Live Streaming the St. John Lutheran Church Concert. Look for the Saved File at the Link.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/stjohnsmke

St. John Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, is proof that the WELS District Popes are alike in their vindictiveness and stupidity.

Their DP kicked Pastor Kevin Hastings out, and the congregation left with him. The building and the pipe organ are gems from the past.

Sometimes the Sausage Factory organizes kiddie tours for the seminary students. James P. Tiefel has brought some down - I hope he wasn't driving!

James Huebner has erased Gausewitz from the memory of Grace, Milwaukee, not far away.

St. John has likewise been flushed down the memory hole of the cult, even though the congregation stayed with the urban population and provided a church and school for that multi-culturalism that WELS now joins ELCA in promoting.

Old John Brenner, the Synod President, would not take government money for the school, not even for the milk program.

Mark Jeske's empire is built on tax money going to his voucher school business. Mark and Avoid is the nominal pastor at St.Marcus, also in urban Milwaukee.

Jeske is on the Thrivent board, so he is the paymaster for Mark Schroeder and Matt Harrison.

SP Mark Schroeder has conceded leadership of WELS to Mark Jeske, Church and Change. Old Brenner's grandson teaches (parrots the party line) at the Sausage Factory. Thus some make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom.

But ELCA Pays for Abortion on Demand in Its Health Plan. 2012 Christmas Message from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

WELS and Missouri are circling the drain with ELCA.
They all work together.
They all have their trotters in the Thrivent trough.

But ELCA Pays for Abortion on Demand in Its Health Plan. 2012 Christmas Message from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson - News Releases - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:

2012 Christmas Message from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson
12-80-MRC

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), shared a Christmas greeting today with the more than 4 million members of this church. Hanson also delivered his greeting to the ELCA's full communion and ecumenical partners and member churches of The Lutheran World Federation.
      The full text of the presiding bishop's message follows:

“I greet you with these words from Luke (2:12): ‘This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’

“You will find a child -- a child. This year, the Christmas story is inseparable from our deep sorrow for the children of Newtown, all who died and all who mourn.

“We can make no sense of such violence, so we cry out for mercy. And God hears our pleas. God responds with words of promise saying, ‘I am with you. I am with you in Jesus, the child lying in a manger. I am with you in Jesus who has bourn your grief. I am with you in Jesus on the Cross and risen from the dead.

“God’s promise is (that) nothing in all creation will separate you from God’s love in Jesus. So amidst the unspeakable, we can join the angel choir singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.’

“Because our hope is in Christ, we can rejoice in the wonder of Jesus’ birth. I wish you a blessed Christmas.”

Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

     Visit http://youtu.be/X7p-YLz43cU for a video version of the 2012 Christmas Message.

'via Blog this'

Christmas Vespers Tonight, 7 PM. St. John Lutheran Church, Milwaukee.Will Be Live-Streamed

This concert will feature the 2300 pipes-organ of St. John Lutheran Church, on 8th and Vliet, downtown Milwaukee.

A choir will also sing.

The church will live stream the concert via Ustream and also save the video for those who cannot view it live.

Here is the Facebook page for the Vespers service -

https://www.facebook.com/events/477232115641967/

Here is the Ustream video channel. Tune in at 7 PM.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/stjohnsmke

The organ has received some upkeep and tuning, so it sounds fantastic - according to rumors.

Feeling Sorry for the Dying Lutheran Synods - Trapped in Their Own Offal

The ELS and Missouri did not want John Warwick Montgomery.

But Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne invited Father Richard Neuhaus to explain how he became
"The Catholic I Always Wuz."

Watching successful organizations work is a reminder of how thoroughly the Lutheran synods have botched their heritage, wasted their resources, and driven people away in droves. The history of 20th century Lutherdom could be titled - "The Fleeing of the Multitudes."

Some categories, which fit them all rather well:

Mark and Avoid Jeske is popular among the apostates he helped organize.
Join him in at the Oshkosh OMyGosh Church and Change confab.

Dependency on Commercialism - Selling Insurance for Thrivent
Speaking as a CLU with experience in life insurance, I can say without fear of contradiction that Thrivent is a third-rate, unethical company.

AAL (which merged with LB to become Thrivent) sold Universal Life under the pretext that interest rates would remain high. One salesman showed me figures at 12% interest. Does anyone get that, except the Shylocks working with the mob? AAL took the cash values of whole life policies and "converted them" to large bonuses for the salesmen and empty promises for the policy holders. One LB salesman said that his friends retired on these conversions, which robbed the owners of the policies.

ELCA, WELS, LCMS, and the 1% depend on Thrivent loot. Their need for a business on the side proves how corrupt and greedy they are. Missouri gets $50 - 60 million a year from Thrivent, according to SP Matt Harrison. ELCA probably grabs double that amount.

In return for the millions, the various synods must constantly promote and recommend Thrivent Insurance and investments, which have never done well for anyone. Thrivent gets the names and addresses of members as a captive marketing group, but they can sell to anyone and give away money to anyone - and they do.

The Planned Giving Counselors are Thrivent salesmen - working on commission. Did they tell you that at their "free seminar"? I doubt it. They have to be licensed to sell those precious Irrevocable Charitable Annuity Trusts. Translation - sign the form and it is Thrivent's money to handle.

Mark and Avoid Jeske is on the Thrivent Board, which should be enough to scare anyone away.

Dependency on Marvin Schwan's Foundation
ELCA deserves some credit for not having its trotters in the Marvin Schwan trough. The Big Three do - and how.

Thoughts of Faith, the ELS, WELS, and Missouri sold absolution to Marvin Schwan for his many sins. Like the Church of Rome, the synods teach the endowment of masses in perpetuity. In exchange for keeping silent about the first Mrs. Schwan, these conservative stalwarts continue to receive money from the Schwan Foundation.

Marvin Schwan proved Luther's statement true - that "Many purchase Hell when they can have heaven for free."

Although lying comes natural to these apostates, the Schwan silence has frozen the SynCon at a higher plane of deception, because their silence about the truth is covered with layers of praise for what a fine, Christian leader he was.

Many ministers would like the same treatment, but they cannot afford the asking price.

Hatred of Luther's Doctrine
Because they use the name Lutheran, they have an obligation to teach Luther's doctrine. A better reason would be the truth and consistency of Luther's teaching, but they do not know this or even comprehend how to teach it.

As a result, the children and adults under their tutelage are rushing off the cliff like Gadarene swine, swimming for Rome or Fuller Seminary, because their professors divided among the two Enthusiasms.

And yet, the lazy professors have demanded top dollar for their abysmal scholarship, light hours, and poor teaching. As a result, their students must become student loan slaves to graduate, and a church vocation is used as blackmail to keep them silent.

Any student who voices doubts about Holy Mother Lutheran School will find himself or herself stranded with a ton of debt and no church job. The SynCon schools learned this method from ELCA, which began early to filter out any student who might not fit their feminist-lavender mold.


Control and the Proliferation of Mediocrities
The SynCons share ELCA's passion for control. Everyone must think alike and obey the synodical popes.

They will always pick someone from the party line over someone who can do the job. Didja ever wonder how a double-financial disaster like Gurgle could be duplicated by the next Synod President, Schroeder? They come from the same get-along-go-along school of thought.

The spineless are always muttering about their critics being crabby old legalists, but do not cross a synodocat. The claws come out. The fangs sink in. They are meaner than feral cats, because they cannot stand returning to the parish and actually working.

Yea, it is easier to get a tomcat into a hot, running shower than to get a Purple Palace veteran back into the parish.

Who tended bar? Tiefel.

Drunks, Adulterers, Murderers, Child Abusers
A DUI can cost a man his job, but not in the Synodical Conference. He might be transferred or sent away as a missionary, to a land where alcoholism is a resume enhancer.

Those who adulterate the Word, as Lenski observed in his district president days, are likely to be unfaithful in other ways. The SynCon leaders move swiftly to defend and promote adulterous ministers. Why not make him a mission counselor, even if he broke up a marriage with his "marriage counseling?" Why not make him a Church Growth consultant, since his patron is also a known adulterer?

Murder is an adiaphoron in WELS. If a church worker murders his spouse, the WELS leaders will do everything possible to make sure nobody knows, no evidence survives, and no serious consequences are felt.

Likewise, child abuse in all the synods is covered up, because the crime is so heinous.



---

Martin Luther College (WELS) students were praying for Olson
to take the call to India.
Who else wears a liturgical stole with an academic gown,
festooned with fake doctoral stripes for a drive-by DMin?

Will This End the Secret Hazing Ritual at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary?

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: Luther Rocks: Ven...":

22 northern Illinois students face arrest over hazing:

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1353221692/22-arrest-warrants-issued-in-NIU-hazing-death

If Walther Had It Right, Why Does the Harrison-Led LCMS Work with ELCA?

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Not Mixed with Faith":

Two LCMS pastors say that the LCMS has been on the defensive the last 100 years due to all the false doctrine in America. What I think is that God determined that UOJ was such bad doctrine, he had to figure out a way to contain it to a few million people at most. First, he caused its most ardent adherent to move to the New World, and then cause UOJ to die in the Old World (no one outside the synodical conference believes in UOJ anymore), and now he's causing the LCMS and ELS to shrink and age, with the WELS shrinking less, but it's membership is aging, I believe. (That's one stat the synods don't like to keep.) The WELS always follows Missouri by 20 or 30 years, so any time now it will probably start shrinking a lot. I'm sure God's containment and shrinking philosophy is right on schedule:

http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=25555

O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is

"O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is"
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676

1. O Jesus Christ,
Thy manger is
My paradise at which my soul reclineth.
For there, O Lord,
Doth lie the Word
Made flesh for us; herein Thy grace
forth shineth.

2. He whom the sea
And wind obey
Doth come to serve the sinner in great
meekness.
Thou, God's own Son,
With us art one,
Dost join us and our children in our
weekness.

3. Thy light and grace
Our guilt efface,
Thy heavenly riches all our loss
retrieving.
Immanuel,
Thy birth doth quell
The power of hell and Satan's bold
deceiving.

4. Thou Christian heart,
Whoe'er thou art,
Be of good cheer and let no sorrow move
thee!
For God's own Child,
In mercy mild,
Joins thee to Him;-how greatly God must
love thee!

5. Remember thou
What glory now
The Lord prepared thee for all earthly
sadness.
The angel host
Can never boast
Of greater glory, greater bliss or gladness.

6. The world may hold
Her wealth and gold;
But thou, my heart, keep Christ as thy true
Treasure.
To Him hold fast
Until at last
A crown be thine and honor in full
measure.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #81
Text: Luke 2: 7
Author: Paul Gerhardt, 1653, cento
Translated by: composite
Titled: O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein ist
Composer: Johann Crueger, 1653
Tune: O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein

Not Mixed with Faith

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Advent Midweek Service, December 19, 2012":

Ichabod -

You make an interesting statement. You said:

>>>>>> ..... The mythological approach was to make her as divine and perfect as Christ – the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Romanist claim that she was born without any sin, that she never committed a sin during her lifetime. Her mythical Assumption is another affirmation of that approach.

Many more mythological details could be added, and they all add to the claim that Christmas itself is a myth.

That is why we should never let any human being get between us and the plain Word of God. Why? Because people reject the false statements and the truth of the Word at the same time. They mix the two together and throw both out together...... <<<<<

"They mix the two together and throw both out together:"

I could not help but think of the Hebrews Scripture where the Lord talks about those who:

Hebrews 4:2 - "For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

Two grave and spiritually costly mistakes people make. The error which you point out; and then the error of unbelief when the Gospel is presented. On one hand they mix and toss. On the other hand, they toss because they haven't mixed the necessary faith.

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org

WELS and Real Estate - Not a Happy Situation

OK - desperate!

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Report to WELS - Two Headquarters. Two Felony Arre...":

It would seem that all deals for buying the WELS HQs have fallen through, since otherwise we would have heard of good news by now.

Why the WELS can't sell its old HQ dual buildings is that there are plenty of vacant properties in good condition, and businessmen are getting great deals directly from cities to move businesses in and buy buildings, e.g., low interest loans (bond issues), no property tax and/or sales tax for years, and no broker's fee. Thus, why buy WELS' old HQs and pay a broker's fee when one is essentially paid to buy another building elsewhere.

Cities are dumping their brokers since they do better selling directly, and the WELS may have better luck selling the property on its own, say on CraigsList, or Ebay.

Just as they got a great deal on the new HQ bldg in Pewaukee, they might have to give someone else a great deal on their Milwaukee property since it needs so much fixing up. Yes, we know they are all hardshell Calvinists at heart and want to drive a hard bargain, but now may be the time to let their Lutheran side show, and give someone else a gracious break so the synod can move on. Besides, that is one ugly building:

Beloit: City buys back development right to 56 acres:

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/news/city-buys-back-development-right-to-acres/article_4e80e5fa-492d-11e2-b38b-0019bb2963f4.html

“Most of the business came through the public sector side, and did not come through the private brokerage side,” he said.

Under the original agreement, MLG received a brokerage fee and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of any land, Arft said.

“It’s quite clear that MLG is an albatross around our neck,” he said. “It didn’t intend to be that way, but that’s exactly what it is. If we are going to be flexible and be aggressive the only way to do that is to dispose of our relationship with them.”

Miss me yet?

---

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Report to WELS - Two Headquarters. Two Felony Arre...":

I've sometimes thought that this ugly building right across the interstate from Ruel Schultz's old church in W Allis (Woodlawn) was designed by the same architect who built the WELS synod HQ:

http://goo.gl/maps/QULlB


***

GJ - Where's my eye-bleach? That building is horrible.  Didn't the architect used to design Holiday Inns?

Advent Midweek Service, December 19, 2012

Midweek Advent III, 2012

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Mid-Week Advent, Thursday, 7 PM Central

The Hymn # 554     Now Rest Beneath             3:67
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody            Psalm 100                             p. 144
The First Lection                      
The Second Lection           
 The Sermon Hymn #94            Hark the Herald Angels            3:19

Jesus God and Man

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer                         p. 44

The Collect for Peace                                           p. 45

The Benediction                                                   p. 45

The Hymn #136  Angels                                     3:86

Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Jesus God and Man

Luther said, in a brilliant summary, that all false doctrine breaks down into three categories:

1. They attack the humanity of Christ.
2. They attack the divinity of Christ.
3. They attack justification by faith.

That is important, this summary, because our hackles should go up when we hear an attack on A, B, or C, no matter what the source might be.

The Virgin Birth of Christ is a statement of Christ’s humanity and His divinity. Since this audience is not uncertain about His divinity or the reality of the Virgin Birth, I will focus on His humanity.

The actual birth was a major stumbling block (scandalon – the trip mechanism in a trap, not our definition of a scandal – something far more dangerous).

The people of the Apostolic Era had considerable trouble with Christ being truly man, born of a woman, suffering and dying on the cross.

Although we can certainly see many miraculous elements of the Virgin Birth, from the conception to the birth itself, the angels and Wise Men, most of the story reminds us of the humanity of Jesus and early cross (persecution, slaughter of the innocents).

How does a young maiden answer to God when the birth of a Savior was announced as a promise to her?

The mythological approach was to make her as divine and perfect as Christ – the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Romanist claim that she was born without any sin, that she never committed a sin during her lifetime. Her mythical Assumption is another affirmation of that approach.

Many more mythological details could be added, and they all add to the claim that Christmas itself is a myth.

That is why we should never let any human being get between us and the plain Word of God. Why? Because people reject the false statements and the truth of the Word at the same time. They mix the two together and throw both out together.

Joseph and Mary suffered from this great Promise. Joseph felt compromised and humiliated – to such an extent that he planned to end the marriage quietly. He was persuaded otherwise by the angel, but that did not take away his burden. Likewise Mary shared this early cross to bear, since the Word brings the cross. 

Every aspect of the birth of Jesus was tinged with difficulty, from the journey to Bethlehem to the birth in the stable. He was not only denied earthly honors but the very men who came to greet Him (the Wise Men) were placed in great danger.

Note how they escaped and went back to teach their own people about the Savior they saw.

All this happened so we would identify with the infant Jesus and see how God was willing to come down to our level and dwell among us – and the Word became flesh.

Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: Luther Rocks: Veni Emmanuel

Augustana College - named after the Augsburg Confession.
Second phase - no one knows what Augustana means - nor does it matter.
Third phase - gay marriages to be held in this beautiful campus chapel.

Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed: Luther Rocks: Veni Emmanuel:

Worth a listen-to again. People are going to this older post.

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Otten Suing the LCMS. Christian News and Walmart 50 Years Old

The new issue of Christian News states that Pastor Herman Otten is moving ahead with a lawsuit against the LCMS, for denying him certification.

He was ordained by Louis Bright (Concordia Seminary, St. Louis) and others, but never certified. 

He graduated from St. Louis in 1957 and will turn 80 in 2013.

Christian News began in 1962. Otten is a Bronze Age Missourian, one who believes that everyone should regard Walther as The Greatest Theologian Ever rather than as the Great Kidnapper, Thief, and Sex Cult Enforcer.

That is one of the problems today - getting beyond the mythology. No matter how dedicated the LCMS  leadership is to mainline modernism, they are still heavily invested in teaching the divine nature of Walther.

I cannot pin down Otten's central beliefs. How does one boast about 50 years of publishing "Lutheran Orthodoxy" (really Midwestern Pietism) while selling and promoting a hate-filled, lying book against Luther - for Reformation? The Facts About Luther, by a Roman Catholic monseigneur, is not factual at all, not scholarly by any standard, and is just laughably bad. Yet Otten defended his utter lack of scruples by saying, "I sell to both sides of the issue." He did not answer my email to him, which is his complaint about LCMS officials. They do not condescend to answer his questions.

When Otten published his dubious list of Soldiers of Christ, he included at least two Roman Catholics. Why not the pope? Why not Thomas Merton and Cardinal Law? Archbishop Weakland belonged on that list, because he gave a highly promoted public lecture at Wisconsin Lutheran College (WELS, more or less). 

World Salvation Without Faith

Universal Objective Justification (world salvation without faith) makes strange bed-fellows. Otten, Cascione, Jay Webber, Rolf Preus, Dan Preus, and Paul McCain are true Soldiers of UOJ. Nevertheless, they want to claim justification by faith as a feeble postscript to their precious dogma. But UOJ unites them with ELCA and all the left-wing mainline groups of the National Council of Churches - Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and United Church of Christ.

UOJ is the great enabling dogma for Church Growth, cultured and spread from Fuller Seminary. Now the big names in Church Growth are going lavender too - big shock - Andy Stanley, Rick Warren, LCMS and WELS. For those who live in Fox Valley - lavender means taking a position opposite of the Word on homosexuality.

Christian News Is Not an Open Forum

Otten has two contradictory messages. One is - "Put all your information in my newspaper - don't start another Lutheran periodical." 

If Lutherans object about being on his ever-expanding ban list, he responds, "Start your own newspaper."

Ironically, Christian News continues to spike (refuse to run) stories that might offend his primary markets (LCMS, WELS, ELS). If the story is too big, he buries in the back. When I was there, he was often on the phone with various synodical officials. He pulled a fax off the machine from John Johnson, plagiarist and Concordia St. Louis president. The LCMS rewards plagiarism!

So Otten has always kissed up to the Synodical Conference, and they are glad to use him for spin, but they are not going to give him what he really wants - approval.

Blogging might have been a way around this. I am glad for the timid, half-hearted efforts by Steadfast and Intrepid Lutherans. (They know how to use hyperbole!) But they have continued the Otten tradition of managed news.

If you want to play PR director to the synod president, at least get a salary for it. 

If I knew Romans 4 was being used to promote world absolution in my synod,
I will jump for the nearest exit.

VirtueOnline - News. The Conservative South Caroline Diocese versus the Radical Mainlines. The Same Split Will Visit WELS and LCMS

The Episcopal Church has active bishops who oppose the Big Boss' agenda.

VirtueOnline - News:

Liberal Episcopalian Spins Actions of South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org 
December 12, 2012

According to a local Episcopal bloggerhttp://scepiscopalians.com/Where_do_we_go_from_here.html in the Diocese of South Carolina, the diocese is adrift as Bishop Mark Lawrence's options narrow.

BLOGGER: With the conclusion of the 2012 General Convention in July, the Diocese of South Carolina has begun a muddled assessment of its future in a Church committed to the inclusion of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgendered Christians as full participants in its corporate life.

Insisting the embrace of such people is contrary to what God wants, Bishop Mark Lawrence has established himself as a highly visible field commander in what he has characterized as "war" with the Episcopal Church. Lawrence believes that sexual relations with persons of the opposite sex bring people closer to God, while sexual relations with persons of the same gender leads them astray. 

VOL: First of all, it is not what God "wants"; it is what He demands. His word on this is unequivocal. All seven references in the Old and New Testament clearly prohibit any and all sexual behavior outside of marriage between a man and a woman. And yes we are at war with the world, flesh and the devil and the souls of men and women are at stake.

BLOGGER: Speculation has been rampant about what, if anything, the Diocese should do in response to the actions of the Convention, which voted to allow individual bishops to authorize same-gender "blessings" in their dioceses. None of the options are without risk. However, there is one safe option that has not yet been put forward: Accept reality, declare victory, and bone up on the Great Commission Jesus gave His Church. The war is over, yet we continue to defeat ourselves. 

VOL: The war is not over. Spiritual warfare lasts a lifetime and Bishop Lawrence is one in a continuum of "field commanders" who have chosen to wage it and then chosen to separate from an apostate church. Think Luther and the Reformation. The Great Commission demands full undivided discipleship and the sexual constraints Scripture outlines.

BLOGGER: By any standard, the war has been very one-sided, fueled more by imagined enemies than any real threats to followers of Jesus Christ in South Carolina.

VOL: This is not a regional battle; it is a national war raging throughout the whole Episcopal Church that has seen five dioceses and more than 100,000 Episcopalians flee for their spiritual safety and sanity to safer Anglican pastures. The enemies are far from imagined. They are real and spiritually deadly. 

BLOGGER: Throughout the struggle the Diocese insisted it wanted a safe place to practice its own unique brand of Biblical literalism, free from "incursions" by the rest of the Church and unhindered by the practices or governing structures of the Episcopal Church. It wanted to be free to pass judgment on homosexuals and others whose encounters with God were different from its own. Within the diocese traditional Episcopalians have been marginalized, and their parishes are no longer influential.

VOL: What doctrines encompass "biblical literalism" would this blogger choose to accept or reject; the bodily resurrection, the atonement, the Virgin Birth? If Scripture says sodomy will keep you from entering the kingdom, then saying so (but not passing judgment on the person) is the right thing to do, not the wrong thing. It's a soul thing.

BLOGGER: In every respect, the Diocese has achieved what it wanted. However, now it wants to destroy the Episcopal Church in the Diocese by defrauding it of its property and resources, a quixotic venture that is proving costly and self-defeating just as it did in the four other breakaway dioceses.

As the War went on, its once lofty goals turned into mean, personal, and petty attacks. The Second Reformation began to look more like the Inquisition.

VOL: The diocese remains by title, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina of which Lawrence remains the Bishop. He has destroyed nothing. The courts have already decreed that the properties belong to the diocese based on the All Saints Pawleys Island, SC decision. It has also been one of the most successful growing dioceses in the entire Episcopal Church. It grew because it had a very clear understanding of the gospel which the vast majority of dioceses do not have. Many are ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ preferring to talk more about inclusivity and diversity. The Second Reformation is underway and it is being spear-headed by the ACNA.

BLOGGER: When Lawrence became bishop, there was great enthusiasm and hopefulness for the cause. Diocesan leaders and their allies saw in the emerging struggle the seeds of a Second Reformation, and the return of Anglicanism to the narrow Biblical literalism of the 19th century. Their "war" would not only defeat the dominant liberal bias in the Episcopal Church, but propagate their own fundamentalist vision throughout the Anglican Communion.

VOL: Words like "narrow Biblical literalism" and "fundamentalist" are the hobgoblin words of liberal minds afraid to engage exegetically with Scripture or theologically with the real issues, so they throw inflammatory language at orthodox Christians and hope it sticks.

BLOGGER: Unfortunately, the opposing army was unresponsive. In spite of flurries of resolutions, years of grandstanding by Diocesan Conventions, and angry missives fired point-blank by the Standing Committee, the Diocese was not much noticed by the rest of the Church. 

VOL: The penultimate bishop of this diocese was the brilliant Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison who holds an earned Oxford doctorate (no other TEC bishop has one) with several books under his belt including the Rise of Moralism, which would answer the blogger's criticisms about fundamentalism. You wanna accuse him of grandstanding?

BLOGGER: The only meaningful reactions came from the Presiding Bishop, whose approach was non-confrontational and pastoral. When unnamed communicants of the Diocese initiated a review of Lawrence's actions in 2011, the House of Bishops' Disciplinary Board seemed to shrug its shoulders.

VOL: The PB is "pastoral"... That would be hysterically funny if it weren't such a flat out lie. Ask about her "pastoral" response to former Bishop of Pittsburgh Robert Duncan whom she kicked out the church and then had a faux trial, or to Bishop Keith Ackerman when she cut off his medical after he left the Diocese of Quincy and his wife has cancer. How wonderfully pastoral of her. (Sarcasm intended) or telling Lawrence that he had renounced his orders when clearly he had not.

BLOGGER: In the wider Church, the Diocese's allies became few in number. Even moderate to conservative dioceses were coming to terms with the presence of GLBT Christians in their congregations, and the pastoral challenges they, their families, and their children represented. They rejected the angry judgment of the Diocese of South Carolina that the Church was surrendering to liberal pressure groups seeking to legitimize that which in the mind of the Almighty is unholy and un-Christian. 

VOL: The issue was NEVER the presence of GLBT persons in church. I belonged to a conservative Episcopal parish for some 17 years and there was always a small group of homosexuals present and they felt right at home there. However if you believe that homosexual BEHAVIOR is wrong, it is the obligation of priests and bishops to speak up with all the warnings Scripture says about such behavior.

BLOGGER: On the legal front, the news was equally as discouraging. Challenges to the ownership of Church properties by breakaway groups were being handed down with nearly uniform outcomes against the rebels. In many ways these cases actually clarified and strengthened the authority of hierarchical governing structures like those in the Episcopal Church. 

VOL: Yes, the Dennis Canon has been upheld till recently, when it was overturned in a legal ruling by a judge for a Presbyterian Church in Oregon. This may have far reaching implications for The Episcopal Church. Furthermore, the national church never put a penny into building any of these churches, so why should the laity who poured millions of dollars into building them not try and protect the assets they bought and paid for? Furthermore, some liberal bishops have cut deals on properties. Think about NJ Bishop George Councell who cut a deal for a parish in Helmetta in his state. Everyone walked away happy. As well the evangelical bishop of Central Florida John Howe cut a deal with fleeing parishes without a nickel being paid to lawyers.

BLOGGER: Across the Anglican Communion, early and frenzied support for the Diocese dissipated. A proposed new "Anglican Covenant" to transform the nature of the Communion into a more disciplined, doctrinaire, and conservative entity was rejected in cornerstone Anglican provinces like Canada, the United States, Scotland, and even England. 

VOL: True. The liberals rejected it more than orthodox provinces, what does that tell you? The disciplinary Section IV was a bridge too far for liberals. They never had any intention of going for it. Even Mrs. Jefferts Schori said recently it was past its shelf life.

BLOGGER: The rebellion's fervent hope of a new Archbishop of Canterbury, who would throw the uberliberal Episcopal Church out of the Anglican Communion and replace it with themselves, seems increasingly unlikely. 

VOL: The jury is still out on the evangelical Bishop Justin Welby. Premature judgment is just that --premature. He does not have the power to throw anybody out. He can withhold an invitation to primatial gatherings if he so chooses. We are not Rome, we do not have a Magisterium.

BLOGGER: Breakaway parishes attempting to align themselves with anti-gay Anglican provinces in Africa have found far more discord and disconnect than they'd imagined. The Anglican Mission in America, a missionary arm of the Anglican Province of Rwanda with roots in Pawley's Island, severed ties with its African sponsor largely over miscommunications, allegations of arrogance by Rwandans against the American bishops, and cultural confusion over the word, "knucklehead." 

VOL: African Anglican provinces are not anti-gay; you might say they are anti-gay behavior. And yes, the AMiA debacle is a blot on the evangelical landscape and there is no whitewashing it.

BLOGGER: After ten years of conflict, clergy and former supporters are quietly drifting away from Bishop Lawrence. 

VOL: Not true. He has the full support of most of his diocese and a lot of outside support including archbishops and bishops of the Global South who, incidentally, represent the vast majority of Anglicans.

BLOGGER: The path forward for Bishop Lawrence is unclear and fraught with landmines. Years of self-inflicted wounds and delusions portends a difficult journey for his true believers. 

VOL: The way will be unclear for a while but things will sort themselves out. Katharine Jefferts Schori will undoubtedly do her best to make his life a living Hell with as many landmines (read lawsuits) as she can, but she will not have the last say. God does and will.

BLOGGER: Lawrence's future as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, if that is what he wants, is most likely not his to fashion. His insistence that the Diocese is somehow "sovereign" and not subject to the governing structures of the Church, and that he is the sole arbiter of what constitutes the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese has put him well beyond the bounds of the vows of loyalty he made at his consecration not even five years ago. 

VOL: Lawrence has no future in The Episcopal Church. He has left it. The "doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church" is not the same as the doctrine and discipline of the Anglican Communion, nor of the truth of Scripture. It could be argued that it is TEC that has failed to keep the "doctrine and discipline" of the church. It is TEC that has become heretical. The PB cannot even affirm the full deity of Christ or the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

BLOGGER: His issuance of quitclaim deeds and efforts that have been made by rebellious parishes to cloud the ownership of their properties have put him squarely at odds with his explicit obligation as a bishop to protect Church property. 

VOL: His obligation is to protect the teachings of the church - the faith - not church property. That is secondary. The property issue will have to be tested in court. The Episcopal Church has already lost Round One.

BLOGGER: Many of his colleagues in the House of Bishop believe they cannot allow his rebellious acts to stand lest they be seen as precedence. According to one Bishop, "Bob Duncan didn't come close to doing what this guy has done." 

VOL: Jefferts Schori can't throw him out. He voluntarily left. He's already gone.

BLOGGER: Robert Duncan is the deposed bishop of Pittsburgh, who unsuccessfully tried to take his Diocese out of the Episcopal Church five years ago. 

VOL: He took most of the diocese with him. The rump diocese has been left with a minority of parishes and parishioners.

BLOGGER: Lawrence and Duncan have been close friends and political allies since Lawrence served in that diocese earlier in his ministry. 

VOL: Not enough for Lawrence to throw his lot into the ACNA.

BLOGGER: His extreme and out-of-proportion protests against the Church have even alienated many who were otherwise sympathetic to his cause. He'd likely have a soft landing post-episcopate, as he is fully vested in the Church Pension Fund, and would still have a platform for his views among the more conservative elements of the Anglican Communion. 

VOL: It was either/or. Either he stayed or he left. There is no middle ground, no soft landing. Furthermore no one knows the future. For now he will stay on as the bishop of the diocese.

BLOGGER: He has squandered the extraordinary goodwill that accompanied his election and consecration, and significantly depleted the financial resources of the Diocese largely by hiring an army of lawyers for purposes that have never been made entirely clear. The Diocese claims that it is the fastest growing in the country, but even by its own reports, membership levels are still lagging behind those in the final years of Bishop Salmon's episcopacy. 

VOL: Facts are facts. The diocese was and is a growing diocese, also one of the largest and most financially successful in the country. It will diminish for a time when the FORUM crowd is gone, but it will pick up again.

BLOGGER: Bishop Lawrence has generally surrounded himself with a cadre of admiring friends and advisors who uniformly reflect his Biblical literalism and hostility to authority. Lawrence has revamped key governing structures of the Diocese such that they are now little more than an extension of that cadre. The direction of the Diocese is generally believed to be directed by God through revelation to Bishop Lawrence, who in turn, shares it with the Standing Committee, then the clergy, then the lay people of the Diocese. 

VOL: And liberals don't? Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno has his gay and lesbian sycophants in spades, ditto for Bishop Tom Shaw of Massachusetts.

BLOGGER: Traditional Episcopalians in the Diocese, whose personal, political, and financial support sustained Lawrence's predecessors, have been kept at arms' length and not are unlikely to return to the fold as long as Lawrence is active. Though their numbers have diminished, they still retain much institutional history, and the wealth to revive Diocesan finances. 

VOL: I cannot speak to this. For the moment, it looks like the FORUM parishes are on one side of the ecclesiastical fence. The rest of the diocese except one - St. Andrew's in Mt. Pleasant -- is on the other. Time will tell about what traditional Episcopalians will do.

BLOGGER: According to two attorneys contacted by SC Episcopalians, Lawrence and his allies have used the past few years to engage in a coordinated campaign to defraud the Episcopal Church of its property at a level that rises to criminal conspiracy. 

VOL: That will need to be tested in court. What criminal conspiracy?

BLOGGER: Looking back through the history of the Diocese of South Carolina, it is difficult to find an episcopate more tumultuous, and less effective than that of Bishop Lawrence. 

VOL: This blogger should have lived in the Diocese of Pennsylvania under the tyrannical reign of Charles E. Bennison for a decade. He was hated by both liberals and conservatives. GC2012 pushed a canon through just to get rid of Bennison. This blogger doesn't know what he is talking about.

BLOGGER: Should he decide to stay on as Bishop, there is perhaps enough goodwill still available to him to steer the Diocese back onto a more productive course. He will have to work at it, and invest more of himself in getting to know his parishes and their communicants. This is a Diocese of extraordinary theological, demographic, and political diversity, and it has never thrived except under leaders who've been able to deftly weave that diversity into a common cause. 

VOL: That remains to be seen.

'via Blog this'

WELS Layman Comments on the New NIV's Equivocation about the Virgin Birth of Christ - Isaiah 7:14

"If we do not defend the Virgin Birth what else is left? The Church and Change crowd is so hell bent on destroying justification by faith that they are going to destroy the Virgin Birth too. I know no one can destroy the Word of God. 

However this translation can lead many a person into doubt and ultimately to no faith at all. Jeske and company will have much to answer for on Judgement Day."

***

GJ - WELS is hot to use the New NIV, which the mainlines love for its either/or position on Isaiah 7:14 - not to mention its universal absolution in Romans 3.

Another bonus is that once adopted, the legalistic cult is stuck with it forever. As new improvements come out, each error will be added to the rest of many.

The "dynamic translation" model means the authors can make up anything they want and say - "That's what the text really says, although there is nothing to support that conclusion."

UOP Graduate Steals WELS Love Shack Name. Shaquille O'Neal Set to Launch Reasonably Priced 'Luv Shaq' Vodka | Bleacher Report

Shaquille O'Neal Set to Launch Reasonably Priced 'Luv Shaq' Vodka | Bleacher Report:

Shaquille O'Neal is getting into the distilled beverage game by launching his own brand of vodka called "Luv Shaq." 

'via Blog this'

Wikipedia -

Subsequently, O'Neal earned an MBA online through the University of Phoenix in 2005. 

Jeske Meant - "Men of the World"

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Watch Buchholz and Schroeder Excommunicate Mark Je...":

Ichabod -

I gather from this "Real men" conference - or, whatever it is hyped to be; that "real men" don't need the faith the Scriptures speak about; but only, a step by step, self help guide [type manual] from the latest innovative "Christian" Universalist speakers.

Oh, how fitting it is to be in vogue with the modern day culture! Luther and justification by faith be damned!

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org