Jon Buchholz and WELS District Presidents Are Anti-Luther, So Please Do Not Tarnish the Reformation with More UOJ Nonsense

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-matthew-91-8-nineteenth.html

Luther - Trinity 19, Second Sermon:

12. For this reason the greatest skill and intelligence is needed to grasp and understand this righteousness, and in our hearts and before God rightly to distinguish it from the above mentioned outward righteousness. For this is, as has been said, the skill and the wisdom of the Christian, but it is so high and great that even all the beloved Apostles could not speak enough of it; and yet it meets the painful misfortune that no art is mastered as soon as this.

There is no greater theme for a preacher than the grace of God and the forgiveness of sin, yet we are such wicked people, that, when we have once heard or read it, we think we know it, are immediately masters and doctors, keep looking for something greater, as though we had done everything, and thus we made new factions and division.

13. I have now been teaching and studying this subject with all diligence for many years (more than any one of those who imagine they know it all), in preaching, writing and reading, yet I cannot boast of having mastered it and am glad that I still remain a pupil with those who are just beginning to learn. For this reason I must admonish and warn all such as want to be Christians, both teachers and pupils, that they guard themselves against such shameful delusion and surfeit, and understand that this subject is most difficult and the greatest art that can be found upon earth; so that even Paul had to confess and say ( 2 Corinthians 9:15) that it is an unspeakable gift, that is, one which cannot be described among men with words so that they may regard it as highly and dearly as it really is in itself.

14. The reason for this is, that man’s understanding cannot get beyond this external piety of works, and cannot comprehend the righteousness of faith; but, the greater and more skillful this understanding is, the more it confines itself to works and rests upon them. It is not possible for man in times of temptation and distress, when his conscience smites him, to cease from groping around for works on which to stand and rest. 

***

GJ -

Roughly one day after I posted this selection on this blog, it appeared on the Facebook post of another pastor, someone in the LCMS. That does not prove he kelmed my post. Anyone can copy from Lenker's edition of Luther, but few do. I was pleased to see this significant point repeated in another forum.

I found it while waiting in the doctor's office. I usually grab a Luther volume when I anticipate waiting. Sometimes I get very tired of reading Lutheran history, but I never tire of Luther's sermons. The older I get, the more I appreciate Luther's insights on everything. Lenker published two sermons on this text, each one filled with spiritual wisdom.

I see no evidence of nominal Lutheran leaders enjoying a steady diet of Luther. Their approach to Luther, the Book of Concord, and the Scriptures reminds me of chickens walking around the farmyard,  suddenly pecking at a scrap of food. If the observer scatters some grain, they cluck like wild, flap their wings, and settle down for a feast. Give the UOJ Flock a new citation and they throw up a loud cry of glee and devour it.

The same points get re-cycled regularly. Here is the one about the Keys, which I posted long ago:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/02/false-support-of-uoj-exposed-by-layman.html

That excerpt from Humann (40:366) is the third or fourth time I have seen that particular portion of Luther's commentary pulled from its theme and used badly in support of UOJ.

It is from Luther's writing: The Keys.

The whole section is proving that binding and loosing is binding and loosing. If that is not believed, action of the keys is still true. Here is the section from which that small portion is pulled and misused. The boldface is mine. 

On page 366 there is more from Luther:

Rely on the words of Christ and be assured that God has no other way to forgive sins than through the spoken Word, as he has commanded us. If you do not look for forgiveness through the Word, you will gape toward heaven in vain for grace, or (as they say), for a sense of inner forgiveness.

But if you speak as the factious spirits and sophists do: “After all, many hear of the binding and loosing of the keys, yet it makes no impression on them and they remain unbound and without being loosed. Hence, there must exist something else beside the Word and the keys. It is the spirit, the spirit, yes, the spirit that does it!” Do you believe he is not bound who does not believe in the key which binds? Indeed, he shall learn, in due time, that his unbelief did not make the binding vain, nor did it fail in its purpose. Even he who does not believe that he is free and his sins forgiven shall also learn, in due time, how assuredly his sins were forgiven, even though he did not believe it. St. Paul says in Rom. 3[:3]: “Their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God.” We are not talking here either about people’s belief or disbelief regarding the efficacy of the keys. We realize that few believe. We are speaking of what the keys accomplish and give. He who does not accept what the keys give receives, of course, nothing. But this is not the key’s fault.

Luther, M. (1999, c1958). Vol. 40: Luther's works, vol. 40 : Church and Ministry II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (40:366). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the Atonement, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, but describes a special application of the Word. The misquoters ignore the sentence just preceding the boldface portion, misunderstand 'binding' and Luther's pointed underscoring, and skip the reference to faithlessness in the Romans 3:3 excerpt that follows. 

Far be it from me to get into an argument with Mr. Humann. You, Brett, LPC, and now Rick, are well more able than I at that. It is clear that Humann is misusing Luther's words just as the UOJ Enthusiasts misuse quotations from Scripture, which he also did. 

The quotation I sent is the two sentences immediately before the above section. Thank you for thinking my effort worthy of emphasis.

What great lengths those folks go to as they try to bolster their erroneous teachings.

MichGander

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "False Support of UOJ Exposed by Layman":

MichiGander, here are additional quotes from the Confessions which clearly show that the Office of the Keys to remit sins applies only to those who have faith in Christ alone. Also, Luther confirms that changing anything that God instituted, as he instituted it, including the keys, removes God from it and makes it invalid.

Book of Concord
6] Let any one of the adversaries come forth and tell us when remission of sins takes place. O good God, what darkness there is! They doubt whether it is in attrition or in contrition that remission of sins occurs. And if it occurs on account of contrition, what need is there of absolution, what does the power of the keys effect, if sins have been already remitted? Here, indeed, they also labor much more, and wickedly detract from the power of the keys.
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_10_repentance.php

From the Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests, “For we must believe and be sure of this, that baptism does not belong to us but to Christ, that the gospel does not belong to us but to Christ, that the office of preaching does not belong to us but to Christ, that the sacrament (of the Lord’s Supper) does not belong to us but to Christ, that the keys, or forgiveness and retention of sins, do not belong to us but to Christ. In summary, the offices and sacraments do not belong to us but to Christ, for he has ordained all this and left it behind as a legacy in the church to be exercised and used to the end of the world; and he does not lie or deceive us. Therefore, we cannot make anything else out of it but must act according to his command and hold to it. However, if we alter it or improve on it, then it is invalid and Christ is no longer present, nor is his ordinance.”

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "False Support of UOJ Exposed by Layman": 

MichiGander is correct - the Lutheran Confession's teaching concerning the Office of the Keys has been perverted by those wanting to establish the false gospel of UOJ as the central article of Christian faith. Here are a few.

Pastor Steven P. Dorn, WELS
Exegesis of Objective Justification Passages
2010 Spring Pastoral Study Conference, April 2010
"Reconciliation; that is, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; meaning, he no longer counts against the people of the world, their "trespasses." 
In his discourse on the Ministry of the Keys, Luther explains the objective nature of God's verdict of forgiveness apart from faith. …
Page 8
http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dorn-exegesis-paper.pdf

Pastor Schleicher quoting Siegbert W. Becker
Is Objective Justification Universalism
And the Lord Jesus also promises to stand behind the word of those who speak for him. “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” “They are remitted” is a perfect tense, and we can really say ‘”They have been forgiven long ago,” or as Luther says, “before we prayed or before we ever thought of it.”
Page 11
http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/schleicher-paper.pdf

Siegbert W. Becker
Justification
Page 2
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF

Pastor Kurt Marquart
JUSTIFICATION-0BJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE: A Translation of the Doctrinal Essay Read at the First Convention of the Synodical Conference in 1872
So then the Absolution is an object for our faith and not a mere pointer to faith . The promise must always stand before our eyes, and in it all terrified souls are to seek consolation and forgiveness and be lifted up by it. On the other hand, if faith must be there first , then faith is made into something quite different from what it really is; it is then no longer a grasping and accepting of the existing benefits. [GJ - This is the Eduard Preuss argument, which is never associated with his switch to being a Roman Catholic theologian.]
Page 35
http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/lutherantheology.marquartjustification.html

(W)ELS CA/AZ DP Pastor Jon Buchholz
Justification, given at the 2005 WELS Convention
“God has forgiven the whole world. God has forgiven everyone his sins.” This statement is absolutely true! This is the heart of the gospel, and it must be preached and taught as the foundation of our faith. 
Page 7

“God has forgiven all sins, but the unbeliever rejects God’s forgiveness.” Again, this statement is true—and Luther employed similar terminology to press the point of Christ’s completed work of salvation.16 But we must also recognize that Scripture doesn’t speak this way.
Page 8
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BuchholzJustification.pdf

---

LPC has left a new comment on your post "False Support of UOJ Exposed by Layman": 

MichiGander,

Thanks for the full quote. Your observation is correct, it is the habit of UOJers to pull quotes out of context. 

As usual, a text without a context is pretext for promoting false notions and teachings.

Now these people are no ordinary non-seminary trained pastors. No, they are very trained and seminary graduates and yet, and yet, and yet... their arguments and methods are so high-schoolish that a layman applying a bit of discernment will notice how their method is so faulty and scholarship so unreliable.

We would be fools to hand over the health of our souls for their care. 

There is such as thing as quack doctors;by analogy, these people are quack pastors.


LPC

The Class of 1982, The Sausage Factory, Mequon

Thirty years after graduating, the Class of 1982 has left an indelible bad impression on WELS. How did so many go bad?

1. Jeff Gunn - the Emerging Church copycat with the atheist son.
2. Paul Jahnke - the DP famous for getting rid of pastors (but not Church Growthers). 
3. Joel Fredrich - the professor who caved on "making disciples," the favorite CG gloss on the Great Commission.
4. Keith Free - Lavish BAM funder of Church and Change projects, like The CORE and Rick Johnson.
5. James Mattek - mysterious role at WLCFS.
6. Mark Freier - P-Boy! No longer WELS and never Lutheran, he got a grant to help out Parlow's non-Lutheran congregation.
7. Bruce Becker - Church and Change board member and Perish Services salesman, now a Mark Jeske gofer. Or did he join the Church and Change staff at Wisconsin Lutheran College?

How Much Time for Stealing $8 Million? - None

The big doll house

$1M ‘Church Lady’ embezzler gets prison

• By LAURA ITALIANO
• Last Updated: 4:10 AM, October 12, 2012
• Posted: 3:12 AM, October 12, 2012

Goodbye, dollies.

An angry judge sentenced an elderly embezzler obsessed with Madam Alexander Dolls to at least 4 1/2 years in prison yesterday for stealing $1 million from the Archdiocese of New York — calling her crime “outrageous.”

Anita Collins, 69, of Schulyerville in The Bronx, blew much of the money on the pricey dolls, Belleek China, furniture from Bloomingdale’s and clothing from Brooks Brothers.

Collins, described as a devout churchgoer by friends, has forfeited possession of all of her dolls and other trinkets, which now sit in storage in dozens of boxes in the Manhattan DA’s Office in preparation of being inventoried and sold to reimburse the church.

Steven Hirsch

‘GRAN’ LARCENY:Anita Collins was sentenced yesterday for stealing $1 million — much of which went to buying Madam Alexander dolls.

“You were put in a position of trust by a trusting religious organization,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone told Collins, who had pleaded guilty to grand larceny last month. “You stole $1 million — that is an outrageous amount.”

“The church gave you a second chance,” the judge added, referring to Collins having been convicted of grand larceny back in 1999, for stealing from a temp agency.

“And look what you did,” he said. “It was outrageous.”

Collins ripped off the church while working for seven years as an accounts-payable clerk in the archdiocese offices at 1011 First Ave.

She took the money by writing herself check after check — a total of 450 of them over the years. She’d cover her trail by always sending the church false invoices in amounts less than $2,500, the threshold for supervisor approval.

Her forfeited dolls and other ill-gotten loot is valued at only $30,000 to $40,000, according to Collins’ lawyer, although a law-enforcement source predicts the appraised value will be “substantially” higher.

The rest of the stolen cash is unaccounted for, and Collins has insisted there is none left. She technically owes $1,073,358.83 in restitution, but the odds on any repayment are long, given her age and looming prison sentence.

“Nobody can really explain what happened to the money,” Collins’ lawyer, Howard Simmons, told reporters afterward. “They lived very plain lives in a simple apartment. She was very well thought of at the archdiocese. She’s a very nice woman.” She’s lost 40 pounds” since her arrest in February, he said.

Collins’ daughter, Helen, for whom Collins had been the sole care-giver, is dying of cancer, and is fighting for the return of some of the seized items, including a printer and jewelry, which she insists are hers, the lawyer said.

“The defendant managed to embezzle from her employer through incremental theft, which exceeded $1 million over 7 1/2 years,” said DA Cyrus Vance Jr.

“Companies that believe they have been victimized — including nonprofit organizations and religious institutions — should be on watch for theft by insiders,” Vance said.

The DA’s Special Prosecutions office, which handles such crimes, has a hot line at 212-335-8900.

***

GJ - Who went to prison when $8 million disappeared from WELS funds? No one. Piepenbrink lifted about $300,000 and WELS had a fit. He should have done file-sharing, as fellow staffer Hochmuth did: public absolution and less than one year in the hoosegow.

Or - what is the penalty for buying a new office building without selling the old one? For not having a contingency contract in a down market? "We will complete this purchase only if we sell the falling-down piece of garbage called The Love Shack. Otherwise, no deal."

Vote for Romney, so real estate prices go up and there is actually a demand for commercial real estate in Milwaukee.

Cheering news - Appleton must be thriving, because a twice-failed bar is worth over $500,000. How much offering money from the entire synod was donated by Free and Schroeder to buy this stinky old bar? How much was loaned to remodel it? When will WELS tell the truth about this? Never.

Does Paul McCain Read CPH Books? Especially Those with His Name on Them?

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Bedfellows of Apostasy - Paul McCain, FB Friends w...":

Paul Rydecki comments on Facebook, referring to McCain:

I'm trying to figure out at what point it became anathema in the Lutheran Church to teach justification according to Augsburg Confession, Art. IV. I'll even quote from the McCain translation:

"Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4 [3:21–26; 4:5])."

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (P. T. McCain, Ed.) (33). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

Justified when? "When they believe..." Received into favor when? Present tense. Sins are forgiven why? For Christ's sake. Sins are forgiven when? Present tense. Christ made satisfaction when? On the cross (past tense).

***

GJ -

UOJ was not the ruling norm on justification until after the Brief Confession of 1932. That could not have been with the German catechism and the Luther materials used before that time. But WWI made the German language something to be shunned.

The Walther claque slowly took over via Francis Pieper and Stoeckhardt. The bad yeast slowly permeated the Synodical Conference. Finally it became acceptable to drive someone out in the name of UOJ, as the Preus brothers did with Walther A. Maier, denying him the presidency of the practical seminary. Robert Preus was the beneficiary of that controversy.

WELS had its show-trial with Kokomo, driving two families out in the name of universal forgiveness without faith.

The literature shows that both sects were teaching justification by faith in their own catechisms, but that is now so buried that McCain can rave against justification by faith while selling a catechism that is only justification by faith.

The Robert Preus Fan Club cannot bring themselves to address the obvious repudiation of UOJ in Justification and Rome.

DP Jon Buchholz wrote to me, four years ago, 8-27-2008:

You mentioned the concern that confessional guys get nailed and ousted, while enthusiasts don’t. I share that concern, but there’s also a reason why that happens: Enthusiasts don’t confess. Pinning them down is like trying to nail Jell-o to a wall. Their sins are sins of glaring omission in matters of doctrinal truth, not often glaring sins of commission that can easily be identified, confronted and disciplined. They often say one thing (in lip-service) but do another. When their outrageous, aberrant statements are challenged, they reply, “Well, what I meant was . . . “ and then recouch their view in orthodox Lutheran terminology. And since we’re operating in a legalistic environment of literalistic Biblicism where “only chapter and verse matter,” the problem is doubly compounded. Believe me, it’s a very challenging and vexing problem.

Go back again and read Bente’s history of the crypto-Calvinist controversy, and you’ll see similar challenges that were very difficult to confront in that day. In fact, had not the cryptos slipped up and tipped their hand as to their real agenda, I sometimes wonder whether the gnesio-Lutherans would have prevailed as they did. (I’m talking here specifically about enthusiast pastors who are difficult to discipline in congregations, not published authors who have flagrantly revealed their doctrine and haven’t been disciplined. That’s a different, albeit related, problem).

[end of Buchie quote]

Buchholz was wrong in claiming that Enthusiasts don't confess. They never stop yakking. He is a prime example, extolling his personal version of UOJ at every stop. He admitted in his email that he is "not apt to teach" and unqualified to be a pastor. Neither is he discerning. I doubt that he ever read Thy Strong Word, although he is the one who wanted to discuss justification with me. I have an entire chapter on Zwingli and Calvin, quoting Bente of all people. But how would he know, even though Brett Meyer gave him a free copy to study.

I found it quite amusing that he told me to study Bente on the crypto-Calvinists. An NPH book book noted that in WELS the Calvinists were no longer crypto. Once again, Buchholz is the prime example of that, marketing his UOJ paper as the last word in Lutheran Orthodoxy when he does not even grasp justification and cannot be called a Lutheran - not even a mild Lutheran.

The previous inept DP out in the West was Jahnke, who was famous for yanking pastors from the ministry, although that man was less savage, heavy-handed, and overbearing than Buchholz. One Lutheran observer said Buchie was already trying on his jackboots as a tutor, insisting that he be called Tutor Buchholz at all times. The Changers in WELS (Lawrenz, Olson) are very fussy about their names.

SP Mark Schroeder and DP Jon Buchholz have both shown their willingness to come down hard on the side of false doctrine and practice, as public absolvers of immoral church workers and private opponents of the truth.

Has any Church and Changer be disciplined in WELS? Ever?
Image courtesy of Joe Krohn.

Tim Glende, Paul McCain, Jon Buchholz - Bosom Buddies Through UOJ

Tim and Katy - bosom buddies.
Tim is bronzer buddies with Snookie.
I made this Photoshop really obvious, because the Taj Mahal has policies
about who can pose there.

Paul McCain is bosom buddies with
WELS DP Jon Buchholz.

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Bedfellows of Apostasy - Paul McCain, FB Friends w...":

Ichabod -

I think that you are correct in saying that the recent turn of events vis-a-vis the WELS suspension, showcases "a clear confession of their confusion," of those universal objective justification fanatics, such as McCain.

The sad part about McCain, though, is that he is seducing others to join his McCaininite deviltry.

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org 

***

GJ - UOJ unites people through their common hatred of the New Testament Gospel, but that does not unite them in other ways.

McCain and Otten worked together covertly to elect Al Barry, and they love UOJ, but they loathe one another now.

McCain supposedly hates the Church Growth Movement, as my letter from him claims from many years ago, but he is blogging buddies with Tim Glende, who engages in outright plagiarism in his Groeschel-cloning congregation.

Both of them love, love, love UOJ - so Paul McCain has blogged with Glende. So heart-warming.

Here is Paul calling for Tim - "Dinner is served!"

Being Read at the Moment - Don't Know Why - Lots of Laughs

Shaking, sweating, rapid-fire speech, 

Anonymous said...
I know this comment doesn't fit under this thread but this is really too ironic not to mention. Mr. Jackson has detailed on his blog how great it is that the St. Andrew's Waunakee campus is closing and how it is evidence of God's judgement. ("God will not be mocked." by AC V) Mr. Jackson only gets 15 people from around the world to watch his service online. Yet he views a satellite campus ministering to a specific community with low attendance as evidence of God's judgement and a source of mockery. Which is it Mr. Jackson? Are numbers evidence of God's judgement or not?

I'm guessing your answer is the same as always. It's OK to do whatever you want as long as it fits your distorted view of God's Word.

I'm guessing it's too late for Mr. Jackson but hopefully some of his few followers will see what a danger it is to mock a ministry for a lack of growth.

March 15, 2012 3:48 PM

***

GJ - I enjoyed posting the Randy Hunter pages, before they disappear faster than a Glende blog or Kilcrease comment. This blog has a strange effect on other websites, making pages vanish faster than Rick Johnson's offering figures - not to mention his veneration of Leonard Sweet.

If I may repeat myself, the posts came from the urging of WELS members and pastors. They know they can deal with issues safely here. When they obey orders to talk to pastors about false doctrine and lupine practices, they are excommunicated. Ask the Kokomomo families, Rick Techlin, and the Krohn family.

Here are some self-justifications from the flop-sweat Church and Change team.

Look at the staff at the dual single parish:
Randy Hunter - Pastor
Kristen Koepsell - Minister of Worship
David Hochmuth - Minister of Spiritual Growth
Elton Stroh - Pastor/Crossroads Consulting
Newlin Schafer - Pastor

Five people could not do all the work! It was wearing them out:

• ordering the coffee and filters, 
• plumping up the couch cushions, 
• debating which false teacher to plagiarize for the next sermon,
• applying for more loot from Thrivent, Schwan, the synod, and the ladies' groups.

They did not bear their cross patiently.

Once again, I have to ask - how much money was wasted on the coffee and lounger fad before they took their initial group of 50 people down to 25?

I really thought Elton Stroh would turn them around. He is the turnaround specialist. He even posted what might happen (with his help), inventing charts that made blinded eyes sparkle and larcenous hearts thump.

Team Glende really misses the point. We began Internet services for members, at their request. It cost a donated $100 camera, available broadband, and a better computer.

I saw a figure at Ustream that thousands of views had been enjoyed already. I am not sure if that means all the people reading the files or all the views live. It does not matter, because we are still operating and not closing anything down. In fact, more publishing is already in the works.

The printed sermons are published many ways:

1. Two blogs.
2. Various Facebook pages.
3. Twitter.
4. Via email from members to their friends.
5. Printed and shared by members with others. 

A normal page-read day is about 2,000 for one blog alone. I do not think the Latte Church ever held 2,000+ households. The newsletter says 25 people at its inglorious end.

I am not sure what the other figures are. I hear from various people. One couple in Virginia uses the sermon each Sunday. They do not use Ustream, but they read the sermon along with other orthodox Lutheran material. I only know this because the Virginia couple wrote to me about this. They asked me to get the sermon done faster so it would be ready for them, Eastern Liberal Time.

But the numbers do not matter. This tiny congregation serves others without synod subsidies, Thrivent groups, or foundation loot.

Randy Hunter and his band of clowns were not faithful stewards of the mysteries of God. That matters.


KJV 1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the
mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

One day Hunter may appreciate the irony of posting this on his congregational website.

---

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Closed Latte Church Fan Shows Signs of Over-Caffei...":

they took their initial group of 50 people down to 25

They probably counted the six-piece band, plus Hunter even though he was only a prerecorded apparition on a PP screen.

From the St. Andrew newsletter: "Could we have tried other strategies and done more? Of course, but that's true of all endeavors."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for in-house Crossroads Consulting, is it?

---

AC V has left a new comment on your post "Closed Latte Church Fan Shows Signs of Over-Caffei...":

The mockery is of the hypocrisy of an organization such as Crossroads Consulting that promises "growth" and yet even it - an in-house ministry with the chief architect consultant Elton Stroh - can't save the Waunakee "ministry."

The mockery is of WELS FiCl that highlights this ministry as cutting edge and "outside the box" thinking that every fuddy-duddy WELS congregation ought to be doing.

---

LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Closed Latte Church Fan Shows Signs of Over-Caffei...":

I hope that's not his boat...

***

GJ - Old Northwestern College meme, "That's not a booooat. That's a ship."

Sola Fide Has Been Bad - Not Allowed To Post on LutherQuest (sic)

solafide (http://solafide.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Exegetes Unite - Abraham Is the Common Theme in Ju...":

Given their own definitions:
Objective Justification = Christ died for ALL SIN.

Subjective Justification = Christ died FOR YOUR SIN.

If Christ "died for ALL SIN" did not happen, then how do you know that Christ died FOR YOUR SIN.

I am wondering how the UOJ'ers reconcile the fact that Abraham was justified for his faith alone, BEFORE the Objective Justification they so love happened at Calvary.

Simple answer: They can't. They ignore it.

As a note to Brett Meyer, since I am not allowed to post on LutherQuest:

This is from a WELS Professor, who will remain nameless for his own protection:
"the "all" in Ro 3:23 is not all people, believers and unbelievers alike, but all the believers who were just mentioned in verse 22."

***

GJ -

Faith/believe times five - not all times two. This is one of many classic justification by faith passages in the Bible. Only a doofus could turn it into UOJ - but there is a boundless supply of doofi.

--

KJV Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.


The red all is not in the text and is not even found in the old NIV.

Romans 3:22-28

New New International Version (NIV)

²² This righteousness is given through faith in^[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all [sic] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,^[b] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

--

The edition of the second all, the red all, is proof that the UOJ position is wrong and deceitful. The unionists who produced the old NIV were not content to eliminate the sacraments from the New Testament. They had to turn justification by faith into Universalism. The second all delivers the text into  the hands of the Pharisees.

By clamoring for the New NIV, the Mequon faculty has revealed its identification with National Council of Churches/World Council of Churches thinking - "Why can't we all simply disbelieve together?" And they do. 

Sola - the Abraham problem is a reason why the UOJ Hive never ventures beyond their shallow talking-points. They cannot harmonize the Catechism with their nonsense. To see the Scriptures as a whole, which we must do, is impossible for them.

If WELS is forced to back down from the NNIV, they will still propagandize for it at Mequon, until they get what they want. 

Wendland smuggled UOJ into his brain-washing sessions, titled Justification by Faith.
Typical UOJ misdirection of the mind.

Bedfellows of Apostasy - Paul McCain, FB Friends with DP Jon Buchholz. The Editor Cannot Spell.

WELS DP Jon Buchholz is Facebook friends with McCain.

Paul T. McCain

2 hours ago

Lutheran Pastor Suspended.

It doesn't happen often, maybe, some would say, not often enough, but it was encouraging to me to learn that the Wisconsin Synod has suspended from its ministry one of its pastors, Paul Rydeki (sic), who denies the teaching that on the cross God paid for and forgave the sins of the world.

Yes, you read that right. I know, it's crazy, isn't it? How could any Lutheran pastor d

eny what Scripture teaches so clearly?

Pastor Rydeki 

(sic) was asked two simple questions and failed to answer yes to each:

1) “Did God forgive the sins of the world when Jesus died on the cross?”

2) “Has God justified all sinners for the sake of Christ?”

God has acted, very objectively, in Christ to forgive and justify the entire world through the death of Jesus. Each individual receives this gift of forgiveness and justification, subjectively, through the blessed means of grace. It's just that beautiful a truth and that simple.

Kudos to the WELS.

***

GJ - McNasty is infamous in all synods. At least this is making apostates give a clear confession of their confusion.

McCain's Roman Catholic expert, Jack Kilcrease, thinks the Book of Concord is primitive.

A feckless captain ran the Concordia onto shoals, because he was showing off.
Concordia Publishing House has the same kind of leadership.

Paul T. McCain Pastor Webber: Thank you for your extremely important comment, clarifying the flat-out lies and distortion being used by Rydeki (sic) and his supporters to try to bolster his position. Let us all pray he repents of his sinful rejection of Biblical truth.

***
GJ - Let us pray that McCain learns how to spell the names of the people he denounces with Satanic glee.

In McCain's world of rationalistic Pietism,
babies are born already justified, forgiven, absolved.
Why do we baptize the little saints?
Naturally, McCain lied about Rydecki, who
never denied the Atonement.

WELS DiPs - They Are Smokin'

Daryl Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Graphic Explains the the Wisdom of UOJ":

One of my favorite TV shows as a kid was "CHiPs", about Jon and Ponch, a pair of California Highway Patrolmen cruising the freeways of SoCal on their KZ1000 police cruisers, helping out stranded motorists and catching the bad guys. Despite the disco-themed music, the opening credit sequence is still one of the coolest I've seen, with the tight shots of the hand on the throttle, the foot on the shift lever, the badge, the holstered gun, and the C, H, and P coming off the emblem on the gas tank to spell out the show's title.

Along these lines, the WELS has produced a new video series called "DiPs", about a pair of district presidents running around the synod, putting out all the doctrinal fires and burning all the JBFA heretics at the stake. It'll help to fill that awkward ten minutes of dead time on those Sundays when the "WELS Connection" isn't shown.

Has any Church and Changer been disciplined for anything?

---

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Exegetes Unite - Abraham Is the Common Theme in Ju...":

Ichabod -

In reference to one of your multiple pics - the one where Luther comments on Galatians 2:15-16 towards the beginning of this posting:

I recall not too long ago sitting in a Christmas Eve children's service (in my own WELS church) and listening to the WELS pastor's address. In essence, it was thematic of universal objective justification. He only talked how Christ was God's gift "to us." His only “message card” was Christ and the forgiveness He came to offer. The pastor apparently left all the other Scripture “cards” in his closed Bible.

I find that this type of irresponsible preaching is missing wonderful opportunities. Mixed Christian and non-Christian crowds such as a children's service which brings non-church heathen family members into the church sanctuary, are the same occasions which present their presence at funerals. Not preaching the whole counsel of God with sin and all its offensive severity and damning consequences to these mixed audiences, is not preaching the [whole] Gospel at all! If Christ saves to the uttermost [and, He does]; He saves from hell and damnation. Hence, Lutheran parish preachers should never shun the preaching to sinners: "Repent of your sins and believe the Gospel"

But, sadly and pathetically, so - Christian preachers will refuse to do that. Why? Because they have cast the Holy Spirit aside and think that they know better. Hence, they attempt to provide for the sinners in their congregation mix, a cheap Gospel. That cheap Gospel is readily found in universal objective justification, such as the "Christian" denomination of the WELS. Such a cheap gospel is the lazy preachers' "Gospel."

"Cheap Grace is a Worthless Substitute for a Faith That Saves:"

http://www.thechristianmessage.org/2012/06/cheap-grace-is-worthless-substitute-for.html

Nathan M. Bickel - pastor emeritus
Bay city, Michigan - WELS Bethel Lutheran member

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org