Hummingbirds - The Sum of All Birdwatching Hopes

 Butterfly Bush

Our front yard is completely in bloom:

• Joe Pye
• Feverfew
• Bee Balm
• Roses
• Mint
• Crepe Myrtle
• Pinks
• Clethras
• Hosta

The best time for observation is mid-afternoon. The sun is on the garden but the porch is shaded and cool. The Joe Pye is 8 feet tall and the Mountain Mint blossoms are about 6 feet tall. Bee Balm lives up to its name with enormous bees (new to me) crawling all over them, with other bees and insects working them at the same time.

Bee Balm

The Bee Balms also grew up and around the mailbox, but nothing bothers me. They recognize my benign presence and I appreciate their beneficial work.

Three times in a row I have looked at the garden and a hummingbird has zoomed around, stopping to ID me. I had hummingbird pals in Phoenix and they buzzed me for attention. I gave them sprinkler baths. 

The other homes have a few blooms in their front yards - and I have nothing but blooms and a little bit of grass. The abundance of food attracts an abundance of critters. On our walk back to the house this morning, Sassy and I saw baby bunnies in the street playing tag and hopping over each other. The mother was watching and headed the other way (diversion) so we would not follow the babies to the nest. 

One day I hosed some babies by accident. They made funny little sounds and hopped away from Sassy's curious nose. She only wanted to be friends the way dogs always do with a meet and greet from behind. That motivated the baby to hop under a car, so Sassy stared, disconsolate.

Our little Paradise is so full of cover and food that rabbits walk casually by when I do early morning work among the plants. If I move the backyard Hosta up front, they will have a bigger area for cover, less for grass. 

 Hosta flowers are especially attractive to hummingbirds.

We had so much rain this year that walking in the garden is like walking on a soft mattress. Also, the deep roots of perennials like Joe Pye hold water and channel it downwards for greater fertility and microbe growth.

Ranger Bob and I always drink pour-over coffee on the front porch and admire the Creation garden. Sassy sits with us and demands treats, only to hear her nicknames - "Chowhound" and "Ferocious Guard Dog." She loves to rest near Bob and listen to him talk. If we use the second computer in the chapel, she finds a spot in the corner while we order car parts or investigate car problems.

Trumpet Vine, aka Cow Itch, is a hummingbird flower.

Notables - Interesting Fellows of America - An OJ Tale of Wonder, Intrigue, and Scams

 Moses denied Objective Justification!

Long ago, No-Synod Pastor Jack Cascione met us. His son Jerry wanted to go to the WELS Michigan Lutheran Seminary, so we took him the next day for a visit. Jerry went there one year. Cascione filled me in on the politics of the Ohio District, which ended in him helping to get another liberal voted in as District President. Needless to say, Cascione's only dogma is OJ.

Cascione used to publish McCain's plagiarism from the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia. The knuckleheads on Jack's blog never realized that fact until I posted the proof five or more times on my blog. McCain's plagiarized blog disappeared without an apology.

ELS Pastor Jay Webber was a Missouri vicar when I was leaving the LCA. He walked away with a ton of books from my library. He was welcome to them. He was furious when Patsy Leppien asked me to help with the research for What's Going On Among the Lutherans. Ft. Wayne know-it-all! Later, I was disgusted when he chose to work with disgraced ex-pastor Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, who had been eased back into the pastoral office by WELS District VP Paul Kuske and other scoundrels. Jay, like Rolf Preus, considers himself the first and last word on OJ.

 OJ Webber, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, Roger Kovaciny, Jon-Boy Buchholz!

WELS DP Jon-Boy Buchholz deserves special mention. Spencer claimed that he got Buchholz elected, so blame Steve. Normally WELS pastors look down upon ELS pastors and avoid them, even though WELS "cherishes their fellowship with the ELS." Spencer told me that Buchholz wanted to meet me etc. Buchholz lied to one of my members that I agreed with him about OJ. Jon-Boy was working with Webber, another Odd Couple, traveling together so Jay could give his Luther OJist paper at the Emmaus debacle.

LCMS Pastor Paul McCain spotted me at the bookstore, introduced himself, and wrote letters to me about how much he appreciated my CN articles. I kept one for laughs. In a letter, which he did not send to me, he accused Larry Darby and me of warping a California pastor's brain about Objective Justification. I never communicated with that pastor, but clearly McCain wanted to poison the well early. Also, I thought Barry was wimpy about Church Growth and told Paul - the new graduate of Ft. Wayne - that to his face.

We met Pastor Herman Otten and his family when changing to WELS. He published my articles, which he got for free, over 300 of them when I stopped counting. Members of Trinity, LCMS, Bridgeton, told Otten to spike anything I wrote when I emphasized Justification by Faith in the face of their OJ obsession. Or else - no more donations.

Pastor Steve Spencer was always trying to move WELS to the right, so he thought. I helped with the Orthodox Lutheran Forum, which he abandoned. He wanted to help his classmate Mirthless Mark Schroeder, so I encouraged Steve to start the discussion blog he named Intrepid Lutherans. He was the first to abandon it when the leaders debated and realized Objective Justification was from Pietism and a complete crock.

We met Mirthless Mark Schroeder when he was a high school principal in Watertown. He was actually friendly, unlike the frozen chosen at Northwestern College (RIP). Later, guided by Steve Spencer, he phoned me and emailed me, after he became SP. Like Barry, he was all smoke and mirrors.  I noticed later - that when people met with Schroeder, they stopped talking to me - like forever. He has a great system. The conversation is pledged to utmost secrecy. How do I know? I was told by some before...

I met Dan Fleischer's brother when we were in the God-forsaken CLC (sic). He is now helping Spencer shill for Cascione, proving that likes do attract. Paul Gerhardt Fleischer set a record for excommunicating 105 members of his congregation, according to Dave Menton.

Menton once guarded the CLC (sic) Talmud on fellowship principles, shouting at me during lunch that it was unionism to write for CN -(unless copied from another source, like the CLC rag) - until he wrote for CN. Menton railed against the Ark guy and later joined the Ark crew.

The Right Reverend Bishop James Milhous Heiser, STM, deserves a special place in this collection. He appeared on the radar screen when Bishop Randy DeJaynes started the Lutheran Confessional Synod, with Jay Webber and Kincaid Smith as midwives. The LCS was accepted into fellowship with the WELS and ELS, so they could pray together, a blissful moment, to be sure. "In October 1995, he [DeJaynes] was consecrated Bishop of the Lutheran Confessional Synod, following his election and call during the First General Meeting of the Synod, held at Christ Lutheran Church, Decatur."

 Heiser loved the classes of OJ fanatic David Scaer - he joined up with Rolf Preus and his ex-ELS OJ swarm.

In 2019, Heiser declared on YouTube that he never heard of Objective Justification until Rydecki was kicked out of WELS for questioning it. How was the LCS in fellowship with WELS and the Little Section on the Prairie - OJ is their only dogma.

When Heiser wanted to raise money for some rare books, he was very friendly, and I helped. When he "borrowed" a rare set of Gerhard, he kept it. I gave him lots of old and rare books in the hopes that others could use them in a library setting. Later, someone bought a bunch of Bibles and my books for ELDONA to have. Heiser's response (via his thug assistant) - "Make those Jackson books disappear."

The hostility toward me at that ELDONA conference was constant. How sharper than a serpent's tooth, indeed.

Going back to Spencer's Intrepids - Who admitted that OJ came from Pietism and not from the Scriptures? - Rydecki, Lindee, and Knepprath. Who was blamed for that? Short answer - moi.

Here is a good example of that discussion from Lindee.

Those three men joined ELDONA and the curtain of silence descended. I have noticed that people who have some connection to ELDONA stop communicating with me. They write to me, drive to my home, meet my wife, then.......silence. I am thinking Heiser studied How To Be a Bishop under Mirthless Mark.

Nevertheless, I have enjoyable days filled with contacts from all over the globe. I am happy that synodocrats - even from tiny glowering sects - have culled the contacts so well. They are the velcro for the lint.

 St. Paul denied Objective Justification!

---

Another Belch from the LutherQuislings.

One should have a look at the latest Ichabod! It is a autobiography or apologia pro vita sua of the Rev. Dr. Gregory L. Jackson. To Mr. Krohn: you can see here what Dr. Jackson's roots are as well as his life conflicts [GJ - ignorant, lazy false teachers]. His hobby/vocation as a botanist is a welcome diversion to the false doctrine that you need to wade through [GJ - Creation, the Chief Article, etc]. He makes a statement below one of his showcased, illustrated boxes: "St. Paul denied Objective Justification!" Brothers and Cistern in Christ, that is a lie. Especially when you consider that St. Paul wrote Romans 5:18, 2 Cor. 5, specifically verse 19, and Romans 4:25. The belief in what we call Objective Justification IS NOT A DENIAL OF JUSTIFICATION SOLA FIDE. Dr. Jackson calls us Quislings, i.e. traitors, collaborators with Our Father Below, when by his broadsides it is he himself who is a Quisling to the Pietists, Calvinists, and Universalists we venerate.

Intrepid Judas Goat Rounding Up for Jack B. Simple Cascione Now. Note to Toadies - Spelling Counts

The Book? The Path To Understanding Justification? I ate it.

Hey Greg – Still nothing on Ichabod in direct reply/rebuttal to Casione (sic). I don’t get it. Why didn’t you print out Jack’s review for your readers and then refute it point by point? Here is a great opportunity to deal with the topic in a very detailed and organized fashion and at the same time defend your viewpoint for all to see. Why would you pass up such an opportunity. Come on, don’t let this slip by!



Peace!



Spence

***

GJ - Mrs. Ichabod said, "Gracious. You did that already. Can't he see?"

Jack B. Simple Cascione and His Lady Scholars versus the KJV Scriptures, the Original Text, Luther, and the Book of Concord

https://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2019/07/jack-b-simple-cascione-and-his-lady.html

Robert Preus Consulted with Reformed Theologians On OJ


At the time of the faculty’s conversations with Maier II, Robert Preus looked for support and found it among conservative friends in the Evangelical movement who admired him for his defense of biblical inspiration and inerrancy, including several faculty members of Westminster Seminary—Escondido, California, with its renowned Reformed scholar Michael Horton (b. 1964). Preus must have been aware, but chose to ignore that the Reformed see objective justification as a component of their doctrine of election, but it was hardly universal in scope as Lutherans have historically held it.


Scaer, David P.. Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer . Luther Academy. Kindle Edition. 

On Lenski

Lenski’s denial of objective justification was found in his commentary on Romans. Opponents of seeing justification only as subjective see it as nothing other than synergism, the issue which was at the heart of the Lutheran Reformation protest against Rome. Since God justifies all humanity by raising Christ from the dead, justification is universal and, as an act of God and not of man, is objective. By faith justification becomes a reality for the believer and is called subjective. 2.  
Lenski, R. C. H., The Interpretation of the New Testament (Columbus, OH: Wartburg Press, 1934–1966).

Scaer, David P.. Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer . Luther Academy. Kindle Edition.

Our Joye Neighbor Wants To Keep the Path Open - Following My Suggestion To Use Salt

 This brick path was overgrown with grass and weeds for decades. No one knew the path was there. The new owner wants to keep it open by acting against weed growth, drying them up with salt.

Sassy and I walked by the veteran's home today. His daughter said, "Did you see dad rubbing salt into the path?" I said I noticed that.

"That was your idea. He wanted the path to remain open." The salt will deprive the weeds and grass of moisture, wicking it out, without using garden toxins.

The attractive brick path came emerged as I was finishing The Path To Understanding Justification, which is available for free.

The LutherQuislings cannot face that there is one path - the Scriptures. They want to clarify and build upon what the Bible teaches, by using the language of Calvin and the Pietists, the rationalists and the Universalists.

To this day they dig up their human authorities when I have challenged them almost daily to face the reality of God's revelation in Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4, currently on the back cover. They refuse. They pout. They dance around as if everyone is on their side with Objective Justification. If they cannot comprehend the Word, how could they grasp human authors? Doubtless they could not sit still in school and scarcely listened between their meds.

They raise a stink, like their Father Below, just before leaving.

I do not take any of their comments personally. They have attacked LCMS Pastor Vernon Harley and doubtless hate Dr. Walter A. Maier as much as their mentor, David Scaer, does. Both men, advocates of Justification by Faith, are beyond the reach of LQ, but the false teachers still try.

The Poisonous Hermaneutics of Objective Justification - Exemplified by the LutherQuislings

 Lenski the Scholar and Faithful Lutheran.
Below, the free set of Lenski PDFs we have made available.
LutherQuislings should open a few. Just wunst.

 Free Lutheran PDFs and Links to Luther and Keil-Delitsch

Here is Lenski, at the conclusion of his discussion on 2 Cor. 5:19:

"We do not find the idea that Paul here says that when Christ died, when in and by his death God reconciled the world objectively, he then and there (or at the time of Christ's resurrection) forgave all sins to the whole world.  αὐτοῖς   = individuals and refers to their subjective reconciliation. The use so often made of this passage should be modified. On the question of universal and personal justification consult the author's Interpretation of Romans, 5:10, also 1:17."

Bethany Scholar:

Lenski took the view that reconciliation has an "objective" and "subjective" aspect.  He basically grouped reconciliation with atonement.  I think the whole "objective"/"subjective" division he is going along with is a bad idea, but he denied that justification or forgiveness are declared for anyone other than believers and that at the time time of their believing.  

It is the poisonous hermeneutics of OJ that would cause someone to equivocate in this manner about reconciliation, since that is what they do with justification in similar instances in Romans.  I don't think we can say that someone who is in rebellion against God has been reconciled to God in any sense.  That is just ridiculous.  With Chemnitz, I maintain that the work of reconciliation was being done at the cross, the work which is carried out solely through the preaching of the Word.  That Paul says this is plain in the passage, until venomous snakes infect our thoughts with poison.

Some Words for LutherQuislings

"The knowledge or living experience of faith in the Son and his propitiation is like getting into the very heart of God.  To know God by faith is to possess the propitiation he has made (pardon), to be begotten of God (regeneration), to live (the new, undying life).  For all others the heart of God is still sealed and locked, since they refuse to use faith, the one key (unbelief)" (130).

Lenski, R. C. H.  Preaching on John (Sermon Outlines, Sermons, Homiletical Hints).

The Quislings studiously avoid the passages below the portrait of the Atonement, which they profess to honor.

1. One obvious reference as to Lenski's position is the fact that he translated all three books of The Error of Modern Missouri from German to English.  He would not have done that if he was not completely opposed to Walther's view of election. 


https://www.lutheranlibrary.org/239-schodde-the-error-of-modern-missouri/ 

2. From Lenski's Romans Commentary on Romans 4:25:


>"Our" transgressions, "our" being declared righteous, as in other similar expressions, speak of the believers alone because in them the purpose of Christ's death and his resurrection is fully realized.  The fact that Christ died also for those who deny him and bring swift destruction on themselves (2 Pet. 2.1) does not need to be introduced here.  The two "our" prevent us from making διὰ τὴν δικαίωσιν ήμῶν signify the justification of the whole world instead of "_our_ justification," "our" referring to us believers (personal justification).  It is this justification with which the entire chapter deals and constantly also emphasizes faith.  Δικαίωσις occurs only twice in the New Testament, here and in 5:18; in the LXX only in Lev. 24:22. Its meaning is settled in 4:1, which see.

>The fact that personal justification is referred to and not justification of the world is seen also from 5:1: "Having been declared righteous _out of faith_," etc.  "Our" in 4:25 (our "transgressions"—our being declared righteous") and the "we" in 5:1 cannot refer to different persons; nor can δικαίωσις ήμῶν (4:25) and δικαιωθέντες (5:1) that follows in the next breath signify two different acts, one that is without faith, the other with faith.