Tomorrow - Greeting from a Member's Household

When All Else Fails, Try This in the Congregation

The new synodical programs unroll and unravel, as leaders seek to keep people's attention on being busy rather than productive. If they believed in the efficacy of the Word, the programs would be laughed out of existence and never attempted again. But it is so much easier to tell the pastors they should be team players, for the pastors to endorse such hollow and patently false materials - wrapped in nice printing, colorful videos, and soporific audio.

The leaders have forgotten that extending the Left Foot of Fellowship leaves a mark - on them - that never vanishes. Recipients have friends, spouses, children, and access to social media. That explains - in part - why the Calvinist Church Growth sects have seen no increase, neither have they kept up with the population growth.

The synod presidents and Pope John the Malefactor should be paid based on their original salaries and benefits. For each year they have lost worship attendance, as measured by communion attendance, they should lose salary and benefits proportionately, the same decreases applied to all their staff. They should also be denied any kiss-up gifts from Thrivent or doctorates from their failing educational units (retroactive for Matt the Fatt).

Here is a simple to follow approach in the congregation, which makes more sense than trying to get a new, tired and bloated executive.

Means of Grace, 

Efficacy of the Word

The congregation must revert to respectful, traditional,liturgical worship with real hymns, the Creeds, and actual sermons based on the text.

The pastor or staff will not cheat the members, their own spiritual growth, or visitors by using borrowed, canned, messages (I dare not call them sermons - most are Calvinist kaka.)

The sermonizer for the service will carefully study the text, use good materials, Greek and Hebrew, Lenski, and the Confessions, to proclaim the Gospel. The sermon will be written out in full and given either from memory or with the text resting there as a kind of comforter (but not for reading to people - deadly).

Holy Communion is offered regularly and all special services are offered (Ascension, Advent, Lent, etc).

Visiting will be the program of the congregation. For every question like this - what about a youth group?, the pastors or staff will say, "If you like that, organize and run it." Ha.

Visiting means taking the Gospel to members - shut-in, hospitalized, and the spiritually troubled or inert.

Educational

Instead of asking what is popular, teach what is necessary, not the pricey synodical stuff or (possibly) worse - the other stuff borrowed from Zwingli and his pals.

Thanks to the non-profit Lutheran Librarian, there are many great classics that can be studied by the congregation. That is just one source. We are going to study Henry Eyster Jacobs' Summary of the Christian Faith and also Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

Besides that, we teach New Testament Greek to members, pastors, and yes - children. We use Ustream for all worship and adult education.

Social media leverages what we do.

Higher Things - Still on YouTube - SuperDumb Ecstatic Speech on Universalism - From 2016

Reverend George Borghardt III

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• 

Reverend George F. Borghardt III, Senior Pastor: graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Classics and then received a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO in 2000. He served for ten years as the Associate/Youth Pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe, TX before accepting the call to serve as Zion’s Senior Pastor in November of 2010.

Pastor Borghardt voluteers his time in various youth organizations, serving as the President aof the national Lutheran youth organization Higher Things and as a board director at Faith Lutheran in Crystal Lake.  He plays second base on Zion's softball team.  He is also a huge sports fan loving his LSU Tigers, the New Orleans Saints, and the New York Mets.

Pastor Borghardt and Amy, his wife, have three children: George, Thomas, and Sophia.

President of Higher Things

This Calov quotation, which I obtained from Robert Preus'
Justification and Rome,
destroys UOJ in a few words.

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What Do Lutherans Believe?

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All that we believe, teach, and confess must faithfully be taken from the Holy Scriptures. We believe that the Holy Scriptures are God's divinely inspired word, without error, that is able to make us wise unto salvation...

Jesus took the burden of our sin upon Himself at the cross enduring our punishment. His love is so great for us that He gives us His perfect righteousness. By virtue of the cross, God declares that our sins are forgiven and we are righteous and welcome in His sight.

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Higher Things and the Forrest Bivens Deception about the Chief Article

The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:5). All have sinned are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). (Smalcald Articles II.I.1-3).

That right there is the heart of the Lutheran Confession. All have sinned. All have been justified freely without work or merit. Justification--becoming right with God--is something that happens outside myself, apart from myself. It's objective. My redemption is in Christ Jesus, in the blood that He shed.

***

GJ - This video is the worst UOJ message I have seen, but I am glad Higher Things and Pastor George Borghardt III are out in the open about their Universalism, instead of hiding it behind ambiguous and misleading language.

The Brief Confession of 1932 uses completely erroneous Scripture citations to back up "God has forgiven the entire world," without connecting the citations to the claims. Here are claims without even a mention of Scripture.

My take is this -  the UOJ Stormtroopers are rattled by the laity who see through their false doctrine and challenge them on every point. The Higher Things websty clearly misrepresents Luther and the Book of Concord about the Chief Article.

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Who Redefined the Chief Article - Cheaply. Dishonestly. Cowardly?

The Primary Doctrine in Its Primary Setting: Objective Justification and Lutheran Worship [Prepared for the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music and the Arts Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, July Wisconsin, July 23, 1996. By Forrest L. Bivens]

The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines; it preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our consciences before God. Without this article the world is utter darkness and death.”1 Luther’s appraisal of the doctrine of justification is also ours. We hold it to be the primary doctrine of Scripture, that is, the central and most important teaching revealed by God for us sinners.2

The truth of justification, above all others, distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. If this teaching were obscured or lost, attempts to show significant differences between the Christian religion and others would ultimately prove to be futile. Also, as revealed and emphasized in the Bible, all other doctrines either prepare for or flow from this chief article of faith. Without this truth, all others would mean little. This doctrine is the source or basis of the benefits and blessings which mankind receives from God. 

[GJ - Oh, Oh, Oh, Frosty - define the Master and Prince, the Lord, the Ruler, the Judge of all kinds of doctrine for us.]

What precisely is this “master and prince, lord, ruler and judge” over other doctrines? Justification is a declaratory act of God, in which he pronounces sinners righteous. As revealed in the Bible, this declaration of God is made totally by grace and on account of Jesus Christ and his substitutionary life and death on behalf of mankind. To phrase it somewhat differently, God has justified acquitted or declared righteous the whole world of sinners. He has forgiven them. They have been reconciled to God; their status in his eyes has been changed from that of sinner to forgiven sinner for the sake of Jesus Christ. Since all this applies to all people, the term universal or general justification is used. In our circles an alternate term, objective justification, is also used. If justification is universal, it must also be objective - sinners are forgiven whether they believe it or not. This is precisely what Scripture teaches in Romans 3:23-24, when it says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Higher Things joins the New NIV in adding the second all to Romans 3. All have sinned - no argument there. But the text does NOT say "all are justified." Even the old NIV, which was packed with problems, failed to add the second "all."

Shame on George and Higher Things for joining ELCA in its Universalism, grace without the Means of Grace, declarations without any Scriptural or Confessional support, Halle Pietism triumphant.

Take down the Luther statues and put up Lord Vader.

New Testament Greek, Summary of the Christian Faith and the Pilgrim's Progress

Paine looks like this.

Beginning Greek: A Functional Approach -Lent, 2020

by Stephen W Paine

This is the Alibris link - cost about $25.

ISBN-13: 9780195010138 - useful for trying Amazon, eBay, and other sellers.

Alec Satin's print books are here.

Jacobs' Summary - Advent, 2019

We will study Henry Eyster Jacobs' doctrinal book, in Advent. The link is - Summary of the Christian Faith.

Starting in January, we will study Pilgrim's Progress.

Alec Satin's print books are here.

From ALPB Online Forum - NALC Seminary President

Rev. Dr. Amy Schifrin

 Rev. Eric Riesen

Ambridge, Pennsylvania: The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) Executive Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, to call the Rev. Dr. Eric Riesen to serve as the next president of the North American Lutheran Seminary (NALS). The NALS is housed at Trinity School for Ministry, an Anglican seminary headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, where Riesen formerly served on the Board of Visitors.

Riesen will follow the Rev. Dr. Amy Schifrin, STS, who led the seminary as its first president. “I am so thankful for having been called to serve as the president of the NALS during these six years. When the NALC began, we did not have a seminary. Now not only do we have a seminary that is orthodox, confessional, and evangelical, we are flourishing in an ecumenical environment, and we have relationships with a variety of undergraduate schools that will create a ‘pipeline’ of students who will one day serve our NALC churches and mission outposts,” said Schifrin. “All of us at the NALS are excited about the upcoming arrival of our new president, Eric Riesen. I’ve known Pastor Riesen as a respected colleague and friend, and I believe he will be able to lead the NALS into a new season of growth.”

Riesen is a graduate of Indiana University, Fort Wayne (B.S.), Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A.), Luther Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and [Calvinist] Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (D.Min.), where his work focused on the dialogue between theology and science. His dissertation, “When Worldviews Collide: The Christian Faith and the New Genetics,” explores moral and theological questions raised by new genetic technologies. In 2016, the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau published his book, The Christian Faith: A Catechism for the Curious, and he has also written for the online edition of First Things.

http://alpb.org/books/the-christian-faith-a-catechism-for-the-curious/

https://thenalc.org/projects/north-american-lutheran-church-calls-new-seminary-president/

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.

Greek Lesson - Mark 16:1-20 - The Resurrection of Christ

Lenski, Interpretation of Mark, p. 736:
After the two parts (chapters 14 and 15) that present the Passion and the death there follows the last minor section of the Gospel, that regarding the resurrection. In each of the four Gospels this last section regarding the resurrection constitutes the glory part. Yet this tale is told in the same sober way as is the account of the crucifixion and the death. The great facts that occurred are reported to us in the briefest and the most dispassionate way. Our faith is to rest on these facts, that is all. One of the decisive tests of
the Christian faith is belief in these facts which declare that Jesus rose from the dead. All who alter these facts and in some way or other deny his resurrection can no longer claim the Christian name, for Christianity stands and falls with the resurrection of the Savior. 

The four accounts differ in detail, no witness reports all the facts. This affords the critics an opportunity to play one witness against another in order to discredit all of them or to discredit any desired part of their testimony. The Christian student has only one duty, namely, properly to combine all the testimony and thus to reconstruct the entire story. The statement thatthis can never be done is unwarranted.

Mark 16

Parser

1 και διαγενομενου του σαββατου, μαρια η μαγδαληνη και μαρια η του ιακωβου και σαλωμη ηγορασαν αρωματα, ινα ελθουσαι αλειψωσιν αυτον

2 και λιαν πρωι της μιας σαββατων ερχονται επι το μνημειον ανατειλαντος του ηλιου

Lenski - Jews did not name the days. Calendars are culture. BCE and CE - new culture.

3 και ελεγον προς εαυτας "τις αποκυλισει ημιν τον λιθον εκ της θυρας του μνημειου?"

4 και αναβλεψασαι, θεωρουσιν οτι αποκεκυλισται ο λιθος ην γαρ μεγας σφοδρα

ἀποκυλίω

The gar clause points out this was a great stone, not the small stone of a poor grave. Jesus rose before the angel flattened the stone - He was not released from the grave by the angel. The stone could not be put back easily, so the tomb remained open for everyone to see. 

5 και εισελθουσαι εις το μνημειον ειδον νεανισκον, καθημενον εν τοις δεξιοις, περιβεβλημενον στολην λευκην, και εξεθαμβηθησαν

6 ο δε λεγει αυταις, "μη εκθαμβεισθε ιησουν ζητειτε τον ναζαρηνον, τον εσταυρωμενον, ηγερθη, ουκ εστιν ωδε - ιδε ο τοπος οπου εθηκαν αυτον"

7 "αλλ υπαγετε ειπατε τοις μαθηταις αυτου και τω πετρω οτι προαγει υμας εις την γαλιλαιαν; εκει αυτον οψεσθε καθως ειπεν υμιν"

και τω πετρω - Peter denied Jesus and needed to know the Lord was risen. He would have been completely grief-stricken about his treachery. This restoration is completed in the last chapter of John, the three-fold absolution.

8 και εξελθουσαι ταχυ, εφυγον απο του μνημειου, ειχεν δε αυτας τρομος και εκστασις, και ουδενι ουδεν ειπον, εφοβουντο γαρ

9 αναστας δε πρωι πρωτη σαββατου, εφανη πρωτον μαρια τη μαγδαληνη αφ ης εκβεβληκει 'επτα δαιμονια

hepta - seven

10 εκεινη πορευθεισα, απηγγειλεν τοις [μετ αυτου γενομενοις], πενθουσιν και κλαιουσιν

11 κακεινοι ακουσαντες οτι ζη και εθεαθη υπ αυτης ηπιστησαν

a plus believe - disbelieve

12 μετα δε ταυτα, δυσιν εξ αυτων περιπατουσιν εφανερωθη, εν ετερα μορφη, πορευομενοις εις αγρον

13 κακεινοι απελθοντες απηγγειλαν τοις λοιποις ουδε εκεινοις επιστευσαν

14 υστερον ανακειμενοις αυτοις τοις 'ενδεκα εφανερωθη, και ωνειδισεν την απιστιαν αυτων και σκληροκαρδιαν, οτι τοις θεασαμενοις αυτον εγηγερμενον ουκ επιστευσαν

ωνειδισεν - sound familiar?

15 και ειπεν αυτοις, "πορευθεντες εις τον κοσμον απαντα κηρυξατε το ευαγγελιον παση τη κτισει"

16 "ο πιστευσας και βαπτισθεις σωθησεται ο δε απιστησας κατακριθησεται"

17 "σημεια δε [τοις πιστευσασιν] ταυτα παρακολουθησει εν τω ονοματι μου δαιμονια εκβαλουσιν γλωσσαις λαλησουσιν καιναις"

18 "οφεις αρουσιν, καν θανασιμον τι πιωσιν, ου μη αυτους βλαψει, επι αρρωστους χειρας επιθησουσιν και καλως εξουσιν"

βλάπτω injure

19 ο μεν ουν κυριος μετα το λαλησαι αυτοις, ανεληφθη εις τον ουρανον και εκαθισεν εκ δεξιων του θεου

20 εκεινοι δε εξελθοντες εκηρυξαν πανταχου, του κυριου συνεργουντος, και τον λογον βεβαιουντος δια των 

επακολουθουντων σημειων αμην

βεβαιόω establish, confirm

1550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

by Public Domain

From Thy Strong Word

Textual Work: the Ending of Mark’s Gospel Let us look at one text in Mark and see what the manuscript evidence is. An ordinary Bible will not help. Footnotes mention some ancient witnesses, as if they were people. The witnesses are manuscripts. Details explaining the changes are missing. No explanations are offered. And yet, this is not a difficult matter to discuss.  I was told by my Harvard trained college professor, a Lutheran Church in America pastor, that the early Church noticed that the ending of the second Gospel was rather abrupt, stopping at Mark 16:8, so they made up another ending, Mark 16:9-20. Liberals said, “Thank God we now have better manuscripts than the King James Version had, so we can get rid of the manufactured ending and stop the Gospel at 16:8.” The liberals could not explain why anyone would end a Gospel with the word “for.” The Greek word gar (“for”) is never found at the end of a sentence, let alone at the end of a book. This adverb gar is post-positive, meaning that it is not used as the first word in a phrase. Like the contemporary question, “And?” it assumes completion. 


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KJV Mark 16:8 And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid. 

One theory held that the Gospel was mysteriously broken off at Mark 16:8, letting people imagine death or persecution. Given the value of written texts in the early Church, the abrupt ending is difficult to explain adequately. According to Bruce Metzger, the best known textual expert in America, one 12th century manuscript of Mark broke off at Mark 16:8 with the Greek letter tau indicating the end of a lection and more text following.11 For this reason he rejects that particular manuscript as evidence for the abrupt ending. Nevertheless, Metzger argues very strongly for excluding the traditional ending of Mark, giving little evidence against his view, but he offers three alternative explanations for the ending at Mark 16:8 –  
 1. The author intended to end his work with “they were afraid.” 2. The Gospel was not finished. 3. The Gospel lost its last leaf before it was copied. (The most probable in his opinion.)12 

Justin Martyr used vocabulary from the traditional ending in his Apology, written about 155 AD. Although we do not know exact dates for the New Testament Gospels, it is likely that the entire New Testament was completed before 100 AD. That makes the possible allusion to the traditional ending extremely early. A website about Justin Martyr and other saints made the observation that the early Roman emperors persecuted the Christian Church because they were trying to preserve the old Roman ways. The active persecution of an impoverished and illegal religion might explain the problem with the ending. Justin Martyr was beheaded with six of his students, one of them a woman. My United Bible Society Greek New Testament (Aland third edition) has notes for the variant readings. Similar decisions about which words or sections to include or exclude are made about Shakespeare and all important authors, but most people are not aware of it. The Shakespeare Variorum is an enormous work with variant readings of the dramas. The Yale Shakespeare, in one volume, is the result of many different editorial decisions. Although Shakespeare belongs to the modern age, scholars still argue about the authorship of the plays. Did he write some or all of them? Or did the Earl of Oxford? Or Bacon? If a Shakespeare play began with as much uncertainty as many sermons, no one would pay attention to Shakespeare either. The actor would begin, “Scholars are not sure whether William Shakespeare wrote this play. We chose which lines we would use in performing the play, but no one agrees which words are actually his, or Oxford’s, or Bacon’s, depending on which book you read.”13  


p. 24
The Aland edition of the New Testament omits the traditional ending of Mark, supporting this reading with Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and a few additional witnesses. The traditional ending is supported by Alexandrinus, Epraemi Rescriptus, Bezae Cantabrigiensis, and many others. The position of Vaticanus and Sinaiticus looks very lonely, but aha, do not they agree with each other? Are they not better and earlier? Can we not find it in our hearts to forgive that forgotten scribe who added a few verses to Mark, just to improve the Gospel? Vaticanus does not include the traditional ending of Mark, but the copyist left more than a column of space blank. That was long before the days of “this page intentionally left blank.” At the very least we can assume that the scribe knew of the traditional ending. That leaves Sinaiticus stranded. It is one thing to say that Mark’s Gospel ended abruptly, for no known reason, and that an ending was added. But, if two major witnesses against the traditional ending do not even agree completely with each other, then snipping off verses nine through twenty seems arbitrary, arrogant, and deceitful. St. Jerome knew about manuscripts omitting Mark 16:9-20, but he was convinced of the authenticity of the traditional ending. W. R. Farmer concluded: “In fact, external evidence from the second century for Mark 16:9-20 is stronger than for most other parts of that Gospel.”14 Now we have a great dividing line on this subject. Most of the conservatives have surrendered to Westcott and Hort, abandoning the Majority Text. And yet, an author who accepted the modern theories about the New Testament text, said this about the ending of Mark: 
 J-002 “In favor of Mark 16:9-20 there are a host of witnesses: the Alexandrian Manuscript, the Ephraem Manuscript, Codex Bezae, other early uncials, all late uncials and cursives, a number of old Latin authorities plus the Vulgate, one Old Syriac manuscript, the Syriac Peshitta version, and many other versions. Besides, there is a plain statement from Irenaeus (early Christian writer) which clearly shows the existence of Mark 16:9-20 in the second century and the belief that Mark was its author. In brief this is the negative and positive data on the question. On one hand is the unparalleled reliability of the Vatican and Sinaitic Manuscripts; on the other hand is almost all of the other evidence. J. W. McGarvey wrote a capable defense of Mark 16:9-20 in his Commentary on Matthew and Mark. It was first published, however, in 1875, before the great work of Westcott and Hort on the Greek text was completed. Yet McGarvey’s, with a few minor modifications, can stand with credit today.”             Neil Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1963, pp. 74f. 

Vaticanus and Sinaiticus have “unparalleled reliability,” except in one of the most important passages of the New Testament—the ending of Mark. If the claim does not match up with the data, then the claim is wrong.15 In light of the concessions made by Lightfoot above, the treatment of the traditional 


p.   25 
ending of Mark in the New International Version is worth noting. After Mark 16:8, a line appears in the text, indicating a break. The following heading appears above Mark 16:9-20: 

“[The most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.]”16 

Someone who has not read the research on the ending of Mark—and this material is fairly difficult to find—would conclude from the NIV that Mark 16:9-20 does not belong in the Bible. He would not know that the only major manuscript unambiguously omitting the ending is Sinaiticus and that this “most reliable manuscript” suddenly appeared without a so-called family of copies to back it up. Since Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Synod professors participated with the liberals and tongue-speakers of the NIV translation team, a conservative Lutheran would assume that the bracketed information is in harmony with orthodox Lutheran doctrine. In fact, no other Bible translation is so brassy in disdaining the traditional ending of Mark. If a modern scholar’s training goes against the traditional ending of the Second Gospel, and he still supports the Majority Text conclusion of Mark, then the untrained person can see that the case against Mark 16:9-20 is very weak indeed. For the sake of comparison, consider what Westcott and Hort have done to millions of Christians. The Beck Bible published by Christian News has also omitted the traditional ending of Mark with a footnote, following Westcott and Hort.17 When a faithful Lutheran reads this Bible, after being exposed to the King James Version, he is led to believe that the Christian Church was deceived for centuries. Luther was wrong. Tyndale was wrong. All the Reformers were wrong. How can the average Christian check the facts? In front of him is the latest Bible printed by a conservative Lutheran. He has no way of discovering, apart from a theological library, that the manuscripts favored in the new edition have no history at all. If a farmer bred cattle or pigs without knowing their genetic heritage, he would be considered lazy or foolish. The ultimate result of Westcott and Hort enthusiasm has planted doubt about the entire New Testament text.18 Ironically, the Majority Text is rejected by liberals today because of its heritage, its careful preservation in the Christian Church, its thousands of manuscript witnesses, its consistency, its harmony in many different forms. Even the mysterious Vaticanus tips its hat to the Majority Text, by making room for the traditional ending of Mark. 

“We must conclude that fidelity to the New Testament text has been abandoned since the publication of the Revised Version in 1881.”19 

Complete Works of John Bunyan - Free on Kindle. Use for Upcoming Classes in 2020

The free Kindle version of the Complete Works of John Bunyan is available here.

Our own Lutheran Librarian has a beautiful print version which will soon be available. Print is ideal for reading, and Kindle is handy for quoting.

The classes will be Wednesdays, starting in January, 2020, and likely a guidebook will emerge from them.

Dr. Lito Cruz Quoted Sasse in 2010

Sasse.

The unity of the Lutheran Church can come only if our churches return to the diligent use of the means of grace, to a serious study of the Word of God and the confessions of the Reformation.  Hermann Sasse (LW II, 265)
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LPC has left a new comment on your post "The Unity of the Lutheran Will Not Come from Publi...":

Pr. Greg,

You have been echoing this now for so many years, still no one likes to listen.

LPC


***

GJ - It is the sound of one hand clapping, to coin a phrase.

Many of us find it discouraging that the Lutheran leaders will not even talk in Biblical, Lutheran, Confessional terms. They have nothing to confess.

I know how to avoid the Third Rail topics that infuriate the Reformed. I could sell a lot of books if I avoided those topics.

The terms are: baptismal regeneration, infant baptism, the Real Presence, the efficacy of the Word alone, the Means of Grace.

The Lutheran leaders dance around these terms because they do not want to annoy the Enthusiasts in their midst. Avoidance has made these synodical leaders Enthusiasts, if they ever were Lutheran - I doubt it.

The seminary professors comprise a capon chorus singing the praises of their (fill in the blank) synod while mocking the Word, Luther, and the Confessions.

 Dr. Lito Cruz, math PhD and Lutheran pastor - and his wife Lynne.

From Alec Satin - Encouraging Words from Stork

The book of Stork’s writings starts out with a short sketch written by his brother. In a letter written by Charles Stork after a year teaching at Gettysburg, he says this:

“I am glad my first year’s work is nearly over. It ends June 25th. It has been quite hard for me making lectures on new subjects. I have been kept too close in my study. But the summer vacation will mend that; and next year I shall not be pressed so hard. I hope I am doing good here; but I find in doing work for the Lord, as in all the Christian life, we must walk by faith, not by sight. We cannot see always that we are really accomplishing anything. The only way I find is to live day by day, being sure the Lord has given us a certain work to do, and then doing it, even though we cannot see the fruit. I preached yesterday on Mary’s words at the feast at Cana, ‘Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.’ How simple and beautiful that rule is; to take our work from his lips, our particular work whatever it is and then faithfully and loyally to do it just because he says it.”

 By Norma A. Boeckler

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GJ - The Roman Catholic priest and the Pietist guru say the same thing, "Have you done enough? They change the focus from the efficacy of the Word to the righteousness of works.

Perhaps This Explains the Downfall of LCMS-WELS-ETC - The Unrequited Love Affair with Calvinism

Valleskey pleaded for everyone to spoil the Egyptians, to grow figs on thistles. Behold! the fruits of that growth program - they are prickly but sterile.

Why has Lutherdom welcomed the influence of Calvinism, so much like turning away from a home-cooked banquet to eat a Swanson TV Dinner? (Long ago, Bill Clinton bought the Swanson House in Fayetteville, Ark, for his lovely wife. Swanson was the inventor of TV dinners.)

Historically, the Prussian Union forced a merger of Lutherans and Calvinists, with Calvinism winning the doctrinal battle.

LCMS-WELS propagandists would like everyone to believe they formed their sects as a protest against this Calvinist-Lutheran union, but the LCMS-WELsians were just the opposite - rationalistic Pietists glowing from the influence of Halle - their Mecca, their Bethlehem, their spotless Paradise before the Fall.

Anyone can see this influence in each issue of Calvinist News, misnamed Christian News, nee Lutheran News.

Hardly anything reflects Biblical, Lutheran doctrine in CN. As I wrote earlier, using control-f to locate

• Justification by Faith (found in the Bible, unlike Objective Justification), 
• Efficacy of the Word (an entire word-group in the New Testament), or 
• The Means of Grace (a frequent Book of Concord term)

will be almost fruitless.

The Preus Crime Family found it useful to use the Calvinist Battle for the Bible to unite Missourians and see their OJ.

Fundamentalism was not the backwoods, moonshine-inspired, tongue-speaking movement of illiterates, but a series of Calvinist pamphlets sponsored by a wealthy Calvinist.

The project was initially conceived in 1909 by California businessman Lyman Stewart, the founder of Union Oil and a devout Presbyterian and dispensationalist. He and his brother Milton anonymously provided funds for composing, printing, and distributing the publication. The project had three successive editors: A. C. Dixon, Louis Meyer, and Reuben Archer Torrey. The essays were written by sixty-four different authors, representing most of the major Protestant Christian denominations... 

The volumes defended orthodox Protestant beliefs and attacked higher criticism, liberal theology, Roman Catholicism (called Romanism by many Protestants of the time), socialism, modernism, atheism, Christian Science, Mormonism, Millennial Dawn (whose members were sometimes known as Russellites, but which later adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses), spiritualism, and evolutionism. 

Calvinism relies on rationalism to prove its dogmas, which is appealing to Lutherans untrained in the efficacy of the Word. The entire "science proves Creation" business is a racket where the obvious revelation of God is replaced by a "proof" they can see and touch.

Calvinist cat - "Mission accomplished."