Fifth Greek New Testament Lesson. John 1:19ff and Reviewing the Rules

 This Facebook Page is for all video Greek NT lessons
and the blog posts -
Bethany Lutheran Greek New Testament Lessons.

This is the Ustream link where we broadcast live and store the videos, but the videos are also stored on the FB page above, and appear on the blog and my personal FB page.  

Video of Fifth Greek Lesson ---
Remember the rules for reading a new language:
1. Look for the subject and verb.
2. Spot the obvious words and ones with derivatives.
3. Guess the other words.
4. Never leave the English version open, but use it as a last resort.

Well known passages - 

ΠΡΟΣ ΤΙΜΟΘΕΟΝ Β΄ 3:161550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

16 πασα γραφη θεοπνευστος και ωφελιμος προς διδασκαλιαν προς ελεγχον προς επανορθωσιν προς παιδειαν την εν δικαιοσυνη

---

1 John 4:8

8 ο μη αγαπων ουκ εγνω τον θεον οτι ο θεος αγαπη εστιν

---

John 1:19 καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ μαρτυρία τοῦ ἰωάννου, ὅτε ἀπέστειλαν [πρὸς αὐτὸν] οἱ ἰουδαῖοι ἐξ ἱεροσολύμων ἱερεῖς καὶ λευίτας ἵνα ἐρωτήσωσιν αὐτόν, σὺ τίς εἶ;

20 καὶ ὡμολόγησεν καὶ οὐκ ἠρνήσατο, καὶ ὡμολόγησεν ὅτι ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ὁ χριστός.

21 καὶ ἠρώτησαν αὐτόν, τί οὗν; σύ ἠλίας εἶ; καὶ λέγει, οὐκ εἰμί. ὁ προφήτης εἶ σύ; καὶ ἀπεκρίθη, οὔ.

22 εἶπαν οὗν αὐτῶ, τίς εἶ; ἵνα ἀπόκρισιν δῶμεν τοῖς πέμψασιν ἡμᾶς· τί λέγεις περὶ σεαυτοῦ;

23 ἔφη, ἐγὼ φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, εὐθύνατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, καθὼς εἶπεν ἠσαΐας ὁ προφήτης.

24 καὶ ἀπεσταλμένοι ἦσαν ἐκ τῶν φαρισαίων.

25 καὶ ἠρώτησαν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῶ, τί οὗν βαπτίζεις εἰ σὺ οὐκ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς οὐδὲ ἠλίας οὐδὲ ὁ προφήτης;

26 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ ἰωάννης λέγων, ἐγὼ βαπτίζω ἐν ὕδατι· μέσος ὑμῶν ἕστηκεν ὃν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε,

27 ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος, οὖ οὐκ εἰμὶ [ἐγὼ] ἄξιος ἵνα λύσω αὐτοῦ τὸν ἱμάντα τοῦ ὑποδήματος.

28 ταῦτα ἐν βηθανίᾳ ἐγένετο πέραν τοῦ ἰορδάνου, ὅπου ἦν ὁ ἰωάννης βαπτίζων.

Celebrate the Reformation's 500th by Printing Your Own Amazon Books. Self-Publish in Your Own Congregation

The new humor book by CFW Walther, his Pastoral Theology, provided by Concordia Publishing House for $40, got me thinking out loud with a faithful Lutheran.

That Walther book - hardback, in black and white - costs about $3 to print. There are development costs, like those five-martini lunches, but they melt away with a big printing. A large printing is little more than the cost of paper and ink. Why the new Bible translation every month? Because Bible publishing is like a printing money.

I know the cost of Amazon books, because I publish them often. Creation Gardening, full color cover and interior, is only $5 at my cost. The retail cost goes mostly to Amazon.

Making Disciples, with a color cover and black and white interior - that is only $2 at my cost. That is an old tradition. The author of any published work gets a discount so he can give away books to reviewers, relatives, and friends.

How Does This Work in a Parish?
When I worked with The Lutheran magazine, long ago, the marketing guy told us that hand-outs have a very short life with any individual. Like newspapers, they get tossed quickly.

Magazines last much longer, a month or so.

Books last for years. People do not easily throw away a bound book. My garage is an example, and most homes have orphaned books that no one can quite throw away.

A congregation can put together a worthwhile booklet that teaches traditional worship, Lutheran doctrine, and other spiritual matters, add abundant illustrations, and print it any number for $2 each. That would have a full color cover, front and back, and black and white interior.

Vanity Presses
Vanity presses make it feasible to print more books for almost the same price. Thus 500 books cost only a little less than a thousand, or two thousand. Why not 5,000?

Print on Demand
But Amazon prints for the same price each, the only bargain being shipping to the same address. One at a time is a big chunk of money compared to the book itself. If a large box is sent, the shipping is minimal per copy.

Kindle E-Books
I publish everything first as printed books and also as Kindle E-books. Those who pay their Kindle $10 fee get them free. The rest get them at whatever price is established. No author's discount there.

Putting Them Together
I pay Janie Sullivan to get the final version ready for Amazon/Create Space. She takes care of format issues, typos here and there, and porting the work to Kindle. Amazon (Create Space) also has people who do this for a fee.

If a congregation believes in what the Sower and the Seed teaches, then it will have no doubts about sowing the Word carelessly, not measuring the soil (as the Fulleroids do) but trusting in the Word.

Matthew 13 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

 Count the seeds that grew from one seed.

Everyday Wonders of Creation Are Waiting To Be Observed

 The comparison with rain and snow teaches us
how effective the Word of God is.

February is going to be warm in this area, according to predictions. I was overdressed in a sweater yesterday afternoon. Bird food lasts longer at the feeder on warm days, because the bugs start to come and provide a more attractive meal.

The fun of Creation Gardening is making a small move and seeing the results from it For example, I knew toads were good for the garden, but Sharon Lovejoy's chapter on them in A Blessing of Toads made me realize how beneficial they are.

 Logs are birdfeeders, bird perches,toad shelters, and more.
Fungus converts wood into food, and earthworms adore them.

I began to leave logs on the ground, to provide shade and food for the toads, instead of having the city haul them away. Pruning trees can create a lot of opportunities. So - one day I moved an old log. There sat a large toad - unmoved, unscared, unblinking. He did not hop away, perhaps recognizing me as his kindly landlord. Since then I have made a point to set up shallow pans around the yard, to catch rain and water from the soaker hoses.

 Ichneumon Wasp.

I grew up with the idea of most insects being beneficial. But I had little idea about how many spiders and bugs feed upon pests, until I read Jessica Walliser's How To Attract Beneficial Bugs To Your Garden.

Lovejoy also wrote about them. I bent over the roses on a calm day, and tiny Flower Flies and Ichneumon Wasps working the flowers. Tiny does not mean insignificant. They feed on nectar and pollen in the adult stage but begin life by dining on pests. Some are eggs laid on top of pests. Others begin by being planted in pests. Still others hatch near pests and devour what they find.

Darwin found beneficial bugs disgrossting. How could a benevolent Creator have creatures eating creatures? That moved Darwin toward evolution, a theory already promulgated but one which he promoted heavily. I wonder if anyone said, "Mr. Darwin, creatures eat creatures all the way up the food chain."

When a bug landed on my car, instead of brushing it away, I leaned in closer to identify it. Sadly, that was the beginning of the summer of Japanese beetles - shiny metallic shells - destroyers of roses. As Walliser warned, I began to see the bug life as more dynamic than the growth of plants.

The Creating Word did not fashion the universe and let things run on their own. Every single living thing has a purpose, which is so easy to see in the garden. When our Army Ranger friend calls my yard a jungle, I ask him, "How many roses do you have?" He muttered, "You do have nice roses."

Those beneficial bugs and spiders protect the roses from pests, especially the devastating aphids, which destroy rose buds before they can open up. I had to learn this - Pests are food for pest-eaters, so let them imagine they are in charge, before the beneficials move in to establish their own families.

I got into higher education through computer science, because my first intentions were to enhance what I could do with publishing. Along the way I learned quite a bit about computers, enough to hold my own against 12 year-olds, and began teaching about them as well. The key to networking is an elaborate system of computers talking to each other, swapping information, and managing problems on their own.

Plants, bugs, spiders, and microbes do the same thing. They send signals that keep everything working, as long as we do not bomb them with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.

Beneficial bugs fly to the rescue when damaged flowers send out chemical signals - "Help us!" The sounds of insects munching and sipping are another distress signal. Without this network, the beneficials would die and the plants would suffer. My task is simply to let the network function and not kick out the power cord that enables it.

How can anyone miss the fact that this relationship was engineered at Creation and is managed today by divine grace? My Almost Eden neighbor dumped trucks of topsoil on his lot. Soon after, the mounds were covered with a wide variety of plants, all serving to feed birds, bugs, and other wildlife.

Sassy and I walked onto the lot, and I thought, "He is not relying on a stuffed owl to scare away birds!" We approached the place where the large, unmoving bird was perched above the planting area. No movement. "He is going to have to move that thing to keep it working," I thought. I moved to the side - the head moved. My nearsighted eyes now focused on a very large hawk glowering at us, measuring us as potential food for his little ones. AE told us, "I get hawks all the time, because I have so many rabbits in the field."

This works as well in our little congregation with the world-wide footprint. We broadcast Means of Grace services, teach the Scriptures and the Book of Concord, and publish Lutheran materials. God's will and God's Word are the same, so the effect is always divine.  Some are quite antagonistic about the Word and Confessions, no matter what their station in life. In this Age of Apostasy, the greater the deviation, the more influential the person.

The Reformation was long in building up, about 100 years from the execution of Huss. But the printing press, a remodeled wine press, made it possible to print hundreds of Bibles and works of Luther. The Word was effective in uniting the Gospel party and opposing the system of works and punishments of Rome.

Luther's only plan was to preach the Word as is. As Jacobs taught, the purer the Word, the more powerful it is.

Conference of WELS District Presidents - The First Draft of the Report

The Conference of Presidents (COP) met in January for its regular winter meeting. Some of the highlights of the meeting include:

• The COP received the report that the synod’s capital debt was completely retired 18 months ahead of schedule. The COP asked that a special thanksgiving prayer be written and sent to pastors for use in worship services in February. Or else.
• WELS Communications Services shared plans for congregations to sponsor showings of the new Luther movie in local theaters. Several congregations will participate in a pilot program, with information about how to participate in this effort in this newsletter. Not that we teach or even study Luther, but it is a marketing opportunity.
• The COP discussed the process for appeals of disciplinary action for called workers and lay members. The COP wants to be sure that the process is working as intended and will hold further discussions on the matter in April. Church and Changers get free passes, of course.
• The COP was informed of the progress made in discussions regarding the Grenada mission’s application for membership in the South Atlantic District. The mission had been an independent mission in fellowship with WELS.
• The COP affirmed its support for the calling of one director to serve the Commission on Youth and Family and the Commission on Adult Discipleship. The position is currently included in the draft ministry financial plan being considered by the Synodical Council.
• The COP appointed Professor Craig Hirschman to the Commission on Whoopee Worship.
• The COP expressed its support for the joint statement on fellowship prepared by a committee of representatives from WELS, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Little Sect on the Prairie), and the Church of the Lutheran Confession (SIC). The statement will be presented for adoption to the synod convention by the Commission on Inter-Church Relations. The ELS has already approved the statement, and the CLC is discussing it.
• The COP plans to create video presentations encouraging Congregation Mission Offerings. Congregations in each district will be shown a video introduced by their own district president.
• The COP expressed appreciation for the work done by WELS parasynodical Jeske organizations. The COP will be exploring ways to foster even closer communication, cooperation, and obedience to them.
• The COP approved the concept of adding a year of internship to the Martin Luther College Urban Ministry program, plus a PhD program in diaper changing at the Early Education Center.
• The Compensation Review Committee shared the results of its effort to review the synod’s compensation plan. The COP encouraged the Compensation Review Committee to submit its recommendations to the Synodical Council and to the convention this summer.
• The COP is working with Communication Services to improve the way that delegates to the synod convention are prepared for the work they will do at the convention. GA is being considered as the best approach.
• The COP reviewed the pastoral vacancies in the synod, noting that there are currently 86 vacancies in congregations, 4 vacancies in foreign missions, and 3 vacancies in professorships, and 12 vacancies in the Office of District President.
• The COP continues to discuss doctrinal matters relating to fellowship, congregational governance, doctrinal supervision, and communion practices. We are praying for more Fuller graduates, more open communion, and more women ministers.

As is the case at every meeting, the COP held wide-ranging discussions on the call process, questions regarding special legal situations, and ways to foster inconsistency, duplicity, and sanctimony in matters of doctrine and malpractice.

Serving in Christ,
President Mark Schroeder

And - the real president of WELS - Mark Jeske,
earning $140,000 a year on the Thrivent Board.

Lutheran Pastor Enjoys These Books

From a Lutheran Pastor:

Love your Greek lessons, especially the approach.  If you're willing to take in a Lutheran pastor who has a lot of exposure to language but has never made the Greek Bible his own, I would like to take your class.  How would I join the live Thursday class?  Or I will keep following the recorded lessons. [GJ - See below. We practice Open Greek Lessons.]

I have enjoyed lurking on your sites for years and purchased several of your books.  My favorite is still Thy Strong Word.  Currently, I have my copy lent to a congregational member who is loving it too.  

My son's favorite is Catholic, Protestant, Lutheran.  

Stay faithful & God bless you.

***

GJ - Anyone can follow the live Ustream broadcast on Thursdays. 7 PM Thursdays.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

The relevant posts and saved videos are found on the Facebook page -

Bethany Lutheran Greek New Testament Lessons.

We make books available at little to no cost for those who appreciate them.

Amazon books by Pastor Gregory L. Jackson, PhD

Every time someone clicks on that link, an angel gets his wings.

 If you love angels, click on the link above - or this one.

More Stumps and Leaves - They Make Sense If You Read More about Them

 By Roger Culos - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23164794. Sweetgum tree spikey seeds.

My neighbor across the street was trimming his Sweet Gum tree. I will try to get a photo later when I pose my stump collection. Some praise this tree, and cities once encouraged their innocent residents to plant it for shade.

No other tree is so messy, producing countless spiky seeds that cover the yard and the streets, especially here where so many grow.

 The print copies of Creation Gardening are starting to arrive,
and they are even more beautiful than imagined.
Thank you - Norma Boeckler, Janie Sullivan, and
Virginia Roberts.

I began talking to the crew while Sassy worked the group for food. She eventually got two plates of meat. We talked about two of my trees that needed more pruning but were not safe for amateurs to trim. Too tall.

I asked for a family discount.

"I am his brother-in-law."

I said, "We are neighbors, like family." I patted my neighbor on the back.

They gave me a figure.

"I don't have that kind of money. I'm not a painter, like him." They laughed.

We settled on a bargain family discount, and they offered to come in a week. That changed to the next day, at 10 am. They arrived at 8 am.

They quickly reduced the maple tree to a more slender shape than ever before. In the back, they cut off a tall section of a tree that shaded the entire fence along the Wright side of the yard. The crew of three quickly stacked all the trashy parts along the curb for pick-up and cut up the trunk pieces into stumps, some quite handsome and tall.

A distant neighbor decided to bag all his leaves in two categories. Some were large bags of oak leaves. Others were filled with pine needle (no cones). They gave me two carloads with several bags still left behind. Our helper thinks we have put thousands of pounds of organic material on the yard. Counting the stumps, that is reasonable.

Our helper came over and lined up the smaller trunk pieces for more rustic fencing around the gardens.

You may be wondering, "How did those gigantic maple trunk pieces come crashing down without hurting the Crepe Myrtle plants that were just dug in?" I told them about the row of new plants on the West side of the rose garden. Although one enormous section came crashing down there, the entire row was not only spared, but looking like nothing happened. Some roses may be messed up, but they looked good too. And I could hardly expect a pruning party to do no harm below, given my own record of falling over and into the roses.

Our helper and I also raked more broken up and half-decayed maple leaves onto the big Crepe Myrtle that I dote on.

The point of leaving so many tree pieces on the ground is basic to Creation Gardening. Feeding the soil is really adding organics for the wee little creatures that break down leaves, grass, and wood into foods that other creatures use and plant roots absorb.

As Jeff Lowenfels has shown in his brilliant books. the relationships between root fungus, bacteria, protozoa, earthworms, moles, all soil creatures, and plant roots is complex and multi-layered.

Saying the plants need nitrogen is almost as useful as saying, "Turn the computer switch to on." Once the gardener realizes that microscopic fungi protect and feed plants, sending them water and nitrogen and organic compounds, the vale of leaves and dead tree parts will rise in value.

But wait - there's more. A tree stump is a resting place for squirrels and birds, which enjoy a lookout. The interface between the stump and soil is a dark, damp rotting zone, promoting and protecting various delicious creatures. Birds and toads know this, so they like stumps for food. Once the food party begins, more creatures arrive. They may be the beetles that hunt at night for pests.

Over time, as Jeff Lowenfels has shown, the organic compounds are locked up and swapped among all the creatures in the soil. A dead earthworm is a tragedy, according to the ancient Egyptians, but it is also food for ants, who carry it away in a solemn procession, or fertilizer for a lucky plant.

Knee-deep in leaves in the early spring means being knee-deep in flowers later.

Teaming with Microbes is where smart gardeners start to understand the  symphony of complexities and dependencies
in the garden.

Perry Noble, formerly of NewSpring Church, returns to preaching at Charlotte's Elevation Church | The State

 Perry Noble picked the wrong denomination.
WELS rewards and promotes alcoholics - and sues their victims.

Perry Noble, formerly of NewSpring Church, returns to preaching at Charlotte's Elevation Church | The State: "BY TIM FUNK
tfunk@charlotteobserver.com

Perry Noble, a pastor fired last July from his South Carolina megachurch for problems that included alcohol use, returned to the pulpit over the weekend – at Charlotte's Elevation Church.

It was at the invitation of Elevation Pastor Steven Furtick. The two are close friends and Furtick chose Noble, soon after Elevation was launched 11 years ago, to be among the out-of-town pastors on the church’s board of overseers.

“In July of 2016 I thought I would never preach again!” Noble wrote on his Facebook page Sunday morning. “Last night, (Furtick) allowed me the honor of returning to preaching on the stage [nota bene - the stage] of Elevation – and what I thought was dead came back to life again. ... Jesus brings dead things back to life.”"

WELS knew Ski had a problem. Buchholz laughed about it.
So WELS bought Ski a bar to call his church,
and they kept the liquor license.

'via Blog this'

---

It's All About the Personality Cult in Church Growth  - July, 2016

Perry Noble asked his supporters at NewSpring Church to stand down this week.

“If you love me, be at NewSpring on Sunday, and the next Sunday, and the next Sunday,” said the founder and former senior pastor of the South Carolina megachurch, which claims 30,000 members across 17 cities.

Purr-pendicular

Someone Is Missing from the 500th Anniversary Emmaus Conference - Luther

These guys know next to nothing about Luther, so they make their synodical heroes "unsuspecting Luthers."

Luther earned a doctorate and had a distinguished career when he began the Reformation by posting his theses in Latin.

Walther had a BA and was a loyal disciple of an adulterous, syphilitic Pietist - Martin Stephan.

Luther taught the same consistent doctrine - Justification by Faith based on the efficacy of the Word.

Walther taught consistently against Luther and the Scriptures, basing his dogma on what he learned from Stephan, who never graduated from a university - but attended Halle U. and dropped out. Walther confessed and did not deny, but confessed that he learned justification from Stephan.

Luther changed the concept of the Christian home by living it.

Walther hypocritically covered for the adultery of Stephan, joined in the exodus caused by Stephan's house arrest, and soon "discovered the adultery" - an excuse to organize a mob, threaten and rob Stephan, and kidnap him to Illinois.

As someone observed, the Stephanite migration was a cancer transplant. So how does any of that make Walther "the American Luther"?

http://theemmausconference.org/wp/

The 10th Annual Emmaus Conference is Friday, April 28th, 2017, with a banquet the evening prior on Thursday, April 27th. The topic for the 2017 Emmaus Conference will be: “The Unsuspecting American Luthers”. The backgrounds, challenges, and impact of several Lutheran theologians in the 20^th Century will be explored and discussed.

• C. F. W. Walther, by the Rev. Dr. 5th VP Daniel Preus
• A. Hoenecke, by the Rev. Dr. Prof. John Brenner
• U. V. Koren, by the Rev. Prof. Markos DeGarmeaux

Daniel Preus

John Brenner

Markos DeGarmeaux

---

More Biblical Illiteracy from Higher Things - Misleading the Young. More Hogwash from Father Hogwart

 This video tirade is such a hoot, especially since his pals
were howling to have him block me - and my wife - from his precious FB page. Is he reading from cards? Weird pauses.

Sorry Father Hogwart - there is no love for false teachers like you, no forgiveness for wearing a collar and teaching against the Apostle Paul.

Everyone is forgiven, apparently - the message is quite vague - but no one is forgiven who holds something against another person. In other words, the Office of the Keys has been abolished in favor of Anti-Nomianism - the Law is obsolete.

Missouri began on the wrong road, Halle Pietism, but the Reformation and Luther's doctrine have been taught inconsistently in the midst of their UOJ. But the more they ape the language of WELS and the Kokomo Statements, the worse the LCMS gets with all their contradictions, absolutions, and condemnations.

Like WELS, they rush to absolve publicly the worst sinners - who remain unrepentant. But they destroy pastors and teachers trying to do their jobs faithfully.

With UOJ, a Higher Things leader can dump his wife and children, marry his mistress, pick up a new call, write a book, and be called a "conservative leader." No, not Hogwardt, but someone before him.

Another Missouri weakness, often shared with WELS, is simply announcing propositions, with no Biblical support whatsoever. If readers can stay alert during the bluster, they will find nothing of substance. As Luther wrote, the Enthusiasts talk about Jesus but tear down the bridge to Jesus - the Means of Grace.


Hogwardt is a complete moron, and he proud of it.

Avoid Terminology Meltdown at the Emmaus Conference 2017

The time has come to stop praising an absence of faith,
which may be called UOJ but is really the foundation of all sin.

The leaders of the Emmaus Conference in 2017 could avoid embarrassing themselves the way Jay Webber did in 2015. It is never too later to recognize error and repudiate it.

Here are some basics.

Vocabulary is the key. If someone sticks to Reformation and Biblical terminology, correct teaching is more likely to follow.

The Atonement is not being disputed among Lutherans, so it is a foolish waste of time to keep insisting that Justification by Faith means a "Limited Atonement," as if Christ only died for the elect. He died for the sins of mankind, once and for all.

Therefore, Justification by Faith is not Calvinism. That charge is akin to calling Tom Brady a linebacker. The Lutheran Reformation has always been associated with Justification by Faith. Romans and Galatians teach Justification by Faith. So do the other Pauline letters.

No one should confuse the Atonement with Justification, using one term for the other. The Atonement has many synonyms, and redemption is one of the clearest to use. Christ has redeemed the world, but that is not the same as "God has declared the entire world righteous."

Whether someone uses Universal Objective Justification (a WELS obsession), or Objective Justification (LCMS-ELS) or General Justification (Hoenecke), all three terms teach the same nonsense - utterly wrong and ridiculous. They insist that God has "declared the entire world righteous" or "absolved the world of its sins" and even "saved the entire world."

Making up new claims is clownish, but the UOJ peddlers never stop. Jesus did not declare the world forgiven when He said "It is finished" on the cross. He said that as a statement of His atoning death. Let's not make things up - that is a job for Enthusiasm, the creative manufacture of dogma.

God did not declare the entire world righteous when He raised Jesus from the dead. The justification of Jesus in 1 Timothy 3:16 is the proof of His sinless nature, since all sinners die.

The angelic blessing of the shepherds is not UOJ, as some would love to claim. "Peace on earth" is not world absolution. Note that all three "Moments of World Absolution - Without Faith" contradict each other, typical of Enthusiasm. For example. Roman Catholics cannot figure out if Purgatory lasts several weeks or several thousand years. They have taught Mary ascending into heaven as a Holy Day, so some want to add Joseph to this honor peculiar to the Son of God.

Thus, with mission creep, the bimbos of LutherQuest echo JP Meyer in having everyone in Hell forgiven and having the status of a saint. And Jay Webber confusedly has "in Christ" refer to the entire world, and not simply to believers, as the Word plainly shows.

Anyone can follow a theme in the Bible and see how it unifies the One Truth of the Scriptures. Abraham is a good example, justified by faith in Genesis 15, believing the Promises of God that he will be a father of nations. Abraham is the prime example of Justification by Faith in Romans 4, Galatians, Hebrews, James, etc. To fix UOJ - which is impossible - one would have to show Abraham was justified without faith in God's Promises.

If Abraham is not clear enough, then turn to Jesus. We are justified "by the faith of Jesus" in Romans 3:22, Galatians 2:16, and Philippians 3:9. Thy precious NIVs and even the NewKJVs mistranslate these passages as "faith in Jesus." The original text and KJV and Tyndale have "the faith of Jesus..."

Thus - the New NIV has to insert an "all" into the text to make it agree with Webber, Valeskey, Bivens, Scaer, and the National Council of Churches - all are justified. Shameful - and no one seems to notice.

KJV Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [all have sinned, but not all are justified]

NIV Romans 3:22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [all have sinned and all are justified - like magic. Notice how this mistranslation fits so well into faith in the false dogma of world absolution.]

If you deny their precious UOJ, the Scaerites
will jump on you like a hobo on a hotdog.

Lastly, one cannot teach the invisible and visible Means of Grace and UOJ-OJ at the same time. The invisible Word of teaching and preaching convey Christ to us through the Holy Spirit. The visible Word of the sacraments also bring Christ to us through the work of the Holy Spirit. Claims of world absolution trouble the House of Faith and inherit the wind, always yielding a tornado of false doctrine and destruction everywhere.

KJV Proverbs 22:29 He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.

 Fuerbringer read Luther's sermons all the time,
as he indicates in his excellent histories.