ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
Christ Hold Fast people want "a God without wrath sending Christ without a cross into a world without sin," as R. Niebuhr said so elegantly.
"He said this to those who believe it and who don’t believe it. Faith does not make justification possible; it merely receives the justification already accomplished." http://www.christholdfast.org/blog/b37q4ctolbay911husuo7s9c0izobu I am sticking to the color code on this blog: Blue - sound doctrine. Red - sick doctrine. Green - just a color. So much is wrong, bad, and sad on Chad Bird's post, but that is true of all his efforts. He reminds me of those Life Coaches who are always grining too hard and looking around, making themselves available for someone new to advise at a very high cost. Chad got himself kicked off the seminary faculty for infidelity, so he takes comfort in Barthian Antinomianism, where playing with words is disguised as theology. Like every other tweet from Bird, it is cringeworthy crowing. Antinomians teach their victims that "The Law is obsolete," misusing the tutor passage in Galatians - the Law leads us to Christ... One CG WELS pastor taught that to the congregation in Columbus. He was a Church Growther who polarized the congregation before turning into an obvious, obnoxious atheist. There is an old Jewish curse - "May you marry a pious woman and then lose your faith." The quote above is standard Universal Objective Justification. The entire world is already declared forgiven, so they not only mess up the Atonement, but also Justification by Faith and Sanctification. That means many more men will be paying enormous sums to the Concordia Seminaries, Mordor, and the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie to learn that they are:
Born Forgiven
Guilt-Free Saints
Always making a decision for world absolution without faith.
The Mordor students will tell anyone who listens that they study Greek at the genius level, but they lap up this Universalism like cheap beer.
LCMS students do not read Preus, especially the entire group of Preus relatives. Are they illiterate or just lazy?
Stick with the Book of Concord. What is the Chief Article, Steve Schmidt? Answer from Melanchthon, Luther, and the Concord editors - Justification by Faith. SpenerQuest is a viper's pit of errorists, like the leadership of LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC sic.
"15] 1. That the human race is truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ, who, by His faultless [innocent] obedience, suffering, and death, has merited for us the righteousness which avails before God, and eternal life.
16] 2. That such merit and benefits of Christ shall be presented, offered, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments.
17] 3. That by His Holy Ghost, through the Word, when it is preached, heard, and pondered, He will be efficacious and active in us, convert hearts to true repentance, and preserve them in the true faith.
18] 4. That He will justify all those who in true repentance receive Christ by a true faith, and will receive them into grace, the adoption of sons, and the inheritance of eternal life."
I helped finance the computer game revolution with quarters fed to Galaxian.
Once upon a time, I watched a kid (not Little Ichabod) playing Galaxian. He scored 80,000 with ease while my best score was around 20,000. He was relaxed and enjoying himself. I was trying too hard.
Once I relaxed, I got more out of each token, but I was not surprised to learn video games were used to raise blood pressure in medical tests.
The Pigness of Pigs
Only last year I discovered Joel Salatin and his Polyface Farm. Believe it not, he made a big impression by talking about the pigness of pigs. Part of his operation uses pigs in their natural habitat, and it is fascinating to consider. Raising pigs was a turning point in the Noel family, my father's mother's side of the family. They came to Iowa, began raising pigs, and left the Adventists behind to become Evangelicals.
So Salatin lets each creature and plant thrive in the environment it loves best. That is why chickens are not enslaved in a factory style house but eating freely in the cattle pasture. As Rodale proved, organic methods make vegetables and animals more nutritious.
I am slowly working my way around to the main point, but some preparation is needed. In looking over my gardening successes and failures, one thing is obvious - many plants can be pushed beyond their supposed favorite settings, but that is not the best approach.
That obvious conclusion comes directly from
Creation by the Word,
The perfect engineering of all living things, and
God's divine management.
Rather than explore the pigness of pigs, let's look at the nature of the hybrid tea rose. They have been developed to produce large, colorful flowers with long stems.
Fragrant Cloud's perfume fills a room, so it is fun to see someone lean close and inhale deeply.
Hybrid Tea Rose Likes and Dislikes
They like room to enjoy the sun, so they should not be crowded. Rose hedges tend to spread disease.
They love morning sun but not being baked in the afternoon. An Eastern garden is a good idea. Southern cooking is not good for them.
They need plenty of water, rich soil tended by active earthworms.
Pruning will not only shape them better but also activate their need to produce blooms without going to seed.
They enjoy companion plants to provide bases for beneficial insects. Daisies, mints, and Joe Pye will work well; so will members of the garlic family.
They thrive on organic amendments to soil - manure, compost, wood mulch, newspaper, cardboard.
Roses do well when bees, beneficial insects, birds, toads, and all creatures are allowed to thrive in their own setting. The butterfly garden is all sun, and the toad motels are woody, damp, and dark.
Man-made fertilizer, pesticides, and fungicides should never be used. They kill and thwart God's helping creatures and beneficial soil network fungi.
All this is rather easy. I have tried to make roses as light on labor as possible, which has enraged or perplexed some chemical-addicted gardeners. They are trying too hard.
Double Delight combines Peace heritage with fragrance.
Creation by the Word Should Inform All Churches
Many congregations and ministers are trying too hard, relying on manufactured success rather than the power of the Word.
What if I told them that all they had to do was teach the Scriptures as they are, without a denominational or social agenda?
America is in complete denial about the efficacy and power of the Word. That denial is most obvious in weasel words about Creation. Late yesterday I began checking back on Stanley Hauerwas and his interests. He is 78 now and one of the few Americans asked to give the Gifford Lectures. He spoke about Barth/Kirschbaum and Creation. That provoked a scholarly hubbub about what.did.Barth.teach.about.Creation.
Both/and, either/or, plus or minus some philosophical terms - the same tactic with each topic. So profound, so dense: what was he saying or confessing or teaching?
The denominational leaders and professors open their mouths and out comes a stream of corporate talk. Everyone knows what I mean, if they have pulled the oars of the corporate slave ship. We are going to take things to a new level with fresh and exciting goals. Do you feel the synergism? Trust the process and execute the plan.
As Luther said about Medieval bishops, they love to talk about new buildings and programs, which God does not need or value. But the bishops never talk about the power of the Gospel and the creation of faith by the Word. Their institutional concerns today are no different from corporate America, so those of us pummeled by 24/7 corp-talk are less than thrilled, inspired, or motivated.
Those who obsess about the massy buildings of closed congregations follow the Medieval bishop mode, too. The building is not alive, so nothing has died. The building does not bring Christ to people. The one thing needed is the Word - which does convey Christ and His grace to people.
As a veteran of many official religious services, I can say there is more Gospel in the simplest Christian worship service than in all the pageantry of Rome and its imitators.
Up Pops the Bergamot, 1 2 3
So I am sitting on the mulch, trimming away some grassy weeds and looking at what is thriving. I had multiple plants of Bergamot last fall. Where did they go? One grew and bloomed well - they attract beneficial insects and Hummingbirds.
Two patches of weeds look a bit odd to me. Hmm. Leaves, square stems, a mint. Two Bergamots came back to grow, so I have three again. They are like the Mountain Mint that was buried so skillfully by our helper that we could not find a trace of it. But nevermind, it escaped the newspaper and mulch prison to grow six feet tall.
They could be two more weeds, chopped by the weed-eater. But they are alive, like the spare Joe Pye - demolished by the infernal machine. I had two, then only one after weed eating. But the second rose from the carnage to grow again and bloom with the senior Joe Pye, seven feet tall and in full bloom.
I like tall plants like Joe Pye. I can stand inches away from the blooms and watch the activity - butterflies, bees, and hover flies are going crazy getting at the blooms. I can see the tiny blooms turning into seeds as the pollinators do their work. Where were all these insects before? The Mountain Mints have the same characters silently flying in the same fast-moving frenzy. Multiplying the food increases the numbers. I may be the forward air base for many gardens on the block.
Doubtless the city slickers would bat the flying insects away. The hover flies look like tiny bumble bees, yellow with black stripes. But even the larger bees are contented to do their work and not chase away the Creation gardener.
The Hover Fly or Flower Fly is entirely beneficial. Be kind to strangers for thereby many have entertained angels unaware. Hebrews 13:2
