A Sampler of WELS News

From the dingbats that brought you the mockery of the Trinity:

You can buy their song - sample on this site. Give Thanks to God - wait for the instrumental part. Eek.

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Cross-Dressing at Martin Luther College - 2008.

The guy with the guitar stage left (house right, grey dress) is now Pastor Ben Schmudlach.


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That KJV Will Not Go Away - Literate People Appreciate the English Version of Luther's Bible

Earliest known draft of King James Bible found in Cambridge

The earliest known draft of the King James Bible, regarded as the most widely read work in English, has been unearthed among ancient papers lodged in a Cambridge college.

American scholar Jeffrey Miller announced his year-old discovery in the Times Literary Supplement this week, saying it would help fill in gaps in understanding how the bible, published in 1611, came to be.

Miller found a notebook, dating from 1604 to 1608, in archives at Sidney Sussex College, containing about 70 pages of almost illegible handwriting. They included biblical commentary, with Greek and Hebrew notes.

“There was a kind of thunderstruck, leap-out-of-the-bathtub moment,” Miller, of Montclair State University in New Jersey, told the New York Times. “But then comes the laborious process of making sure you are correct.”

The King James Bible was the work of 47 translators working in teams, or “companies”, working in London, Oxford and Cambridge. They had been charged by King James I to produce an authorised version of the bible that would support the Church of England over Puritan influence in earlier texts.

Related: Rare copy of first Bible printed in English to be auctioned

Its poetic language has won plaudits from secular literary critics, and it has been described as one of the greatest influences in English literature alongside the works of Shakespeare. Common phrases in English, such as “salt of the earth” and “drop in the bucket”, originate from the King James Bible.

But there has been an incomplete understanding by scholars of the composition process. Following Miller’s discovery, a number of gaps “can at last begin to be filled”, he wrote in the TLS.

The notebook belonged to Samuel Ward, one of a team of seven men in Cambridge working on translation. “For centuries, Ward’s paper in the college lay almost entirely neglected and uncatalogued,” wrote Miller. As he examined the notebook, “the manuscript’s true significance suddenly came into focus”.

The true value of Ward’s draft lies in what it “helps to reveal about one of the 17th century’s most extraordinary cultural achievements. It points the way to a fuller, most complex understanding than ever before of the process by which the KJB, the most widely read work in English of all time, came to be.”

Actual Photos from the Creation Garden

Fireworks is tall and abundant in flowers.

John Paul II was devoured by aphids at first, but never since.
I let God's creatures get rid of them -
hover flies, Ichneumon wasps, etc.

This is one of the bargain roses that started the rose garden - $8.

Close-up.
Note - no pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides were used.
No inorganic fertilizers were used.
I did use Jackson mulch, earthworms, pruning, and watering.
 

1. Each little flow’r that opens,
   Each little bird that sings,
   He made their glowing colors,
   He made their tiny wings.

The elevated soaker hose is the Jackson Aqueduct.
Hummingbirds love spray and soaker hoses save water.

Sharon Lovejoy taught me about toad dishes,
so I put clay dishes under them, all around the yard.
They soak in them and eat tons of pests.
Thornless blackberries are growing in mulch where we once had sunshine and weeds.

Waldo Werning Ran His Church Growth Business by Selling His Nonsense to WELS, Missouri, and the ELS. UOJ Influence?

The Mission Counselor dumped a load of Werning CG books
on one of the mission pastors, and probably many more.
But the same Mission Counselor never tried that with me.

WALDO WERNING, CHURCH GROWTH GURU,

MUCH ADMIRED BY DAVID VALLESKEY, WELS

"Introduction to the Church Growth Movement by Lutheran authors, Hunter, Kent R., Foundations for Church Growth (New Haven, MO: Leader Publishing Co., 1983) - the author, an LC-MS clergyman who has now set up his own church growth consulting service, performs the valuable service in this 204 page book of presenting an introduction to church growth goals and terminology. Werning, Waldo, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1977) - Werning, active for years in LC-MS stewardship work, explains the foundations, presuppositions and principles of church growth and then shows how a congregation can benefit from making use of certain church growth principles - of the two books listed in this category, Werning's is the more practical." 
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A p. 6. 

Church Growth at Ft. Wayne

"In an initial burst of enthusiasm reflecting Preus's concern for missions, the Fort Wayne faculty had petitioned the 1977 convention of the Missouri Synod to have each of its subdivisions or districts "make a thorough study of the Church Growth materials." What is more, the districts were to be urged to "organize, equip, and place into action all of the Church Growth principles as needed in the evangelization of our nation and the world under the norms of the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions." By the time of the 1986 synodical convention, however, the same faculty, while appreciating the "valuable lessons of common sense" to be learned from Church Growth, asked that "the Synod warn against the Arminian and charismatic nature of the church-growth movement."

            Kurt E. Marquart, "Robert D. Preus," Handbook of Evangelical Theologians, ed., Walter A. Elwell, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995, pp. 353-65. Reprinted in CN, 6-26-95, p. 21.  

Wagner, Pentecostal Baptist, Likes Werning’s Work

Who’s Who in Church Growth!

"Waldo Werning is director of the Stewardship Growth Center of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and an adjunct professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. He teaches a seminar course and conducts seminars which focus on 'supply side stewardship,' integrating church growth principles with a stewardship program."

            C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 274.         

Like A Mighty Shallow Creek

"A second example of this homogenization is Waldo J. Werning's Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, published by Moody Press in 1977." [Ed. note: The foreword is by C. Peter Wagner. Werning studied at Fuller.] "Werning is a Missouri Synod Lutheran executive. Although Werning's denominational publishing house did not publish his book, it is nevertheless an attempt by Werning to create an instrument for church growth among Missouri Synod Lutherans. If you read Werning, you can readily see that he is exceedingly eclectic, drawing from everywhere, including his own tradition."

            Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 33f.      

OK, I Joined the Group To Get the List of Suckers

Lutheran members of the North American Society for Church Growth: Harold S. Drageger, Grace Lutheran, Visalia, CA; Bradley Hoefs, King of Kings Lutheran, Omaha, NE; Kent Hunter, Church Growth Center, Corunna, IN; Elmer Matthias, Emeritus Concordia St. Louis, MO; Dale Olson, Cross of Hope Lutheran, Ramsey, MN; Waldo J. Werning, Stewardship Growth Center, Ft. Wayne, IN; Gregory L. Jackson, Columbus, OH. Doris M. Wagner, Fuller Theological Seminary, December 10, 1991 

WELS Noticed and Liked

"There are other church growth programs which have been developed along more conservative lines. Here we are thinking of adaptations of McGavran's principles such as developed by Waldo J. Werning of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In his study entitled "Vision and Strategy for Church Growth" Werning has modified some of McGavran's extreme positions. Using some of his own adaptations Werning has conducted many seminars and workshops in applying church growth principles to a local congregational setting in America." [Werning is Who's Who in Church Growth]

            Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, 78, p. 117.      

Valleskey Loves Werning’s Doctrine

"Introduction to the Church Growth Movement by Lutheran authors, Hunter, Kent R., Foundations for Church Growth (New Haven, MO: Leader Publishing Co., 1983) - the author, an LC-MS clergyman who has now set up his own church growth consulting service, performs the valuable service in this 204 page book of presenting an introduction to church growth goals and terminology. Werning, Waldo, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1977) - Werning, active for years in LC-MS stewardship work, explains the foundations, presuppositions and principles of church growth and then shows how a congregation can benefit from making use of certain church growth principles - of the two books listed in this category, Werning's is the more practical."

            Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A p. 6.       

Be Silent, Jackson!

"I would not say this publicly, but I will tell privately that I received a phone call from a WELS pastor who said that some claim that there are several WELS pastors in your Circuit who are into church management and some kind of church growth (and possibly even funded by some agencies) and that some believe that you are trying to get at them and a few others in WELS, and that is why you are writing the articles. Whatever the facts are, your entering into this fray, it seems to me, will not open up channels for God to use your very good talents in WELS in profitable ways."

            Waldo J. Werning, Letter to Gregory Jackson, August 23, 1989 (Letter stamped in red: CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL)        

Werning on Werning

"A basic resource to study is Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, available from the Stewardship Growth Center, 1914 Wendmere Lane, Ft. Wayne, IN, 46825."

            Waldo J. Werning, Renewal for the 21st Century Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1988, p. 160. 

"False ecumenism wants organizational unity instead of Scriptural unity."

            Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 101.  

"Unscriptural fellowship means acceptance of differences in doctrine, which are ignored by conducting joint religious acts and worship."

            Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 102f. 

"Ted Raideke, formerly Key 73 director and now program director for Project Philip, wrote us about the evanglistic mission of the World Home Bible League...." Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 131.

"One of the fastest-growing congregations in the United States has been Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla."

            Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 134. 

"'World Vision International in an international Christian humanitarian service agency committed to meeting human physical and spiritual need in the name of Christ.'" Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 141. "Churches fail to grow when leaders become victims of a fatalistic attitude and defeatism. Also, they fail to grow when they become prisoners of their buildings and lose their mobility, confining their activities within the walls of the sanctuary." [No cell groups?]

            Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 157f.         

"C. Peter Wagner writes that 'the indispensable condition for a growing church is that it must want to grow.'" [C. Peter Wagner, "What Makes Churches Grow?" Eternity (June 1974), 17.]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 158.

"Mission outreach and church growth are thwarted and retarded by too much dependence on paid workers, by too little training and participation of lay people, by too little sensitivity to the authority and strategy of the Holy Spirit, by acceptance of small results long after the large response should have been expected. The church is also hurt when goals are inarticulate, inadequate, immeasurable, or unattainable."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 158.       

"Mission outreach and church growth are thwarted and retarded by too much dependence on paid workers, by too little training and participation of lay people, by too little sensitivity to the authority and strategy of the Holy Spirit, by acceptance of small results long after the large response should have been expected. The church is also hurt when goals are inarticulate, inadequate, immeasurable, or unattainable."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 158.       

"Donald McGavran offered us the following essay on 'The Unique and Radical Nature of the Church Growth Movement.'"

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 159. 

"Your church will grow by God's grace because members will want it to grow in obedience to God's will and because you are using strategy and methodology in making disciples. Then nongrowth will be called nongrowth, and growth will be accepted as a gift from God."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 159.         

"Dr. McGavran offers the following 'Ten Prominent Emphases in the Church Growth School of Thought.'" [Six and one half pages of direct quotes from McGavran follow.]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 160.

"Dr. McGavran offers the following 'Ten Prominent Emphases in the Church Growth School of Thought.'" [Six and one half pages of direct quotes from McGavran follow.]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 160.

"Jack McAlister, founder and president of World Literature Crusade, has also developed a unique and radical Gospel mission. This missionary agency is attempting the impossible in reaching every home on earth with the Gospel and Christian literature."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 166.         

"Steer clear of foolish discussion which lead people into the sin of anger with each other. 2 Timothy 2:14, 16 Living Bible."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 200. 

"Francis Schaeffer, the most prolific Christian writer of our day, affirms that historic Christianity has something important to say to the modern world."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 212.

"Harley Swiggum, the founder and director of the Bethel Bible Series, wrote us: 'I as one member of the body of believers believe so fervently in the need for Biblical study for adults in the Christian family because as we pursue Biblical study we are confronted directly with the Person Jesus Christ and the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, and in that confrontation we are remolded into persons who by nature of our faith have a deeper compassion for all of humankind's needs as well as a power and a faith relationship to be used by God in a historical process to minister to those needs.'" [Ed. note: This is a rehash of liberal European encounter theologians, such as Martin Buber, and Hans Balthasar, a student of Barth the Adulterer. See Concordia's Lutheran Cyclopedia under "Encounter."]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 86.  

"The Bethel Series uses an approach which some congregations have utilized to good advantage. It has some unique and attractive features...It provides a base or springboard from which to pursue a depth study of God's Word, accenting the necessity of seeing the various parts of the Biblical message in their direct relationship to the historical context in which that message was given." [Ed. note - Bethel Bible is a unionistic program which accepts any interpretation of the Bible except inerrancy. Rev. Swiggum opposed inerrancy and promoted evolution.]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 86.     

"This is not a handbook on how to do certain things, not offering us gimmicks, procedures, models, and the like, although there is much of practical material to be found throughout. It is rather a theology of church growth and missions." [foreword by Robert Preus]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 9.          

"The New Testament tells of this koinonia as a togetherness to share, to participate together, with Jesus in the center. This it is that makes it the church and not just another organization." [Ed. note - Koinonia in the New Testament means fellowship with God, chiefly through Sacrament of Holy Communion. Koinonia does not mean cell groups and coffee hours.]

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 92.        

"Cell groups of Christians fellowshiping together date back to the first century, for it was largely through the activities of little groups or cells of believers that the message of Jesus Christ spread throughout the Roman Empire."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 93.

"Koinonia should always be explosive or radical, driving one deeper into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then driving one out into the world to fulfill the mission of the church."

Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 94.

"Waldo Werning has made an outstanding contribution to the church growth movement in America with Vision and Strategy for Church Growth...Working out of the models established by Donald McGavran and the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, Waldo Werning breaks new ground in developing ways that church growth principles can be applied directly to American churches." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner]

Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, Second Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p. 5.       

The Faith of Jesus: Against the Faithless Lutherans. Editing Started. Friends Welcome to Add Their Perspective

The book is at the editor for reading with another set of eyes.

If you are a friend and regular reader, you are welcome to see this rough copy, which is not going to change more than 1% or so, as such things go.

Send an email request and your name to

bethanylutheranworship@gmail.com

If you see things to fix (!) send an email back with the error and the page number of that error...or errors.

Your overall impressions are welcome. I had a thousand pages worth of material, but I wanted to make this clear and basic for people, especially the laity who are far more keen on doctrinal matters, not being covered with a layer of synod worship ickiness, which is the main purpose of seminaries today.

The donors will get free print copies as soon as this is done.

I will make group purchases at my price available, too. Or donate to send bunches somewhere. I find that people distributing them can be quite effective in distributed the Word.

Thanks for the help, encouragement, and opposition. The opponents make it necessary to fight the errors, but they also make the truth of the Scriptures and Confessions more evident, more appealing, and more comforting.

Jay Webber's Online STM School - ELCA and You Name It

Augsburg Lutheran churches brief meeting is lead (sic) by her president, Rev. Lenae Rasmussen , in the Old Sanctuary of the Institute of Lutheran Theology in Brookings 10-13-15.

Jay Webber earned his online STM at ILT -
the National Council of Churches of South Dakota:
here talking to LCMS Church Growth pal Gene Bunkowske.

The president is a "confessional" ELCA theologian,
who taught at two ELCA schools
and has no parish experience.

Institute of Lutheran Theology

CEO

Den-Wil Investments Inc

May 1983 – Present (32 years 6 months)Brookings, SD

My father, Wilbert Bielfeldt, and I have owned and operated Den-Wil Investments, Inc since 1983. We are a real estate holding, real estate management and real estate development company in eastern South Dakota, particularly in Brookings, SD. Please visit us at www.den-wil.com.

Professor of Philosophy and Religion

South Dakota State University

August 1995 – June 2010 (14 years 11 months)

Full-professor that teaches and conducts research at South Dakota's land grant university.

Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy

Grand View College ELCA

August 1990 – July 1995 (5 years)

Chair of the Departments of Religion and Philosophy: 1990-95
Head of Humanities Division: 1994-95

Assistant Professor

Bethany College ELCA

August 1987 – July 1990 (3 years)

Taught and did research at this ELCA church-related college.

Not That Kind of Puppet...Conference. LI Wows the High Tech Crowd in Oregon

Puppet is a software for managing servers, networks, computer security. Martin's team brought most of Walmart's computers under the management of this software, which is no easy task.

As a result, he was a featured speaker at the Puppet 2015 conference, where his team learned to do even more. Thousands were in the audience and watching live stream, including Ma and Pa Kettle.

The techies were quite impressed with the achievement and the speech.

During the speech I had a memory flashback, "Dad, would you help me connect the Atari?" We played on the game computer at first, using cartridges. We moved up to better versions by selling off old toys and the previous version. One time he came home from prep and we hid the latest from him, so he would sleep. I put it together in the early morning and asked him for help in doing something. He was immediately suspicious - as kids tend to be - and came in to see. It was the best graphics and memory of the time, and everyone had a lot of fun with it.

But our initial victory was getting that game computer, selling it to Mrs. I as educational. That was quite true, but we wanted the games. We aimed at her felt needs and made the sale, at Sears, after rehearsing the pitch when she was delayed by talking to hometown friends.

At first very few had a computer at home, so LI went to adult meetings where he grilled Atari fans, chemical engineers, about certain tricks and memory locations. At Northwestern College (RIP), his group loaded network games to the campus computer and erased the evidence when they were done - all at night. That was the start of his interest in networking computers.

Oddly enough, he got me into training when we lived in Phoenix and he was already at Walmart. One person got me into Cisco Network training, and I gave all those books to LI. That prompted his move from Unix scripting to network engineering, where he has continued to learn by accepting all offers for advanced training, often teaching others himself, in such languages as Perl.

Church Growth Genius Tim Glende Left Behind Two Buildings in Illinois - Escaped to Appleton, Booze Brothers Buy Bar

This building on the university campus in Urbana, was not good enough for the newly ordained Tim Glende, of WELS fame. Where was the coffee bar? He ordered the synod to redevelop the congregation, sell the building, and go looking for something suitable for a Brug nephew and a Mark Jeske alumnus.

WELS sold the paid-for building to the Eastern Orthodox for a song. The Eastern Orthodox named it St. Nicholas, perhaps because the Lutherans gave them a gift ideal for campus ministry. The EO minister invited me to join their denomination instead of the WELS practice of extending the Left Foot of Fellowship and offering the stink-eye.

The attractive interior had room for an icon wall. How un-trendy and old fashioned.

But the Boy Wonder was not done yet. He had another church building to abandon.

Glende left town - not for the last time - and dug a hole by the cornfields. He and his wife needed a building as large as his ego. He cajoled the diminishing congregation into a pile of debt, but lo - Team Glende escaped to Appleton before it was built. The remaining members could not keep up, so the synod sold the building to Cornerstone Baptist and pocketed the equity for themselves.

Remember that, synod members. You can pay on a building for 20 years and have the synod grab the equity for themselves as they continue to say, "Lord, Lord, have we not done many miracles in Thy Name?"

Cornerstone rejoiced in their bargain building and enlarged it.

Glende should star in a synodical movie,
"Honey, I Shrunk the Congregation."

Ever wandering, the Booze Brothers bought a failed bar with a synod grant and loan,
after renting a movie theater and a former WELS church  building.
Ski and Glende are living allegories.

Cornerstone baptized a new member and inscribed this verse on the cake.
Is this in the Bible - I mean Murdoch's New NIV?
The fake blog from Fox Valley specifically condemned justification by faith.
Maybe WELS should return to Gausewitz
instead of disgracing a Gausewitz congregation with a Ski sermon.

Intrepid Lutherans - The UOJ Diamond - What Luther and Melanchthon Wrote

http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2015/09/called-to-test-all-things.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IntrepidLutherans+%28Intrepid+Lutherans%29

Mr. Douglas Lindee said...

Again, thank you Rev. Fjellander, for your continuing dialogue. It's late in my part of the world, so I will make this brief.

I understand what you mean by "simul justus et peccator," and realize that you are not using it as directly analogous, but as a demonstration that two opposite things can be true; however, I'm not sure that this example is entirely convincing. "Simul justus et peccator" refers to quickened, regenerated believers -- i.e., those with faith -- who haveboth the old man and the new man contending within them (Eph. 4:22-24; Rom. 7:13-25). I have no problem believing two opposite things can be true, if the Scriptures directly teach them -- as in this case (and in this case, it's no great crisis of logic to accept it, since it is rather reasonably explained in the Scriptures), or, say, in the case of the Doctrine of Predestination where the Scriptures clearly and directly teach both that it is the will of God that all men be saved AND it is the will of God that sinners suffer eternal damnation. The simple fact is, the Scriptures nowhere teach that mankind is Justified before God apart from Faith. This assertion is an invention, derived from fragments of Scripture that are stripped of their context, pasted together, and then set against what the Scriptures DO teach in direct positive terms. In Universal Justification, the universality of man's lost condition and certain condemnation is propped up against the universality of man's righteous standing before God, as if both are Scripture teaching, when in reality only the former is directly taught in Scripture while the latter is a rationalistic invention. They are not, equivalently, the direct teaching of Scripture.

As for 2 Cor. 5:19... before we go down that road, I would like to point you to four posts on this specific reference that we published in 2013, in case you haven't read them yet. I happen to agree with Chemnitz, Melanchthon, Luther and the Tübingen theologians on their interpretation of this verse. Do you?

Philip Melanchthon on 2 Corinthians 5:19
Luther's translation of 2 Corinthians 5:19
Reconciling the world—but not without means
The Lutheran understanding of 2 Corinthians 5:19

Consistency in the Scriptures and Lutheran Denominations. The Stink-Eye

"Brett - We are not done with you, yet."

The Scriptures are completely consistent and all the passages are in harmony with each other. This lack of contradiction comes from the Bible's unique role as God's revealed truth. As I tell my Old Testament students, a single verse is connected to the rest of the Bible in many ways. The more we see this to be true, through study, the more we can see the Gospel in the Old Testament.

Who can overlook the Atonement in the binding of Isaac. The only son is to be sacrificed, but God provides a substitute. The Angel of the Lord stops him and provides a ram instead, but refers to Abraham not withholding the son "from Me." Abraham is the example of faith throughout the Bible - in Genesis 15, Romans 4, Galatians, James, and Hebrews. When the Bible teaches justification by faith in one passage, the opposite is not taught elsewhere, whether a half-sentence later--compare Romans 4:25 to Romans 4:24, the earlier part never quoted by the UOJ Stormtroopers--or a testament later--Genesis 15 and Romans 3-5.

Those denominations that take a position against the Real Presence in the Lord's Supper are also against the divinity of Christ, because they are saying "God cannot do this." Eventually that position will create a Unitarian spirit in the denomination, as it has among many Lutherans today.

Those who oppose infant faith, and give me the stink-eye for being Lutheran, are implicitly rejects where Jesus said "Let the infants come to Me and do NOT forbid them. You must have their faith to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Forbidding means rejecting from membership, and - what's this? Jesus is confirming infant faith because we must have a child-like faith to enter the Kingdom.

The denominations who promote marketing, gimmicks, methods, entertainment, and studies of data are saying, "Rely on the Word? That is never enough. Try our new program in soda and snack welcome carts at the door. It will drive attendance and market your church as one cool place. We have an extra module on soccer camps and sex sermons."

ELCA is honest about Pastor Anita Hill.
Give them that.
WELS-LCMS-ELS are liars extraordinaire.

At the National Level
The leaders are consistent at the national level too. If they deplore ELCA to their members but work with ELCA and train their own pastors with ELCA pastors, they really love and admire ELCA, no matter what the so-called conservative Lutherans say.

If they claim to abhor abortion - as they claim - and have no problems with ELCA's health plan, which pays for abortion on demand, the judgement is clear. They love abortion.

The Lutheran Synod Presidents wade through troughs of baby blood to ask for more grant money from Thrivent, a proud sponsor of Planned Parent for years. Objections to Thrivent funding meant dropping support for supposedly pro-life ministries. Really? How pro-life is it to beg for money from those who fund Planned Parenthood?

We know the conservative Lutherans have erased the Sixth Commandment from the tablets of stone. Polyfiller is so cheap today. They knew all about Marvin Schwan dumping his wife, the mother of his children, for his mistress. He laughed about it, and his first wife ended her own life in despair. But Marvin, even if he left a bunch of cygnets all over, was preached into heaven by three (3) synods at once.

So the ELC-LCMS-WELS leaders are consistent, and they ovine clergy and laity keep voting for them.



They celebrate their unity by embracing the Unitarianism of ELCA - in the name of grace.