Obituary and Commentary - Paul T. McCain, LCMS

Paul McCain, awards dinner, 2019

The Rev. Paul Timothy McCain, publisher and executive editor at Concordia Publishing House (CPH), died in Ballwin, Mo., on Nov. 25. He was 58.

McCain was born on Feb. 12, 1962, in Pensacola, Fla., to the Rev. Paul B. and Jean (Geipel) McCain and received the Sacrament of Holy Baptism on Feb. 25, 1962. He married Lynn Grunow in 1983. He graduated from Concordia University, River Forest, Ill., with a Bachelor of Arts (1984) in Biblical Languages and from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne (CTSFW), with a Master of Divinity (1988) in Systematic Theology.

McCain served as assistant to Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) President Rev. Dr. A.L. Barry from 1992 until Barry’s death in March 2001, and as assistant to Interim Synod President Rev. Robert Kuhn until the Rev. Dr. Gerald Kieschnick’s installation as president in September 2001. Prior to becoming Barry’s assistant, McCain served as communications director for Iowa District East; pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (Artesian) in Waverly, Iowa; and guest instructor at CTSFW.

After his years assisting two Synod presidents, McCain served briefly as interim director of Concordia Historical Institute in St. Louis. In January 2002, following the retirement of the Rev. Dr. Stephen J. Carter as CPH president and CEO, McCain began serving as interim CPH president and CEO, a position he held until the installation of Dr. Bruce Kintz on Oct. 31, 2006. In a statement released after McCain’s death, Kintz said the CPH family was “deeply saddened by the news of Rev. Paul T. McCain’s passing. He was a close friend and co-worker and will be sorely missed.”  

During his time at CPH, McCain was general editor of Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, A Reader’s Edition and also played pivotal roles in the publication of Lutheran Service Book, The Lutheran Study Bible and Treasury of Daily Prayer. He was a frequent guest on KFUO and other programs and podcasts and the author of numerous articles. As word of his death spread across the Synod on Thanksgiving Day, the Rev. Todd Wilken, host of the radio program “Issues, Etc.,” credited McCain for putting the Book of Concord “back into the hands of the laity. For that, and for all the other gifts God gave through Paul, every confessional Lutheran should give thanks today.”

The Rev. Robert Bugbee, former president of Lutheran Church—Canada, said, “My beloved friend, Paul McCain, was a source of support, not only to Missouri Synod people, but also to us within the Synod’s wider family. I will always treasure the brotherly encouragement he provided in my early days as the leader of a partner church. I trust God to use the many publications Paul made possible like seeds going into the ground … to bring forth a harvest to life everlasting! The sharp pain we feel at losing him is just the measure of how much he came to mean during the years the Lord shared him with us.”

In a statement shared widely on social media, LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison wrote, “Our Lord Jesus has called to Himself our brother and fellow servant in Christ … to await the blessed resurrection unto life everlasting. … The Lord blessed Paul with a passionate zeal for the Gospel as taught in the Scriptures and confessed in the Book of Concord. Join us in prayer for Paul’s wife and children, and his CPH family. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!”

McCain is survived by his mother, Jean; his wife, Lynn; his children Paul Jerome (Kirsten) McCain, John Augustine McCain and Mary Ann McCain; and his granddaughter, Anna Jean McCain.

A funeral service is set for 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, where he is lying in state, with a private burial following the service. The service will be livestreamed. Viewing will begin one hour before the service at 12 p.m. in the chapel narthex. Clergy are invited to process.

In order to comply with COVID guidelines, anyone who plans to attend the funeral or to participate in the procession will be asked to sign up. Additional details about the service sign-up and livestream are forthcoming and will be provided here when available. Please check back for more information. 

Posted Nov. 27, 2020

***

GJ

Commentary

Paul McCain introduced himself to me in 1989, when he and Jay Webber were graduating from Concordia, Ft. Wayne. Soon he was writing letters to me about how much he enjoyed my articles against Church Growth, published in Christian News. Webber said the same thing, though neither one published anything (as far as I know) against that passion and addiction in LCMS and WELS.

Soon I was in St. Louis - and so was McCain. He and Otten worked together to get DP Al Barry's materials in Christian News before anyone else got them. He was working at the Purple Palace for Al Barry (!) and I was tent-making. He and Otten both told me how they worked together on the project to elect Al Barry. I imagine something similar happened with Matt Harrison, since Harrison sang an ode to Otten in New Haven and became Synod President. When Otten was dying, Harrison sang a song (to others) about Otten being crazy.

Otten and McCain denied working together secretly. McCain gave me a tour of the Purple Palace and said he would be fired if anyone knew he was talking to Otten (who called while we were in the palatial office of the Synod President).

McCain earned the nickname "McNasty" and demanded that anyone who offended him had to apologize. I remember Wilken saying he would not apologize to McCain and then apologizing to him - both times on Facebook. I do not think McCain was one bit nastier than Bohlmann, Barry, Harrison, Mischke, Gurgle, or Mirthless Mark Schroeder, DP Robert Mueller, DP John Seifert, Paul Kuske, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, and a few dozen Church Growth experts.

I was Facebook friends with Who's Who in Church Growth Waldo Werning. His last message to me was, "Are you staying out of trouble?" I wrote back, "No."

The litmus test must be one about doctrine, not popularity. What does he believe, teach, and confess?

Plagiarism of Roman Catholic Propaganda

McCain betrayed his office by dishonestly promoting the Roman Catholic Church, through his own blog, Cyberbrethren, and also with the help of clueless Jack Cascione, yet another Ft. Wayne graduate.

As I revealed time after time, McCain copied and pasted verbatim the various saint fantasies of The Catholic Encyclopedia on his blog, omitting the dead give-aways like "nilhil obstat" and "imprimatur" with Catholic officials' names. His less-than-discerning readers thanked him for his great posts. He modestly published their comments and responded favorably to their praise. He also copied the material of his friends' blogs and barely hinted at their origins.

Jack Cascione, guardian of the galaxy, kept publishing McCain's posts by letting him write something like "Today is St. Hoodwink's Day. We pray..." and there followed a link to McCain's plagiarism from The Catholic Encyclopedia. His CPH boss unfriended me and refused to do anything for a long time. Cascione kept publishing McCain until repeated posts from me seemed to reach his gallery.

One plagiarism example is posted here. The man who demanded apologies never apologized for his plagiarism of Catholic and Lutheran sources, but we all know the LCMS is infallible.

Forgiveness without Faith - Objective Justification

Even worse - if that is possible - was McCain's posturing about Lutheran doctrine while repudiating Justification by Faith.

As one LCMS couple wrote, and I paraphrase, "How can someone go through seminary and not know we are justified by faith? OJ is a tangle of contradictions."

 Is it ironic or logical that Edward Preuss, a Concordia professor, became a Roman Catholic editor after publishing his essay, which LCMS OJists adore? And also - Robert Preus repudiated OJ in his last book, Justification and Rome.

Come Down from the Ledge - Computers Leverage the Truth, Too

I need to explain a few things to get the rest of you off the ledge.

• We voted for electors in the Presidential Election. The so-called popular vote is a meaningless term. No one has been elected yet, and there is no Office of the President Elect.
• "Calling a state" for one candidate or another is meaningless, since the news media do not elect either.
• The slate of electors will vote in mid-December as always.
• Their votes are made final by being received by the House of Representatives.
• If the electors do not reach a final vote, the House votes, one vote from each state.
• More states have Republican majority delegations (one delegation = all the House delegates for that state) than Democrat delegations. However, this alternative is highly unlikely because massive fraud has ended the Biden honeymoon.

1. The President, as the Chief Executive, has all the information. He can go to the FISA Court, which was abused by evil-doers, and legally keep track of domestic traitors.
2. Computers use 1's and 0's, so all information is easily pulled from the airwaves, from the Internet cables, from ham radio, all transmissions, and game consoles.
3. The NSA can, following proper channels, protocols, etc pull up your receipt at Panera and match it with your credit or debit card. 
4. General Flynn has been exonerated and pardoned. He was a top officer for the NSA, not popular with Obama.
5. Sidney Powell already has physical proof and statistical proof of massive vote fraud. This link says 10 million fake votes for Biden, plus 7 million stolen from Trump. That is treason, to overthrow the President by fraud, especially with proof that foreign entities are all in for the fraud - Iran, China, and others.
6. Computers can find fraud quickly, such as the $1.5 billion of Michigan unemployment benefits given to Nigeria (probably shared), plus internal fraud and kickbacks. Please see the graphic below.

Because everything is 1's and 0's, easily sent, saved, compressed, stored, sorted, and gathered in data bases, dealing on the Internet is like walking around in fresh snow. But in this case, the prints stay.

I laughed when Hillary hammered their cells phones to pieces. The NSA already had all the phone calls saved. Ditto the Mueller team letting their devices become locked. 

The average senior gubmint bureaucrat has the computer aptitude as this grandmother.

Get out your Project Management software to understand this. (Lucky WELS members have this in their precious Unstuck programs, and PM is used widely in industry, computers, etc.)

Everything has to happen in order, because the military plans backwards. They start at the end point and plan what has to happen at all the stages before the end point or goal, going back three years or more. Q started in 2017.

Soon, soon...

A Legal Response about the Election

“As an immutable legal principle, any party that engages in a social contract (such as an election) and then cheats to try to unfairly “win” that contract, is disqualified by default. You cannot win an election by stealing it. There is overwhelming legal precedent for this in court decisions from both SCOTUS and Federal district courts. The recounts are irrelevant. The “certification” of the fraudulent votes is just theater. None of that matters once the overwhelming fraudulent nature of the entire operation is documented and revealed to all.” 

Posted anonymously on Free Republic. Iz zat you, Sidney?

LCMS Notice - Paul McCain Died on November 25. No Cause Listed.

 

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

22h · 

A message from President Harrison:

Our Lord Jesus has called to Himself our brother and fellow servant in Christ, Rev. Paul Timothy McCain (Feb. 12, 1962 - Nov. 25, 2020) to await the blessed resurrection unto life everlasting. Paul served as a pastor in Iowa, senior assistant to LCMS President A.L. Barry, and was serving as the Publisher at our Concordia Publishing House. Funeral arrangements are pending. The Lord blessed Paul with a passionate zeal for the Gospel as taught in the Scriptures and confessed in the Book of Concord. Join us in prayer for Paul’s wife and children, and his CPH family. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!

---

His wife's Facebook page.

---

Wolfmueller, Wilken, McCain, Weedon

ALPB

https://weedon.blogspot.com/2020/11/remembering-friend-paul-timothy-mccain.html

I believe it was a heart attack. Grant rest, O Christ, to your servant with your saints.

 Logged

William Weedon, Assistant Pastor

Voelz Unleashes the Eighth Commandment on Hale and Montgomery. Edited for Clarity

The November 30, 2020 issue of Christian News has a front-page, above the fold response from James Voelz. Professor Voelz' Gospel of Mark commentary follows the thinking of modernists in ending the Gospel at Mark 16:8. Ha! Voelz' provost at the seminary, Kloha, had the same opinion.

Voelz is deeply offended that Hale and Montgomery would disagree with him, the man who was a student at Concordia Seminary during the Seminex repudiation of the Scriptures. Therefore, he has accused them of slander, violating the Eighth Commandment.

 "He served as an adjunct faculty member of Kenrick Seminary, the Roman Catholic diocesan seminary in St. Louis, from 2009 to 2014."


--

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae: Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis, post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens: O pia: O dulcis Virgo Maria. Translation: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley, of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus; O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary. website: www.kenrick.edu/convivium Kenrick-Glennon Seminary 5200 Glennon Dr. Saint Louis, MO 63119 http://kenrick.edu/

Instead of offering a concise defense of his position, Voelz waved the bloody shirt (a term from the Civil War soldiers - from the North - who always talked about their service). We are supposed to agree that Voelz did not fall prey to Seminex, Seminary President John Tietjen, and others like Richard Jungkuntz, Objective Justification advocate and Seminex hero.

But the commentary is the best argument against his case. Rejecting the ending of Mark has always been considered a mark of rationalistic apostasy. Let us have a look at the cover.

Why is another person writing the ending of Mark? 
The cover itself is evidence of the Seminex victory.

Voelz:

"Second, contra Luther’s explanation to the 8th Commandment, you have consistently put the worst—not the best—construction on everything being considered."

Voelz stopped reading Luther before and without the Large Catechism? Perhaps he needs to go back to school. Published false doctrine is not immune to criticism and it is not a violation of the Eighth Commandment.

In fact, Paul says there must be divisions, to separate the good from the bad.

Voelz, CPH, and the LCMS clearly deny the traditional ending of Mark's Gospel. So, instead of Voelz being a martyr and saint of the Olde Synodical Conference, he is really an apologist for the apostates.

I will deal with the ending of Mark (as I did before in Thy Strong Word) in Attempted Murder: Broken Biblical Foundations and Corrupt Translations.

If Voelz and I added up our earned degrees, we would still be short of Montgomery's!

The current controversy is something Pastor Otten pursued.

Rejecting the end of Mark has been the hallmark of Biblical apostates ever since Wescott and Hort issued their own Greek New Testament, 1881. 

The apostates have owned this peculiar and broken New Testament ever since. Their la-dee-dah attitude toward the text is abundantly testified in their awkward, wooden, and bizarre translations, including the WELS copy-and-paste EHV (nicknamed by an engineer - Extra High Voltage) paraphrase.

Almost all Bibles on sale agree with Voelz, because they agree with the radical butchering of the Greek New Testament text started by Wescott/Hort and continued by Nestle/Aland.

Mockery of the text (lower criticism) was the foundation  has ever since been the foundation and excuse for the Historical-Critical Method (higher criticism) of the Scriptures.

Testing John Johnson, an earlier president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, I asked him - "What do you think of Switzerland's Karl Barth?" He responded like Ellie to Elvis' music, almost gurgling in appreciation, until he saw me taking it in. Then he changed the subject.

First of all, Concordia in St. Louis and Ft. Wayne are held captive by the rationalistic Calvinism of their hero CFW Walther.

The irony is that no one is allowed to criticize Church Growth and Fuller Seminary in the LCMS - and - that studying at Fuller is the best way to get ahead in the LCMS.

Another irony of Missouri is - the aspiring Synod President must court Christian News to win the office, but no one else has permission to be friends with CN. That changed with the death of Pastor Herman Otten.

Phil Hale Reviewed by Dr. Eric Rachut

Rachut Review is linked here on Amazon

Customer Review

ERIC RACHUT M.D.

1.0 out of 5 stars LEGACY OF SAMUEL HUBER

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

My first reaction, upon hearing of Objective Justification (or Universal Objective Justification, UOJ) was that it was unscriptural; a Lutheran pastor and true believer in it, however, advised me to read this book. Sadly, I had neglected that admonition - the duty of every scholar is to read both sides.

The great majority of Lutherans, including, I am confident, those in the church bodies which espouse UOJ - these being members of the old Synodical Conference and its derivatives (Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod, etc) - would draw a blank if asked their opinion on this. Two graduates of the Missouri Synod seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have told me that students there are informed that UOJ is simply the Atonement and not to make anything of it. (As this book points out, UOJ, if taken seriously, is indeed far more than the Atonement). I also have the suspicion that the Missouri Synod, at least, understands that a frank airing of the topic might result in a walk-out of significant numbers of their faithful.

A short synopsis: after Luther's death in 1546, several contentious questions faced Lutheran theologians. These were ironed out in a collection of writings termed the Book of Concord (1580); both the simplest topics and the most complex were addressed, the former in Luther's catechisms and in the key definition of Lutheranism, the Augsburg Confession. However, in 1592 a Swiss German, Samuel Huber, was appointed to the faculty of the University of Wittenberg, the center of academic Lutheranism at the time; he was originally Calvinist, but had rebelled against the Reformed doctrine of double predestination (some persons are predestined by God to be damned, some to be saved) - or against Calvin's Limited Atonement, as this books states, or both. His rebellion led him to become Lutheran, but still with a rationalistic mindset; he went beyond the Scriptural doctrine that Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection paid the penalty of man's sin (the Atonement) and made the unscriptural claim that God the Father now rules all men, everywhere, innocent of ever having been guilty of sin in the first place (UOJ). Men are then saved if they as individuals have faith (subjective justification - what we non-UOJ'ers simply term Justification). This new doctrine led to Huber's expulsion from the faculty (1594) and then his banishment (1595). Aegidus Hunnius, acknowledged by all as an orthodox Lutheran father, wrote against Huber's ideas (Theses Against Huberianism - in print, although not listed in the book now reviewed). That should have been the end of it, but Huber's way of thinking rumbled along in Saxony, particularly among pietists (those more interested in holy living than doctrine) and re-emerged in the mid-1800's in the writings of CFW Walther, a man revered as the founder of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and later in the four-volume Christian Dogmatics, by Franz Pieper of the same body. Lutheran theologians in predecessor bodies of today's Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) - at a time when that strand of American Lutheranism really was orthodox - vigorously contested Huberianism. But this rather odd item of theology has persisted as fundamental in the Missouri and Wisconsin synods and their smaller offshoots. It crops up periodically in other faiths - but only periodically.

I would urge readers interested in the topic to investigate BOTH sides - this book, touted as the best pro-UOJ, and, for the opposition, the Youtube expositions from the little church body, ELDoNA (either a short four part series by Rev Joshua Sullivan in "Ask the Pastor" or the nine-part in-depth presentation from several ELDoNA pastors), and the online and print writings of Rev Gregory L Jackson (PhD, Notre Dame). Hunnius's Theses Against Huberianism are available from Amazon - see if this short orthodox tome does not attack the UOJ this modern book promotes. In regard to Aspects of Forgiveness, it should be pointed out: the subtitle (The Basis for Justification and its Modern Denial) is incorrect - the opponents deny not justification, but Universal Objective Justification; persons in both camps are addressing the issue with the best intentions - not "hand[ling] the Word of God deceitfully" (the statement of an endorsing clergyman on the back cover) and UOJ's opponents are not "satanic, " "foolish," or "irrational," terms this book uses. At the risk of committing the fallacy of poisoning the well myself, let me say that this rather repetitious work repeatedly uses Non Sequiturs, False Analogies, False Dichotomies and arguments ad hominem. UOJ is read into biblical and confessional writings where no disinterested reader could see it. The multitude of bible references which do not dovetail with UOT are ignored; the five or six which could be of use - especially if you do not know the original Greek - are emphasized. (This is the first time I have seen, in a scholarly work, the recommendation [p 8] to disregard the context of a bible verse - Romans 4:25 - possibly because the preceding verse states that Rom 4:25 pertains to the justification of believers and not universally. Read the whole passage, Rom 4: 16-25). The writer acknowledges that UOJ is not a topic in the Book of Concord, but believes that this is either because 1) it was so basic that everyone just knew it (Luther's Small Catechism is in the Book of Concord and deals with just those basics - no UOJ) or 2). the confessional writings DID deal with it, but you have to be able to read the subtleties here and there. Overall the methodology here is similar to the way Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the Eisenhower era, decided cases: he made up his mind according to Masonic principles beforehand and then sent out his law clerics in search of precedent.

So read both sides and make up your own mind. This is within the grasp of the laity - if you can tolerate "tangled mess[es]" (phrase in the book). Be aware the author is no doubt correct in his claim (p 44) that "those who are unscriptural on justification have lost any right to bear the name 'Lutheran'." However, this description may actually best fit the by my estimate 5% of Lutherans in the world who are UOJ'ers.

Buckle Up and Enjoy a Safe But Bumpy Ride

People are buying deep freezers and stocking up, but the threat will be short-lived.

Citizen Free Press - for links to many independent news stories and tweets

I use many news sources not connected to the Big Six echo chamber. All mainstream news and media outlets are owned by a total of six corporations. For a summary of them, I click on the Drudge Report, deliriously funny and wrong at every level.

Remember how I was talking some of you off the ledge a few days ago? I won't name names.

A good example is Biden being given an office and $7 million for his transition. But didja know that it is illegal to accept federal money in a fraudulent election? Yes, as of 2018.

This Election was not an overwhelming victory for cheaters but a tar baby for those crooks. They should study WELS' new fave program - Unstuck - they are certainly stuck. Combatants set traps for enemies who cannot resist the temptation. General Patton said such traps are for idiots.

1. When you are weak, appear strong. (Clinton-Gore locked out G. W. Bush from the transition offices while Gore ran to the state and Supreme Court for 37 days.)

2. When you are strong, appear weak. (Trump "conceded" by giving Biden money and an office for Slow Joe's transition.)

3. When your enemy is destroying himself, do not interfere. (Sun Tzu was a little more graphic - Wait by the river for your enemies' bodies to float by.) Fox News destroyed itself Election night, aiding independent media to gain hordes of new followers. Morning Joe (whose intern/lover's body was found in his office) outranked Fox News soon after. 

Some Homework To Look Up

Dominion and Smartmatic.

Sidney Powell. She has a website sidneypowell.com

Trump's 2018 Executive Order (the tar baby).

The Kraken is a US weapons system for automatic defense, and also a mythical beast that can destroy everything. Powell said, "Release the Kraken!"

RFID (radio frequency identification)  is used on special ink to verify ballots under certain conditions. No glow? no go. Thousands upon thousands are fake.

The corruption and ELCA fellowship of the "conservative" Lutheran leaders is akin to the RINOs betraying their country and Constitution to feather their own stinking nests.

You still don't get the joke? Their solemn words are stand-up comedy.

Why People Vote on Those Little Issues Looming Large Later

The Supreme Court late Wednesday night granted requests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and two Orthodox Jewish synagogues to block enforcement of a New York executive order restricting attendance at houses of worship. Both the diocese and the synagogues claimed that the executive order violated the right to the free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment, particularly when secular businesses in the area are allowed to remain open. Wednesday’s orders by a closely divided Supreme Court, which had turned down two similar requests over the summer by churches in California and Nevada, represented a clear rightward shift on the court since Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September.

 

Five conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett – sided with the religious groups and blocked the attendance limits. Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, dissented.

 

Continue reading at SCOTUS Blog…

 ***

GJ - I was yelling at the TV screen on several occasions recently. Some California clown ministers pretended to run a strip club so they could have church. Fuller grads? Probably.

The First Amendment in the Constitution - the very first in the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

News and commentary here - Citizen Free Press

Thanksgiving Eve, 2020

Thanksgiving Eve, 2020

7 PM Central Standard Time

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

https://video.ibm.com/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 7 PM Central Standard Time 

The Hymn #574            Come Ye Thankful     
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 100 p. 144
The First Lection 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The Second Lection Luke 17:11-19 

The Sermon Hymn #577      God Bless Our Native Land

God Has Blessed Us

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer p. 44
The Collect for Peace p. 45
The Benediction p. 45
The Hymn #558     All Praise to Thee - Gounod

In Our Prayers

• In treatment - Mary Howell, Christina Jackson, Rush Limbaugh.
• Winning the battle - Randy Anderson.
• Pastor and Mrs. Jim Shrader.
• Pastor K and Doc Lito Cruz - dealing with diabetes.
• Our military and police.
• Our media ministries - Alec Satin, Norma Boeckler, Travis and Lauren Cartee, Pastor Jordan Palangyos.
• President Trump, our leaders.

 The next stage at Bethany Philippine Mission is a permanent roof. They shared rice before they building more.

KJV 1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

KJV Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

God Has Blessed Us

KJV 1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

This passage has been quoted many times in the course of the last three years. We are re-living the final days of the Roman Empire, which continued in the West for another three centuries. Nevertheless, they gave up the Republic in favor of the Empire. They wanted more and more outsiders to bear the burden of military defense. The wealth of the leaders and rulers were so great that we can hardly imagine people in the ancient world living so well and squandering vast sums of money to flaunt their access to it and their slave labor that made it possible.

They made a kind of ice cream with ice from the mountains, and they had a dish made with peacock tongues, which are not very large. That was the point - they enjoyed what most could not have.

The loss of the Republic under Julius Caesar meant that freedom was suppressed in the name of peace, and life could be quite brutal. The Christians were seen as a branch of Judaism, and therefore as quite similar to the Jews who rebelled and lost, who were carried away as slaves.

Paul's best boast in the Empire was his citizenship, but that did not save him from the ignominy of being a Jew, even worse, a Christian. Nevertheless, instead of being bitterly against Rome and allied governments, he urged this attitude as an Apostle. And that is important because the religions identified with a culture or government have all kinds of troubles and conflicts that make a poor amalgamation.

Christianity did not just survive the oppression of the Roman Empire - it flourished and grew. Christians were tortured and killed and put on public display, even in stadiums. The pagan Romans were appalled and stunned by Christians facing death peacefully, and that ultimately began converting - with the Word - the ruling classes. That is a strange combination, the One True Faith starting out among the poorest, the slaves, the converted criminals and prostitutes, and working its way up through society, like good leaven, through preaching the Gospel.

Lenski, p. 538

These persons are Timothy and the congregations; Timothy is to direct them, and the congregations are to follow his directions. Few commentators will entertain the thought that Paul’s directions are intended only for individuals and not for congregations. Timothy should not be regarded as being the pastor of the church in Ephesus; the elders were the pastors, Timothy was Paul’s representative who directed pastors and churches in the entire province; hence Paul also puts these directions into writing in case somebody raised objection. 

2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

Many leaders are repugnant, hostile, pagan, lawless in many ways, then and now. The solution was not theocratic. The Zealot revolt against Rome caused the destruction of the Temple by Rome, starvation and worse, and the enslavement of the survivors. The Apostolic approach - in contrast - led slowly to to Emperor Constantine (313 AD) stopping the persecutions in the Edict of Milan. He made Byzantium (Constantinople aka Istanbul) the capital of the Empire and made it Christian. He modestly called himself Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Looking back to that era, we can see that God's plan worked far better than the Zealots. Likewise, many Christians were appalled by Trump at first, but the leaven of the Gospel became apparent and the age of Christianity-free government seems to be over, or at least on the wane.

It is God's will and Word that we do not try to create a theocracy, and even now with so many things wrong, we can use our abundant blessings and freedom to correct many abuses. Government and social classes divide, while Christianity unites.

We were at a Yale Alumni dinner when one wife, who attended an elite Seven Sisters college, admitted to being trained as a nurse there. The snooty Smith graduate said, "I didn't know they had blue collar programs at your school."

Lenski, ibid

Prayer is international, cosmopolitan, and yet patriotic in the highest sense. “All men” and “kings and all who are in eminence” rightly go together. All men are divided into national and political groups under governmental heads who have lesser officials beneath them, each of whom has his own eminence. The welfare of each nation is bound up with its government so that Paul means that we are to pray for “all men” as men, as one great mass, and yet also for nations under their rulers and magistrates. We recall Rom. 13:1, etc. To pray for the latter is equally needful. When Paul refers to “kings” he is not endorsing monarchy as being the only rightful form of government. After writing “all men,” “emperors” would have been too narrow a term, for although the Roman Empire was vast in extent it did not include all men and all nations. Some people had had other than royal 540 Interpretation of First Timothy forms of government. “Kings” is the best term to use when supreme rulers in general are referred to. Some rulers, high and low, were evil; yet how many of “all men” were not also evil? The prayers of the church are not limited, in fact, especially evil men need prayers. The church has followed Paul’s directions.

4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

God's gracious will is to have all people saved and believing in the truth of the Scriptures, but man's obstinacy blinds and hardens the soul to the truth, as it has - especially with those who deal with the Scriptures while lacking faith (church officials, religion professors !).

Notice this verse alone damages the double predestination of the Calvinists. The future infinitive means that God's will is to have the Gospel broadcast to all people. This is done with God's blessings and His constant help. 

Just as evil has power and energy from below, so the Truth has divine power and energy, far more powerful, from above - to us. The Spirit constantly works through the Word to teach us the truth, so we can - with many decades past - say, "Now I understand this passage." And we see many good effects from the Gospel, too numerous to count.

Lenski:

Believers and the Una Sancta (One Holy Invisible Church) are to be separate from the world, from all other men in many respects, for they have been called out of the world, and the world hates them (John 15:18, 19) ; but in the matter of prayer this holding aloof from the world does not apply for the reasons here stated. Who would pray for the world if the churches did not do so? When Jesus says, “I pray not for the world” (John 17 :9), this refers to what we call his special intercession in which he asks for what can be bestowed only on believers, that God sanctify them in the truth so that they may all be one. This special intercession does not exclude Christ’s general intercession, Isa. 53:12: He “made intercession for the transgressors," even for his murderers (Luke 23:34), his blood speaks better things than that of Abel (Heb. 12:24). [GJ - There is no evidence of Jesus absolving the entire world since the purpose of the Gospel is to convert individuals through the Word.]

5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 

εις (One) γαρ θεος εις και (and One also) μεσιτης θεου και ανθρωπων ανθρωπος χριστος ιησους

Jackson Literal - "For One is God - and - One is Mediator-of-God-and-Men, Man-Christ Jesus.

This is a beautiful, concise confession of faith, confessing the Trinity, specifically the Father-Son relationship and the Two Natures of Christ. I have never liked the translations of this passage, but the best translation needs explanation because so much is said in a few words, using very simple words (in any language). This is like the seven One's in Ephesians 4. We are more likely to marvel than to explain completely everything said in one verse. This another "inner testimony" of God's Word, as Henry Eyster Jacobs taught. We confess the perfection and inerrancy of the Word because the Scriptures reveal themselves in those terms.

7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

Paul the preacher and Apostle gave these directions through Timothy and for the other churches, and for us today.

The English came to America because the Spanish had Mexico and South America in their hands, with Portugal ruling over Brazil. In those early days, Portugal and Spain were great powers - and Spain gloated about their piles of gold - gold bugs beware.

Sporadic persecution in England by Romanist rulers (the wretched Stuarts) made people risk their lives to find freedom in America. Christianity was also the reason for many peace treaties in those early days and incredible prosperity in a free land established by our Founders. I love reading those stories again each year, especially the Hessian leader being warned and putting away the paper in his pocket. The was the closing of the trap, but the real cause was God's guidance as Washington endured the hardships with his men - and spent Christmas crossing the Delaware in Durham boats. Who fights on Christmas? Germans sleep it off on Christmas Day, and so the boozy Hessians were caught in their unawares and defeated - the beginning of the end.

Valley Forge

On the Delaware River in a Durham boat, Christmas