Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Justification by Faith and UOJ Are Opposites


Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "The Book of Concord Is a Book of Harmony, But the ...":

Regarding the above quotes from the Christian Book of Concord declaring Godly contrition over sin and faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, which is faithfully defended by those professing One Justification Solely by Faith Alone, the UOJists (Blind Huberists) routinely howl in opposition, "But then I would have to know I have faith before I could know I was forgiven!"

To which we say, "Yes, exactly."

Huberites will then falsely say we teach faith in faith. No, we do not. The faith of the Holy Spirit, worked graciously and solely through the Means of Grace - Word and Sacrament - is in Christ alone. The false faith of the Huberites is in a supposed declaration of justification prior to faith and it is not in Christ.

Therefore they reject all things related to the Holy Spirit's faith, Christ's righteousness. They are unable to identify faith in themselves because it is not there - it is surely not the comforting faith of the Holy Spirit which is not of this world. The Scripture verse used to shut up the mouths of the unbelieving Huberites is 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Christians will consider the verse and the Holy Spirit will work a willing desire for understanding, faith and a continuance in Christ's Word. Apostate Huberites will simply ignore the verse and whine about how another of their rational doctrinal dictates has been harmed by our teaching One Justification Solely by Faith Alone.


Using Process to Force the NNIV on WELS

http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/tag/diaprax/


churchmousec (http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "WELS Is Using Diaprax - The Process - To Move the ...":

'Unfortunately, the process works well.'

Sadly, it's been worked to a science, raklatt -- to the detriment of all. One of the Devil's best tricks. :/

Thank you, Dr Jackson, for the kind mention. My posts on diaprax, inspired by you and Rogue Lutheran, can be found here:

http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/tag/diaprax/

One of my conservative Christian readers who also has her own socio-political blog, Linda Kimball, has some interesting observations along this line, with regard to wealth redistribution. Please see her comment and my reply (pietists, be warned) here:

http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/force-and-cruelty-from-pastors-scatters-the-faithful/

Any feedback you might have in response or elucidation would be gratefully received.

Churchmouse

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raklatt (http://raklatt.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "WELS Is Using Diaprax - The Process - To Move the ...":

This is not the first time for this kind of process. Back in the early 1990's, there was published a multi-page booklet for the pastors and/or leaders of congregational groups that was used to sell WELS' new Christian Worship hymnal. I studied the booklet thoroughly in disbelief. Those meetings, one of which I attended back then, were designed as persuasion. The justifications for the terrible texts of the creeds, and the texts and music of the liturgy, and the altered and dropped verses of the hymns, were contrived. The hymnal has been in use for a generation.

Unfortunately, the process works well. Imagine the effort at persuasion that will be needed when the next hymnal is published, if WELS has the money to publish another.

***

Dr. Moo at the cow-wash.


GJ - If everyone ducks and runs, the process works. I have seen the Process working but also failing in many different settings. For example, when the Lutheran Book of Worship (Liberal Book of Weirdness, conservative compared to WELS' CW) said they would not use "How Great Thou Art," they were flooded with 20,000 letters. I was told to write a letter to headquarters (the only time that ever happened to me). The Lutheran magazine pointed out that 20 letters on the same topic was considered a landslide response. The result was that the LCA/ALC backed down and later bragged that the new hymnal boasted "How Great Thou Art."

When the Methodists were going to print "Strong Mother God" as a hymn in their new masterpiece, the phone lines were so clogged that no one could get a call in or out for quite a few days. They backed down.

When Christian Worship came out, all the WELS pastors bought it -  and defended the atrocious, repugnant feminist Creeds - "fully human." I do not know of anyone who rejected Tiefel's effort. The ELS refused to participate, then lied about dropping out. One of the editors of CW was Iver Johnson, who capped his 50 year marriage with an affair with the church sexretary, whom he married.

So the real question is whether the members and pastors fight back or roll over and play dead...again.

Looking like the Portrait of Dorian Gray,
Lizard Hands says, "Trust me. The NNIV is so simple, the Mequon faculty can  understand it."
http://www.roguelutheran.com is another source of good research on  Diaprax.

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Very important to read - from California:


Re:  "Diaprax-the Process- was used to move the sheep over the cliff to NNIV."    It wasn't the first time diaprax process was" used to move the sheep over a cliff."   It has been standard practice for WELS for decades and was used in 1970's to nudge the sheep over the cliff away from the KJV into free fall for any translation other than KJV.  At that stage of the game, it wasn't from the KJV cliff to a specific "new and improved translation", but to condition the sheep to  the accept whatever final choice was selected for them which turned out in due time to be NIV.   By then the sheep were grateful for any translation after some years of confusion and Bible classes comprised of participating in asking one another representing multiple translations: "what does yours say?" more than "thus said the Lord".


Apparently the sheep and shepherds  settled down to be content, or at least tolerate the NIV which was only a step less offensive than the NNIV which is alarming the sheep and some shepherds now.    Once that herding of the sheep over the cliff where KJV had dwelt for generations, the old NIV is apparently being mourned.   But that is how Diaprax works...gradualism as the old saying about boiling the frog goes.  The deliberate abandoning of the KJV was the first mistake.   Time lines are not necessarily tools for cause and effect, but they can be instructive to trace events and results of transitions.  How much peace, joy, and yes growth and well being has been the lot for WELS during the past 40 years?   One controversy after another.


Until and unless the sheep understand the process of Diaprax, aka The Dialectical Process, Management by Objectives PPBS by whatever name, they will always be subject to the misleading of the elite doing the planning and programing with the sheep  to be  facilitated into constant change and predetermined objectives.

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churchmousec (http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Using Process to Force the NNIV on WELS":

'If everyone ducks and runs, the process works.'

Unfortunately, the process is specially designed to make every opponent duck and run. Think of the 2008 US presidential election ...

'Once that herding of the sheep over the cliff where KJV had dwelt for generations, the old NIV is apparently being mourned. But that is how Diaprax works...gradualism as the old saying about boiling the frog goes.'

Yes, that's it in a nutshell. So, not only do we have to bow to socialism but errant theology as well. Errgh.

Churchmouse

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California says:

....I first heard the term "diaprax" years ago in connection with the work of Dean Gotcher, whose lectures and written material exposes what it is, and how it works.   I knew the system as being the same as what I and a few others ad encountered and figured out on our own  when researching and battling schools, then in WELS.  I had the privilege of attending one of Dean Gotcher's lectures in San Francisco Peninsula area some years ago.    A google search brings up lots of info and references to him, and his work exposing Diaprax which has engulfed nearly every facet of organized and/or public life, both secular and religious. His work may be useful to any future expose and explanation you suggested you may write in the near future.




DEAN GOTCHER
Institution for Authority Research
Box 233
Herndon, KS 67739 








Mr. Dean Gotcher is the founder and director of the Institution for Authority Research.  His background is in education and European history and philosophy.  His extensive research in the area of education reform has given him exceptional insight into what education reform is all about, who is responsible for the changes, whenthe reforms really started, and most importantly, why our system of education (and our entire nation) is being restructured.  

He is internationally known for his research, and is referenced as a source in many articles and books. He is a consultant to business managers, state legislators, school board members, school administrators, teachers, and Bible-based ministers; as well as a sought-after guest on radio talk-shows.   

He is the author of the booklets Dialectic and Praxis: Diaprax and the End of the Ages, (Vol 1 and 2) explaining the dialectic process which is the foundation of and justification for Goals 2000, Outcome-Based Education (OBE),  School-to-Work (STW), and the Church Growth and Emerging Church Movements. He also explains Total Quality Management (TQM), consensus, the Delphi technique, group dynamics, cognitive dissonance, paradigm shift, and their roles in restructuring society. 
Over the past sixteen years he has held over 4000 seminars and/or weekend conferences.  He shares in his seminars that the main goal of the process and those promoting it is to destroy any overt position of authority, especially parental authority.  As a Christian, he believes the ultimate authority is God and His Word.  He shares what God has to say to us today regarding the subject of authority and educating our children. 
Questions he will address in his presentation include:

*      What are the differences between traditional and transformational ways of thinking? 
*      How do they relate to OBE, TQM, STW, Goals 2000, Church Growth, and the Emerging Church? 
*      How do these processes affect the workplace, government, church, or family relations? 
*      How do these processes destroy faith in God?

 
Recommendations: 
Dean Gotcher is THE expert on the Hegelian dialectic or consensus process at the heart of Total Quality Management and the new global management system.  Schools, corporations, community groups, and governments are implementing this manipulative system of teaching, training, monitoring, and manipulating people (derogatively calling them "human resources") around the world.
To avoid compromise and to equip our children, friends, and families to stand firm in God’s truth, we need to understand the goal and strategies of the consensus process.  I don’t believe anyone understands its danger better than Dean.  And no one is better equipped to help Christians prepare to resist its subtle and overt pressures to conform to the new global beliefs and values and to become ‘group thinkers.’  I recommend that everyone hear God’s warnings and encouragement through this wise and godly man. 
(Berit Kjos, author of Brave New Schools;  website:  crossroad.to
We have the highest regard for his Christian life style and commitment to ministry.  He is known as one of the most knowledgeable researchers in the country on the topic of educational psychology and theology.  He refutes the modern worldview with authority and responsible research, as well as a solid biblical foundation. 

This Sounds Strangely Like WELS and LCMS Church Growth

Loescher is the author of Timotheus Verinus,
a thorough study of Pietism's assaults against Lutheran doctrine and practice.


Febreze has left a new comment on your post "Kelm Sponsored Sweet as a Speaker for WELS. SP Sch...":

"The Complete Timotheus Verinus

Chapter 11
The Tenth Special Characteristic of the Pietistic Evil
Protecting and Excusing of Enthusiasts and Fanatical Things

...To this belong the following dangerous practices:
1) They represent coarse enthusiasts as witnesses of the truth and as God's messengers.
2) They defend and excuse these enthusiasts, their writings, and their doctrine.
3) They highly exalt people who are greatly infected with the enthusiastic life, and highly recommend their writings so impurely composed.
4) They justify or excuse the dangerous , fanatical way of speaking.
...
6) They are in spiritual fellowship with obvious enthusiasts and undertake special devotions with them.
7) They spread fanatical writings.
...
11) When they ought to do so because of their ministry and call, they do not oppose the enthusiastic life and other similar religious abominations."



Hunter definitely has Church Growth eyes.


WELS Is Using Diaprax - The Process - To Move the Sheep Over the Cliff for the NNIV



Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "WELS Translators Do Due Diligence":

Ichabod - Thanks for bringing this issue up again.

I have further thought about this long drawn out WELS process and the official WELS 4 part synodical Bible study about the translation process and implications. I can't help but think that all of this is a carefully contrived attempt by certain WELS professor / clergy and other clergy / synodical leadership, to condition and desensitize the membership for the acceptance of the gender neutral, new NIV 11. [Mind you, it makes no difference that the Southern Baptist Convention turned its thumbs down on this less than desirable translation]

Get a hold of that 4 part synodical Bible study, engineered by the very same TEC - Translation Evaluation Committee, which has already voiced its thumbs up approval of the new gender neutral NIV 11, - and, if you put 2 and 2 together, I think that you would honestly have to conclude that they are hell bent on having an official NIV 11 gender neutral translation for WELS synodical publications, purposes. This would include parochial school materials, catechisms, etc.

The very reality that the new NIV11 gender neutral translation was given equal consideration along with the Holman and ESV translations, tips one off to the WELS leadership intent. The Holman and ESV are only stalking horses for the future elevation of the new NIV11, gender neutral, WELS official standard.

Ichabod - As you quote Wendland:

<<<<<<<< “If a study like this is carefully made, I think it will give everybody a feeling of comfort and peace when the final decision is made that we really looked at this very carefully and everyone has had a chance to think it through,” says Wendland.>>>>>>>>>

To me, what Wendland says, is code for:

"Now, that our TEC and the 100 young pastors have done all this work, showing that the new NIV11 gender neutral translation is no better or worse than the Holman and ESV – and, is basically, harmless, - come to the convention and rubber stamp our selection........"

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org


WEL$ -
Our Love, Mammon's Calling


***

GJ - I believe ChurchMouse first brought up Diaprax, the method of manipulating a group into the making a stupid decision desired by the bosses.

I highly recommend his columns. I am going to use one soon about the downturn in American Evangelicalism.

This was used to close down Northwestern College. The voting was just a sideshow. WELS leaders were refused the mike if they were against the merger, but everyone went sheepishly along. The vote was crooked, but that was fine with the everyone - including the actual vote counters. Gurgle did not wait for the districts to vote. He started anyway and told the districts they could not stop the contractors - but promising to "pull the plug if it went over $8 million in cost. His cost-saving merger was rumored to be a $30 million.

One long-time WELS observer said the members and pastors will go along with this fiasco too.

If they cannot support a good translation and oppose a bad paraphrase, they are doomed.

The supposed alternative is the Calvinist revision of the Commie National Council of Churches' RSV. Yes, Paul McCain loves that one.


Pasadena Lutheran church marks 120 years - Pasadena Star-News

Just think what they could have done with the synodical mission board "helping" them.


Pasadena Lutheran church marks 120 years - Pasadena Star-News:


Pasadena Lutheran church marks 120 years

By Brenda Gazzar, SGVN
twitter.com/bgazzar
Posted:   05/17/2012 10:31:18 PM PDT


Historic First Lutheran Church in Pasadena will celebrate its 120th anniversary as a congregation May 26-27 with a carnival and service. (Courtesy photo)
PASADENA - The San Gabriel Valley's oldest Lutheran congregation is celebrating its 120th anniversary with a community carnival May 26 and a worship service May 27.

Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena is also marking the 75th anniversary of its current church building at 808 N. Los Robles Ave., which is a city designated landmark.

"We as a congregation are standing upon a rich history but looking forward to an even richer future knowing that God has got even greater things in mind for our future than he has for our past," Rev. Christopher Schaar, Historic First Lutheran's senior pastor, said.

Historic First Lutheran - one of the oldest churches in the city - spawned all the Lutheran churches in the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys as well as in San Bernardino County, Schaar said.

It was responsible for the founding of Emmaus Lutheran in Alhambra, First Lutheran Van Nuys, First Lutheran Monrovia, St. John Lutheran in Covina, Faith Lutheran in Pasadena and Trinity Lutheran in San Bernardino.

"Through those churches, all others in L.A. and San Bernardino County have been started, making us the Mother/Grandmother/Great-Grandmother church of those counties," Schaar said.


'via Blog this'

The Book of Concord Is a Book of Harmony,
But the UOJ Enthusiasts Sing Out of Key with Everything in the Word of God and the Confessions

Mary and Martha, by Norma Boeckler


AC V has left a new comment on your post "What Is the Gospel?":

Thus Christ comprises the sum of the Gospel when He says in Luke 24:47: That repentance * and remission of sins should be preached in My name among all nations. - Apology XII (V): 30.

* ...the parts of repentance are contrition and faith [a penitent, contrite heart, and faith, namely, that I receive the forgiveness of sins through Christ] - Apology XII (V): 1 


***


GJ - The UOJ Enthusiasts get their doctrine from Calvin, Halle University, a syphilitic bishop (Stephan), and a pope with four years of college (Walther).


They get their concepts of ministry from Enthusiasts of all denominations. Denying their Universalism, they go to Fuller, where the main theologians (Barth and the luscious Kirschbaum) are Universalists, and to Sweet  - who is a New Age Universalist.


They fit the definition of Ecumenists - they love every denomination except their own.

The Holy Spirit Teaches Man Better Than Books


"The Holy Spirit teaches man better than all the books; He teaches him to understand the Scriptures better than he can understand them from the teaching of any other; and of his own accord he does everything God wills he should, so the Law dare make no demands upon him."

Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 280. Pentecost Sunday John 14:23-31.    

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http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2009/09/divine-power-of-word.html




The Sower and the Seed, by Norma Boeckler


KJV Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

This passage shows that the Word of God always has divine power, the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit.

By comparing the Word of God to snow and rain, the prophet revealed that the Word having no effect is an impossibility. Especially in the desert, snow and rain always cause growth. In the Midwest, people will water their lawns during a dry spell, but one rainstorm will accomplish what all the sprinkling cannot – green up all the lawns at once. Snow also has that effect, blanketing the earth, keeping it warm and moist, melting down into growth-producing water.

“It shall not return unto Me void” is a double-negative making any exception impossible. No one can say, “Sometimes the Word is powerful and effective, sometimes it is not.” That is why the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from the Word, because the Word is always God’s and always has divine power. In addition, this power and effectiveness is declared in three ways, reminding us of the Trinity:
1. It shall not return unto Me void.
2. It shall accomplish that which I please.
3. It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Nothing is said about man making God’s Word effective.

In the Parable of the Sower, (Matthew 13 and Mark 4) man broadcasts the seed, which is the Word. Like seed, the Word is already alive with divine power.

Another comparison is Hebrews 4:12-13 -

KJV Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

This means the very teaching or preaching of the Word has the power of the Roman two-edged sword. That is why preaching the pure Word has an effect on all audiences. Some riot because of its effect. Some repent and believe, overcome with the truth of the Word. Some harden their hearts against the Word, as anti-Christian cultists at door do when they hear the Gospel spoken to them.

The Word of God belongs to Him alone, not to man:

KJV 1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

God Uses Enthusiasts,
But That Does Not Mean We Should Run To Them



"We must, after all, confess that in certain other articles the enthusiasts hold views which accord with Scripture and God's Word and that although they are impious heretics and blasphemers of Christ, he who hears and believes them on these points shall be saved. That God proclaims His Word even through the wicked and the godless is not an insignificant blessing (Gnad). In fact, in some respects it is more dangerous for Him to proclaim it through holy than through unholy people, for then those who lack understanding fall into the error of attaching more importance to the holiness of men than to the Word of God. In this way more honor is ascribed to men than to God and His Word. The danger of doing this does not exist if Judas, Caiaphas, and Herod preach. At the same time, no one is excused for his evil life, even though God is able to use it for a good purpose."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed. Ewald M. Plass St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1467f. Letter, 1528, about Anabaptists.                                              

Kelm Sponsored Sweet as a Speaker for WELS.
SP Schroeder Protected Kelm
Kelm Heads "Leadership" at Wisconsin Lutheran College

Sweet was also a featured speaker at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
They were proud to put the video on the air!

This selection below is from Sola Sisters:

I could be wrong about this - and I sincerely hope that I am - but based on Willard's own writing, I suspect that Willard holds to either "Christian Universalism" or "the Wider Mercy doctrine." And this leads me to Leonard Sweet, an ordained United Methodist pastor, who is another prominent writer/pastor/teacher today that I believe is also a Christian Universalist masquerading as a Christian.  I actually know Leonard Sweet from my New Age days, having read his book Quantum Spirituality many years ago.  While Sweet has attempted in some ways to distance himself from the New Age Spirituality movement, his teaching, language and vision for the church very closely mimic the New Age Spirituality vision for today's church (which is an ecumnical coming together of all faiths through a belief in a "oneness" that unites all mankind, and a downplaying of the exclusiveness of Christ's message). Sweet's teaching in Quantum Spirituality advanced the idea that God is "in" everything....a very eastern idea that is more correctly known as "panentheism."  Sweet's books were very popular among my New Age friends who considered themselves "enlightened Christians." An "enlightened Christian" is someone that I would categorize today as a "Christian universalist," meaning it is someone who professes belief in Christ, but not the Christ of the Bible, with his narrow way and exclusive gospel message.  No, the "enlightened Christians" believe that Jesus is their way to heaven...but that ultimately, all paths lead to God, and who are we to "put God in a box" and say that a good Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim couldn't find their way to heaven through their own faith tradition?

Here are some of Sweet's teachings from Quantum Spirituality, along with my commentary:
"The first of these five untheorized observations is that New Light embodiment means to be "in connection" and 'in-formation' with other Christians. Deeper feeling and higher relating go together. The church is fundamentally one being, one person, a comm-union whose cells are connected to one another within the information network called the Christ consciousness." p 122
"The power of small groups is in their ability to develop the discipline to get people "in-phase" with the Christ consciousness and connected with one another." p 147
"New Lights offer up themselves as the cosmions of a mind-of-Christ consciousness. As a cosmion incarnating the cells of a new body, New Lights will function as transitional vessels through which transforming energy can renew the divine image in the world, moving postmoderns from one state of embodiment to another." p 48
"Christ consciousness" was - and still is - a very prominent New Age Spirituality term used to describe a Christianized form of panentheism, which is the belief that God is "in" all things.
"A surprisingly central feature of all the world's religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed's light-filled cave, Moses' burning bush, Paul's blinding light, Fox's "inner light," Krishna's Lord of Light, Bohme's light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus' fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini's fire erupting from their fontanelles, and so on." p 235
Sweet is attempting to show here that the "light" of God has manifested itself in many different ways through many different cultures.  This is contrary to the teaching of the Bible, which is that God chose to reveal truth ("light") through the Jews in the Old Testament times, with Christ being the culmination of this revealed truth in the New Testament.  Born-again believers also have the privilege of bearing this light in a dark and fallen world.  But, was there real "light" (i.e., truth) coming from "Muhammed's light-filled cave?" Or from the Universalist Quaker George Fox's mystical "light" experiences? Or from the "flow of Kundalini's fire" which was said to be the awakening of "serpent power" in the Hindu tradition? If so, then the Cross was a mockery, for what God would let his own Son die such a wretched, torturous death if all other paths to God were acceptable?
If I understand Leonard Sweet's latest book, Jesus Manifesto (co-written with Frank Viola), correctly, today's "Christian Universalists"seem to be hanging their hat on Colossians 1:19-20 as their proof text:
"For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through himto reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." (my emphasis)
A "Christian Universalist" would say, according to this verse, everyone ultimately gets saved through Christ.  But is this not universalism? Because the idea is that all faith traditions have some version of the "light" that is in Christ (i.e., "Muhammed's light-filled cave," the "kundalini's fire," the mystic Quaker's "inner light," etc.) and all people will eventually be reconciled to Him.

But again, this would make a mockery of the Cross and of Jesus's own words:
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
It is the preaching of the gospel message that saves lost and doomed sinners....and not the non-offensive message that all paths lead to God, and that the sincerity of one's beliefs are enough to protect one from God's judgment.  And what is the gospel message that is so lacking from today's squishy, all-paths-lead-to-God universalism - "Christian" or "Wider Mercy" or any other kind?  It is this:

There is a sovereign creator God who has made us, and owns us, and has a righteous claim on our lives.  But we have sinned against this God who made us and takes care of us by breaking his moral laws....and without his merciful and loving intervention, we will die in our sins and be condemned to hell forever.  It is a wretched, desperate situation.  But God, being rich in mercy and loving-kindness, made a way where there was none: He has made a way for sinful man to be reconciled to a holy God. How could this be done?  It seems impossible, given God's nature.  We are sinful, wretched, depraved.....and He is pure, righteous and holy beyond our comprehension.  And after all, the Bible itself plainly lays out the bad new for us in Proverbs 17:15:
"Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—the LORD detests them both."
Will not justice be subverted if a holy God does both of these things - acquit the guilty (us) and condemn the innocent (Christ)?  And yet, God - in his magnificent, unsurpassable wisdom - found a way to do just this thing without compromising his perfect, holy justice.  He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, never sinning in thought, word or deed, and who, because of this, was able to offer up his life as a ransom for many. I broke God's laws, and Jesus paid my fine in his life's blood so that I could be released from the rightful condemnation of the law.  But this gift of salvation, though given freely, is narrow and exclusive.  Only those who recognize their sinful wretchedness and need for a Savior, and repent and place their faith in Christ's atoning work done on their behalf, will see the kingdom of Heaven.  The very first words of Jesus's public ministry (Matthew 4:17) were: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Narrow is the way, and few be those who find it. But ah, the wretched, human heart, which hugs its sin and depravity close, and would rather perish, clinging stubbornly and unrepentantly to its "right" to determine how we may approach God.......


Error and Heresy Must Come Into the World



"Error and heresy must come into the world so that the elect may become approved and manifest. Their coming is in the best interests of Christians if they take the proper attitude toward it. St. Augustine, who certainly was sufficiently annoyed by wretched sectaries, says that when heresy and offense come, they produce much benefit in Christendom; for they cause Christians industriously to read Holy Scriptures and with diligence to pursue it and persevere in its study. Otherwise they might let it lie on the shelf, become very secure, and say: Why, God's Word and the text of Scripture are current and in our midst; it is not necessary for us to read Holy Scripture." 
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 639.                  


KJV 1 Corinthians 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.                                 

Luther Anticipated the NNIV



"The Holy Scripture is God's Word, written and, so to speak, lettered and put into the form of letters, just as Christ, the eternal Word of God, is clothed in humanity. And men regard and treat the written Word of God in this world just as they do Christ. It is a worm and no book compared with other books; for the honor people accord other writings of men by studying, reading, pondering, keeping, and using them they do not accord Scripture. If it is treated well, it lies there in neglect. Others tear it to pieces, scourge and crucify it, and subject it to all manner of torture until they stretch it sufficiently to apply to their heresy, meaning, and whim...It is a good sign, therefore, if a man has the precious gift of loving and liking Scripture, of gladly reading it, of highly esteeming and treasuring it. Such a man God, in turn, will surely honor.... 
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed. Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. p. 71f. 1541 Psalm 22:6