ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
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Friday, July 27, 2012
Pastor Nathan Bickel on UOJ
Icahabod: Regarding your excellent recent posting:
“UOJ Questions Answered: Enthusiasm Breeds
Enthusiasm: Church Growth and Pentecostal:”
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/07/uoj-questions-answered-enthusiasm.html
Dr. Jackson -
Thank you for posting in this one article;
In this one article, you have presented the
clear difference between the error of “universal objective justification”
teaching, and that of Scripture.
Those of your opponents who call themselves
[true] Christian Lutherans cannot successfully dispute you, on the basis of
Scripture, the Book of Concord or Luther. Instead, I believe, they lash out at
you behind the scenes, incorrectly accusing you of breaking the 8th
Commandment, - when in reality, they should be welcoming your public rebuke. If
they cannot bear your website pics, humor and style, it is their loss. That
attitude only demonstrates [then] a lack of creativity on their part and a lack
of loving tolerance, as every Christian has his own personality and gifts, -
and, his own communication style.
Those who would dispute you, (but, apparently
don't publicly do so, online - at least on Ichabod), are publicly teaching and
preaching their damnable universal objective justification and then become
upset when they are publicly called to account for their error. If you and they
were living in times past, I have no doubt that you would have joined the likes
of Jon Huss, burning at the stake. [Thank the good Lord for our American right
of free speech, as put forth in the 1st Amendment of the Bill of
Rights! That, by the grace of God, helps to counteract the monopoly of error]
Furthermore, I think you
stand in good tradition. Didn't Stephen proclaim the following about those who
are were hard core and those who eschewed the truth?
Acts
Yet, even when you have come online with your
public rebukes, those warnings and presentations of rich Christian and Lutheran
tradition, go unheeded. Instead you are accused of not talking to those [dissenters]
in private about your weighty concerns. The same people, who fume about your
public pronouncements against their false teaching of universal objective
justification, etc. - continue to publicly teach and preach their false
doctrine. Yet, they would like to impose upon you a double standard to suit
themselves, - and hide their proliferation of false teaching. [Essentially,
they would like you to clam up and only communicate with them in secret while they
happily continue their public error, unopposed. Can you imagine Luther meeting
in private with the Pope?]
Ichabod – I understand
what you are uncovering and exposing. I can identify that which you point out.
I have experienced [heard / seen] this false teaching of universalism in my own
congregation and have even documented some of it, in some Ichabod postings you
have published. Here’s just one:
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/07/pastor-nathan-bickel-on-uoj-in-wels.html
Finally, I think that
the reason that those in Lutheran high places cannot receive Ichabod's rebukes
is that they have closed themselves off from rebuke, by their very own [incorrect]
teaching. Recently in our WELS Bethel Bay County, Michigan congregation there
was the Romans 12 Bible study about the gifts. The official WELS Bible study
only categorized the gift of exhortation to mean encouragement. It did not
include that the very same gift could also, include exhortation in form of
rebuke, - such as Paul telling Peter to his face about his error [Galatians
Ichabod - Continue to
highlight what you've been highlighting. I see your endeavors as the grace of
God, giving every opportunity to those in error. Whether you are received or
not, makes little difference. Keep on speaking in the tradition of Luther,
opposing Scriptural error!
Nathan M. Bickel - pastor emeritus –
http://www.thechristianmessage.org/
http://moralmatters.org/
Labels:
Nathan Bickel
Upset About ELCA 2012 National Youth Gathering - ELCA Today.
Betcha Thrivent Was There with Its Blessing.
Upset About ELCA 2012 National Youth Gathering - ELCA Today:
An adult chaperone who went to the 2012 ELCA nation youth gathering sent this letter to her church council after returning from the event that was held last week. (note that I disagree with the person's assessment of the message given by Rev. Bolz-Weber - read my thoughts here) This letter appeared on the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau (ALPB) forum (see here - post #73 - refreshing page may be need).
Dear Church Council and Pastors,
I want to share my thoughts with you as a parent and chaperone on the recent trip to New Orleans.
First of all, I have to say that I love our kids! I spent a week with wonderful children, full of energy and enthusiasm and hunger for giving of themselves. Out of the whole experience the overwhelming majority of them lifted up the service project as their favorite part of the trip.
On Thursday, we worshiped with our Synod in the morning and then spent the afternoon learning about discipleship and doing a scavenger hunt to find places or items that would represent the 7 faith practices: Prayer, Worship, Evangelism, Study, Giving, Encouraging, and Serving. These were positive experiences where the Bible was lifted up.
Most of the kids' favorite speaker at the dome was Nadia. I agree with them. Her message was theologically very solid. Aside from a slam to the parents who were concerned prior to the youth gathering, she was entertaining and had a great message. [GJ - Seriously? So you wonder why ELCA is messed up? You are funding it.]
Unfortunately, I have very little more that is positive to say about the gathering. I am alarmed at the direction in which the national church is moving.
a. The Bibles that the kids received have microscopically small font. They are portable but not usable.
b. There was no Biblical foundation for devotions. Zero. No verse to be found. Highs and lows, excerpts from speakers at the dome and prayer were they only aspects of "Final 15".
c. At every level, at the mass events in the dome, there was a reference to homosexuality. Every speaker, every skit. Frequently this was tied to anti-bullying.
d.. There were frequent anti-American references and more than one pro-Occupy Wall Street reference. Other political themes had to do with immigration-reform, anti-war, social justice.
e.. Half of the songs were secular.
f. Gandhi's quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world" was more emphasized than any Bible verse - even the theme verse from Ephesians took 2nd place to Gandhi. Seriously. 4 varieties of the quote were available to purchase as t-shirts.
g. On the service day the video about justice told our kids that justice means "doing what is in your heart that you know is right." Secular Humanism another frequent theme of the gathering.
I found myself dreading the dome experience. What kind of emotional manipulation with horrible theology would we be exposing our kids to tonight? There was a very clear open agenda that the national synod is using to indoctrinate the youth. I just wish it was using a Biblical foundation and not a political and social one.
I don't want my year old to miss out on the fun of a large youth group experience, but my husband and I will not be sending her to the Gathering in Detroit in 2015. Nor will I ever attend another ELCA gathering.
Please let me know if you would like to see any of my notes from the gathering, or if you would like to talk to me and the other adult leaders. I am not the only one that was horrified.
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
'via Blog this'
---
California wrote:
The posting of the letter to the ELCA congregation from one of the adult chaperons who attended the ELCA National Youth Gathering is typical of parental objections expressed and ignored when decades ago LCMS National Youth Gathering feature Pete Seeger (communist folk singer) as a performer at the event. Before being "departed" from WELS in 1977, I had voluntarily left an LCMS congregation in 1964, when the political philosophy of the left was influencing youth in the churches in south SF Bay area.
Some parents were wondering why their teens were returning from youth retreats led by a pastor who oversaw the retreats in the neighboring Santa Cruz Mountains, with ideas not too different from the UC Berkeley radicals of those 1960's times.
Another LCMS pastor was running up and down the SF Peninsula giving presentations about anti-communism at any LCMS gatherings who would invite him. His message was not anti communism, but warning about anti-communists. He was listed in a report from the California Committee on Unamerican Activities as a supporter of the communist front organization, "Committee to Insure Justice for Morton Sobell". That can be documented. I have a hard copy of the report. Nobody seemed to take such activity seriously.
Eventually that pastor was placed as pastor for the LCMS UC Berkeley Campus chapel which served students . When the time came when I could no longer in good conscience invite anyone to attend church or participate in church activities for fear of what leftist political propaganda they would be exposed to in the name of religion, I left the LCMS to go to the new WELS mission congregation in the area where there were some good years until other issues surfaced in WELS which resulted in involuntary departure after 12 years.
ELCA isn't the first offender to politically brainwash youth. LCMS was right there beside them way back half a century ago.
Crystal Bridges - An Allegory for Biblical, Doctrinal Studies
Thomas Cole - The Course of Empire - Destruction |
This week we attended a lecture on art. Next I took a guided tour, one masterpiece per room, of the museum. Not knowing where the Thomas Cole Course of Empire paintings were, I found another enormous gallery for the traveling exhibit. When a museum is the ultimate collection of American art, the paintings come to the museum.
Visiting the museum is not at all like studying the paintings and the various eras of art. I saw Kindred Spirits quite a few times - and it gave me goose bumps again on the tour yesterday. The guide gave us the history behind the painting and connected it to the artists and patrons of the era.
This was Cole's last painting before he died at the age of 47. |
The paintings themselves are so much more vivid that any graphic can indicate. In The Good Shepherd, the flock of sheep is clearly visible, down by the water and green pasture. The barren area is the foreground is also much clearer.
To understand and appreciate art, more is needed than a walk-through and a knowledge of the captions beside the masterworks.
Biblical, doctrinal studies are not different. Many clergy want no more than to gather the credentials they need at seminary and repeat them forever, always careful to please the synod and copy the current fads.
No one becomes a Doctrinal Pussycat by bucking apostasy or opposing false teachers. I remember Steve Spencer bragging that Jon Buchholz was shutting down Jeff Gunn's CrossWalk by cutting off the extra funds, etc. TWO committees were investigating and studying the issues, and that went on for four (4) years at least. The results were:
- Jeff Gunn was appointed to the board of Wisconsin Lutheran College, one of three from CrossWalk.
- Jeff Gunn was featured as a speaker at the Jeske youth conference, which was promoted by Doctrinal Pussycat Jon Buchholz.
- Jeff Gunn and his Babtist congregation were welcomed into WELS, all criticism in the final (modified) report stifled.
In art and Biblical, doctrinal studies, anyone can become an expert. This fact is more true of the Christian faith than artistic endeavors. The Holy Spirit teaches us when we study the Word of God, as long as we make the Word primary, without filtering it through synodical slogans and warnings.
For a DP, the Bible is a way to make money and go on world trips at the expense of others. For the political pastors, in the majority, it is a way to make career advances and protect one's security. For many laity, it is a chance to be used as a synod minder and enjoy those fake-prestige positions on synodical committees. The laity know or soon find out that questioning one thing will mean immediate expulsion.
Thomas Cole, The Cross at the End of the Journey, Pilgrim's Progress |
AC V - Quoting the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Of Repentance.
AC V has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Questions Answered: Enthusiasm Breeds Enthusia...":
To clarify:
"The very voice of the Gospel is this, that by faith we obtain the remission of sins. [This word is not our word, but the voice and word of Jesus Christ, our Savior.]"
- The Defense of the Augsburg Confession, Art. XII:2, Of Repentance.
Labels:
Justification by Faith
UOJ Questions Answered:
Enthusiasm Breeds Enthusiasm: Church Growth and Pentecostal
I don't want to further burden you, which is why I asked for you to point me to something already available online so that you wouldn't have to "repeat yourself" just for me. I was trained in UOJ at CTSFW and have been taught that, as long as one avoids such nonsense as "the damned in hell are saints," UOJ gives comfort in providing an "objective" focus for one's faith in Christ on the "finished work" of our redemption, rather than to focus "subjectively" upon our own personal faith in Christ. --Warren
Dear Dr. Jackson: Here is how I have understood UOJ: Eph. 2:8 says "For by grace are ye saved, through faith..." and therefore the grace of God (UOJ) precedes the gift of faith which receives Subjective Justification, "grace" referring to UOJ rather than to the gift of saving faith through the Means of Grace. I have understood a parallel between the Justification controversy and the Election controversy, in that Election is determined by grace and not "in view of faith," and Justification is also because of grace, with faith being the gift of God which receives justification, and not a good work meriting justification. --Warren
I can understand the point that OJ can be used to minimize the necessity for
saving faith, but is there a danger that faith can become a "good work" if OJ is
denied, by stressing something "in the believer" rather than divine monergism?
Does OJ take on the appearance of the Reformed "Preservation of the Saints" and
"one saved, always saved" as the basis for the believer's assurance of salvation
by stressing something "outside of the believer"?
For that matter, what is the PRACTICAL difference between OJ and speaking of Christ having "atoned for the sins of the world" or "reconciled the world to God"?
Thank you for your understanding of these matters! --Warren
For that matter, what is the PRACTICAL difference between OJ and speaking of Christ having "atoned for the sins of the world" or "reconciled the world to God"?
Thank you for your understanding of these matters! --Warren
***
GJ - I have been repeating material from Luther, Chemnitz, and the Book of Concord for some time, so I am happy to have basic questions raised.
Intellectually-lazy MDivs like Rolf Preus, Jack Cascione, Jay Webber, and Jon Buchholz have perpetuated the notion that there is a nice, tame, Lutheran version of UOJ - far better than J. P. Meyer and the Kokomo Statements. But all versions are the same, no matter what name they claim - General, Objective, Universal, or Universal Objective.
The foundational error of UOJ is confusing the atonement with justification by faith, so the advocates find all kinds of ways to cloak their error.
They pounce on atonement passages, whether in the Bible or Luther or the Confessions and declare, "Aha - we have proven UOJ from the fact that the sins of the entire world are forgiven."
The atonement and justification are distinct and different. Merging their meaning explains why the UOJ Enthusiasts say such things as "the sins of Sodom were forgiven" and "I was saved 2000 years ago." Both statements are pathetic testimony to the poor state of Lutheran education.
The universal scope of the atonement is not disputed, because Christ indeed paid for the sins of the world. He redeemed the world, and that is the Gospel message, the reconciliation.
Justification by faith is quite simple. The atonement is the Gospel, so the Holy Spirit distributes this treasure through the Word and Sacraments. Those who receive this treasure in faith are declared forgiven of their sins and saved. Apart from faith, there is no forgiveness.
The atonement is universal, but justification is individual. The truth of the atonement does not depend on a single person believing it to be true, as Luther often said. However, no one in the Bible or the Confessions is forgiven apart from faith in this atonement.
The UOJ Stormtroopers are lying when they attack justification by faith, because orthodox Lutherans do not teach faith in their own faith, or faith as a virtue, but faith in the atoning death of Christ.
But what does UOJ claim?
Their shriveled little fake Gospel teaches faith in the dogma of universal absolution, a cancer so dangerous that it has killed most of Lutheran doctrine today.
False Doctrine Is a Devouring Cancer
I am a cancer survivor. Fortunately (tragically for UOJ), it was a basal cell carcinoma growing on my forehead. I was shocked to read a diagnosis of my condition in my insurance textbook. I hoped it would go away on its own. (First stage - denial!) No one knew it because it was so inconsequential looking. I told Mrs. I. and showed her the proof. I could press the area with tissue and get a tiny show of blood, just a little pink, any day and any time. There are three treatments - surgery, chemo, and radiation. A snip at the doctor's showed I was right, and a specialist cut it out. Mrs. I almost fainted when reading the report. The little BCC was already showing signs of ambition, digging in, and taking over.
UOJ Is Wrong Because
This universal absolution of Hottentots, polytheists, atheists, and cannibals is wrong. UOJ contradicts the Bible and Confessions by:
- Separating the Holy Spirit from the Word, mocking the Spirit.
- Denigrating the efficacy of the Word, hence the Consecration of the elements by the Word.
- Denying the true Gospel and substituting a system of man-made law.
- Obscuring and rejecting the Means of Grace.
- Teaching decision theology - you must make a decision for UOJ.
- Paving the way for Church Growth, Pentecostalism, Romanism, and many other symptoms of not trusting the Word.
Robert Preus clearly repudiated UOJ, after clearly advocating it. Both of his positions can be proven, but the UOJ minions have decided to go silent on his final work, Justification and Rome, where their Helen of Troy is tossed under the bus in no uncertain terms.
---
Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Questions Answered: Enthusiasm Breeds Enthusia...":
UOJists teach that faith doesn't do anything but receive what was already divinely declared to be true before they believed. They find comfort in this confession because they believe faith is a work of man and therefore because it is only a withered and outstretched beggars hand they avoid synergism - their faith, their work, contributing to their forgiveness and salvation. By this UOJ confession on faith they expose themselves as non-Christians because they've rejected the Holy Spirit's faith which is not from man but solely from God, graciously worked through the Means of Grace, Word and Sacrament. By the Holy Spirit's faith a man dies to sin, is born again in Christ, no longer under the Law but under Grace, receives the adoption of Sons, is forgiven, saved eternally and all this is instantaneous. UOJists recoil at the changes that faith in Christ bring about divinely and graciously because they already declared those who continue in their rejection of Christ, who are under the Law and dead in sins, to be under God's grace, mercy and forgiveness and not under God's wrath and condemnation as Scripture clearly teaches and the faithful Lutheran Confessions confirm.
UOJists have 0, none, zilch, nada, nothing within their new false gospel that is true and defensible by Scripture. They have separated themselves from Christ, forgiveness and salvation. By God's grace and mercy individuals within the Lutheran Synods hold to or will hold to the one true Gospel and faith in Christ.
---
AC V has left a new comment on your post "UOJ Questions Answered: Enthusiasm Breeds Enthusia...":
Brett, to wit:
"For, as Dr. Luther writes in the Preface to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: Thus faith is a divine work in us, that changes us and regenerates us of God, and puts to death the old Adam, makes us entirely different men in heart, spirit, mind, and all powers, and brings with it [confers] the Holy Ghost. Oh, it is a living, busy, active, powerful thing that we have in faith, so that it is impossible for it not to do good without ceasing."
- Formula of Concord Solid Declaration, IV:10, Good Works.
Labels:
LCMS UOJ WELS
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