A 21st Century Formula of Concord: RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT.Otten and Cascione - UOJ Universalists

"I sell to both sides of the issue."

A 21st Century Formula of Concord: RESURRECTION AND JUDGMENT:

"Jesus knew that He was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament and that He would rise again from the dead to save all men from their sins.49"

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Cascione:

His entire view was from the perspective that the blood of Jesus Christ does not forgive people who do not believe in Him.  This is like the ability to fly in the story of “Peter Pan” depending on belief in Tinkerbelle.  In other words, our own faith causes our own atonement.  Hence, the Sovereignty of God would necessarily be more significant than an atonement that we are able to bring on ourselves.

It was interesting hearing him interpret John 3:16 as a proof for his position against me, namely that God loves and Christ died only for the “whosoever.”  Therefore, God has never loved the whole world.  This also means that Christ was not born to be the Savior of the “whole world.”

The Reformed Baptist minister said he loved reading Luther.  I responded, “But you have never understood him on the doctrine of justification.”  He replied that he agreed with Luther on imputed righteousness, which in his terms is only imputed to believers.

Otten and Cascione have no grasp of Biblical, Lutheran doctrine. Notice that a non-Lutheran blogger was quick to say Amen! to Otten.

Macgranor: "Otten rules. He should be president of the L.C.M.S."

Once again, the two UOJ stylists have confused the atonement with justification by faith. 

Luther always praises the atonement and describes how Christ has graciously taken all our sins upon Him. However, he never confuses that with the imputation of righteousness.

It is sad that the Walther legacy of Pietistic confusion continues into the next generation. Nevertheless, the UOJ Stormtroopers do not get along at all. They are always biting and devouring each other. 

The three SynCon presidents could easily merge their sects, since their leaders all meet at Fuller Seminary/Trinity Divinity alumni meetings anyway. The leaders agree about UOJ, but they are always pronouncing anathemas on each other. 

We Homeschooled 30 Years Ago

LI agreed to pose, showing his escape technique.

I grew up among teachers in the Illinois public school system. I was often surrounded by my mother's colleagues and attended many PTA meetings, where I majored in dessert. My wife Chris was trained and certified as a teacher. My sister, aunt, and many friends became teachers.

I read to him every night, so we still laugh over our favorite passages,
such as Merlin causing bricks and mortar to fall for several weeks -
Mark Twain, Connecticut Yankee.

We had mixed experiences with our son at various schools. Some public school teachers were excellent. Some parochial teachers were among our favorites. One public school teacher said he gave information about illegal drugs if his students asked - he did not want to be judgmental! Two parochial school teachers were unfit to teach anyone. We gave up on most public and private schools, 30 years ago.

We decided to homeschool, long before most people accepted  that departure from the norm.

Many asked, "How can you do that?" I said, "My wife is certified to teach in this state, and I have a PhD. I think we can manage."

Some questioned its value. I asked them, "How are the children of rich and powerful people taught?" They had to admit than many were tutored at home. I added, because a nearby teacher was dealing drugs at school, "We do not sell drugs to children."

The hostility and the doubts were ongoing. "Does the school system know?" I said, "We met with the school's supervisor and gave him a complete lesson plan." In fact, a teacher in that system gave us a complete plan to use. When I handed the enormous notebook to the supervisor, his mouth closed shut.

My wife worked at home, except for a little part-time teaching. I had an office at home and at church, so I was available.

Our system quickly moved to a seven-day program, because Martin asked for no vacations. I remember tutoring him in Latin on our trip to Washington DC.

That year we:

1. Began Latin and translated the entire Gospel of John from Latin to English. No words were written above the Vulgate text and a translation was used only in emergencies to help with a phrase.

2. Read the classics of literature, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. On the DC trip we were downstairs at a Yale professor's home; we heard Martin chuckling upstairs over his reading in the Odyssey.

3. Started algebra using the Saxon books.

Martin was accepted at a residential Lutheran prep school, and he wanted to attended. I really hated to give up the time we had together. He began there early by tutoring the football team in Latin, a required course at the school. Later, after I took him through the Fourth Gospel in Greek, he tutored the college students, because they were failing Greek. One of those students recommended him for a job as a specialist in the Unix operating system.

Homeschooling creates a closeness between parents and children that cannot be matched. The teaching can be adjusted to the child's needs and abilities. Best of all, life is a seamless experience of learning. 

We attend business meetings together and share many of the same hobbies.

Burnt Swan: Beggars All: Reformation And Apologetics: Intra-Lutheran Squabbles and Being Tased by Lutherans

The worst of Luther is better than the best of Swan.

Beggars All: Reformation And Apologetics: Intra-Lutheran Squabbles and Being Tased by Lutherans:

My blog entry though was for a completely different purpose, so I left the following comment on the Ichabod blog: 

Hi there- Thanks for linking to my old blog entry. The reason why I ended my entry stating "Even Luther produced a botched quote, and did so to promote himself" is: I've spent many years looking up obscure Martin Luther quotes (and putting them back in their proper contexts), particularly those put forth by Romanists. I've been accused many times by Romanists of whitewashing Luther or explaining away anything negative about him. On the other hand, I've demonstrated time and again that many folks, particularly Romanists, don't bother reading Luther in context, and are not doing a good job with history. Some Romanists are prone to botching quotes, usually without apology, even when corrected. This particular entry that you've re-posted demonstrated that such charges against my blog entries are not true. I'll follow history wherever it leads. Regards, James October 27, 2012 7:55 PM

This brief comment I left was used by the Ichabod blog for a completely new blog post: A Goose for Reformation Sunday: Don't Tase Me, Bro. The response was as follows: 

GJ - James, I appreciated your post, which is why I mccained it. You put together a lot of facts, and that is good, because Huss began the Reformation. Luther did so "to promote himself" is a stretch of logic. Identifying with Huss kept him in peril for many years, so it was not a PR move at all. There are plenty of opinions based on the facts. I simply disagreed with your opinion.

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Did Megachurchers and Church Growth Pastors Ever Visit Members?

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Steadfast and Pastor Bickel":

This is another example of how the megachurches will be the death of Christianity in this country. I remember an observation I heard about the TV preachers. This person said that the one thing that the TV preachers cannot do is visit you at home or in the hospital. They are unable to provide pastoral care to members who need the comfort from the Word. This happens even in the megachurches. I have heard of many situations where a family is not even responded to when they ask for even a simple hospital visit to a loved one.