The Christian Message - From Pastor Nathan Bickel

The Christian Message:

Question:

How did Jesus Christ come to be? What was [is] His origin?

Answer:

The Bible says: "In the beginning"
referring to the "Word," which is Jesus Christ. The Scripture again interprets itself, because in verse John 1:14, it explains "who" the "Word," is. Jesus Christ was not only present when He was born of the Virgin Mary; He was present in eternity - "in the beginning."

Scripture teaches that one of the Triune God’s “attributes,” is that He is a “spirit,” [John 4:24] -- [Also, that He is “Invisible” -- 1 Timothy 1:17] Scripture also, ascribes to God, the quality of being, “Eternal.” That means that He has no beginning and no end. [Psalm 90:1;2] Hence, Mary, the (earthly) mother of Jesus, cannot be what some, erroneously term, the “Mother of God.”


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. - John 1:1;2

Read more on his site.

'via Blog this'

***

GJ - The Gospel of John is my favorite for many reasons.

The Gospel of John is from the "disciple Jesus loved," the one entrusted with the care of Mary, after the death and resurrection of his Savior.

The Fourth Gospel was written, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to create faith through the Word.

KJV John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Also, the Gospel of John supplements the first three Gospels with priceless sermons from Jesus and additional information that helps us understand the historical context.

For a time the rationalists attacked the truth of John's Gospel by placing it several hundred years after the ministry of Christ. Research has shown that we have the earlier fragment of any Gospel from John, which places the author in the first century. The language and geographical details show John to be very early rather than late. Anyone who has read it carefully can feel the intensity of a first-hand account.

I realize how much this research can be debated, but I find it intriguing that the tools of the sceptics have been used to show how wrong they are.

Joe Krohn Gets It Right

Joe and Lisa Krohn, Easter, 4-23-2011

Pastor,

Have a blessed Easter.  Thank you for continuing the cause in true Christian faith and what it means.

As I read your Good Friday sermon, I couldn’t help being struck by the irony of those who are proponents of UOJ.  They are all about Grace, Love and un-conditional forgiveness, but will turn on a dime and vehemently demand repentance from you if you even feign sinning against them.  They are blinded by their own sanctimonious piety.  They fail to realize you are beating them at their own game.

I have been going back and forth with emails this past week with members of Holy Word as well as Patterson.  Patterson is really in a tizzie about you and my association to you.  He keeps bringing it up when all I want to do is talk about scriptures.  I urged him to contact you as I have done if he is having issues.  Just curious if he ever did.

Blessings,

Joe

Parlow, Jeske, Kelm, and Patterson -
the Jelly-Tele-Tubbies who run WELS.

When People Read Half of a Sentence And Overturn the Confessions in the Name of the Gospel

Louis Benoit (Louis) Intermediate Member Username: Louis Post Number: 291 Registered: 12-2010

Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 10:17 am:       “Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” This is how Romans 4:25 reads. Why was Jesus delivered up? Because of our offenses, that’s why. Why was Jesus raised? Because of our justification, that’s why. What does this mean? Our sins are the reason he died. His death did not cause our sins. Our sins caused his death. Just so, our justification is the reason he rose. His resurrection did not cause our justification. Our justification caused his resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is our absolution. It is God's public public announcement that when Jesus died because of our sins he took those sins away. Had he not taken those sins away we would not have been justified. Had we not been justified he would have stayed dead. But he was raised from the dead. Why? Because he succeeded in taking away our sins, that is, because we were justified. This is the clear meaning of Romans 4:25, Brett. The reason you and Christian Schulz and Daniel Baker reject objective justification is because you reject the Bible. You are Gospel-doubters because you are Bible-doubters and you are Bible-doubters because you are Gospel-doubters.

Brett Meyer (Brett_meyer) Member Username: Brett_meyer Post Number: 75 Registered: 1-2008

Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - 3:51 pm:       Louis I disagree. In fact, the Christian Book of Concord disagrees here: 10] These treasures are offered us by the Holy Ghost in the promise of the holy Gospel; and faith alone is the only means by which we lay hold upon, accept, and apply, and appropriate them to ourselves. 11] This faith is a gift of God, by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him, that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the father, and are eternally saved. 12] Therefore it is considered and understood to be the same thing when Paul says that we are justified by faith, Rom. 3, 28, or that faith is counted to us for righteousness, Rom. 4, 5, and when he says that we are made righteous by the obedience of One, Rom. 5, 19, or that by the righteousness of One justification of faith came to all men, Rom. 5, 18. 13] For faith justifies, not for this cause and reason that it is so good a work and so fair a virtue, but because it lays hold of and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel; for this must be applied and appropriated to us by faith, if we are to be justified thereby. 14] Therefore the righteousness which is imputed to faith or to the believer out of pure grace is the obedience, suffering, and resurrection of Christ, since He has made satisfaction for us to the Law, and paid for [expiated] our sins. 15] For since Christ is not man alone, but God and man in one undivided person, He was as little subject to the Law, because He is the Lord of the Law, as He had to suffer and die as far as His person is concerned. For this reason, then, His obedience, not only in suffering and dying, but also in this, that He in our stead was voluntarily made under the Law, and fulfilled it by this obedience, is imputed to us for righteousness, so that, on account of this complete obedience, which He rendered His heavenly Father for us, by doing and suffering, in living and dying, God forgives our sins, regards us as godly and righteous, and eternally saves us. 16] This righteousness is offered us by the Holy Ghost through the Gospel and in the Sacraments, and is applied, appropriated, and received through faith, whence believers have reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, the grace of God sonship, and heirship of eternal life. 17] Accordingly, the word justify here means to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment for the sake of Christ's righteousness, which is imputed by God to faith, Phil. 3, 9. For this use and understanding of this word is common in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Prov. 17, 15: He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Is. 5, 23: Woe unto them which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Rom. 8, 33: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, that is, absolves from sins and acquits. http://www.bookofconcord.org/sd-righteousness.php The doctrine of Objective Justification makes a mockery of Christ's atonement when it teaches the whole world was declared righteous and absolved of all sin yet it is insufficient since most are condemned to Hell for eternity because they didn't believe they were absolved and declared righteous. Didn't Christ die to pay for the universal sin of unbelief also? And wasn't that sin absolved in everyone when the others were?

Note the Anti-Confessional Character of UOJ Enthusiasts

Rev. Guillaume Williams (Revhardheaded) Senior Member Username: Revhardheaded Post Number: 4265 Registered: 10-2004

Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2012 - 9:04 pm:       Someone wrote: "Mr. Depenbrock, the BOC quotes provided during this discussion clearly show that the whole world was not reconciled to God through Christ's payment for the world's sins: the Atonement. Reconciliation with God only occurs through faith in Christ alone." If that is so then the BOC is wrong. God says: 2Co 5:14-15 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; (15) and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2Co 5:18-19 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. This is what we would refer to as OJ. OTOH, this is what we would call SJ 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2Co 5:20-21 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (21) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr There can be only one!

---

This is the crown jewel of UOJ in the Book of Concord?
No, it is a repudiation of UOJ.

And on this account let no one boast of works, because no one is justified by his deeds. But he who is righteous has it given him because he was justified after the laver [of Baptism]. Faith, therefore, is that which frees through the blood of Christ, because he is blessed "whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered," Ps. 32:1,104] These are the words of Ambrose, which clearly favor our doctrine; he denies justification to works, and ascribes to faith that it sets us free through the blood of Christ. Let all the Sententiarists, who are adorned with magnificent titles, be collected into one heap. For some are called angelic; others, subtile, and others irrefragable [that is, doctors who cannot err.] When all these have been read and reread, they will not be of as much aid for understanding Paul as is this one passage of
Ambrose.

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, IV: That We Obtain Remission of Sins by Faith Alone in Christ,
#104ff.

***

GJ - When the UOJ Enthusiasts crack open the Book of Concord, it only opens to one spot, right here. And they only quote the first part of the paragraph, which suits their perverted Gospel - a Gospel, which is not Gospel, to fit a faith which is no faith.

Melanchthon was contending against justification by works, proving justification by faith from Ambrose, one of the Doctors of the Church for the papal party. This entire article on justification is a defense of justification by faith, and the title of this section makes that even clearer (for those who graduated from Mequon) -

That We Obtain Remission of Sins by Faith Alone in Christ.

In the craft of writing, one does not simply make a point and let it hang. Melanchthon was a gifted theological writer and a scholar of Greek and Latin. He wrote paragraphs, not verses. A paragraph has a beginning, middle, and an end. This one builds to a climax focusing on Ambrose as a Doctor of the Church, a Doctor of Justification by Faith.  Jay Webber and his vicar, Jon Buchholz, take that justification by faith away through subterfuge, since the plain words of the paragraph condemn both MDivs as Sententiarists.

I have pity for Buchholz and Webber, because they have so little research and writing behind them. They are like children sent to Piggly-Wiggly with a credit card to buy groceries for the family. They come home with bags of marshmallows, candied apples, Fruit Loop cereal, orange juice, chocolate milk, Fritos, and hot dogs.  They have all the food groups, but selected with such ignorance that the results are junk. Their selective arguments are junk, too.

Webber and Buchholz are the new Sententiarists. They gather their self-serving quotations, to keep everyone in the dark. After a period of time, enough names and quotations can be collected and used selectively to prove anything.

Eduard Preuss, the Bo Derek of aging UOJ champions, knew how to do this. First he worked on Lutheran orthodoxy. Then he taught Walther's UOJ at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Finally, he taught papal falsehoods for the Church of Rome. Asked about his change, he said, "Give me the quotations and I can prove anything."

I have gathered as much UOJ material as possible, with the help of others, to show what has been taught and where it started. The UOJ Enthusiasts deceptively drill through the Pietism base to discover UOJ in the Book of Concord and in the NNIV. But their layer of proof is from Halle Pietism and the graduates of Halle Pietism. This can be clearly shown in the arguments in favor of universal forgiveness without faith: Rambach, Knapp, Tholuck, Schleiermacher, and Barth.

In other words, I want everyone to read UOJ statements.

But the UOJ Stormtroopers want justification by faith attacked, silenced, and metaphorically burned at the stake. The difference should be telling.

Tip of the Iceberg - Due to SynCon Cover-Ups

Minnesota LCMS officials encouraged Darwin Schauer, a convicted sex offender,
to become a lay pastor, so he abused another victim.
All the "conservative" Lutheran synods and ELCA are guilty of this kind of behavior.

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Sandusky Victim: ‘I Am Troubled With Flashbacks Of...":

The big expensive headstone of a pedophile is ground up and sent to a landfill by his family after his victims come forward, so now he lies in an unmarked grave:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215324/Jimmy-Savile-gravestone-removed-family-police-launch-hunt-BBC-child-abuse-accomplices.html

Jimmy Savile is today lying in an unmarked grave after a dead-of-night operation to remove his £4,000 headstone at the request of his family.

Undertakers worked in the dark to rip out the giant memorial and have said it will 'be broken up, placed in a skip and used as landfill'.

The gates of Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, were locked at around 11pm last night and police stood guard for the two-hour operation.

His loved-ones did not attend and while they had ordered the removal of the grave they were not aware of the undertakers’ decision to do it in the middle of the night.

They were to wait until 7am today before removing the six foot wide by four foot tall headstone with Savile’s now inflammatory epitaph: 'It was good while it lasted.'

Graphic Explains the the Wisdom of UOJ

District President Jon Buchholz took four years to welcome Jeff Gunn's heretical congregation into WELS, with scowls aimed at anyone who objected to the staged love-fest.

Gunn is a big hero among the Church and Changers. Buchholz and Synod President Mark Schroeder have gone overboard to protect, defend, promote, and fund the false doctrine of Fuller unionism.

Item: Tim Glende and Ski can plagiarize the sermons of Methodist Groeschel and be defended by District President Doug Engelbrecht ( Engelbrecht - German for broken angel). And then be funded lavishly by WELS headquarters, to buy and remodel their stinky old bar in downtown Appleton.

Do you think The CORE got all that money from WELS without the explicit approval of Mark Schroeder? Not to mention Keith Free? The funding was bragged about by Ski in the Appleton paper, but not mentioned in the WELS report.

For several years, I displayed the overlapping control - the same apostates running Church and Change and the Wisconsin Sect. Church and Change hid photographs and bios of their board members, once I published them. Ski was on the Changer board, then off. Becker was on the Church and Change board while running Perish Services for WELS. Becker hired Kelm as a consultant. When Becker was losing his job, Mark Jeske hired him. When Kelm was losing his job, Wisconsin Lutheran College hired him. WLC tried to hire Becker recently. Doctrinal incest.

Just for laughs - Mark Schroeder and Jon Buchholz were marketed as the answer to doctrinal apostasy, a solution for the wasting of millions of dollars. They can try using the helpless excuse for a year or two, but years later the pattern is clearly the same as Gurgle's - except they are worse in each category.

http://azcadistrict.com/sites/default/files/2012-District-Pastors-Agenda.pdf

Above is the link to the Arizona California District of WELS. They are having their meeting on October 16th. An Intrepid told me that Pastor Paul Rydecki's congregation was promised a discussion of the justification issue after the conference.

But instead,

The Praesidium came down like the wolf on the fold, 
And his puppets were gleaming in purple and gold; 
And the sheen of their jaws was like stars on the sea, 
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

People may think that a district meeting allows people to discuss doctrinal issues. District Pope Buchholz is giving another revelation

Grasp God's Revelation. Wednesday, October 17th.

I will try to kelm it. 

Buchholz effectively denounced Pastor Rydecki as a damnable false teacher in front of his congregation. Buchholz' papal criterion is - what is harmonious with Kokomo Justification and the Church Growth faculty of Mequon?

Buchholz believes in the infallibility of Holy Mother WELS. Therefore, he simply repeats the same errors taught in the recent past.

As I will detail later, UOJ was not the foundation of Missouri or WELS. At least, it was not the only teaching about justification. That can be traced in the catechisms. Missouri still sells its KJV catechism with no UOJ in it. 

The original Gausewitz catechism was also free of UOJ pollution. As far as I can tell, the first corruption of Gausewitz came in the 1956 edition, but it was minor and not easily noticed. I have to do more study on it. Comparisons are being made in detail. 

Gausewitz was president of the beloved Synodical Conference. He was very much respected in the Wisconsin Synod, too. Why was he not thrown out of Wisconsin and the Synodical Conference? 

Paul McCain, the unrepentant plagiarist, said he would have been happy to toss Pastor Nathan Bickel out of the LCMS for teaching justification by faith. McCain does tell the truth every so often. 

So why is McCain selling a catechism that is pure justification by faith? Shouldn't Missouri toss out McCain and his over-paid boss, Bruce Kintz? That would save book buyers $500,000 a year in salaries. And - they might get some Lutheran books printed, instead of the Apocrypha and Walther.

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Archdiocese says Episcopal bishop is spoiling for a fight.This Is How Apostate Leaders Make Their Points

VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Archdiocese says Episcopal bishop is spoiling for a fight:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Archdiocese says Episcopal bishop is spoiling for a fight 
Bishop Marc Andrus claims he was snubbed at San Francisco Archbishop's installation

By David W. Virtue & Mary Ann Mueller 
www.virtueonline.org 
October 8, 2012 

Episcopal California Bishop Marc Andrus is livid. A few days ago, he gave the new San Francisco Roman Catholic archbishop a backhanded welcome to the neighborhood stressing the wonders of The Episcopal Church's Millennium Development Goals. Then he turned on the high level cleric for not showing appropriate pain for gays and his church's alleged "oppression" of gays.

At the installation of the new Archbishop, Andrus showed up late and missed the procession of interfaith clergy who were to be seated up front. 

The enthronement was held at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, a sweeping paraboloid geometric type structure with a saddle roof. It seats more than two thousand. Representatives from the Jewish community, the Buddhists, and the Mormons in addition to Orthodox and Protestant Christians were seated. 

Church staff said they were looking for an opportunity to bring the bishop in without disrupting the service, according to diocesan spokesperson George Wesolek. When they went to retrieve him, he had already left.

Andrus got into a snit and plastered the Internet with his own interpretation of events.

He issued multiple press releases about his poor treatment. The Episcopal press took to fainting in their couches. The archdiocesan communications director said, "He wants a fight."

Headlines screamed: "Episcopal bishop gives Cordileone frosty welcome" ... "California Episcopal Bishop 'Welcomes' Catholic Bishop" ... "A Qualified Welcome" ... "Bishop Andrus has a few thoughts on his new Catholic counterpart" ... "Interfaith tensions strained over gay marriage" ... "In 'welcome' to new Catholic archbishop, Episcopal leader calls Catholic teaching on marriage 'oppression'" ...

Bishop Andrus had earlier released a "Letter to the Diocese of California concerning the installation of Salvatore Cordileone as Archbishop of San Francisco." In the first paragraph of his epistle he chastised, the Archbishop-designate for being an "active supporter of Proposition 8."

Proposition 8 is California's ballot proposition for a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 state elections allowing for traditional marriage between a man and a woman to be the only type of marriage recognized under Section 7.5 of the Declaration of Rights in the California Constitution. 

Bishop Andrus boldly proclaimed, "...I and the other Episcopal bishops throughout California oppose [Proposition 8]."

Other Episcopal bishops in California who support Bishop Andrus include Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno, San Diego Bishop Don Mathes, Northern California Bishop Barry Beisner, El Camino Real Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, and Provisional Bishop Jerry Lamb of San Joaquin. 

San Francisco is notorious for embracing and promoting the gay culture. Archbishop Cordileone's processor, Archbishop George Niederauer, was noted for championing Proposition 8, but in 2007 he was in hot water for being filmed inadvertently giving Holy Communion to two Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - drag queens - posing as Catholic nuns in outlandish habits. 

"The recognition of the dignity and rights, within civil society and the Church of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered people, and of women are as core to our proclamation of the Gospel as our solidarity with the poor, with victims of violence and political oppression, and with the Earth," the Episcopal bishop continued in his missive greeting his new religious counterpart highlighting the third Millennium Development Goals which calls for "promoting gender equality and empowering women."

This flies in the face of everything the new archbishop holds dear to his understanding of the Catholic faith. San Francisco's newest Catholic leader clings fast to the teachings of his Church that describe homosexual activity as "intrinsically disordered" and "acts of grave depravity" and as being "contrary to the natural law" while "closing the sexual act to the gift of life." 

The Church of Rome is careful, however, to teach that the LGBTQ crowd must be "accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity" while "unjust discrimination should be avoided." The Catholic Church also insists that all unmarried persons - gay or straight - must remain celibate. The church teaches that proper sexual expression is reserved for marriage alone because sexuality is "the means by which one man and one woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to the spouses." Anything and everything else is verboten as in keeping with traditional Biblical understanding of Christian marriage and sexual morality.

When the catholic prelate arrived on the scene this week, Bishop Andrus offered the glad hand of welcome, not to Archbishop Cordileone, but to those Roman Catholics who feel ostracized by their new spiritual leader's strict adherence to Catholic doctrine. 

Archbishop Cordileone is the chairman of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. The USCCB is roughly equivalent to the Episcopal House of Bishops. 

"Some Catholics may find themselves less at home with Salvatore Cordileone's installation and they may come to The Episcopal Church. We should welcome them as our sisters and brothers," Andrus wrote. "Even as we welcome those who may join us and look for ways to work with our Roman Catholic siblings in the faith, we will not be silenced in our proclamation of God's inclusion."

The enthronement of a Catholic archbishop in his cathedral is an impressive, but tightly choreographed event, replete with the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Peter Clavier all in their multihued regalia - pinned back satin-lined capes and curled ostrich plumed chapeaux; the Knights and Ladies of Malta in their sweeping black capes with a large Maltese cross on the left shoulder; the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher in their flowing mantles bearing a bright red Jerusalem cross on their left shoulders; as well as a host of representatives from other Archdiocesan fraternal and service organizations each identifiable by their unique and colorful ceremonial dress. 

The entrance procession is long - sometimes several hundred people long - with lay participants and the Religious - monks and nuns - as well as the vested clergy - the deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops and even a cardinal or two in their brilliant scarlet vestments. Thursday's Solemn High Pontifical Mass was no different. The procession included at least 60 Catholic deacons, 250 Catholic priests, 40 Catholic bishops and archbishops, two cardinals and even the papal nuncio to the United States.

What really irritated Andrus was that the new archbishop had already put one parish, The Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, on notice. That San Francisco Catholic congregation is noted for being very embracive to the gay community and for allowing gays to participate in their drag costuming. Archbishop Cordileone put a screeching halt to that practice. the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are up in arms over the decision and protested at the new archbishop's installation, apparently causing Bishop Andrus to lose valuable time in getting into the Catholic cathedral's staging area. 

"The procession was long, that's the key here," Wesolek told VOL. "Marc Andrus got here about 1:45 which is when they started the interfaith procession because they had to because there were so many people and they sat way up front."

Apparently, when Bishop Andrus got to his lower floor staging area, the other members of his ecumenical delegation were ready to proceed. It appears that the Episcopal bishop was not there quite early enough to find his proper place in line so it went without him, leaving him - what was to be temporarily - behind thus causing the cathedral staff to scramble to find a delicate way to bring the bishop to his place after the entire procession had been completed. 

"That was the problem. He [Bishop Andrus] had to wait down stairs because they are trying to figure out a way to get him in there without causing a huge amount of disruption," Wesolek explained. "After a while they came down to get him to seat him and he had left. He was gone."

Bishop Andres felt he was being dissed because of the strong pro-gay stance he took earlier in the week in his "Welcoming Statement" to Archbishop Cordileone and his offer to give a spiritual home to Roman Catholics who disagree with their new archbishop's by-the-book position on the gay agenda and upholding traditional marriage values. 

The Episcopal News Service reported: "Diocese of California Bishop Marc Andrus, an invited guest for the installation of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco Archbishop-designate Salvatore Cordileone, was not allowed to be seated for the Oct. 4 liturgy."

Wesolek thoroughly disagreed saying that Bishop Andrus was not refused seating nor intentionally detained; neither was he purposely dissed or snubbed in the ensuing confusion and breakdown in communication as the early stages of the archbishop's installation celebration was starting to get underway.

"No," Wesolek concluded. "He wants a fight."

'via Blog this'

WELS DP Jon Buchholz Does Not Know His Catechism, or Luther, or the Book of Concord

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 - DP Jon Buchholz contacted me in Phoenix and wanted to have lunch with me. That was four years ago. He wanted to talk to me about his version of justification. He obviously considered himself quite an expert, because he interrupted me when I started to object to the errors of WELS. He used that "I know better than you" attitude so common and so inappropriate in WELS. By that I mean - they are trained to be full of themselves and talk down to everyone. The less they know, the more boastful they are.

Since Buchholz actually mentioned the Means of Grace, I told him he was getting there. He went back to his office and wrote to Brett Meyer that I agreed with him, Buchholz, and disagreed with Brett. Brett had found my blog earlier, based on my writings against Church Growth and UOJ. Not only were Brett and I in complete agreement, but he has been a constant source of additional learning for me. Brett forwarded the Buchholz email to me.

I was not impressed with Buchholz' tactics. We met either three or four times. Pastor Steve Spencer asked me to give SP Mark Schroeder and DP Jon Buchholz a chance, so I did. One thing I tried to do, since I loathe the Church Growth Movement as a prostitution of the Gospel, was bear down on the Jeff Gunn situation.

Buchholz response to Gunn was, "I am concerned about hundreds of souls." He had to move slowly. Very slowly. In fact, he had two studies going at the same time. Buchholz was supposedly against the sheep-stealing, Rick Warren copying operation of Gunn. At one point local Phoenix funding for Gunn was cut way back and Gunn went looking for work at Wisconsin Lutheran College.

I was told that SP Schroeder asked WLC not to hire Gunn as a second chaplain. They hired Paul Calvin Kelm instead! Gunn was voted onto the WLC board, which listed three people from his congregation on the board of the college. At that point the congregation was not approved as a member of WELS, but three (3) members were from CrossWalk. The three were the new president, Jeff Gunn, and another board member. I could see that Jon Buchholz was really gung-ho against Church Growth! Schroeder, too! After four years of study, DP Buchholz welcomed Gunn's congregation into WELS. Various observers told me it was a real love-fest. They were disgusted. The fix was in, from the start. 

The report was typical Diaprax - process. Let everyone bellyache about Gunn and list all their concerns, and then vote the heretics in, while criticizing the critics. That is what Buchholz did. He responded to the Gunn critics, which he had once pretended to be - "He has repented. Have you?" Haha. Barrel of laughs, that DP.

Meanwhile, Gunn was also a speaker for Mark Jeske's youth shindig, and Buchholz promoted it in his own congregation.

Besides, Buchholz was critical of Rick Johnson and other Church and Changers. He said the problem was with the Boomer DPs. That was the great drama set forth by Schroeder and Buchholz - they were going to battle against the Church and Changers and purify the sect. Schroeder even claimed in his report that WELS was getting "more confessional." The only thing I have seen since the neo-Reformers have assumed office is a massive promotion and protection of the Changers and their false doctrine.

It is difficult to judge one situation over a short time, but when all of the actions point toward support of blatant false doctrine and funding of false doctrine, no criticism is too harsh or too hasty.

I do not recall Buchholz ordering Rick Johnson to recant for his promotion of Leonard Sweet. Instead, Pastor Rick got a sweet grant of WELS offering money to pursue his emergent church day-dreams. Likewise, Kelm never recanted to sponsorship of a Leonard Sweet retreat for WELS, and he was never out of work for more than five minutes.

Everywhere I look in Lutherdom, truth is on the scaffold, error on the throne. Yet Lutherans are supposed to spend millions to fund the excessive salaries of these apostate leaders and put their congregations in the prone position for the ministrations of Thrivent and its Planned Giving Counselors (insurance salesmen earning a commission).