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David Becker has left a new comment on your post "New Change or Die! Gathering for 2012. Working wit...":
Last week, I sent Christian News an article titled “WELS Divided on Mark Jeske” and several other analytical articles on Pastor Jeske. None of them were printed in the February 6 CN, but that may have been because I encouraged Pastor/Editor Otten to forward the material to Pastor Jeske/Time of Grace Ministries for a response (if they had any) and therefore they may still be in a future edition of CN. If they are never printed in CN, I might possibly forward them to you. I am also considering writing an article titled “Paul McCain Denounces Gregory Jackson as ‘False Teacher,’ ‘Cult Leader.’” CN could print a picture of you with the caption “Cult Leader.” That would be laugh out loud funny. I think that I write some laugh out loud funny stuff too—the style of humor is just a bit different from yours.
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David Becker has left a new comment on your post "This Is How Harrison, Schroeder, and Pope John Loo...":
Below is one of the articles that I submitted to Christian News on Pastor Mark Jeske/Time of Grace Ministries (which has not been published in CN, at least not as of February 6, maybe still forthcoming):
"Time of Grace" Statement of Faith Is Deficient
The rapidly growing Time of Grace ministry founded by Pastor Mark Jeske and others, and hosted by Mark Jeske, rarely mentions the word “Lutheran” on its web site, except in reference to the St. Marcus Lutheran Church that Jeske is pastor of. That is not NECESSARILY wrong; “Lutheran” per se isn’t in the Bible either. Nevertheless, Time of Grace is affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod by virtue of Jeske’s status as a WELS pastor and with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod via status as a Recognized Service Organization, even though this is downplayed or not even disclosed on the Time of Grace web site, for some reason.
However, this is the “Time of Grace” statement of faith in its entirety (no reference is made to any other creeds or confessions) at http://www.timeofgrace.org/statementoffaith.php.
“We believe in the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that God has revealed himself through his word, the Holy Bible, and that the Bible is divinely inspired and without error. We believe that all human beings are terminally sinful and that only through the innocent life and death of Jesus Christ can anyone be saved. We believe we are here on this earth to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.”
Is it just me, or is this not an astonishingly weak Statement of Faith? It does affirm the Trinity and Biblical inerrancy. But it says little specifically about the person of Jesus Christ – does not refer to Him as true God and true man, or to His second coming. It doesn’t even specifically say Jesus rose from the dead! (This is not to say that Jeske doesn’t believe these doctrines, but why not say it in the Statement of Faith?)
Time of Grace doesn’t say anything whatsoever about Baptism or the Lord’s Supper either. Some today make the false claim that Walter Maier Sr. of the “Lutheran Hour” of the 1930s and 1940s was weak on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Maier has an entire chapter on Communion in his best-selling “For Better Not For Worse.” Yet the LCMS-WELS ministry Time of Grace says nothing on Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and receives little criticism from the same people who are critical of Maier.
Both the WELS and LCMS pride themselves about being extremely concerned about theology and doctrine. It is almost unbelievable that Time of Grace’s very minimalistic Statement of Faith is acceptable to either LCMS or WELS. Somebody needs to do something about this.
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GJ - David, I am sure Missouri and WELS will discuss this at their next joint meeting with ELCA leaders.
The DP who protects Jeske will not do anything, and SP Schroeder claims to be helpless. Actually, Mark Schroeder is too busy trying to keep his shrinking flock from posting on Ichabod or playing the organ at the Mother Church of WELS.
David, feel free to send articles to Ichabod. I enjoy featuring many voices on a wide variety of subjects.
To be laughing out loud funny, just compare the claims of the Olde Synodical Conference to reality.
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