SpenerQuest Proves the OJ and SJ of Luther by Citing F. Pieper on the Subject

 Luther? No, let's talk about our little sect instead.

Steve Schmidt (Sschmidt) Intermediate Member Username: Sschmidt Post Number: 305 Registered: 3-2017

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - 7:19 pm:       Luther, St.L XX:925: "That blind, mad spirit does not know that meritum Christiand distributio meriti are two distinct things; so he mixes them up. Christ once for all merited and purchased for us remission of sins on the cross; but he distributes the same, wherever He is, at all hours and all places, as Luke writes, ch. 24:46 f.: 'Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day [there you have his merit] and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name [there you have His merit's distribution].' Therefore we say that in the Lord's Supper is forgiveness of sins, not because of the eating, or that Christ there merits or purchases remission of sins, but because of the word, whereby He distributes this purchased remission among us and says: 'This is My body, which is given for you.' Here you hear that we eat the body as given for us; and while eating it, we hear and believe this; so then forgiveness of sins is there distributed, which was purchased, however, on the Cross." (F. Pieper, 3:375) "In short, he who does not believe that by His substitutional satisfaction Christ accomplished the complete reconciliation of all mankind (the objective reconciliation) has lost the thing a really justifying and saving faith believes in (its object); for him, accordingly, the Christian Church is no more the congregation of believers, but an association of the supplementers of the merit of Christ." (F. Pieper, 3:405)

***

GJ - Anyone starting with F. Pieper or his brother August Pieper will end up "proving" OJ and SJ all over the place.

CFW Walther made sure his successor was a man he chose himself, and he rigged the votes accordingly. See L. Fuerbringer on the selection of F. Pieper.

Thus Jay Webber proves his case with Rambach the Pietist and Quistorp, an even more obscure Pietist.

But Luther always treated the Atonement this way. Christ is all forgiveness. But of course.

The folly of the rationalistic Pietists, then and now, is their merging of Justification by Faith with the Atonement - creating (in their tiny brains)

1. The Justification of the World, 
2. God absolving the sins of the World
3. General Justification 
4. Objective Justification, and
5. Universal Objective Justification.

The clearest proof of their error is their refusal to post any argument in favor of Luther's Biblical and the Book of Concord confessional stance - Justification by Faith. They cannot even say the words they dread so much.

Sassy Walks, Talks, and Balks

Some people, who have no trouble with false doctrine, are pained to read posts about Sassy, the Cyber-Pet. Yet there are those who do not have a dog but love to read about our three-legged wonder-dog. This post serves two purposes, to annoy the under-worked and poorly educated (from Mordor), and to please the fans of Sassy Sue.

We walked at 6 AM today, and I used the inclement weather (only 72) to do some weed trimming. Sassy often sits in the grass, in the middle of the garden, or on the driveway to supervise. I looked around for her and saw that she bulled her way through the front door, only partially shut.

We often see Pat and her husband John. We were too early for them today. Her favorites are Ranger Bob and his brother Mike, who fuss over her. "She is so spoiled," Bob says as he feeds her treats. She greets him like a long-lost owner, even though we see him several times a week. She barks loudly, her favorite way of greeting friends.

Sassy is an effective manager. She slows down behind me to explore her favorite places. Sometimes she wants to cross the street on her own. Then we have a dog-whisper talk. I hold her head gently and speak softly. "You have to ask to cross. You know that." If she pulls away, I talk longer. Afterwards, she jumps up to lick my hand, asking to be restored and reconciled. I tell her what a great dog she is, how much everyone loves her.

Sassy uses her paws for a lot of communication:

1. A very light tap - Reminder of a task that needs to be done.
2. A gentle paw scrape - Time to get that done. I tell Mrs. Ichabod to wait for the next stage when I close my eyes.
3. Three very firm paw scrapes - Her patience with me is ended, and I get her arrogant German Shepherd look. I get her regular food - her crunchies.
4. Waving the paw in the air - that turned into our mutual joke because I found it so funny. She used her claws to make noise on an antique table, then on a metal air filter. When I laughed about it, she did it with a big grin each time, now in the air because her filter machine and table are too far away. The paw is for treats. She does it to Bob in another room, too.
5. Tapping us for her night-time routine. Sassy taps me, then Chris, for petting and talking. We tell her how much everyone loves her and how much we enjoy her. She grins and soaks it up for five minutes, then goes to sleep at the foot of the bed.
6. Holding down our hands. If we are doing a good job petting her, Sassy uses her paws and legs to hold us in that position.
7. The gentle knee-scrape at dawn. Sassy thinks that when Dawn, the rosy-fingered child of Morn, appears, she should be enjoying her walk. 
8. Sassy also pouts for attention. She sits with her back towards us and looks toward us a bit, to see if we still love her. "Want some loveys?" She barks and moves up to get some petting, tummy rubs, ear massages, and pep talks.

"Resist the Beginnings" - Lenski/Pfotenhauer

Sassy's best friend at the drive-through window suggested Frosty Paws for her. I bought the pet iced milk, saw how it was made, and switched to Great Value ice cream packets. Sassy loved it from the start and we continued to serve GV as Frosty Paws.

Sassy made it clear that it was a daily night-time ritual, so we began an evening drama with her. She shows a certain amount of discomfort and murmurs a bit. We debate what the problem might be. Finally we discover it. "Frosty Paws? Does she want Frosty Paws?"

Sassy's response varies. Last night she smacked the bed with her paw and grinned, then looked out the door so I could find where the Frosty Paws were located. Once we discussed it with company in the living room. Sassy yelped from the bedroom, yes - she wanted it now.

Every so often, the product name makes her drop her head onto the bed - she is ready for it. We can get kisses and loveys from bringing the subject up. Once discussed, she is confident I will deliver one teaspoon for her. I sing various product songs as I carry it from the kitchen. Mrs. Ichabod always serves.

Frosty Paws, Frosty Paws, Gotta Have Some Frosty Paws
Guess who's here to scoop it and deliver?
You can have your Frosty Paws, get a lot of Frosty Paws.
Have some fun and get some loveys too.
Aw-woo-woo-woo.

 Resist the beginnings? We have had nothing but fun with this.

Catastrophic Losses Facing the Church Growth Lutherans of the LCMS-WELS-ELS

 The Three Blind Guides cannot teach Luther, cannot preach what Luther risked his life to restore, and subsequently - cannot get many to fill their shrinking seminaries. 

Luther did not emphasize a visible church instutition, unlike the hollow leaders of today. He focused on the preached Word, which was his most important task.

Today's leaders feather their nests with enormous salaries and benefits, plus free world travel and extras available only to them. How much does that cost the slaves rowing the ship? - none of your business.

 Questions? Concerns? I thought not.

Their number one goal is staying in office. They line up their hatchet men to handle the executions, so they remain above the fray.

They silence any coverage of their clergy-teacher crimes. If coverage were fair, they would be charged for living like kings while they let pastors and teachers starve. But they are God's instruments too. God uses them to punish the laity and clergy who tolerate and promote false doctrine.

The proofs are available each day. Every time these Emmaus heroes open their mouths, they yap about Justification without Faith - that is, when they are not filling their mouths with steaks, desserts, and libations with exotic names. Their repudiation of Luther is not an accident. They are moving at full speed toward 100% persecution of Justification by Faith, assisted by their numbskull seminary and college faculties.

The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation was a complete success. All they did was mock Luther with trinkets and a few cheap shots. "In spite of his shortcomings, Luther..." I think that came from WELS - but they are all alike. That would be a miracle, to call someone with Chytraeus' ability - and he is the forgotten one in Luther's circle.

 Time of Grace is the media voice for WELS-LCMS-ELS, and ELCA. Look at the bedfellows - Mike and Scott - so rad, so ELCA, so 21st century Rome.

Luther exalted marriage as God's creation, and often wrote about his wife and children. One would imagine from the LCMS-WELS-ELS messaging that they only teach for the 2%, so they will end up with the 2% alone - just like ELCA.

The present situation can be described in a few words. The apostate leaders - The Three Blind Guides - have simply dropped  The Means of  from The Means of Grace. Therefore, they chatter about grace but join the generic Protestants - Calvinists mostly - in denying the The Means of Grace while talking about grace. As Luther wrote, they talk about Jesus all day while tearing down the bridge to Jesus. Oh, they may even say "Word and Sacrament" but they deny its meaning. On a good day, they may remember the Holy Spirit - how noble - but they never teach that the Spirit never without the Word, the Word never without the Spirit. That is sound doctrine. (Hoenecke)

1. The Spirit never without the Word - God never teaches or works apart from His Word. Using man's wisdom and marketing yields poporn and soda churches - with clowns for preachers, ushers for deacons, and customers for members. The Three Blind Guides continue to support gimmicks rather than the efficacy of the Word. 
2. The Word never without the Spirit. This is difficult but necessary in this Age of Apostasy, to trust God's Word to accomplish His will, even when it means doctrinal splits, closing congregations, and growth from the most unlikely pastors and teachers.
3. That is sound doctrine. (Hoenecke) One cannot claim to be a Biblical Christian while denying this simple summary of the Word's efficacy and power.

 He read Luther all the time - deal with it.

Two ELCA Seminaries Get a Total of $50 Million; Wartburg $500,000.But Can Anyone Teach Justification by Faith? They Are As Bad As WELS-ELS-LCMS, But They Have More Loot

 Grand Tour of All ELCA Seminaries linked here.

https://www.luthersem.edu/news/press_room.aspx?news_item_id=383

Luther Seminary receives $21.4 million commitment to pilot a two-year Master of Divinity program

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Luther Seminary has received the largest single donation in its history: a $21.4 million commitment to pilot a two-year Master of Divinity program.

The two-year degree program, covering tuition and some living expenses for students, will launch in fall 2019 and enables students to shorten their education to two years from the current three to four years and ensures that they take on no new personal debt.

Dean Buntrock, the founder and former chairman and CEO of Waste Management, Inc., and long-time benefactor of Lutheran higher education, made the donation covering the five-year pilot program. The donation includes a year of planning and resources to add faculty and staff.

“This pilot project is designed to inspire and support innovative leadership development churchwide," Buntrock said. "It will attract exceptional candidates from across the nation who show potential to be spiritually strong, theologically faithful, and entrepreneurially innovative. The outcomes will lead to further church leadership innovation for years to come. It is also my hope that others in the church will step up and ensure the long term and broad sustainability of education for our church. ”

Buntrock’s gift builds on Luther’s new vision, new curriculum and, starting in fall 2018, the new Jubilee full tuition scholarship for all Master of Divinity and Master of Arts students admitted to Luther Seminary.

“This transformative investment by Dean Buntrock promotes game-changing innovation in educating church leaders, ultimately serving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and church bodies across the nation,” said Rev. Dr. Robin J. Steinke, president of Luther Seminary.  “Luther Seminary’s new vision calls us to undertake exactly this kind of leadership formation, embedded within some of the most adaptive congregations we serve.”

Students enrolled in this newly designed Master of Divinity will work through the curriculum year-round for two consecutive years while completing concurrent part-time congregational internships that provide high-impact learning experiences through real-world application. They will receive full-tuition scholarships, living expense stipends, books and other learning materials, computer software, and travel expenses for immersion experiences. They also will be paid for their internships in accordance with ELCA standards. In addition, by reducing the time spent in seminary to two years, students will realize a significant savings in living expenses, estimated at more than $100,000 per learner.

"Identifying, inviting, equipping, and supporting leaders is one of the highest priorities for our work in the ELCA,” said Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton, who launched the ELCA Leadership Initiative in November 2016. "We are thankful for Dean Buntrock's generous investment in Lutheran theological education and the benefits this innovative pilot program will have across the church."

Founded in 1869 by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants, Luther Seminary currently educates nearly 40 percent of the ELCA’s pastors and church leaders, provides continuing education to more than 3,000 pastors each year, and supports more than 50,000 pastors every week through our Working Preacher digital resource.

Our vision is this: the Holy Spirit calls Luther Seminary to lead faithful innovation for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a rapidly changing world.

United Lutheran Seminary Gets $30 Million Gift

Latini lasted a bit longer as What's-His-Name at Michigan Lutheran Seminary (WELS), and missed out on her $30 million bonus.

United Lutheran Seminary, a theological school with campuses in Philadelphia and Gettysburg, has received a $30 million bequest from an anonymous donor, described by school officials only as a woman who lived in the Midwest and died earlier this year.

The donation — one of the largest in the history of an educational institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — will be used to fund a faculty chair and student scholarships starting in the fall of next year.

It was announced May 18 on the school’s website before graduation — the first since Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mount Airy and its counterpart in Gettysburg merged last year after decades of failed attempts.

“This [donation] will have a transformative impact on educational opportunities for future leaders of the church for decades to come,” said the Rev. Angela Zimmann, vice president of institutional advancement for the 325-student United Lutheran Seminary. “We’ve been working to reduce their educational debt and make seminary education accessible to those who feel the call to serve, and this donation will have that impact.”

The bequest was made in memory of the Rev. James Franklin Kelly, a Lutheran minister who graduated from Gettysburg Seminary in 1920, and his wife, Hope Anna Eyster Kelly.  Rev. Kelly died in 1983 at age 89, and his wife died in 1973.

Rev. Kelly served as pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Wilmington from 1926 to 1953. He also led the congregations of Christ Lutheran Church in Erie and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Connersville, Ind., where he moved after he resigned from the Wilmington church.

According to obituaries in several newspapers, the Kellys had one daughter, Gladys Kelly Ellis, who died at age 95 in February. She had battled polio and rheumatic fever as a child and became a nurse as a tribute to the women who had tended to her.  During World War II, she worked at Fort DuPont in Delaware, helping treat prisoners of war. She later married George M. Ellis Jr., a prominent physician in Connersville, and the couple worked together in his office for 40 years. Dr. Ellis died in 2010. The couple had no children.

Zimmann said that she had met with the anonymous donor in December but had no idea that the bequest was $30 million until the benefactor passed away shortly after their visit.

“The executrix called and said, ‘Do you know how much?’ ” Zimmann said. “We were floored.”

School officials also have announced that Richard Green, who served as interim president of Lincoln University for two years ending in 2017, will become interim president of the seminary on June 4. He takes the helm following the departure of Theresa Latini, who was fired from her position as president in March after less than a year on the job.

Latini was dismissed after reports that she had once led an organization that supported reparative therapy practices claiming to turn gay men and women straight. Latini had long ago repudiated the organization and such practices, but did not disclose her affiliation with the group during interviews for the position. She had told the chairperson of the school’s trustee board about the association, but the official did not share the information with the remainder of the governing body until rumors began circulating on campus. Eight board members resigned during the controversy.

Green, a lifelong Lutheran, is a graduate of Concordia College, an ELCA school in Moorhead, Minn. He earned his doctorate from the University of Louisville. He has served as interim provost at both St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and Albany State University in Georgia.

He joins the seminary at a time when school officials are working to merge two schools, faculties, staffs, student populations, and campus cultures. The seminary is also coping with changes in theological education and religious practice and commitment that are remaking faith life.

Zimmann said she expects the $30 million donation will help the school confront those changes.

Published: May 30, 2018 — 5:43 PM EDT

Wartburg Seminary's Fast Track Program

 Every seminary president should have a doctorate, so Louise Johnson's school gave her one, for outstanding registration work at the Philadelphia Seminary.

Wartburg Theological Seminary has received a $497,115 grant from The Kern Family Foundation to streamline preparation for pastoral ministry for first career ministerial students in partnership with Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa. The grant allows for implementation of a fully integrated Bachelor of Arts/Master of Divinity degree program to provide leadership, theological education and spiritual formation embedded in congregational contexts. 

This new program will include 3 years of BA education at Wartburg College with at least one semester interfacing with Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, IA. The final 3 years (which includes a year to complete an internship required by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) will be located in a collaborative congregational context.

Louise N. Johnson, Wartburg Seminary President, explains, “The generosity of the Kern Foundation and the partnership of Wartburg College offer us an extraordinary opportunity to press into our calling to form young faith leaders, who can proclaim words of hope, healing, forgiveness, mercy, grace to a world desperately longing to hear and to know the living God.”

 Webber started out ELCA, so UOJ is just like home for him.

The Importance of Weeds When Considering Sound Doctrine

Trailing Arbutus is an exquisite woodland flower that boasts sweet-scented, pastel pink beauty blooms along running stems of shiny evergreen leaves, creating the ultimate groundcover for woodland gardens. (Epigaea repens)
More about weeds here.

Definitions
Creation Gardeners - let us consider the nature and attributes of weeds. They are not simply plants growing in the wrong place. In one famous example, a man tried many times to get rid of a pesky vine. A weed! you say? By that definition, yes. But he was working on a trailing arbutus, a relatively rare and hard to grow flower, prized for the difficulty in raising it.

Some attributes of weeds are:

1. Aggressive growth, especially when ignored
2. Resource hogging - sun and water
3. Toxic and irritating - often simply by brushing against them.

Giant Hogweed grows so well, so fast.
Too bad it is toxic and its seeds worthless.

But the most important one is this -
Every undesirable weed can be mistaken for a valuable plant.

Sometimes the grower does not know until it flowers and bears fruit. Then the horrible truth reveals itself late in the season - he has nurtured a noxious weed, which is well established and multiplying fast.

Universal Objective Justification Is the Weed-Twin of Justification by Faith

UOJ is based on the false premise that God has proclaimed - the entire unbelieving world absolved of sin and saved - without the Gospel Word, without faith, grace without the Means of Grace.

Notice the weedy deception of UOJ.

1. Justification is a Biblical and a Book of Concord word, but it always means Justification by Faith.
2. Objective Justification suggests the Atonement, because the Atonement is objectively true whether anyone believes it or not - but OJ is not the Atonement, as the gurus hasten to affirm.
3. Subjective Justification seems to be Justification by Faith, assuming OJ is the Atonement, but SJ is not JBFA. SJ is making a decision for the universal forgiveness of sin, without the Word, without the Holy Spirit, without faith.

If the UOJ Stormtroopers were honest, they would say that SJ is not Justification by Faith. But in pursuing their crooked mission, they avoid discussing SJ because the SJ concept is even harder to define and defend than OJ is. That is why WELS has about 60 essays about OJ in their precious Essay File, their Holy of Holies, but they barely touch upon SJ.

 Here is WELS' Subjective Justification.
Will the individual make a decision for OJ?

 John Sparky Brenner calls this the "Justification of the World," but he cannot say the words Justification by Faith.

The WELS-CLC sic-ELS-ELCA-LCMS Leaders Want This Confusion and Ignorance To Continue

Long ago, when discussion how OJ/SJ came from the Halle University Pietists, some people asked, "What happened to SJ in the mainlines?"

The mainlines simply dropped SJ and maintained, because of God's grace, everyone in the world is already forgiven and saved. This poor man's Universalism is widely distributed among mainline Protestant leaders, modern theologians, and the Roman Catholic leaders.

The Olde Synodical Conference is now in the process of dropping their SJ completely, because sufficient amounts of OJ simply kill faith.

Bad dogma, bad grammar.

The Bitter Fruits of UOJ
Someone can take the history of any original Lutheran group and see great examples of scholarship, writing, faithfulness, sacrifice, and overwhelming blessings.

Now that UOJ has a complete grip on all the Lutheran groups, the following characteristics are dominant:

• Holy Mother Sect lies all the time and hides its crimes.
• The leaders enjoyed almost free education but now impose horrible burdens on their future teachers and ministers.
• The leaders and publishers hate Luther as much as they despise his Biblical doctrine.
• The clergy and teachers have the moral standards of Medieval monasteries and convents.
• The groups feign opposition to the others but they all work together to siphon off funds for the leaders to spend on themselves and their hobby projects.
• They are prolific
  but sterile. No one really wants their empty theories and self-indulgence, so people drift away - empty churches, empty seminaries, empty colleges.

Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Yale

Yale Law Library

Mrs. Ichabod and I visited the Yale Law School, but our work was at Yale Medical School - the Child Study Center and the Medical Library.

Judge Kavanaugh graduated from Yale College and Yale Law. He is the nominee for the US Supreme Court.

Yale College and Law School have had many presidential hopefuls and candidates in recent years:

1. Gerald Ford - Yale Law
2. VP Candidate Joe Lieberman - Yale College and Yale Law
3. Presidential hopeful Gary Hart(pence) - Yale Divinity and Law
4. President William Clinton - Yale Law
5. Hillary Clinton - Yale Law
6. President George H. W. Bush - Yale College, Skull and Bones
7. President George W. Bush - Yale College, Skull and Bones
8. Presidential candidate John F. Kerry - Yale College, Skull and Bones

Bill Clinton came back to Arkansas to teach law;
Hillary followed him because she could not pass the bar exam in New York. When they married, they lived in the Swanson house in Fayetteville, a few minutes from our home. Swanson invented the frozen TV dinner.

Washing the Weeds Off - They Have a Good Purpose. "There must be weeds among you, so y'all can tell the good plants from the baduns." 1 Little Rock 11:19

 Dandelion removal has been as successful as the Church Growth Movement, each one spawning an rewarding industry with horrible results.
Click here for false doctrine as a weed.

I have various weeds in the garden, strengthened by sun, watering, and mulch. They are:

1. Pokeweed
2. Dandelion - no, it's an herb!
3. Plantain 
4. Hog Peanuts
5. Bermuda grass - the worst
6. Various coarse and obnoxious grasses.

They like nothing better than popping out from under mulch, where they are kept moist, yet basking in the sun and overtaking the plant, if possible. Large plants like Joe Pye take care of themselves. Nothing grows close enough or tall enough to overwhelm them.

Every scrap of weed - minus Poison Ivy, Giant Hogweed, and Hemlock - can be turned into useful and nitrogen rich compost. 

Mainline Gardening. 

The surest sign of a mainline church body - which includes all Lutheran synods - is to maintain a smooth, boring organization where no real debate is allowed.

But Bubba emailed (in my new Surfer Dude Paraphrase) - 

"There must be weeds among you, so y'all can tell the good plants from the baduns." 1 Little Rock 11:19

19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

1 Corinthians 11:19 KJV

Mainline gardeners work the property for that smooth, green, weed-free appearance. They are willing to douse their soil with pre-emergent poison, post-emergent weed-killer, and furious weeding of anything that interrupts the tedium of their tidy lawns and fringe, up-against-the house plants. 

However, Creation gardeners allow the works of God to show how and  where they will prosper. For example, birds plant wild strawberries below their favorite roosts and squirrels plant nut trees in favorable spots, like my roses.

 These yokels have the same plan - not allowing anyone to discuss - or even mention - Justification by Faith. They are ashamed of being Lutherans; we are ashamed they are, too. They allow no debate about doctrine - their dogma is settled for all time.

The denominations send in their goons to stop anyone from debating anything, let the tranquilized peace be disturbed.

The Lutherans I know are awakened because they entered into the struggle about sound doctrine and found themselves rattled and shaken by the apostasy of the "conservative Lutheran" leaders. Let's make that "confessional Lutheran" leaders, who sold trinkets in the name of Luther last year - and made a bundle.

Everyone outdoors has run into poison ivy and has learned to identify it and avoid it (mark and avoid). Note how that concept is turned around to mark and avoid anyone who wants to discuss Christian doctrine. 

 St. Jon-Boy of Tempe

Soil Amendments - The Good, the Bad, and the Ridiculous

 Gabe Brown had four years of crop failures, which made him change his methods and emphasize cover crops.

Ridiculous
Let's start by dismissing the two ridiculous soil amendments, highly recommended by word-of-mouth, but useless for the soil:

1. Egg shells are made of calcium but they do not blend with the soil. They might be picked up by birds but do not affect the soil. Like meat products, they may attract the wrong crowd.
2. Epsom Salt is promoted by Martha Stewart - world famous gardener cook and hostess. The compound is a good bath salt and dissolves instantly in water. I bought an economy 8-pound bag and let half of it fall into the water. Not on purpose! It dissolved into the water and vanished, just like my toenials. No, I made that up. We use it for foot soaks. The Epsom Salt Council recommends it for every plant imaginable, but that is seldom the case. 

The Bad

Foods are not a good idea since they promote a distinctive and unpleasant garbage can aroma in the garden area. That is why most composters will stick to leafy matter that does not attract raccoons, skunks, and bears.

Chemical fertilizers can have a temporary impact on plants but they slow down or stop God's Creation process. Man-made fertilizers are toxic. Walk down that fertlizer aisle and inhale.

 Decades ago, the Salatin family began building the soil, which had been stripped bare from predatory farming.

Chickens hunt for food in the heavily manured fields.
This reduces pests and fragrance, preparing the chickens for market.

The Good

I am willing to share decades of reading and experience with everyone, which should save time and effort for some, incite curiosity among others.

• Save time! Soil amendments - whether finished or raw compost, leaves, manure, shredded wood, plant material, or all those exotic materials listed by Rodale Press - can be left on top of the soil, where God's own sanitation crew will pull it down up to the soil's capacity. Some common sense should be used for the kinds of manure, the freshness of the bouquet, and the amounts.
• Red Wiggler earthworms will pull down organic matter, dig, aerate, and fertilize for free. I added them early to the entire yard, and the results were immediate.
• Leaves are the foundation of all soil fungi, which are the network builders in feeding all plant roots in the yard. Leaves are mostly carbon, which should not be scorned. Fungi need carbon to grow, so why pay money or exert effort to haul carbon sources away.
• Pine Needles have a pleasant aroma for a long time. They can be a perfect mulch, not allowing any weeds through, but some gardeners fear they are too piney. I covered one garden deep and hardly any weeds came up - and even that took some time. But I grew Hostas, Pokeweed, and Blackberries there. Books say - do not overdo pine needles. I suppose it is good not to use them by the truckload, except where suppressing weed growth is a virtue.
• Coffee grounds add nutrition to the soil. Some people get pounds of them from coffee shops. I just toss the coffee didees into the rainwater barrel. Every so often a rich mixture of rainwater, grounds, and paper soak the bird bushes near our window. I dote on those bushes so they serve as shade and as perches for birds when feeding and entertaining us.
• Cover crops are great for the soil and for weed suppression. I overwhelmed myself with Buckwheat last year, but it built up the soil and elbowed all weeds aside. Buckwheat dropped enough seed to come back and grow six feet tall this year. All growing roots improve the soil.
• Weeds are powerful in improving the soil. Invasive weeds are not fun (English Ivy); nor are toxic ones (Poison Ivy, Giant Hogweed, Poison Hemlock). But deep taproots should not be scorned (dandelion, Poke) since they contribute so much to soil building as they shed organic matter and feed the beneficial fungi. I let Pokeweed grow modestly in the rose garden and then prune it back, but wildly in the back to feed the birds. Dandelions are herbs, so they grow where they wish.
• Newspapers, Cardboard. They must improve the soil because I have to replace them as weed blockers. Cardboard lasts the longest. I hold down both with shredded wood.
• Shredded Wood Mulch is best when used without dyes. I am not sure what chemicals are included in those dyes, but coloring wood is akin to spraying the lawn green. Wood mulch holds down the newspapers and cardboard, limits the sun germinating weeds, keeps moisture in the soil, and decomposes into the soil.
• Tree stumps and logs are ideal when borrowed from people removing trees from their property. Stumps are primarily food zones for all kinds of creatures, where the soil meets the wood. They also serve as perches for birds, bases for solar lights, and modular fences.

 This is the best single book on the soil food web.
Lowenfels realized the folly of chemical gardening.

 Those who study this book will be decades ahead of the rest, but it is not easy reading.

One gigantic effort is not going to convert a property overnight. Who has the energy or materials to do that? Instead, a regular application of natural ingredients will build the soil over time.

I asked neighbors for newspapers and received stacks of them, used those, and then areas to use stacks more. When I had plenty of paper from a small truckload of them, a second load arrived. Now I open the front door a crack and yell "No more newspapers!" They laugh.

Sometimes I appear at a neighbor's door with a bunch of roses in a paper cup. "Here are your newspapers back." They like that as much as I like their contributions.

YouTube
One way to study this topic is to search YouTube for organic gardening advice. I am linking a few for starters.

Gabe Brown on Soil Health - Cover Crops

Joel Salatin Polyface Farm

Joel Salatin - Building the Soil

Soil Carbon Cowboys

Hot Peanuts fix nitrogen in the soil and the plant is everywhere. City slickers buy nitrogen and kill the plant with toxins. Make sense?

Zarling Should Have Polished His UOJ Diamond Speech. Appalling Graduation Numbers at Martin Luther College WELS

UOJ is the Chief Article - never mind what Martin Luther, Melanchthon, or the Book of Concord editors wrote. In our circles, mark my word, UOJ is the Chief Article.

Bivens enjoyed the Zarling paper so much, he copied UOJ as the Chief Article of the Christian Faith argument from Zarling. The Bivens/Zarling plagiarism is here.

NEW ULM — One hundred forty-eight students received degrees marking the completion of their training at Martin Luther College (MLC) May 12.


Graduates received 36 Bachelor of Arts (pre-seminary) degrees, 94 Bachelor of Science in Education degrees including 16 in early childhood education, five Bachelor of Science degrees and four seminary certifications.

 Only 36 pre-seminary grads mean about 18 who will graduate from Mordor with their UOJ/Church Growth degrees. Enrollment keeps dropping. Soon it will reach CLC numbers.

 CLC Donkey Basketball is better than WELS entertainment.
At least the men are not in makeup and skirts.

 Make-up? Skirts?
WELS Michigan Lutheran Seminary is their fading high school in Saginaw.