SpenerQuest Knickers in a Knot. They Are the Repugnant Ones - Their Apostasy Is Their Leaders' Apostasy

SpenerQuest often sputters about synodical nonsense. Last year, Concordia Seminary in St. Louis - "the best seminary in America" (Herman Otten) - hosted Tullian Tchividjian as their Reformation speaker. Tulian had no less than two adulterous affairs during his tenure at D. James Kennedy's Coral Gables church. He blamed them on his wife, just as Walther blamed Stephan's affairs on Mrs. Stephan. What a leader Walther was!

No surprise there about St. Louis. Years ago, the "best seminary in America" had its president adoringly interviewing Leonard Sweet and posting the video for all to see. Sweet is honored and praised by all the Church Shrinkers, who continue to reduce their synods to compost for recycling in the Age To Come.

Currently, "the best seminary in America" is promoting their next Reformation speaker, a professor from Yale Divinity who dedicated one of his books - "To my father, a Pentecostal minister who admired Muslims, and taught me as a boy that they worship the same God as we do."

But this is truly repugnant - LutherQuest (sic), Christian News, the LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC (sic), and ELCA will all celebrate the Reformations's 500th Anniversary while agreeing with the Universalists that everyone on earth is forgiven and saved.

Reader:

The other is from WELS's Meditations, March-May 2014, for Monday, 17 March 2014.  The howler is in the second column which reads:  "No matter what you did yesterday -- or failed to do -- and no matter what you will do tomorrow, God has forgiven you."

I had Luther's Galatians Commentary in the car, so I was reading it while waiting for Mrs. I's appointment to be done. I reached the point where the statement in the graphic above is made. How can anyone with an IQ above room temperature advocate Universal Objective Justification?

The 3rd chapter of Galatians begins with Paul no longer calling them brothers or saints, but Galatians:

Galatians 3 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

This could easily be addressed to the Lutheran leaders in America. One LCMS DP said something like this about a candidtate, "I cannot stop someone who rejects UOJ. It is not taught in our catechisms, only in the WELS Kuske catechism." As one LCMS pastor told me, "If UOJ is the the LCMS position, then I can name 500 Missouri pastors who teach justification."

The genius of the apostates is their ability to control the synodical structures and work with ELCA while pretending to be the real Lutherans, the orthodox, the noble warriors holding up the flickering flame of fidelity to the Confessions. So much drama, so little substance.

From time to time, the Stormtroopers say, "We are really talking about the same thing," but they reveal the opposite by silencing justification by faith at every opportunity. And they insist that their precious UOJ is the Chief Article of Christianity, the Master and Prince and Judge of all doctrine. These UOJ claims represent cult behavior.

I was trying to imagine how UOJ might be a misunderstanding of Biblical teaching, but I cannot. However, I give the errorists credit for pulling off a massive bait-and-switch operation.

The New Testament verb, "to justify" is a declaration. God declares people righteous, so the Stormtroopers simply move the emphasis from faith to all people. They instinctively know what they are doing by falsely accusing justification by faith of limited atonement. They have combined the atonement with justification, so "dying for all" becomes "all are forgiven."

This UOJ merger of doctrines introduces countless contradictions, because justification by faith is the Master and Prince, the Judge of all doctrine. Since the UOJ Stormtroopers have justification wrong, they are also wrong in promoting:

• Receptionism, the magical dogma where bread alone and wine along are also the Body and Blood of Christ by virtue of being touched by hands and lips.
• Church Growth - nothing about the Word is efficacious, so man must dream up tactics, methods, tricks, bait, and rewards to get people into church and tithing.
• Women's ordination. It's popular, so why not?
• Worship and religious projects with every denomination, because everyone is forgiven.
• Worship and religious projects with every world religion.
• Everything is adiaphora.

Dr. Phil Giessler - From 2008

Phillip B. Giessler, previously a Missouri Synod pastor, previously the Major Domo of the Beck Bible revision boondoggle, previously married twice, is Otten's expert on Creation.

Otten said on the phone, "Phil Giessler was here the other day with his wife."

I said, "His third wife?"

Otten sputtered, "Third?"

I reminded him - "You said he left his first wife for his mistress and his putative son, when his wife made him choose. After he excommunicated himself and left Missouri, he ran out of money. You told me his second wife left him and told him the boy was not his. That would mean the wife he brought in was either a reconciliation or a third wife."

Otten, in a voice of wonder, "You are right!"

The GOP set a new record by having three presidential candidates with three wives: Gingrich (always in the wings), Fred Thompson [correction below], and Mayor JulieAnny (the first transvestite candidate). That is bad enough, but when the clergy are sporting their new wives, why should anyone pay attention to them?

God instituted marriage by His command. One indication of people accepting this as natural law is the world-wide institution of marriage. I got one man to marry the mother of his three children by saying, "If you love the Word of God, you will marry the mother of your children. Otherwise you are telling your daughters that you despise the Word." That truly shocked him. The Word fell on him like a boulder and crushed his pretensions. He asked to be married and to take instructions in the faith.

When someone pretends to teach the Word and violates the Word at the same time, he is leading by example - bad example.

I teach hundreds of college students each year. Most of the women are divorced or never married. The new line is, "We are married five years, together eight." Or, "I am in a new relationship." If I tell them I have been married 39 years in November, they gasp as if I told them I swallowed gravel for breakfast each day.

We should not wonder that things are going downhill fast when Christian News takes no notice of the serial monogamy of its writers. The guard dog has become a lap dog.

***

GJ - Don W. thought Senator Fred Thompson had only one marriage. According to Wikipedia and other sources, his wives include:
1. Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey (when he ws 17). To his credit, he married the mother of his child and worked his way through school.
2. Jeri Kehn, whom he met in a grocery store line.

I thought he had three wives, so the average between Don's figure and mine is correct - two.

More Pastors Should Garden

Cow vetch, a legume, grows naturally in my yard.
Budgies and other birds love the seed and spread it.

Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Borage is the cousin to comfrey and
has a similar but smaller growth habit.

Borage is either pink or blue, an edible herb.

More pastors should garden, because then they would would understand all the parables related to the growth of plants and how these stories apply to their work.

I looked up one of my garden weeds and found it was cow vetch, loved by birds. They planted it for me, and some grew up the back fence, creating a beautiful waterfall effect of purple flowers.

The borage flowers above are also called bee bread, because they constantly flower, generate pollen and nectar, drop seed and grow again. All of the sudden, there is a new borage plant growing - the seed growing secretly. Borage is so robust that this happens all summer.

That reminds me of how the living seed of the Word sprouts and grows secretly. That is why I do not believe in trying to persuade people or  to appeal to them. The ministers who do not trust the Word think they have to make it appealing. Synods think they have to grow, without thinking about the only thing that is required of stewards, that they be found faithful.

The CLC (sic) is a sect that lives by, "Why didn't he join us 60 years ago, as he promised?" Meanwhile, Missouri and WELS think extending the Left Foot of Fellowship is their prime directive. Anyone who experiences a hint of that should extend the Right Foot of Exit, because shunning is Pietism at its core. "We are superior and anyone who disagrees must be shunned and expelled as an evil-doer."

We were mulching some of the new roses yesterday. We went through our cardboard and 15 bags of mulch. Our helper kept mentioning the lack of grass. I said, "We are on the cutting edge. Grass is last century, and we are re-inventing rose gardening!"

Before photographs were taken yesterday and should be posted fairly soon.

Bride's Dream rose has the largest bloom and plant.
I got two from Gurney's for $5 each.
It's fun to order blindly for bargains and find
classics that normally sell for $20 each.

Roses only require being:

• Planted
• Pruned
• Watered
• Mulched, and
• Earthwormed.

A $20 rose bush grows more than enough flowers to pay for itself in retail value the first summer. One good hybrid rose is worth $5 at a flower shop.  A dozen roses will sell for $60. Many hybrid tea rose bushes will yield a dozen roses the first year, each bloom far better and longer-lasting than flower shop roses.

Many "Conservative" Lutheran Leaders Could Not Get Hired.

Bishop Burnside, like the Episcopalian female bishop,
drove drunk, killed a fine person, and fled the scene.

One insurance agency had a simple rule. When someone wanted to work there and had a DUI, they said, "No thanks." The general agent received a big bonus from the company for hiring, but the general agent figured a DUI signaled a habitual, out of control drunk.

Blood and urine tests are common, even for hiring $9 an hour employees. They reveal whiskey enzymes in the liver (heavy drinking) and various illegal drugs. "Sorry, kid, we can't use you."

Many ecclesiastical pests would no longer be around if the SPs said, "We can't risk you running down some kid's mother or father and that story being in the news. Besides that, you have problems and need help."

Cook was installed as bishop three sheets to the wind - and with a DUI record.
She wiped out this family man, who was biking.
Two young people in my Sturgis congregation
were killed by drunk drivers, devastating their families.

I have worked with alcoholics - it a long, hard road to recovery. I do not think they are being manly men for using up the family income to pummel their livers and endanger lives. The financial and social cost for all that drinking is enormous.

Several readers have emailed to say that WELS is indeed a drunken culture with all the attributes.

1. One is being super rigid and hyper about any criticism.
2. Another is the low level of thinking and problem solving. One official was known for his drinking and inability to deal with any practical mission problem. He simply issued edicts.
3. Finally, what looks like incompetence is really drinking on the job, inability to get work done, and confused thinking under the influence.

One reader said his or her school faculty was completely alcoholic, which led to repentance and leaving whiskey river behind. Ever wonder about all the child abuse stories in WELS, and most are suppressed? Alcoholism excuses or explains a lot.

Why is it suddenly so popular to have a "bar ministry" in WELS? What better way to indulge and cover it with noble words! At one gathering, a pathetic LCA drunk offered to buy everyone drinks if they would stay and drink with him. One old drunken pastor had a younger woman offer to drive him back to his hotel room. An LCA mission boss was so drunk on the phone, calling from headquarters, that he was completely incoherent. 

But drunks cover for drunks. Smash your car up a utility pole while drunk? "We have a foreign mission for you."

I drove around on small town looking for a notorious drunk, to take him to the VA Hospital for needed treatment. His family member was at the wheel. We got the alcoholic in the car and took him to the treatment center. He said, "I'm not a drunk. I'm just nervous."

Two bishops knew, but enabled the drunken bishop Cook,
who Consecrated Under the Influence.

Bishop Katie seems worried that Cook will fall over.

UOJ and Antinomianism - From 2012

The Little Sect on the Prairie is too small for Stormtroopers,
so they have Dark Helmet as their mascot and protector.

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Brett Meyer Address the Synodical Conference Spin ...":

One can see that UOJ and SJ are just Calvinism sandwiched together with Lutheranism. The OJ is Calvinism and SJ is Lutheranism, except that Calvinism is its own system and is not compatible with the Biblical system of salvation, aka, Lutheranism. Sandwiched together, OJ and SJ amount to gross antinomianism. Calvin counter-balanced justification before faith with the idea of limited atonement and DP so that the antinomianism implicit in justification before faith would be balanced by idea that if you act like an unbeliever, maybe that's because you actually are one. UOJ-type Lutheranism has no such counter-balance to fend out antinomianism since Lutherans believe in unlimited atonement and deny that God reprobates anyone. Therefore, some over-assured Lutherans end up getting in trouble in various sins and with the law, but for most the theoretical antinomianism results in a largely unregenerate and life and many sins of omission (a non-dedicated, non-rigorously religious life) that the UOJer Lutheran doesn't feel any guilt over.

***

GJ - UOJ unifies the Synodical Conference (tm) and its scattered parts.We know Richard Jungkuntz was dedicated to UOJ because his essay is lovingly preserved in the Holy of Holies, the WELS Essay Files, even though they kicked him out of WELS. From there he did his liberal work in the LCMS, a real star of Seminex, as the chairman of the board of the first gay Lutheran seminary. Seminex was the official seminary of the Metropolitan Community Church.

Jungkuntz went on to serve as provost of an ALC college. He was written up favorably in the NY Times.

He argued for women's suffrage, conceding it was the same argumentation for women's ordination.

UOJ was the common thread in all his denominational affiliations. UOJ unites all the mainline Protestant denominations. Their motto is - "Everyone is forgiven and saved by the grace of God." Since they have given up the significance of creeds, hymns, sermons, and liturgy, they are vulnerable to every radical leftist fad.

For instance, the Episcopalians preserve the historic liturgy and creeds, and still hold solemn worship services, but they say, "We also have a contemporary service in our parish for the young people." (David Virtue, Virtue Online) Bad money drives out good, so that concession means the traditionalists will soon give way to the Fuller crowd, as all the rest have.

The Antinomian part is the most enjoyable. Anyone can do anything, as long as Holy Mother Church is not offended. If a man runs off with another woman, he will be restored as a pastor because "Who are you to judge?" That also goes well with communing a wealthy man  living openly with his mistress, which Dale Redlin of the CLC (sic) argued for at a pastors' meeting. The other pastors were appalled, but there were many other things they were happy to overlook.

UOJ has nothing to say about the complete erosion of the family, the treatment of children (from conception on), and the culture of hedonism.

"When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?"

That question suggest that the End Times will be dominated by a complete lack of faith in the Savior. Not surprisingly, that is the siren song of UOJ - forgiveness without faith.

Richard Jungkuntz, UOJ advocate:
WELS, LCMS, Seminex, ALC:
Chairman of the Board, 
First Gay Lutheran Seminary in America.

---


Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "UOJ and Antinomianism":

The false gospel of Universal Objective Justification was leaned on heavily by departing (W)ELS president Karl R. Gurgel in 2007. The man who knows where the $8Million dollars of Synod money went but has never confessed.

"Then, as if out of nowhere, comes another truth that is not self-evident. A perfect life and an innocent death—not ours but the Savior’s—liberates us from our sentence of death and makes us eternally happy.

This truth can only be perceived and received by faith in God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus. This is the saving truth we’re privileged to proclaim: God’s pardon for sinners, the eternal peace of sins forgiven.

Notice the already existing forgiveness of sins by God to be perceived.

His statements can be read here: http://www.wels.net/news-events/forward-in-christ/july-2007/self-evident-truths?page=0,0

A self evident truth is that in order for Synod Leadership - Synod President, the Council of Presidents, the District Presidents, the Circuit Pastors, the church Pastors, the church councils and elders all have continue to promote the false and utterly unsubstantiated, Anti-Scripture, Anti-Christ and Anti-Lutheran Confessions gospel of Universal Objective Justification or face the enormous mountain of shame and guilt that comes from the whole world realizing they've decieved their members concerning Scriptures Chief and Central doctrine - Justification by Faith alone.

For the sake of their own souls may God grant them Godly contrition and the Holy Spirit's faith to trust alone in Christ and to lead and direct Christ's Church to the one true Christian faith and away from the New Age Antichrist's religion of justification before God without faith in Christ which is essentially belief that they are their own god - creating their own way to righteousness and the forgiveness of sins.

Did WELS Always Teach UOJ? Definitely Not. From 2011

This hissing cockroach is not as disgusting as false doctrine.


A pastor did a comparison of catechisms today in preparing for a lesson on the Third Article (I believe in....the forgiveness of sins). He has a number of catechisms [Luther's obviously being the one and only] on his shelves. He was interested if there were any shifts in the presentation of material [questions, selection of supporting passages, phraseology) between the WELS "Gausewitz"(Copyright 1956) and the WELS "Kuske" (Copyright 1982, 1989, 1998). In the following K=Kuske, G= Gausewitz. The "#'s" refer to the respective editions. His comments are in [ ].

His reason for doing the comparison is that the Gausewitz version was the catechism used for his own confirmation classes in the early-mid 1970's. However, the Kuske version has been the official one since the early 1980's. That means a majority of the current WELS pastors who still teach catechism would have used the Kuske version. If they are younger WELS pastors, they would themselves have been instructed along its line, maybe never knowing anything at all about the Gausewitz.

Kuske 253. How many people did God declare righteous? God declared all people righteous. (objective justification) [2 Corinthians 5:19 is offered as a proof passage but not Romans 3:28]

Gausewitz 261. To whom does God forgive sins? God forgives sins to me and all believers. [Romans 3:21-28 is cited as a Scripture reference; Romans 3:28; Romans 10:4 is cited as the Scripture passages. He underlined the divergence between the two. This clearly proves a stated shift. Also note how Gausewitz sticks to Luther's phrasing in the answer.]
______

Kuske 255. Why is it important, then, that the Holy Spirit work faith in me? It is important that the Holy Spirit work faith in me so that I do not trust in my own works but only in the righteousness God gives me by grace in Christ. (subjective justification)

Gausewitz 260 Why do we say that the Holy Ghost forgives sins, whereas we are made righteous before God through the redemption of Christ? The Holy Ghost brings the righteousness of Christ to us by the Gospel and gives us the faith to believe it. [Note that "the righteousness of Christ" is linked with "the faith to believe it." The two are not bifurcated and isolated, by default, from each other.]

______

Gausewitz 262. Where are sins forgiven? Sins are forgiven in the Christian Church on earth. (Ministry of the Keys)

[No similar question is asked in the Kuske catechism. In the UOJ scheme, there is salvation outside the Christian Church? Yes, and apart from the Means of Grace entrusted to the Church!]
______

Gausewitz 263. Why do we say, In the Christian Church on earth? We say this because Christ has given the Gospel to His Church on earth; in the Gospel we have the forgiveness of sins.

[No similar question is asked in the Kuske catechism. In the Gospel, then necessarily implies through the Means by which it is conveyed. Massive, airy universal absolutions apart from the Means rob them of the grace God intends to give through them. Therefore, our confidence of salvation would be divorced from the very Means of Grace God intends to use to create and sustain "justifying faith" as the Confessions put it.]

The above quotations are proof of a discernible shift in WELS catechisms.

***

GJ - Many people are doing research about this topic. This is an excellent example of what many of us suspect - that the UOJ position of WELS hardened and began to dominate. Departures like this are difficult to trace, but WELS members and pastors can figure this out.

The Gausewitz catechism was the normal version for a long time. As I recall from an essay by Slide, it had all the correct attributes for a WELS catechism.

When the new Kuske catechism came out, WELS made that the normative version, and WELS pastors tend to be robotic in accepting new improved whatevers, like the 100 proof hymnal from James P. Tiefel.

See if you can find a Gausewitz and do your own comparison with Kuske. Comments are most welcome.

This is why I have never used a catechism except Luther's own. I do not like Talmudic editions with hundreds of questions and answers. Like the original Talmud, they can be used to obscure the Word of God in the name of teaching it.

WELS pastors have shown repeatedly that they do not grasp the meaning of the Eighth Commandment, how it applies to their own behavior, how it does not apply to addressing false doctrine.

I noticed in reading the new book that the Seminex crowd liked crying Eighth Commandment too. WELS leaders like to brag about how superior they are to Missouri, but they have used the same dishonest or ignorant tactics to advance their own false doctrine.

Apologia pro Vita Sua - Or - "Not So, Ottenites! Keep Your UOJ, Your Ever-Changing Paraphrases of the BibleAnd Your Adulterous Pals

Shaping the facts is the Christian News
answer to sound doctrine.

Pastor Otten likes to shape the facts so I seem to be some evil creature in cahoots with the apostates in his own synod - which excommunicated him.

Otten claims Beck's Bible does not drop the ending of Mark's Gospel, but that translation has gone through more revisions than Hillary Clinton's face.

I was around when God's Word to the Nations Bible Society was being run by an adulterous friend of Otten's, spending gushers of money on himself - all grants from the adulterous St. Marvin Schwan. When the Schwan money ran out, the mistress left  Phillip B. Giessler. Well, they were married, because Mrs. Giessler made Phil choose between her and the mistress. He chose the mistress and thought the boy was his. When one of my members saw Phil in a park with the boy, she said, "Is that your son?" in a friendly way. Pastor Phil said, "No, no!" in a way that really made her wonder.

Although Phil was lying, he was right after all. The former mistress said that was not his son, as he was told. So wife #2 was gone, and he he married a third time.

And yet good old Phil is still a pastor and has been featured in Christian News like a regular good guy.

Dr. Phil now - he calls himself Dr. Phillip B. Giessler.

DR. PHILLIP B. GIESSLER 
Missionary to Africa Dr. Phillip B. Giessler has been a Lutheran day-school & high school teacher; a parish pastor & Bible teacher in excess of 40 years; Christian author; an Instructor of students at Concordia Theological Seminary—Ft. Wayne, IN; CEO of God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society; and Editor of the New Evangelical Translation (NET) of the NT. Currently, he is a commissioned missionary professor to seminary and evangelistic students in Kampala, Uganda; Yambio, Sudan; Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. Dr. Giessler is on his fourth missionary journey to Africa. This journey brings him to: Pretoria, South Africa; Mwika, Tanzania; Meru, Tanzania; Nairobi, Kenya; Kisii, Kenya; Entebbe/Kampala, Uganda; Gulu, Uganda; Arua, Uganda; Lira, Uganda; Mbale, Uganda. Pr. Giessler’s ministry primarily involves teaching seminary students, local pastors and missionaries wherever they can be gathered. Pr. Giessler often has to cover the traveling expenses of those who come to be equipped for outreach in their local areas. Dr. Giessler has visited Peace the last several years and receives financial and prayer support from our members.

Wikipedia:
In 1978, it was decided that Beck's translation would be revised. Phillip B. Giessler, a pastor from Cleveland, Ohio, then formed a committee and revision work began in 1982. The work of Giessler's committee (although it was—much like Dr. Beck's earlier work—essentially a "one-man" translation team with a single English reviewer) yielded another translation of the New Testament that was released in 1988 titled New Testament: God's Word to the Nations (GWN) This work was later renamed the New Evangelical Translation (NET) in 1990. (Important note: Beck's AAT, according to Rev. Hackbardt, only served as a basis for "English style.") In early 1992, according to Hackbardt, all the earlier New Testament work was abandoned by the Society and an entirely new Bible translation based on the best Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek texts and using the translation principle "closest natural equivalence"—beginning with the Old Testament—was completely re-translated by the Society's five scholars, 17 technical reviewers, and four English reviewers. In early 1994 the translation was renamed GOD'S WORD prior to being turned over to World Bible Publishers in October 1994 for publication in March 1995.

Back to the Giessler issue. Nobody knew? He was cheerfully running a Bible society as a pastor and spending money on his mistress? How many times will Missouri repeat the Bishop Stephan example? Nobody knew! And yet when finally everyone knew, he was still a pastor albeit in a more Pietistic sect that does not - officially - accept divorced and remarried pastors. He sold the dishonest Rich Food Plan, too.

Exactly what did this Beck translation accomplish? As far as I can see, it ended up in the hands of a lying adulterous spendthrift, then morphed into one more liberal translation. The final results? Nobody cares. 

Did the original Beck drop the ending of Mark? Part of the booklet was written 16 years ago when I owned a Beck. Since I check my sources, the ending was probably dropped into a footnote. Likewise, the original RSV changed the Virgin Birth of Isaiah 7 and then reversed itself when a cry went up from mainline denominations about denying the Virgin Birth - as the RSV clearly did. But they could then say, "No we don't." But look at the passage in a traditional RSV. The footnote says, "Or a young woman." 

The results are the same. Footnotes can be so useful.

David Beck's Reading Comprehension Is Zero - And He Substitutes Ad Hominem for Wit.

I am used to being called a liar when I am telling the truth. Pastor Otten is a proven liar, as all UOJists are. He gloated to me about working with Paul McCain to get Al Barry elected. McCain sent early copies of Barry material so they all came out early in Christian News. McCain also bragged to me about doing this with Otten. Both of them heatedly denied working with each other, and Otten put his denial in Christian News. If the truth had been known, Barry would not have been elected, and McCain would have had to work for a living as a pastor. 

The LCMS Seminary tuition scandal - bonus link here. << This link works.

The Becker headline is Gregory L. Jackson Lies about Christian News.

It's a lie that Otten always praised Concordia St. Louis as the greatest seminary in America? I read that countless times, even when Johnson was seminary president and kissing up to Otten. I was there when a Johnson fax came through to Otten. Herman was delighted.

When I met Johnson it took about two minutes to identify him as a certified apostate. He saw how I trapped him and backed away from his gushing about Karl Barth (the Swiss Commie adulterer). Funny how often adultery comes up with false doctrine.

The next point is where I wrote about the Purpose-Driven Life being required reading at St. Louis - and that Luther's sermons were not even suggested reading.

Becker: "Jackson also complains that Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” was required reading at CSL at one time. There is nothing wrong being at least aware of this book."

The seminary is excused. Rick Warren is excused. But I am a liar? Who omitted the crucial comparison of Warren required and Luther not even suggested? Becker did. He has no reading comprehension (the kindest possible explanation). This is not a matter of "being aware of this book" but saying it was so important to the LCMS that It. Must. Be. Read. By. All. Students.

Calling Becker a lightweight in theology would be an insult to all the lightweights, the DPs and seminary professors.

Lightweight - destined to be a DP or seminary professor.

000

Norma Boeckler's Art Featured Twice - Ichabod Called a Liar - 4/18/2016 Christian News

Christian News featured this booklet cover by Norma Boeckler twice in the new issue.

David Becker called me a liar for identifying the radical nature of UOJ blowing the LCMS apart.

Someone concerned about bad translations asked me to write about "making disciples," so I wrote the booklet.

More later. Film at 10.

Turning Green into Gold in the Garden - With Little Work Involved

The new and older roses have enjoyed two sessions of rain in the front yard. Everything looks a bit jumbled right now. Each rose location has clay heaped around it or perhaps needs a little filler soil.

The new roses are planted in the midst of clover, dandelions, and grass - all doing very well from the rain and sunshine. Clover seems to have had a banner year. The remainder of the backyard grass is almost completely clover, an excellent crop for beneficial bugs. Beneficial insects like tiny flowers and often need pollen and nectar in their adult stage. Clover is also known for fixing nitrogen in the soil.

Rhizobia are bacteria that must have a plant host to let them fix nitrogen. Atmospheric nitrogen, an inert gas, is useless to plants in that form but becomes the foundation of life in compounds. This relationship was discovered in 1889, and now we understand in part how fungi also contribute to this vast exchange of nutrition through soil microbes - bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes, and more.

Legumes like clover, beans, mesquite, and carob fix nitrogen in their root nodules, and many are turned under (plowed! rototilled!) to provide green manure for the soil. The Creation gardener avoids turning soil upside-down, but there is nothing wrong with turning the green into gold with mulching.

A sunny day today means we will place cardboard, newspaper, and shredded wood mulch over the green grass, clover, and dandelions in the front yard. The royal rose does not like competition. Some tiny plants--garlic chives, garlic, or low-growing beneficial hosts--are tolerable, but not a mass of plants greedy for sun, soil, and water. The green grass and clover will become compost.

When the blanket of cardboard, newspaper, and wooden mulch is applied, the sunlight is shut out from the low-level plants and they begin to die. Thus the grass, dandelions, and clover become green manure. The bacteria attack the soft material and turn it into compost. The roots are tougher, so the fungi can dissolve them with their tubular dissolving and transportation power. Each microbe has its own jurisdiction and carries out its duties according to conditions.

At first the grass and clover become a blackened mat of organic matter, the nitrogen in the green converted back into soil compounds. Once the decomposition is complete, the soil is soft, dark, and easily penetrated by rose roots.

The mighty earthworm mixes the combination at the end of the decomposition cycle. This is the ideal situation for plants grown in clay. The tiny size of clay particles allows more electrical charges and therefore more ion exchange of minerals. This is a version of the water softener process. The traditional water softener is loaded up with ordinary salt. Ion exchange takes the insoluble salts out and replaces them with soluble salt. Ion exchange in the soil means plants get the minerals they need.

Clay is also good for holding rainwater. Fill a partial hole in the clay soil with water - nothing happens in 30 minutes. That can be good but we also want soil that lets the rain in rather than just bouncing it away. Mulch itself soaks up an enormous amount of water and holds it in place for the soil creatures. When earthworms and their buddies work that damp mulch into the soil, they create thousands of tunnels for the rain and soften the soil for plant roots.

My experiment in Midland with compost on top of clay showed that the clay was mixed with compost over time, making it easy to work. Soil moisture will also make a difference. Mixing compost into clay with a shovel is extremely heavy work - and why? The earthworms will do the job better in time and enjoy jolly meals while multiplying like crazy.

Plantain was called White Man's Footprints
by the Indians. Some people use it as an herb.
Those who use no weed killers will be happy to eat the
weeds they deem worthwhile.

Weeds? Make Them Compost
My first weed patch came from using wood mulch without a newspaper base. The crab grass, which was originally brought over as a grain crop, grew splendidly through the wood, basking in the sunniest part of the yard. We simply covered that with newspaper and mulch, after mowing it. Another layer of cardboard and mulch will make it the tomato garden this year.

I had another sunny areas filled with plantain. I simply mulched the area and  planted it with blackberry canes, which are growing well.

If weeds grow well, so will plants. Some of the weeds are valuable for birds and beneficial insects, so do not be too quick to get rid of them.

Pokeweed or Pokeberry -
hate it or love it for being prolific.
Birds love it the attractive, toxic berries.

Irony Alert
I was busy planting various berry plants last year and cut down pokeberry 8 feet tall. The pokeberry is loved by all birds and clearly planted by birds wherever they rest.

Beautyberry is planted for the birds to enjoy,
late in the season.

What Is Justifying Faith? 2012 - Augsburg Confession Apology versus WELS-ELS

Faith is that my whole heart takes to itself this treasure. It is not my doing, not my presenting or giving, not my work or preparation, but that a heart comforts itself, and is perfectly confident with respect to this, namely, that God makes a present and gift to us, and not we to Him, that He sheds upon us every treasure of grace in Christ.

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Part 3. What is justifying faith?

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "What Is Justifying Faith?":

The Huberites have this to say about the Holy Spirit's faith - the righteousness of Christ.

WELS Siegbert W. Becker:
"Faith does nothing more than accept the forgiveness proclaimed in the Gospel. It is not a condition we must fulfill before we can be forgiven. It is not a cause of forgiveness on account of which God forgives us. The forgiveness comes first. Faith is merely the response to the message. God says to us, “Your sins are forgiven.” This is objective justification, and God’s message to us is true whether we believe it or not. Faith makes God’s message its own and says, “My sins are forgiven.” This is subjective justification. The whole doctrine is just as simple as that." Page 12, The Place of Faith
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF

WELS Our Great Heritage states, "And yet many Lutherans still labor under the delusion that God does not forgive us unless we believe. Instead of seeing faith as nothing more than the spiritual hand with which we make the forgiveness of God our own, they see it as a reason why God forgives us. They believe that Christ has indeed provided forgiveness for all men, that God is willing to forgive them, but before he really forgives he first of all demands that we should be sorry for our sins and that we should have faith. Just have faith they say, and then God will forgive you. All the right words are there. The only thing wrong is that the words are in the wrong order. God does not forgive us IF we have faith. He has forgiven us long ago when he raised his Son from the dead." (p. 59)" WELS MLC President Mark Zarling, "Faith does nothing more than receive the forgiveness which is offered in the Gospel. It is not a condition we fulfill nor is it a cause of forgiveness. We are already forgiven. God's message of justification in Christ is there whether we believe it or not. Faith then receives the blessings." And, "Faith that accepts the good news of universal justification is the work of God the Holy Ghost." Page 7
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/ZarlingJustification.pdf

WELS AZ/CA DP Pastor Jon Buchholz
"Faith doesn’t bring anything into existence that doesn’t already exist. Faith doesn’t cause something to happen. Faith simply grasps— trusts—something that already is in place." Page 14
http://archive.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?2617&collectionID=1161&contentID=76707&shortcutID=26388

August Pieper, third volume of the Quartalschrift , "But whoever molests the doctrine of justification stabs the gospel in the heart ...even if he ever so much emphasizes justification by faith."

(W)ELS sister Synod the CELC
Faith is like the empty hand of a beggar, which receives the gift that someone puts in it. If the beggar refuses to accept the money, which is given to him, he gets no blessings from it. Yet it is not the beggar who creates the gift. The gift is already there and it is reached out to him without his cooperation. In the same way it is with faith.
http://www.celc.info/home/180010197/180010197/docs/2008JustificationThemeOutreachMessage.pdf?sec_id=180010197


From Another Reader:

The other is from WELS's Meditations, March-May 2014, for Monday, 17 March 2014.  The howler is in the second column which reads:  "No matter what you did yesterday -- or failed to do -- and no matter what you will do tomorrow, God has forgiven you."

I Got Me a Chrysler, It Blooms about 20, So Hurry Up and Bring Your Jukebox Money. Chrysler Imperial Rose from Walter Lammerts, Creation Scientist

I Got Me a Rose, It's as Big as a Whale.

Wikipedia

'Chrysler Imperial' is a strongly fragrant, dark red hybrid tea rose cultivar. This variety was bred and publicly debuted by Dr. Walter E. Lammerts of Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge, California, USA in 1952. Its stock parents 'Charlotte Armstrong' (cerise pink) and 'Mirandy' (dark oxblood red) are both 'All American Rose Selections'-roses (awarded in 1940 and 1945).

The elegantly tapered buds open into high-centered blossoms with a diameter of about 11 – 13 cm (5 inches) and can have up to 45-50 petals (which is a high number for a hybrid tea rose) with a rich, deep, velvety red color. The cultivar flushes in a chronological blooming pattern throughout its local season, starting in late spring until fall. The long-stemmed rose flowers are long lasting and showy and make excellent cut flowers.

The rose bush reaches 75 to 200 cm (30 to 72 inches) height, and a diameter of 60 to 120 cm (24 to 48 inches). The shrub has an upright form with very thorny canes and semi-glossy dark green foliage. It is not a cold hardy rose (USDA zone 6b through 9b) and needs good sun exposure. Without good air circulation it is susceptible to mildew and blackspot, particularly in cool climates.^[1][2]

Cultivar (PP01528), United States Patent No: PP 1,167.

Official association with Chrysler Corporation (producers of the Chrysler Imperial automobile)[edit]

In the 1954 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, 25,000 Chrysler Imperial roses in individual refreshment tubes of water covered the base of the float entered by the City of Detroit, Michigan, US and Chrysler Corporation. The theme of the float was Life of an American Workman, as Chrysler Corporation founder Walter P. Chrysler had titled his autobiography. The center of this float featured the figure of an American Workman striding out from the pages of a book to strike a heavy hammer upon an anvil from which floral "sparks" flowed, their trains leading in several directions to various Detroit signature products: an automobile, a truck, an airplane, a tank, and a boat.^[3]

Walter Lammerts, PhD, genetics

Walter Lammerts

Dr. Walter Edward Lammerts (Born::September 25, 1904-Died::June 4, 1996) has a doctorate in genetics, and is well known as a prominent breeder of roses. He reportedly produced 46 new varieties of roses between 1940 and 1981 including the famous Queen Elizabeth. Twenty-five percent of his roses were chosen by the All-American Rose Selection for the years top rose variations. As a result of his efforts the American Rose Society created an entirely new class of rose known as the Grandiflora.

It would not be inappropriate to state that Walter Lammerts is one of the fathers of the modern creation science movement. He was the first president of the Creation Research Society (the first creationist organization in the U.S.), which was founded by 10 scientists in 1964. Dr Lammerts was also the editor of the Creation Research Society Quarterly (CRSQ) from 1964 to 1968. Most notably, he was an active researcher for several decades in biological and geological sciences, and much of his work was published in the CRSQ.

Lammerts' Queen Elizabeth Rose
created a new category of roses - the grandiflora.

*** 

GJ - Lammerts was in contact with Pastor Herman Otten about Creation Science and the need to fund it. As Luther noted in his Genesis commentary, there have been many theories about Creation, and this continues to divide those who reject evolution, which is worthy of rejection.

Red Wiggler's Frequently Asked Questions

Where did you grow up?
Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. I was still young when I was mailed to the Jackson Rose Farm, where I have been working ever since.

How would you describe yourself?
I am all muscle, just one long tube of muscle, devoted to tunneling through soil. Bristles on each segment of muscle allows us to pull through the earth.

What do you do for the soil.
My cousins and I contribute in many ways. We are part of the soil food web. We tunnel through the soil and deposit our casts - we are always eating.

That sounds rather me-centered, or worm-centered. How is that good?
The effect of what we must do is good for all the creatures.

A grand statement - explain.
To live and reproduce, we have to tunnel through soil. These are our talking points:

• Tunneling loosens the soil, so roots can grow more easily.
• Our movement also allows more air to reach the soil and lighten it. 
• Our digging means rain and tap-water can penetrate the lower levels better instead of running off.
• We are good for clay because we mix organic matter with it and loosen it.
• We are good for sandy soil, because we add organic matter to it, to hold more water.
• We concentrate the nutrition plants need in our casts, which are effective but gentle on plants.
• Our casts make the soil hold together better.
• We also excrete nitrogen products through our custom kidneys.
• We multiply rapidly and spread our eggs throughout the soil.
• We like sweet soil, but we also sweeten it more by adding Caltrate (TM) to the soil with our calcium carbonate glands. Most plants like sweet soil.

It is said by Lowenfels that you "graze on bacteria." Can you justify this behavior?

We survive that way. The bacterial we consume work on all that organic matter we swallow and pass through our digestive system. The bacteria break down the materials, releasing the nutrition for everyone to use. When it comes to eating bacteria, blame the protozoa for that, but they let bacteria thrive and also keep them in check by eating them. It's a complicated relationship.

Indeed. You sound like a harmless and yet beneficial creature. Do you have any enemies?

We have many, due to our astonishing fertility and muscular build:

1. Robins hunt us all the time, and yet people cheer for the robins.
2. Moles consume us as they tunnel through the soil, but they like grubs too.
3. Beetles and lizards eat earthworms.
4. Centipedes hunt us.
5. Ants bury our departed. So they say. They dine on us, to be frank.
6. And fisherman dote on us, then dangle us in the water for fish to grab.

So how do you fit into the soil food web you mentioned?
We are the obvious sign of soil fertility. You cannot see the bacteria and protozoa, which are very important. Fungi are also microscopic. Fungi do the heavy lifting in breaking down organic matter like wood and bark. Compared to all the microbes, we are giant freight trains, moving bacteria and other microscopic life around. We are individually small, but we add up to monstrous size and weight per garden, always working and fertilizing. You dig a hole and call it heroic. We turn over all the soil - routinely.

What are your turn-ons?
We like organic matter on top of the soil. That gives us darkness for working it into the soil - we react against sunlight. We also like the moisture held in the soil, so mulch does both for us. We also like fallen leaves, plant material, and grass clippings.

What are your turn-off?
We hate all poisons. They kill us and they slaughter our food sources. Rototillers are sick, babaric imitations of what we do. They osterize the soil and kill us.

What is the latest book you have read?
The Wormhaven Gardening Book. There is a sequel coming out later - Creation Gardening.