WELS: [Callrept] Pastors - 04/15/2013 - Officially Reported on WELS.net

WELS: [Callrept] Pastors - 04/15/2013: "------------------------------ R E S I G N E D ---------------------

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Skorzewski, Rev James R St Peter - Appleton WI 04/12/2013"

'via Blog this'

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GJ - I am copying this from the WELS.net site, as I do so many stories, to show that I do not publish lies and distortions. The information either comes from official sources (copied because they are soon erased) or from multiple witnesses.

Lies and distortions describe WELS cover-up attempts, which we realize have continued in this case alone for more than three years. Remember that  - when a WELS pastor is trashed and shunned for being a "false teacher" but a proven false teacher (like Glende, Kelm, Hunter, Wendland) is praised by those same calumniators.

"I thought Ski was at The CORE."

Answer - there is no such congregation. He was a staffer at St. Peter, Freedom.

Copying Craig Groeschel does not make you Craig  Groeschel.

Ecclesia Augustana: Wait, what? - Bethany College - ELS - Invents a Luther Quotation To Prove UOJ

http://www.blts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/WWP-Rebirth.pdf
John and Don Moldstad love to chant UOJ nonsense,
but this deliberate deception exposes their method and mindless Enthusiasm.

Ecclesia Augustana: Wait, what?:

Wait, what do the Confessions supposedly say word for word? I went to a presentation tonight at Bethany Lutheran College (ELS), which I thought would be innocent, on the historicity of the Papacy. No big deal, right? Before it started, however, I was paging through the pamphlet. Sure enough, I came across the above, a manipulation -- rather, a straight lie -- of what the Confessions truly say. There were a lot of laymen and their families there, for whom I'm very concerned. For all they knew, the quotation marks actually meant what quotation marks are supposed to mean.  But if you do a tiny bit of research or if you've ever read the Confessions, you'll IMMEDIATELY notice, like I did, that the Confessions say no such thing. Rather, the quotations were how they wish the Confessions were written. 

Now, yes, I know, I'm "judging motives" and claiming that this pamphlet was manipulative "on purpose," but what else am I supposed to think when it provides a series of "quotations" from the Confessions -- the Small Catechism -- that just aren't in the text, whether in a paraphrase or an actual quote.  The laymen and students that were in attendance are going home thinking that the Confessions actually say that "God...has acquitted all men of the guilt and punishment of their sins, and has imputed to them the righteousness of Christ" (bold is mine) -- word for word. If only there were citations? But there aren't because the Confessions, no where, teach as such. Now it wouldn't be a big deal if they went home knowing that about themselves (hence the present tense of AC IV, "when they believe"), but it is clear that it was meant to teach that it is the same for them (believers) as it is for the entire world (unbelievers). 

This is just another case of over-compensation for the UOJ paradigm, which must be maintained at all costs. It seems impossible for UOJ advocates to say that sinners are ONLY considered righteous by faith alone. Rather, they must twist and manipulate the minds of innocent sheep by changing what the Confessions, in the Small Catechism, do, truly, teach -- that sinners are only righteous in God's eyes when faith receives Christ's righteousness through faith, the righteousness that then covers that sinner. There's no distribution, imputation, giving out, or imparting of His righteousness apart from faith and the means of grace as opposed to what these UOJ enthusiasts teach in their own plain statements ("imputed to them the righteousness of Christ [without faith or the means of grace]") -- whether by individual teachers or official church documents. And if there's been no imputation of Christ's righteousness by faith, which alone protects against God's wrath, then the whole world of sinners can, in no way, be considered righteous by God without faith. It's just that simple. Kyrie, eleison.

'via Blog this'

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http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2013/04/a-deceptive-pamphlet-from-bethany.html

Pastor Paul Rydecki

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

A Deceptive Pamphlet from Bethany Lutheran College (ELS)

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HT: Ecclesia Augustana

Maybe these things shouldn't surprise me anymore, but they still do.  The graphic was posted last evening by Ecclesia Augustana.  It is a copy of a pamphlet being handed out at Bethany Lutheran College by their chaplain, Rev. Don Moldstad, for a presentation he was making on the papacy.

It's bad enough that this pamphlet misrepresents the Scriptural and Lutheran doctrine of justification.

But equally disturbing is the deceptive manner in which these statements have been presented.  They are listed under the column entitled "The Lutheran Confessions."  They are directly listed, in quotation marks, under "Luther's Small Catechism."  But they are not found in Luther's Small Catechism.  Anywhere.  They come, instead, from the ELS's explanations of Luther's Catechism.  A pastor who cannot distinguish between the Lutheran Confessions and the writings of his own synod is inept.  A pastor who knows the difference and still presents his synod's writings, in quotation marks, under "The Lutheran Confessions," is being deceptive.

If Rev. Moldstad is led to recognize his error, at very least his error of misrepresenting the words of Luther's Small Catechism, we will welcome his public apology and gladly publish it here on Intrepid Lutherans. 

Under the column entitled "The Lutheran Confessions":

From Luther’s Small Catechism:

“I believe in the forgiveness of sins because the Bible assures me that God the Father has by grace forgiven all sinners and declared them righteous.”

“God can declare sinners righteous because, (sic) on the redemptive work of Christ, He has aquitted (sic) all men of the guilt and punishment of their sins, and has imputed to them the righteousness of Christ. He therefore regards them in Christ as though they had never sinned.”

“I receive this justification when the Holy Ghost through the means of grace, leads me, the sinner, to believe that God has forgiven all my sins for Christ’s sake.”

The Book of Concord commends all readers
to study Luther's Galatians commentary for additional
insights about justification by faith.
Moldstad? Moldstad? Anyone?

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bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Pastor Nathan Bickel Dares To Question The CORE":

Pamphlet given out at justification talk at ELS' Bethany College misleadingly says a UOJ quote is found in Luther's Catechism in the Book of Concord, but in fact it's in ELS' explanation of the Catechism. UOJ is not found in the BoC.

The quote keeps making the rounds due to its inclusion in this ELS synodical paper which was discussed on the Icha-blog back on May 25th, 2012:

"acquitted all men of the guilt and punishment" See:
http://www.blts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/WWP-Rebirth.pdf

A Deceptive Pamphlet from Bethany Lutheran College (ELS)
http://ecclesiaaugustana.blogspot.com/2013/04/wait-what.html

http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2013/04/a-deceptive-pamphlet-from-bethany.html

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/05/els-cannot-grasp-justification-by-faith.html

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-is-lutheran-evangelical-lutheran.html 

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Rolf Preus and Paul McCain love to echo Luther's opponents.

The CORE - Just a Potemkin Village

Built on quick-sand, The CORE doth fall,
Even when missions are growing.
Crumbled have plans in every land,
Church drones are planning and spending.
Wasting the funds of young and old
But above all the rich who're rolled,
Paying for sins everlasting.

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Ski Has Resigned, Effective 4-12-2013.":

I would have never thought that this unraveling of the CORE would have happened so quickly. But, it was all just a Potemkin Village anyways. There is just so much that goes on behind the scenes.

It reminds me of those Alfred Hitchcock Hour shows where the perpetrator schemes and plans. Just where you think that they are going to pull off their chicanery, there is an interesting twist of events and they get their comeuppance. I would hope that more laity would see that all is not well in the WELS.

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Wikipedia:

The phrase Potemkin villages (an alternative spelling is Potyomkin villages, derived from the Russian: Потёмкинские деревни, Potyomkinskiye derevni) was originally used to describe a fake village, built only to impress. The phrase is now used, typically in politics and economics, to describe any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that some situation is better than it really is. It is unclear whether the origin of the phrase is factual, an exaggeration, or a myth.

According to the story, Russian minister Grigory Potemkin who led the Crimean military campaign erected fake settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787.

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GJ - I have been reading about Church Growth fantasies for decades - where some entity throws an enormous sum at one location to start out big, Big, BIG! Staff - building - programs! It's colossal. It's stupendous. It's gigantic! (See the graphic below.)

Mark Freier, the other WELS P-Boy, was involved in two of those debacles. One was the Florida church that ended up Roman Catholic. The other was CrossWalk, that ended up Evangelical Covenant. For a time CrossWalk thanked three WELS pastors for starting their congregation.

Mark Freier is now teaching Parlow's congregation how to be as successful as he has been. I hope the essence of Freier rubs off on all of them.

ELCA tried the same thing, in Yorba Linda. Big flop.

The true church is not based on money, clowns, and circus entertainment, but the Word. WELS does not teach faith in Christ but salvation in unfaith. Naturally the apostate leaders are drawn to unfaith programs of growth - Driscoll, Groeschel, Jeske, Stetzer, and the like.