain, and no conversion would follow it if the power and efficacy of the Holy Ghost were not added thereto, who enlightens and converts the hearts through the Word preached and heard, so that men believe this Word and assent thereto, still, neither preacher nor hearer is to doubt this grace and efficacy of the Holy Ghost, but should be certain that when the Word of God is preached purely and truly, according to the command and will of God, and men listen attentively and earnestly and meditate upon it, God is certainly present with His grace, and grants, as has been said, what otherwise man can neither accept nor give from his own powers."
Formula of Concord SD II. #55-56. Free Will. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 903. Tappert, p. 531f. Heiser, p. 246.

Psalms 147:15-18 (KJV) He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. {16} He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. {17} He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? {18} He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

The Lutheran clergy want to be priests who impress their audiences with exotic terms - not bothering to explain them, if they could.

I often hear the UOJ Enthusiasts condemn justification by faith, throwing out a red herring, intuitu fidei. That means as much, undefined, as the term grace. Roman Catholics promote grace (plus works), but they say grace. The reason for the popularity of Amazing Grace is its vagueness. Uncoverted Inuits could sing it with gusto, Tim Glende's inuitu fidei.

A discerning layman will ask, for instance. "Do you believe we are justified without faith? Before we are born?"

Or - "Has God pronounced the entire world, Hindu and cannibals alike, forgiven of its sin?"

Or - "Is everyone in Hell a guilt-free saint, as taught infallibly by the Wisconsin Sect?"

Citing intuitu fidei does not display one's education but a lack of it. The MDiv graduates who engage in this farce are simply trying to dazzle laity and confuse them.

The Little Three are one generation or less from self-extinction. No one cares what made The Kidnapper fuss and fume. They want to hear the Gospel. The Syn Conference is now so deep into navel-gazing that they believe their ministry of condemnation is working somewhere, in spite of evidence to the contrary.

I might have mentioned this before--on 6,700 posts--the Little Three obviously have no use for the Means of Grace, since they have skimmed millions of dollars income to fund study at Fuller Seminary and the other beehives of Enthusiasm. Not once has a solid, principled condemnation of Enthusiasm come forth, with an equally forceful emphasis upon the Means of Grace.

The Word of God can change this, but not until there is genuine repentance from top down, a rejection of sophomoric posturing to preserve the Fuller elite, an extensive new look at the nuda Triglotta, without all the fluff from overpaid staffers.

Isaiah, mighty seer, in days of old
The Lord of all in spirit did behold
High on a lofty throne, in splendor bright,
With flowing train that filled the temple quite.
Above the throne were stately seraphim;
Six wings had they, these messengers of Him.
With twain they veiled their faces, as was meet,
With twain in reverent awe they hid their feet,
And with the other twain aloft they soared,
One to the other called and praised the Lord:
"Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!
Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!
Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!
Behold, His glory filleth all the earth!"
The beams and lintels trembled at the cry,
And clouds of smoke enwrapped the throne on high.

Symbols:Lutheran and Otherwise

"Are you talking about my classmates?
We'll take your church and just leave you some small change."


AC V has left a new comment on your post "The Preached Word Is God's Instrument of Grace":

Your photo with caption brought to mind what John Brug said in the Spring 2011 WLQ: "Substance is more important than symbols, but the importance of symbols of preaching should not be underestimated. Well-chosen symbols reflect and build inner attitudes. If symbols like vestments and pulpits say to people that the preacher believes he is set apart from the crowd, then they are functioning as very effective symbols and conveying their intended meaning....

Symbols are intended to express and reinforce values. Though some laughed at his action as pretentious, there was a reason President-elect Obama felt a need to stand behind a podium with a seal of the Office of President-Elect. There is a reason that presidents often speak from the Oval Office. Historically, symbols have always functioned as signs of office. If a preacher is embarrassed by symbols because he is embarrassed by the concept of office, he needs to examine his understanding of his role."

WELS readers, do you see a trend among your pastors to wander from the pulpit when preaching, just like the TV preachers (or like Time of Grace Jeske)? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

***

GJ - Pentecostal churches have stages and pit bands.

Roman Catholic churches have altars and almost no pulpit.

Methodist and Presbyterian churches have large pulpits and almost no altar, perhaps a table, more like a card table.

Babtists have pulpits and an immersion tub, because immersion is required. Lenski - "The only ones immersed in the Bible were those who drowned in the Flood."

Wandering from the pulpit is a gimmick, and a dumb one at that. When Lutherans doubt the efficacy of the Word, they imitate those who mock the efficacy of the Word.

The Preached Word Is God's Instrument of Grace

AC V has left a new comment on your post "The Basics of the Christian Faith. Misleading for ...":

Pastoral Work in the Word

"The pastor has no other calling than to preach his own sermons, based on his own study. He should offer the Sacraments without hesitation or shame, and to take Word out on visits to shut-ins, the hospitalized, the grieving, and the spiritually indolent."

So simple, yet so hard.

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GJ - Simple and fulfilling. The difficult part is bearing the cross. Those who reject the cross--any difficulty associated with the pure Word--are the ones who reject the Gospel, even if they dress in fancy robes and fold their hands just so.

Lutheran Leaders, Trained by Fuller Seminary, Doubt the Word, So They Teach against Faith

How does this doctrinal statement from the Formula of Concord affect you? I think it clarifies the power and effectiveness of Holy Communion. These words support and clarify faith in God, trust in His Word.

That old harlot Reason loves to say, "How can this be?" I read on one forum about non-Lutherans avoiding the Consecration and unionists of the Lutheran Left using similar words. Holy Communion is symbolic, and it is a memorial meal, in remembrance of the Last Supper. Christ is indeed spiritually present. But stopping there is a denial of the Word.

Jesus said, in plain Greek (since there is no Hebrew or Aramaic text) - "This is My Body."

He did not say, "This My Body" to confuse people. Greek is very good in the state of being verbs, which are irregular. I spent half of college memorizing irregular Greek verbs. (Thus I am never wrong, according to TG). LI was so good in Greek that NWC hired him to tutor others.

Jesus did not say, "This symbolizes My Body."

Nor did He say, "In the future, this will be My Body, but not right now, because the rationalists cannot handle that concept."

Holy Communion is the Gospel, using the Gospel itself to consecrate the elements: "given for you, for the forgiveness of sin."

Those who say, "We do not know when it is the Body and Blood of Christ" are fools who do not trust the power of the Word. Omitting the consecration has the same effect.

What do the Maggot Churches (Emergent Churches) do in Lutherdom? They hide the Sacraments because they trust in Willow Creek and Mars Hill, but not in God's Word. That is also why the Maggot Churches want a feminazi translation with Adam turned into a clever myth. Leading the way - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.

I was 25 years ahead on ELCA's apostasy. Only a few years ago, I taunted the ELCA congregations about leaving Whorely Mother Synod, following the example of the Episcopal Church breakup. At this point, no one can keep up with the exits from ELCA. LCMC has about 800 congregations. The bishops' synod, NALC, brand new, has around 200.

Thousands of letters of thanks are rolling in. Not exactly. My predictions about WELS are already coming true, at this convention. The SP has ordered a major cover-up on the MLC gay video, and the seminary is promoting the NNIV. The entire synod switched from justification by faith to Universal Objective Justification--from Gausewitz to Kuske--and no one noticed.

Dr. Lito Cruz on Predestination. Chemnitz Delivers the Conclusion

This is one of the most eloquent statements in the Book of Concord.

I have studied some bits of predestination when I was a Charismaniac and turned Calvinist. I came with the conclusion that if I were to be a Calvinist, the only logical position is to be SupraLapsarian. Praise God I got delivered from Calvinism.

At any rate, today I reason that surely I must grant that if God knows everything, then surely God knew that I would believe when he presents the Gospel to me. I said, surely that must be granted. This is not being an Arminian, it stands to reason that if God foreknew, he knew everything beforehand including my standing up and sitting down, that includes my faith. The authors seems to argue for a neither Arminian nor Calvinistic understanding of predestination - hence, a Lutheran view.

The question is this -   did God predestine us based on the foreknowledge of that faith? I have no Biblical data for this yet and I am of course very happy to learn. However, I now must grant the point that God knew my faith, nevertheless. Yet Calvinist do not put any weight to this. That is why when taken to final conclusion, you cannot distinguish God from Allah under those terms.

Calvinistic universalism goes like this - since God is Sovereign and since he wants all to be saved, his Sovereignty is never thwarted and so all will be saved.

When I read the articulation of Missouri based on the book Errors of Missouri, I have no doubts that Walther and Co have fallen into the Calvinist paradigm. Which is why I chuckle why they are allergic to Calvinists when in fact Calvinists would be happy at their articulation of predestination!!!

Glende's scholarship has nothing to offer, he simply says "ooh, Schmidt and Stellenhorn etc  believe in intuitu fidei". He assumes by default it is wrong and he does not deal with the arguments of the authors. He offers no counter arguments and no counter data. The argument used is band wagon. What he can do is to get the best argument from anti-Missouris  and shoot it down from Scripture but we do not see that in his posts. The teacher in me can not help but mark his posts down. 

***

GJ - Calvinism easily passes into Universalism, as Lito observed. Karl Barth, the main theologian for Fuller Seminary, advocated Universalism in his Dogmatics. Actually, Barth's hawt mistress did most the writing.

UOJ is cowardly Universalism. If the Little Three keep promoting it, they will produce Universalists and atheists for the next generation. They already have. I know several key WELS Shrinkers who either open, loud atheists or pan-religionists.

The UOJ Advocates are Shrinkers, and the Shrinkers slaver over UOJ - Valleskey, Glende, Bivens, et al.

AC V on Luther's Romans Commentary. Do You Believe Your Sect or Your Lying Eyes?

More input


AC V has left a new comment on your post "AC V - Grabbing St. Paul by the Shoulders, Teachin...":

Luther's commentary on Romans 3 (Nota bene: no "all" clarification of Paul's "intended meaning"):

"That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law; faith it is that brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ. The Spirit, in turn, renders the heart glad and free, as the law demands. Then good works proceed from faith itself. That is what Paul means in chapter 3 when, after he has thrown out the works of the law, he sounds as though the wants to abolish the law by faith. No, he says, we uphold the law through faith, i.e. we fulfill it through faith."

AC V has left a new comment on your post "AC V - Grabbing St. Paul by the Shoulders, Teachin...":

I would like to add Luther's commentary on Romans 5, key to understanding that vv. 18-19 esp. do not teach UOJ:

"Next St. Paul makes a digression, a pleasant little side-trip, and relates where both sin and justice, death and life come from. He opposes these two: Adam and Christ. What he wants to say is that Christ, a second Adam, had to come in order to make us heirs of his justice through a new spiritual birth in faith, just as the old Adam made us heirs of sin through the old fleshy birth.

St. Paul proves, by this reasoning, that a person cannot help himself by his works to get from sin to justice any more than he can prevent his own physical birth. St. Paul also proves that the divine law, which should have been well-suited, if anything was, for helping people to obtain justice, not only was no help at all when it did come, but it even increased sin. Evil human nature, consequently, becomes more hostile to it; the more the law forbids it to indulge its own desires, the more it wants to. Thus the law makes Christ all the more necessary and demands more grace to help human nature."

The Basics of the Christian Faith. Misleading for Future Sausage Factory Graduates

Best Bible Translation
First of all, people need an accurate Bible translation. For years, WELS Leftists have bewitched people with the union NIV. The same apostates now want to force the New NIV on everyone, a translation simply loaded with political and anti-Christian views (such as Adam as a myth and feminazi language).

The KJV has direct lineage from Luther. Tyndale was burned at the stake for producing the first all-English translation from the original languages, a prodigious feat. Luther's Bible is called the uncle of the English Bible. Luther's influence upon Tyndale is traced in this website.

Without a good Bible, people are led into the wilderness of Enthusiasm, because the bad translations are inaccurate, political, and anti-Sacramental. They also eliminate many verses from the New Testament, based on theories less substantial than the Area 51 landings.

The Little Three have completely failed in Biblical leadership, for promoting substandard, erroneous, and misleading translations, abandoning the Nephew of Luther's Bible, the KJV.

The Little Three could easily use the KJV 21 or another modern version of the KJV. I still prefer the KJV and can easily explain unusual wordings like "our conversation is in heaven."

The Efficacy of the Word
The Scriptures reveal the efficacy of the Word. Isaiah 55:8-11 clearly teaches that God's Word always contains the divine power and purpose of the Holy Spirit. This constant association of the Holy Spirit and the Word gives us certainty about God's will and actions.

KJV Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to
the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Doubting Efficacy Is Anti-Biblical, Anti-Lutheran
Doubting the efficacy of the Word is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, showing an antagonism toward the Scriptures and Lutheran doctrine. Luther consistently taught the efficacy of the Word because he was a faithful exegete throughout his ministry.

KJV 1 Corinthians 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

The explosion of methods, programs, plans, surveys, statistics, and entertainment can be linked to a lack of trust in God's Word. For that reason, clergy plan instead of preaching. They rely on pre-digested materials instead of teaching on the basis of their own study of the Word. They do not take the Gospel to their own shut-in members, let alone the unbelievers and spiritually inert.

The Gospel
The entire Bible, says Luther, is a sermon about Jesus. The Gospel not only includes Christ dying for the sins of the world, but all promises and blessings from God.

The primary preaching of the Law is to show people this sin - that they do not utterly trust in Christ for their forgiveness.

KJV John 16:8 And when He [the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on Me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see Me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

KJV John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Thus the Gospel plants and sustains faith in the hearts of those who hear it. God creates and sustains this faith through His Gospel and declares us forgiven - justification by faith.

The Visible Word
Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are the Gospel in visible form, always efficacious. For that reason we should always uphold the blessing of infant baptism and teach against those Baptists and Pentecostals who denounce it as heresy.

Likewise, Holy Communion must be closed and offered frequently to demonstrate the significance of the Word in saving and condemning.

Pastoral Work in the Word
The pastor has no other calling than to preach his own sermons, based on his own study. He should offer the Sacraments without hesitation or shame, and to take Word out on visits to shut-ins, the hospitalized, the grieving, and the spiritually indolent.

Luther and the Book of Concord
Ankle-biters like to go over minor conflicts from the last century, so they can spend a few more months pounding an issue rather than teaching the Gospel. If they spent time with the sermons of Luther and the Book of Concord, they would have something to teach.

The study of Luther's doctrine has been in complete collapse for decades, with all the synod leaders (Big Four) spending their time with the Enthusiasts at Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, Mars Hill, Trinity Divinity, Granger, North Point, Sweet, and worse.

If a pastor or pastoral candidate understands the efficacy of the Word, he will make that the foundation of all he does, excluding:

1. Most living authors.
   
2. Synodical position papers, essays, and other trivia.
   
3. Sermonic books.

Given the Biblical teaching of the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace, there can be no forgiveness apart from that faith created by the Gospel.

One Reader, Known Only as 29A, Responds to the Glende Gang:No UOJ in WELS Gausewitz Catechism

What in the world is wrong with these guys?

Why attack his deceased daughters or wife and then say that he has brain cancer.

Guys you need to stick with the debate about faith based on the Word and our Lutheran confessions.

This election controversy of the late 1800's has nothing to do with what Greg Jackson is posting about your idiotic UOJ.

By the way guys I am WELS and I was confirmed in WELS with the Gausewitz catechism and NO where in that catechism is there a mention about objective or subjective justification.

29a

Please post this on ichabod

Bored Offers a Trenchant Analysis of the Issues. Mrs. Ichabod and I Enjoyed Every Word of It

bored has left a new comment on your post "Timmy Learns To Spell. WELS Church Lady Smacks Him...":

The birth of In too eetoo feed ace and UOJ came from too many little people asking too many big questions. The simple fact that Justification comes to man by Faith, and that Faith comes to man by the means of Grace is quite easy to glean from nearly any section of the new testament.

I'm starting to think that UOJ and others, (or even trying to understand/discuss election) are ways that theologians seek to make complex thought necessary for salvation at the expense of simple belief. As intelligent as most theologians were, I guess that most were unsatisfied with leaving the conversation with belief. I'll bet every heresy came from over-thinking, as people try to make Scripture congruent with logic.

But ya know, I don't find that with Luther. I haven't sampled a wide variety of theologians, but of the ones I have read, Luther is by far the most readable by the widest audience. He is the opposite of shallow, but you find no thought puzzles and no mind-bending rhetoric that you find in others, even in his students.

Why? Because God used him to unencumber the Word. Luther was used to remind the world of the Gospel's simplicity. The UOJers fight against JBFA with the same spirit as the Romans fought Luther. To them it is blasphemous to dismantle their clever little puzzle--their logic powered canon.

***

GJ - This is all so true. I also give Chemnitz and Melanchthon very high scores in being readable and relevant. Chemnitz also had Luther's sense of humor. However, no one can touch Luther in plain writing with a powerful impact.

I have had many years among academic theologians, some of them on the far extreme of intelligence and study. Nevertheless, they play the same top dog games Bored eviscerates with such skill. They play around with narrow topics that few can discuss with them, sometimes stepping in it themselves.

Stan Hauerwas is the best known theologian today. In class, looking at me, he said, "Lutherans are not very good on sanctification."

I added, "Or sanctimony."

Timmy Learns To Spell. Someone Faked A Church Lady Post.Do We Follow the Reformer or the Kidnapper?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Essence of the Election Controversy

Dr. Gregory L. Jackson on his blog, Ichabod the Glory Has Departed, has thrown his lot in with Schmid, Allwardt, Schmidt and Stellhorn when it comes to the 19th Century election controversy in the Synodical Conference. Jackson can spout all he wants about justification by faith, but when he sides with the intuitu fidei crowd, he negates everything the Confessions say about faith. The “in view of faith” group that left the Synodical Conference and pulled the Ohio Synod away and caused the Norwegians to depart for a time essentially denied sola gratia—by grace alone.

There are two ways to view our election or predestination in Christ and its relationship to faith:

1. The intuitu fidei group taught that God chose his elect when he could look ahead into the future and see who would have faith. This teaching would tell us that our faith in time is the cause of our election in eternity. The essential reason for our salvation is then found within ourselves, and not in Christ and his atoning work. This is the synergism Lenski was guilty of, since he was a follower of the Ohio Synod train of thought.

2. The Synodical Conference, with its theologians Walther, Hoenecke, Stoeckhardt, Pieper and others, taught on the basis of Holy Scripture that our election in Christ in eternity is the cause of our faith. Let’s put that another way: Our faith in time is the result of our election in eternity. Sola Gratia!

The spiritual descendants of those who taught intuitu fidei are now found in the ELCA. We don’t believe it is a coincidence.

Dr. Jackson, do you believe that our faith here in time is the cause of our election in eternity, or the result?

---

This was faked and not from the WELS Church Lady
But if election doesn't come in view of faith, then there isn't any justification by faith. I think I know what you're saying. You're a UOJ storm trooper and you want salvation to come apart from faith by election. Dr. Jackson has well informed us all about these tricks. It's Calvinism and Pietism. And I'm not falling for it. I believe in the Bible and what Martin Luther taught.


Fake Signature

***

GJ - I posted information about intuitu fidei because people like to look up background material. Linking articles is not the same as promoting a dogma. For example, I have linked lots of UOJ essays. Am I promoting UOJ? Jungkuntz? Valleskey? Tim accused me of promoting Deutschlander for linking his professor's Theology of the Cross book. Perhaps he was still feeling guilty for skipping the Deutschlander presentation in Atlanta so he could worship with Andy Stanley and the Babtists at Drive.

Tim is doing everyone a favor by showing the uncritical thinking of WELS clergy, especially the Changers. As various ELS members have noted, they see heresies all over the place, but never under their own noses. (Deputy Doug - take note.)

Glende seems to be confusing justification by faith with intuitu fidei, which is lodged in a Pietistic group now, as one of my sources pointed out (A. Nonny Moose, aka Anonymoose). The concept has never fizzed on me, never been a controversy, a conflict, an issue, or anything else.

I feel sorry for the members (and ex-members) of St. Peter, Freedom and The CORE. The clergy-persons do not comprehend Lutheran doctrine. They are cowardly bullies who cannot even spell their accusations correctly. When their ignorance is exposed and quoted, they feel insulted.

False accusations are insulting. Tim, you really need to talk with a synod lawyer about what you are publishing. You, your parish, your district, and your synod are liable for what you post. Not having your name on the blog is not the same as being truly anonymous. Google Blogger has all your information.

Tim, you seem to be irrationally angry. You have pictured laity eating cat feces from a toilet and you named them. They disagree with you and that is the result? Are there no limits? Have you no shame?

I can live with your weirdness, because I provoke you on purpose. That is the point of polemical writing. But the people you attack, including your own member, are mild and soft-spoken. There is no excuse for what you have done. That brings shame to all pastors, to all Lutherans.

I have to ask Deputy Doug Englebrecht and SP Schroeder - why is nothing done?

The Dog Returns To His Vomit -Tim Glende Gang at Work

KJV 2 Peter 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb,
The dog is turned to his own vomit again;
and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.


Anonymous said...
The problem with Jackson is several fold. First, he's probably mentally ill and should have sought therapy after the death of his daughters. On this level my heart goes out to him and his wife. Secondly, his intellectually capacities have failed because of brain cancer. This is probably the reason why none of his statements about uoj make a bit of sense. Intellectually, he's probably suffered significant decline- which again is not his fault and I feel very bad for. Thirdly, he's about as close to a cult leader as you can get in Lutheranism. He enjoys the power he has over his flock. His flock are very gullible for several reasons. First, lacking much theological education (Brett Meyer isn't even apparently away  (sic) that different Lutheran Confessional documents list different numbers of sacraments!) Jackson seems impressive to them. If you do have a theological education (even from the sausage factory like myself!), then he comes off as having a half knowledge of a lot of things. I love it when he talks about modern theology (Tillich, Barth, Bonhoeffer, etc.). He just makes things up out of thin air- like that Bonhoeffer was secretly a Nazi. Secondly, because of their intellectual limitations and their correct instinct that something is wrong in the Lutheran house, Jackson seems to have the answer. Jackson's answer is that everything can be explained by his bogus argument about UOJ. He draws out the supposed implications of the doctrine (which he misunderstands and which he works into propositions which no one actually teaches) and then gives them an explanatory model that explains everything they think is wrong from the Church-Growth movement to whatever other make-believe problems that Jackson comes up with. Because they think Jackson is smart, they then feel smart by agreeing with him. Much of what he says is counter-intuitive and illogical, but it makes them feel like they're in the know (kind of like the ancient Gnostics) and everyone else is a blind fool. When people try to say to them things like "Oh, I see, you misunderstand UOJ, it's not universalism-though I see how you can make that mistake" they never offer any real counter arguments. They just cut-and-paste Bible and confessional quotation  (sic)  (which often times have nothing to do with argument) and then start insulting you. Then Jackson comes in and tellings (sic) them what a good job they did refuting the argument and they feel good about themselves- because it he's smart, then you're smart! That's why I think arguing with them is a bad idea. It just reinforces their Gnostic conceit that they're in the know and that they're smarter than you. So I'd just leave them alone. If I were you, I'd just shut down this blog. It just makes things worse.

June 21, 2011 5:22 AM

***

GJ - According to Glende's genius friend, I have brain cancer. I should tell my physician, who would interested to know how an illiterate parson can practice medicine anonymously over the Net.

Naturally they have to attack me through my sainted daughters, pictured above. I thought Paul Kuske wore that out 20 years ago.

Confidential to Appleton - real men do not pose with pop tarts and post the photos on their Facebook pages.

The bees are buzzing because the laity--even the clergy--are catching on to the Appleton Dumbed-Down Gang.

Church and Change started there, with Witte, Parlow, and others, with WELS offering money. Y'all let it grow and now it runs the entire sect.

The Synod President is powerless to do anything, he claims. All he can do is keep promoting them into positions of greater influence. The hand of doctrinal discipline is heavy indeed.

Nothing Funnier Than WELS Clergy Showing Off Their Doctrinal Knowledge

Tim Glende and his buddy took turns showing off how little they know about Latin, English, and Christian doctrine.

These buddies display the pathetic lack of knowledge in their sect, from the top down, while trying to show off. Both work anonymously, to maximize denial. But Tim takes a private email and says, "Hey world, I know who the WELS Church Lady is." Antinomians are like that - legalists for everyone else, no rules for their little band of warlocks.

They can refute any argument by linking their Spirit-anointed WELS Essay Files. Oh, ah. I have never heard anyone else quote them, so the essays must be special. Of course, I have laboriously reproduced the timeless twaddle of UOJ, straight from that same set of essays.

My ready-to-go database, the legendary Megatron, named after my car battery, has always provided quotations for comparison. For instance, Fuller doctrine versus WELS doctrine - oops, same thing, same words, same definitions, same Enthusiasm. Better - WELS doctrine versus the Book of Concord and classic theologians.

Now Megatron 4G is providing those good and bad quotations in graphical form, and the quotations are getting around faster than a false story in WELS.

Glende's bragging reminds me Roger Zehms (WELS divorced ex-pastor) and Paul Kuske (district VP voted out of office, sponsor for Floyd Luther Stolzenburg) discussing doctrine. Zehms said, "Some confuse the exinination of Christ with His humiliation." Both Shrinkers looked at me and smirked as I scowled. The first word is a Latin term for humiliation. They are the same term exactly. They might as well have smirked while saying, "Some confuse water with H20."

They should have said, "Some confuse the Incarnation with the state of humiliation." That topic is treated in Schaller's Christology, a worthwhile summary of Lutheran orthodoxy.

I like to bring up WELS doctrinal pratfalls and their butchery of the English language because they want to flog the laity with their superior education. If an unaccredited MDiv from a parochial seminary is worth so much, how much more impressive is another eight years of education from Yale and Notre Dame? Tim's uncle went to Yale, but the Appleton dumbed-down gang denounces me for going to Yale.

Simply citing a seminary degree and some study of Greek is proof that Glende does not understand Biblical theology. He is not a Roman Catholic priest who is infallible by virtue of agreeing with the Synodical Pope. The Scriptures judge all books, all doctrine, all teachers. "Let not many be teachers." It is far worse to be an ordained false teacher than to be a shunned, ridiculed, excommunicated layman.

Rev. Dr. Gerhardius-Flacius said...

I see the last comment really got his goat. He put up another childish response that dodged the question of whether or not he holds the orthodox Lutheran doctrine of predestination. That and he used a Transformers graphic. I'm very impressed. Using children's cartoons from the 80s, instead of actual theological arguments makes me take him all the more seriously. Perhaps he can put up more pictures of Tim Glende with Katy Perry also. Wow, what an indictment! He took a picture with Katy Perry. Also, he took a picture with the Black Eyed Peas! He must be heretical, because he takes pictures with pop stars! Good reasoning! Yes, and thanks for reminding us again that you went to Nortre Dame and Yale. Because when you then go and complain that other people in the WELS have "unionistic degrees" it doesn't sound massively hypocritical or anything. But then Jackson turns around and claims that the WELS educational system is bad. So getting degrees from elsewhere is bad, but getting degrees from WELS is also bad? So where is a person supposed to get a theological degree? Perhaps we can just listen to his infallible voice like his benighted flock!

June 22, 2011 8:51 AM

LutherRocks said...

Why don't you guys actually show some back bone and sign your name to something? If you believe you are speaking the truth and that you are standing on the pure Word of God, what is there to hide? Joe Krohn