I pointed out, a few hundred posts ago, that philosophy determines how we look at all the facts. For that reason, anyone attuned to modern, rationalistic philosophy can be completely informed about the Scriptures and talk about all the various perspectives on the Word. But the rationalist cannot grasp the Word. His philosophy is a filter between him and God's revelation.
Consider the irony. A graduate program in theology is more open-minded than a parochial education, because all university courses assume a wide variety of perspectives. As Paul Holmer observed at Yale, most professors stay in the about mode.
The poor, abused, impoverished victims of LCMS-WELS-ELS education are given one perspective only. The faculties are always on the alert to make sure the current fads are taught, believed, enforced, and promoted. What they fear and hate most is the independent thinker. Since most of their charges are sheep who hunger and thirst for a secure life, the few non-conformists are easy to spot, isolate, and drive away.
WELS even has a program of forced return for graduates of The Sausage Factory. If they were not brain-washed enough already, they have to come back for another cycle, about a year after graduation. When I was there in 1987, they even had a forced week of Church Growth after classes were over - blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Thus the faculties rob students of the chance to think while picking the students' pockets. Every passage of Scripture has to be filtered through the mediocre essays and books of the recent patriarchs.
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| Saved without faith? That is WELS DP Jon Buchholz' claim. |
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| This paragraph should be read carefully by opponents and proponents alike. |
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| Poor Walther spent so much time in abusive Pietism and its works that he imagined "faith as a dead, empty hand" was an antidote to his previous follies. |
The victims of SynConference education should be pitied. Missouri pastors have a greater chance of thinking on their own. They also have a higher percentage of ministers who teach justification by faith.
But most of them see faith and see red. They have no training in the efficacy of the Word, so they are miserable when the pews are not filled and the budget is not balanced. Moreover, they want to be liked by everyone and praised by the apostate leaders.
This is not burn-out, but running on empty. They leave Holy Mother Synod's seminary with an education in conformity and propensity to worship the institution rather than the Savior. If the Word is not efficacious, why study it?
If Luther is so boring and irrelevant, why not accept the synod scholarship to study under Hybels, or to visit the shrine of Church Growth at Trinity or Fuller? No one can even address this, because asking is the same as synodical death.
Pastors and laity know better. They encourage me to write more, to publish more.
The UOJ fanatics also motivate me, because their attacks on every element of Luther's doctrine makes those musty old books fascinating. The crafts and assaults of Tim Glende and Paul McCain were addressed 500 years ago.
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| The Steadfast Luther editors who love UOJ think the rest of us are morons. They read Romans 4:25 and ignore Romans 4:24. They are blind to Romans 4 - Abraham justified by faith. |
