Midweek Vespers and Greek Lesson, 7 PM

Advent Midweek Service, December 6, 2017

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

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

Mid-Week Advent, Wednesday, 7 PM Central Standard

Greek Lesson 1 John 1 Follows Vespers

The Hymn #95               Savior of the Nations Come
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 100 p. 144
The Lection - 1 John 1:1-10
The Sermon Hymn #76     A Great and Mighty Wonder

John the Apostle's Witness

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer p. 44
The Collect for Peace p. 45
The Benediction p. 45
Hymn #562           Round Me Falls the Night  

1 John 1 King James Version (KJV)

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

John the Apostle's Witness

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

As Lenski wrote in his commentary, this is a letter from St. John the Apostle. He is the only one to use Logos - the Word - for Jesus. This opening lays out the claim of John to write and speak as an Apostle who has been taught by the Savior and seen the risen Lord.

The word apostle is used for the original 12 (Judas replaced) and for those who saw the risen Lord. When John writes, it is on the basis of traveling with Jesus, being taught by Jesus, witnessing His miracles, mourning as the warnings were voiced about the crucifixion, and yet there at the cross, taking care of Mary, called "son" by Jesus on the cross, seeing and hearing Him after the resurrection, watching the Ascension.

This is very simple to St. Paul laying claim to his apostolic authority. In both cases, they are saying, "The false teachers say this or that and accuse me. What authority from the Founder do they have? They have none!"

So we can see why apostolic preaching was so powerful - they were eye-and-ear witnesses. They began with a certain kind of faith and were built up over time to realize the fulness of His teaching. It is like raising issues with a military veteran - have you been in a battle? Have you seen this or that? 

2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

We went over the first 18 verses of John's Gospel, chapter 1, in the Greek class. People can remember how the same vocabulary is used. "The life" means more than someone living. Jesus is the Life who brings eternal life to all who hear and believe. Luther said, "I used to think life was surrounded by death. Now I realize that death is surrounded by life, and life springs up wherever the Gospel is preached.

I know a number who have experienced this. They had a knowledge of the Gospel, in some cases a false view brought by false teachers with all the credentials except a sincere faith. When they realized the real message of the Word, they were and remain energized by that spiritual knowledge.

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

This is the same relationship taught by Jesus. He said "I am in you, and you are in Me, just as the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father." That is a heavenly fellowship that we have and share with the Savior. That is also why "communion-koinonia" with the Body and Blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16) is so important. If we re-translate this for NIV purposes (participation) - that ye may have participation with us. That sounds like a club. The word is designed to deny the Sacrament, the meaning of koinonia. The blessing is "The communion of the Holy Spirit" not "The participation..." And no one that I know "participates with Nature" as an excuse to avoid church.

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

If it is God's revealed truth, it is designed to give us a spiritually rich and joyful life. The design of the Apostle is to share the Treasure of the Gospel, not to burden the members. Everything he teaches is from Christ, as he was designated. Even better, he had a special relationship, as the "disciple Jesus loved" and as the protector of Mary.

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

To distinguish the truth from falsehood, good from evil, John uses the metaphors of light and darkness. This follows the pattern of Jesus' teaching. There are believers and unbelievers, truth and falsehood, light and darkness. Sin remains, but the Gospel subdues sin and brings healing and peace. However, evil and darkness promise everything but only bring chaos and condemnation.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The last four verses build on what John has established as truth and fellowship. To belong to his very special relationship between the Son and the Father, we walk in light and follow the truth. That means we abhor error and seek to understand what God teaches about man, not what people speakers teach about God (to remain popular). 

Greek Lesson for Tonight 1 John 1, After Vespers. Refresh for Additional Details Later

Carl Bloch, Peter's Denial of Jesus

Parser Link

ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ Α΄ 1 1550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

1 ο ην απ αρχης, ο ακηκοαμεν, ο εωρακαμεν τοις οφθαλμοις ημων, ο εθεασαμεθα και αι χειρες ημων εψηλαφησαν - περι του λογου της ζωης
Lenski - Only John uses logos. This evokes His ministry, resurrection, and appearance in the locked room. Emphasis from word order - we have experienced this as apostles.

2 και η ζωη εφανερωθη και εωρακαμεν και μαρτυρουμεν και απαγγελλομεν υμιν την ζωην την αιωνιον ητις ην προς τον πατερα και εφανερωθη ημιν
Tenses change - "a sermon in tenses."
Bear witness and announce - John's theme.

3 ο εωρακαμεν και ακηκοαμεν 
απαγγελλομεν υμιν ινα και υμεις κοινωνιαν εχητε μεθ ημων και η κοινωνια δε η ημετερα μετα του πατρος και μετα του υιου αυτου ιησου χριστου

The Apostle establishes his creds.

4 και ταυτα γραφομεν υμιν ινα η χαρα ημων η πεπληρωμενη

5 και αυτη εστιν η επαγγελια ην ακηκοαμεν απ αυτου και αναγγελλομεν υμιν οτι ο θεος φως εστιν και σκοτια εν αυτω ουκ εστιν ουδεμια

6 εαν ειπωμεν οτι κοινωνιαν εχομεν μετ αυτου και εν τω σκοτει περιπατωμεν ψευδομεθα και ου ποιουμεν την αληθειαν

Fellowship claims and walking in darkness mean we do not do the truth.

7 εαν δε εν τω φωτι περιπατωμεν ως αυτος εστιν εν τω φωτι κοινωνιαν εχομεν μετ αλληλων και το αιμα ιησου χριστου του υιου αυτου καθαριζει ημας απο πασης αμαρτιας

Beautiful, clear statement.

8 εαν ειπωμεν οτι αμαρτιαν ουκ εχομεν εαυτους πλανωμεν και η αληθεια ουκ εστιν εν ημιν

9 εαν ομολογωμεν τας αμαρτιας ημων πιστος εστιν και δικαιος ινα αφη ημιν τας αμαρτιας και καθαριση ημας απο πασης αδικιας

Faith means confessing Christ and confessing our sins.

10 εαν ειπωμεν οτι ουχ ημαρτηκαμεν ψευστην ποιουμεν αυτον και ο λογος αυτου ουκ εστιν εν ημιν

Here the guilt-free claim makes Him out to be a liar and His Word does not dwell in us.

Fraud Detected Again, 12/10/18 Christian News - Universalism Hidden Under The Doctrine of "Justification"

Strange how people sell their Universalism by starting out with Luther and the Chief Article. Salesmen call it Bait and Switch. Magicians call it Misdirection of the Eyes. The Bible calls it Cancer or Gangrene.

As a side-note, to illustrate these devious trends, the Back to Luther Bog is all about Walther, Pieper, and Objective Justification. That is a feature of the LCMS and its surly brethren, replacing gold with fool's gold, gems with cheap glittery glass. But - let's return to the subject - another Christian News deception.

The True Lutheran Rev. Richard A. Bolland, Editor 

“Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing” 

according to Luther (sic) and Walther 

By Rev. Clint K. Poppe Good Shepherd Lutheran Church 

First Vice President, Nebraska District

“The thing that matters most.” What is the material principle of true Lutheranism? In a word, justification! We are declared righteous (justified) by grace alone, through faith alone, as revealed by Scripture alone, on the basis of the person and work of Jesus Christ alone (Augsburg Confession and the Apology, Article IV).

Although the author borrows a lot of language from Justification by Faith, the Chief Article, he never explains "We are declared righteous (justified) by grace alone..." As I have shown many times, these people merge the Atonement with Justification by Faith - as Walther, Stephan, and Halle did - and imagine God declared the entire world righteous (OJ) when Jesus rose from the dead.

The language is deliberately or ignorantly deceptive. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, says in Romans 4 that - like Abraham - we are justified by faith.

Faith is not opposed to grace, as Dr. Lito Cruz pointed out. Romans 4:16 KJV - Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace... 

The author does not say everyone in the world is forgiven and saved, but those who know OJ say, "Hey! Hey!" They love that conflation that places them in the same bedroll as ELCA and all rationalists, Barth and his Commie mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum, and such notables as the esteemed authors of Braaten Jenson's Dogmatics. Yea, long before the LCMS Dogma-tanic was the ELCA Dogma-tanic, both hailing Universalism in the name of "grace" and loathe to express faith or name that word so odious ot them...faith.

This issue of CN has the word "justification" in it 19 times, but a big zero for "justification by faith." As shown on the Luther statue graphic, the proper term is Justification by Faith. "Means of Grace" is used once in this issue, which is one more time than usual.

A funny statement from Otten, who got Harrison elected:
"Harrison high-fiving such a liberal as Cardinal Cupich does not help. He should have questioned Cupich on evolution, higher criticisms, justification and homosexuality. Rome’s present position should be exposed."

So why does Otten sell popish books like The Facts about Luther? And who is he to question anyone about the Chief Article? He agrees with Matt the Fatt, the LCMS Dogma-tanic, and Stephan's pimp.

 Where does Luther abandon Justification by Faith and anticipate the Calvinist Huber in saying everyone is righteous? And where do the Concordists anticipate Halle's Pietism and claim that the Resurrection of Christ absolved the world of sin? And where does Jesus contradict Himself, when He said the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, because "they believe not on Me?"

So Much Money in Deception and Abuse - Aim for Material Success But Hire a Good Criminal Defense Lawyer

WELS Friendship Sunday - The Nightmare Continues. When the Gospel is denied, expect no fruits of the Spirit.

The totals make the WELS Discussions posts the top four and five read posts, all-time, but they do not show up on that list. Is someone bribing the Al Gore Rhythm?

Their numbers for the last 30 days - click on the links below to make them go even higher.

WELS Discussions on Facebook - Mark Schroeder Retr... Jul 27, 2015,	736
WELS Discussions Group on Facebook Links Lutheran ... Jul 28, 2015,	693

So we have a mystery like unto the Hyles-Schaap stealth statistics. People are constantly viewing these two WELS links, but the discussion links do not show up on the all-time list. See the top graphic - over 15,000 and 12,000 views each.

Are you not glad that I have kept those discussions easy to find and read? The WELS Discussions Security Detail pointedly asked me not to be a part of their discussions. Some said they would not participate if I were listed as a member of that group. I chuckled and gave myself the Left Foot of Fellowship by Proxy.

 The radical fringe rejects Justification by Faith as the Chief Article -
Carl Braaten, Justification.

Disturbing to Lutherans, Or Not?

Lutherans should be disturbed that the synod presidents who call themselves conservative, orthodox, or confessional...are not.

Matt the Fatt, Mirthless Mark, and Pope John the Malefactor are united by a common disbelief. They reject Justification by Faith but are too cowardly to say that. Instead, they "rejoice" that they agree about Universal Objective Justification.

Carl Braaten is no hero of mine, but he had all the advantages in his academic career, from Harvard to Paris. He identifies those who reject the Chief Article - Justification by Faith - as being on the far fringes of Lutherdom. Look - the three clowns above belong to the radical fringe. They are so twisted that they casually treat their favorite dogma as the Chief Article. In WELS it is popular to start on "Justification," use all the attributes of Justification by Faith, and then romp through UOJ-land like whirling dervishes on meth. See Mark Zarling, Frosty Copycat Bivens, and Steve Valleskey for the method - stored and preserved like holy relics in the precious WELS Essay File.

Hypocrisy Is Their Game, Conswervative Is Their Name: Con Artists Who Swerve Away from Luther

LCMS - the Synod President candidates use Herman Otten to put them over the top while pretending to hate Christian News. Paul the Plagiarist McCain worked secretly with Otten to get Al Barry elected. Meanwhile, CPH said to me, "We rejected Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant for publication because you write for Christian News."

Matt the Fatt's campaign team traveled to New Haven, Missouri to sing their Ballad of Herman Otten to him. However, anyone else communicating with Otten is a leper. In one class at Concordia Seminary (Our Lady of Sorrows), St. Louis, two people were denied approval by the John Johnson administration. Both men had superficial contacts with Otten - little more than one message sent. I was there when Johnson was faxing to Otten all the time. 

The editor of Northwestern Lutheran - currently named Forward for Fuller - told me, "If you write for Christian News, you cannot publish in our WELS magazine." However, the WELS minders are constantly in touch with Otten to have him spike the stories about criminal conduct by WELS workers. If he cannot spike a national story like Joel Hochmuth and the FBI raid at the Love Shack, he buries the lead on page 17, an old trick used to say, "We covered that one."

The "conservative" Lutheran leaders do not mind Otten at all. He is quite docile and cooperative. An extra favor for them is his service as a Judas goat, whether deliberate or not. When he publishes material from dissenters, he identifies them for termination. People talk, so everyone knows. "Anonymous" just means - Let the guessing begin. Thus the synod leaders keep and flatter Otten for their own self-serving public relations and for making the flowers bloom - so their heads can be cut off.

I do not mind being on the shun list of apostate synods. The CPH rejection led me into independent publishing, and the toxic leaders made it easy to be independent of their incompetence. 

Where else in Christendom can the entire group - ELCA/WELS/ELS/LCMS/CLC sic - be devoted to Church Growth and shrinking at the same time? UOJ and conswervative at the same time? 

 Doctrinal morons can be seminary presidents - ask Walther! Ask Valleskey!

Luther's Sermons - Volumes 1-8, plus Gems. Giant PDF

Click on the link below for all eight volumes of Luther's Sermons, plus the Gems volume at the end - 3438 pages in all.

I asked Janie Sullivan if she could edit them all into one PDF file, and she did.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nq59uy1vjttifwk/Luthers%20Sermons%20Volume%201-8%20%2BGems.pdf?dl=0

Let me know how this works for you. I highly recommend using the free DropBox software, which you can download here -

https://www.dropbox.com

You can invite friends to download and do other DropBoxy things to earn more free storage space. With all I have done in sharing Moline photos and sending book versions around, I have used only 4 gigs of 16 gigs of free storage.

DropBox is a great way to back up documents off-site (as they say) and also to send large documents. The only way I can send a finished book with illustrations is through DropBox.

The software duplicates itself with Explorer on Windows, so I use my Lenski folder (read from the DropBox files) to look up volumes and get instant access to each book.

We tried to make the whole set in one Kindle. No joy.
Janie Sullivan is working on a fix.

Dr. Lito Cruz - Guest Editorial - Faith Is Never a Work

Dr. Lito Cruz earned a PhD in math and is a rostered Lutheran pastor. His wife Lynne manages a family business.

Faith is never a work, whatsoever -

Faith is never a work, if we are talking about the faith in Christ mentioned in the Scriptures. Those who say or claim it is, are doing a number on you.

This is a straw man fallacy.

In Romans 4:16, it says "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace..."

The Bible does not say nor imply at any time that your faith in Christ is something you have generated out of your sheer self.

If you are saved through faith, says St Paul in Romans 4, then you are saved by grace. Faith in Christ is always according to grace.

If you are saved by your faith then so say the straw man accusers - then you can have faith in your faith. Faith in Christ cannot be faith in something else, by the definition of Scripture. Stick to that definition, the accuser is doing a fallacy he himself does not recognize he is making.

If you say I have decided to believe in Jesus, then you are just fooling yourself, your faith is not a decision you cannot decide about Jesus dying for you. You can deny it and so claim that God is a liar but when you are convinced by it, the HS produced it in you.

LPC

 Norma A. Boeckler

***

GJ - Yes, this is one of the favorite scams of the pan-denominational UOJ sales team -

"We cannot have a contingency - like faith - or God's grace is no longer grace." UOJ

This claim is often repeated throughout the LCMS-WELS-ELS, but I read it over and over among the modern, apostate theologians. To be clear - there is no difference between Tillich-Barth/Kirschbaum-Bultmann and the posturing Lutherans.

Tis easy to roust the UOJists from their homes, feasting on the rotting remains of Lutherdom in America, like the sowbugs that enjoy the damp darkness of a log resting on soil.

They love Romans 4 - but I do not know why. They have never read or comprehended all 25 verses, a compelling narrative based on Abraham justified by faith.

"If we believe..." is a doctrinal crime, the UOJists claim. But -

Romans 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Simple exegesis - unfolding the meaning of the passage - without requiring Greek (though languages help), we can see how the Holy Spirit through St. Paul utterly destroys UOJ at the source they claim for themselves. 

As Dr. Cruz shows us with one slice of the double-edged sword - the Word - grace is not opposed to faith. 

Romans 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

Romans is even more powerful in this chapter than we can detect from reading it alone. The reason is that Paul has eliminated all forms of righteousness except the righteousness of faith, consigning the remainder to the Law. Properly understood - and carefully explained as young Webber and Boy Buchholz might say - UOJ is nothing but Law and lawlessness - their law, their legalism, and the lawlessness that allows them to bless fellow false teachers and notorious pastoral adulterers. 

And what does ELS-WELS abhor? - Justification by Faith. They cannot even say the phrase unless they quickly convert it to their Subjective Justification - a profound decision that the entire world declared forgiven and saved. Using the Talmudic logic of John Sparky Brenner, God has justified the world without faith, but only fools would imagine individuals are justified by faith. In fact, Sparky has to squeeze out this malapropism: "individual appropriation of forgiveness." Funny that, because we read - 

  Norma A. Boeckler

Post-Mortem for Universal Objective Justification

 Walther was a Pietist, a BA in rationalism, trained by a Pietist who studied at Halle but never graduated.

I was thinking about the favorite - or only - dogma of the Synodical Conference: Universal Objective Justification.

There are many ways to test doctrine, whether it is sound (healthy in Greek) or toxic (either a cancer or gangrene).

Let's do a post-mortem for UOJ and see why it is dead:

1. The First Gospel teaches that the Savior will crush the head of Satan, the serpent, not that God will declare the entire world forgiven and saved.
2. Abraham believed the Messianic Promises of God would stem from his yet-to-be-conceived son, and it was counted as righteousness - not that God would absolve the unbelieving world.
3. Paul's argument in Romans 4 rests upon Abraham justified by faith, not the OJ claimed in Romans 4:5 and 4:25. Counting or imputing or reckoning - that Greek verb is used for Abraham in Genesis 15:6, the Greek Septuagint. Co-inky-dink?
4. Paul's transition to what we call Romans 5 condenses Romans 4 (Justification by Faith) and states that Spirit-taught doctrine even more clearly in Romans 5:1-2. The Spirit teaches the Atonement in additional verses of Romans 5, not OJ (after teaching JBFA to perfection).
5. Paul's response to the Galatians about adding law requirements to the Gospel is a Justification by Faith epistle. Abraham is the example.
6. Abraham is an example of faith in Hebrews 11.
7. Abraham's faith is also cited in James.
8. In Luke 16, Lazarus is taken to Father Abraham, because faith does matter: believing in Christ = forgiveness of sin.
9. The Reformation has always been known as being centered on the authority of the inerrant Word and Justification by Faith.
10. Jaroslav Pelikan, Luther's Works editor, Yale Professor, defined the Reformation as Justification by Faith.
11. Carl Braaten, notorious LCA neo-theologian, still defines the Reformation as Justification by Faith. But the extreme radicals dismiss JBFA!
12. The Book of Concord editors define the Chief Article of Christianity as Justification by Faith, in harmony with Luther and Melanchthon. But what did they know? Are they wiser than Walther, Valleskey, Scaer, Wayne Mueller, Pope John the Malefactor, Herman Otten, Jay Webber and Jon-boy Buchholz?