Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Online Biography of W. A. Passavant


The Life and Letters of W. A. Passavant - Gerberding

From the blog -

January 3: William Passavant, Prophetic Witness, 1894

Welcome to the Holy Women, Holy Men blog! We invite you to read about this commemoration, use the collect and lessons in prayer, whether individually or in corporate worship, then tell us what you think. For more information about this project, click here.
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About this commemoration
William Passavant was a Pennsylvania Lutheran pastor who left an uncommonly rich legacy of service. He was driven by a desire to see the consequences of the Gospel worked out in practical ways in the lives of people in need. For Passavant, the church’s commitment to the Gospel must not be spiritual only. It must be visible. For him, it was essential that Gospel principles were worked out in clear missionary actions.
Passavant was a parish pastor at heart and served in that capacity for much of his ministry even while pursing other duties. Passavant was the founder of numerous hospitals, orphanages, and other charitable organizations, principally in Western Pennsylvania, but the reach of his efforts extended from Boston and New York in the east to Chicago and Milwaukee in the mid-west. Many of these institutions continue to this day.
On a visit to Germany, Passavant came into contact with Theodor Fliedner, the founder of the reconstituted deaconess movement among German Lutherans, and in 1849 he invited Fliedner to come to Pittsburgh and bring four of his deaconesses to serve in the hospital there. A year later, in 1850, the first American Lutheran deaconess was consecrated by Passavant and thus began the renewed deaconess movement among American Lutherans.
Passavant also knew the importance of education and was the founder of a number of church schools scattered across the mid-west, principal among these being Thiel College, a Lutheran-affiliated college in Greenville, Pennsylvania.
In addition to his charitable, philanthropic, and educational work, and his guidance of the early years of the deaconess movement, Passavant was also a cutting-edge communicator of his time. He founded two church newspapers, The Missionary and The Workman, both designed to interpret the church’s mission, in consonance with the Lutheran confessions, for the purpose of provoking the desire of the faithful toward loving service to those in need without concern for race, color, creed, or national origin. Later generations of Lutheran communicators look to Passavant as one of the trailblazers of their vocation.
Passavant died on January 3, 1894.

Loving the Rebel Outpost Graphic

""There's no justification by faith in this district...anymore."


 
I love the 'Rebel Outpost' graphic.  Well done to whoever created that appropriate depiction.  In reality the abuse of those defending Christ's Gospel of Justification solely by faith in Him alone would be even more gruesome but people should see that for themselves.  If they care enough to look.  Christ's continued blessings to you and Chris!
 
In Christ,

Brett

Polluted WELS Blog



http://pollutedwels.blogspot.com/

TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014


Two Impertinent Questions

Question 1: Does this look like a worship service or a rock concert? Be honest.

















Question 2: Since when is Koine writing original songs? I thought they were "kosher" because "they only sing songs right out of the hymnal".






MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2014


Youth Rally Tally, Day 3

First, click here to read the official summary of the third day of the recent WELS International Youth Rally.
Now, let's tally the results. How many times do each of the following words appear?
  • I: 5
  • we: 2
  • Jesus: 0
  • Christ: 1
  • grace: 1 (the name of a congregation)
  • Word: 1
  • Sacraments: 0
No fear? I’m very afraid.

Youth Rally Tally, Day 2

First, click here to read the official summary of the second day of the recent WELS International Youth Rally.
Now, let's tally the results. How many times do each of the following words appear?
  • I: 4
  • us: 2
  • Jesus: 0
  • Christ: 1 (the name of a congregation)
  • grace: 0
  • Word: 1
  • Sacraments: 0
No fear? I’m very afraid.

Youth Rally Tally, Day 1

First, click here to read the official summary of the first day of the recent WELS International Youth Rally.
Now, let's tally the results. How many times do each of the following words appear?
  • we: 5
  • Koine: 3
  • Jesus: 0
  • Christ: 0
  • grace: 0
  • Word: 0
  • Sacraments: 0
No fear? I’m very afraid.

Hysterical Reactions to an Opposing View



I was looking over Facebook posts when I saw a long one on how disgusted some of my classmates were over the Supreme Court decision (Hobby Lobby).

They were not angry with the Supreme Court, but with "stupid" comments posted by people they knew.

I added this link to their thread Liberals Call for Burning Hobby Lobby.

"I am spending the majority of my time on Facebook hiding and deleting posts. I'm seriously thinking of going off for a while, because I have reached my limit of stupid!!"

Another:
" I just read a couple of words and move on. It isn't worth the effort to read some of the "stupid" unintelligent political stuff. It amazes me some of the nicest people are so politically dense, I don't need to raise my blood pressure. I will never be able to change their minds and I sure as heck won't change mine. I would never say some of the things they say about some of our leaders even if I don't like them so I just move on."

I have seen this reaction many times. As I wrote before, one version of it is called "jamming" by the gay activists. They stage a mass attack because something has irritated them. In my case, I quoted the activist who came out a few seconds after graduating from the WELS college called Martin Luther College.

Hobby Lobby Decision
I pointed out to a pro-life friend that the US Constitution does not mandate abortions, health care, or free sex. The Left dwells on their assumption of newly invented rights, which include the right to forcing companies to pay for their version of health care.

What grieves me is the refusal to consider another viewpoint, or even to read another perspective. Isn't that strange, to unfriend and delete posts from people who are pro-life? 

Naturally, this leads to a reaction that no one has a right to express an opinion that varies with the fad du jour of the Left, whatever that might be.

The only way to form a legitimate argument is to understand the opposing viewpoint, frame it as honestly as possible, and refute it with evidence.

I do not know how research can be done any other way.


"We found the rebel outpost,
where they were posting Luther's sermons.
The WELS/LCMS/ELS cults are safe again."


UOJ and Other Inanities
The UOJ Stormtroopers have operated the same way for years, but they are losing their grip - and their sanity.

When someone writes about justification by faith - or worse - the errors of Universal Justification Without Faith, they start jamming. Cult members send in the riot squads to stop the discussion.

The UOJ Stormtroopers never offer a fair description of justification by faith, which is unquestionably the position of Luther, Melanchthon, Chytraeus, Andreae, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Calov, and many others. More importantly, the Biblical position is exclusively justification by faith and never UOJ.

The UOJ Enthusiasts have gone farther than quoting Synodical Conference dimwits (starting with Walther) on their topic. They may start with Franz Pieper, who was forced into office by Walther to repeat CFW's error and canonize them in the Brief Statement.

Walther had to be stupid, because he never realized that he was following a flagrant adulterer with syphilis, a teen virgin chaser who covered his tracks with UOJ.

After all, the official story is that Walther suddenly found out about the adultery, even though Bishop Stephan left his wife and dying children in Dresden, took his mistress on the same ship, living with her in flagrante, and raised plenty of suspicion in St. Louis. That is why the cult bought Mormon land and left town.

Bishop Stephan was another Warren Jeff, and the clergy knew it. Or they did not know it. That is what I mean about UOJ fanatics all being liars. They cannot get their stories straight, even after 150 years of practice.

CFW Walther, being without actual sin,
was assumed into heaven.




Creation's Drive To Be Productive

The Holy Trinity is a mystery revealed by the Holy Spirit.
God's Creation by His Word is revealed the same way,
but we can see Creation at work in our own lawns and gardens - and gutters.

The historic Jackson abode in Moline, Illinois was under the shade of a gigantic maple tree, which provided us endless leaves to rake and millions of helicopter seeds everywhere.

I remember looking up at the gutters and seeing them filled with healthy maple tree seedlings. They were doomed, one way or another, but they looked great.

One maple seedling we did not pull up in the yard was near the elm tree stump. We lost our elms in the Dutch elm holocaust. We routinely ran over the maple tree when mowing, but it kept coming back. Now it is full grown.

I examined our gutters in Springdale. They were filled with blackened goop, a combination of dead maple tree leaves and seeds, dust, and water. Both gutters were plugged with this mini-compost, so rain dripped on our heads instead of using the downspout.

God's Creation constantly renews itself, no matter what we imagine, and this management is far superior to ours.

God plants fish in newly formed ponds, by having fish eggs stick to water-loving birds. The birds air ship the eggs to new pond locations, and aquatic life flourishes.

When I planned ponds in our yard, in various homes, I learned that algae formation was essential. The only thing I needed was sunshine, and the pond water turned greenish. What we hate in the dog's watering tank outside is ideal for pond life. Algae is the foundation, but God grows it instantly.

Some land is so barren than only the worst weeds will grow on it at first. Those weeds either hold down the soil with shallow roots or mine minerals from below with tap roots. Weeds are prolific in all kinds of weather, so they leaves provide a bit of mulch and food for soil creatures. In time a weeded lot can renew itself. In fact, healthy weeds are a sign of productive soil.

Those who try to make the Kingdom of God a question of man's management are out of touch with Creation and the Scriptures. When man robs God of His glory by teaching against faith in Him, God spreads the Gospel in other places.

Some rationalists have engaged in a war against the Bible, only to be defeated by the power of Holy Spirit. If they are fair with the text - instead of just mocking it - they are compelled to see the inner consistency of the Word and its power to convert their flinty hearts.

Simon Greenleaf, as a lawyer, struggled to show all the contradictions in the Easter accounts of the Bible. Instead, the Easter accounts converted him - and he was a national legal expert on evidence.



Martin Luther had a perfect Medieval education. He was an Augustinian monk who memorized the Psalms as part of his spiritual work. He earned a doctorate (at a Catholic school!) in Biblical studies. But it was the Word that troubled him, always contradicting the Medieval doctrines he was compelled to teach and believe.

The power of the Gospel compelled him to reject works and teach justification by faith, in harmony with the Old and New Testaments.

The Protestant Revolt, as the Roman Catholics call it, actually rescued a corrupt and immoral religion from its self-inflicted wounds. The efficacious Word convinced much of Europe that justification by faith was correct, that the papal office was indeed the Antichrist.

2 Thessalonians KJV Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [Apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
When people consciously reject the Word, the Gospel rain moves on. The Third World is embracing the Gospel, even where it is violently persecuted, and looks in disgust at the West for embracing apostasy.
Lutheran ministers are so passive that when the corrupt synods kick them out, they wait around and write posts about their need to be accepted and certified by the same men and women who pushed them out for orthodoxy - or even for the sin of questioning Holy Mother Synod.
So they trust the synod more than the Word, too. They want the salary, the parsonage or housing allowance, the health benefits, something God apparently cannot manage on His own. 
The Gospel will survive, because God's Word is productive.
Some will say, "But it only grew thorns and thistles for me." Jesus promised the cross and warned that those who do not take up the cross daily are not worthy of the Kingdom. Therefore, the cross is God-promised and blessed by God.
Rejection of the cross is a denial of the Gospel, yet various synodical functionaries say, "How dare you question me? The Holy Spirit gave me this office." Their response is vindictive revenge.
But God uses persecution of the Gospel to spread the Gospel. Many get vomited on the shores of a new location. No shame. Gospel enemies did it to Paul Gerhardt and Martin Chemnitz. The Gospel flourished because of this, not in spite of this.