Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Murdoch's NNIV - Flop or Success in WELS?



Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Paul Wendland's Mytho-Porno Living NIV Paraphrase ...":

Ichabod -

So, here we have the reported "preliminary" results:

Total votes cast: 2167

Delay the decision: 1621 (74.8%)

ESV: 148 (6.8%)

HCSB: 38 (1.7%)

NIV 2011: 360 (16.6%)

The "delay the decision" could be interpreted as "let's ride the fence another year."

And, apart from the fence sitters, it appears as if the new NIV 2011 is the popular choice. One more year of delay, will be all certain WELS big Whigs and others, need to line up enough votes for the Ruppert Murdoch Bible.

I think that the TEC'S 4 part biased Bible study comparing the NIV 11 to that of the ESV and HCSB reaped hugh benefits. As I mentioned in a prior comment, its action was used to "desensitize" the WELS membership to the flawed NIV. It's just a matter of time until WELS now accepts an inferior gender neutral Bible translation.

Ichabod - What you've been posting about this, vis-à-vis the WELS hell bent push and inevitability of adopting the new NIV 11, has been spot on. In another year they will have their UOJ - universal objective justification translation.

As one former WELS pastor told me: "All this commotion about the consideration of Bible translations by WELS, is just window dressing."

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

***

GJ - I share your conviction that they will get the NNIV in the long run, but this vote was a humiliation for Wendland and everyone else backing the mytho-porno living NIV paraphrase. I saw the NNIV getting over 50% with the obviously liberal districts voting.

HBW World Bird Photo Contest - winners announced | the Internet Bird Collection

For Father's Day I got a gift certificate to a bird feed store.


HBW World Bird Photo Contest - winners announced | the Internet Bird Collection:

"The winners of HBW World Bird Photo Contest have just been announced. The competition took place from December 7th 2011 to March 26th 2012. It aimed to encourage and disseminate knowledge about birds, while at the same time inspiring creativity in the art of photography. To these ends, the contest’s focus was on photography that is ethical, grounded in the utmost respect for the conservation of birds and their habitats, and without unnecessary digital manipulation.

The contest has been a huge success with more than 12,000 photos submitted by 3,600 photographers, both professional and amateur, from over 128 countries. The images submitted feature more than 3,000 bird species from 154 countries."

'via Blog this'

Paul Wendland's Mytho-Porno Living NIV Paraphrase Not Catching On



http://www.wels.net/news-events/district-conventions-address-bible-translations

Since new information indicated that a translation decision would not need to be made in 2012, the synod presidium prepared a ballot that included four choices: The English Standard Version (ESV), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), and the NIV 2011. The fourth choice was to delay selection of a translation until the synod convention in 2013.

Here are the results of the voting:

Total votes cast: 2167
Delay the decision: 1621 (74.8%)
ESV: 148 (6.8%)
HCSB: 38 (1.7%)
NIV 2011: 360 (16.6%)

This means that the discussions and evaluations of existing translations will continue. A final decision may be made by the 2013 synod convention in New Ulm, Minn. That decision could involve the selection of an existing translation; it could also possibly include the option to produce a new or revised translation by Lutherans.


***

GJ - Now that is one enormous yawn about the ESV and Holman. They might as well have picked the Bulgarian Bible as the Holman. Nobody has heard of the Holman, and the ESV is the Calvinist edition of the RSV, which came from the Commies at the National Council of Churches.

Paul McCain and the Missouri Synod used to sell the NIV and mix it into their products. Now they have the Calvinist ESV as their pride and joy.

Nobody mentions the KJV or anything that rhymes with KJV.

The good news is - they let people vote on which poison to feed to the next generation.


Homework for Trinity 3.
Luke 15 - Lost Sheep and Coin

You are the piece of silver in His hand.



THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

No separate pamphlet edition of this sermon is known. It is found in the collections of 14, 17 and 5 sermons.

Text. Luke 15:1. 10. Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him to hear him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake unto them this parable, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go alter that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his [riends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto your, that even so there shalt be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons, who need no repentance.

Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Even so, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

CONTENTS:

THE CONDUCT TOWARD SINNERS THAT IS CHRISTIAN AND PLEASING TO GOD.
I. THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS CONDUCT.

II. THIS CONDUCT IS NOT FOUND IN THE WORLD,AND ESPECIALLY NOT AMONG THE MONKS.

III. HOW CHRIST SEEKS TO AWAKEN US TO THIS CONDUCT.

IV. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN WORKS CONSIST IN THIS CONDUCT.

V. HOW THIS CONDUCT IS CONFIRMED BY EXAMPLES.

1. By the example of Moses.

2. By the example of Paul.

3. By the example of Samuel.

4. By the example of David.

5. By the example of Christ. 13-15.

VI. ADMONITION THAT WE COMMEND THIS CONDUCT.

VII. THERE IS NO GREATER SIN THAN TO NEGLECT THIS CONDUCT.

VIII. WHAT SHOULD MOVE PEOPLE TO THIS CONDUCT.

The poor consciences that are terrified on account of sin.

1. How these consciences are brought to doubt by the Papists.

2. In what way these poor consciences are to be instructed and comforted. 21-23.

Conclusion .

SUMMARY OF THIS GOSPEL:

1. The nature and characteristic of the Gospel are that sinners, or those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners, believe the Gospel; and the Pharisees, or those who consider themselves to be pious and righteous, murmur against the Gospel.

2. The love of God is praised in that it restores us lost sinners in Christ.

3. Righteousness we have only through Christ. The lost sheep can not of itself find its way home, and the lost piece of money can not find itself; all which is against free will.

By Norma Boeckler


PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP.

1. The words of the Gospel are living and quickening, if we only comprehend them aright. But, in order that we may learn to understand this Gospel better, we will now place before us two classes of men, namely, public sinners and Pharisees, and will make Christ their judge. You have often heard that it is our duty, for love’s sake, to serve our neighbor in all things. If he is poor, we are to serve him with our goods; if he is in disgrace, we are to cover him with the mantle of our honor; if he is a sinner, we are to adorn him with our righteousness and piety. That is what Christ did for us. Philippians 2. He who was so exceedingly rich did, for our sake, empty himself and become poor. He served us with his goods, that we in our poverty might become rich. He was made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

2. Now, the outward works of love are very great, as when we place our goods in the service of another. But the greatest is this, that I surrender my own righteousness and make it serve for the sins of my neighbor. For, outwardly to render service and help by means of one’s goods is love only in its outward aspect; but to render help and service through one’s righteousness, that is something great and pertains to the inward man. This means that I must love the sinner and be his friend, must be hostile to his vices and earnestly rebuke them, yet that I must love him with all my heart so as to cover his sins with my righteousness. I am commanded to rebuke; but Christ tells me, in Matthew 18:15-18, how I am to do this: “If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, then hast thou gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church; and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

3. In short, such an enemy of my neighbor am I to be that I cannot let him suffer. So dearly must I love him that I shall even run after him, and shall become like the shepherd that seeks the lost sheep, like the woman that seeks the lost piece of silver. On this occasion, therefore, we shall speak concerning such great work of love as is shown when a pious man invests the sinner with his own righteousness, when a pious woman invests the most wanton harlot with her own honor.

4. This is something that neither the world nor reason will do. A work like this cannot be done by honorable and pious men who are actuated only by reason, by men who would prove their piety by turning up their nose at those who are sinners, as here the Pharisees do who murmur and grumble at public sinners.

5. This is what our monks do. They have gone about making faces at all who lie in their sins, and have thought: “Oh, but this is a worldly fellow!

He does not concern us. If, now, he really would be pious, let him put on the monk’s cowl.” Hence it is that reason and such hypocrites cannot refrain from despising those who are not like them. They are puffed up over their own life and conduct, and cannot advance far enough to be merciful to sinners. This much they do not know, that they are to be servants, and that their piety is to be of service to others. Moreover, they become so proud and harsh that they are unable to manifest any love. They think: “This peasant is not worthy to unloose the latchet of my shoes; therefore do not say that I am to show him any affection.” But at this point God intervenes, permitting the proud one to receive a severe fall and shock that he often becomes guilty of such sins as adultery, and at times does things even worse, and must afterwards smite himself, saying: “Keep still, brother, and restrain yourself, you are of precisely the same stuff as yonder peasant.” He thereby acknowledges that we are all chips of the same block.

No ass need deride another as a beast of burden; for we are all of one flesh.

6. This we clearly see in the two sorts of people here presented to us as examples. In the first place, we have the Pharisees and hypocrites who are exceedingly pious people, and were over head and ears in holiness. In the second place, we have the open sinners and publicans, who were over head and ears in sins. These, therefore, were despised by those shining saints, and were not considered worthy of their society. Here, however, Christ intervenes with his judgment and says that those saints are to stoop down and take the sinners upon their shoulders, and are to bear in mind that, with their righteousness and piety, they are help to others out of their sins. But, no’ That they will not do. And this is indeed the way it goes.

7. A truly Christian work is it that we descend and get mixed up in the mire of the sinner as deeply as he sticks there himself, taking his sin upon ourselves and floundering out of it with him, not acting otherwise than as if his sin were our own. We should rebuke and deal with him in earnest; yet we are not to despise but sincerely to love him. If you are proud toward the sinner and despise him, you are utterly damned.

8. These, then, are great and good works in which we should exercise ourselves. But no man pays attention to them. Such works have entirely faded away and become extinct. In the meantime, one resorts, in the name of the devil, to Saint James, another proceeds to build a church, a third provides for the saying of masses, — this one does this, the other does that, and no one thinks of praying for the sinner. It is therefore to be feared that the holiest are in the deepest hell, and that the sinners are mostly in heaven.

But it would be a truly Christian work, if you received sinners, if you entered into your closet and there said, in earnest prayer to the Lord: “Oh, my God! of such a person I hear so and so, he lieth in his sins, he hath fallen. Oh, Lord, help him to rise again,” etc. This is just the way in which to receive and serve the sinner.

9. Moses acted thus when the Israelites worshipped the molten calf. He mingled freely with the people in their’ sins. Yet he punished them severely, and caused three thousand men to be slain from gate to gate.

Exodus 32. After that he went up and bowed down before God, and prayed that he would forgive the people their sin, or blot him out of the Book of Life. Behold, here we have a man who knew that God loved him and had written his name in the book of the blessed; and yet he says: “Lord, I would rather that thou shouldest damn me and save the people.”

10. Paul, too, acted thus. At times he rebuked the Jews severely, calling them dogs and other names. Yet he knelt down and said: “I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake.” Romans 9:3. It is as if he had said: “I would willingly be anathema, if only the mass of the people might be helped.” Such a course as this is much too lofty for reason, and passes beyond its conception. It is thus that we, too, must act, and thus that we must serve our neighbor.

11. Again, we have an incident in the first Book of Samuel. When the people demanded a king, and would not be ruled by God’s Word alone, but lost faith in the Lord, and said that they wanted a temporal king to go out before them and fight their battles, like all the nations, 1 Samuel 8:20.

Then God came and punished them for the sin of having despised him, and spake thus to the prophet Samuel: “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me.” After that the people came to Samuel and besought him to pray for them, saying: “Pray for thy servants unto Jehovah thy God, that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask a king.”

Then Samuel, among other things, said unto them: “Far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear Jehovah, and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:19-24.

12. David also acted thus. When the Lord inflicted the plagues upon Israel he spake unto the Lord and said: “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.”

13. Such should be your bearing toward sinners; inwardly the heart in service, outwardly the tongue in earnest. God requires this of us; and this is what Christ, our Captain, has manifested in himself, as Paul says to the Philippians 2:4-9: “Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”

14. Christ was filled with all righteousness, and might justly have condemned us all as sinners. But he did not do so. What did he do, then?

He gave himself to be our Servant. His righteousness has served for our sins, his fullness for our feebleness, his life for our death. This we find illustrated, for our example, in the Gospel before us, where he bears himself with such friendliness toward sinners that the Pharisees murmur.

The Lord therefore sets before them the following parables in order to teach how they are to receive sinners and be of service to them, saying: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it, etc. Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it?”

15. Christ is both the shepherd and the woman; for he has lighted the lamp, that is, the Gospel, and he goes about in the desert, that is, the world. He sweeps the house, and seeks the lost sheep and lost piece of silver, when he comes with his Word and proclaims to us, first our sins, and then his grace and mercy. Christ’s declaration, that he is the shepherd and has laid our sins upon his back or shoulders, makes us trust in him fully, and makes publicans and other sinners run after him. These would not have come unto him thus, had they regarded him as a hard and wrathful judge; for they had previously acknowledged themselves to be sinners and in need of his grace.

And so they were drawn to him when they heard his loving doctrine. Here comes the sheep out of the wilderness, and here the lost piece of silver is found.

16. Learn from this, then, that our neighbor is to be sought as a lost sheep, that his shame is to be covered with our honor, that our piety is to be a cover for his sins. But nowadays, when men come together they backbite one another; and thus they would show how zealous they are against sin.

Therefore, ye men, whenever ye come together, do not backbite your neighbors. Make not one face at one person and another at some one else.

Do not cut off one man’s foot and another man’s hand; make no such traffic of living flesh. Likewise, ye women, when you come together, conceal the shame of others, and do not cause wounds which you cannot heal. Should you meet with anything like this in some one’s house, then throw your mantle over shame and wounds, and close the door. A very good reason for doing this is, that you would have others do the same to you. Then, if you have kept the matter secret, bring the parties before you afterwards, and read them a good lecture; and let it remain with you as a secret.

17. Christ, too, acts thus. He keeps silent and covers our sins. He could, indeed, expose us to shame, and could tread us under foot, as our text shows that the Pharisees did. But he does not do so. All will be brought to light, however, at the final judgment. Then everything hidden must be revealed. Then the virgin must place her crown upon the harlot, the pious woman must throw her veil over the adulteress, and everything we have must serve as a garment to cover the sins of others. For every man shall have his sheep, and every woman shall have her piece of silver. All our gifts must be the gifts of others.

18. Hence there is, in God’s judgment, no greater sin on earth than that pious men and women and virgins commit when they despise those who lie in their sin and would appropriate to themselves their natural gifts, puffing themselves up and despising their neighbor.

19. Hence this Gospel is very comforting to sinners. But whilst it is friendly to sinners, it is a source of great fear to Pharisees. Had this Gospel been nothing more than a good counsel, it would not have been so comforting; but now that it has been commanded I can recognize the mind of God in Christ, since he will have it so, and enjoins that we are to cover the sins of others. Yea, what is still more, Christ himself does this, and to this end was he sent; for no man fulfills the law of God as perfectly as he. We are scarcely a spark amid the divine fire and light. He is the fire of which heaven and earth are full.

20. The Gospel is spoken to those only who acknowledge their sins, and their sins they acknowledge when they repent of them. But this Gospel is of no use to the Pharisees, for they do not acknowledge their sins. To those, however, who do acknowledge them, and are about to despair, the Gospel must be brought. But at this point the devil sets up a game, and suggests to the consciences of those who acknowledge their sins and long to be freed from them, that this one should resort to Saint James, that one to Rome, this one should take refuge in prayers, the other in confession.

And then they are told: “Give six pounds of wax, have so ninny masses said, do this, do that, and thus you will be freed from your sins.” Thereby they are led farther and farther from the Gospel, and are brought to the standpoint of works. In this way they must certainly despair at last.

21. Therefore, when you feel your sins gnawing at you, and feel your heart trembling and agitated, place yourself beside the publicans where they are standing. These are the very ones who shall receive the Gospel. Do so joyously, and say: “Oh, God! it is thy word that says there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons, who need no repentance, and that all the righteous and angels are to interpose and cover up sins. Now, Oh, God! I have come to this that I feel my sins. I am already judged. I need but the one Shepherd who seeketh me; and I will therefore freely venture on thy Gospel.”

22. It is thus that you come to God. You are already the sheep placed upon his shoulders. You have found the Shepherd. You are the piece of silver in the hand. You are the one over whom is joy in heaven in the presence of all the angels. We are not to worry, if we do not experience or feel this at once. Sin will daily decrease, and its sting will drive you to seek God. You must struggle against this feeling by faith, and say: “Oh, God! I know thou hast said this, and I lean upon thy Word. I am the sheep and the piece of silver; thou the shepherd and the woman.”

23. You might say: Yes, this I will gladly do; but I cannot atone for my sins. I can render no satisfaction for them. Consider then the publicans and sinners. What good have they done? None. They came to God, heard his Word and believed it. Do the same. His are living words. The Gospel is too deep to be fathomed by human words. Conscientious men who tried it readily understand this.

24. The learned and idle may determine the meaning of the ninety-nine in the desert. It is enough for us to learn the main thought of this Gospel.

---

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Homework for Trinity 3. Luke 15 - Lost Sheep and C...":

Ichabod -

Modern preaching lacks the substance of repentance. That is sure. Luther points out the significance of repentance. It is part and parcel of the Gospel. For to repent, portends a contrite spirit before God. The Lord cannot cleanse a proud spirit, but only a spirit which is steeped in the desperate desire for God's approval - looking to the Savior for that cleansing approbation. Hence, the need for the righteousness of Christ - not our own machinations. As Luther points out:

"........the lost piece of money can not find itself; all which is against free will."

And, so, we are back to the Scripture teaching of "justification by faith." Unless the Holy Spirit initiates and maintains that faith, the sinner is lost in his own sin. He cannot find himself. Where and when is this Scripture truth proclaimed from "Christian" pulpits? Hardly. Rather, what we have is the forgiveness of sins proclaimed; absolution granted; and, faith, personal belief and the Holy Spirit ignored in the whole process. Rather than proclaiming the Christian's struggle against sin, unfaithful pastors proclaim cheap grace. But, cheap grace is a cheap [worthless] substitute for a faith that truly justifies.

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

Manipulating the Divine Call

WELS/LCMS/ELS Leaders.
ELCA too.
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2009/11/trying-to-fathom-newest-elca-breakoff.html


rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "WELS DP Jon Buchholz to Brazil - Blame It on Rio":

The WELS call process is anything but divine. Even before I became informed, it was very easy to see how much human intervention there really was. The call list goes through the DP. He alone is responsible for all names whenever a congregation requests a list of candidates for a call. Can you say conspiracy? I remember when a faithful LES teacher was being harassed by the pastor and principal. As if by sheer coincidence, this teacher then received a call. When members questioned the suspicious nature in the timing of the call, they were immediately chastised for even questioning it. Just recently, a synod minder who was not even there when all of this happened, still vehemently defended the call. He received the filtered version of the facts secondhand from the pastor involved. Those of us who were in the middle of it all were essentially called liars. Decreasing membership numbers in the WELS are an indication that deception is not really working all that well anymore.



***



GJ - The leaders themselves do not believe in the divine call. It is a weapon for them - threats and bribery. The careerism was out in the open in the LCA, but the SynConference covers it with a lot of stained glass words. The clergy constantly vie for better calls, so this is used to keep them docile and cooperative.

There should have been a firestorm of opposition to Church Growth 35 and 25 years ago. The senior leaders you see today went along with it - and the NIV - lest they lose out on an exotic job in Europe or a coveted committee post.

The current dissenters in Missouri and WELS are harmless. They will growl a bit, cash in their bribes, and say, "I will take care of my parish. God will take care of the synod."

This is how it goes. The betrayers will be betrayed.


NIV Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.


David Preus and James Crumley took the ALC and LCA down the road of apostasy.

David sucked up to the Reformed and achieved joint communion with those who denied the Real Presence. That must have taken great diplomatic skill, to surrender to the efficacy of the Word, to conduct joint communion services that honor the Reformed and dishonor the Gospel.

Crumley did everything but curl up on the pope's lap and lick his ring. He even published his correspondence with the pope and sent it at great expense to every LCA pastor. Will Paul McCain follow suit. Let's hope so.

They worked to create the ELCA as an amalgamation of every radical concept, including gay quotas. But they were shocked at the results of their creation. Frankenstein went Medieval on them and their past associates, tossing them out and treating them with scorn.

The betrayers were betrayed. They lived to regret the merger. Crumley and Preus openly regret what they fashioned with their consecrated and consecrating hands.

The same will happen with some of the WELS, ELS, and LCMS leaders today, when their destructive days of compromise and surrender are over. Some - like Gurgle - are too dumb to notice or care. Others will end their days in sorrow and despair, because they will remember what they did to achieve such disastrous results.

God's wrath is revealed in allowing false teachers to punish those who  support them.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Definition of Journalism



"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."


George Orwell


---


Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Definition of Journalism":

Ichabod -

Then, according to this Orwell definition of "journalism," how would you categorize that Blizzard of Sin letter that LCMS president Harrison wrote?

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

***

GJ - That was a snow job, as the polar bears would say.

WELS DP Jon Buchholz to Brazil - Blame It on Rio

Confessional? Find this baloney in the Book of Concord.



06/18/12             WISCONSIN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD             10:10 am

                     P A S T O R   C A L L   R E P O R T
                       06/05/2012  through  06/18/2012





Buchholz, Rev Jon D     -   Latin America Admin Committee    -    06/16/2012
         Missionary in Brazil


***

GJ - I am guessing here, but I think this was discussed in advance. Jon has been connected with Brazil already. When I visited his church in Tempe, Arizona, at his invitation, we discussed Brazil a bit with a missionary who was there.

Oddly, Sims, the former GA pope, was on the staff. He is now at St. Paul German Village (Columbus, Ohio), the big congregation that the Shrinkers shrank - Stolzenburg, Schumann, and Nitz.

Jon was elected DP as a reformer and buddy of SP Schroeder. Both have followed the same rapid descent. Jon was against CrossWalk (supposedly) and just welcomed Gunn's sheep-stealing operation into WELS. Lately his parish has been promoting Gunn as well. Truth on the scaffold, error on the throne.

Gunn's son is an atheist, so maybe he should evangelize his own family. But it does not matter, because everyone is forgiven and saved in WELS-land.

Jon signed the secret online petition against Mark Jeske, then reversed himself at the convention - a conversion more dramatic than Paul's on the road to Damascus.

Short lesson - all "mission" activity in WELS and Missouri is Fuller trained at best. I do mean 100% in the leadership, oversight committees, and dumb clucks who go out to spread Enthusiasm in the name of Luther, using Marvin Schwan's and Thrivent's money.


ELS Pastor Jay Webber has been the Buchholz peritus (theological expert) for Buchholz. In WELS, the ELS  is looked upon with great contempt, so this relationship is unique. Jay's strength is endlessly repeating himself on the same topic, and pontificating without any study of the issue. The district probably looks forward to the fading of the Webber star, just as Brazil looked forward to the fading of the Richard Starr.

How much did Webber and Kovo do for Ukraine? Shep and Company spent over $15 million of Marvin Schwan indulgence proceeds. The ELS spent money like water - on themselves. Trips around Europe. Fancy schools for more of the same.

Did they mind Lazarus starving at the gate, the dogs licking his sores?

Pietists Cannot Discuss Doctrine



Three distinguishing characteristics of Pietism are:
  1. The cell group or conventicle. 
  2. Doctrinal indifference, with an emphasis on works-righteousness.
  3. Shunning.
The Synodical Conference began in Pietism, as Walther's history shows - not that the LCMS would ever admit the facts. Wisconsin is more honest, because they do not have a mountain of historical felonies to cover up. WELS is catching up. In the 19th century, it was Pietism versus Rationalism, so the "Old Lutherans" were Pietists. The SynConference Old Lutherans called the Muhlenberg Lutherans (ULCA eventually) the Mild Lutherans. In reality, Stephan studied at the same school as the founder of the Muhlenberg tradition - Halle University.

Pietists consider orthodoxy to be legalism, and they despise the Confessions. However, they esteem their own holiness and measure everything according to works.

When arguing doctrine with a Pietist, he will say:
  • You have a small church, so you are wrong. 
  • You are not in my immaculate synod, so you are wrong. 
  • You have criticized our immaculate synod, so you have broken fellowship with us. 
  • My grandfather was so-and-so; therefore, I am right.
Obviously, Pietists favor the ad hominem or personal attack. They have nothing left in their modest arsenal. They will say, "You belonged to several synods" unless someone mentions the total synods of Al Barry or Rolf Preus. They will complain, "You went to Notre Dame" without acknowledging their dishonest promotion of the pope. They have no qualms about making up information and using their inventions in their personal attacks.

Notice how they do the work of their Father Below in the synod. They shun anyone who disagrees with their false doctrine and urge others to do the same. If someone fails to participate in the shun-fun, that person is shunned until he is docile and compliant again. Bishop Stephan practiced this dictatorial policy, which makes perfect sense to the Pietists. They are perfect, so one must avoid contact with the impure.

Pietists emphasize a false purity of the person, but not purity of doctrine. An emphasis on doctrine makes them hysterical, and their defense is, "You are unclean. Touch not Lord's anointed!"



Against the Confessions - The Synodical Conference



rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Faith":

I once mentioned to a certain WELS pastor that studying something from the Book of Concord would be a good idea. My suggestion was met with an uncomfortable smirk and a shake of the head. Yet, this same pastor hosted a public viewing of "Fireproof Your Marriage" from Sherwood Babtist church. There are so many so-called Lutheran pastors who simply believe that the laity are incapable of understanding anything from the Lutheran Confessions. Or is it that they are afraid that the laity would understand the Confessions and take them to heart?

***

GJ - The SynConference pastors do not know the Book of Concord.

In another similar situation, the WELS pastor said, "The Book of Concord is boring and irrelevant."

The Missouri and WELS pastors like everyone dancing around the footnotes, never getting to the real issues:

  1. What did Walther mean by "church"?
  2. Some notes on our glorious history.
  3. Remember our dogmatics notes? Here they are again.
SP Harrison sold Minnesota South down the river. The first thing I saw on "Steadfast" was post on what a great leader he was.

The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Faith

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-luke-1619-31-first.html

Luther's comment is so appropriate for people today. The growth of unbelief, especially among the clergy, explains the corruption, lawsuits, prison sentences, and deceit. Fruit is not going to grow on a dead tree, and nothing will be fruitful when separated from the True Vine (John 15:1-10).

Lutheran clergy conferences are full of talk about outreach, but they do not visit their own members with the Gospel, do not return emails asking about doctrine, and show no trust in the Means of Grace. For them, evangelism is talking about outreach, going home and watching reruns of the Packers games. They fear discussing doctrine because they know little more than their talking points.

How odd it is, to find clergy posturing about what is wrong with their sister synod, or their sister seminary (Missouri), or those Evangelicals and Pentecostals. The first question should be - are these posturing pastors teaching  justification by faith - the chief article of the Christian Church? If not, they are no better than hired hands, thieves, and wolves. If they teach against justification by faith, they are wolves bent on scattering and devouring the flocks, no matter what their resume says on LinkedIn.

The hardened hearts are on display for everyone to see.

  • Look at the pretty shiny buildings at Concordia, Ft. Wayne. Avert your eyes from the felonious tuition charges there. 
  • Admire the Marvin Schwan Cathedrals at Concordia, St. Louis and Martin Luther College and Bethany Lutheran College. Do not ask about poor Lazarus at the gate, his first wife and the mother of his children, dying in despair and depression, leaving a note about his cruelty and infidelity. Money buys absolution.
  • Gush at the Church Shrinkers promoted by the various synods (WELS, ELCA, LCMS, ELS, CLC - sic). Do not question their doctrine.
  • Rebuke everyone and shun them, except those who can benefit your career. They deserve and welcome the most abject admiration and hypocritical praise. A kiss on the bishop's ring, or anything else, is money in the bank.


Jesus did not warn the clergy against false teachers in Mathew 7:15ff. He warned everyone.

Even though the great Wayne Mueller thought it wise to invent new doctrine, or copy it from the Pietists, the great warrior against the Pietists had something else to say.



Loescher called justification by faith "the article on which the Church stands or falls." That is almost always quoted by the UOJ Hive in the context of their justification, which is world absolution without faith.

Every UOJ Enthusiast is a liar, because each one quotes Loescher while teaching the opposite of  Loescher. They usually quote the Book of Concord on justification being the "chief article, the prince..." Blah, blah. They do that to switch over to their hideous dogma, because their favorite dogma is missing from the Bible and the Confessions, so they must start off everyone on one topic before reversing direction. They use the truth to introduce and support the worst kind of error.

We are not talking about whether Holy Communion and Holy Baptism are sacraments, but whether all the   atheists, polytheists, and cannibals are born forgiven - from the beginning of time. If you deny the absolution of the atheists, you are a false teacher and ready to be given the Left Foot of Fellowship by your synod, whether it is ELCA or Missouri or WELS or the Little Sect on the Prairie.

In other words, the ordinary Babtists or Methodists or Presbyterians have a better chance of hearing the basic Gospel than those Lutherans who are under the Satanic teaching of UOJ.

I doubt whether the sloppiest of the Evangelicals and Pentecostals would try to bray, "You are forgiven, whether you believe it or not." But the SynConference leaders have become bolder by the minute (or more scared) as they expand upon their hellish dogma.

Below are the Wayne Muller graphics, followed by the Sodomites absolved graphic. One leads to the other. The mainlines simply dropped "but you gotta believe it" from their arsenal. Teetering on the edge of pure Universalism does not make a UOJ Stormtrooper into a Christian. It simply makes him more dangerous.





This is utterly ridiculous.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Eat Wings for Jesus

Ski and Glende have a bi-sectsual ministry,
pretending to be Wisconsin Sect while promoting the Babtist sect.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Ski and Glende Close on Porky's Bar: Ski Preaches ...":

The link to the Core brought up this Calendar event - the glory of the (W)ELS. (maybe that should be The Gory of the (W)ELS)

Buffalo Wild Wings Fundraiser
WhenSunday, Jun 10, 2012

Where3201 E. Calumet Street; Appleton WI 54915 (map)

Description Eat wings for Jesus!! Go to BWW on Calumet St. in Appleton ALL DAY! A percentage of food sales will go to support our Boise Mission Partner Trip and the Youth Rally. Just tell them you are there to support St. Peter.


***

GJ - I looked over the St. Peter Cares monthly newsletter, which is posted on their websty. They engage in constant fund-raisers like the one above. The message broadcast to the community is, "We cannot support ourselves, so we sell and promote stuff so you can help us meet our budget."

That is quite a message from people who had $250,000 to spend on the start-up of The CORE evening sheep-stealing services, with Ski as the ring-master, channeling Groeschel via the leadership wisdom of Andy Stanley.

I always wonder, "How much lower can they go?" And they provide more fodder for this humble little blog.

SP Schroeder supports the Church and Changers 100%, but if an organist touches the unsanctified keys of a non-WELS pipe organ - POW! - an email arrives from Hochmuth Hall.


Moral Dystopia - NYTimes.com.
WELS and Missouri Will Pay the Price for Their Cover-ups.
And the Real Judgment Day Awaits



Moral Dystopia - NYTimes.com:


EVERYONE is good, until we’re tested.


Times Topic: Jerry Sandusky

We hope we would be Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons,” who dismisses his daughter’s pleas to compromise his ideals and save his life, saying: “When a man takes an oath, Meg, he’s holding his own self in his own hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.”

But with formerly hallowed institutions and icons sinking into a moral dystopia all around us, has our sense of right and wrong grown more malleable? What if we’re not Thomas More but Mike McQueary?

Eight tortured young men offered searing testimony in Bellefonte, Pa., about being abused as children by Jerry Sandusky in the showers at Penn State, in the basement of his home and at hotels.

But the most haunting image in the case is that of a little boy who was never found, who was never even sought by Penn State officials.

In February 2001, McQueary was home one night watching the movie “Rudy,” about a runty football player who achieves his dream of playing at Notre Dame by the sheer force of his gutsy character. McQueary, a graduate assistant coach and former Penn State quarterback, was so inspired that he got up and went over to the locker room to get some tapes of prospective recruits.

There he ran smack into his own character test. The strapping 6-foot-4 redhead told the court he saw his revered boss and former coach reflected in the mirror: Sandusky, Joe Paterno’s right hand, was grinding against a little boy in the shower in an “extremely sexual” position, their wet bodies making “skin-on-skin slapping sounds.” He met their eyes, Sandusky’s blank, the boy’s startled.

“I’ve never been involved in anything remotely close to this,” the 37-year-old McQueary said. “You’re not sure what the heck to do, frankly.”

He was slugging back water from a paper cup, with the bristly air of a man who knows that many people wonder why he didn’t simply stop the rape and call the police instead of leaving to talk it over with his father and a family friend.

Tellingly, he compared the sickening crime to the noncomparable incident of being a college student looking for a bathroom during a party at a frat house, and inadvertently walking into a dark bedroom where a fraternity brother is having sex with a young lady.

He said he felt too “shocked, flustered, frantic” to do anything, adding defensively: “It’s been well publicized that I didn’t stop it. I physically did not remove the young boy from the shower or punch Jerry out.”

He told Paterno the next morning and went along with the mild reining in of Sandusky, who continued his deviant ways.

Put on administrative leave, McQueary has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the school. (He was promoted to receivers coach and recruiting coordinator three years after the incident.) “Frankly,” he said, “I don’t think I did anything wrong to lose that job.”

It’s jarring because McQueary looks like central casting for the square-jawed hero who stumbles upon a crime in progress, rescues the child thrilled to hear the footsteps of a savior, and puts an end to the serial preying on disadvantaged kids by a man disguised as the patron saint of disadvantaged kids.

Bellefonte, the town in the shadow of Beaver Stadium, also looks like a Hollywood creation: the perfect sepia slice of rural Americana reflecting old-fashioned values. There’s an Elks Lodge, a Loyal Order of Moose hall, a Rexall drugstore, the Hot Dog House with hand-dipped ice cream, and a nice senior citizen shooing you into the crosswalk. This was a big “American Graffiti” weekend in town: the annual sock hop and hot rod parade.

How could so many fine citizens of this college town ignore the obvious and protect a predator instead of protecting children going through the ultimate trauma: getting raped by a local celebrity offering to be their dream father figure? A Penn State police officer warned Sandusky in 1998 to stop showering with boys; Saint Jerry ignored him.

The first witness for the prosecution, now 28, recalled that Sandusky wooed him starting when he was 12, letting him wear the jersey of the star linebacker LaVar Arrington.


In his Washington Post blog, Arrington, a retired Redskin, wrote that it was “mind-blowing” to hear about the boy’s hurt. He recalled that he had asked the kid, “Why are you always walking around all mad, like a tough guy?”

He assumed that since the boy had been involved with the Second Mile charity, he must be from a troubled home.

“I will never just assume ever again,” he said of dealing with an angry child. “I will always ask, and let them know that it’s O.K. to tell the truth about why they are upset.”

That accuser testified that at the Alamo Bowl, Dottie Sandusky, a good German, came into the hotel room while her husband was in the shower threatening to send the boy home if he would not perform oral sex. Jerry came out and she asked him, “What are you doing in there?” But she soon disappeared.

“She was kind of cold,” the young man recalled. “She wasn’t mean or hateful, nothing like that, just, they’re Jerry’s kids, like that.”

Another accuser, now 18, testified that he screamed when Sandusky raped him in the basement; though Dottie was upstairs, there was no response.

NBC’s Michael Isikoff reported on a secret file discovered in Penn State’s internal investigation, led by Louis Freeh, the former F.B.I. chief. Graham Spanier, a former university president, and Gary Schultz, a former vice president, debated whether they had a legal obligation to report the 2001 shower incident, and in one e-mail, agreed it would be “humane” to Sandusky not to inform social service agencies.

That revoltingly echoes the testimony in the trial of Msgr. William Lynn in Philadelphia, where the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua ordered the shredding of a list of 35 priests believed to be child molesters. Lynn testified that he followed Bevilacqua’s orders not to tell victims if others had accused the same priest of abuse, or to inform parishes of the true reason that perverted priests were removed and recirculated.

When a seminarian told Lynn in 1992 that he was raped all through high school by the monstrous Rev. Stanley Gana, Lynn conceded he let it fall “through the cracks.” He also admitted he “forgot” to tell the police investigating a preying priest that the diocese knew of at least eight more cases.

Yet Lynn claimed he did his “best” for victims.

Inundated by instantaneous information and gossip, do we simply know more about the seamy side? Do greater opportunities and higher stakes cause more instances of unethical behavior? Have our materialism, narcissism and cynicism about the institutions knitting society — schools, sports, religion, politics, banking — dulled our sense of right and wrong?

“Most Americans continue to think of their lives in moral terms; they want to live good lives,” said James Davison Hunter, a professor of religion, culture and social theory at the University of Virginia and the author of “The Death of Character.” “But they are more uncertain about what the nature of the good is. We know more, and as a consequence, we no longer trust the authority of traditional institutions who used to be carriers of moral ideals.

“We used to experience morality as imperatives. The consequences of not doing the right thing were not only social, but deeply emotional and psychological. We couldn’t bear to live with ourselves. Now we experience morality more as a choice that we can always change as circumstances call for it. We tend to personalize our ideals. And what you end up with is a nation of ethical free agents.

“We’ve moved from a culture of character to a culture of personality. The etymology of the word character is that it’s deeply etched, not changeable in all sorts of circumstances. We don’t want to think of ourselves as transgressive or bad, but we tend to personalize our understanding of the good.”


Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor dubbed “the Elvis of cyberlaw” by Wired magazine, was seduced by his rock star choirmaster at the American Boychoir School in Princeton in the 1970s when he was 14 and turned into his supportive “wife,” as he calls it. “It made me really feel like a grown-up. Typically, sex doesn’t have to be terrible.”

In 2004, he represented another victim in a successful lawsuit against the school. He told me that “an astonishing 30 to 40 percent” of his peers there had been abused, “and everybody knew and nobody did anything.” That echoes the horror at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx in the 1970s and 1980s, where a culture of sexual abuse by teachers developed.

And as if we needed more evidence that perversity lurks everywhere, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been ordered to pay more than $20 million to a woman who was abused for two years, starting at age 9, by a congregation member in California. She had filed a lawsuit accusing the church of instructing elders to keep sex-abuse accusations quiet.

“You don’t want to be the outsider who betrays the institution; whistleblowers are always the weirdos,” Lessig said. “There are so many ways to rationalize doing the easy thing. And it’s really easy for us to overlook how our inaction to step up and do even the simplest thing leads to profoundly destructive consequences in our society.”

I asked Cory Booker, the Newark mayor, why he ignored his security team and made a snap decision to run into a burning house to save his neighbor. He said his parents taught him to feel indebted to all the people who had sacrificed for his family. And he recoiled in law school at the idea that there was not always a legal obligation to help the vulnerable.

“We have to fight the dangerous streams in culture, the consumerism and narcissism and me-ism that erode the borders of our moral culture,” he said. “We can’t put shallow celebrity before core decency. We have to have a deeper faith in the human spirit. As they say, he who has the heart to help has the right to complain.”




'via Blog this'

The late Paul Scaer, LCMS pastor.

Someone Has Sent an Insider's Report from the LCMS















---

David Becker has left a new comment on your post "Someone Has Sent an Insider's Report from the LCMS...":

Laugh out loud funny!

---

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Someone Has Sent an Insider's Report from the LCMS...":

Ichabod -

There's one thing that I think that escaped this insider’s report. It's SP Harrison's shovel ready mustache. Wouldn't you agree that it has the dimension width and heft of a country snow plow to clear out all the false doctrine and subsequent untoward practice in LCMS? That mustache action in and of itself, should be able to cut and plow through all that synodical "blizzard of sin."

Nathan M. Bickel - emeritus pastor

wwwthechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org

---

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Someone Has Sent an Insider's Report from the LCMS...":

Modest Proposal:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/02/modest-proposal.html

Hebrews 3




Lenski's Hebrews Commentary:
The Sharp Warning:
Harden not Your Hearts, chapter
3
Consider Jesus in the Light of Moses, 3:1–6.
1) This is the preamble which resembles that found in 2:5–8. Moses is introduced because v. 7–19 cite the terrible unbelief that occurred on the journey through the desert under Moses. Let this story find no repetition under Jesus! We should not think that Jesus is put in contrast with Moses so that the readers are warned to forsake Moses for Jesus. They are paralleled—both Moses and Jesus are faithful. As Israel should have been faithful to Moses, so the readers should now be faithful to Jesus. In fact, the readers have a greater call to faithfulness than the unfaithful Israelites had as far as Moses was concerned because here is one greater than Moses. The two are alike, yet when they are paralleled, the greatness of Jesus must be kept in mind.
Verses 1–6 are thus important and necessary for a proper understanding of what follows. The placing of the two characters in juxtaposition, as is done here, is masterly indeed. The readers were tempted to forsake Jesus for Moses, but by doing this they would, despite their reverting to Moses, only repeat what the Israelites had done under Moses, repeat it in a way that is still worse because Jesus is greater than Moses. The writer makes the very inclination to turn back to Moses and to the old Judaism the basis of his warning not to forsake Jesus. This desire to turn from Jesus to Moses would be no more a turning back to Moses than was the action of the ancient Israelites, who had Moses and yet did not prove faithful to him.
If the writer had placed Moses in opposition to Jesus he would have aroused the antagonism of his readers. He proceeds as Jesus does in John 5:45–47. Yet, by being true to the facts when he places Jesus and Moses side by side and asks his readers to be faithful to both, the writer is able to bring out the fact that Jesus is far greater than Moses. And so both the similarity between the two and the fact that Jesus is the greater by far lend their powerful force to the warning appeal.
We now see why the appeal is ushered in by the preamble, v. 1–6, and why this opens with the call to consider thoroughly (κατανοέω) the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. Columbus, O. : Lutheran book concern, 1938, S. 99.

---

Lenski:

Jesus is presented as our example, but only on the basis of his High-priestly expiation (2:17). Only those who are cleansed by his expiation can be faithful to God and to him. Faithfulness in us means above all faith in him as our Apostle and High Priest, unwavering and true confession of him as such. Jesus cannot be merely a moral example. The wording is again wonderful, for beside Jesus as our Apostle and High Priest are placed our heavenly calling (from God to us) and our confession (our response to God)—he in his saving office, we in our calling as saved—“faithful” being the great point now to be considered.
“As faithful to him who made him” means: God made Jesus the Apostle and High Priest, made him what we confess him to be. We may appeal to 1 Sam. 12:6 for this use of made (ποιεῖν) but not overlook Acts 2:36: “God made him both Lord and Christ (ἐποίησε), this Jesus whom you on your part did crucify.” It is unfair to criticize the Greek fathers who understand these words in this way and to claim that they did it only in order to deprive the Arians of one of their proof passages against the deity of Jesus. Those Greek fathers were right, witness Acts 2:36. God “made” also the human nature of Jesus, wherefore Jesus also called him “my God”; but what are Arians able to make of this since they must show that Jesus did not possess the deity of the divine nature? The interpretation that God made “the historical personality of Jesus, i. e., not only created it but equipped and commissioned it as the task required for the accomplishment of which it was destined” (Riggenbach) is unclear and does not accept the simple meaning of the words.
Moses is placed alongside of Jesus, the Moses of whom these Jewish Christians think so highly, from whom also the writer detracts nothing: “even also as Moses (was faithful) in his whole house,” meaning Israel. This is plainly a reference to Num. 12:7; it is almost a quotation. See the repetition of it below in v. 5. Some construe the ἐν phrase with πιστός, which would then mean that Jesus was faithful in his house (or in God’s house). But such a construction does not follow the Greek order of the words. The use of the word “whole” is challenged, in part on textual grounds, but especially because no reason for its introduction is said to exist. But Num. 12:7 has “whole.” The word is decidedly in place here, in v. 5, as well as in Numbers. In all three passages it states that Moses was faithful, not merely in a part of Israel, but in his management of the whole of it. Besides all this, some overlook the fact that Moses is an individual “in” the house while in marked difference to him Jesus is “over” the house (v. 6).
Here, then, are two individuals who are “faithful” in their high and most difficult offices; the one is even “the Apostle and High Priest” whom we confess. Dare we be faithless and recreant in our calling and our confession?
3) This application is as yet only implied, for the readers are left to ask why Jesus’ faithfulness is made thus prominent. Before the answer is offered the point regarding Moses is more fully explained. While he and Jesus are examples in faithfulness, not he but Jesus is the greater. It may well be possible that the explanation is needed because the Jews commonly placed Moses higher than even the angels.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. Columbus, O. : Lutheran book concern, 1938, S. 102.

---

Lenski:

Harden not Your Hearts! v. 7–14.
7) The unbelief and the hardening of the whole people of Israel during the forty years of their journey in the wilderness, not only as these are recorded by Moses but also as they are depicted anew by David in Ps. 95:7–11, are a mighty effective warning for us even today. They must have been an even more effective warning for the first readers of this epistle. They were of Jewish blood; are they going to repeat what happened to their ancestors in the desert? Faithful Moses has been placed before them beside faithful Jesus. Will they be faithful in their “heavenly calling” (v. 1) as Jesus and Moses were, or will they now prove faithless? This is what happened to their ancestors under Moses. Are they going to repeat this under Jesus who is so much greater than Moses?
They think of turning from Jesus to Moses. But Moses and Jesus belong together; both were equally faithful, Moses in the house as a servant, Jesus as the Son over the house (v. 5, 6). It is impossible to become faithless to the faithful Jesus who is the Son over the house without becoming equally faithless to Moses who is the servant in the house even as the house is one. Moses would be the first to accuse them (John 5:45–47). All this lies in the use of this quotation, and it is brought to bear upon the readers with corresponding effect.
It is best to construe διό … βλέπετε (v. 12) and to regard the καθώς clause with its quotation as subordinate, a construction which the A. V. indicates by the use of a parenthesis. The writer does not adopt the language of the psalm as stating his own thought, for in v. 10 God speaks, and the writer cannot adopt the words of God as being spoken by himself. Therefore, even as speaks the Holy Spirit:
Today if you shall hear his voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the embitterment,
On the day of the temptation in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tempted me in a testing
And saw my works for forty years.
Wherefore I was disgusted with this generation
And said: Always they err with the heart.
Moreover, they did not know my ways
So that I swore in my wrath:
They shall not enter into my rest!—see to it, brethren, etc.
“Even as speaks the Holy Spirit” is not a formula of quotation which introduces Scripture. It is not a formula at all as witness 9:8 and 10:15 where we have a different wording; in Acts 21:15 Agabus says, “These things says the Holy Spirit,” although he is not quoting Scripture. What David wrote about the old Israelites is attributed to the Holy Spirit as if the Spirit himself “says” it, still says it to us. David’s words (see 4:7) are the Holy Spirit’s words. This defines inspiration just as do Matt. 1:22; Heb. 10:15; 9:8; and many other statements. We do not talk about an “inspiration theory” but look at all these passages which present a clear fact: “the Holy Spirit says or declares” this and that which was written in the Old Testament.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. Columbus, O. : Lutheran book concern, 1938, S. 110.

Second Sunday after Trinity.
Luke 14:16ff - The Great Feast



The Second Sunday after Trinity


Pastor Gregory L. Jackson




The Hymn # 649                 Jesus Savior Pilot Me                   3:80
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       
The Gospel              
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #471            Jesus Thy Blood                   4.6

 Banquet of Forgiveness

The Communion Hymn # 462            I Love Thy Kingdom             4.21
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #657            Beautiful Savior                    4.24

KJV 1 John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
KJV Luke 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

Luther’s First Sermon on this text –



Luther’s Second Sermon on this text –


Banquet of Forgiveness

This is a parable of judgment and forgiveness. We know it is a parable, because there are several clear introductions to them:
  1. The Kingdom of God is like… KJV Matthew 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
  2. A certain man… KJV Mark 12:1 And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
  3. Jesus taught them a parable… KJV Matthew 13:18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

We know from these many examples that a parable will teach a lesson from Jesus that is powerful and significant. The language is very concise and a bit mysterious. Jesus did give everything away for the masses. He carefully taught His disciples so they could teach believers the meaning of the parables.

An unbeliever will say, “That is a clever story, saying so much in a few words,” but he will not get the meaning of the parable. I had a New Testament (liberal) professor who wrote a book about parables and never taught a word of the Gospel in that book. His students waited for the book to come out. When it did, they realized it was a lot of words saying nothing.

A parable can easily be memorized, but its meaning needs to be probed, year after year. Repetition bring added spiritual discernment, and experience adds to the discernment.

We want children to know these lessons because lessons learned will have their context later.  More learning means more pieces of that One Truth put together, coupled with experience that gives dimension and depth to the spiritual learning.

Luther agonized over the topic of forgiveness, but he did not become the Reformer overnight. The system made him a doctoral student in Biblical studies, where he was saddled with all the Medieval traditions and explanations, but also immersed in the Word itself.

Each episode in his life was informed by the Word of God. Not having printed Bibles was an advantage for him. Hand-written books (codex) were so valuable that they were chained to the wall in libraries. Monks and priests had to memorize what they learned, and no one balked at that. Memorizing was the hard drive of the ancient world. The more one memorizes, the easier the task is.

Most college students today have memorized all the trivia about celebrities – movies, TV shows, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc.  I learned not to mention a book in a college class unless there was a recent movie based on it. Suddenly CS Lewis and Tolkien could be mentioned – they were in the Internet Movie Database.

Sports experts are similar in their recall of data about players and teams.

Recently I have experimented with reading the same book five or six times. One is an autobiography of my dissertation advisor. Each time I read part of it, something new comes up, such as the death of a classmate in a march against the KKK. He was a divinity student, a physician !, and then a textile worker and radical. I wondered how that happened until I found the crucial datum – he studied in Paris as part of college – Paris, the training school for radical Leftists. He came back changed and that cost him his life. He died at the rally, saying to his radical wife, “Keep shooting.”

The real issue is – how do we spend our reading time? If we read the Scriptures, the Confessions, and a few great Lutheran authors (Luther, Chemnitz, Melanchthon), we will have the hard-won spiritual insights of orthodox Christianity. If not, we will be trained and often deceived by lesser lights, who have this for their defense – they studied more Luther in their lifetimes than so-called Lutherans do today.

So it is no surprise that people are so willing to compromise today, when they have raised themselves on the watered down oatmeal of the Protestant sects. The reaction to false doctrine makes me think this parable is all about how many different dining options are available in the Kingdom, each one designed for the felt needs of the hungry. But instead, this parable teaches One Message, One Truth, One Banquet.

The Parable
KJV Luke 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

This is a parable (a certain man) that answers the earlier comment made – How blessed to eat bread in the Kingdom of God.

KJV Luke 14:15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

The earlier example was about providing for others, so this happy comment is turned into something more profound by the parable that follows.

As Luther was keen to say, this is about the evening meal (mentioned twice in two verses) so the supper applies to what we hear and digest, the final lesson of our lives.

Luther:
And it is here called a supper or an evening meal, because the Gospel shall be the last word or doctrine that will usher in the end of the world.

The host of this great and final feast is God the Father. “He bade many” or invited many can be applied to the Jewish people. Repeatedly the Gospel is aimed at the Jews first and then the Gentiles. Although we often think about those Jewish adherents who rejected and persecuted the Gospel, there were also many who believed in Christ and joined the despised group.

17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.

This is the second time that “supper” is named, so the time is significant. First of all, people knew a supper was being prepared  - a great supper, like a royal banquet. We could compare it to the celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee in Britain. Everyone knew about the preparations long in advance. The formal invitations to the events came at the proper time.

Why only one servant? There were many prophets, then Jesus and the apostles. There is only one Message. When one prophet was killed, God sent another, who had the same message about the Messiah. Then he was killed, and the people said, “We heard that before from the other ones,” proceeded to kill each one.  The early Christians were mowed down the same way. So all of them together are one servant. Faithful pastors today are that one servant, too.

This compares to the Biblical calendar. Many were invited to believe in the Messiah, from the beginning, Genesis 3:15, when Christ’s victory over Satan and the crucifixion were both foreshadowed.



From that time on the ministry of Christ was preached in great detail. I was working on graphics and found a painting of Abraham at Mamre (Genesis 18:1). Three men appeared before the patriarch – representing the Trinity. Abraham believed God’s Promised and he was justified by faith.

David’s Psalms are full of Messianic references, not to mention the major and minor prophets.

Everything concerning the Exodus and Moses is Messianic, from the spotless lamb to the bread from heaven – especially the serpent raised up, a strange foreshadowing of Christ lifted up in crucifixion. John 3:1-16.

After all that time of preparation, the House of David prepared, the prophecies given, the preaching of John the Baptist, Christ began His public ministry.

When Jesus began His preaching of the Gospel, the End Times began, because His appearance and atonement had to come before all things could be fulfilled. We are living in the End Times but do not know how long they will last. Many different lessons are aimed at keeping us awake and aware that it could be at any moment.




What is this Great Supper?
Some see this great supper as Holy Communion, and that is a good image, but it does not include enough. The Great Supper includes all that the Gospel has to teach us, all the spiritual food that we need to survive and prosper as members of God’s Kingdom.

The great supper is a fine image, because no one forces us to a supper. We receive a gracious invitation. In some areas, where hospitality is overwhelming, the presence of a visitor near mealtime is necessarily an invitation to stay and eat. “We cannot let you go hungry.”

The Gospel is the same, urging something good and satisfying on someone. That means faith in Christ as the Savior, trust in God’s Word, not membership in an organization.

That is one indication of things gone wrong in Lutheran groups, when they put 99% of the emphasis on organizational rules rather than faith in the Gospel.

The supper is a good image because people hunger for righteousness, and they desire the right food, sound (healthy) doctrine, not toxic (false) doctrine.

Yesterday I was asked this question on the Net – “Protestants teach that all their sins are forgiven. What do Lutherans teach?”

This came from a Lutheran – I am not sure about his background.

“All sins are forgiven.”  - That would come from “Once saved, always saved.” That would be confusing for a Lutheran on a discussion board. I don’t know the history of that motto. It is not exactly like UOJ, but it is another twist on the simple Gospel message, one that leads to carnal security – I am saved so I can do anything I please. Luther called that using the Gospel as a pillow to fall asleep on.

I pointed out to this person that believers in Christ are forgiven each and every day, fully and freely, as the work of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel – Small Catechism, Third Article of the Creed.

This Lutheran’s problem was not unique to him. So much bad teaching goes on that people do not know with certainty what the Bible teaches, what Luther taught.

The great supper includes all those ways (means) by which the Gospel Promises of forgiveness, peace, and salvation are conveyed to individuals. The supper includes those teachings where we view the Law as reflecting the Gospel. We should so fear and love God... Fearing means we do not kill our neighbor, but out of love we protect him, share with him, and do everything for his good. Love does not ask “how little can I do?” but “how much can I do?”

18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

There is no word “consent” here, so the original text is even more vivid. They all spoke as one in making their excuse.  These excuses have more to do with indolence and indifference than hostile and violent opposition. Each excuse has some validity on the surface, but each one is also shallow and a bit humorous. 

When people face their mortality, they see how minor those other concerns are.

I have to see the land I just bought – That will not matter now.

I have to test my new oxen – They will not do me any good now.

I just got married – My spouse is soon to be a widow.

Our son was talking about how everything moved up a notch in the summer. His children were going into new grades. He was married an additional year and became another year older. The little girl holding the ball in one of my favorite photos is now a junior in high school. The little baby is now in first grade.

Time moves us quickly forward to the ultimate question.

So the excuses to set aside the Gospel invitation are simply concerns about daily living, but concerns that choke or block out the Gospel itself. Many philosophers deal with this but they have no real answer. They can stoke the hunger but cannot provide the meal, not even rolls and butter.

Although it is unthinkable that someone would reject an invitation to a royal banquet, many set aside the invitation to the King’s Banquet in His Kingdom, one with no cost and many blessings.

21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

When grace is met with rejection and indifference, there will be divine wrath. That is the sin against the Holy Spirit, to die without faith. Some do this with a life of rejection. Many starve their faith with unhealthy doctrine and false tolerance, so they end up virtual unbelievers.

I posted a good statement about closed communion and a long-time friend from the first Lutheran church I joined was jumping on that quotation like a hobo on a hotdog. She trotted out all the arguments for open communion – she was deeply offended. A massive investment in ecumenism and open communion, by all denominations, will always end up with that kind of liberal orthodoxy – until there is nothing left of faith.

Some think it cannot happen to them, but I have seen in happen to clergy I know. Did they imagine they would end up as unbelievers when they went to seminary and were ordained? Not likely.

We are the object of these verses. Many Jews converted to Christ in the first generation, but opposition and excommunication began and limited that to a great degree. Paul, the ardent Jewish Pharisee, turned his attentions to the Gentiles. We are the pagans, the Druids, the tattooed wild men (Picts, England) who inhabited Europe. The Gospel went to our ancestors. And still the banquet hall was not full.

22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.



Luther:
40. This constraining, however, is necessary in preaching both repentance and forgiveness of sins; for without repentance we remain too hard and obdurate under his wrath, in our sinful nature and in the kingdom of the devil. And moreover, when the terror of divine wrath strikes us, we are again too fearful, modest and disturbed, to take this to heart and believe, that he will show us such great grace and mercy, and we are always full of anxiety that we do not belong to them, and that he will reject us because of our sins and great unworthiness. Therefore he must himself command and work that men continue and persevere evermore to constrain and urge as much as possible, both by holding forth wrath for the wicked and grace for the faithful Wrath and repentance urge man to run and cry for grace. This is then the right way a person goes to this supper, and thus from Jews and Gentiles there will be one Christian church, and all will be called alike poor, miserable people, lame and crippled, for they accept the Gospel heartily and with joy.

Therefore, various people and congregations have done whatever they can to spread the Gospel. And that is odd in many ways. One website seemed devoted to selling ads, so they posted all of Luther’s sermons. Whatever the motive, the sermons are there and easy to convert – so I did.

Some opponent wrote, “No fair. Of course you have a lot of page-reads. You posted Luther.” But he did not.

And the Reformed – they are the bad guys. (Pause for the booing and hissing to subside.) They have been selling Luther from Grand Rapids for decades – his sermons and Galatians lectures. What is better than to have Luther’s sermons, the best of his efforts, in constant printing and distribution? So God works.

When people know the content of the great supper, they do not want anything else. They remind one another of how good and satisfying sound doctrine is. Tonight I saw an appropriate quotation from the Formula of Concord, and I thought, “That should be a graphic.” And then people take my graphics and Norma’s and spread them to hundreds of friends, who can scatter them even more.

Fathers have a great opportunity because they have the best deal in this world today. Nobody expects anything. If the father stays and provides a home where marriage and the Gospel are honored, it is almost a miracle. If does more than notice his children, another miracle. If he teaches his children the Word of God – even better.

And fathers get the best deal, the most rewards with the fewest difficulties. A good son is a source of pride to the father, but a foolish son is grief to the mother. No balance there, but Proverbs are God’s wisdom.

Fathers have the most impact on their children, positive and negative. The reason is – mothers are generally pretty good and sacrifice for their children. That is a constant. But when a father is absent, there is nothing but trouble. When he is present, there are countless advantages. In other words, a father can do a lot by being better than the ordinary louse. Mothers do not get much better because they cannot. There are many exceptions, which I know about from teaching college students.

The Word of God teaches men to be the spiritual leaders of their families. It is never too late for that rule to apply. It is a rule with countless blessings.


By Norma Boeckler


The Efficacy of the Word

"Christ compares the Word of God to a seed, to a grain of wheat sown in the ground. (Matthew 13:3-23) A seed possesses power and life in itself. Power and life belong to the properties of the seed. Power is not communicated to the seed only now and then, under certain circumstances, in peculiar cases. But the Word of God is an incorruptible seed, that is able to regenerate, a Word which liveth and abideth forever. (1 Peter 1:23)"
            E. Hove, Christian Doctrine, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1930, p. 27. Matthew 13:3-23; 1 Peter 1:23.

"Hollazius (993) uses the following figures: 'It possesses and retains its internal power and efficacy even when not used, just as the illuminating power of the sun continues, although, when the shadow of the moon intervenes, no person may see it; and just as an internal efficacy belongs to the seed, although it may not be sown in the field.'"
Heinrich Schmid, Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans., Charles A. Hay and Henry E. Jacobs, Philadelphia: United Lutheran Publication House, 1899, p. 506.

"'The Word is in itself the living seed of regeneration; the hand which does the sowing can add to it no further efficacy.' (Philippi, V, 2:15)."
Henry Eyster Jacobs, A Summary of the Christian Faith, Philadelphia: General Council Publication House, 1913, p. 291.

(1)   Almighty God, thy word is cast Like seed into the ground, Now let the dew of heaven descend And righteous fruits abound. (2) Let not the foe of Christ and man This holy seed remove, But give it root in every heart To bring forth fruits of love. (3) Let not the world's deceitful cares The rising plant destroy, But let it yield a hundredfold The fruits of peace and joy. (4) Oft as the precious seed is sown Thy quickening grace bestow, That all whose souls the truth receive Its saving power may know."
John Cawood, 1775-1852, "Almighty God, Thy Word Is Cast," Service Book and Hymnal, Philadephia: Board of Publication, 1958, Hymn #196. TLH Hymn #49. Mark 4:3-9.

(1)   "Preach you the Word and plant it home To men who like or like it not, The Word that shall endure and stand When flowers and men shall be forgot. (2) We know how hard, O Lord, the task Your servant bade us undertake: To preach your Word and never ask What prideful profit it may make. (3) The sower sows; his reckless love Scatters abroad the goodly seed, Intent alone that men may have The wholesome loaves that all men need. (4) Though some be snatched and some be scorched And some be chocked and matted flat, The sower sow; his heart cries out, 'Oh, what of that, and what of that?' (5) Preach you the Word and plant it home And never faint; the Harvest Lord Who gave the sower seed to sow Will watch and tend his planted Word." Martin H. Franzmann, 1907-76, "Preach You the Word,"
Lutheran Worship, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982, Hymn #259. Mark 4:;

"What business is it of mine that many do not esteem it? It must be that many are called but few are chosen. For the sake of the good ground that brings forth fruit with patience, the seed must also fall fruitless by the wayside, on the rock and among the thorns; inasmuch as we are assured that the Word of God does not go forth without bearing some fruit, but it always finds also good ground; as Christ says here, some seed of the sower falls also into good ground, and not only by the wayside, among the thorns and on stony ground. For wherever the Gospel goes you will find find Christians. 'My Word shall not return unto me void.' Is. 55:11"
Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 118. xagesima Luke 8:4-15. Isaiah 55:11.

"Not that they shall preach that we shall not understand them; but it naturally follows that wherever the Spirit does not reveal them, no one understands them."
Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 123. Sexagesima Luke 8:4-15

(1)    "Flung to the heedless winds Or on the waters cast, The martyrs' ashes, watched, Shall gathered be at last. And from that scattered dust, Around us and abroad, Shall spring a plenteous seed Of witnesses for God." Martin Luther, 1523, "Flung to the Heedless Winds,"
The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941, Hymn #259. Acts 7:59.

"The first class of disciples are those who hear the Word but neither understand nor esteem it. And these are not the mean people of the world, but the greatest, wisest and the most saintly, in short they are the greatest part of mankind; for Christ does not speak here of those who persecute the Word nor of those who fail to give their ear to it, but of those who hear it and are students of it, who also wish to be called true Christian and to live in Christian fellowship with Christians and are partakers of baptism and the Lord's Supper. But they are of a carnal heart, and remain so, failing to appropriate the Word of God to themselves, it goes in one ear and out the other, just like the seed along the wayside did not fall into the earth, but remained lying on the ground..."
Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983 II, p. 114. Sexagesima. Luke 8:4-15 (par. Mark 4: Matthew 13:)

"The second class of hearers are those who receive the Word with joy, but they do not persevere. These are also a large multitude who understand the Word correctly and lay hold of it in its purity without any spirit of sect, division or fanaticism, they rejoice also in that they know the real truth, and are able to know how they may be saved without works through faith...But when the sun shines hot it withers, because it has no soil and moisture, and only rock is there. So these do; in times of persecution they deny or keep silence about the Word and work, speak and suffer all that their persecutors mention or wish, who formerly went forth and spoke, and confessed with a fresh and joyful spirit the same, while there was peace and no heat, so that there was hope they would bear much fruit and serve the people."
Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983 II, p. 116. Sexagesima. Luke 8:4-15 (par. Mark 4: Matthew 13:)

"Therefore they [fallen among thorns] do not earnestly give themselves to the Word, but become indifferent and sink in the cares, riches and pleasures of this life, so that they are of no benefit to anyone. Therefore they are like the seed that fell among the thorns...They know their duty but do it not, they teach but do not practice what they teach, and are this year as they were last."
Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983 II, p. 117. Sexagesima. Luke 8:4-15 (par. Mark 4: Matthew 13:)


(1)   "Almighty Father, bless the Word Which through your grace we now have heard Oh, may the precious seed take root, Spring up, and bear abundant fruit. (2) We praise you for the means of grace As homeward now our steps we trace. Grant, Lord, that we who worshiped here May all at last in heaven appear."
Scandinavian, The Lutheran Hymnary, 1913, Lutheran Worship, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982, Hymn #216. Mark 4. 

"The efficacy of the Word, unlike that of the seed, always has a result. The man to whom the Word of God comes, and who repels it, is not as he was before. Where long and persistently refused, hardening at last comes, Exodus 8:15; 9:12; John 12:40; Hebrews 4:1, and the Word becomes a 'savor of death unto death,' 2 Corinthians 2:16. Every word heard or read, every privilege and opportunity enjoyed, leaves its impress either for good or for evil. It is not so properly the Word, as man's abuse of the Word; not so much the efficacy of the Word, as the sin taking occasion of the efficacy that produces this result, Romans 7:8."
Henry Eyster Jacobs, Elements of Religion, Philadelphia, Board of Publication, General Council 1919 p. 155. Exodus 8:15; 9:12; John 12:40; Hebrews 4:1; 2 Corinthians 2:16; Romans 7:8.

"Just why the fact of our regeneration should prove such a strong motive to us to give evidence of our faith in love is shown in the description of regeneration, when the apostle states that this new birth in our hearts is not the result of perishable, corruptible seed, as the growth of earthly plants would be, but of an incorruptible imperishable seed, the Word of God, the Gospel of the Savior Jesus Christ. This Word of God is in itself living, full of life and of life-giving power. And it abides in eternity; even after the form of the Word, in Scripture and in preaching, has passed away, the content of the Gospel will remain in eternity."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the New Testament, 2 vols., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, II, p. 523. 1 Peter 1:23.