Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Fellowship Principles - A Clever Misdirection of Minds



Nothing is so clear about the LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELDONA tradition as their obsession with "fellowship principles."

Someone highlighted that obsession when he, a stranger, began yammering at me about fellowship principles and exactly what I believed about that topic. This pastor from a former penal colony was the prosecutor and I was guilty until proven otherwise. I suggested he read some of my 17,000 posts or a few of my books, but that only made him more outraged.



I am on so many shun lists that I live in a paradise of non-Calvinists, non-OJists, non-Fulleroids. The people I know enjoy The Lutheran Hymnal, favor the KJV, love Luther, and know more New Testament Greek than the typical pastor. The rest were buying and selling Luther trinkets while our volunteers were publishing 11 volumes of Luther's Sermons, a fact they have never mentioned, in spite of such boastful names as LutherQuest and Christian (formerly) Lutheran News, and Steadfast Lutherans.

Those works-saints do not bother much with the concept of faith. They measure people by what they do and where they belong. In fact, being born in the right state and synod (Wisconsin State plus WELS) and attending the right high school (NW Prep, now Luther) confer automatic leadership status denied others. That means the most blatant false teaching, alcoholic felon can have a noble status far above the rest - for those outward accomplishments that have nothing to do with faith.

Don't let me start on family trees. Oh, you already have. I can feel so many thinking that in advance, that unspoken must be said. Certain people make their fathers, grandfathers, etc the reason why they deserve special treatment, better than being born forgiven - as they already claim - they are elevated long before birth, sharing in the accomplishments - but none of the sins - of the ancestors. If that were so, I could manage a farm with no trouble, because my grandfathers were outstanding in their fields, in agriculture.



The Hidden Hypocrisy Theme
The "conservative" Lutheran leaders know and enjoy their constant work with ELCA through Thrivent and the Siebert Foundation. Where it matters most, because of its deadly consequences, they are one with ELCA in universal absolution without faith, abortion to the point of killing living babies, women's ordination, gay ordination, and gay marriage. I follow graduates of several ELCA seminaries, and they clearly represent the status quo of paganism as they boast of their training and philosophies. "I have organized worship with other faiths," said one ELCA graduate - ironic in hosting services with other religions and calling them what he does not acknowledge himself - the Faith.

Church of the Augsburg Confession
The Church of the Augsburg Confession may be the largest Lutheran group of all - those who actually believe, teach, and confess the Augsburg Confession.

 Read this carefully and note that WELS is happy the New NIV finally says what Paul intended (oh? really?) to write in Romans 3 - that all are justified without faith. And they claim their quia subscription to the Book of Concord, just like the Preus Crime Family, the Jeske Crime Family, and the rest do.