This Is Your Meme for the WELS Convention, I Mean Next LCMS Gathering, Or Perhaps the ELS Circuit Meeting.

This Cat Is a Mequon Graduate

Ask a Storm-Brownie When Forgiveness Takes Place

Daryl Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Wayne Mueller's Justification (Northwestern Preuss...":

Ask a Storm-Brownie (once he sobers up) when the forgiveness of sins takes place, and he'll tell you, "Easter" or perhaps "Good Friday". Ask Luther, and he'll tell you, "the forgiveness of sins begins in baptism" (LW 34:164).

***

GJ - Sobriety is a hasty assumption, perhaps too optimistic. Mrs. Ichabod and I went to lunch with a WELS staffer who was three sheets to the wind when we parted company.

Wayne Mueller's Justification (Northwestern Preuss) - Another Bad UOJ Book

This is a good graphic for the upcoming Gospel lesson,
Matthew 7:15ff.

Wayne Mueller, Justification: How God Forgives, Northwestern Publishing House, 2002. 138 pages. $14.50 new. $5 on the used market.

Someone gave me the Burger kit on justification, sent to every WELS pastor early in the century. That got me intrigued by Wayne Mueller's book, so I ordered one from the Net, $5 - never been read. The book is still in print.

Anyone who agrees with UOJ ties himself to this bizarre
corruption of the Lutheran Confessions.
Pietists hate the Book of Concord.

Wayne got himself a job teaching at The Sausage Factory, Mequon, but they pushed him off the faculty for being Reformed, according to Slick Brenner. The power of the UOJ network can be seen in Wayne Mueller getting a raise by having a job invented for him - head of Perish Services - the parish killing agency of UOJ/Church Growth, at WELS headquarters. Administrators get more than seminary professors in WELS, because administrators work past noon.

Wayne became First Vice-President of the synod later. Even when he was voted out of office, and another replaced him, his team managed to scare the VP-elect away and put Wayne back. Later, when Mueller quit his job in a huff, the CG/UOJ network replaced him with James Huebner, Fuller alumnus.

Mueller set a record for lying in WELS - a stupendous achievement in that sect - by presiding over all the Church Growth programs in WELS as head of Perish Services and denying in print that there were any CG programs in WELS. WELS denials are standard - and they serve as good verification checks. But here is the master stroke. Wayne added that, if there were any, they were all in harmony with the Confessions.

One WELS pastor handed me a communication from Mueller where he quoted Luther in favor of working with the Babtists. This is significant in relation to Wayne's book. The quotation made it look as if Luther favored ecumenical work, but it was severely edited and said the opposite. I quoted Wayne, Luther, and commented in Christian News. At a gathering, Mueller said, "If I ever get my hands on the guy who gave that to Jackson..." The guy who gave it to me reported Wayne's threat, with some satisfaction.

I am convinced that WELS' secret hazing ritual, GA, has profoundly influenced all the WELS pastors, who delight in deception and seldom tell the truth when a lie is more fun. Not all of them are in that camp, but the leaders are, from top to bottom. Birds of a feather flock together.

So much for Mueller the liar. Now for Mueller the dishonest author.

Justification - How God Forgives

Mueller's abuse of Luther is repeated in the opening of his book, the first sentence.

"If the doctrine of justification is lost, the whole of Christian doctrine is lost." [Luther's Works, American Edition, vol. 26 - title not given. Lectures on Galatians.] Mueller, Introduction, p. 7.

Luther clearly meant justification by faith, but Mueller dishonestly used this quotation to lay the foundation for UOJ, which is clearly advocated in his little book. The title is omitted in the citation and the volume is omitted in the list - For Further Reading, p. 127.

Mueller not only identified with that quotation, to convert it into UOJ, but added that others also "taught that the church stands or falls on justification." Mueller, p. 7. Mueller will not write justification by faith until he can categorize it as subjective justification, as opposed to his Helen of Troy, objective justification.

The introduction ends by defining justification as God's "declaration of righteousness for us," but his UOJ is really an imaginary declaration of righteousness for the whole world of unbelievers.

The UOJ advocates like to use judicial or court language, so they dwell on "not guilty" but misuse the terminology to fit their agenda. In this light, Mueller ends the first chapter with Book of Concord citation:

7. We believe, teach, and confess that according to the usage of Holy Scripture the word justify means in this article, to absolve, that is, to declare free from sins. [Formula of Concord, Epitome, III. 7. This article is called The Righteousness of Faith, but Mueller omitted that factoid, because the UOJ agenda is the righteousness of no faith.] Mueller, p. 13.

In the same summary, but not quoted -

4 Accordingly, we believe, teach, and confess that our righteousness before God is (this very thing], that God forgives us our sins out of pure grace, without any work, merit, or worthiness of ours preceding, present, or following, that He presents and imputes to us the righteousness of Christ's obedience, on account of which righteousness we are received into grace by God, and regarded as righteous.


5] We believe, teach, and confess that faith alone is the means and instrument whereby we lay hold of Christ, and thus in Christ of that righteousness which avails before God, for whose sake this faith is imputed to us for righteousness, Rom. 4:5. Epitome III, 4-5. The Righteousness of Faith.



Easter Absolution

Mueller -

"Yet we may think of Easter morning as the time in history when God made his formal declaration of righteousness for sinners." (p. 14)

The declaration of righteousness for sinners is their way of avoiding justification by unfaith. The first is ambiguous in their double-dealing hands. The second is all too clear, but far more precise.

Luther and Mueller agree, we are supposed to think:

Luther insisted, The doctrine of justification must, as I frequently urge, be diligently learned; for in it all the other articles of our faith are comprehended. And when that is safe, the others are safe too." What Luther Says, p. 703. Mueller, p. 20.

The book is turning into What Mueller Says Luther Says.

From Mt. Sinai comes the edict -
Gausewitz and others did not teach justification by faith.
That is why they buried Gausewitz in favor of the Kuske UOJ catechism.

Objective Justification

Mueller -

Lutheran teachers often call God's declaration of righteousness for all people objective justification. This means that God's Easter declaration of righteousness is an accomplished fact for all people, apart from the thinking or faith of people. (p. 50)
Mueller recited this UOJ gem--rather, lump of coal--which may have originated in Sig Becker or Edward Preuss. They never tire of repeating it:

Those who deny that God declared all the world justified in Christ have a corrupted gospel to share with the world. If my forgiveness is not a fact unless and until I believe it, the gospel is conditional and thus not a simple proclamation of good news. My forgiveness then depends on something I do: my sorrow, my repentance, my faith. I make forgiveness happen by my believing. God's mercy to me depends on something other than Christ's obedience. (p. 52)
And later -

There is only one justification, the one God declared by grace, for Christ's sake, on Easter morning. (p. 57)

This introduces a hopeless set of contradictions. The Old Testament figures, like Abraham, were justified by faith, and there is no universal absolution on Easter morning. They claim this absolution of all unbelievers, forgetting they have everyone absolved on Good Friday as well.

Luther was consistent. He taught the Biblical doctrine of the efficacy of the Word, grace coming to people only through the Means of Grace. Stated another way, the Holy Spirit only works through the Word and never apart from the Word. To claim that God's grace and forgiveness have come to the entire world of unbelievers is Enthusiasm, which was denounced by Luther and included as a section in the often overlooked Smalcald Articles.

Easter absolution comes from Pietism, as an homage to Calvinism. Knapp taught it at Halle University, just as Rambach did, but Chemnitz did not. Bishop Martin Stephan, STD, learned Easter absolution without faith at Halle and taught it to Walther.

As WELS likes to say, false doctrine begins with false exegesis. WELS and the ELS favor Rambach the Halle Pietist against Chemnitz the senior editor of the Book of Concord.

The false explanation of 1 Timothy 3:16 comes from perverting the language of the verse:

KJV 1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was 

• manifest in the flesh, 
• justified in the Spirit, 
• seen of angels, 
• preached unto the Gentiles, 
• believed on in the world, 
• received up into glory.

The UOJ Enthusiasts take this passage to mean that everyone - every single atheist, polytheist, and cannibal was absolved of all sin, before birth, because the justification of Christ means the absolution of the world.

Pietism abandoned the Means of Grace in favor of cell groups. And what has WELS, the ELS, and Missouri taught as the salvation of their crumbling institutions? - UOJ and the cell group.

Wayne Mueller is a propagandist for UOJ and the Church Shrinkage Movement. He accomplished much in the trashing of Lutheran doctrine.

Mueller closed his book with a citation from the Zinzendorf hymn, translated by a Methodist leader, which was like repeating, "Our righteousness is the righteousness of Pietism."

"Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness"

by Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 1700-1760

Translated by John Wesley, 1703-1791

1. Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.

2. Bold shall I stand in that great Day,

For who aught to my charge shall lay?

Fully through these absolved I am

From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

3. The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,

Who from the Father's bosom came,

Who died for me, e'en me t'atone,

Now for my Lord and God I own.

4. Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,

Which at the mercy-seat of God

Forever doth for sinners plead,

For me--e'en for my soul--was shed.

5. Lord, I believe were sinners more

Than sands upon the ocean shore,

Thou hast for all a ransom paid,

For all a full atonement made.

6. When from the dust of death I rise

To claim my mansion in the skies,

E'en then, this shall be all my plea:

Jesus hath lived and died for me.

7. Jesus, be endless praise to Thee,

Whose boundless mercy hath for me,

For me, and all Thy hands have made,

An everlasting ransom paid.

Hymn #371 

The Lutheran Hymnal

Text: 1 John 1:7

Author: Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 1739, cento

Translated by: John Wesley, 1740

Titled: "Christi Blut und Gerechtigkeit"

Composer: George J. Elvey, 1862

Tune: "St. Crispin"

Misleading! is how the Mequon professors
mark such quotations.

Mueller's - For Further Reading

Augsburg Confession, IV. Misleading! - as the divines at Mequon stamp on orthodox quotations. What possessed Mueller to quote something that destroys his thesis? He teaches that the Book of Concord welcomes change in doctrine, so forget that question.

Sig Becker - Universal Justification - in Our Great Sacrilege - edited by another UOJ idiot, Lyle Lange.

Leroy Doberstein - UOJ in Light of Kokomo. 

Francis Pieper - Christian Dogmatics - the verbose homage to CFW Walther, who chose him to carry on the dogma of UOJ.

Missing - Luther's Lectures on Galatians! The Book of Concord commended these lectures for further study of the doctrine of justification by faith - twice.  But Muelller only lists material from his own little circle, plus one citation from the Book of Concord.

In fact, nothing by Luther is on the list. I can assert without fear of contradiction that the present Synodical Conference loathes Luther's doctrine, the little they know of it.

Another Church and Change Seminar - How They Have Multiplied Under Mark Schroeder!. Don't Fail To Miss It

Registration for the annual fall symposium at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS), Mequon, Wis., is now open. The symposium will be held Sept. 16-17 at the seminary, with portions of the activities also being streamed live.

This year's symposium, open to active and retired WELS and Evangelical Lutheran Synod pastors, will focus on “The Pastor and his Seminary Training.” Three parish pastors will present on “The Pastor as Exegete,” “The Pastor as Dogmatician,” and “The Pastor as Church Historian.”

“The topic fits perfectly into this year’s 150th anniversary celebration for the seminary,” says Rev. John Hartwig, WLS professor and chairman of the anniversary publicity committee. “The speakers will focus on three areas that have been part of the school’s curriculum since its founding and talk about how their training in these fields has impacted their ministries.”

Afterward, professors from Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., and the seminary will react to each essay and share how these disciplines guide the curricula of the schools today.

A special anniversary banquet—which will include the first-time viewing of a video promoting the seminary’s mission—is also being planned in conjunction with the symposium.

This is one of several events being planned to celebrate the seminary’s 150th anniversary in 2013–14. The main anniversary service will be held at 3 and 7 p.m., Nov. 17, 2013, with WELS president Rev. Mark Schroeder serving as the preacher and choirs from the four ministerial education schools providing the music. The 3 p.m. service will be streamed live. Print and online publications will also highlight the school’s past, present, and future ministry.

For more information about and to register for the symposium, go to www.wls.wels.net. There you can also learn more about the 150th anniversary.

Watch the WELS Convention Live, Starting July 29th

Approximately 400 delegates will gather July 29 through Aug. 1 at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., for the synod's 62nd biennial convention. During the convention, called workers and lay members will hear presentations, discuss issues, and make decisions related to the synod's work.

Rev. Mark Schroeder, WELS president, says that the major items of business facing the convention include Bible translation, adoption of the ministry financial plan, and review of the WELS long-range plan.  The convention will also consider a report from a special task force on Lutheran schools, as well as a memorial from the Conference of Presidents calling for a special offering in 2015 to retire the synod’s capital debt.

Here is a short overview of some of the items upon which convention delegates will focus.

Bible translation
The NIV 1984, the official Bible translation currently used in WELS publications, is being phased out and replaced with a new version, which is often referred to as NIV 2011. WELS’ Translation Evaluation Committee was created to research the NIV 2011 and has also researched many other versions, including the English Standard Version (ESV) and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB).

In the report it prepared for the convention, the Translation Evaluation Committee outlines two options that it sees for deciding which Bible translation to use in WELS publications going forward. Option 1: WELS adopts NIV 2011 for use in materials produced by Northwestern Publishing House.
Option 2: WELS does not adopt a single Bible version for use in its publications at this time. NPH uses whichever version of these three (ESV, HCSB, NIV 2011) seems best for the passage cited and the publication in which the biblical text will appear (“eclectic approach”).


The 2011 convention also resolved that, as a possible alternative, the synod should consider producing a new translation by Lutherans. The Translation Feasibility Committee was created to research the legal, technical, and economic feasibility of WELS creating a confessional Lutheran translation of the Bible and/or producing a study Bible with notes to accompany the translation that WELS chooses to use in its publications.


The report that the committee submitted for the 2013 convention concludes, “Perhaps the question should not be, ‘Can we do it?’ but, ‘Must we do it?’ If the people of our synod believe that there is no existing translation of the Bible that can serve our preaching, teaching, and publishing needs, then we’d trust that the Lord would help us find the resources and overcome the obstacles to carry out what is sure to be a very challenging project. But if an existing translation or translations can serve our needs, it would save the time and expense, not to mention the potential disruption to our ministerial education system, to use an existing translation.”

Since the publication of the Translation Feasibility Committee’s report this spring, Concordia Publishing House, the publication arm of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, has expressed interest in the production of a Lutheran translation of the Bible. More details on this possibility will be explored if a decision is made to produce a new translation.

To read either translation committees’ entire report and other articles, resources, and reports about Bible translations, visit www.wels.net/translation.

Ministry financial plan
The proposed ministry financial plan—the budget—for 2013–15 maintains ministry while providing for careful growth. However, the plan relies on areas of ministry and schools using reserves or other one-time funds to sustain ongoing ministries, underlining the importance of increased financial support through Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) and individual gifts and bequests.

In addition, as Mr. Todd Poppe, WELS’ chief financial officer, explains, “The proposed ministry plan was developed based on the assumption that Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) would increase 4.0 percent in both 2014 and 2015. . . . This is a significant funding increase from congregations.

Schroeder reminds us, though, that in 2012, CMO grew by 3.5 percent. “This was a beautiful example of the gospel at work in the hearts of God’s people,” says Schroeder. “Increases of 4 percent annually are certainly achievable, especially if congregations and members are aware of the many opportunities that God is placing before us.”

Comprehensive reports on the synod’s operating fund, special funds, school funds, and the WELS Financial Stabilization Fund can be found at connect.wels.net/financial-services under “Financial Reports.”

Long-range plan
The “In Christ Alone” long-range plan was presented and approved at the 2011 synod convention. The plan is designed to be a broad outline of the direction of the synod and a description of where the synod, under God, hopes to be by 2017. Schroeder refers to the plan as a “broad road map” that is to guide those entrusted with carrying out the plan as they develop and implement specific strategies to reach the adopted goals.

The plan calls for aggressive, but careful, expansion in all areas of the synod’s work. It sets goals for increased efforts in Home and World Missions. It calls for continued recruitment and training of called workers. It addresses the need for strengthening congregations and creating a culture of lifelong learning among called workers.

Schroeder says, “The plan recognizes that there are more opportunities for kingdom expansion than we would begin to meet but raises the sights of our members to seize as many opportunities as our resources enable us.”

Schroeder adds, “The name of the plan—‘In Christ Alone’—was chosen as the theme of the 2013 convention in order to focus the synod’s attention on the plan, and, more importantly, on the one who alone can bless and prosper the work that we do in his name.”

To read the entire long-range plan, summaries from all the areas of ministry, and the memorials being considered by convention delegates, read the 2013 Book of Reports and Memorials atwww.wels.net/2013convention.

Convention access
Turn to www.wels.net for all your synod convention news. The opening worship service in MLC’s Chapel of the Christ, all plenary meetings and open forums, as well as the concluding worship service will be streamed live at wels.net. Other communication vehicles include:

Video news updates: Daily updates will inform WELS members about the important work and decisions being made at the convention and will feature interviews with key synod leaders and delegates.

Blogs: Delegates will share their perspectives on the convention.

Social media: WELS Facebook and Twitter pages will be active each day.

News articles: As decisions are made, articles will be posted to wels.net. Each evening, an issue of “Together,” WELS’ e-newsletter, will be delivered to subscribers as a wrap-up of the day’s events and a look ahead to the next day.

Mr. Lee Hitter, WELS director of Communication Services, says, “The WELS Web site, www.wels.net, is your ‘all access pass’ to the convention. Whether you plan to watch it live as it happens or be informed on your schedule, the Communication Services team will provide complete coverage.”

Church of England Splits Hairs. VirtueOnline - News

Three fish swimming in a circle - the Trinity?
I thought it was a United Nations symbol at first -
he has the whole world on his head -
but no, three fish.

VirtueOnline - News:

Archbishop Welby Throws Celibate Gays under the Bus

News analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org 
July 10, 2013

In order not to appear a hate-filled bigot and homophobe, Archbishop Justin Welby began his illustrious career by saying he stood by civil partnerships, but opposed gay marriage, a distinction with little difference bearing in mind the Church of England's Gaystapo who have taken a leaf out of The U.S. Episcopal Church playbook for total inclusion.

By acknowledging civil partnerships, Archbishop Justin Welby (and York Archbishop John Sentamu) have betrayed thousands of celibate gays and lesbians who believe that scripture is absolutely opposed to such behavior and, by indulging in it, risk their eternal salvation (I Cor. 6:9-11).

Church of England homosexuals see the debate as the thin end of the wedge or foot in the door to full inclusion, in time, of both gay marriage and the full acceptance of gays and lesbians ordained to all orders of ministry.

It is a done deal. Only time stands in their way.

Witness what the married openly gay priest, the Rev. Colin Coward of Changing Attitude, had to say. He accused the ABC of living in an Alice in Wonderland world. He said Welby's remarks that a bill before parliament would create "different and unequal" forms of marriage that would undermine family life and that its "awkward shape" would undermine marriage as the basis for rearing children. He also said that "The concept of marriage as a normative place for procreation is lost. The idea of marriage as covenant is diminished. The family in its normal sense predating the state and as our base community of society is weakened."

Not true, said Coward, an advocate for full inclusion. He said it was sad that Canterbury was repeating the fearful anxieties about which evidence from countries with equal marriage demonstrate the contrary. He said the bill could set back recent progress on gay rights by inflaming public opinion and warned that the bill lacks support in the population as a whole, and is likely to antagonize, or even inflame, public opinion.

Coward went on to rant about "God's evolutionary outpouring of energy and new life in creation, new life for LGB&T people and for women, for the poor and outcast and marginalized as well as for the rich and powerful." This is all theological rubbish of course, but the ABC has failed to deal with these issues head on.

So where is the win for the ABC?

The truth is by endorsing civil partnerships, he has thrown thousands of faithful celibate gay Anglicans under the bus. What he has said them, in so many words, is that it is okay to have anal sex in a committed relationship because I say so and God must agree with me because I am the ABC. Really. The last archbishop who tried that found out the hard way from Global South leaders and left office nine years early, deeply frustrated that he could not persuade the Okoh's, Wabukala's, Nzimbi's et al of the Church that he had it right. The African archbishops lost all respect for him and ignored his primatial gatherings. Williams resigned. History, it would seem, is repeating itself.

Witness now the words of a Church of England vicar who wrote a stinging rebuttal to Welby headlined: DISAPPOINTMENT.

The Rev. Graham Cotter, vicar of St. Andrew's, Buckland Monachorum, said Welby's speech to General Synod in York caused distress as it continued to erode and compromise a Christian understanding of marriage. 

He said we should expect to feel uncomfortable as we engage with the world and espouse and promote Christian understandings. "Are we not called to take up the cross and to even be prepared for martyrdom in our following of the Master?" Strong words indeed.

Cotter had written to Welby on behalf of consecrated Christian believers who may have same-sex attraction, but who are committed to refusing temptation in this arena. "How are you pastorally helping them in this debate, other than to capitulate to sin?"

Indeed. The truth is Welby can't. He has caved into a shrill minority (less than 2% of the population) out of fear of being called names, which we all know are lies from the pit.

Cotter ripped Welby. "Is this not how we received the Gospel ourselves, on the shoulders of the martyrs? How did speeches in the House of Lords come near the bone? Why should we be shaken by hostility?

"Is this a time to so quickly throw in the towel? Jesus told us to anticipate just such a reaction, but that he would equip and resource us to remain faithful to him, graciously, and truthfully explaining the beautiful purity of the teachings of the Lord Jesus. 

"Because you have now commended civil partnerships, you will find yourself under tremendous pressure to sanction these within the church, even though they are unrighteous relationships, and outside of the holy will of God."

He accused the ABC of failing pastorally to help them and letting them capitulate to sin.

He opined that there has been a sexual revolution, which began in the sixties, and is now reaping a bitter fruit. "If you had been debating the wrongness of sexual relationships outside of marriage in the Lords you would have been ridiculed and pilloried. But you would have been right. Why has this debate shaken you, when you have so many courageous and godly allies, who are prepared to stand with you?"

Bishops are called to be prophetic spokesmen not only in the House of Lords, but in churches and in every public venue, speaking the word of God into the very heart of the nation. He might have drawn on the Ugandan martyrs who refused the homosexual advances of a king and died for their faith. Why didn't Welby call up the sound writings of Dr. Robert Gagnon whose book, The Bible and Homosexuality, has never been soundly or even unsoundly refuted?

Welby's less than robust commitment to the word of God in support of clergy who have not and will not bow the knee to the pansexual goddess of our times will be his undoing. In fact, he may prove to be more dangerous than Williams.

With Williams and his book The Body's Grace, we knew where he stood. He recently jumped in on the possible break-up of the Church of Scotland urging them not to split over gay priests. He should mind his own business. Welby is an ALPHA-driven evangelical who knows better or should. Why won't he be clear about homosexual BEHAVIOR and declare it ungodly, unbiblical and could get you kept out of the Kingdom? Is the salvation God promises to those who repent and are faithful (or try to be) to be compromised for a Colin Coward, Gene Robinson, Mary Glasspool or a Louie Crew...for Christ's sake.

Most recently Kenya Archbishop Eliud Wabukala weighed in on the situation in the Church of England blasting that institution saying the historic mother church of the Communion seems to be advancing along the same path. "While defending marriage, both the Archbishops of York and Canterbury appeared at the same time to approve of same-sex Civil Partnerships during parliamentary debates on the UK's 'gay marriage' legislation, in contradiction to the historic biblical teaching on human sexuality reaffirmed by the 1998 Lambeth Conference."

Is Welby listening to his Global South brothers and sisters who make up the vast bulk of the Anglican Communion? Do his PR and media boys and girls alert him to the quicksand he is walking into with his views? Will he appear at GAFCON II if invited to Nairobi and will he sign the Jerusalem Declaration in order to appear? Inquiring minds want to know.

One astute North American Anglican clergyman with roots in the Church of England commented, "If Welby had been perceived as a threat to the liberal establishment he would never have been nominated. I think it is all a ploy to placate a very superficial evangelical constituency that simply reacts to slogans. We all entertained hope at his appointment, especially with his Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) credentials but that institution does not represent the soundest version of evangelicalism. Welby brings a smear of evangelicalism that will soon fade. It is not rooted in the Reformation but skims the surface of a rather aimless pietism. I think the intellectuals in the CofE see this and rejoice in it. I think we shall soon see buoys in the ocean marking where the TEC and the C of E both sank. The rest of us are manning lifeboats."

The question now becomes, where is Welby leading the Church of England? If he defies the clear teaching of Scripture on human sexual behavior, if he dilutes and muddies the waters of God's word within this debate, and sounds a very uncertain note, the Holy Spirit will not honor his ministry. Furthermore, the Global South will distance itself from him, to his loss.

If England wants a Christian awakening, it must accept the possibility of the persecution that will follow in its wake, just like the B & B couple that refused a bed to two sodomites, or the Christian baker who refused to make a wedding cake for two queers. This is just the beginning. "Anyone," said the apostle Paul, "who would live a godly life in Christ Jesus will face persecution."

END

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LCMS Should Begin with Their Leadership Problem, Their Doctrinal Problems

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "LCMS Seminary Cost Scandal: Fabulous Costs To Supp...":

2. Issues Facing Confessional Lutheranism Today – 7/12/13

Pr. Matt Harrison, President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Includes mention of the task force to study the SMP program at seminary, and how they want to deal with the CRM problem:

http://issuesetc.org/2013/07/12/2-issues-facing-confessional-lutheranism-today-pr-matt-harrison-71213/

Darwin Schauer, as a convicted sex offender,
became an SMP fake pastor,
and repeated in his new "call."
SP Harrison hushed it up.
WELS just calls them "consultants."
Consultants become consultants
by calling themselves consultants.

Kate Middleton's royal baby will be HRH Prince or Princess of Cambridge | Mail Online

Kate Middleton's royal baby will be HRH Prince or Princess of Cambridge | Mail Online:

Kate and William's baby will be HRH Prince or Princess of Cambridge, royal officials reveal

• Royal baby will hold title HRHPrince or Princess [first name] of Cambridge
• William and Kate are currently Duke and Duchess of Cambridge 
• Mayor of Cambridge says it will be a 'great honour' for the historic city
• Due date of couple's first child thought to be Saturday, 13 July
• Duchess will give birth in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, west London
• All of the couple's children will carry the same title

By KATY WINTER

PUBLISHED: 05:56 EST, 8 July 2013 | UPDATED: 05:23 EST, 10 July 2013

 
 
 

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The Royal baby will have the title His Royal Highness Prince [first name] of Cambridge, or Her Royal Highness Princess [first name] of Cambridge. 

The official title of William and Kate's first child, thought to be due on Saturday, 13 July, will be His or Her Royal Highness Prince or Princess [first name] of Cambridge, following the Dukedom gifted to William and his wife by the Queen as a wedding present in 2011.

The baby will be born at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, where William was born in 1982.

The Royal couple's first child is due on Saturday, and will hold the title of Prince or Princess of Cambridge

The Mayor of Cambridge said it was a 'great honour' for the historic city (pictured: King's College Chapel in Cambridge)

The Mayor of Cambridge, Councillor Paul Saunders, said it was a 'great honour' for the historic city.

'It is a great honour and I'm sure the people of Cambridge will appreciate it greatly,' he said.

'I think it's lovely to continue the close link with the Royal family. I think anything which helps to keep Cambridge in the public eye is a good thing as we rely on tourism.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2358173/Kate-Middletons-royal-baby-HRH-Prince-Princess-Cambridge.html#ixzz2Z9XwDxFW
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Who Dunnit? Doug Engelbrecht's Man Will Return To the Scene of the Crime

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WELS stole St. John in Milwaukee - the property and the endowment fund. Why not bring Ski back as a "consultant"? That was the ruse used in Glende's home congregation in Columbus, to promote a man kicked out of the ministry, for cause, as a pseudo-pastor without a call.

WELS and the Mafia

Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Mark 8:1-9. Feeding of the Four Thousand

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/04/norma-boecklers-new-book-treasury-of.html

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity, 2013

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

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

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time

The Hymn #9            O Day of Rest                        1:89  

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       

The Gospel              

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22

The Sermon Hymn #237            All Glory Be                     1:12 

This Miracle Teaches Faith

The Communion Hymn #308                            1.63

The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 261     Lord Keep Us Steadfast                   1:93 

KJV Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

KJV Mark 8:1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. 4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. 8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Lord God, heavenly Father, who in the wilderness didst by Thy Son abundantly feed four thousand men besides women and children with seven loaves and a few small fishes: We beseech Thee, graciously abide among us with Thy blessing, and keep us from covetousness and the cares of this life, that we may seek first Thy kingdom and Thy righteousness, and in all things needful for body and soul, experience Thine ever-present help; through Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

Luther’s Sermons on this text:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-mark-81-9-seventh_20.html

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-mark-81-9-seventh.html

"You must have the faith of a child to enter the Kingdom."
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/04/norma-boecklers-new-book-treasury-of.html

This Miracle Teaches Faith

There are two miraculous feedings in the Gospel narratives. This one is the Feeding of the Four Thousand. We all tend to blend the two together, and the rationalists think some mistake was made.

Luther emphasized the importance of faith in his second sermon on this text. The two enemies of the Gospel are poverty and wealth. With poverty, people avoid the Office of Preaching because the preachers are treated so badly. With wealth, people flock to the ministry for its material advantages and security. In the famous novel, The Red and the Black, the ministerial students in France spend all their time in school talking about how well they will eat when they become priests. That seems to be their only motivation.

The miracle teaches us an important lesson for those who would be faithful to the Word of God.

KJV Mark 8:1 In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.

The first part of this miracle reveals the compassion of Christ. His large crowds had followed Him for three days in the hot desert. They were now out of the food they brought along. He knew that they could not return all the way home unless they had something to eat. Before anyone asked, God was already taking care of their bodily needs.

4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

This was like driving along Rt 66 in Arizona. The vistas were beautiful, but there seemed to be no civilization nearby. No gas stations. No small towns. In Arkansas we found an exit like those obscure ones in Arizona. We drove five miles into town and found the only gas station to be closed. It was a large truck stop, whose signs from a distance promised everything.

The problem is doubly great because the disciples asked pointedly that where could anyone obtain enough bread for this great multitude in the desert. The disciples were being rationalists. Everything they said was correct, based on their own experience and human reason.

That is the dominant view in the churches today. “If I copy exactly what this large church is doing, down to the so-called sermons, I will have a church that big. And then I too will have esteem and honors and a board seat for my denomination’s college.”

Everyone is copying everyone else, so the coffee bar in the Pentecostal church looks just like the ones at the “conservative” Lutheran churches, the Babtist churches, and the mainline churches. Everyone grins, as if to say, “I know what it takes to be a cool church.” It is a rationalistic, materialistic approach to spiritual affairs, so it cannot go well in the long run.

5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.

Jesus simply commanded that everyone sit down on the ground (an oasis) and divided the loaves, after blessing them. He also blessed a few small fish and divided them. This is not a small matter, that Jesus blessed the food. What we have is from God, and we owe Him thanks for His compassion on us.

Soon the enormous crowd would find something happening, as the disciples did. What began as barely enough for the Twelve became more than enough for the entire crowd.

When people are famished, any small amount of food is energizing. Walking in the desert meant they used up their food, their reserves of strength, and how had only water at that oasis. Drinking water on an empty stomach increases the awareness of the hunger.

8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

They ate until they could eat no more. And yet, the leftovers were greater than what they started with. Jesus dismissed them, with four thousand families knowing that Jesus spoke with authority and defied human reason with His divine power.

Like the water turned into wine, this miracle defied any explanation. It took place where large amounts of food could not be found.

I was even admonished at a fast food place for ordering 30 burgers once, because they had no warning about the order. They were all stressed from doing what they were set up to do, and no one asked them to deliver their sandwiches.

Imagine what an order for 12,000 would have done for them, especially if I had offered to pay them a couple of dollars for the order.

So one of the points of this story is miraculous abundance. We often discuss it in terms of grace offered through the Means of Grace, but it is also true of material blessings.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/04/norma-boecklers-new-book-treasury-of.html

Faith Reveals the Obvious

One lesson from gardening is the abundance God provides for us. We do not have good soil here in Arkansas, since we are not part of the grassland prairie making up the breadbasket of America, like Illinois – where topsoil is often measured in feet rather than inches. Nevertheless, my neighbor planted his garden this spring and now he has a plot full of vegetables. Truly, out of rock and soil God has provided an abundance of food.

The energy of the sun, the nitrogen in the rain, and the minerals in the soil conspire to grow plants that have the calories and vitamins we need, even the trace elements.

This abundance is far more complicated that city-folk imagine. Most of the action takes place in the soil, where plants and animals rot, renewing the soil through the work of soil creatures – sowbugs, pill bugs, ants, centipedes, millipedes, and earthworms. Bees and wind pollinate. Birds and preying mantises remove pests.

A man may work his garden a few hours a week while all the God-designed creatures work seven days with no Sabbath rest.

All we have to do is recognize God’s Creation plan and take advantage of His expert management. I have made only two modest changes so far, with plans for gardening next year. One was storing up leaves and plant material in a compost bin in the back of the year. This material will rot down into the best soil improvement possible, and with almost no work.

“Best of all, the creatures come crawling to me.”

Once I have fenced up the autumn leaves, grass, and dead plants in one area, the rain keeps the mass wet and the soil creatures begin working up from the bottom. Mold and bacterial break down the plant material and rain keeps it moist.

Decomposition is the renewal of the soil, so God’s Creation makes us healthy with plants growing on healthy soil.

It is great to see vast crops growing on hundreds of acres as we drive along the highways, but I often think of the teeming masses of life beneath the soil, the lowly creatures that make those crops possible. Prairie grass has such deep roots that the growth the grass and the rotting of the plants manufactured a top soil matched only by the Ukraine. When people came to my hometown area and jumped off their wagons, the soil waved like a giant pudding, because the soil was so rich in this compost. And John Deere had to manufacture a plow that would cut through the sticky soil and not gum up every few feet.

Rich soil launched a major manufacturing fortune in my hometown, and that provided a livelihood for thousands over the years. I went to John Deere Junior High, drove on John Deere Road, and saw the John Deere factories from my father’s bakery. I knew lots of families supported by John Deere, including many of my classmates, who sought jobs there. The Deere employees bought doughnuts on their way to work, so the soil provided for us, too, indirectly.

Christianity has unlocked the wealth of the world by training people to be grateful for God’s blessings and using them wisely. The Reformation did that again by taking the Medieval oppression of the pope-king away from him, opening up the New World when Protestants left for America to escape Roman Catholic persecution.

Ottoman armies allowed the Lutheran church to become established, and those Muslim armies also opened up the New World by closing down trade routes when they captured Constantinople.

Unbelievers see all this as a coincidence while believers realize these things, great and small, as part of God’s compassionate plan.

Micro-View of Faith

This miracle should always be in our minds when we consider how God work. At one moment we are in the desert with nothing to eat. No one can explain how Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish. Children answer this in faith, “Because He is God. God can do anything.”

This is an allegory of all our practical problems. For example, we just learned a medicine came on the market just a few months ago. It works well on one particular problem, unlike anything else before. How can this nagging problem be cured? There seemed to be no answer until one appeared miraculously.

That does not mean everything runs smoothly for the believer. There are special problems in being faithful to the Word when everyone else seems to be on a different wavelength. The Gospel always excites a special hatred, especially among those who used to believe (apostates) and those who know better and still reject it (reprobates).

Human reason and experience say, “I will join the other side, to find comfort and rest.” That does work very well. I know many who are better off materially from abandoning what they first believed. The market for theologians who believe nothing is lucrative, rewarding, and larded with high salaries – world religion at a state university or even a community college; Biblical studies at Harvard; Church Growth at the conservative Lutheran seminaries.

Having faith in God means trusting in those loaves and fish, knowing from the miracle that He will provide. One dentist had me in her chair and bragged about her huge church – a big attraction for professionals. She gloated about the greatness of this congregation while I was pinned down by dental instruments and all those drains, bibs, chains, and squirters. I thought, “Wrong measure. Your Jesus is born in a marble palace, which is ideal for the upper middle class…only.”

Thrust Among Aliens

It is pleasant to be among people who have the same background, but that is often denied us. That is also God’s plan, so the wealth of His grace is distributed among more people.

Some Evangelicals appreciate the spiritual wisdom of the Word, and others see it only as a business matter. The reward of persistence is to see the imperishable seed of the Word take root, grow, and produce even more by fruiting.

We were exposed to contemporary worship from the 1960s on, in seminary too. We saw the “clever” clown worship sessions, clergy in work clothes, and all the trappings of modern culture. I left a church body where the liturgy, creeds, and good hymns were stripped away (Disciples, home of the Father of Church Growth, McGavran), so seeing it done to Lutheran worship did not appeal to me.

After decades of being derided as a legalist, Fundamentalist, etc, the college students agree with me. They say, “Contemporary Worship is for Boomers. The youth hate it.”

How can this be? They were raised by Boomers like me, the ones who pressed for CoWo and pushed the liturgy away. It happens because the Word always has an effect, and people appreciate what is being taken away from them.

Time after time, people have clung to their Bibles and their old hymnals when the apostate church was abandoning the Gospel.

Faithful Persistence in the Family

The best thing we can do is teach our children the value of faithful persistence in life. When everyone is going astray, it seems, the minority can trust in God’s Promises and rely on that working out, as bizarre as it may seem at times.

We cannot prevent the sorrows of life, but believers are prepared to see God being glorified in spite of those sorrows and because of those sorrows.

We saw one example at the Cleveland Clinic. The parents had a child with a mysterious neurological disorder. The little girl smiled when she was complimented but she was more or less in the sleep zone most of the time. There was no cure. The mother knew the basic questions asked in a clumsy way by many, “Is it your fault or your child’s?” That seems to relieve the ignorant of their fears.

Above the crib was this verse from John 9, about the man born blind. “Did this man sin or did his parents?” Jesus answered, “This happened so that God’s name would be glorified.” And when I read that, I instantly knew that was being fulfilled. The mother knew she could not change her daughter’s fate, but by quoting John, she glorified God and gave a witness to the Gospel.

KJV John 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Faith means believing in God’s goodness and that God commands what is good for us.

A believer looks at the Ten Commandments as ways to honor God, in the First Table and the Second Table.

An unbeliever scoffs at the Commandments and schemes to get around what they mean.

Seventh Sunday after Trinity

  

"Since God has connected His most gracious promise of forgiveness with Baptism and the Lord's Supper, these also are true and efficacious means of grace, namely, by virtue of the divine promises that are attached to them."

John Theodore Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, A Handbook of Doctrinal Theology, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 444.  

"Both Baptism and the Lord's Supper qualify as Means of Grace because of the simple fact that they are visible forms of the essential Gospel message announcing the forgiveness of sins."

Martin W. Lutz, "God the Holy Spirit Acts Through the Lord's Supper," God The Holy Spirit Acts, ed., Eugene P. Kaulfield, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1972, p. 117. 

"Today's Gospel paints to us the Lord in a way that we may fully know how we should esteem Him, namely, that He is merciful, meek and loving; that He gladly helps everybody and freely associates and deals with all people. And such a picture as this, faith really craves." 

 Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House 1983, IV, p. 203.           

"Therefore the Scriptures present to us a double picture; one is that of fear or the overpowering picture of the severe wrath of God, before which no one can stand; but must despair unless he has faith. In contrast with this the picture of grace is presented to us in order that faith may behold it and obtain for itself an agreeable and comforting refuge in God with the hope that man cannot expect so much from God, that there is not still much more to be had from Him."  

Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House 1983, IV, p. 203.       

"Today's Gospel treats of the temporal and bodily blessings, teaches us the faith of the child, and it is a picture for the weak, in that they should look to God for everything good, and that they might thus later learn to trust God and depend on Him for spiritual blessings. For if we are instructed in the Gospel, how Christ feeds our stomachs, we can then conclude that He will also feed and clothe our souls. For if I cannot trust a person to sustain my body, much less can I trust him to sustain my soul forever."  

Sermons of Martin Luther, IV, p. 204.       

"Therefore Christ asked His disciples that everyone might learn to know by experience what reason is, and acknowledge how reason and faith in no way agree. Here we learn to blindfold reason, when we begin to believe, and then give reason a permanent furlough."  

Sermons of Martin Luther, IV, p. 205.          

"O God, I am Thy creature and Thy handiwork and Thou hast from the beginning created me. I will depend entirely on You who cares more for me, how I shall be sustained, then I do myself; Thou wilt indeed nourish me, feed, clothe and help me, where and when You know best."  

Sermons of Martin Luther,  IV, p. 206.          

"But when one inquires of reason for counsel it soon says: It is not possible. Yes, you must wait a long time until roasted ducks fly into your mouth, for reason sees nothing, grasps nothing, and nothing is present. Just so the apostles do also here who thought: Yes, who will provide food for so many, no one is able to do that; but had they seen a great pile of money and in addition tables laden with bread and meat, they would soon have discovered good counsel and been able to give good consolation; that would have gone to their thinking very reasonably."

Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House 1983, IV, p. 206.      

"Therefore, beloved friends, let us once make a beginning to believe; for unbelief is the cause of all sin and vice, which now have taken the upper hand in all stations of life. How does it come to pass that everywhere there are so many foolish women and rogues, so many rank imposters, thieves, robbers, userers, murderers and sellers of indulgences? It all comes from unbelief."

  Sermons of Martin Luther, IV, p. 208.         

"Just so it is also at present: Where true pastors and preachers are so poorly supoorted that no one donates anything to them, and moreover what they have is snatched out of their mouths by a shameless and unthankful world, by princes, noblemen, townsmen and famers, so that they with their poor wives and children must suffer need, and when they die leave behind them pitiable, rejected widows and orphans. By this very many good-hearted and very clever people are more and more discouraged from becoming pastors and preachers."

             Sermons of Martin Luther,IV, p. 214.       

"How does it happen that although all of us are certainly Christians, or at least want to be such, we do not take this attitude of unconcern and neither comfort ourselves with abundance and surplus nor are frightened by want and by worrying about it? For if we faithfully and devotedly cling to God's Word, there shall be no want. Christ takes care of us, and from this it must follow that we shall have something to eat."

What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. 436. Mark 8:1-9          

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