For Bethany Lutheran Church Members and Friends. Protecting You - So Only the Chinese, the NSA, and Facebook Have Your Data

 Microsoft will have your computer purring again, but will it work?

As people may know, various updates were foisted upon our computers, for our own good. They kept my Civ IV game folders and erased the game files. Thanks, Mr. Gates.

I used to get a version of the newest post in the email box, and I forwarded that as a blind carbon copy to the membership/friendship list.

They now consider a blind carbon copy list as spam - and block it.

If I send it in the open, which I do not like to do - they block that too.

I can send the Sunday service as a Word attachment to a few members/friends who really like to have it. So my list is very small, trying to avoid a total block.

So do not be offended if you were used to messages on Sunday and a copy of the service, but no longer get it. If I can find a way around it, keeping addresses private, I will. However, I doubt that will happen.

The complete service is always posted an hour before we start and it is normally the top post for Sunday.

 A glimpse into the Window 10 update project.

Luther's Sermons - Updates

Most of the work is done on my end. Glitches develop in dealing with HAL, so I am addressing them. When they are solved in a day or two, I will start sending out volumes.

In the meantime I had to deal with excessive medicine charges, insulin being the worst. I applied for relief from that company and faxed 25 pages in support. I have done that before with another company, only to be turned down twice, approved, then faced with the challenge of even more of the same. I gave up on them. The genius of this approach is to make billions of dollars and then say, "But we have a program for people."

So I did that for insulin and also took a secondary approach to the whole problem. The doughnut hole in MediObamaCare came early, insulin costs zoomed, needs went up. My guess is that ObamaCare, which merged all plans into a gigantic taxation scheme, is still wound around all prescriptions and gives every company a green light to overcharge.

Years ago, a member was out of insulin on a trip, went to a pharmacy, got what he required (no prescription needed) and paid a modest charge. Pepperidge Farm and I remember.

So that was a side adventure, plus a new platform to learn for online teaching. Done.

Stump, Creation, and the Fallacy of Emphasis

 This Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary building was a mansion located at Stevens Avenue and East 24th Street in Minneapolis and was named for the first president of Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary, Joseph Stump. Stump Hall functioned as a single student dormitory and had its own on-site boarding club, in which students shared responsibilities for meals. Back of photograph reads: Stump Hall, Stevens Ave. @ 24th Str., Mpls. Luther merged with Northwestern, and the Northwestern name was later dropped. Luther is selling off land to stay afloat.

 Stump belongs in the era when Evangelicals sought a compromise with evolution.

Stump, Joseph

(October 6, 1866–May 24, 1935). B. Marietta, Pennsylvania; educ. Capital U., Columbus, Ohio, and Luth. Theol. Sem., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pastor Pennsylvania and New Jersey 1887–1915. Prof. Chicago Luth. Theol. Sem., Maywood, 1915–20; Chicago Luth.Divinity School 1920–21; pres. and prof. Northwestern* Luth. Theol. Sem. 1921–35. Works include An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism; The Christian Life; A Handbook of Christian Ethics; Life of Philip Melanchthon; The Christian Faith; A System of Christian Dogmatics. See also Ministry, Education of, X M.

The Christian Faith by Joseph Stump.  Chapter III:  Creation.  66-7.

Much argument has been expended on the question whether

the six days of creation were of twenty-four hours each, or

whether the days represent long periods of time.  The record in

Genesis permits the holding of either theory.  The word "day"

is sometimes used in Scripture to designate a period of twenty-

four hours, and sometimes it is used to denote a period of time,

as for example, the "day of the Lord" (Isa. 2:12; 13:6).  A

thousand years are with the Lord as one day, and one day as a

thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8).  That God could, if He chose to

do so, fashion the world into its present form and order in six

days of twenty-four hours each is clear to everyone who believes

in God's infinite power.  On the other hand, it is equally clear

that God was, if He so chose, perfectly at liberty to use a long

period of time for bringing about the results specified under

the head of each day's work.  The Scriptural record does not

define the length of the "day," and leaves us free to believe

either that the days were periods of twenty-four hours or of

millions of years.

***

GJ - Someone sent me this, which is relevant for the current deflections. All the Lutherans (ELCA-CLC-WELS-ELS-LCMS) are skipping past the Chief Article, Justification by Faith, because their precious Justification without Faith is "settled doctrine," according to Jay Webber's catechism student Jon-Boy Buchholz.

OK, let's call it OJ or UOJ - The Justification of the World (John Sparky Brenner) - which is like putting an transparent plastic raincoat over a saggy pair of pajamas. The terms are all cover for Universalism, not that they change the agenda of Universalism, only the marketing for its foul, anti-faith optimism.

Therefore, the current debate is Creation.

Stump's paragraph is delightfully ambiguous, and purposefully so. One can continue to believe in the six 24-hour day Creation or allow God - in His freedom - to take as long as He wished.

Contrariwise, Roland Bainton enjoyed talking about the Yale professor called Old Yom because the man insisted that "Yom" - Hebrew for day - always meant a 24 hour day. For Bainton, that clinched the argument that Bible could not be taken literally.

When I studied this topic some years ago, it was apparent that Evangelicals sought to compromise with Darwinism this way, by saying God created - but over a long stretch of time.

The Fallacy of Emphasis
The Fallacy of Emphasis is old and popular, often used at home, and frequently employed in denominations. For instance, rather than deal with false doctrine in ELS/WELS, the ELS bigshop yelled, "Would you take communion with Paul Kelm?"

The fallacy is based on shifting the emphasis to a new topic. Could a day be any length of time?

But the real issues of Creation are two-fold, both neglected at a genius level:

1. Is the Word of God powerful and effective?
2. Was the Son of God the Logos of John 1 and "and God said" of Genesis 1?

As I have written frequently, the efficacy of the Word is foundational in the Bible - not a matter of denominations or cultures or wheredidjagotoseminary. The power and efficacy of the Word has been neglected to the point of almost exterminating knowledge of the same in our culture. Proof is the "conservative" Lutheran dogma of UOJ, universal absolution without the Word, and the stinking mess called Church Growth.

John 1 is clear.

KJV John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The efficacy of the Word does not allow for a compromised version of Creation.

Rationalism is like drinking salt water to cure one's thirst - the thirst only grows. Calvinism is at the root of this compromise, this fallacy of emphasis.

Does God have the power to create in an instant, a  24-hour day? Of course. Man's double-minded faith does not in any way change what God can do and what God has done. How it is that someone can pray for a solution to troubles and see that answered in an instant, in a way that never could have come from human skill, wisdom, or scheming?

Too Many City-Slickers in Theology
I argue that we have too many city-slickers in theology, not enough farmers. Mrs. Ichabod asked me, "How do you find a perfect cantaloupe every time I ask you to guy one? And avocados too. Perfect."

My answer, "You married a farmer."

Daily work in the garden reveals the perfect harmony of God's Creation, which demands the coordination of all elements together, not Project Management expertise of man.

Here is one example out of millions. The earthworm is perfectly engineered for a number of tasks:

1. Burrowing in the soil - all muscle, bristled segments, tenacious.
2. Sweetening the soil - unique Caltrate glands that add usable calcium to the soil, not like those useless egg shells.
3. Fertilizing the soil - adding fine soil and useful chemicals to droppings.
4. Increasing nitrogen - kidneys and digestion both add to usable nitrogen, the foundation for green plants and animal muscle.

But there is but one problems - earthworms do not digest food. Bacteria in their guts do that. Bacteria:

1. Reproduce at a phenomenal rate.
2. Attack soft materials already chewed or ground in the gizzard by the earthworm, who swallows tiny pebbles to help that function.
3. Move so slowly due to the tiny size, that they need rides everywhere, and the worm is their city bus.

 Our recent selfie.

O wiser than wise men, how did God set aside enough time to design - at your speed - the earthworm for bacteria and bacteria for the earthworm? I have to ignore a lot of other dependencies just to outline this one. 

Everyone should get down on his hands and knees each day - and weed. Yes, a closer look at Creation would dispel doubts about how God works and how fast His will is effected.