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| Samuel Schmucker was another in-betweener, in-between the Lutherans and the Reformed. |
Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post
"Do the Intrepids Want To Stay Tepid?You Are Not Al...":
Brett -
Don't be concerned. You aren't the only one that recognizes a problem with the statement. I find that what you found is also strange and telling:
>>>>>> ...."If genuine unity is what is desired, then now is NOT the time, for anyone, to take hardened positions and stridently advance them, but to engage in patient and cautious discussion, as they strive to handle the Word of God, the Confessions, and the facts of history with the fidelity they deserve....." <<<<<<
I find that the premise of the above is very "hard" in itself. It starts with an "if," and then draws a hasty conclusion of "then now....." This statement is also,in itself, taking a position of a type of condemning nature of those who are confident of their Biblical and doctrinal postitions.
In short, I find that the supposition is very weak-kneed. Its principle lends itself to be beholden to those who needlessly take offense. Remember what Luther said about "the giving" and "the taking of offense?"
"An offense is something that is said or done whereby our opinion of God and men is distorted; and an offense is active when I give it, passive when I take (patior) it." [Luther]
Finally, I believe that this plea for "genuine unity" at the expense of turning soft shell and walking flat footed through the doctrinal tulips, is a plea that smacks a type of religious political correctness. It doesn't pass the Scriptural muster. Aren't Christ disciples to "contend for the Faith once delivered to the saints?"
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post
"Do the Intrepids Want To Stay Tepid?You Are Not Al...":
from Luther's Works, Lectures on Genesis
The examples of all times teach that the Word of truth and the true forms of worship are despised by the common people. Hence when new teachers arise, they present itching ears to them; and truly, as Moses says (Deut. 29:19): "The drunkard seizes the thirsting." Perverse teachers are most ready to teach, and the common people are most eager to listen. In this manner the Word and the true forms of worship become lost. The Anabaptists proclaim the new doctrine that children should not be baptized, because they cannot have faith, since they are without reason and do not understand the Word. The common people have heard nothing of this kind from us, and so they received that idea with great applause. The Sacramentarians, Zwingli, Oecolampadius, and their like content that when Christ say: "This is my body," He does not mean that with the bread and under the bread He is giving His body, but that only bread is received and wine is drunk, and the body of Christ is not received and His blood is not drunk. These teachers, the ignorant people admire and follow. But we, who do not allow ourselves to be diverted from the words of Christ, are regarded as not one whit sounder or better that the papists. Such is the custom of the world: it despises the Word and admires what is new. This is what made that [Hebrew word for 'light or fire';], of which Moses is speaking here [Gen 11:31-32], famous and extolled above the remaining cities of Chaldea, on account of the new worship there.
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| Doctrinal discipline under Mark Schroeder - Paul Kelm became a chaplain at WLC and head of their Leadership whatever. The leadership unit sponsored yet another Church and Change gathering. Surprise! |
GJ - I know SP Mark Schroeder sends out spin-meister messages to influence thinking when people object to the mismanagement of the mysteries of God. See the portion below, in blue.
Either Schroeder or another person is getting Spencer and Lindee to soften up everything into adiaphora, the bolt-hole of the WELS Pietists.
"Let us not get people upset. Let us not become divisive." I have a similar message from Schroeder from 2010. He cited all kinds of wonderful achievements, which are increasingly laughable today.
Leaders from the past era are no longer in synodical positions. Mueller, Becker, Cares, Kelm, Kehl, Nelson, Leyrer, Stroh, Sutton, Brandt, Timmermann have departed. In their place are people like Joel Voss, Jon Schroeder, Earle Treptow, Chuck Westra, Paul Prange, Bill Tackmier, Phil Hirsch, Jon Buchholz—all solidly confessional and means-of-grace oriented in their beliefs and approach. May 25, 2010. Mark Schroeder to moi.
Pardon me if I yawn and then guffaw. They were working on the problem of Mark Jeske and Time of Grace, way back then, but it takes time, Schroeder said.
But it took no time at all for Means of Grace Jon Buchholz to expel Paul Rydecki from WELS, with the approval of Means of Grace Mark Schroeder, his political buddy. How they are different from Gurgle and Wayne Mueller is beyond me.
Who is divisive? Who has a hardened position? WELS has had a hardened and divisive position on universal salvation ever since JP Meyer spread his propaganda in Ministers of Christ (now reprinted, lovingly, by NPH).
That same hardened and divisive position has been advanced by such luminaries as Richard Jungkuntz, board chairman of the first gay Lutheran seminary (Seminex); David Valleskey CGM cheerleader and seminary president; Paul Wendland, CGM cheerleader and seminary president; Waye Mueller CGM-denier and First VP; and various minor figures too insignificant to mention, except for their annoying repetition of the same ignorant points, which are clearly refuted by the Book of Concord and the Scriptures.
Nothing pleases the apostates more than having an Intrepid organization that serves as Judas goats to lead the sheep to the slaughter. The Judas goat is a clever fellow. He leads the sheep into the transport for the slaughter house. When he is finished, he marches down the ramp to freedom, unlike his hapless followers.
Spencer and Lindee will now blunt any remaining force of the IL blog until it becomes another quivering bowl of jello-like adoration of Holy Mother WELS.
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