Claim rejected in corruption case of ex-Arkansas lawmaker | The Seattle Times

Claim rejected in corruption case of ex-Arkansas lawmaker | The Seattle Times:

"Attorneys for Republican former Sen. Jon Woods, Ecclesia College President Oren Paris III and consultant Randell Shelton say the documents were in an unsearchable electronic form. They asked that prosecutors provide the documents in a different form or be prohibited from using them at trial.

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Judge Timothy Brooks ruled Friday that while getting the information was time-consuming, the defense could have purchased software recommended by prosecutors.

Woods is accused of steering state funding to the college in exchange for kickbacks from Paris that were paid by Shelton."

'via Blog this'

The Post-Kantians - Modern Theology in the Dumpster. Faith Words of Toys for Tomes

 Jay Webber imagines that Luther taught against
Justification by Faith - OJ. Hahaha.

I was discussing philosophy with one reader. I am ambivalent, because philosophical trends have an enormous impact. However, the study of philosophy largely a waste of time.

Whether we are talking about Protestant, Lutheran, or Roman Catholic theologians, they all start from the same weak foundation. The turning point may be Halle's Schleiermacher for the Protestants, Kant for everyone. The results are the same - they are all rationalists who simply use the words of faith as concepts, intellectual toys for their tomes.

Most people may not realize this, but the vast majority of clergy have been trained against the Scriptures by those who no longer recognize the Bible as the singular, inerrant revelation of God. There is hardly any escape from this. Lutherans find that the so-called right wing consists of another set of rationalists who think their left wing has gone too far. The clowns at LutherQuest make Christian News buffoonery look like scholarship. Note - they all hate Luther's doctrine as much as ELCA does, just not as flamboyantly.

In the 1950s, the Protestants waited impatiently for the RSV Old Testament to come out. When the Isaiah 7 prophesy of the Virgin Birth was twisted into an ordinary birth announcement - a young woman will conceive - the USA erupted. The RSV, conceived by the Communist National Council of Churches, backed down and restored the Virgin Birth, putting their phrasing into a footnote.

But recently, the New NIV made the old one look classic by translating Romans 3 as "all are justified," when that is entirely absent from the text, from St. Paul, and from the Bible. Nobody murmured. The Lutherans celebrated the Reformation by printing catechisms with the New NIV - and for ironic humor - with the ESV (Calvinist, Feminist RSV) as an alternative.

The NEW NIV is feminist too, so the question is whether one desires this bad NIV paraphrase or that bad ESV one, both with the promise of altering the text and paraphrases in the future. Perhaps - like the old NIV - the New NIV will be so outmoded that it will also disappear as the NIV Century 21 develops. Oh Oh. More new printings of everything, just as before.

Obvious Results
Since the Protestants and Lutherans no longer trust in the Word at all or care about the actual content of the Bible, they rush to adopt something that works for them.

 Given the way Luther writes about the Gospel
and the synods try to monetize it.
why should any leader care about Biblical teaching
or want to quote Luther?

Two Volumes of Luther's Sermons Finishing at Once

 Luther is cool again.

All the synods have offered a gratuitous nod toward Luther for the Reformation's 500th. Now they can stop pretending and run back to Rome or forward to Fuller Seminary, their twin sources for nourishment.

Volumes 4 and 5 of The Sermons of Martin Luther are in the finishing stages - that is - I have completed my efforts on the Gospel sermons. Janie Sullivan is finishing Volume 4 and Norma A. Boeckler is adding art to Volume 5.

Anyone will be able to order Volumes 1-5 in the Student Economy Edition for roughly $25 plus shipping and taxes (author's price). It is a big savings to get multiple copies sent at once.

I am doing this so people can get Luther's work around for very little. No profit is figured into this so that cost is no barrier.

The color version of the same volumes, author's price, is about $30 per volume. Retail is much higher for both versions, with Amazon keeping almost all the difference. So the idea from the start was to provide Luther for very little cost.

When this is done in 2018, God willing, the entire BW set plus the Gems (a separate volume) will be about $45 or so. The Gems will be collected in one smaller volume and be all color. Some may want to send around the Gems alone, because it is a great introduction to the Biblical theology of Luther.

The Lutheran Reformation did not promote a denomination or sing praises to their man-made institutions. Instead, the leaders sought to clarify the meaning of the Holy Scriptures. Luther did not worry about numbers but concerned himself with being faithful to the Word of God.

 Confessional is a popular term,
but most unpopular among the leaders.
Neuhaus called himself a Confessional Lutheran
while preparing to become a Roman Catholic priest.