Luther always wrote about the Word of God and faith. That is the key point that explained so much to me. Why did the religious authorities rage against Him? The answer is seldom grasped today by the heirs of the Pharisees.
Jesus contrasted the righteousness of the Pharisees, based on their works, with true righteousness - faith in Him. Genuine righteousness is outside of us (extra nos) until we receive this grace in faith. The most damning work of the Holy Spirit is to say, "You do not believe in Him."
Unbelief damns. The foundational sin is not trusting in Christ for forgiveness. That is why so many Missouri Synod pastors are turning to Romanism and Eastern Orthodoxy: they do not trust in the Means of Grace. Their smells and bells, Roman mysticism, and Greek regalia prop up their insecurities. They do not realize their popish ceremonies are the gay equivalent of a rock band in the chancel.
Could these dramatists stoop to offering the Eucharist in a rude structure with base metal communion ware? What if they had to use a poor, drab robe instead of something destined for the Bad Vestments blog?
Joel Osteen, their opposite number, could never preach in a converted garage. They would detract from the snake oil he sells to the delusional. The Emergents use money as their incense, success as their sacrament, an incandescent grin as their benediction. Jeff Gunn will coach you for a fee, because he has great success at sheep-stealing from his fellow pastors. But he will not brag that his son is a professed atheist. After all, faith is not his message - success is. Anyone can be successful without faith. Look at all the popes.
That is why the entire world rages against faith, especially those in the religious world. The fury is Satanic, and they prowl about like roaring lions, seeking more people to devour. They rejoice over each person made twice-more fit for Hell.
KJV Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to
make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
The evidence is freely available on the Net, in what is said and what is left unsaid.
Said
The mainline churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Synodical Conference cousins all glory in unfaith.
The heart of 19th century liberal Calvinist Pietism is this - the entire world has already been forgiven.
One can find it in Knapp, Schleiermacher, Barth, Tillich, Rahner, Walther, Tholuck, Pieper, and the rest.
The Synodical Conference today is eager to preach unfaith to the elite. Let's face it - unfaith in Christ linked to forgiveness is a bleak theme for a sermon, useless in a hymn, and damaging in Sunday School. They never teach it in Sunday School because the children are too wise to fall for such nonsense.
Rome or Fuller Seminary is the last word in how to do church, how to manage the Sunday recruitment service, how to be a real, relevant, and relational Christian.
Unsaid
The unspoken is the most eloquent in all this, and the unspoken is often the most significant. Items:
- Luther is forgotten, abandoned, criticized gratuitously, but trotted out for an out-of-context quote.
- The Lutheran name is removed wherever possible, especially at the Christian academies marketed as outreach by--savor it, savor it--the conservative Lutherans!
- The Book of Concord, if mentioned at all, is subordinated to the chuckle-headed purveyors of UOJ, not one of which could last five minutes with any BoC editor.
- Lutheran hymns are set aside for Pietistic ones, children's music, and rock.
- The liturgy has to be modernized by ELCA and Roman wannabees until no one can recognize it.
- Chemnitz and the other genius theologians of Lutheran orthodoxy are ignored.
- No one in a leadership position notices or cares.
