The entire faculty of Concordia Seminary opened a can of Eighth Commandment on two LCMS districts. Does anyone read Luther's Large Catechism today? |
I began reading the new issue of Christian News yesterday and thought of responding, but I said to myself, "This requires two mugs of pour-over coffee in the morning." January 1, 2018 issue.
What is the issue? St. Louis supports a nuanced (fuzzy) view of Creation, with variations on the meaning of day and a young earth.
The real issue, based on the Book of Concord, Smalcald Articles, and basic Biblical teaching is - the seminary's denial of the efficacy of the Word.
All issues are founded on the Biblical efficacy of the Word, which is always united with the power of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Holy Spirit never works apart from the Word.
All false doctrine comes from Enthusiasm, separating the Word from the Spirit. When the LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELCA-CLC (sic) blockheads claim God absolved the entire world of sin and saved all people, apart from faith, that dogma is Enthusiasm. Nothing in Scripture reveals that dogma, although it is found in Halle Pietism and mainline liberal apostasy.
I doubt whether the LCMS will resolve this Creation issue, because it involves the bad guys (UOJ Concordia faculty) versus the bad guys (UOJ Bronze Agers).
Both sides reject Justification by Faith, so they are apostates. I dislike the term liberal, because that suggests someone might be just a little bit off in doctrine. Apostates are those who once believed the Scriptures and now live in a dogmatic world they have created for themselves.
Like the recent popes, Dale Meyer includes Jesus in his message about Mary. Notice how LCMS leaders are sinuflecting toward Rome. Mary, didja know? |
UOJ Apostates
Like the Kloha issue (cafeteria text of the Bible), Otten has his valiant heroes lined up against the forces of darkness in the LCMS.
But if one wants to be a Biblical teacher, he has to enter the fray with clean hands.
The LCMS, WELS, ELS, and ELDONUTs have made the Biblical text an adiaphoron, a matter of indifference. They all go along with the Tischendorfians playing with the text in the NIV, ESV, and other money-makers. Not only that, they are fine with the dynamic equivalence paraphrasing that began with the arch-heretic and unbeliever Eugene Nida.
Google that name Eugene Nida. Here - I did it for you: Eugene Nida Googled.
In a few words, Nida influenced almost everyone to abandon precise translation for anything goes translation - RSV and its cousin ESV, Good News, Classic NIV (gone), New NIV (worse than ever), The Message.
Between voting on the text of the New Testament (Nestle-Aland text gang) and constantly changing the translation, the mainline apostates have deliberately confused the message of the Bible. What flavor do you want? Willow Creek demanded feminist Bibles and got them. The SynCons and ELCA itched for Universalism and got an "all" added to Romans 3. Soon all the new translations will say "all are justified," with pinhead pastors screaming at laity - "The translations all agree, and I do too. I STUDIED GREEK!"
Braaten and Jenson, and Lies - Oh My! Braaten and Jenson, and Lies - Oh My! Braaten and Jenson, and Lies - Oh My!
The new issue devotes space to Carl Braaten praising Jenson, his co-conspirator in the Braaten-Jenson Christian Dogmatics. They gathered that epic pile of compost because the LCA-ALC seminaries were abandoning theology altogether. They included Forde, who is hotter than Georgia asphalt in the LCMS, from what I hear.
I forgot to buy Luther trinkets from Concordia Publishing House. This one must be an antidote to Church Growth Eyes - a bizarre concept that Waldo Werning promoted heavily in the LCMS-ELS-WELS. |
Braaten is still around, an old 88, and promoting Robert Jenson, who just died.
The Braaten-Jenson epic compost pile was scraped together for this reason -
‘Seminaries of the ELCA are now institutions emphatically inhospitable to theological work and instruction, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.’ After one particularly long, exasperating faculty meeting I had had enough of the politically correct shenanigans at the seminary. The arrival of the Seminex faculty – ten former professors of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis – had made things worse” (13). Christian News, 1-1-18, p. 17.
Braaten and Jenson created the mess they complained about. They romped about the ALC-LCA for decades, getting enormous grants and salaries to be theological experts, closet Unitarians, sanctimonious frauds.
The sleepy LCMS, spineless WELS, and disappearing ELS have all contributed to the decline. Now the leaders are merely rats fighting to get the best seat on on the lifeboat.