ELDONUTs continue to complain about this blog to someone who has written nothing here at all, not even an anonymous, blind, don't-tell-Mom comment. I laughed as I said on the phone, "Isn't my email address clear enough on the top of the blog?" I made it more apparent for those who wanted to send a message. For that I got some unwanted spam, but I can zap that to the junk folder.
The so-called Lutherans of today do not like Luther's teaching, nor do they even name the English Luther Bible developed by Tyndale in conjunction with the Lutheran Reformation. Tyndale gave his life for the Scriptures, and the fat slugs of Lutherdom will not even mention the King James Bible when speaking about translations.
Of course, the really conservative ones use the Babtist New King James Bible. The very departure from the Reformation that Luther deplored is embraced by those who trade on his name.
The same cranky and arrogant spirit is found in Christian News, the Missouri Synod, WELS, the ELS, and the venomous CLC (sic). They share with ELCA and Thrivent the same disdain for the unborn child and Justification by Faith.
Thrivent can fund abortion-on-demand through Planned Parenthood, as long as the grants keep coming. No one has provided an adequate excuse for this. A few LCMS pastor fussed for a month - five years after Brett Meyer exposed the Thrivent Planned Parenthood funding on this blog.
Missouri alone makes over $50 million a year from Thrivent, so that is worth a few million babies.
This incredible hardness of heart toward the unborn is best explained by how ashamed these Lutheran sects are - ashamed of faith. No, they will say they are 100% for faith, but not Justification by Faith. Even ELCA will dust off faith every so often. But they all agree with ELCA's Universalism, which is the excrement of rancid Pietism.
This Pietism phase came from a genuine interest in Biblical piety, studying the actual content of the Bible. But Pietism began as a program, and such programs have a way of removing precise Biblical teaching in favor of cooperation and just getting along.
Every argument against Justification by Faith is rationalistic. Example - "If Jesus died for the sins of the world, then everyone is already forgiven." I realize that having poor teachers and hearty drinking buddies are both adverse to learning in seminary. But what keeps the future pastors from studying the Word of God on their own? What keeps them from the low cost - and even the free versions - of Luther's Galatians?
A Program of Friendliness
The answer to the nastiness of Christian News and the Lutheran sects is not a program of friendliness, like the Friendship Sunday fad that WELS promoted - copying Fuller Seminary.
The only solution is teaching the singular purpose of the Bible - Justification by Faith. As Luther wrote, the Scriptures are a long sermon about the man Jesus, to create and sustain faith. Through this faith created by the Spirit in the Word, God grants forgiveness and salvation.
But there is far more to this faith that simply trusting in God's mercy and salvation. The believer is united with Christ and the Spirit dwells in the believer's heart. That moves the Christian to hear the Gospel with gladness and to live a life of continuous contrition for sin and joy in forgiveness.
The more an individual dwells on the True Vine through the Means of Grace, the more fruitful he is for the Kingdom. See John 15. The two kinds of cleansing are clear in that passage. Believers are cleansed through the Word of Grace, that they might be even more fruitful. The unfruitful are pruned away to be gathered up and burned.
We should not be shocked that those who devote themselves to Justification Without Faith (UOJ) are so unproductive, proud, harsh, mean, self-centered, and cruel. They lay waste to households for their revenge and destroy congregations to get even with people who offend their delicate feelings.
John 15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
