How To Do Research Using Thy Strong Word: The Efficacy of the Word in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Verbatim Quotations with Citations

Someone donated money for Thy Strong Word to be sent around to various people who might want their own printed copy.

I permanently dropped the price down to  the author's price on Lulu, so anyone can obtain the printed book at a low cost. They finished one sale (30% off for three or more books) and now there is a better sale -

"With this deal, everybody saves. Need one book?  The shipping is free. Need a few books? The shipping is free. Need a ton of books, the shipping is free.  Everybody saves with free shipping."

Enter code MARSHIP at checkout and get free mail shipping. Offer expires Sunday, March 6th at 23:59 PM. Don't forget, coupon codes are CASE-SENSITIVE."

--

The free PDF of Thy Strong Word is also posted on Lulu - here, so I am not profiteering.

The same free PDF of Thy Strong Word is always posted one or more places on this blog.

The PDF files that I provide can be saved and shared with anyone, without asking permission.

The PDF is very handy for research, and I use it all the time. I have more than 1,000 quotations arranged by topic. I decided to set them up so people could xerox print a page or a few pages at a time, without burying the citations at the end of the chapter, my biggest grip about books.

I gave the quotations  J numbers so people could say, "Have you seen J-551?" or similar things. When Megatron was on my computer, those quotations made compiling new articles quite convenient. WELS leaders were always having hissy-fits that I quoted and provided full citations. Nowdays, if I don't copy and paste a web post into my blog, it disappears so readers cannot check it out. So I provide the link and the material. Some are so full of themselves they leave the evidence up anyway - like the graphic of the Victory of the Lamb coffee house.

How To Use the Free PDF for Research
Long ago I learned to use control-f  to find material on web pages and mistakes in a book I was working on.

Recently I wanted my ecumenical list of making disciples quotations. I used control-f  and put making disciples in the window. That gave me each quotation. All I had to do was highlight each one, control-c to copy what was highlighted, and control-v to paste it into the booklet Making Disciples: The Error of Modern Pietism. That gave me a long list of quotations with the citation for each, including many denominations, the Pentecostals, and various Lutheran nitwits.

Several readers wrote me just to talk about how WELS tumbled for all that Fuller nonsense about making disciples.

I can find notorious authors like Paul Kelm the same way. That often reminds me of who wrote the nonsense from years ago.

The control-f tool is great for this and should be used when verifying information.

That was true at the original Emmaus
but not at the latest Emmaus conference.

Scriptural Study Is Essential. If the Pastors and Laity Are Not Rooted in the Word, They Are Sterile

Fuerbringer studied the Scriptures and Luther
all the time. He refused speaking engagements to stay home and study.

Does anyone selling UOJ, Church Growth, or the kind of pablum dispensed on Steadfast (sic),
SpenerQuest, ALPB, or synodical publications ever study the Word, doctrinal works, or church history.

If pastors and laity are not rooted in the Word, they are sterile. They may use the words and recite their favorite slogans, but they have nothing significant to say.

Laity have no weapons against false doctrine if they do not know the Word of God thoroughly. In the old days, the laity were so well trained that they could argue a position from the Word of God. That is what filled the pews during the Seminex crisis, the bad guys led in part by a former WELS professor, Richard Jungkuntz, UOJ Stormtrooper. When the LCMS laity heard what Seminex stood for, they said, "So long and thanks for all the booshwah."

But no one pressed on. They congratulated themselves for winning, like the guy who stopped running the long-distance race so he could celebrate a victory he never achieved.

Who bragged more - the LCMS? WELS? ELS? CLC (sic)? That is difficult to determine, because they all crowed about it while the Seminex crew slithered away and created ELCA. Why have only one gay seminary (Seminex) when the combined seminaries of the LCA and ALC could all be gayer than Shakespeare's sonnets?

Seminex could not make it, so the faculty went off to Chicago to dominate the LCA seminary there. Decades later, the ELCA seminaries with all their property and endowment are falling, one after another, like leaves from a diseased rose bush. The message from the beginning was - "We are creating a New Lutheran Church, not merging." And they were right. Seminex was the template and the radicals booted out the old liberals.

I am going to be reviewing the new version BibleWorks, a tool I have been using for many years in my writing projects. More will follow after I install the program.

Expanding the Maple Tree Rose Garden

Note the blooms fading and losing petals in the foreground.
Pruning those blooms will create more root and plant growth -
and new roses.

We have three rose gardens.

The main one is being expanded with a memorial row, a plaque for each person.

The rose garden along the Wright fence may get some beneficial plant inserts.

The maple tree garden now has a second circle of roses. Mrs. Ichabod suggested the first row when I ordered 10 more bare root roses at $5 each. I thought, "Oh boy, digging among maple roots." It was very tough, with a long time spent for each hole. But we had 10  roses blooming around a tree that was an eyesore with weeds and maple suckers before.

To make a second circle, we connected two screw hooks to twine that was measured out to a given distance from the tree. So we had a second circle planted. Digging them up was not difficult because the heavily mulched and earthwormed soil was soft and damp with spring rain. We had four roses in the sunny garden and four in the backyard to move. We took two days to get that done and water the results.

I told our helper, "We are not watering early. I did that in the main garden and ended up working and sitting in wet mud."

In spite of what people think, clay is easy to dig at the right time. It is also the richest possible soil. To build some immediate compost we turned sod clumps upside-down and secured them around the new-old plants. Heavy watering washes soil into place and feeds the roots that need to form, stabilize the plant, and feed the future roses.

Two more roses are going to the helper's home, and the whole family is participating in the move. They picked a place to put the roses and will help in digging and replanting. They also want to have fresh sweet corn at their home this year.

This is a great time to move roses, early in the growing cycle. We have couple more roses ordered and will probably add two rose-hip roses to the outer circle, for a total of 20 around the maple tree.

Falling in Love was our friend's
favorite rose as she planned her marriage.

More Details about Shrinking, Merging, Seminaries. Looks Like Freedom, But It Feels Like Death - It's Closing Time

Finally an honest statue at a seminary.
This is Henry M. Muhlenberg, Halle Pietist.
Why have Luther when no one reads, understands,
or agrees with the Reformer.
Jay Webber came from this tradition.

Philadelphia and Gettysburg Seminaries Offer Tuition-Free Education


The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (LTSG) today announced a dramatic increase in the amount of financial aid each school is giving students, including making full-tuition scholarships available to all new full-time, ELCA rostered leader candidates studying in residence. “In partnership with the ELCA, our supporting Synods, and many faithful congregations and individuals, we decided the time is right to make seminary education far more affordable for our students,” declared Presidents Michael Cooper-White (LTSG) and David Lose (LTSP). In addition to this generous offer for new students, the schools also expect to increase scholarships for all current full-time enrollees.

---

Claire Burkat is "the parent of a son"
and also worked for the dying Episcopal Diocese at the same time
she earned money from the ELCA synod.
Now she is a bishop of Mark Jeske global ecumenical
dimensions.

Oh, Claire! (not CLC sic)

Bishop Claire Burkat, of the Southeastern Pennsylvania synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said in some ways the seminary’s mission, which is “to educate and form public leaders who are committed to developing and nurturing individual believers and communities of faith for engagement in the world” has not changed in 150 years.

“We are still teaching, equipping and preparing Church leaders to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in worship, word and action,” Burkat said. “That being said, the 21st century landscape has dramatically changed the time-honored way seminaries of every denomination have prepared professional leaders for work and service in the church and the world.”

Confessional - they all are.
Ecumenical to the max - ask Mark Jeske and his Thrivent paymasters.

While LTSP continues to maintain its Lutheran, confessional and Philadelphia traditions, it no longer just focuses on educating Lutherans. Burkat said students from 28 different denominations from around the world enroll at the seminary so they can work in churches, agencies and other ministry institutions to “accomplish God’s purpose to heal a broken world.

“Two ELCA Lutheran seminaries to close, reopen as one,” a report in the February 17, 2016 Christian Century, says:
.

“The decision came this week from the governing boards of Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. The plan will cut the number of seminaries affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from eight to seven.

“David Lose, president of the Philadelphia seminary, said the move would create opportunities for redesigning everything from faculty and curriculum to calendars and relationships with donors.

“The board votes came quickly after a recommendation from a joint task force, which held its first and only meeting last month. Gettysburg was projecting yearly deficits above $200,000 and could not keep eliminating faculty positions by attrition, according to board chair James Lakso.

“‘We have too many people and too much physical capacity to be viable and sustainable in the long term,’ Lakso said.

“By combining into one institution distributed across two locations in Gettysburg and Philadelphia, the schools could solve the thorny problem of what to do with tenured faculty, whose salaries and benefits weigh heavily on each school’s budget. The logic: if a school ceases to exist, then it’s no longer obligated to retain faculty members, even if they had tenure. A new school has the flexibility to start over.”

“Since 2012, other Lutheran seminaries have found shelter inside universities. Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary merged with Lenoir-Rhyne University in Columbia, South Carolina; and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary became part of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.”

***

GJ - Fun fact. I was interviewed for the job of vicarage supervisor at the Philadelphia Seminary. It was an HEW interview. The candidate was already picked, but they interviewed nine others to make it look like a big search.

It was a fun trip. The area was very tony at the time. I ended up in a little restaurant and found out immediately it was one of those very expensive, exclusive places.

I learned from Neuhaus' Lutheran Forum Newsletter than five of the faculty were divorcing at the same time, including the academic dean. I later saw the academic dean at a Michigan Synod LCA meeting. I did not meet her at that so-called interview. She craned her neck as she caught my nametag. 

Another Failing ELCA Seminary - Really Two Failing Schools Three Women Who Have Grown in Office

Louise Johnson is head of the failing Wartburg Seminary.
Her qualifications are minimal, which suggests
a role as the Judas goat leading everyone to the slaughter house.

Notice the patented lop-sided Mark Jeske smile,
suggesting ambivalence.

I forgot to mention Wartburg Seminary, the second one started by Loehe. Walther asked for Ft. Wayne to be turned over to him  (for free) by Loehe - and to keep sending money.

Wartburg was so broke a few years ago that tenured professors were fired. Normally that is done through merger!

My friend from Yale, Stanley Olson, was the previous president of Wartburg, supposedly a more conservative flavor of ELCA. Stan's wife bragged in the Yale Divinity magazine that their daughter married a woman. Of course, Ralph Bohlmann had the same bragging rights, but those facts had to be discovered on their own. Ralph's daughter became a UCC minister and married a woman.

Olson, when he worked for Mark Hanson, worked on the way to bring back in those lesbian and homosexual pastors suspended from ELCA. After the 2009 vote, ELCA cratered so fast that Stan's position was eliminated altogether.

So Wartburg is the most conservative seminary in ELCA? That is like asking,"Which beating was your favorite one?"

Like Louise, above, there is no mention of a husband, or a spouse
for Robin Steinke, now presiding at Luther Seminary.
I reviewed her installation service, which was incredibly
empty, a definitive response to starting a new trend at Luther.

All the feminist clergy grow in office.
And I mean really grow.

The first ELCiC female bishop
really grew in office.
She graduated from Jay Webber's favorite UOJ seminary -
not ILT - Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.

Lutheran Seminary Student Count

CLC (sic) - I think one student graduated from their alleged seminary last year.

ELS - The Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie - Grand total of six students in all three classes.

Mequon - Not too impressive. They put the grad and vicar assignments together on the same list for a total of 32 men in two classes - 16 per class. I was there with 60 per class.

LCMS - The incoming classes at St. Louis and Ft. Wayne are 40 and 30, for a total of 70. So St. Louis has fewer students entering now than were graduation from Mequon in 1987. And everyone has watered down the language requirements (but not the cost) let the boys be offended by studying.

ELCA - Everyone ELCA seminary is in trouble or already merging. Luther (a sea of red ink); Gettysburg and Philly are merging into one; Berkeley (merging with a college campus); Southern (merging with a college); Chicago (crime-ridden and short of funds);  Trinity in Columbus ((lots of new endowment and working with the Episcopalian Seminary nearby). Trinity was gayer than lavender hose in the 1990s, so one can only guess now.

Shooting the Messenger

It is about that time of the year that the new Concordia Seminary Journal from St. Louis has hit the shelves. Not the shelves of major supermarkets across our great nation, but the shelves of Lutheran Church Missouri Pastors libraries. However, this edition of Concordia Seminary Journal won’t make it to the shelf of this writer, but the shelf that holds the firewood in my fireplace. 

Why has this edition of Concordia Journal made it into my fireplace soon to be burned along with my capital campaign fund letter from the seminary in St. Louis? Because the article written by none other than Mr. Fund-Raiser himself Dale Meyer has caused great offense. When speaking of the great exodus of people leaving LCMS Churches, Dale Meyer states, People leave for many reasons, that is true, but one reason has been identified that is especially grievous, our conduct as pastors. Ask district presidents if congregations are troubled because of wrong teaching or from character flaws or personality quirks in the pastor, and they’ll tell you that very often the conduct of the pastor causes or exacerbates the church’s problems. 

So I ask this first, where are the results from this study that you quote from district presidents? I think we have a right to know which district presidents have made such allegations. Are these the same district presidents that promote the firing of pastors which your seminary trained? Are these the same district presidents who promote women readers, women elders and women helping distribute communion which your seminary trained? Are these the same district presidents that find no offense dressing up the choir to look like pastors wearing albs which your seminary trained? Are these the same district presidents that removed the altar and instead installed a stage and a drum set which your seminary trained?
Perhaps the pastors that face the most trouble in their congregations are the confessional pastors that try to right the ship when they inherit a pento-baptist-eposop-non-denominational acting Lutheran church because the previous pastor insisting on using teachings from Rick Warren and other non-Lutheran teachings which was promoted by your seminary in St. Louis. 

Secondly, the majority of the conflict that confronts pastors has been brought about from teachings from the seminary in St. Louis. This is a fact. Lay people have attended the speaker series in the fall at the seminary and listened to non-Lutherans promote their garbage which they take back to their churches. They confront their pastor and say, Well the seminary is promoting this so let’s do it here! or The seminary is promoting the new Rick Warren or Bill Hybels book, let’s have a bible study on the book Sunday mornings! Who needs the Bible! 

The confessional pastor stares with a blank face and says to himself, great, this is going to cause some conflict. Thanks Concordia Seminary. 

Thirdly, I wonder what it would be like to have a job where it is so secure that I could get away with making harsh statements against people that I see almost every day. I am talking about the statement that pastors are to blame for the conflict that is going on at the congregations. These pastors were students and many of them you have met at the seminary Dale Meyer. What an insult to know that after all that training I received at the seminary I am to blame for the conflict at the church. Just makes me want to promote the seminary on Sunday mornings during announcement time.
People leave for many reasons, that is true, but one reason has been identified that is especially grievous, our conduct as pastors. Ask district presidents if congregations are troubled because of wrong teaching or from character flaws or personality quirks in the pastor, and they’ll tell you that very often the conduct of the pastor causes or exacerbates the church’s problems, says Dale Meyer. What an idiotic statement that tears down the Office of the Holy Ministry. 

Fourthly, Dale Meyer, you need to put down the crystal filled glasses with bubbly and stop patting yourself on the back in helping to raise over 100 million dollars so that you and certain ones chosen can have lavish lifestyles. You need to take a hard look at yourself and ask, Why do you have so few students in the classroom today? Why aren’t more students enrolling in the seminary? It is because of comments that you have written and your views regarding the office of the ministry. You blame the graduates for church conflict. Shame on you. Take a glance in classrooms during the school year. Empty seats. Yes, too many empty seats. Perhaps the Board of Regents should finally recognize that it is you that is causing conflict.
JV Verne
(Christian News, March 7, 2016)

Brug, Bivens, Wendland.

Alcoholism and UOJ

Good morning Pastor Jackson,

I believe that like a hunting dog you have found the scent and have followed the trail. There is a predisposition toward alcoholism in my immediate family. When I did some research about the long term effects of alcoholism, I discovered some familiar traits and bits of evidence. I will bet that the clinical treatment of alcoholism was the basis for many of the addiction models that are used today. 

Among these patterns are cover-ups, denials, and that behavior that snaps when the right buttons are pushed. UOJ is the enabler for this aberrant behavior. This is just a theory, as the puzzle pieces seem to fit.

WELS Layman

***

GJ - Alcoholism battles against study and writing. Alcohol and drug addiction may hide behind hard work, but both are going to eliminate any careful study of Scriptures and erode any sense of right and wrong.

Eventually, addicts bottom out and engage in so much self-destruction that the obvious can no longer be hidden or disguised.

I am not against social drinking, but a lot of clergy get away with alcohol abuse because they can have so many jovial activities where others look the other way. Many can handle it well at first, but the physical addiction sets in and compounds the emotional addiction that develops at the same time.

Alcoholics protect one another, so being a drunk in WELS
is like being an earthworm in my garden - too many to count.
A good lawyer can get evidence thrown out,
but appearance bond money should be collected - so it is
not left in the public record - eh, Ski?

Happy 83rd Birthday, Pastor Herman OttenP

Pastor Herman Otten turned 83 today.

Every so often I would calculate Pastor Otten's age - oh my. Now he's 83. We met about 30 years ago.

I was accused of leaking to Christian News during my first call in the 1970s. I ran a series of articles on bi-lingual parishes, in the Cleveland Lutheran tabloid. One photo ended up in CN and the pastor yelled, "Did you send that to Otten?" And the pastor was LCA! I only had a vague knowledge of the LCMS-Otten-Seminex battles, but I learned soon enough.

Jack Preus met with Otten often to get elected LCMS synod president, then disavowed him.

Ralph Bohlmann repeated this cycle to become LCMS president.

Al Barry worked through Paul McCain to do the same. I was in Paul McCain's office at the Purple Palace when Otten phoned him. McCain said, "If people found out I was in contact with Otten, I would be fired." McCain bragged about how he gave Barry's materials to Otten before anyone else, so Barry could get instant, fast, positive PR while running for SP. The McCain-Barry administration was quite nasty to the conservatives who installed them in the palace of power. Like RINOs, the LINOs kiss up to the opposition to keep their spoils. Bucky Hellwig (SpenerQuest) said to me, "At least the Bohlmann people were polite."

I went to a meeting or two of the conservatives with Barry. He was clearly antagonistic toward those who elected him in a close election. I saw how his administration used conservatives and tossed them to the curb. In fact, Paul McCain gloated about how they pulled the rug out from under Robert Preus, a few months before giving Robert Preus' widow an award for Preus' work.

At some point I spoke with Herman's son Tim about how the LCMS SPs-in-Waiting kept courting his father and then dumping him.

Let's pause for a Kieschnick interlude. I know he came to New Haven, Missouri to meet Otten. My intuition says his people arranged a division among the conservatives.

Then Matt the Fat came along and spent six hours in New Haven, courting Otten. His secretive campaign manager was Paul McCain, along with help from those who felt set aside or played the martyr role with great drama. The Issues guy turned his one-act play into a huge money-maker.

McCain's role was not clear until Harrison won and Paul was invited back to the Purple Palace for photos, where he reminded some of Adolph strutting around a captured Paris, smirking. Devoid of any academic standing or pastor experience, he settled into his Concordia Publishing House sinecure at royal salary and pumped out pretend blog posts from The Catholic Encyclopedia.

I smelled a rat - or rather a papist - when I read McCain's "scholarly" blog posts. That told me how little LCMS pastors study anything or write anything of merit. Each post obviously took a long time to research and write. And they matched up verbatim, with a few word changes (typical plagiarist) to The Catholic Encyclopedia and a few obscure blogs.

Nobody - but nobody - detected this pattern until I exposed it time after time. Suddenly - poof - the McCain blog rolled up faster than a runaway window shade. No apology from McCain. No apology from his CPH boss. No apology from Matt the Fat.

Perfect hair, perfect purple clothes, perfect pose
for the papists at the Purple Palace.

Some Words of Appreciation

Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure

Pastor Otten agreed to selling Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure through Christian News, and struck an agreement with Northwestern Publishing House. The book sold like wildfire. As I recall, McCain reviewed the book quite favorably.

Tim Otten helped especially with

• Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant
• The Wormhaven Gardening Book, and 
• Angel Joy.

NPH agreed to publish Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, and then backed out. The Church Growth fanatics who ran WELS did not want to see another book in print, but WELS ended up selling a lot of books (by the case) by ordering them through CN. Kurt Marquart gave a very positive review of CLP, and so did a Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, professor.

Just like the Church Growth clowns, the UOJ Stormtroopers must have their way by silencing anyone who disagrees with their Halle Pietism.

Nevertheless, Christian News has been a vast data source for anyone who cares to read a lot. Started the same year as Walmart, CN has retained the same editor the entire time, quite remarkable by itself.

Training UOJ seminarians at Mequon,
Mankato, St. Louis, ILT, and Ft. Wayne.
The justification by faith rebellion must be stopped,
lest it impede the 500th anniversary of the Reformation
in 2017.