The Love Shack Sells Again - Prices Slashed - Hopes Raised

http://www.wels.net/news-events/synodical-council-approves-building-sale


In its regular winter meeting on Feb. 22-23, the Synodical Council authorized the sale of the synod's office property on Mayfair Road in Milwaukee. The sale price is $2 million.

The contract requires the buyer to provide earnest money. As is typical in commercial real estate transactions, the contract includes a period of “due diligence” (45 days) in which the buyer can walk away from the purchase for any reason and not forfeit the earnest money. After the due diligence period ends, there will be another 15-day period in which the buyer can still cancel the contract but would forfeit the earnest money. Final closing would take place 60 days after the contract was signed.

The contract also provides WELS with three months of occupancy after the closing at no cost.

Recognizing that the sale is not final until the actual closing at the end of the 60-day period, the Synodical Council has directed that only preliminary planning for a move to Waukesha should begin. If the sale is completed, the move to Waukesha is anticipated to take place in late July.

The Waukesha building is conveniently located in an office park along the I-94 corridor. It provides 33,000 square feet of office space on two floors, which should adequately meet the needs of the synod for decades to come. There is an additional 16,000 square feet of space in the unfinished basement level, which can provide storage space and has the potential to house the synod archives at some point in the future.

Congregation Mission Offering
Through the first two months of the year, Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) are down 5.7 percent compared to the first two months of 2012. Some of this decline may be attributed to the fact that offerings in the first two months of 2012 were much higher than projected, while offerings in 2013 are being received at a more normal pace. On a positive note, congregational offerings are very close (99 percent) to the amount projected for the first two months of the year.

Since the synod’s ministry plans rely heavily on CMO as the bedrock of our financial support, congregations are encouraged to remit their CMO in a timely way and to encourage members to be faithful in their mission offerings.

Thrivent’s proposal to expand its scope
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans serves many people in our synod with insurance policies or other types of investment vehicles. Thrivent operates as a “fraternal” organization. That means it serves clients who have something in common with each other (in this case, membership in a Lutheran church).
The leadership of Thrivent has proposed expanding the scope of its fraternal group beyond Lutherans and extending it to all Christians. The proposal is now being put before Thrivent members for a vote.

Many WELS members have had questions about how such a change would affect our synod, our congregations, and individuals. The answer is really quite simple. A change in Thrivent’s client base will have no effect whatsoever on the synod or its congregations. Thrivent is a non-profit business that has offered financial and insurance products to Lutherans of all synods. While it describes itself as a “faith-based” organization, it is not a church body and is not in any way related to the work that WELS carries out as a synod. While we acknowledge and appreciate the grants Thrivent has provided to the synod for various projects, WELS does not actively endorse Thrivent programs. [GJ - Ha! WELS is up to its neck promoting Thrivent, a mediocre company at best. Aren't all the "Planned Giving Counselors" Thrivent Agents earning a commission?] A decision by Thrivent to serve other Christians does not directly affect the synod. Congregations may continue to benefit from the efforts of the local Thrivent chapters, while being careful to distinguish the activities of those chapters from the mission of the congregation. Individual WELS members who are members of Thrivent are simply purchasers of financial products. They will still have the opportunity to do that, regardless of the outcome of the vote.

All of this means that WELS members of Thrivent may vote however they choose. If the change is approved, they will still be able to make use of the “Choice” dollars that Thrivent enables them to direct to the charities of their choice. When making decisions regarding interaction with Thrivent, its chapters, and its programs, WELS congregations and schools will view Thrivent just as they view any other business.

The bottom line is that WELS has no fellowship relationship with Thrivent. We believe that a decision to broaden its market base is a business decision that Thrivent is free to make if its members so choose.

It should be noted that for years Thrivent has been making grants for specific programs in non-Lutheran agencies and organizations as well as block grants to Lutheran synods. Thrivent’s grants to non-Lutheran agencies will likely continue, while its block grants to Lutheran church bodies will end this year.

Serving in Christ,
President Mark Schroeder

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "The Love Shack Sells Again - Prices Slashed - Hope...":

A decision by Thrivent to serve other Christians does not directly affect the synod.

Classic (W)ELS - the Roman Catholic Church and its earthly head the Antichrist are considered Christian. The official religious teaching which anathematizes Justification solely by Faith alone, along with the WELS (and the other Lutheran [sic] synods bound together by the New Age Thrivent), is considered in Christ by the insufferably impotent president Schroeder.

An appropriate confession for these last days in which the devil rules all officially organized denominations, the Lutheran Synods have jettisoned the Faithful Lutheran Confessions and have replaced truth with error, light for darkness, Life for death and their Inheritance for condemnation.

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GJ - This came from a WELS leader, "Every Planned Giving Counselor is required to have an insurance license." (There is always a commission paid when someone sells a life or annuity policy. A gift annuity pays the salesman immediately and there are no health exams to worry about.)

A $500,000 gift annuity could pay as much as $15,000 commission, but rates vary.

WELS is in bed with Thrivent, doing business with Thrivent, sharing the loot and not exactly honest about it.

All religions stained glass window - this was sponsored by Thrivent.

Mega-Churches Will Finish the Destruction Started by the National Council of Churches

Students like this love the Church Growth Movement.

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "End of an Era? Time for WELS To Join. They Love Dy...":

Speaking of ecumenical winter, it sounds like the NCC Titanic has hit an iceberg. Some so-called conservative Christians are still belly-aching about the NCC. The signs were there 20 years ago that they were done. At the end of the article, there is a reference to robust churches. I am assuming that this may mean the mega-churches. I recently made a prediction to a synod-minder acquaintance that the death of majority Christianity in this country will be the mega-church. His jaw dropped and his forked tongue went silent. I then explained what this article has stated in that the threat from the mainline NCC types has long since passed. He is a closeted fan of the CGM because he is a small m methodist. I knew that I had hit a nerve with him.

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GJ - Robert Schuller, founder of the Church Shrinkers, shrank his congregation to zero.

The Lutheran ones that are bigger than Barnum and Bailey now will be Unitarian or gone in 20 years - St. John Ellisville (LCMS, Willowcreek), St. Mark in Packerland (WELS).

Methodist would be confessional for them.

End of an Era? Time for WELS To Join. They Love Dying Fads. The American Spectator : End of the Mainline

The American Spectator : End of the Mainline:

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A FURTHER PERSPECTIVE

End of the Mainline

By MARK TOOLEY on 3.1.13 @ 6:08AM

The declining National Council of Churches abandons New York City for shelter in D.C.

The once prestigious and now nearly bankrupt National Council of Churches is quitting its famous New York headquarters built with largesse from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and whose cornerstone was laid by President Dwight Eisenhower. Down to a handful of staffers, the NCC will consolidate into the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

“It is important that we honor this moment with reverence and respect for the Council’s history as an iconic presence in the beloved ‘God Box,’” explained NCC President Kathryn Lohre in a press release. “It is equally important that we look with hope upon this new chapter in the Council’s life.” Last year, Lohre had told her board that the NCC faced an “ecumenical winter.” Her chilly prophecy is being fulfilled.

Searching for a positive spin, another NCC official declared: “The critical NCC policy work can be coordinated from any location but to be the prophetic ‘voice of the faithful’ on the ground in the places of power, it is best served by establishing our operations in Washington.” It’s not likely that the much-diminished NCC will be making a big political splash on Capitol Hill, where it has long maintained an office in the Methodist Building. 

Such demise for the NCC could not have been foreseen in 1960 when the Interchurch Center, once called the “Protestant Vatican on the Hudson,” first opened on the upper west side of Manhattan next to Grant’s Tomb and Columbia University. More specifically the “God Box,” which originally housed dozens of denominational offices, is next door to architecturally magnificent Riverside Church, also built by the Rockefellers, and Union Seminary, collectively representing the once formidable but now faded power of Mainline Protestantism.

At the Interchurch Center’s 1960 dedication, a German Lutheran bishop presciently warned against the “institutionalization” of churches, noting that a beautiful building and organization were of “no avail without true faith.” Initially the NCC occupied four floors of the 19 story, $21 million imposing midrise that overlooks the Hudson River. The Methodists, Presbyterians, American Baptists, and Reformed Church in America, among others, also based their offices there.

His father having recently died, John D. Rockefeller III was present at the dedication to honor the Interchurch Center as the fulfillment of his father’s dream of a new Christianity without denominational distinctions. Although he didn’t then specify it, the Rockefellers also dreamed of a uniformly liberal Protestantism devoted to good works instead of doctrine. The elder Rockefeller donated the land for the Interchurch Center plus over $2.6 million for costs.

Ironically, nearly all the Mainline denominations housed there would begin their nearly 50-year membership decline just a few years later. A sanitized Protestantism without doctrine or distinctions simply became too boring to sustain. In the early 1960s, about one of every six Americans belonged to the seven largest Mainline denominations. Today, it’s one out of every 15.

Likely unable to conceive of such a dramatic spiral, the NCC’s chief pronounced at the Interfaith Center’s 1960 dedication: “It is the prayer of all who worked toward its creation that this will become more than a symbol of the growing spiritual unity of Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Churches in America.” Those days were heady times for the Mainline denominations, who were flush with members, money and influence. Church offices in the God Box then claimed to represent 40 million church members.

About 30,000 attended the Interchurch Center’s cornerstone ceremony in 1958 with President Eisenhower. He marched with 300 religious leaders under banners representing 37 participating denominations. David Rockefeller was present. So too was Charles Malik, the Lebanese Christian president of the United Nations. And Harry Emerson Fosdick, the dean of liberal Protestantism who built Riverside Church, was there also. In his brief speech, Ike condemned the recent bombing of a synagogue in Atlanta. Quoting George Washington, he hailed religious liberty and the importance of religion in sustaining morality.

The mainstream, Mainline Protestantism that Ike, himself a Presbyterian, embodied began its decline into radicalism in the mid 1960s, mostly in reaction to the Vietnam War. No longer moored to a firm theology, groups like the NCC were easily susceptible to take-over by radical activists. And having tied themselves to American culture and modern secularism, they were ever anxious to stay abreast of the latest social and political fad, primarily from the perspective of New York-based elites. 

Over the decades, even liberal Protestants tired at least of the expense of maintaining headquarters in New York. The Lutherans, Presbyterians, and United Church of Christ eventually quit the “God Box” for new digs in the Midwest, even as they continued their decline and liberal trajectory. 

The NCC, which once prided itself as the chief voice of American Protestantism, never recovered from the 1980s media revelations, led by Sixty Minutes, about its infatuation with Marxist liberation movements around the world. In the 1990s the NCC began to struggle for financial survival. It was temporarily rescued by millions of dollars raised for the Burned Churches Fund that strove to rebuild black churches devastated by arson. Later, its general secretary, former Democratic Congressman Bob Edgar, raised millions of dollars from liberal secular philanthropies to compensate for declining church support. But eventually the philanthropies mostly lost interest, realizing the NCC no longer had political cachet. The NCC’s large relief arm, Church World Service, which receives millions in federal dollars for refugee resettlement, effectively divorced the NCC, knowing it could survive even if its NCC parent could not. Two thirds of the NCC’s member denominations contribute zero or only token support.

In the Methodist Building, the NCC will operate under the shadow of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, which is even more leftist than the NCC. Thanks to its eastern Orthodox and black church members, the NCC does not advocate homosexual or abortion related issues. Built by Methodist Prohibitionists in the 1920s, the Methodist Building has been the headquarters of Religious Left lobbying in Washington, D.C. for many decades.

Again looking for a rainbow, the NCC’s president explained of their move: “This consolidation will free us from the infrastructure of a bygone era, enabling us to witness more boldly to our visible unity in Christ, and work for justice and peace in today’s rapidly changing ecclesial, ecumenical and inter-religious world.”

More likely, the NCC’s move from New York to Capitol Hill will divorce it even further from most of its church constituents and presage its eventual, quiet death. The arc of the NCC’s story showcases the rise and fall of liberal Protestantism in America. It’s a sad tale but also instructive for the more robust churches of today.

'via Blog this'

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GJ - I hope I did my little bit to move this along. Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure describes the apostasy that comes from anti-confessional unionism.

Was the Rydecki Excommunication a Smokescreen for the Fox Valley WELS Scandal?

Andy Stanley  called one of his gay activist conferences Taking It Off-Road, so I found a graphic to fit the theme.

I did some additional investigation and found out that the incident involving Ski and Tim Glende, at an Appleton bar, was six months ago (approximately) - the same time Jon-Boy Buchholz was ramping up his persecution of justification by faith.

Misdirection of the eye is the key component in magic, and it works well in public relations too. If everyone is consumed with one story, they will overlook another.

WELS gave Tim Glende's St. Peter, Freedom church a boatload of offering money to buy the stinky bar now called The CORE. WELS also loaned St. Peter the money to remodel and fumigate the bar.

On or about that time, as the police reports say, Tim and Ski created a scandal with their behavior, it is alleged from many sources.

I wrote to Ski to ask if he was being suspended. No response. I wrote to Joel Lillo, who identified my question with the Eighth Commandment. I also wrote to the local newspaper, the Post-Crescent, asking open-ended questions, giving all my contact information. No response.

No one has told me this, and I am only guessing. Could the sudden swoop on Pastor Paul Rydecki have been a convenient distraction from the Fox Valley scandal?

Why remind everyone that WELS was wasting money on another losing Tim Glende scheme, as they did with his almost-total destruction of Bethlehem Lutheran Church (now Star of Bethlehem) in Illinois?

By the way, I also asked one of my sources what his stalwart confessional Synod President was doing about this. No answer.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Was the Rydecki Excommunication a Smokescreen for ...":

Since Appleton and Green Bay are in the Fox Valley, I will use a football reference. Folks there would understand your point if you said that the synod boys were running interference.

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GJ - Blocking and tackling, specializing in cheap shots.

Reu - Now He Belongs to ELCA, Who Won't Have Him. BIBLICAL HISTORY for School and Home By DR. M. REU ~ The Old Testament or Preparation of Salvation A. Undivided Humanity. 4000—2000 B. C., pt. 1 | The First Premise

BIBLICAL HISTORY for School and Home By DR. M. REU ~ The Old Testament or Preparation of Salvation A. Undivided Humanity. 4000—2000 B. C., pt. 1 | The First Premise:

BIBLICAL HISTORY for School and Home By DR. M. REU ~ The Old Testament or Preparation of Salvation A. Undivided Humanity. 4000—2000 B. C., pt. 1

by Pastor Riley's Blog

BIBLICAL HISTORY for School and Home By DR. M. REU

The Old Testament or Preparation of Salvation A. Undivided Humanity. 4000—2000 B. C.

1. God Creates the World. Genesis 1 and 2.

The Old Testament or Preparation of Salvation A. Undivided Humanity . 4000—2000 B. C. 
1. God Creates the World. Genesis 1 and 2.

1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. But the Spirit of God was upon the face of the waters.

2. And God said, “Let there be light”: and there was light. And God divided the light from the darkness, and He called the light Day, but the darkness He called Night. Thus the evening and the morning were the first day. — On the second day God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters”: and it was so. God thus divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and called the firmament Heaven.

— On the third day God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, that the dry land may appear”: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. Upon the earth, however, God let grass, herbs and trees grow up, each yielding seed after its kind.

On the fourth day God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” And it was so; and God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. — On the fifth day God said, “Let the waters bring forth living creatures, and let birds fly in the firmament of heaven.” So God made the tishes and other sea animals, each after its kind, and the birds also each after its kind. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply.” — On the sixth day God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures, cattle, beast and creeping thing”: and it was so.

3. At the very last, God said, “Let us make man in our image; and let them have dominion over the fish of the seas, and over the foul of the air, and over the cattle, and over every creeping thing upon the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him. He formed man’s body of earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and thus man became a living soul. The man’s name was A’dam.

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. But on the seventh day God rested from all His work, and He blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

Bible Verses. Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Psalm 115, 3 — He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33, 9. — O Lord, how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all: the eartli is full of thy riches. Psalm 104, 24. — Every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. Hebrews 3, 4. — Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the eartli and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Psalm 90, 1—2.

Catechism. The First Article.

Hymn. Bless thou the Lord who so wondrously fashioned and made thee, Who in his goodness did evermore prosper and aid thee, Who in thy grief Granted thee help and relief, Shielded and strengthened and saved thee.— Tr. from Kirchenbuch 456, 3.

Questions for Review. (1) The Creation of Substance out of Nothing.
1. Who existed before all time? (Psalm 90, 2).
— 2. What did God create in the beginning, that is, at the origin of “time”? (Psalm 115, 3)
— 3. Out of what did God create heaven and earth?
— 4. By what did God make heaven and earth out of nothing? (Psalm 33, 9)
— 5. How was the earth then?
— 6. But who was already there, to keep it from staying so void, empty and dark?

— (2) The Changing of the Prime Substance (heaven and earth) into the Beautiful World.
— 7. In how many days did God change that prime substance into the beautiful world?
— 8. By what did God effect this wonderful change ?
— 9. What division did God cause to be made during the first three days?
— 10. What did He thus bring into existence?
— 11. What did God make to grow after He, on the first three days, had brought into being light, air (the firmament dividing the waters’, water and land?)
— 12. Why was it necessary for all different herbs and trees to have each its own kind of seed?
— 13. What did God fill and enliven from the fourth to the sixth day?
— 14. For what purpose did He place the lights in the firmament of heaven?
— 15. What did He say to the fish, the birds and the terrestrial animals after He had created them on the fifth day?

— (3) The Crown of Creation.
— 16. What does the Psalmist say in wonder concerning the works of God?
— 17. But which was the last and most wonderful of all of God’s creatures?
— 18. Why is man the most beautiful and the foremost of all creatures on earth?
— 19. What does that mean: Man is made in God’s image?
— 20. In what words of the Catechism do you confess that God has also made you?
— 21. What verse calls upon you to bless God for this?
— 22. What did God do on the seventh day?

'via Blog this'

Sola Fide Identifies the Problem - Kelmed from Ecclesia Augustana

In honor of the Augsburg Confession.
Confessio Augustana.

http://ecclesiaaugustana.blogspot.com/2013/03/public-error-warrants-public-rebuke.html

solafideMarch 5, 2013 at 1:09 AM

I'm with you Mr. Baker. There are the people who deny there is a problem and it is just semantics. They are as bad, if not worse than the actual heretics who proclaim their UOJ rubbish.

How did we get here? Apathy and ignorance. The vast majority of lay Lutherans don't even own a copy of the confessions, worse still, many don't even own their old catechism books anymore. We've also become lazy and have allowed pastors to become the de facto leaders of our congregations with church councils basically rubber stamping whatever idea the pastor and/or synod officials recommend. Placing these pastors on such a high pedestal is dangerous, not only for us, but for them too. I can't tell you how it gets under my skin when someone looks to the pastor to get an answer to a question. Suddenly, instead of being the shepherd of the congregation, pastors are becoming more and more dictator-like. This pattern continues throughout the synods' hierarchies. Long gone are the days of pastors being responsible to members. Now, members are responsible to the pastors. Members who step out of line are silenced, reprimanded, watched, and removed at the timeliest opportunity. Pastors who speak out are quickly removed also, in a fashion similar to Pastor Rydecki -- meaning that the synod pretends to be trying to work with said person, even going so far as to give bold-faced lies to people, but in the shadows is quickly moving to strike.

Daniel Baker Needs Some Quality Time with the WELS Inquisition. Ecclesia Augustana: Public Error Warrants Public Rebuke

 Ecclesia Augustana: Public Error Warrants Public Rebuke:

Monday, March 4, 2013

Public Error Warrants Public Rebuke

*Please note:  The views expressed below represent myself and not necessarily any of the other contributors of this blog.  I know some of you grow tired of hearing about universal justification all the time - I grow tired of writing about it over and over and over again.  But as much as I'd like to lull myself into thinking that the topic is entirely semantic like some of you do, I can't.  I constantly see public errorists like the ones exposed below criticizing and condemning faithful Ministers of God's Word and members of Christ's Church, and it needs rebuking.  So here we are.*

Earlier in the afternoon, Dr. Bethany Kilcrease (wife of Dr. Jack Kilcrease, self-proclaimed Theologian of the Church) posted an interesting discussion prompt in the “Confessional Lutheran Fellowship” Facebook group:

“I was just finishing Gerhard’s Theological Commonplace on the Ministry (II) last night. Chapter VIII was about heresy and section 371 is about dealing with heretics. Gerhard notes ordained clergy have an obligation to publicly ‘muzzle‘ public heretics (a vice made much more common by the internet). I was struck, and rather disgusted, but [sic] how very little any ordained clergy (with two exceptions I can think of) have had anything to say about the heresy of denying universal objective justification that seems to be gathering stem in the WELS and LCMS. Is it because some of the public heretics are really nice guys and you kind of like them because they don’t like CoWo either? Rant over.”

Her rant being over, she went on to say a few minutes later:

“To be fair, the WELS has done an admirable job dealing with this problem among their clergy. You don’t see LCMS publicly denying UOJ, I imagine because of [sic] the 1932 brief statement is pretty explicit. At least openly, this is more of a lay and WELS problem. The problem is that a tiny number of people are continually hammering on this on the internet and uneducated lay people are in danger of being led astray.”



While her posts are obviously a reference to this chain of events, Mrs. Kilcrease raises a good point: If the teaching that every sinner has been declared righteous for the sake of Christ is “the central message of Scripture upon which the very existence of the church depends,” why are the glorious defenders of the One True Fatih™ so silent in their opposition against the pernicious heresy of Justification by Faith Alone? Why was Arch-Heretic Rydecki’s excommunication from the Holy Mother Church by Pope Buccholz worked out so quietly? Why hasn’t Rydecki been publicly exposed for the heretic that he is?  Doesn't public error warrant public rebuke?  Moreover, why does the Magisterium have to lie about what he teaches, insinuating that he somehow denies the universality and all-sufficiency of the atonement, instead of simply stating that he teaches the damnable lie of a God-given, justifying faith?



The answer, my friends, should be as obvious as the sarcasm in the preceding paragraph. The answer is that Pastor Rydecki is no heretic.  The reason so many pastors refuse to publicly castigate his doctrine is that they recognize him as no false teacher.  Why, then, don't they publicly support his position?  There are some pastors and laymen (I know them) who neglect to speak up out of fear.  There are also many pastors and laymen who, though they are familiar with this issue, have lulled themselves into the notion that the entire debate is semantic. But the topic is not semantic. If it was, Pastor Rydecki would not be excommunicated. If it was, the Holy Michigan See would not have found it necessary to place Intrepid Lutherans under interdict. If it was, there wouldn’t be people like Paul McCain, Dr. Kilcrease, and Mrs. Kilcrease floating around the internet castigating the “heresy” of justification by faith alone.

No, this issue is not semantic; rather, it boils down to the foundation of the Christian Church. It's the reason the Ecclesia Augustana is no longer part of the Papal Church. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one may boast.” “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved; whoever does not believe shall be condemned.” Yea, “whoever does not believe stands condemned already, for he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”  The sinner is justified - and only justified - by grace through faith.  The sinner is not justified on Mt. Calvary (St. Dismas notwithstanding).  The sinner is justified when the Holy Spirit works faith in his heart - faith in Christ and His merits - by Means of the Holy Gospel.  Grace of God. Promises of the Gospel. Merits of Christ.  Faith.  Period.

'via Blog this'

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Via Opus Ichabodi:

Bethany Kilcrease

I was just finishing Gerhard's Theological Commonplace on the Ministry (II) last night. Chapter VIII was about heresy and section 371 is about dealing with heretics. Gerhard notes ordained clergy have an obligation to publicly "muzzle" public heretics (a vice made much more common by the internet). I was struck, and rather disgusted, but how very little any ordained clergy (with two exceptions I can think of) have had anything to say about the heresy of denying universal objective justification that seems to be gathering steam in the WELS and LCMS. Is it because some of the public heretics are really nice guys and you kind of like them because they don't like CoWo either? Rant over.

Like ·  ·  · 19 hours ago near Grand Rapids, MI

• Philippe DeBlois likes this.
• 

  Rafe Spraker Do Heresy trials happen? I am new but it seems that discipline is lax?

  19 hours ago · Like
• 

  Bethany Kilcrease To be fair, the WELS has done an admirable job dealing with this problem among their clergy. You don't see LCMS publicly denying UOJ, I imagine because of the 1932 brief statement is pretty explicit. At least openly, this is more of a lay and WELS problem. The problem is that a tiny number of people are continually hammering on this on the internet and uneducated lay people are in danger of being led astray.

  19 hours ago · Like
• 

  Rafe Spraker So as Luther, we have to deal with the Antimonians, Anabaptists, and enthusiasts!

  19 hours ago · Like
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  Benjamin Rolf I'm surprised anybody takes the arguments seriously when the main advocate for the doctrine runs an internet church and makes his arguments by Photoshopping people's heads into digital art.

  18 hours ago · Like · 2
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  Bethany Kilcrease Me too Ben, me too.

  18 hours ago · Like
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  Christian Schulz I've wondered that too. A while back I advocated for the synods to restate their position in clear affirmative theses and negative theses. Even better would be a public trial like was done with seminex. This way the laymen who go to church on Sunday and back to their vocations during the week who don't follow these kinds of things can get presented both sides. Every layman that I've talked to about UOJ said they've never even heard of it before. They believe in one justification that happens by the gift of faith. But then a UOJ snake will come in and confuse the hell out of them saying that there's actually a justification that happened before faith too. They're confused because the Scriptures don't speak this way and the theologians of the Christian Church of the last 2,000 years interpret the Scriptures, in their writings, as only one justification by faith -- not in addition to a justification of that sinner before he had faith. How come the same exact passages are interpreted in completely different ways (http://ecclesiaaugustana.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-elephant-in-room-romans-518-19.html)? Since when did the words and context change so that later theologians interpret the same passages as a universal justification without faith whereas the earlier ones think of it only is a justification by faith? The doctrine frankly doesn't pass the common sense test. Didn't know the lepers had to believe they were already healed to actually be healed. Didn't know the OT people had to believe themselves already healed from he snake bites to actually be healed when they looked up to the cross in the desert (http://www.faithalonejustifies.com/brief-response-to-dr-kilcrease/). To the newbie, please go to those links and make a decision for yourself, especially the last link. And please get the affordable book, Theses Opposed to Huberianism, which is about how Samuel Huber, an early formulator of this universal justification of the world, was condemned by the Lutherans of the late 1500s, not even 20 years after the Book of Concord was compiled. You can find the book on the right hand side of the page at the last link I provided. I mean honestly, the evidence is stacked so high against a universal justification of sinners before faith that I don't get why anyone could stand on that side unless you're worshiping the SynCon and choosing to forget the whole testimony of the 2,000 year old church. To those new to this, be objective and see which side you fall on. At first I didn't see much wrong with UOJ either, I thought it was a confusion of terms. But a firm reading of Scripture and the Fathers' plain words will land one against the Synods declaration that "all sinners have been justified."

  15 hours ago via mobile · Edited · Like
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  Benjamin Rolf This would not be an issue and nobody would be confused if it wasn't for crackpots and their sockpuppets agitating in blog comments.

  16 hours ago · Like · 2
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  Christian Schulz More like, it wouldn't be an issue if people just accepted blindly whatever their synod says instead of reading the Scriptures and Fathers and testing the Spirits. Benjamin Rolf, why the contradictions of interpretation on the same passages as the first link shows? I've asked numerous people and have never gotten a real response (including pastors). Please show me why recent theologians (1800s+, and Huber) interpret those passages to mean that the whole world has been justified, objectively in God's heart, without faith, whereas the Church of 2,000 years have interpreted those key passages to mean a justification only by faith. Two different thoughts on the same Words and context. Weird. I thought Scripture and doctrine never changes. So which side is being novel, I ask the reader? By the way, Benjamin Rolf, have you read These Opposed to Huberianism?

  15 hours ago · Edited · Like
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  Daniel Baker What an obnoxious post.

  14 hours ago via mobile · Like
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  Benjamin Rolf No, this is obnoxious: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDZDBs1fCiTtOKxYEvnlsw8XtZvmXq7R7Lx4RrBGqo8B0aoasZFCYupwQxCIstK0khmFnA2LlOvGlDID8yC3Xjznue8n1TVCgL8MwCB9-BDCm8PGfMlTYk2oqgA9rhIRplXkTskhtpoxO/s640/walther_adams_family+copy.jpg

  14 hours ago · Like
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  Daniel Baker That is also obnoxious, but it doesn't excuse the thinly veiled attack on a wrongfully excommunicated pastor that the OP so obnoxiously makes.

  14 hours ago via mobile · Like
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  Christian Schulz If you have beef with Dr. Jackson and his pictures, take it to him. Deal with my words, unless you can't. If you can't then just admit it. I especially want to hear the response to the contradictions on Rom. 5: 18-19 (to name one passage). Not to mention Pr. Rydecki's post as the second link shows. But neither Jack Kilcrease responded to Pr. Rydecki's first post, as linked, nor has anyone given a response to my post cited by the first link. All you guys do is lump us with Dr. Jackson and call it a day. Real scholars...cool.

  14 hours ago · Like
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  David Jay Webber Gerhard's teaching on the objective and subjective aspects of justification is not novel, and it is not from the 19th century. Among other things, Gerhard observed that "in 1 Timothy 3:16, God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit (namely through the resurrection by God the Father), that is, he was absolved of the sins of the whole world, which he as Sponsor took upon himself, so that he might make perfect satisfaction for them to God the Father. Moreover in rising from the dead he showed by this very fact that satisfaction has been made by him for these sins, and all of the same have been expiated by the sacrifice of his death" (Disputationes Theologicae [Jena, 1656], p. 1450). Also, there are many examples in the history of Lutheran exegesis where people interpret and apply various passages differently. Even in our subscription to the Confessions, we are bound to the doctrinal content of the Confessions, and not to every exegetical judgment. Luther may not have thought that certain passages cited by Synodical Conference theologians in favor of objective justification, actually teach it. But Luther did believe that other passages teach an objective and universal forgiveness of all those whose sins were borne by Christ, in the death and resurrection of Christ. Remember that ~Jesus~ is the only individual, as an individual, who was ~objectively~ justified. As the representative of humanity, he was condemned in his suffering and death; and as the representative of humanity, he was justified in his resurrection. In his vicarious condemnation, humanity was condemned; and in his vicarious justification, humanity was justified. All of this has to do with the full content and power of the Gospel that is now proclaimed to the world, and that individuals are invited to believe for their personal justification. These things are confusing only when people make an effort to try to make them confusing. Otherwise, they are immensely comforting to a forgiven sinner, who knows that his salvation was accomplished for him by his Savior, in his death and resurrection, and that this salvation is now delivered through the means of grace to be received by faith alone.

  14 hours ago · Edited · Like · 2
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  David Jay Webber Many quotations from Luther's writings, teaching that the world is objectively forgiven in the death and resurrection of Christ, can be found here:http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/OJQuotations.pdf

  14 hours ago · Like
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  Bethany Kilcrease Daniel, it's obviously not thinly veiled. I'm quite clearly talking about Paul Rydecki among others. He's a public heretic, so he can be publicly named. Nothing veiled here.

  14 hours ago · Like
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  Bethany Kilcrease No Schleiermacher here.

  14 hours ago · Like
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  Christian Schulz For the "newbies," Pastor Rydecki was suspended from the WELS (the LCMS teaches the same UOJ, by the way) for teaching this: http://www.godwithuslc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/justification_onepage1.pdf
  
  So it's obvious that those who call Pr. Rydecki a false teacher disagree with that one page summary and the other documents (below). Where do you (plural) stand? You be the judge.
  
  For more of what he teaches, go here:http://www.godwithuslc.org/documents/ -- or you can talk to him yourself. I'm not going to speak for him other than what he has publicly written.
  
  P.S. His congregation voted to leave the WELS and therefore also affirm the Scriptural teaching of justification by faith only and reject the WELS formulation that all sinners have been justified without faith, the means of grace, and the holy Spirit. Some above comments by Mrs. Kilcrease try to paint the picture that we are some small group of nobodies but in actuality there are a pretty solid group who don't buy into UOJ. Some remain anonymous for fear of being suspended by their respective synod (whether I agree with that or not, since doctrine is more than a paycheck, is whatever) and more so many laymen. Daniel and I are just the tip of the iceberg, really. Most other's are busy doing other things. This is why I think a public trial, if you will, like Seminex, would be beneficial and the laity could really take a side instead of all this being dealt with on the internet and behind closed doors.

  14 hours ago · Edited · Like
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  Benjamin Rolf Here's what WELS says: "Paul has affirmed that he does not believe that “God forgave the sin of the world when Jesus died on the cross”"http://azcadistrict.com/sites/default/files/reports/Report-DP_2012-10.pdf

  13 hours ago · Edited · Like
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  Christian Schulz I like how "Paul" could refer to Pr. Rydecki and Paul the Apostle -- both make sense 
  
  Sorry all, I couldn't resist that opportunity coming from my position 

  13 hours ago · Like · 2
  
  
  

*** GJ - The young ruffians did not like my gentle satire of the dysfunctional Walther family?

CFW and his brother kidnapped their niece and nephew from their father's parsonage.
They were kidnappers, felons, wanted by the police when they skipped to America.
CFW's future mother-in-law went to prison for a time, for hiding the kids for the Walther brothers.
Those facts are incontestable - Benjamin Rolf should read some LCMS history.
Even the hagiographers admit it.

 Which doctrinal graphics do the young'uns object to? The following Martin Luther quotation has been viewed 26,820+ times in less than a year. The second most popular post is the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, which the UOJ Storm-brownies have never read, have never understood.

The Holy Spirit Teaches Man Better Than Books May 23, 2012

26820

The Holy Spirit Teaches Man Better Than Books

May 23, 2012

26820

Paul McCain and Jack Kilcrease have both asked for Photoshops featuring their angelic countenances. I resisted Kilcrease for a long time, knowing how much he craves attention. But his dallying with words made him the perfect candidate for Humpty Dumpty.

The facts should offend the humorless UOJ Storm-brownies.
Why did WELS and the ELS support Stolzenburg and put him back in a parish, where he is unfit to serve?

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Christian Schulz has left a new comment on your post "Daniel Baker Needs Some Quality Time with the WELS...":

I find your graphics hilarious. I just don't like when people bring you up when it has nothing to do with my argument and words.