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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Let's Discuss These Ideas - As Long As You Agree w...":
Few laity are testing the spirits today. Most are satisfied with handing the eternal disposition of their souls to the clergy who've "studied Greek".
What good does all of that study do when the clergy reject the efficacy of the Word in favor of human reason and fellowship? Years of studying Greek is nothing if the individual has rejected the faith of the Holy Spirit from Whom all Scriptural understanding comes from.
Here's is an email I received from antichristian DP Pastor Jon Buchholz when I was contending against the use of women to read Scripture during the divine service.
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 2:18 PM
Subject: Women in the church
First, it appears that your understanding of the theology and practice of fellowship is in error. The Christian Church has through the centuries worked through theological differences carefully and patiently, through dialog, study and instruction, prior to severing fellowship. This has been true throughout history, going back to ancient times (Arian controversy, for example, that culminated after lengthy discussion in the Council of Nicea) and exemplified in recent controversies, such as the split between LC-MS and WELS in the early 1960s after lengthy study and dialog. The fact that you have a disagreement with Pastor Schewe doesn't mean that you should sever fellowship and abstain from Holy Communion. Quite to the contrary , you should all commit yourselves to devotion and study of the word, allow for patient dialog and instruction from God’s word, and receive Holy Communion for the strengthening of your faith. Your decree that you are “out of fellowship” with Holy Trinity and even with Pastor Schewe, simply because you have talked about this issue once or twice or a few times, is at this point very premature. Time will tell whether there is persistent error that necessitates a breach of fellowship.
Second, to the specific issue of women in the church, remember that there are principles and there are applications of principles. The principles are always inviolate. Some applications of principles are always inviolate. Other applications of principles may vary depending upon a whole passel of factors, including but not limited to: strength or weakness of faith; cultural sensitivities; customs of the people, and church etc. (An example might be the way Luther dealt with the radicals at Wittenberg who wanted to take the Reformation too quickly. He backed off and moved slowly, allowing the word to do its work in people’s hearts before he instituted things like Communion in both kinds—certainly a biblical practice.) In asserting that Pastor Schewe was wrong to allow women to read sections of Scripture antiphonally, you want to be careful that you don’t turn the application of a principle into the principle itself. The principle that women are not to teach or have authority over a man is inviolate. Some applications of that principle, e.g., women pastors, women teaching men in Bible study, etc., are inviolate. However there is quite a stretch between women teaching (i.e., expounding, explaining, clarifying and elucidating Scripture) and reading Scripture antiphonally and collectively without giving instruction. (This doesn't mean that Scripture itself is not instructive; that power to instruct inheres in the word. And, as you well know, the power and efficacy of the word to instruct is
not made more or less effective whether it’s read by a woman or a man.)
Another question that may well be raised is whether a practice is wrong (i.e. inherently sinful) or merely ill-advised under the circumstances. Since in this case in point you’re dealing with an application—not the principle itself—there are a number of criteria that are to be evaluated to ascertain the benefit or detriment of an application. Does it pander to or foster a particular false belief? Is it an accommodation to worldly practice and mindset? Is it edifying? And so forth.
(If you want to pass this along to Pastor Schewe, feel free.)
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Pastor (Jon Buchholz)
I bolded the offensive sections.
Reminds me of James 1:8, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."
Clearly in the case of Pastor Rydecki and the (W)ELS' ongoing war against one Justification solely By Faith in Christ Alone - lengthy study and dialog is more of an application of a principle instead of the principle itself. And as for that sophistry it happens to be the same used by the Roman Catholic Church when it acts and teaches contrary to Scripture.
The last highlighted section speaks for itself, "However there is quite a stretch between women teaching (i.e., expounding, explaining, clarifying and elucidating Scripture) and reading Scripture antiphonally and collectively without giving instruction."
(W)ELS should be ashamed of their leaders, call them to repentance and deal with them swiftly according to their long standing doctrine and practice.
The last communication I received from my contention with Holy Trinity over allowing the women in the church to read Scripture to the congregation during the divine service, and following Pastor Buchholz' external attempts at smothering my concerns, was this statement:
"After prayerful consideration and study of the Word in this matter we believe that antiphonal worship is a proclamation or reading of God's inspired word and is not considered to be 'teaching' the congregation. Reading of scripture as a congregation is an activity to be encouraged in worship. Teaching of scripture is an activity that the Lord in His Word has clearly reserved for the Pastor or other duly appointed official man of the congregation."
Any wonder that (W)ELS continues to excommunicate Christ's Church from their fellowship?
***
GJ - Double-mindedness and double-talk are not the sole possession of Jon Buchholz in WELS. No other sect, in my experience, practices deceit at all levels.
GA, their secret hazing ritual is still going on. They selected six victims to be the elite few to keep the tradition going. Anyone connected with Mequon will deny it, but someone told. Find him and beat him like a rented mule - it's a WELS tradition.
The seminarians tell church members how hard they study and laugh that people believe them.
WELS clergy tell the inquiring that they hold a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, but their own literature rejects the Confessions and brags (in Wayne Mueller's words) that the Book of Concord that they reject encourages them to invent new dogma.
Speaking of Wayne Mueller--seminary professor, Perish Services boss, synod VP--he claimed that WELS had no CG programs whatsoever when clergy were all holding CG materials lovingly distributed by Mueller's hirelings. Reversing himself in the same lying NWL post, he claimed that any CG programs in WELS were in accordance with the Confessions. Those would be, I assume, those programs that never existed in the first place.
One can hardly suppress a wry smile when WELS rants against ELCA for open homosexual advocacy when WELS produces, publishes, and defends an openly gay video from Martin Luther College students, one that is still on Facebook and has 1300+ fans. Mark Schroeder and Joel Hochmuth issued a letter against ELCA for its stance. A few months later, gay bloggers were joyously featuring Hochmuth's arrest for man/boy porn as an example of closeted homosexuals in a gay-hating denomination.
WELS is pro-life but the sect is happy to work with ELCA, whose health insurance coverage includes abortion for any reason. Thrivent, with Mark Jeske on the board, is the real boss of WELS. Anything for a buck - but they deny it, of course.
One aspect of Jon Buchholz' double-talk is the deliberate study gambit, one that he used during the agonizingly slow study of Jeff Gunn's emergent church, more or less a Rick Warren clone. Jon-Boy was concerned about all those souls at CrossWalk, but not concerned about false doctrine. With deliberate speed he convened two different blue-ribbon commissions to study the issue. During those four years, WELS and Buchholz and Mark Schroeder made it clear that Gunn had their blessing. Ignoring a critical report (watered down by Buchholz meddling), the DP enfant terrible embraced Gunn and his hive - not as Prodigal Sons, but as beloved sons.
And yet, this same DP took about four months to get rid of a Circuit Pastor, Paul Rydecki, and his congregation - after promising to continue to study the issue of justification by faith. Jon-Boy had such a tantrum about his beloved UOJ that everyone in the district is afraid to dispute a syllable from the consecrated computer of His Eminence. Consider that when reading the email above.
Double-talk. Two-faced. Duplicity.
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| Buchholz denies writing that to me. I still have the email - and many more. |
