J Post Update - Big World News Breaking

World News
I see two major news fronts opening up, which will connect many different narratives, recent and in the distant past.

One story is the arrest of a Bronfman daughter, heir to the Seagram Whiskey fortune. The sisters got behind the NXIUM cult and its founder Keith Raniere. Nancy Salzman is another character involved in this story. More information is found in Q discussion groups. The importance of this group of felons comes from their political contacts (Clintons), Hollywood contacts (India Oxenberg, etc), and their depravity.

A even bigger story involves the British, Obama, and various spooks in meddling with the 2016 election, blaming the Russians.
Some wonder if Julian Assange (Wikileaks) is still in Britain, in the Ecuador embassy, or perhaps somewhere else. He would be an important witness in the Seth Rich murder, since Seth is considered his source for the DNC materials downloaded on a thumbdrive.

Cults Damage People - Another Cult Is Not the Answer
The NXIUM cult story got me thinking about people who have been betrayed by various dishonest Lutheran organizations. One person was involved in a mind control cult and honest about it. I could see how it affected him in looking for something honest, healthy, and Scriptural. However, the UOJ cult, once they discovered his doubts about the soundness of their doctrine, turned on him.

What might have been healing and comforting through the Means of Grace ended up being alienating in the name of a fake "Lutheran orthodoxy." That so-called Lutheran orthodoxy was really adherence to the dogma of a sex cult from Germany - the Saxon Migration  - first under the dictatorial direction of Bishop Martin Stephan and later under Pope CFW Walther, finally under Cardinal Francis Pieper.

The UOJ Magicians are not conservative. They are radical Leftists who have burrowed into the fabric of Lutheran doctrine in America and taken over. We know they by their fruits. They mention Luther and their hides bristles. They know not Luther, and they know not that they know not. They are in perfect harmony with ELCA, only a few steps behind them, but always aping the ELCA dogma - grace means everyone is forgiven and saved.

 "How did we get here?"
The rogues gallery tells part of the story.

Some forget that I know mainline dogma from the inside, not only from being in the LCA, but also from studying modern Protestant theology and comparative dogma at Notre Dame. The affinity between ELCA, LCMS, and WELS is striking and disgusting.

America has well-heeled traitors. The Lutheran Church has round-heeled traitors. They populate the colleges and seminaries of the LCMS, WELS, ELS, and micro-minis. They gorge themselves on the offerings of members and the profits of Thrivent in the executive suites  - the DPs and SPs.

I no longer have to prove the apostasy of the LCMS-WELS-ELS combine. They publish the evidence in their atrocious "translations," (ESV, NIV), in their dogmatic materials (Confessing the Gospel, new improved catechisms by morons), and their prostrate position before their abortion-loving god, Thrivent-Mammon.

 The "conservatives" are serving big helpings of Pietism and Barth/Kirschbaum. Sassy is more reliable.

How Ignorant Are the SpenerQuesters? Worse Than Most Imagine

The Enthusiasts at SpenerQuest imagine themselves to be rough, tough, orthodox Lutherans. Paul Rodham McCain, former publisher at Concordia Publishing House, kept linking his blog when it was still alive. He would post something like this on SpenerQuest:

Today is the Feast Day of St. Boniface. We pray

We pray was linked to his blog Cyberbrethren, which was taken over by a company when he bailed out of blogging.

Each time I looked up his link, it was clearly plagiarized, almost verbatim from The Catholic Encyclopedia. He conveniently omitted the obvious references to the Church of Rome, like nilhil obstat, Bishop Patrick O'Brian. Haha. I provided proof, time after time.

And Paul the CPH editor stole from his friends' blogs too, without a clear citation and without quotation marks!

That genius group of Junkyard Dogs never got it. They kept letting McCain promote his plagiarized blog's Roman Catholic garbage. No problem.

After I published enough posts on McCain's unethical, dishonest behavior, the SpenerQuest links stopped. Did they apologize for going along with McCain, for serving up the Antichrist's propaganda as his work?

Did Paul Rodham McCain apologize for his plagiarism - as a pastor, as an editor, as a campaign manager for Barry and Matt the Fatt? Never.

UOJ Antinomians are legalists, to be sure, but they are also lawless. They were born forgiven and saved, according to the great lights of the Reformation - Samuel Huber, J. J. Rambach, the Calvinist Woods, Knapp, Edward Preuss, and Walther.

Watch the Magic as UOJ Wizards Switch from the Chief Article to Rationalistic Pietism

Magic acts are a lot of fun. We all know that the magician distracts our eyes so that he can quickly do the trick where we are not looking.

The UOJ Magicians work the same way, but they are nasty and vindictive, not entertaining. Their energy comes from their hatred of the Word, which they cloak with fine words and sanctimony.


LCMS and WELS - Same History - Same Tricks
Missouri and WELS came from Pietism, which has a way of asserting itself again. The clergy who would rather be unionistic, because they love every doctrine but their own, bitterly resent the chains and shackles - as they see them - of the Book of Concord so they throw off those horrid Confessions.

Missouri and WELS both taught Justification by Faith for many decades.

JFBA Examples in WELS:

1. Gausewitz was the catechism and no one talked of UOJ. The instigator of Kokomo never heard of UOJ before seminary.
2. Some oldsters in WELS remember that they were taught Justification by Faith in the olden days, because they were.
3. JP Meyer and other false teachers worked to supplant the Confessions and the Chief Article, so WELS clergy ignore and loathe the Book of Concord.

JFBA Examples in the LCMS:

1. The 1905 German catechism of the synod taught Justification by Faith, not UOJ.
2. They also used the Gausewitz Catechism, because he was the president of the Synodical Conference.
3. The KJV catechism, lately in the CPH catalogue, teaches Justification by Faith - not UOJ.
4. Dr. Walter A. Maier preached Justification by Faith and taught it as the foundational doctrine of Christianity, named before inerrancy in one quotation. See the graphic. He was praised by sister synods, not denounced as a false teacher.

The Magic Wand of Verbal Abuse

The UOJ Magicians have only one trick. They verbally abuse anyone who threatens their position, and they scare easily. They mask their fear with fake ferocity, always using their buddies to back them up, like shills in an audience helping with a mind-reading trick.

Quoting Rolf Preus on "Due Process":

Robert believed in due process.  He repeatedly said that he would not be used to deny due process to Walter A. Maier.  He also expressed his opinion that his efforts to bring Maier to an orthodox formulation (sic) of this doctrine with the help of such eminent theologians as Dr. Harry Huth, the great Missouri Synod Confessions scholar, would bear more fruit than his brother’s approach. 

 WAM II, left, got the Preus "due process" treatment.
I do not have his academic achievements at this time.
He is with a bunch of Maiers. When I met WAM II, he was jolly and friendly.

Imagine yourself as a professor at the synod's seminary, the son of the world-famous preacher and Biblical scholar, Walter A. Maier, PhD, Harvard, who taught Justification by Faith and inerrancy.

• Jack Preus, the LCMS president, sends a letter to every congregation, denouncing you as a false teacher - for teaching what built The Lutheran Hour, your father preaching on the radio. But the accusation is dishonest, because it does not say, "You teach the Chief Article and we reject that, agreeing with the rationalistic Pietists." No, it is "YOU deny our precious dogma doctrine of Justification without Faith Objective Justification."
• Robert Preus, Jack's brother, as president of the Ft. Wayne seminary, denounces you to the entire LCMS, using the most ridiculous arguments for UOJ, even citing the UOJist who left teaching in the LCMS to be a Roman Catholic editor! That was Edward Preuss of precious memory, still quoted with a school-girl's sigh.
• Instead of being the leading candidate for LCMS synod president, a big effort is mounted to deny you any votes because (wave the magic wands) both Preus brothers have unethically and illegally denounced you as a false teacher. And yes, that is indeed slander.
• Ralph Bohlmann becomes the LCMS president, promotes Church Growth, and sees his daughter ordained as a UCC pastor and married to another woman.
• Herman Otten, a supposed Maier friend, backs UOJ to the hilt, essentially agreeing with the Preus brothers. It took another magician, Paul Rodham McCain, to equal this level of hypocrisy and back-stabbing. Otten sells books against Luther, praises a Roman Catholic author for publishing the obvious, and specializes in promoting the thralls of UOJ.

The irony of this Preus team is that neither Preus brother earned an Ivy league degree or engaged in Biblical scholarship, as Walter A. Maier, WAM II, and WAM III did. Jack and Bob both studied Latin scholasticism at the University of Minnesota - the Icey League. Academic achievement in the Preus family stopped there. As The Right Reverend Bishop James Heiser said to me, "The Preus children are not known for their theological acumen."

The Preus brothers used the weakness of CFW Walther's education to their advantage, calling up the ghost of Stephan's thrall to pound WAM II into the ground. The weakness of LCMS clergy and laity always comes through when they line up like iron filings around the magnetic personality of their first pope, professor, publisher, and political expert, CFW Walther, BA.

The answer does not come from inane theses that beg the question, like Valleskey on Fuller and Church Growth. The answer comes from careful study of the Biblical text. Anyone can do that, but few take the trouble.

I am happy to say that the younger generations of men are willing to address what the Boomer men ignored.

 According to this former editor of Steadfast Lutherans,
Dr. Maier was "a moron" for teaching Justification by Faith.

How Do the Fort Wayniacs Excuse Their Abyssmal Ignorance of Their Own Synod

Dr. Walter Arthur Maier

Lutheran Hour Speaker, 1930-1950

Dr. Walter A. Maier became the first speaker of "The Lutheran Hour" in 1930. He had been teaching Old Testament Interpretation at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis for eight years when he took a leave of absence to be full-time Lutheran Hour speaker. Maier was dedicated to his work, having decided to become a pastor after hearing a mission sermon at the age of twelve. He attended undergraduate school at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York, washing dishes and selling typewriters to pay expenses.

When Maier passed away suddenly, just after midnight on January 11, 1950, tributes poured in from around the globe. Reverend Billy Graham sent a telegram: "We join with friends who mourn the passing of Dr. Walter A. Maier, whose Lutheran Hour was a constant benediction and source of strength."

Dr. William Arndt, a close associate of Dr. Maier, wrote: "It was his continual aim to preach the great truths of the Scriptures: Law and Gospel, sin and grace, Christ and His redemption. Throughout the English-speaking world he was considered one of the chief spokesmen of conservative Christianity. His memory will be cherished by millions of people."

During the twenty years that Maier served as speaker for "The Lutheran Hour," the United States - and the world - went through remarkable upheaval. The Great Depression caused the temporary suspension of "The Lutheran Hour" broadcast, World War II and the devastation of the atomic bomb rocked the world. Maier's words speak to the particular events of the world in which he lived, but he admonished his listeners with the Law of God, and comforted them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in a tone that still rings true at the beginning of the 21st century.

This sermon by Walter Maier is a clear example of teaching the Atonement as completely and forcefully as anyone could, and also stressing the importance of faith in our Savior.

The Fort Wayniacs do not know what the Gospel is, and yet they want to teach the entire world. Maier earned a doctorate, that is, a license to teach. But the bachelors of divinity want to teach the entire world, though no one is asking, and they would likely lecture Dr. Maier too, if they had the chance.

The UOJ Stormtroopers were clever in their takeover of the LCMS and WELS. The Little Sect on the Prairie was midwifed by loyalty to UOJ, so there was nothing to corrupt.

This UOJ cleverness is wonderfully devious, because they never deny Justification by Faith outright (though they loathe the Chief Article). They let people think their precious Objective Justification is the Atonement, though it clearly is not. They even make a point of saying OJ is not the Atonement - as Dr. Robert Preus did in his little essay that Jack Cascione ordered him to write (as Jack brags, but then, Jack is always bragging).

Next - they let people think Subjective Justification is Justification by Faith, but once again - that is a deception. SJ is agreeing with or making a decision for world absolution without faith.

'Tis comforting for false teachers to know they will be declared righteous in Hell and have so many companions from Sodom.

However, the UOJ Salesmen show their hand a few ways:

1. They say - "Don't make faith a work!" and really make the word faith a bad one, as if it were the opposite of grace.
2. They sell their position by saying, "We are justified BY GRACE through faith," which may not be wrong as such, but they are intending it as OJ and then SJ: they mean faith is faith in OJ, not faith in Christ Jesus.
3. They even proclaim that their Justification without Faith is the Chief Article of Christianity, which is either a blatant lie or total stupidity. Yet Mark Zarling published that nonsense and F. Bivens copied the same argument in his paper - the same reference too.
4. They deny their constant discussion of double justification, but I see the J both in OJ and SJ. For Mequon students unfamiliar with the English language, the J means a declaration. Two Justifications mean two declarations of Not Guilty! They love that term. Not Guilty! even if you never believe in Christ. Not Guilty! even if you are roasting in Hell. 

Seventy years after Dr. Maier died, the LCMS made UOJ their official dogma in a textbook

1. Denying the Gospel Today and the 
2. Bloated Anti-Luther Catechism.

Both over-priced books are published by Concordia Publishing House in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.

 Buy your Reformation 500 dog t-shirt from CPH.

Walter A. Maier Resources - LCMS Professor and Radio Preacher - Justification by Faith

 Dr. Walter A. Maier preaching on radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjy66tWFJcM

http://ia800502.us.archive.org/29/items/SERMONINDEX_SID3078/SID3078.mp3

http://ia600502.us.archive.org/22/items/SERMONINDEX_SID3085/SID3085.mp3

http://ia800301.us.archive.org/4/items/SERMONINDEX_SID3077/SID3077.mp3

From Walter Maier - As True Now As It Was 75 Years Ago

Stirring words from Walter A. Maier

May God give us the same courage, for we in the United States also face a trying future! What I say now will find little applause, but the Church dare not cater to the popularity that blindly sets divine truth aside. 

Every minister of Jesus Christ is to be a watchman who, studying the trends of his times, warns and comforts his people. Therefore, when disturbed Christians, repeating the ancient Bible question, ask, "Watchman, what of the night?" we must be guided by complete honesty and absolute indifference to public acclaim. 

Under this conviction I tell you that in the deliberate opinion of many sober-minded investigators, within the Church as without, the United States faces the possibility of more numerous, more subtle, more imminent disasters than in our entire previous history. 

The most dangerous perils arise not from without but from within. Small countries may be overrun by military machines, but rich, powerful peoples succumb to internal treachery, the consequences of their own sins, the disregard of God's Word. 

As Christians we must whole-heartedly do our share in building and strengthening the nation's defenses; but we dare not overlook the truth that the contempt of divine will in American life can become a hundred times more destructive than any foreign invasion.

Free Garden Expansion in the Fall - Plus Easy Plants To Grow

Norma A. Boeckler

Six inches of rain brought Joe Pye into bloom and seed production. The largest one, at 7 feet, bent over with the weight of the rain. However, it is a a marvel of beneficial insect life - from butterflies to bees and wasps, lightning bugs, hover flies, and more.

The Mother of All Crepe Myrtles was completely pruned before the rain, so the buds are opening for the second show. Now it has a pink glow of bursting buds.

One doctor said his KnockOut roses are not blooming. I said, "Trim them back 30%." He said, "Someone did that and the roses did not grow back for a long time." I asked, "Did you mulch and water them?" He hung his head a bit, "No." I admonished him, "You have to dote on roses." He brightened, "You dote on them? I suppose I should too."

If he had pruned back his KnockOut roses before the rain, they would be in full bloom now, with 50 roses per bush, lots of color, plenty of roses for vases and then some. The challenge with doted-upon KnockOuts is keeping up with their production.

Readers who took notes remember that I added mulch and watered everything before the big rain. That meant six inches of rain went into the clay soil to linger, the mulch keeping the rain from evaporating too fast. Another benefit, besides holding down weeds and improving the soil, is keeping the soil cool. Plants do not like sun-baked soil around their base. Nothing is more pathetic than a lonesome rose growing out of sun-baked clay, going to seed from lack of pruning. One distant neighbor specialized in this - I am glad he put up a privacy fence to hide his gardening skills.

 Tiny flowers invite tiny beneficial insects - and butterflies: Clethra.

Garden Expansion
I have a lot of plants that can be divided and spread around in the fall, which means free expansion without cost:

1. Hostas
2. Wild Ginger Hidden Lily
3. Joe Pye
4. Cat Mint
5. Mountain Mint
6. Daisies.

I am sharing some plants with our dentist's mother, who had all hers stolen just before a big more. I may move some bushes into the rose garden too, depending on their root systems.

 Chaste Tree is more of a woody shrub.
Bees love it. Mrs. Gardener asked about it, because the flowers are long-lasting and very attractive to humans as well.

Easy Plants To Grow

Once I branched out from roses, I found a lot of plants that really take off in the third year. The plants above are also easy to grow, and they contribute to the Balance of Creation in the yard. 

Do you remember all those mentions of "The Balance of Nature" in the 1960s? Who is doing the balancing? 

Some experiments should be done by any gardener, just to see how powerful the management of Creation is. Our latest is the senior Joe Pye Weed. We always have plenty of beneficial insects because of the varied flowering of plants and the selection to attract the helpers (Mountain Mint, Shasta Daisy, Pokeweed, Butterfly Bush, Chaste Tree). But the insects really go crazy on the Joe Pye blooms.

The right flower is the correct invitation for a particular beneficial insect. My Poison Hemlock was crawling with baby Ladybugs, very impressive - but not enough to keep it growing in the yard. That was the only time I saw Ladybugs in the infant stage, looking like little alligators. Chaste Tree is a magnet for bees.

 Elderberry bushes grow very easily and spread.

It Only Takes a Pair To Start Their Synod Burning. And Soon All Those Around with UOJ'll Be Yearning.

 Quoted in Robert Preus' Justification and Rome.

Rolf Preus must not garden or farm, because he shows no grasp of Matthew 7:15-23. Instead, Rolf agrees with David Valleskey that figs do indeed grow on thistles, because both of them adore UOJ and expect only the best from Justification without Faith.

More importantly, this previous post shows how an entire synod can be lost through a doctrinal error. Or, as Luther said, an entire nation.

The attack against WAM II's Justification by Faith, conducted by Jack and Robert Preus, set the stage for Ralph Rodham Bohlmann to steer the LCMS straight into mainline apostasy. That was almost 40 years ago, and it took that long to make UOJ official both in the synod's Dogmatanic and also in their Babylonian Talmud edition of the no-longer Small Catechsim.

The original Gausewitz Small Catechism was nothing more than Luther's Small Catechism and a list of the Scriptures that went with each point. Gausewitz taught Justification by Faith. That is significant, because Gausewitz was president of the Synodical Conference and therefore respected in those synods at that time. To duplicate that feat today one would need a DMin from Fuller Seminary.

WELS had to keep "improving" the Gausewitz until it morphed into the Kuske UOJ monster. They even have another one, honoring the Reformation's 500th Anniversary by repudiating Luther's doctrine.

 Calov and Quenstedt seem to be arguing against the UOJ of the Pietists. Norwegian Pietists like Jack and Robert Preus stuck to UOJ like lint to velcro, but the Augustana leaders were influenced by W. Passavant - a Book of Concord advocate. And - Augustana had the Apostolic Succession!

Do not be shocked, Lutherans, that this has happened. People live with contradictions all the time.

Picture a discussion website, not just any website, but a very special one.

1. They routinely teach Justification without Faith.
2. They never discuss Luther's doctrine.
3. They attack anyone who questions their rationalistic Pietism.
4. They are meaner than junkyard dogs with each other, but even worse toward anyone who questions their brilliance and orthodoxy.
5. They love to quote a man who kidnapped his niece, nephew, and bishop, who adopted Halle Pietism, and stole millions from the leader of their cult.

And get this - They call their group LUTHERQUEST (sic)!

Walter A. Maier Family versus the Blood-Guilt of the Preus Clan.Lights Out in LCMS-WELS: The UOJ Cabal Has Won

The Preus brothers beat WAM II like a rented mule,
for teaching the doctrine of The Lutheran Hour - and Luther.

 Robert Preus and Justification, 1981. Published on LutherQuest.


Older Lutherans recall that Walter A. Maier was not only a superstar among Lutherans, for his speaking on The Lutheran Hour, but also honored among Evangelicals, with special recognition at Billy Graham's Center Museum.

 Mrs. Ichabod and I visited the display about Maier, attended events at the Billy Graham Center, and I taught there once.

The Story of Walter A. Maier (Tobias Communications, The extraordinary father of Paul Maier, Dr. Walter A. Maier, was the founding speaker of The Lutheran Hour radio broadcast. He was also a seminary professor who wrote 31 books, edited a popular journal, and filled a dozen other roles. Billy Graham called him "the greatest combination of preacher and scholar that America has produced." "Rich, fascinating reading ... this book surely will have an impact on peoples of all faiths and nationalities." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Thorough ... of great interest, inspiring. Walter A. Maier was a Sunday institution in the lives of millions of Americans." - The Pittsburgh Press

Walter Maier and Wheaton College

Walter A. Maier II was the most likely president of the synod when the Preus brothers, Jack and Robert, launched a vicious attack on him for not teaching Objective Justification. The winner was Ralph Bohlmann, who became the LCMS president. The seminary took away WAM II's ability to teach Romans.

Some ELDONA details are here.

Here is some exculpatory posted by Rolf Preus.

This Rolf contribution defies the facts of the WAM II case.

Jack did this with a letter sent to all the pastors of LCMS, as I recall, and Robert followed up later with stuff like this -

Robert:

Many of our readers know that our seminary, and one professor in particular, has been recently criticized for undermining this comforting and clear teaching of objective justification. The criticism and garbled accounts of the situation have become so widespread lately that I must now comment on the matter in this issue of the "Newsletter.

For over 15 years now Professor Walter A. Maier, Jr., has been teaching a course in the book of Romans, and, although he states he has always presented the doctrine of objective justification as taught in our synod (e.g. in the "Brief Statement"), he has taught in class that some of the key passages used in our church to support the doctrine actually do not speak to the subject at all. As a result some within the seminary community and some outside concluded that Dr. Maier did not in fact believe, teach, and confess the article of objective justification. A few – very few – complaints were brought against Dr. Maier and against the seminary for letting this go on.

The Preus mob pounded WAM II into the ground like a tent stake. I may not get all the dates and crimes in perfect order, because I was not in the LCMS at that time. 

Notice how ominous the charge appears in red. There is no effort to address what WAM II taught, only to claim that he has departed from the political document called the Brief Statement 1932. The Brief Statement of 1932 never had canonical status but here it is raised above the Scriptures to have super-canonical status, supplanting the clear message of the Scriptures and the Book of Concord.

Observe how Robert Preus' description of Objective Justification is a confused mess of garbage, highlighted by one of the most absurd statements ever - from Edward Preuss, who left the St. Louis Seminary to became a major Roman Catholic leader and editor. But the Stormtroopers still love Edward Preuss'

Justification of a Sinner essay/booklet. The phrase - justification of a sinner - is one of those clues that a Stormtrooper is clearing his throat.

 "We were justified before we were even born." What?

• UOJ Gave the LCMS a Headstart on Women's Ordination and Church Growth, 
• With a Side Helping of Pentecostalism and Union with the Future ELCA - 
• Thank You, Preus Brothers and Buddy Ralph Bohlmann

Some background is worth considering. CFW Walther was not a Biblical theologian. He started with theses and simply stated them as the truth, citing Scripture passages whether they were fitting or not.

Jack and Robert Preus were better educated than Walther, but they were not Biblical scholars. Robert did his work on the late Lutheran scholastic period, which was influenced by Pietism.

Walter A. Maier and WAM II were both Biblical scholars.

 We met WAM II (left) at the Rutz funeral. He is a jolly guy with a lot of genius relatives. WAM III earned a doctorate from Harvard, like his grandfather did.

Ralph Bohlmann earned his PhD in church history at Yale and was part of the conservative minority when the Seminex crisis saw most of the faculty and students leave Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. When he became LCMS president in 1981, after the Preus attack against WAM II, he began leading the synod toward women's ordination, working with the LCA/ALC. Church Growth itself grew by leaps and bounds, and Pentecostalism continued.

Did Robert Preus Repent of the Mob Attack on WAMII?

Rolf Preus gives the impression that Justification by Faith is the false doctrine warned against in Matthew 7:15-23. If so, he should be more explicit. His father, Robert Preus, provided the best quotations against Objective Justification:

The LCMS - under Matt the Fatt - Has Made UOJ Official Doctrine:

Time To Unite with ELCA and Certify Herman Otten

 "Do you disagree with our dogmatics book?" jowls shaking in rage, eyes blazing with blood-lust.

 So you see, doctrine is always developing and making progress. This is the first LCMS Small Catechism - and the biggest - with UOJ taught.

The Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 2018. The Faith of Jesus

 Norma A. Boeckler

The Eighth Sunday after Trinity  2018

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

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

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time

The melodies are linked in the hymn title. 

The lyrics are linked in the hymn number.

• The melody site is linked here.
• TLH Lyrics site is linked here.

The Hymn #341             Crown Him with Many Crowns          

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       

The Gospel              

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22

The Hymn #260             O Lord Look Down   

The Faith of Jesus

The Communion Hymn # 311        Jesus Christ Our Blessed Savior           

The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 309                         O Jesus Blessed Lord               

KJV Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

KJV Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.  21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Eighth Sunday After Trinity

Lord God, heavenly Father, we most heartily thank Thee that Thou hast caused us to come to the knowledge of Thy word. We pray Thee: graciously keep us steadfast in this knowledge unto death, that we may obtain eternal life; send us now and ever pious pastors, who faithfully preach Thy word, without offense or false doctrine, and grant them long life. Defend us from all false teachings, and frustrate Thou the counsels of all such as pervert Thy word, who come to us in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly ravening wolves, that Thy true Church may evermore be established among us, and be defended and preserved from such false teachers, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

 Norma A. Boeckler

Background for Sermon

Jesus ended His sermon by warning against false teachers, which Luther considered (properly) a good model to follow. However, that is seldom done, as proved by the Reformation.

Luther did not "discover the Gospel," as some say mistakenly. He was quite weighed down with the burdens of the Law. His spiritual advisor helped him see the Gospel, which was taught here and there throughout history. By that time, the Gospel witness was very weak. However, Luther was thrust into an opportunity to grasp the Scriptures by virtue of his doctoral studies as a teacher of the Scriptures.

Unlike today, few people had the chance to open a Bible or any other work before the printing press was invented in the West by Gutenberg. Any book was hand copied and very valuable. I once held the very first printing of Twain's Huckleberry Finn. The price was $40,000. Do you think I paged through it or used a banana peel as a bookmarker? No, I opened it gingerly and put it back in the locked cabinet. Harry Potter and Princess Bride were even more valuable, because of demand.

So Luther was counseled on one side by Staupitz to see the Gospel and he studied it at the same time. That gave him an enormous comprehension of the entire Bible and the key way of understanding the faith. If the Gospel does its work through the Means of Grace (the Word and Sacraments), then we must identify what is good and what is toxic.

A counterfeit Gospel may have many characteristics in common with the true Gospel, but key traits will be missing or mis-shapen.
As they say with counterfeit money, there are special signs of good money and plenty of signs of bad money. The best counterfeit operation in the past even had the right paper, but they had to double the paper for the right feel. So it looked and felt right, but it peeled into its two sheets in humid weather.

As we know with produce and food, the spoiled has to be removed from what is good. Look at the piles of grain bags in a store, it will say, "Rotate to prevent infestation." Left alone, the rice and wheat, even when reduced to flour, will sprout those prolific  flour moths by the hundreds.

So when someone identifies a false Gospel within a religious setting, it is good but creates a storm of opposition. The false teachers want to remain undercover agents. They condemn but do not compare what is good with what is bad.

Although Jesus was full of grace and forgiveness, that did not prevent Him from warning against the false teachers. This is a very stern, even terrifying, message for false teachers. That is also why Luther is shunned today by Lutherans - his warnings fall on very sensitive ears. The false teachers know he is speaking against them, and they want to slaughter and scatter the sheep in peace.

The Faith of Jesus

KJV Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

All the mentions of sheep and shepherding are a unified theme in the Scriptures. Jesus comes as the Good Shepherd (John 10, Luke 15) and we are the weak and often bumbling sheep (Isaia 53, Psalm 23). 

The primary attributes of the Good Shepherd are:
1) Knowing us by name.
2) Leading us to pasture.
3) Protecting us from predators.

Some people would identify love as allowing anything, but the shepherding kind of love means warning against dangers and even the settings of danger. Jesus' kindness is shown in providing us with the spiritual knowledge that will make us aware of counterfeits in Christianity. That began immediately in the Apostolic Age, when Simon (for instance) wanted to buy into the plan and become a miraculous healer. That is where we get the term "simony" from - buying a church office, which was common in the Reformation. A man who bought a position for his son could be guaranteed a hefty annual salary for that office. No one wanted to meddle with that, whether wealthy buyers or the church officials selling the titles.

Knowing our tendency to rely on the righteousness of the Law, Jesus taught everyone that their righteousness could only come from faith in Him.

I need to provide an academic digression here, but it is really important. Once I recognized the unusual phrase "the faith of Jesus" in Romans 3:22, in Galatians and Philippians, I began doing some research on it and found a book written around that research topic.

The Faith of Jesus by Richard Hays

I agree with the author - We are justified by the faith of Jesus - that emphasizes Jesus as the starting point, the foundation of being forgiven and saved. Like a good writer, the author says too much emphasis is placed on the individual (faith in Jesus exclusively) and also in avoiding faith altogether (mainline apostasy). 

You may have noticed Protestant gimmick sermons on the Woman at the Well - all about the woman; or sermons about the apostles or characters in the Bible. That devolved into the cult of Mary and the veneration, the virtual worship of saints.

Nothing about this excludes the imporance of faith in Jesus, not at all. But where does Christianity begin? - In the Person and the mission of Jesus the Messiah.

Every single aspect of the Son is vitally significant in the Bible:

• As the Second Person of the Trinity
• As the Creating Word in Genesis 1 and John 1
• As the object of faith in Genesis 15 by virtue of the binding of Isaac, a foreshadowing of the Atonement
• As born of the Virgin Mary, Isaiah 7 and 9
• As Teacher, Rabbi
• As miracle worker unlike any other
• As having power over Creation - storm, miraculous abundance, walking on water
• As raising the dead
• As triggering the Passion by raising Lazarus from the dead
• As dying as the innocent Lamb of Passover - for the sins of the world
• As rising from the dead and ascending to heaven
• As returning at the end of time for Final Judgment. 

When we look at the sermons and letters of the Apostles in the New Testament, these matters are the content of their messages, often in part. But the sermon is always Jesus rather than The Demographic (need more friends, more time, less stress, some entertainment, popcorn, soda, multi media presentations?)

Therefore, Jesus preached at the end of His sermon that we should avoid those who pretend to be harmless sheep but are in fact wearing a disguise and really act as hunting, grasping wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Teaching Jesus as the Son of God is always going to bear good fruit. Too bad that the doubting professors, enjoying their ease and luxuries, cannot teach that simple truth.

Although this is a warning sermon, it is also an encouraging one. Teaching the truth of God's Word will always bring good fruit, no matter how many difficulties may come along. I told a Facebook friend I can sit in our garden pulling weeds, and rabbits walk by, cats sneak by, birds cautiously approach. I can see Japanese beetles shamelessly sitting in rose blooms they have destroyed, and many other problems, Yet in the midst of every creature eating and being eaten, the good plants bloom and bear fruit.

When the true Gospel is taught, that is, a true message about Jesus the Savior, then good fruit will come from it. Although the following is known well to gardeners, it bears repeating. A good tree can only bear good fruit - so a good tree does not produce junk or trash the way a bad tree does. Likewise, a bad tree will never produce good fruit. The same is true of plants, seed, bushes. What we take for granted in gardening is forgotten in Christianity.

I talked to one Lutheran pastor, excluded for teaching the truth. I said "You don't need a synod to validate you. Start a Bible study and see if they want to have a church." But he thought about the organization, not the good tree bearing fruit. Very sad.

Notice that Jesus repeats the formula to the point of distraction. That is to exclude wrong conclusions from both sides. A good tree has to produce good fruit. A bad tree has to produce bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. A bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

So often people look at a big, Big, BIG church and say, "They must have the answers. We have to be like them."

And they look at a small congregation and say, "They are no good because they are small." (They overlook many details to maintain their pity, their fake sadness.) God's effective Word blinds them and as 2 Thessalonians says, "They rejoice in their evil."

Recently I was mocked by the junkyard dogs of UOJ. I send out Luther's Sermons each week, but I am "not Lutheran." There is nothing to posting public domain sermons - except no one else is doing that. I know Luther is the good tree always teaching the truth in a clear and compelling way. For that reason I assume that posting those sermons and posting them again on Facebook bears fruit.

One person said to me at a reunion, "Greg, I read your blog every chance I get." Long-time family friends happened to be Lutheran. They said the same thing and were very encouraging. I always knew them as gracious people, good friends.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

That is a pretty clear warning from Jesus. One may live in luxury and a false peace, but there are so many cases of the bad tree leaving nothing behind except a fading memory.

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Notice that the pleas offered have nothing to do with teaching truth versus teaching falsehood. Look at what we have done! and - in Your Name! How clearly he predicted what would happen. Even now some Lutherans are rejoicing over this or that, but opposing the teaching of the first six letters of their names.

It is easy to be kidnapped by the thoughts of this world. I was told, "When this millionaire gives money, he expects results!" I could see the thinking behind this, which was entirely wrong. One man told me he got his job, which required 600 dial-ups per day, and was glad for it. They know 600 dial-ups will get results, no matter what.

However, Jesus did not found a business that would boom and later be forgotten, like those ghost amusement parks and Olympic sites around the world. He founded an everlasting Kingdom of Grace, built upon Him.

"On this Rock-Ledge, I will build My Church." Not on Peter, the little rock, not upon the Papacy, not on Peter's confession of faith, but upon the Savior Himself, an everlasting foundation of Truth.

 Norma A. Boeckler