Henry E. Jacobs Collection

WELS Gets the Leaders It Deserves

Dom Perignon Patterson, so named for his rich tastes, was demoted to District Pope this year.

Deputy Doug Engelbrecht was re-elected.

The funny part is - Joel Lillo thinks Ichabod readers care about his local election rather than divine election.

Plagiarism Update - Paul McCain.

Mrs. Ichabod asked this morning, "Has McCain plagiarized anything new today?"

I said, "Not yet."

When I saw that Aardvark Alley posted on the Nicean Council, I looked up Cyberbrethren. There was the AA post, with some slight improvements over blatant plagiarism.

Pope Paul wrote  HT: Aardvark Alley  and linked AA's URL. But that was at the end of the post.

I appreciated that he left the links in the post, which included AA links and Wikipedia, but attribution belongs at the beginning, to show that the entire post is from AA. As any freshman in college knows, Paul's bottom of the page citation means, "I got the ideas from AA, but the words are all mine."

The comments from various people thank Paul  - as if he wrote the post:



Stuart
June 12th, 2010 at 06:43 | #1 Reply | Quote
Thank you for this, it’s so healthy to remember these great events in our heritage….


Randy Bosch
June 12th, 2010 at 16:14 | #2 Reply | Quote
Thanks for sharing this brief commemorative recapitulation.
Historical critical “progressives” have cast out the record in favor of revisions to meet a secular agenda, making republishing of the true story extremely critical.
A link to a publication with the complete and accurate history of the early Councils would be very valuable!


Jonathan Trost
June 12th, 2012 at 07:21 | #3 Reply | Quote
Thanks for that good prayer and article, Pastor.
I’ve read that “Vatican II” (1962) changed the Nicene Creed from “I believe…” to “We believe…”, amd that many American Protestant churches (ELCA, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed) have followed suit.
Do(es) any here know the purpose and significance, if any, of this change?
Thanks!

Bruce Kintz had something about social media on Facebook. I posted my URL about his underling's plagiarism. Bruce acted fast! He erased my post and unfriended me.

CPH - Dummies Guide To Blogging.

Note that Bruce gets $320,000 a year to run a publishing business that will not tolerate plagiarism of their books. But his $180,000 a year subordinate, Paul McCain, can plagiarize while lecturing his betters on how to blog.

York Minster gets new carpet made of grass - Weird News - Digital Spy.Not Weird. We English Are Just Non-conformists

York Minster gets new carpet made of grass - Weird News - Digital Spy:


The dinner is thought to attract over 900 guests and is being held to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, as well as to raise money for the York Minster Fund.

The live grass is called 'Wow! Grass!' and has been donated by local company Lindum which manufactures it. The product was first launched at last year's Chelsea Flower Show. The grass is grown in specially-adapted felt that is made from recycled British textiles, rather than soil.

This grass has been used at various other locations such as the indoor rugby pitch that was created at the Grosvenor Hotel in London and the mock village green at Trafalgar Square. They have also made grass sofas for the National Trust.

Cathedral Chamberlain Dr Richard Shephard said of the occasion: "The need for funds to restore and conserve the historic fabric of the Minster is never-ending and I am sure that this extraordinary event will do much to assist us in our work."

York Minster.

'via Blog this'

Brett Meyer - On Schmauk

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Schmauk - The Real Question":

I believe Theodore Schmauk is actually touching on a very pertinent issue for today. That is, there are many false teachers and apostates leading the Lutheran Synods today  - who claim a subsciption to the Christian Book of Concord but in their teaching and practice they ape the decision theology and new age religions.

As much as an orthodox Lutheran claims a quia subscription to the entire Book of Concord, the orthodox Lutheran will also acknowledge by that very subscription that the BOC is also the Christian Book of Concord because  of its faithfulness, by the grace and mercy of God, is for all Christians in Christ's Church and all Lutherans in Christ's Church. If there were such a thing as a Glendite who subscribes to a confession which is completely faithful to Scripture it would then also be completely faithful to the Christian Book of Concord and what it is called would not make a difference. But, if that confession - and certainly they confess in doctrine and practice - is contrary to the Christian Book of Concord - then it is required that they prove their doctrine in as much as it's everyone's responsibility to prove his public teaching and practice.

I'm liking this bold Theodore Schmauk more and more.

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GJ - He is greatly neglected. He did not belong to Walther's cult, so he is ignored by the SynConference. Besides, that is one big book to read. People do not sign onto apostasy because they like to work hard.

ELCA would learn a lot from Schmauk, but he is positively Medieval to them.

I re-read some modern theology books in the last week. They have a completely different spirit. They do not blush when they express their abiding admiration for Karl Barth and like-minded apostates. My Anglican friend from Notre Dame put it this way - "Faith without belief." He pointed out a good book for me to read, Blessed Rage for Order. I was shocked until he said, "That is perfect for Christians with a sentimental attachment to the Bible."

Synod Minders Defeat Themselves

The government was clever in setting up charter schools. What are they? - tax supported schools, giving the illusion of independence while providing their own non-competition. If there is a public school and a charter school in the same area, how much is left for the truly private school?

Many companies do the same thing to control the market. If they have 50% of the market in the main entity and 25% in the secondary one, the pee-wees can struggle for the last segment.

The so-called dissenter groups in Lutherdom have the same function. They fuss and fume a bit, but obey orders from above. Notice that the Steadfast Harrison lobby silenced themselves on one of the worst felony abuse cases ever - in Minnesota.

Likewise, one can easily find Intrepids reporting back to SP Schroeder and making sure the group does not get too robust in objecting to anything, Divide and conquer works well. They vent their steam before it counts and have nothing to say when it does.

SP Mark Schroeder constantly supports and rewards the worst in WELS - and he was the solution? I warned one of his buddies about that, reminding him about Gurgle being the synod's salvation and the answer to amalgamation.

DP Jon Buchholz was against the Jeff Gunn sheep-stealing operation, until recently. Gunn has also been rewarded repeatedly.

Buchholz signed the petition against Mark Jeske before the last convention, then spoke for Jeske when it came to a vote.

Voting is a real hoot. Everyone - discuss and vote on the NNIV. The rock-ribbed orthodox leaders of WELS have already decided for the Murdoch Bible, because it is just as dumbed-down as they are. They no longer have the spiritual discernment to articulate Biblical, Lutheran doctrine, so they lust for a Bible that will teach Universal Objective Justification, their only dogma.

God has the last laugh. There is something in the Psalms about that. The more the apostates win, the more they lose.

KJV Psalm 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. 6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Synod Minders Defeat Themselves":

The single best word to describe the synod minders is unprincipled. Last weekend, I had a discussion with a synod minder who wears the guise of a crypto-calvinist. He is a member of the WELS congregation which I left several years ago and still wants me to come back. It was under his watch as congregation president that they hired Jeff Davis as a consultant to fleece the members in a third capital appeal. Now, he wants to have a trademark Praise Band for this congregation to make an even bigger name for this Tower of Babel. The synod minders like to attach themselves like barnacles on a ship to the movers and shakers. All that they end up doing is selling out for a bowl of porridge.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Synod Minders Defeat Themselves":

Ichabod -

You stated about WELS:

"Voting is a real hoot. Everyone - discuss and vote on the NNIV. The rock-ribbed orthodox leaders of WELS have already decided for the Murdoch Bible, because it is just as dumbed-down as they are. They no longer have the spiritual discernment to articulate Biblical, Lutheran doctrine, so they lust for a Bible that will teach Universal Objective Justification, their only dogma." [Your descriptive words]

When I read [this] what you said about WELS and its leadership's apparent dabbling and fascination with the new NIV11 Ruppert Murdoch Bible, I was reminded of the following Scripture:

"And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." - Psalm 106:15

I believe that somehow, certain groups within the pale of Christendom and, also some followers of "Christian" denominations, including Lutherans, read, study, preach and teach the Scripture, thinking that the same Scripture applies to the world, but not, really to them.

I've stated before on Ichabod (in so many words) that the stage was being set by WELS leadership to welcome the new NIV 11 Bible translation as the official synodical publication. And, as I am becoming even more convinced, that gender neutral translation is abominable.

Nathan M. Bickel - emeritus pastor

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org

Confessional Crisis Began Early in America - Thanks to Pietism

Pastor Nathan Bickel had questions about my Theodore Schmauk quotations. I am going to give a little historical overview.

Bishop Stephan came over with the Saxon group and established a Pietistic cult in Missouri. Walther took over and the Missouri Synod experienced what other Pietistic groups saw in America. The Pietism of Europe
was under attack by American Evangelicals.

Each group had its Pietistic origins and base, plus a renewed study of the Lutheran confessions. The Augustana Synod (Swedish) was very much like Missouri - Pietism blended with the Lutheran orthodoxy of the post-Concord era. There was a great deal of interest in Luther, too (unlike today).

No one said, "We are not Lutherans, we are Pietists," but they were Halle Pietists. Labels mean little today, too. Most of the modern Lutheran groups consider themselves confessional, and each one is the true Lutheran standard-bearer. They all agree about that label when they meet at Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, and Sweet retreats - especially when they share in Thrivent events and training.

Schmauk probably saw the positive trend toward the Confessions going backwards when he wrote Confessional Principle. He was saying, as I often do, that the formality of confessional subscription is meaningless. What really matters is - what are you teaching and what will you leave behind?

Liberal Lutherans were bending in the direction of evolution, New Testament text manipulation, and working together in One Big Happy Christian Family. Those influences moved liberals away from the Confessions, because the Book of Concord and Luther were obstacles in the way of true progress.

The Social Gospel (political activism of the church) was already starting when Schmauk wrote his book. They had a little group that gathered (The Brotherhood of the Kingdom) and eventually influenced every denominational with its Social Gospel Creed. The Federal Council of Churches, renamed the National Council of Churches, was the agency for promoting ecumenism and the Social Gospel. The World Council of Churches was a separate entity, a bigger and badder version, with the same agenda. Each denomination had its sub-group, such as the Lutheran World Federation.

Chemnitz and the Concordists held that their doctrine was the original teaching of the Apostles and the early Christian Church - not a Lutheran brand.

Thanks to modern Pietism, Lutheran organizations promote their brand rather than Biblical, confessional doctrine. The Lutheran groups are all quite similar, as Sasse observed, simply arriving at the same omega point at slightly different times, like the cars in a train.

I had to show how Lutherans fell into the Social Gospel Movement, when I wrote my PhD dissertation at Notre Dame. Dr. Bruce Wenger thought it was amusing that I was trying to explain Lutheran mergers and splits to a Mennonite, a Roman Catholic, and a blend (Yoder, Gleason, and Hauerwas - in that order). Wenger was trained in medicine and was an expert in physiology, at Yale and Harvard.

The research paralleled what happened with the Church Growth Movement in Lutherdom. The same tactics were used, the same denials issued, the same apostasy rewarded.

Charles Krauth - On Creeds

"When error is admitted into the Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are always three. It begins by asking toleration. Its friends say to the majority: You need not be afraid of us; we are few, and weak; only let us alone; we shall not disturb the faith of others...Indulged in this for a time, error goes on to assert equal rights. Truth and error are two balancing forces...From this point error soon goes on to its natural end, which is to assert supremacy."
Charles P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, Philadelphia: The United Lutheran Publication House, 1871, p. 195f.

"An age of darkness is a creedless age; corruption in doctrine works best when it is unfettered by an explicit statement of that doctrine."
Charles P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, Philadelphia: The United Lutheran Publication House, 1871, p. 215.

This is a good example of abusing the Confessions to excuse apostasy.
The world was longing for Wayne Mueller, MDiv, The Sausage Factory,
to overturn Luther.
The Book of Concord demands it!
Mueller, Valleskey, Bivens, Glende are 100% UOJ and  Church Growth.
Bring on the UOJ New NIV.

Wendland's UOJ Paper

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS Church Lady Will Release Link for Paul Wendla...":

http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/not-ashamed-of-the-gospel.pdf

Sorry, couldn't wait.

Wendland (purveyor of the new age NNIV)"God’s Word can only be a hidden treasure to speakers of English today if we willfully refuse to read the versions God has so abundantly provided for us." p.1

Wendland (teaching seminarians Church Growth wisdom that the (W)ELS has nurtured for years) "
5 Note: I am not suggesting that our possession of such authority means that we must be confrontational in our evangelism style or authoritarian in our approach to preaching and teaching. In a postmodern age, such approaches may, at times, place unnecessary stumbling blocks in the way of the truth." p3

Wendland (speaking in the (W)ELS Universalist language) "It (the gospel) is rather a radical rescue mission that was planned in eternity, yet rooted in time. It is about God working through history to save the human race." p4

Wendland (More (W)ELS Universalism) "Here Paul teaches that there is an astounding secret at the heart of every matter in the universe. At the center of the universe, there is God. And at the center of God, at the core of his innermost being, there is love, a fiery love, a powerful love that will not rest until it gathers together all his people—everyone of them, you and me included—and brings them—everyone one of them, you and me included—safely home to his glory." p5

Wendland (Quoting Scripture and then perverting it as only apostate UOJ confessing Lutherans can when denegrating the Holy Spirit's faith) "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 3) Churches of the Reformation have more typically understood it as referring to the gift of righteousness that God makes to humanity in the forgiveness of sins (Ro 5:16-18; see also Php 3:5). p7

Wendland (UOJ - the same UOJ that is fed to the New Age Religions future pastors) "He declares us all innocent, and does so freely, gratis, unconditionally (3:24)." ... "There, too, he shows his grace by justifying—declaring righteous—the guilty sinner.".... "In view of the last day—the day of wrath, that dreadful day—no wonder Paul revels in the gospel’s declaration of “Not guilty!”" p8

Ugh - I can't read any more of this tripe.

Scripture, the Christian Lutheran Confessions, Luther and Hunnius condemn Wendlands false gospel and do so vigorously and without reservation.

Hunnius' Theses Opposed to Huberianism is available for $10 on Amazon dot com.

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