Joe Krohn Asks the Intrepids To Be...Intrepid

Luther Rocks

Standing on the Word of God in Worship and Practice

Friday, July 22, 2011

A Little Less Talk and a Little More Action

Revelation 3:15-17 (NIV '84)
"¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

Intrepid Lutherans are patting themselves on the back today for 'rocking SS Good Ship WELS '.  The vessel may have done a bit of a tippy tippy, but that is only because a few folks may have changed positions aboard deck; albeit becoming visible; hardly 'rockaboatus'.

I do applaud their efforts, but at the same time take issue regarding the bullet point of  "our central teaching, "Justification by Faith Alone"." and the sloppy teachings that emanate from a sloppy confession.  Hardly.  Take a look in the WELS essay files.  So many writings back up "This We Believe"; WELS statement of faith.  Many of the listed bullet points would go away if WELS truly confessed Justification by Faith Alone; a true rendering of the Gospel.  And as far as the Intrepids go, they are enablers.  Whenever the discussion got too intense and a 'get off the fence' moment was presented with scriptural backing, the situation was diffused.  Pity.

Here is just one example of muddying the waters just enough so no one gets in trouble; Pastor Spencer's Easter 2011 sermon (an excerpt):

"Christ is the savior of the world, that is, He has covered the sins of all people of all time, yes, even those who reject Him. No one goes to hell because of their sins. Those that go to hell do so because of their unbelief. This is why He commanded that His Gospel be preached to everyone everywhere until the end of time. There is no reason for anyone to be damned. All sins have been paid for. All can be saved."

Although Pastor Spencer rallied quite nicely in the above quote, his middle statement that 'no one goes to hell because of their sins, but because of their unbelief' is a logical fallacy and opens the door for sloppy Justification teachings.  Actually they do go to hell because of their sins and the greatest of these is the unforgivable sin; the rejection of the Holy Ghost.  (See Mark 3:28-30; Matt. 12: 30-32; Luke 12:8-10; Heb. 6:4-8; Heb. 10:26-29)

These sloppy teachings manifest themselves at Holy Word Austin with Pastor Patterson teaching that all sins were forgiven before the Holy Ghost ever enacted faith.  We took issue with this and were summarily excommunicated...for the same confession they are stating in their bullet point and which Pastor Rydecki opined here.

One of their own does not confess the official WELS confession that all are justified, righteous and forgiven regardless of faith and I have his email saying so.  Here are a couple excerpts:

"So to say that God justifies the ungodly does not mean that he has justified all people.  The tense of the very (sic - verb) also speaks to that.  Those who teach the extreme of UOJ want to say that God already justified all people.  Past tense.  This is a misunderstanding.  Christ already died for all people.  Christ already redeemed all people. Yes, true.  Christ has offered a pure offering to the Father that has satisfied his wrath against sin.  Yes, also that.  Forgiveness has already been acquired by Christ for the world.  Yes, but that forgiveness is in Christ and should not be spoken of with respect to those who are not in Christ.  Christ is the Savior of the world in the same way that the bronze serpent was the Savior of the whole Israelites community.  All who looked up at it were saved from the snake bites.  All who look to Christ in faith are saved (forgiven, justified, etc.)."

And:

"The Ohio Synod viewed faith as man's part in the equation.  God has met us halfway in Christ.  Now man's part is to believe it, and in order for man to do that, the Holy Spirit helps him a lot through the Means of Grace, but still, man must act on those Spirit-given powers in order to believe.  That's wrong.  Our faith is 100% the work of God in man, not man's work at all.  As Luther said in Bondage of the Will, "No one can possibly believe this.  But the elect do."  This is all God's work.

We ought not speak of people as being already justified before they are born.  The Confessions equate Justification with Regeneration.  Period.  And the Scriptures do the same.  Justification/The forgiveness of sins are Third Article doctrines, not Second Article doctrines.  The confusion is this, that when some people say "God has justified the world," they mean, "Christ died for the sins of the world."  But our sloppy use of the word "justify" has caused all sorts of problems.  The latter is "redemption," not "justification."  Some go so far as to say that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to all people.  This directly contradicts the passage you quoted above that says that "to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited (imputed) as righteousness.""

I also understand from a WELS layperson that one of theirs also has the ear of the Synod President.  All the more for a call to action.

May the Lord's will be done always and at the upcoming convention.

Kyrie Eleison!
***

GJ - I am trying to understand the WELS Intrepid love affair with the late Walter Martin. I have watched Martin on TV, and he is good at hunting cows with a bazooka. Given the apostasy in all Evangelical groups, even by their own standards, his work did not meet with much success.

The best conservative Baptist apologist is not even close to the truths of the Bible, especially about faith itself.

A Baptist denies that a baby can have faith, that baptism is efficacious through the Word. In fact, all Baptists denounce infant baptism as Roman Catholic heresy. Similar objections are raised about Holy Communion.


So Walter Martin is a good Baptist while Ed Stetzer is a bad Baptist. If that is a confessional Lutheran stance, I fail to see the discernment.

I believe WELS pastors are attracted to the Baptists, like lint to Velcro, because UOJ has no Gospel in it.

Can any reader imagine the Intrepids quoting one of 6,000+ posts on this blog? Or linking it?

But the Intrepids get sensitive about Mark and Avoid Jeske having two synods, even while simultaneously linking all kinds of LCMS sources, including Matt Harrison's PR team on Issues Etc.

New Design To Replace Melted Gateway Arch

McDonald's has offered this alternative to the Gateway Arch. They will take down the melted arch, and double the new version. The only difference is the color, which will be a sunny yellow.

St. Louis Arch Melting in Torrid Heat-Wave

Officials tried taking loads of dry ice up in the passenger elevator, to cool their famous landmark.

Attention has shifted to re-naming the Gateway Arch.

The pretzel industry, long dormant in this Germanic city, may rebound with a symbol of their product etching the skyline.

Luther - On Faith

Luther Quotations on Faith

April 14, 2011 by Rick

The following are five quotations from Martin Luther on the subject of faith.  They are taken from What Luther Says, compiled by Ewald M. Plass, Volume I, pages 477-479, paragraphs 1412-1415, and 1420.
Luther contended that salvation is the free gift of God, and therefore could be received only though faith, and that faith itself is a gift of God.  Says Plass regarding paragraph 1412: Faith is “a work performed in us rather than by us.”  Faith is a divine work that produces all the other works below it.
Paragraph 1412:

Faith is full of life and power.  It is not an idle thought.  It does not float on the surface of the heart, as a goose does on water; but it is as water that has been warmed by fire.  Although such water remains water, it is no longer cold but warm and, therefore, an entirely different sort of water.  So faith, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, makes the mind and the thinking of a person different and thereby makes an entirely new man of him.  Faith, then, is an active, independent (difficilis), and powerful thing; and if we want truly to evaluate it, we should call it an influence (passio) on us rather than an act (actio) performed by us.  For it changes our souls and our views.

Paragraph 1413:

Do not think lightly of faith.  It is a work that is of all works the most excellent and the most difficult.  Through it alone you will be saved, even though you were obliged to do without all other works.  For it is the work of God, not of man, as Paul teaches (Ephesians 1:19).  The other works He performs with our co-operation and through us; this alone He works within us and without our co-operation (sine nobis).

Paragraph 1414:

Faith is a divine work which God requires of us; but He Himself must give us the strength to do it.

Paragraph 1415:

It is a mistake to place faith and its work alongside other virtues and works.  Faith should be elevated above all and regarded, as it were, as a sort of constant and general influence above all works, through the movement and activity of which everything that is in man is sent into motion, works, is vigorous and pleasing.

Paragraph 1420:

A Christian modestly says to God: Dear Lord, although I am sure of my position, I am unable to sustain it without Thee.  Help Thou me, or I am lost. — He is indeed certain of his position, as Peter was on the water (Matthew 14:29).  Peter could not be more certain than he was.  The water was supporting him.  He saw no obstacle in his way.  But when the wind came rushing on, he saw what was lacking in him.  This must be taken well to heart.  For although we are sure of our position, have Scripture, and are covered and armed with clear passages in the very best way, yet our security depends on the power, the will, and the might of God, who protects us and defends us against the devil, our adversary and greatest enemy.

But this happens that God may make us determined and yet keep us fearful, so that we are always filled with concern and cry to Him: O Lord, help us, and increase our faith (Luke 17:5); for without Thee we are undone.  At heart we should always feel as if we were just beginning to believe today, and every day we should feel as if we had never heard the Gospel before.  We must believe anew every day.

The St. John Lutheran Church Pipe Organ Recital: This Sunday at 3 PM

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Tudored by History: We Need To Know Our Past. WELS...":

Several years after the WELS kicked out St. John, I was talking with my former pastor about this beautiful church. He made the comment, "well, it is just too bad that St. John's cannot get back into the synod". As Rod Serling would say - "submitted for your consideration". In my opinion, what happened to St. John's is symbolic, if not a microcosm of the direction that the dying WELS is taken. The WELS leadership could care less about Bading and Brenner now that they have Fuller to look up to. I am bringing along a friend of mine, who is blind, to the organ recital. Although he is a jaded ex-Roman Catholic, he appreciates good music, good acoustics, grand church architecture, and has a collection of organ recitals that were recorded live at different churches. Through the conversations that I have had with him, he knows more about the Lutheran Church than most WELS laity. I am looking forward to this Sunday.

For Those Whose Mothers Died Young

Nancy Hanks

If Nancy Hanks
Came back as a ghost,
Seeking news
Of what she loved most,
She'd ask first
"Where's my son?
What's happened to Abe?
What's he done?"

"Poor little Abe,
Left all alone.
Except for Tom,
Who's a rolling stone;
He was only nine,
The year I died.
I remember still
How hard he cried."

"Scraping along
In a little shack,
With hardly a shirt
To cover his back,
And a prairie wind
To blow him down,
Or pinching times
If he went to town."

"You wouldn't know
About my son?
Did he grow tall?
Did he have fun?
Did he learn to read?
Did he get to town?
Do you know his name?
Did he get on?"

- Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet

***

GJ - I do not mean to provoke anti-Lincoln comments. I grew up in Illinois, where Lincoln is on the license plates, in an area where Lincoln served briefly in the Blackhawk War. Our college library had a collection of Lincoln materials. He was a saint, in other words.

Someone posted on Facebook about a mother who died relatively young. I know several people who had that experience, probably the most dominating event in their lives.

The poem is quite touching, a good reminder to consider mothers while they are still alive. Mine lived to be 90 plus, active until the end, still composing poems on the fly as we wheeled her around the nursing home. She even led the nursing staff in a rousing singing of "God Bless America." When we did not sing loud enough, she made us start again. I think she was remembering her teaching days in WWII.

We sang "Don't Fence Me In" with the rest of the nursing home. I thought nothing of the song. When it was finished, she said, "That's me."

I thought, "I got this from both sides of the family."

Some have absent or disappearing dads, and some fathers die young. I remember my neighborhood friend losing his dad while we were in high school. It was a sudden heart attack while painting in a closed garage. My friend became a cardiologist.

Runaway fathers make their sons very insecure and perhaps far too attached to Holy Mother Synod. I imagine they also have great ambivalence about their mothers. Was it her fault? His fault? Both?

I worked at my father's shop, from age 8. The early years meant a few hours on Saturday. Later I worked full-time during the summers. That gave me an introduction to quality ingredients, perfectionism, and working long hours.

WELS Convention Agenda, My Version

New capital funds appeal - "Bet you can't hit me with a quarter."
B. A. Bumb, Executive Director

Opening service - a sober James P. Tiefel will pick up a New NIV, open it carefully, and throw it against the nearest wall.

The convention will only sing Lutheran hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal.

Leaders and members of Church and Change will be judged to have excommunicated themselves through their obstinate opposition to Lutheran doctrine and practice.

Paul Calvin Kelm will throw the rock band instruments off the stage, screaming, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Even then, he will not be allowed back into the synod.

The faculties of The Sausage Factory, Mary Lou College, and Willowcreek's Liberal College will join hands, weeping, asking for instruction in Lutheran doctrine. People will look around the hall awkwardly, wondering who is left to teach them.

Due to demand, the Gausewitz catechism will cost $50 each on the secondary market.

The Little Sect on the Prairie will break fellowship with WELS, saying to the public media, "We have always been loosey-goosey, but those Wisconsin Synod people are way over the line."

The delegates will debate whether to use the King James Version, KJV 21, or another KJV.

Not invited to sing.

Love Shack employees will come to the microphone and say, "We have pledged to stop leaking news and spiking news through Herman Otten. It's just dishonest."

SP Schroeder will ditch Thrivent in favor of a new way to make money on the side.The name may suppress sales.Maybe they need a motto in better taste.