David Becker pointed out the glaring omissions in the statement of unfaith posted at Time of Grace, the media ministry of the LCMS and WELS.
All the Church and Changers like Don Patterson adore Time of Grace because Mark Jeske is the real leader of WELS. Mark Schroeder is the overpaid managing editor of the PR releases, the talking head for The WELS Connection, the absolver of child abusers, the UOJ enforcer.
Jeske is also a bored member of Thrivent.
I was shocked and confused that Paul McCain quoted Luther's sermon verbatim on Cyberbrethen--even giving credit to the Reformer--so I decided to look up Mark Jeske's Statement of Faith.
My first thought was, "Where is the rest of it?"
I will copy it here, so you can copy and paste it, before asking your DP why Jeske is allowed to be on the air. The bold-face is in the original. Here are the capitalization errors and leaden English.
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 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.
There are no references to the Ecumenical Creeds, the Book of Concord, or the Lutheran Church.
The statement on the Holy Trinity is vague enough to placate the Mormons.
The sentence about God and His Word is almost completely empty of meaning, little more than saying water is wet and the sky is blue. The Sacraments are missing, because that would annoy the generic audience Jeske covets. The efficacy of the Word would also arouse suspicion in those potential donors. Let everyone figure it out for himself.
"Terminally sinful" is one of the funniest statements I have seen, something I would reserve for the Icha-slang Lexicon. So - how does one recover from this terminal condition, Rev. Mark? There is no answer. No atonement. No redemption. No forgiveness. No justification by faith.
A bold confession of UOJ would really rock this page and send the prospective audience out the exits. The eloquent Jeske has mentioned "pre-forgiveness" on his entertaining show, so I am certain he is a stealth UOJ fan. His utter lack of faith confirms it.
The "terminally sinful" in ELCA would like this confession of unfaith too, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is missing. So is eternal life.
Born of the Virgin Mary? Missing. As one Leftist minister-to-be said, "The resurrection and virgin birth are not important doctrines."
We are here on this earth to spread the news of a God without wrath sending His Son without a cross into a world without sin. (That was Niehbuhr's definition of liberal theology, and Jeske fits it quite well.) The last statement is really an ad for Time of Grace, a morsel of Law to tack onto this avalanche of grace.
"As many as possible" - that will take a lot of money.
David Becker's Point
Becker wondered in Christian News why WELS ripped into Pastor Paul Rydecki for teaching justification by faith while leaving Mark Jeske as their superstar with this pagan confession of unfaith.
In fact, WELS took years to "deal with" Mark Jeske, resulting in DP Jon Buchholz joining the chorus of Hosannas for Jeske at the convention. Buchholz was alleged to be a critic of Jeske, signing the secret Internet petition to do something about the heretic.
That same Buchholz swept down on Rydecki's congregation, slandering the faithful pastor, dividing the congregation, and foreclosing on the loan - IN FOUR MONTHS - after promising to study the issue with all concerned in the future.
Lutherdom's Rob Bell
Mark Jeske has already shown he will go the way of Rob Bell. Mark will continue to use a few Biblical words to decorate and highlight his pagan success philosophy, pleasing the rich donors and anesthetizing the vapid sheep.
ChurchMouse has also written about Rob Bell.
