Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Dean Burgon Fought the Apostates in His Day

Dean Burgon sat on the equivalent of the WELS NNIV Commission.
Dean Burgon Wiki Article.

Dean Burgon: "Dean Burgon

Dean Burgon



'via Blog this'

The Fix Is In:
WELS Anoints Changers To Help Force NNIV on Everyone


The Translation Feasibility Committee has begun its work. It held its first meeting last month in Milwaukee and elected
Rev. Paul Janke to serve as its chairman. [The Changers wanted him as SP. His own district told him to step down as DP.]
Other members of the committee include
Revs. John Brug, [He has favored women's ordination for over a decade, once again promoted in his awful The Ministry of the Word.]
Jonathan Schroeder, [The troublesome brother. To Russia with Love.]
Kurt Jahn, [NPH - watch the firm go up in smoke when this porno-mytho-translation bombs.]
Michael Jensen,
Phil Hirsch,
Daniel Leyrer, [Sausage Factory Changer]
and John Koelpin,
with President Mark Schroeder serving as an advisor. [No one has done more for the Changers.]

The committee was appointed in keeping with a resolution passed by the synod convention last summer. Its task is to investigate the feasibility and advisability of producing a new translation for use by the synod, now that the 1984 version of the NIV will no longer be published. The committee will consider various ways to do this, including an entirely new translation “from scratch” or a revision of one or more existing translations.

The committee plans to complete its work by the time the districts meet in convention next summer; delegates will be asked to choose which translation to use in synod publications. The committee will explore the questions of what such a project would require in terms of time, manpower, and funding. It would also outline the possible process in which such a project could be undertaken. Depending on the results of its study, the development of a new or revised translation could become one of the choices placed on the ballot.

As this committee carries out its work, discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of various existing translations will also continue. A special symposium on Bible translation will be held at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis., in January; the focus of the symposium will be on the principles of translation that will guide our synod in making a final choice on which version to use (whether existing or new) in our synod’s publications. Discussion on Bible translations will also take place in circuits and conferences throughout the coming months.

The choice of a Bible translation is a very important one. This is especially true for a church body like WELS, which has always stood firmly on the truth of Scriptures and has clearly declared its unwavering commitment to confess the inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures. [Except when the entire leadership of WELS went to Fuller Seminary and its clones for training.]

Serving in Christ,

Mark Schroeder



***

GJ - The purpose of a commission like this is to burn money, eat some danish, and make a bad decision look like the wisdom of Solomon. The group is rigged to say the NNIV is best, to trash any form of the KJV, and to declare how hopeless it is to create their own translation.

The Sausage Factory turns out plagiarists and the DPs endorse plagiarism, so why not print the KJV and call it the WELS Official Version? Like the Mormons, they could parade their effort as The Bible of Wisconsin.

The thing the Committee To Buy the NNIV can do is to wake people up to the treachery of the sect.


Luther's Sermon on the Widow's Son:
Luke 7:11-17
The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity



A Sermon by Martin Luther; taken from his Church Postil.

[The following sermon is taken from volume V:128-139 of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, MI, 1983). It was originally published in 1905 in English by Lutherans in All Lands (Minneapolis, MN), as The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther, vol. 14. This e-text was scanned and edited by Richard P. Bucher, it is in the public domain and it may be copied and distributed without restriction.]

THE RAISING OF THE WIDOW'S SON AT NAIN

I. THE MIRACLE ITSELF.

1. In this Gospel you see how the Evangelist again presents to us a divine miracle, by which he desires to move us to lift our hearts to God, in which is the same state of things as at the time existed in this woman; for today's lesson was not written for the sake of this widow, but for the instruction and help of all who should hear this Gospel until the end of the world, among whom we also have been reckoned.

2. In the first place notice what lovingkindness and grace were shown to this woman by Christ. We must truly confess she did not merit them; for she is going out of the city with her friends, where there is nothing but crying and weeping. The good woman thought of nothing as little as that she should again lead back her son into the city alive, and for this reason she does not desire it, nor does she ask it, much less has she deserved it. She never thought of such a thing that Christ should come hither; yea, she did not at the time know Christ nor did she know anything of his helping the people. Here all merit and preparations for meeting him are out of the question.

3. Now all this has been written to the end that just as here this deed of mercy befell this widow freely and entirely of grace, only because it solicited Christ's sympathy, so from this we can draw the general rule that applies to all the merciful deeds of God, that they all overtake us without our merits, even before we seek them. He lays the foundation and makes the beginning. But why does he pity us? In this way it continues to be the grace of God. Otherwise, if we deserved it, it would not be grace. And if it be of grace, then we can say to him: Thou art a gracious God, thou doest good also to them who deserve it not.

4. This sermon seems easy to us, but where are they who mean it with their heart? If we believed that everything comes to us from God's grace and mercy, we would daily run and rejoice, our hearts would continually rise and dwell in heaven. When we once get to heaven we will see that this is true. Now no one believes it. The god of this world, the devil, has such great power on earth that we do not see the work of God nor know it. 2 Cor. 4, 4. Therefore we do not appreciate it, we misuse God's mercies, and are entirely unthankful to him.

5. If I only kept in mind that he gave me eyes, truly a very great treasure, it would be no wonder if shame caused my death, because of my ingratitude in that I never yet thanked him for the blessing of sight. But we do not see his noble treasures and gifts; they are too common. But when a blind babe happens to be born, then we see what a painful thing the lack of sight is, and what a precious thing even one eye is, and what a divine blessing a healthy, bright countenance is; it serves us during our whole life, and without it one would rather be dead; and yet no one thanks God for it. Examine the entire body, and you will everywhere see traces of God's grace and goodness.

Hence Psalm 33, 5 says: "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." He had pure eyes and could see far, that the whole world was full of the goodness and lovingkindness of God. From whom, however, has this goodness come? Have we deserved it? No, but it pleased God to cast his gifts thus promiscuously into the world, which the unthankful receive almost as freely as the thankful. We are grieved when we are obliged to throw away one or two dollars, or less, or even to give them to the poor; how much does God daily cast away of his goods into the world and no one thanks him for anything? Yes, who even acknowledges their receipt?

6. Thus we may observe all creatures and become convinced of God's goodness in them. Christ says in Mat. 5, 45: "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." As though he would say: I give it to the whole crowd; but who thanks me a single time for it? He enlightens my and your eyes, but no one acknowledges that it is God's blessing. If some morning the sun should not rise, or rise three hours late, what distress and loss would that cause? How we would open our mouths and eyes? Then everyone would say: God be praised and thanked, who has given us such a light! But since it occurs daily, that the sun rises and shines at the appointed time, no one considers it a blessing.

So it is with the rain from heaven, with the grain in the field and with all God's creatures. They exist in such abundance, and we are daily so overwhelmed by their abundance that we fail to see them.

7. At times God permits some man to fall into anxiety and need, into pain and distress, so that the world seems as though it had no God, and it makes a person blind, lame, dropsical, and lets anyone die, as here the widow's son; for they are his creatures, he can do with them what he will. Now, why does he do this? He does it in such an abundance only that we may continually experience his lovingkindness.

Therefore as the disciples in John 9, 2 asked the Lord concerning the man blind from his birth, whether he or his parents sinned, the Lord answered and said: "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." As though he would say: God desires to be praised in this blind person, for he sees that the treasures of the whole world do not move us, wherefore he floods us with his goodness out of pure grace, that he may present a blind person before our eyes, for us to see what a costly treasure we have in the blessing of our sight, although we cannot recognize his grace and kindness in our fortune, that we at least might know and identify them then in our misfortune. Therefore this man had to be blind in order that the others might know themselves, and say: Alas thou good God, what a precious gift I have, what a good thing a healthy body is and a bright countenance! But no one takes it to heart! Yea, it is true we say: have not the cows eyes also! Now, if you were blind you would of course feel the loss, which you do not now feel, because you are well and overshowered with God's blessings.

8. So it was in the case of this widow, in whom God lets himself be known, as to what kind of a God he is, what he thinks of us, and what we must think of him. This woman has two misfortunes around her neck. First, she is a widow. This is misfortune enough for one woman, that she is forsaken and alone, and has no one to whom she dare look for comfort. And therefore God in the Scriptures is often mentioned as the Father of the widow and orphans, as in Ps. 68, 6 and 146, 9: "God setteth the solitary in families. The Lord preserveth the strangers and orphans, he delivers the widow." Again: she has an only son about to die, who should have been her comfort. Now, God comes and takes away her husband and son. She had much better have lost house and home, yes, her own life, than her son and husband. But the Lord turns it around. While the husband lived the woman did not appreciate what a blessing a husband was; but when he died she first became aware of it. When he lived, she thought: 0, other women have husbands, too! And thought her husband was like other husbands. But afterwards when he was dead, she became aware what kind of a man she had lost.

So, too, when her son was bright and well, she did not appreciate the blessing of God, but as soon as he died, she then first saw what a treasure she had lost. Before she did not desire to spend on him; but now, since he is dead, she spends all she has and even herself upon him. And thus it is also with us. There are many of you who do not expend ten dollars that your child may be reared better; if the child dies the parents wish and say: 0 would to God he were alive, I would give many hundred dollars! Why did you not give something before that he might have learned a little? What is the reason you do not appreciate the grace and blessings of God? In short, the world remains world, and it will not change into anything else.

9. Now, the woman went ahead and did not know what God had given her; but she was soon obliged to experience it. For before she turns around, and she thinks she is the safest, God comes, tries the wife a little and teaches her certain things, takes her husband and her son, This all has been written for us that we might have an example and learn to acknowledge God when he blesses us with a healthy body, a bright countenance, and bestows upon us other blessings. He does not give them to the end that you should rejoice in them; but that you may know what to think of him. When he takes a member out of your family, permits your wife to die, or destroys one of your eyes, all this is done that you may see what you have enjoyed from him.

10. And this is now the common teaching through all the Gospels, that we may see what kind of a God we have. It is also shown us here in this Gospel that God will forsake no one; therefore he permits the wife to see in a new light what kind of a God she has. For when she was forsaken and had neither son nor husband, then Christ manifests himself to her and says: Learn to believe, trust God, know him to whom death and life are alike: have a good heart, be of good courage, weep not, there is no need of it. He then goes and awakens the dead, and gives him again to his mother.

11. This and like miracles God does that the heart may learn how it should be disposed to him and what it may expect from him. As now this wife was fully convinced that there was no hope for her son, that it was impossible for her to receive him back alive again; yea, if one had said to her: Before an hour your son will be alive again, she would have regarded it as impossible and said: It is more possible for the heavens to fall than for my son to live again. Behold, here comes God before she looks around, and does what she never dared to ask of him, as it is impossible, and he restores her son alive to her again.

But why does God do this? He permits man to fall so deeply into danger and anxiety, until no help or advice is within reach, and still he desires that we should not doubt, but trust in him who out of an impossible thing can make something possible, and make something out of nothing. If you are so deep in sin that your heart denies you all grace and the mercy of God and makes you think there is no hope for you, as many consciences are ensnared by such anxiety and distress; then turn about and look here how friendly and graciously God allows himself to be pictured by Christ in this Gospel; that you may observe that he means it well with you from his heart; and that he is not here either to condemn or excommunicate you, but to preserve your soul forever. For this purpose such miracles and wonderful works are held before our eyes, and they also serve to the end, that we may see. As God here helps this widow in a temporal way through Christ, so he will help us not only bodily, but much more spiritually, and our soul forever, if we only put our hope in him.

12. But all miracles and works of God are considered impossible in our eyes, and they are also impossible for the natural man to grasp; and this is to the end that God may be confessed to be an almighty Creator, who from something impossible can create something possible, and can make something out of nothing. It is impossible after I am dead that I should live again; and even if I should pray to all the angels and all the saints for it; nothing will result from such prayers; what then can the free will accomplish? Nevertheless in death I should say: I shall live, not through myself, but because I know that my God is so skillful that he can make something, not out of wood that lies before my eyes, but it is his nature and way to make a thing possible here from something impossible; and create something out of nothing; otherwise he were not the true and real God.

13. Therefore, if death be present and I can no longer live, I must still know enough to say: Yet I live, and will live; so that death, that is all about me, is like a spark of fire, and life is as great as the sea. Now reason cannot grasp how this takes place. But whoever believes, knows for a certainty that to him death will be like a spark of fire in the midst of the ocean, that is extinguished in a moment. God is almighty, he who believes is in God, therefore he is in life, and though he were in the midst of death. So too a poor person who believes, thinks like this one here in death: 0! poverty is a spark of fire, and wealth is as abundant as water in the sea; now a moment only is needed for poverty to sink, and I will be rich; for by faith God has entirely changed him who now has all things in his power. So also with shame; when one's good name and reputation go down, people think they will never again be regained; if you believe and hold to God, it is a matter only of a moment, and you are again in great honor. For our God knows the art that from invincible poverty he can create great riches, from great shame unexpressable honor. So it is also with sin, if you believe. Thus sin compared with righteousness, is as a spark of fire compared with the whole sea of water. 14. This you see beautifully illustrated in the case of this woman. She is overwhelmed by exceedingly great pain and anguish, so that she thinks God, heaven, earth and all things are opposed to her. And since she looks into this with the eyes of sense, sees it as it is before her natural eyes, she must conclude it is impossible for her to be delivered from her great anxiety. But when her son was raised from the dead for her, she was as though the whole heaven and earth, wood and stone, and everything laughed and rejoiced with her; then she forgot all pain and suffering, this wholly disappeared just like a spark of fire is extinguished when it falls into the sea. Therefore it is written in the prophet Isaiah 54, 6-8: "For Jehovah hath called thee as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting lovingkindness will I have mercy on thee, saith Jehovah thy Redeemer."

But this I do not see, I think this moment is an eternal something before God; but it is in truth only a moment; and much joy follows as Psalm 8, 5 also says: "For thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor." But this is still all hid from us, and we do not see it as this wife does. Her departed son is in the midst of life, for God has him in his bosom, and intends to wake him. There is a spark of death there that surrounds him, which no one saw. But now when he became alive that was revealed which before was hidden from the whole world.

15. Thus God certainly deals also with us. Here we should learn the kind of God we have, namely, he who surrounds us and is about us in our very greatest dangers and troubles. Therefore, if one is poor, sticks deep in sin, lies in death, is in sorrows and other afflictions, he thinks: it is a transition state, it is a drop and a spark; for God has surrounded him on all sides with pure wealth, righteousness, life and joy, only he does not permit him to see it. But it is a matter of only a little time when we shall see and enjoy it. Thus you have here an example, not of faith, but of the pure grace and lovingkindness of God. Now we must also say a little on the spiritual understanding or the allegorical interpretation of today's Gospel.

II. THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THIS MIRACLE.

16. All works and miracles that Christ does visibly and publicly should be interpreted to the end that they may show forth the works which he does among men unseen and spiritually or within them. Therefore this bodily death signifies the spiritual death of the soul, which man must believe. For no one can see into the soul of another while we live; but when we are dead, we then have other eyes, then we see that the whole world is dead. Therefore the Lord spoke to a Pharisee, Mat. 8, 22, who first wanted to go and bury his father: "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

17. This youth who is here being borne to his grave is bodily dead. But there are also some inwardly dead before God who still live here in the body. The soul is dead that does not believe in God and cleave to him. And even though he be in the midst of death, yet he lives, as I said above.

18. This spiritual death occurs in a twofold manner: some are dead in their soul, but no one sees that death as we see bodily death, and this woman herself neither sees nor feels it. So the whole world is dead, but it realizes it not. Therefore some are also spiritually dead, who feel it well enough, as those whom the law has terribly punished. We do not here speak of those who care nothing for spiritual death; but of those who feel that they are dead and that their heart trembles, and who feel in their conscience that they have an unbelieving heart. He is dead quite otherwise than he who does not feel it, and yet always lives in wantonness. Now the one who does not experience their unbelief cannot be helped, for he does not know his sickness, and lives on, cares nothing for God nor the world. But he who feels this death, suffers misery and distress, there is struggling and despair, the world becomes too confined for him, he seeks assistance and advice, he despises neither stone nor wood, when they can afford him counsel, not to say that he should hear anything of man, even of the most insignificant person.

19. Who now gives him this feeling. The law does it, in that it reveals sin. The law says: "Thou shalt have no other gods." When I hear this, I must and should do it, but I cannot. Then I quickly conclude that I am condemned. When I act thus, death comes immediately and there is such a struggle in my heart, that if I should receive no help I would have to remain forever in this death and struggle. This then is the death of the only son, who lies in the bier, the pallbearers are continually carrying him into hell.

20. The pallbearers are the preachers of the law, who do nothing else than plunge mankind ever deeper and deeper into death; as those here hasten to the grave with the dead they are the more terrified and driven the deeper into perdition. It never becomes better with mankind, yea, it is ever growing worse.

21. This we have thoroughly experienced under the Pope, in our confession of and in our making satisfaction for sin. We allowed ourselves to think we would atone for our sins by good works; but it was only an anxiety of the conscience. Thus we ever sank deeper toward hell. Hence, when you have people, who fear sin and condemnation, they are already dead, you dare not preach to these much more of the law, you must show them the way of salvation and preach to them the Gospel. When our Papists meet such troubled souls, they refer them to rosaries, to pilgrimages, to this and that work; but one helps like the other.

22. The pallbearers would have still moved on and laid the deceased in his grave and buried him, had Christ not come, so Christ must come also here with his Word and grace. And this now is that other office of the Gospel, which does not teach what you are to do; but whence you are to receive help, that you may do it; as Christ does here. He asks not, what is here? or how do you do this? do you wish to have the youth restored to life again, and the like? He asks none of these things; but he has mercy on the mother, goes to her, touches the bier, and the bearers soon stand still. That is, when man preaches the goodness of God, and when Christ presents us with his merits and works, then the hand is laid upon the coffin, and the bearers stand still, that is, you no longer hear the preachers of the law, you no longer believe them; but you say: preach works here, preach works there, we have a different Sermon. While our hands are on the coffin they accomplished nothing; the dead does not come to life again; but when Christ's hand touches the coffin the mighty work is done. For when men hear that Christ's work does it, and that his works are presented to us, he says: What need we to do beside? For here our doing is useless and in vain.

23. But the dead will not be raised to life so quickly. The Word of God is of course preached to us, the goodness of God and whatever is given us through Christ; but this is not yet sufficient, this is only first touching the coffin. The voice of Christ in the heart must also be added, that we may believe the Word, that it is really as we preach. The youth does not immediately arise after he is touched, but when the Lord spoke: "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!" This voice stirred the heart and caused the dead to rise to life. When I in like manner hear the Word, and allow human traditions to move me, men still bear me ever on and I ever remain in distress, it helps me little. I must besides the external sermon also hear this voice in the heart: "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise:" that is, I must believe this sermon, cleave to it with my heart, trust in it, and let neither sin, death, devil, nor hell draw me from it.

24. Thus we have two sermons. One lays the hand on the bier. This does not yet accomplish anything. But the other, when the hand is laid on the coffin and the voice follows in the heart, this accomplishes all. The first proclaims to us the works of Christ, how they are done for us and given to us. But when the voice is heard in the heart, then the one who was before dead begins to speak and to confess the faith with his mouth which he believes and feels in his heart. That is, when the heart believes, the work of love follows, namely, that you speak, that is, preach to others and thank God for the blessing and faith he has shown and given unto you.

25. From this follows great joy and thanksgiving, by which God is praised and exalted; just as here a great report about Christ went over the entire land of the Jews and into all the neighboring countries. Thus a Christian can lead many unto faith. Therefore man should not make a work of jugglery out of miracles and wonders, as the Papists have done.

26. This is said on today's Gospel, in which we see how God helps and saves us, moved by pure grace and lovingkindness, without any merit or worthiness whatever on our part, yea, before we seek or request help from him. God grant that we may believe this!

Jessica Crist elected chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
WELS, ELS, LCMS Still in Fellowship with Them

Bishop Jessica Crist


Jessica Crist elected chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

'via Blog this'

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Jessica R. Crist, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Montana Synod, Great Falls, Mont., was elected Oct. 1 to serve as chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops. Crist, who will serve a four-year term, is the first female synod bishop ever to hold this position.
In response to her election, Crist said she has "great hope for the future of the church and respect for the many fine lay and clergy leaders who serve us."

Crist succeeds the Rev. Allan C. Bjornberg, bishop of the ELCA Rocky Mountain Synod, Denver. The Rev. Michael L. Burk, bishop of the ELCA Southeastern Iowa Synod, Iowa City, Iowa, was elected vice chair.
The ELCA Conference of Bishops is an advisory body of this church that includes the ELCA's 65 synod bishops, presiding bishop and secretary. It is meeting here Sept. 29-Oct. 4.

"Bishop Crist's election as chair of the Conference of Bishops reflects the great confidence the bishops have in her leadership," said ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson.

"She is highly respected for her clear proclamation of the gospel, her attentive listening to ELCA leaders and members, her collaborative approach to leadership and her passion for being engaged in God's mission for the life of the world," Hanson said. "She will lead the Conference of Bishops with a commitment to all voices being heard and our contribution to the life and work of the whole ELCA. It will be an honor to serve with her."

Born in Harrisburg, Pa., Crist earned a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., and a master of divinity degree in parish ministry from Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. She was ordained in 1979 in the former Lutheran Church in America and served as pastor of University Lutheran Church, Cambridge, and First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Great Falls.

***

GJ - Ken Sauer, Ohio Synod, LCA, was chairman of the bishops' conference, and he is a principal leader in taking congregations out of ELCA and into the NALC. I understand six retired bishops belong to the NALC, which is similar to the LCMC.

Sausage Factory President Paul Wendland's NNIV Campaign:
Two Ways To Steal Dr. Moo's Milk Money


WELS members and pastors can defeat the New NIV translation sales pitch two ways.

Method One
This requires homework, which may be too taxing for those who follow the Packers while eating their Johnsonville bratwurst.
  1. Fight the adoption at every level, giving no quarter to anyone. Fight it in the congregation, the circuit, the conference, and the district. Write letters to key people and send them certified with a signed receipt requested. That makes it impossible for them to say, "I did not receive your letter."
  2. Learn as much as possible about the NNIV and the King James Version heritage. 400th year! Boolah, Boolah! They represent the extremes, from anything goes mytho-porno invention (NNIV) to painstaking accuracy based on Luther's work (KJV). The KJV is the English version of Luther's epic work. Remember Luther?
  3. Even more work and shocking - learn about the words and verses dropped out of all modern translations, how it all goes back to Wescott and Hort (fascinated by the occult) and Tischendorf, who miraculously found the two new codices (Vaticanus and Sinaiticus) that became the new gold standard. Yes, the Bible did fall from heaven, in their eyes, because no one really knows where those manuscripts came from.
  4. Accumulate links and books related to these issues, especially about the newly invented method used in the NIV and NNIV - dynamic (sic) translation. Share them with others.
  5. Anticipate being kicked out of WELS. They did it before when they adopted the NIV. Afraid of the WELS? Then you are in an abusive cult and you do not tremble at God's Word.
  6. Learn to compare versions at Bible Gateway. The default NIV there is the NNIV.
Method Two
This is easier and may end up being the choice of the majority.
  1. Simply do nothing. Avoid all meetings about the translation. Sign and say, "They will adopt the NNIV anyway." Refuse to attend any circuit, conference, or district meeting while stating that assumption. It is a ruse, just like the votes on getting rid of Northwestern College.
  2. Stop buying all NPH books immediately. Get books from other sources. If anyone asks why, give the NNIV as the reason.
  3. Many good books are out in the used market, and hordes of them simply sit on shelves in church closets. Share in book exchanges. I used to give away boxes of old Lutheran books. They are easy to obtain and share.
  4. Create your own materials and share them. With Lulu, anything can be uploaded and made available as a free PDF download or as a printed version at a modest cost. They can also be turned into e-books.
  5. Watch NPH go the way of Augsburg-Fortress, which announces a new plan to save the dying ELCA publishing house. The plans never include printing orthodox Lutheran books again. 
WELS Seminary President Paul Wendland loves the NNIV.
---

California wrote:
Kudos for the suggestions in Method #1.  Method #1 will take a lot of independent study and undoing of what was standard curricula in seminary for half a century.   What Method #1 involves is what the seminary should have been doing.

One consequence for pastors who do dare to embark on using Method #1 there will be disillusionment about the seminary itself and their training there, or lack thereof.   Even laypeople have been able to discover on their own the sources of information and issues related to manuscript evidence, methods of translation, etc.,etc., all of which is history which does not require knowledge of "Greek".   "Do you know Greek?" is the old shibboleth tossed out by peers to anyone who would question a pastor or synod leader re: whatever contempory translation of the day approved by synod.   That's not good enough any more to divert consideration of historical events by influences in the late19th Century who had an agenda resulting in the catastophic long term consequences of both pastors and laymen  not to be able to declare with certaintly:  "Thus saith the Lord."

That battle was fought within a commission formed to simply up date  Elizabethan words in 1880's, but not to tamper with the underlying foundations of the KJV.  Sadly, a faction with other plans used the commission to hijack the effort and succeeded in influencing enough commission members to approve a revision which replaced manuscript evidence used by Luther, Wycliffe and Tyndale.   The maneuvering and tactics used by the perpetartors  described by a commission member, Dean John Burgon, the defender of the evidence on which the KJV was based, sounds all too familiar to the voices in the wilderness today.

I think the book which solidified my confidence in KJV was THE REVISION REVISED  by Dean John Burgon. Someone with whom I had worked closely researching and battling public school issues in the 70's was encountering the very same issues re: Bible Translations and efforts to get rid of the KJV.   She was not a Lutheran.   Someone she knew had found a dusty copy of Burgon's book on the shelves of a retired missionary's library.

It had long been out of print.   But my friend photocopied the entire book for me to read, and it was an account about  Burgon's experience, who had been appointed in England to be part of the committee to do the revisions of the KJV to update the Elizabethan terms which were no longer being used even then in 1883.  He describes his recognizing that Wescott and Hort (also committee members) were there with an agenda to use the substitute manuscript evidence  hijacking the original purpose of the committee.  His struggles to stop them from within the committee were so much what anyone who has tried to work to keep usurpers from winning the day, has experienced.   It was that book which helped me to grasp the issue which fell on deaf ears who kept referring to the translation issue as if differences between KJV and contemporary translations was simply different ways of translating the same source material.

That's when the charge of "do you know Greek?" would be used to dismiss any layman's attempts to get to fundamentals.  The question needing to be asked was, "which Greek?" and the determination needing to be
settled is which family of manuscript evidence is really most reliable....That promoted by Wescott and Hort or that used by Lutherand and KJV translators.

Some years later the book was republished by someone in Australia, and then again by the Dean Burgon Society which is dedicated to preservation and promoting of the KJV.   That is a source started and continued by Baptists, but they have a lot of books, articles and references available re: the issue and papers refuting some figures who have come on the scene who have distorted their position with positions which are not supportable.

You might find the website for the Dean Burgon Society a source for your research.  Awhile ago they were offering the paper hard cover books at special price in preparation for offering on line.  I don't know the status of their progress on that process. I have several of the the books from the society in addition to THE REVISION REVISED by Burgon.

Dean Burgon Society

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Read here about the founder of the make-it-all-up dynamic equivalence fraud, the key to understanding the NNIV.

The Episcopal Bishop Can Teach SPs Matt Harrison,
Mark Schroeder, John Moldstad about Leadership


http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=14875

The Episcopal Church is hounding the remainder of its orthodox wing with only four dioceses left (out of 109) that can be called remotely orthodox. When Mrs. Jefferts Schori starts her tap dance on the Diocese of South Carolina there will be one less in a year's time. Disagreement with She Who Must Be Obeyed will get you tossed out of the TEC. Just ask Bob Duncan and a dozen other orthodox bishops what has happened to them. If you disagree with the prevailing zeitgeist, your life will be made a living hell. Ask how well Bishop Mark Lawrence is sleeping these days knowing that sooner or later Jefferts Schori and her attorney David Booth Beers accompanied by Bonnie Anderson, will deliver their full frontal attack on the bishop.



The 100-pack of campaign buttons costs only $200.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - Episcopal Church Insurance Fund VP Says TEC Is Losing a Diocese a Year


VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - Episcopal Church Insurance Fund VP Says TEC Is Losing a Diocese a Year: "
A Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Church Insurance Companies of The Episcopal Church says that TEC has 6,900 parishes and missions worth $20 billion, but average Sunday Attendance (ASA) and all other indicators are down. Church leaders will need to close entities to make the church more mission viable in the future."

'via Blog this'

Another Side of Non-Visitation:
Laziness Starts with the Bishop, Or Doctrinal Pussycat

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo


"Recently, I spoke to an Episcopal rector in the Diocese of San Diego who told me, sadly, that he lived barely a mile from his bishop but not once in nine years has the bishop called him up. (They only meet at diocesan conventions.)"
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=14966

Mrs. Ichabod and I stopped to see a friend, 96 years old, as soon as we reached the Quad Cities. We both enjoyed seeing her. Unable to see, she squeezed our hands and smiled the whole time. She laughed when I told a story about her thanking me for adjusting the screen on her computer and saying, "Now put it back the way it was." Five years ago she made supper for us and insisted we stay at her home for the reunion. We skipped one reunion event to be with her. Visitation is not work and yet nothing replaces it. Personal visitation is essential.

DPs like to complain about the work pastors fail to do. WELS and LCMS DPs are just like Episcopal bishops. They are no longer parish pastors. I know WELS DPs pretend to be pastors, but they get funds to have someone do their work for them.

DPs never do any pastoral visitation. They only write letters to rebuke ministers for rocking the boat. They think of themselves as great and powerful executives. They are powerful, because they remain the single most important factor in the decline of their sects. They are "helpless" in dealing with doctrinal apostasy and the adultery of their pastoral friends, but their lupine jaws slaver at the thought of getting rid of a faithful pastor. They do not mind dissolving a congregation to get even with someone.

The Little Sect on the Prairie is no different. George Orvick, Jay Webber, and John Shep had no trouble with Floyd Luther Stolzenburg - until I gave them unwanted publicity for lying down with a dawg and gettin' up with fleas.

The last LCA bishop I knew complained to my face that people associated his district with all these "radical things that are being talked about." I replied, "Lie down with dawgs, git up with fleas." He said, "We have plenty of fleas."

Actual visitation would prevent decline and even reverse the rapid advance of apostasy, but the Lutheran bishops would rather enjoy their status. They get luxury vacations from Thrivent grants, disguised as conferences. The sect pays for their travel, often to exotic locations. Most members could not afford one of those trips. In several denominations I have heard leaders claim, "It is not us versus them!" But I have also heard their conversations, where it is clearly us versus them, because THEY alone are the church.

One university was famous for contacting the faculty only to rebuke them for being a few hours overdue for grading, or for violating new policies no had publicized. I knew some academic bosses who thought leadership started with slapping people silly (metaphorically) for the fun of it. I watched and waited - nothing new. But then they took a survey and suddenly salaries went up and personal thank-you notes began to be sent. They began to realize they were not the whole show or the only show. Changing schools is a click of the mouse button now, even for faculty.

Denominations are dead because people have realized that those offerings for the headquarters are simply to pay lazy bums huge salaries for acting important and visiting destruction wherever they go. They have the humility of peacocks and almost as much sense.

DP Englebrecht (WELS) defends the copying of this peacock's doofus sermonettes.
And Englebrecht will NOT show up for a scheduled meeting.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - DELAWARE: Death of a Cathedral

Welcome to the Cathedral Church of Saint John, Wilmington, Delaware

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - DELAWARE: Death of a Cathedral:


"The Rev. David F. Coady remembered, "when Bishop Wayne Wright first arrived in Delaware (I was living in Milford at the time). One of his first acts was to travel to Lewes and bless the priest and his boyfriend who were (are) shacked up. The priest had divorced his wife and moved his boyfriend into the rectory. It has been downhill for Episcopalians in Delaware ever since.""

'via Blog this'

http://www.cathedralsaintjohn.org/welcome.html

"The Cathedral Church of Saint John, as well as the Episcopal Church, approaches matters of faith through Holy Scripture, Religious Tradition, and Reason. While Holy Scripture is key, each of these interacts with and informs the others. To put it quite simply, at the Cathedral you are encouraged to use your head as well as your heart, thinking as well as feeling -- both are God-given gifts."

The Falls Church left The Episcopal Church USA and affiliated with another Anglican group.