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| Ten little Stormtroopers jumping on my head, One fell off the wagon, and he's pronounced dead. |
various LCMS-ELS-WELS leaders.
Someone started another anonymous blog - doubtless a "confessional" Lutheran blog. He or she is quoting the Large Catechism - anonymously. The anonymous introduction says very little, perhaps forgetting that the leaders of the Reformation did not hide away or duck issues, working only in the dark. These newly anointed martyrs and confessors claim that hiding away is a virtue, and the right way to do things. As one tried to say maladroitly, "Thank God I am not a blogger, like Ichabod."
When Wittenberg was under siege, Luther risked his life to come back and preach a series of sermons, exposing himself to capture and a long, slow torturous burning at the stake. These foxes and weathervanes will not risk an appointment to the summer camp committee, lest they lose some mileage money or a free lunch at some fancy bistro.
During the great Missouri Croquet Match, when everyone pretended to be Martin Luther yet suffered little more than some discomfort, the leaders used their own names and published. Nothing was really settled, except the biggest liars went off to form the AELC, which became the gay quota template of ELCA. The Seminexers, many from WELS, made sure they were over-represented and sent their faculty to the Lutheran School of Theology to bankrupt it. Good riddance to both. They even donated their own gay seminary professor, Deppe (former LCMS) who moved on to the UCC, leaving his wife and children behind. That should sound familiar to Missouri idolators. And WELS' own Richard Jungkuntz moved on up to the ALC, where the activist for the Lavender Mafia pronounced himself "old school."
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| Like the UOJ Stormtroopers, slugs are bisexual. |
As this current debacle unfolds, UOJ has turned into a slug that no longer inches along to leave its slime on everything. As gardeners know, a slug responds to touch by pretending to be dead. The little antennae withdraw. The little gastropod feet disappear. The familiar profile transforms itself into a lifeless blob. The only way to bring the slug back to life quickly is to introduce it to some irritant like salt, which will make the true slug appear again as it dies, silently and hideouslessly.
The UOJ slugs have abandoned Romans 4 faster than Nixon abandoned Agnew. Nostalgics remember how UOJists used to write "raised for our justification - Romans 4:25!" as proof for their heinous dogma. . But that was only part of a verse. When Romans 4:24 was added, in the context of Chapte 4 showing Abraham to have been justified by faith, they curled up and played dead.
They used to mention Calov with reverence, which was handy, since Lutherans read Calov even less than Calov. One might as well quote the Constitution to Congress or the Scriptures to a synod president. As the graphic above shows, Calov eviscerated the UOJ slug in one comment.
But - let us return to the Bible. Another symptom of their Tourette's Syndrome is shouting "Behold the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world" or simply "John 1:29!" There is no connection between their Halle rationalism and this verse, and even less harmony with Luther's description of the Gospel of John.
John teaches mainly the sublime and chief article of our Christian faith: believing in Christ. Because of this article we are called Christians. Besides this, we do not find many sermons on the Ten Commandments in this Gospel. Rather it is his greatest task to establish well the sublime article of the righteousness of faith and to impress it deeply on the people. For there is no danger when this article remains pure and unadulterated and stands firmly. But when it is overthrown, we are lost and are no better than Jews, heathen, Tartars, and Turks, aye, we are as bad as the papists. For this reason, because he so diligently teaches this chief article, the evangelist John deserves to be highly praised.
What Luther Says, ed. Plass, 3 vols, II, p. 702. W 33, 82. E 57, 298. SL 7, 2252.
The UOJ leaders have this advantage - their clergy read Luther and the Confessions as little as they do. But the laity are another matter. The laity do not have the filter of synodical dogma, which fogs every article of faith.
The more we draw out the UOJ slugs, the more vulnerable they are. They live on moist rot in the darkness. They can travel in the light, but that is where they become obvious, like that ugly gastropod inching across the kitchen floor.
In the future there will no attempts to deal with justification by faith directly. Instead, the synodical talking points will be delivered with great pretensions of piety among themselves and large volumes of verbal abuse for those who appear to be threats.
