The Secret of the Rubik's Cube Parallels Christian Doctrine

A nuclear engineer explained the Rubik's Cube to me when everyone was buying one and trying it out. He could solve it in a few seconds.

The center square never moves and determines the color of that side. No amount of rotation is going to change the relationship among those colors.

For this lesson I put the unchanging Word of God in the center square. KJV Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

The Christian Faith is a Rubik's Cube with only one solution. When someone ignores or plays with the Means of Grace, everything else is distorted and out of order. The same is true of each aspect of the Christian Faith. As Luther wrote in many different places, one error will destroy everything in time.

For that reason, the Lutheran reformers were anxious to avoid using the plural of doctrine, as if there are many choices in the cafeteria of Christianity. God has revealed one, singular, unified truth in the Scriptures - the Christian Faith. When a man's confession of faith is full of contradictions, his understanding of the Bible is erroneous.

One error indicates problems in the other areas as well. Proclaiming that God has absolved the entire world, without the Means of Grace, is a rejection of the Holy Spirit working exclusively through the Word. That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but also an obliteration of Holy Baptism. Why baptize babies who are born forgiven? an error taught glibly by Eduard Preuss before he became a Roman Catholic theologian.

Why not have an affair with the organist, drive drunk, and molest children in the congregation - all have sinned and all have been declared forgiven. These Antinomian hedonists do not know the Law and cannot teach the Gospel, knowing neither one and therefore betrayed to their own lusts - as Romans 1 predicted.

KJV Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Luther Rocks: Well Intentioned

Like this redneck house boat they tried to sell me.

Luther Rocks: Well Intentioned:

"Being nervous in front of people while performing goes hand in hand. Many big stars have confessed this. But usually with repetition it subsides for the most part in a majority of cases. Such was the case while I was in a band that performed locally here in central Texas. But I could never shake it while trying to be a front man for the group at Crosswalk or Christ the Rock. There was something that always felt wrong. Although my intentions were for the good, I don't believe my mind and spirit were in a good place. As Lutherans, we believe in the power of the Word and not gimmicks or methods. Sooner or later God says 'Okay, have it your way' and turns one over to their own depravity."

'via Blog this'

Justification Without Faith - The Chief Article of the Wisconsin Sect

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Forward to Volume 109: THE COURAGE TO BE PATIENT - John F. Brug

Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly - WELS Winter 2012

"Last summer at the international conference of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference a discussion addressed the question: "What are the distinctive characteristics of confessional Lutherans in general, and of the members of the CELC in particular?" As might be expected, many answers to the question centered on the doctrine of justification and in particular the doctrine which we call objective justification, the truth that God has declared the sins of the whole world to be forgiven because Christ paid for them all in full. God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not charging their sins against them. Naturally, there was also an emphasis on the importance of proclaiming this message of reconciliation to everyone for whom Christ died, so that they can apply God's verdict to themselves in faith. Not surprisingly, an emphasis on real means of grace, which do not simply stimulate the sinner to greater effort to cooperate in his salvation but which create and sustain faith in Christ's completed atonement, shows up not too far down the list of Lutheran distinctives."

Not much further down the list would appear our doctrine and practice of church fellowship.".......

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "The New Pharisees Control the Synods":

Here's my take on it.

Does this Brug guy even read the Lutheran Confessions? He sure doesn't write like it. God help the CELC if he's its spokesman. Here's a "Unit Concept" the WELS and CELC ought to emphasize. It has to do with the doctrine of Justification, which is by faith alone. To wit:

"...everything that belongs to...the article of justification,...are necessary only the grace of God, the merit of Christ, and faith, which receives this in the promise of the Gospel, whereby the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, whence we receive and have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, sonship, and heirship of eternal life." - Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, The Righteousness of Faith III:25.

The other observation. Brug says, "an emphasis on real means of grace, ... shows up not too far down the list of Lutheran distinctives."

"Not too far down the list?" If it had shown up farther up the list as Fuerbringer correctly points out in the quote above, then perhaps the rest of Brug's article wouldn't have been dedicated to an emphasis on Church Fellowship, namely, what the CELC/WELS is AGAINST.

All the distinctives of a sect are in plain view. Can you not see it?

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GJ - Brug begins with his position in a cushy job at Mequon, a school called by one pastor "the most respected and most toxic institution in WELS." One dare not stray from the playbook - not that Brug would.

The Book of Concord and Luther's writings do not have any impact on WELS. A typical graduate of the Sausage Factory will say, "The Book of Concord is boring and irrelevant."

Brug's Ministry of the Word is a textbook on what is wrong in that sect. Otten loves it.

The chief article of the Olde Synodical Conference is justification-without-faith, exactly the opposite of the Word, Luther's writings, and the Book of Concord.

One observer noted today that UOJ has wrecked the lives of many in WELS because there is no sin and no consequences. Those with fragile emotional health are pushed over the edge since the psychology of UOJ is completely warped.

The characteristics most obvious among the UOJ gurus are:

• Deceptiveness about what they teach. They mean "justification of the sinner" to represent absolution of the entire world.
• Obsession with salvation by works, always bragging about their great merit, due to their DNA or glorious accomplishments. They reject the efficacy of the Word so they must be the sole cause of anything good.
• Degenerate behavior. Sadistic bullying, drunkenness, and homo-erotic behavior are the norms at synodical schools.

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "Justification Without Faith - The Chief Article of...":

Brug: "...means of grace, which... create and sustain faith in Christ's completed atonement."

Even a basic reading of Scripture and understanding of Luther's Catechism would have informed Brug to write that the means of grace are "for the forgiveness of sins."

As it is, Brug sounds more like a Calvinist than a Lutheran.

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GJ - He is too timid to say "create and sustain faith in God's universal absolution."

That is why the Sausage Factory needs the NNIV, which says "all have sinned and all are justified." WELS and all the ultra-left mainline sects will adopt the NNIV.