Friday, April 30, 2021

Lenski's Gospel Selections from the Ancient Church -
Free PDF and Low-Cost Print Version

The Gospel Selections of the Ancient Church - by Lenski - pdf - is linked here.



“No Calvinistic preacher has ever produced a Postil, — the term derived from post illa (sc. verba), meaning “after those words,” i.e. the sermon spoken after reading the words of the text. Among the sermon books of all time Luther’s Postil stands in the front rank. Great is the number of other Postils. All of them expound the anciently chosen texts. Often they were called Sermons for the Church Year; many of them bore specific and beautiful titles. All these preachers knew only one form of preaching, namely the expository, which sticks to the text and unfolds to the hearers the saving contents of the text.

“The need of a more adequate exegetical-homiletical treatment of the ancient gospel and epistle selections has long been felt. The manager of the Lutheran Book Concern has commissioned the writer of these lines to meet this need.” — R.C.H. Lenski

Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed.

Richard C. H. Lenski (1864-1936) is best known for his insightful and still invaluable series of New Testament Commentaries. He served as Professor of Theology at Capital University and President of the Western District of Joint Synod of Ohio and Editor Die Lutherische Kirchenzeitung.

“A truly magnificent conception is presented to us in the so-called Christian Church Year. Adopted in the earliest centuries, the Church Year comes to us as a most valuable inheritance."

The print version of Lenski's Gospel Selections of the Ancient Church is available on Amazon.

Book Contents

Index of Scripture Texts

Contents

Preface by Lutheran Librarian

General Introduction: The Christian Church Year And Christian Preaching
The Festival Half Of The Church Year From The First Sunday in Advent to The Festival of The Trinity The Savior In the Supreme Divine Events on Which our Salvation Rests

The Christmas Cycle: The Savior’s Coming
The First Sunday In Advent. Matt. 21:1-9
The Second Sunday In Advent. Luke 21:25-36
The Third Sunday In Advent. Matt. 11:2-10
The Fourth Sunday In Advent. John 1:19-28
Christmas. Luke 2:1-14
Second Christmas Day. Matt. 23:34-39
The Sunday After Christmas. Luke 2:33-40
The Circumcision Of Christ (New Year). Luke 2:21
The Sunday After New Year. Matt. 2:13-23
The Epiphany Cycle
Epiphany. Matt. 2:1-12
The First Sunday After Epiphany. Luke 2:41-52
The Second Sunday After Epiphany. John 2:1-11
The Third Sunday After Epiphany. Matt. 8:1-13
The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany. Matt. 8:23-27
The Fifth Sunday After Epiphany. Matt. 13:24-30
The Sixth Sunday After Epiphany. Matt. 17:1-9
The Lenten Cycle: The Savior’s Redemption
Septuagesima. Matt. 20:1-16
Sexagesima. Luke 8:4-15
Quinquagesima. Luke 18:31-43
Invocavit. Matt. 4:1-11
Reminiscere. Matt. 15:21-28
Oculi. Luke 11:14-28
Laetare. John 6:1-15
Judica. John 8:46-59
Palm Sunday. Matt. 21:1-9
Maundy Thursday. John 13:1-15
Good Friday. No Text
The Easter Cycle: The Savior’s Triumph
Easter. Mark 16:1-8
Easter Monday. Luke 24:13-35
Quasimodogeniti. John 20:19-31
Misericordias Domini. John 10:11-16
Jubilate. John 16:16-23
The Pentecost Cycle: The Savior’s Mission of the Holy Spirit
Cantate. John 16:5-15
Rogate. John 16:23-30
Ascension Day. Mark 16:14-20
Exaudi. John 15:26 To 16:4
Pentecost. John 14:23-31
The Day After Pentecost. John 3:16-21
The Non-Festival Half Of The Church Year The Twenty-Seven Sundays After Trinity The Saved From Their Reception of Salvation to the Consummation
The First After-Trinity Cycle
The Festival Of Trinity. John 3:1-15
The First Sunday After Trinity. Luke 16:19-31
The Second Sunday After Trinity. Luke 14:16-24
The Third Sunday After Trinity. Luke 15:1-10
The Fourth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 6:36-42
The Fifth Sunday After Trinity. Luke V. 1-11
The Second After-Trinity Cycle
The Sixth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 5:20-26
The Seventh Sunday After Trinity. Mark 8:1-9
The Eighth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 7:15-23
The Ninth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 16:1-9
The Tenth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 19:41-48
The Eleventh Sunday After Trinity. Luke 18:9-14
The Third After-Trinity Cycle
The Twelfth Sunday After Trinity. Mark 7:31-37
The Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 10:23-37
The Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 17:11-19
The Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 6:24-34
The Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 7:11-17
The Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity. Luke 14:1-11
The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 22:34-46
The Fourth And Last After-Trinity Cycle
The Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 9:1-8
The Twentieth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 22:1-14
The Twenty-First Sunday After Trinity. John 4:46-54
The Twenty-Second Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 18:23-35
The Twenty-Third Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 22:15-22
The Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 9:18-26
The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 24:15-28
The Twenty-Sixth Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 25:31-46
The Twenty-Seventh Sunday After Trinity. Matt. 25:1-13
The Reformation Festival Matt. 11:12-15
The Mission Festival Matt. 9:36-38

Creation Weeds and Other Foods in the Garden

Poke Weed is prolific, and 60+ species of birds like it - more than any other source of food. The birds also plant it with abandon - fertilizer.

I showed Randy our Poke Weed specimen. Last year I let it get a start and kept the above ground portion up all winter. Tiny birds like such perches simply because they are so weak.

By spring the old plant was white on the outside and hollow and new growth was coming up. It had layers of organic matter, chiefly coffee, and cardboard to keep it looking neater. I had a pile of loose cardboard, too much for the recycle barrel, so I used that to cover the rather messy mulch de garbage (say it in French, much more elegant that way). That included all the altar flowers for winter, plus a few egg shells for the fanatics, and anything else to improve the soil. I never include food garbage because they stink and attract the wrong customers. 

To keep the cardboard in place, I added some wood mulch. Leaves can also be used. We import leaves rather than export them. 

The renewed Poke Week was looking dry, so I poured gallons of stored rainwater at its base. The next day it was filled out and ready to grow more. More than seven inches of rain would weigh down the cardboard and wood mulch, keep all the organics moist, and encourage red wiggles to turn everything into the best soil over time. Molds and all the creatures of decay take part.

This attracts the ground feeding birds, which are always looking for insects and worms. Any organic mulch will bring birds to look under the shade for a bug to take to the nestlings, so a mulched is by itself a bird feeder.





Thursday, April 29, 2021

Our Visitor Came with Her Parents And Discovered Ice Cream in Our Freezer

 Andrea loves ice cream!




 Andrea enjoyed Sassy's soft coat, and Sassy is thinking...cookie for me?



SP Schroeder - "It's All I Can Do To Keep from Smiling!"

 Here is your Together vimeo.







 Here is the latest way to avoid the efficacy of the Word, Justification by Faith, the Means of Grace.



kurt nitz

Senior Consultant

Kurt Nitz is a senior consultant who specializes in facilitating the Krapper Institute rapid change model for developing organizational excellence as well as the culture-shaping process to create healthy, high performance cultures.

 

Kurt delights in helping build truly cohesive teams that strive every day to live the values to which they aspire. He believes that leadership has the privilege and responsibility to cast a shadow and nurture a culture that supports every individual performing at their personal best. He has also experienced first-hand how moving the needle even a small bit in this way can lead to fantastic results.

 

Kurt has facilitated culture-shaping experiential learning sessions in the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Malaysia. His experience includes coaching leaders to enhance their personal leadership and culture-shaping skills as well as training in-house facilitators. Kurt’s personal experience in applying cultural principles and making teams even more effective allows him to help companies transform and realize previously unachievable business results.

 

Kurt’s professional career began in the US Navy where he served in the submarine force. His experience after the Navy has been focused in high tech manufacturing, including silicon wafers, touchscreens, and solar materials. Kurt has held leadership roles in engineering, R&D, quality, and operations functions, and also led manufacturing plants as a general manager. His manufacturing career includes overseas assignments in Italy.

 

He received his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering (summa cum laude) from Michigan Tech and completed additional nuclear engineering studies in the US Navy’s nuclear training pipeline.

 

Kurt and his wife live in Rockford, Michigan. His interests include craft beer, disc golf, music (listening and performing) and all things related to Michigan Wolverine football and basketball.


***

GJ - Some suggestions - 
  1. Get rid of the sacrament-denying Universalism of the NIV, which is now the official WELS Bible.
  2. Stop making cross-dressing part of the WELS school system.
  3. End hazing.
  4. Restore The Lutheran Hymnal instead of treating it like herpes.
  5. Preach original sermons about faith in Jesus Christ, instead of copying the squalid work of others.
  6. Break with Thrivent and its chief beneficiary - ELCA.
  7. Read more Ichabod.


Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Intercepted Rough Draft of Schroeder's Conference of Presidents Memo

 
 "Who hacked this draft? I just wrote it in fun."

Conference of Presidents meets

The Conference of Presidents (COP) met for its deluxe spring meeting April 7-9. It was the first farce-to-farce meeting of the COP since last September.

The COP spent a good deal of time discussing the 136 pastoral vacancies and approximately 140 teacher/staff minister vacancies. The number of vacancies has grown since last year at this time. For the benefit of both congregations and workers, the COP limits the number of calls a called worker can receive in one year (except for our relatives) and also requires a time period between calls (to let our relatives check out the parsonages). With so many congregations requesting call lists, and with the limited number of workers eligible to receive a call, the district presidents have faced growing challenges in providing call lists to congregations. Much of the COP discussion regarding this issue centered around steps that can be taken to alleviate this problem and the importance of continued recruitment, hazing, and training of called workers.

The COP discussed the Equality Act, a bill before Congress that could potentially place serious restrictions on our ability to preach and teach the Word of God faithfully. A letter was e-mailed to all called workers and to lay members on the synod’s e-mail list alerting them to this potential threat and encouraging WELS members to exercise their rights as Christian citizens to contact their representatives. The COP will be monitoring this law and responding to government action when necessary. Why make a law? Our students are already changing genders at Martin Luther College.

With the assignment of graduates at Martin Luther College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary approaching, the COP began discussing plans and procedures for assignment meetings. Assignments of teachers and staff ministers will be announced at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., on May 15; assignment of pastors and vicars will take place the following week at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis. Remember the example of "Party in the MLC." Video evidence is ignored.

The COP continues to work on a restatement of the synod’s doctrinal statement on the biblical roles of man and woman. A draft of this statement was distributed in 2020 and has undergone continuing work to bring it into a final form. There is no timetable for the completion of this work, since the COP desires to “do it right” rather than “do it quickly.” We have been doing it right, changing our positions, for decades. Professor Brug, "There is nothing in the Bible against women's ordination."

The COP plans to develop a pastoral brief addressing Christian freedom and pastoral practices. We do our briefs right!

The COP extended divine calls to the following: Rev. John Hering was called to serve as a congregational counselor as part of the effort of the Commission on Congregational Counseling to help congregations evaluate and improve their ministries; Rev. Robert Krueger and Rev. Jonathan Kehren were called to serve as Thrivent Annuity Salesmen   Ministry of Christian Giving counselors.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder


"We all got calls, so don't sweat it."









One Basic Concept from The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God

The papacy has been far more dangerous than people imagine. Wait, this is ELCA?
Besides the Antichrist, there are also his helpful associates, the Antichrists.


Sometimes I read the same topic several times in one book then repeat the topic in similar books.

The New Testament text is the object of many kinds of attacks. 

The basic divide is this. The Traditional Text has dominated since the earliest days, another reason for calling it the Majority Text, the one used for the Luther Bible and the KJV.

There is also a corrupted text, represented by Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, though they disagree on many readings.

Hort loathed the Traditional Text and thought "Mary religion" was better than "Jesus religion." Hort and his buddy Wescott worked with the KJV Revision team to replace the Traditional Text with their own, even though that was against their orders in making a slight revision of the KJV in English.

Although most people rejected their nefarious work at the time, the Wescott Hort version started catching on in the 1930s and is now called by the Nestle-Aland Greek NT merchants - "The Standard Version." But the standard version is truly a book that came down from heaven their study.

So the Greek New Testament chosen comes down to the Majority Text, a vast number of manuscripts in agreement, or one derived from and preserved by the Vatican.

Vatican - RSV, NIV, ESV, TEV, NASB, etc

Majority - Waldensian, Luther's Bible, the KJV






Tuesday, April 27, 2021

A Reader Asks Some Questions about Reconciliation, OJ and SJ. Copied with Permission But No Name

 The is the translator's note, using Objective Justification and Subjective Justification (neither term is found in the Bible, but the terms have been watered, fertilized, and tended by the LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC). Note well - Woods was a Calvinist. His English translation was a major work in American Evangelical circles for 90 years and is still in print.



The Email

Dear Pastor Jackson,

I read part of the Knapp text to see if he promoted OJ.  I cannot find it.  Even the Woods note doesn't support UOJ as it is today.  Perhaps it was just the terms that were appropriated.  Yet, even one commentator has said that SJ is every bit as objective as OJ, showing the terms to be highly inappropriate.

I still struggle with the term "reconcile" to understand its meaning.  It is so easily equated to atonement, yet the confessions use it in the sense of justification repeatedly.  I thought Lenski might be right in describing an objective reconciliation and a subjective one, but now I am entertaining the notion that he is wrong, and reconciliation is always justification.

Blessings,

+++

GJ - I have the book in English, discovered and sent by Bruce Christian, D.D. The wording in the graphic is verbatim from my copy.

Some points to remember: The original book was in German, the lectures of one of the last Pietists at Halle University. The university rapidly became rationalistic after its founding. The book was translated into English by one of the best known leaders of Protestantism at the time, Leonard Woods, a Calvinist, which naturally helped its status. The English version was already in print before the syphilitic bishop (Martin Stephan) and his cult landed in New Orleans. According to a WELS essay, Walther loved the terms, which had been picked up and used in Germany. Walter taught, as he was guided by Stephan, that when Christ rose from the dead, the entire world was absolved of sin. Walther taught this his entire career in America.

The Objective Justification term has also been presented as General Justification (the German meaning universal - each and every one), and The Justification of the Sinner (Edward Preuss), the name and content of his booklet as ambiguous as his life.

I see two sources for Objective Justification. One is Calvinism, which does not recognize the efficacy of the Word. The other is Pietism, which is anti-confessional and so easily molded in various ways. Some teach that Christ absolved the world when He died on the cross. Others emphasize the Rambach/Halle version that the world was absolved of all sin when Christ rose from the dead - abusing 1 Timothy 3:16.

This really comes down to using the Atonement as Justification, and I know one ELS pastor (Brockdorf) who is very persistent about this being true. They are not the same Biblical terms, as recognized by some of quotations provided by Robert Preus in Justification and Rome. Rolf Preus thinks we should dwell on all of his father's works, but not that one, Robert's last.

Lenski is hated by WELS for never allowing that people are forgiven without faith. However, he tried too hard in some places to reconcile OJ with Justification by Faith. A non-Biblical term cannot be harmonized with the Biblical term used so often and so clearly.

The Atonement - or the Reconciliation - is the Gospel, Isaiah 53, the Fifth Gospel.

I will be glad to add more later.

Fifty years of this claptrap would make any sect brain-dead. Imputing (counting) is used by Paul, echoing Genesis 15:6, as counting sins forgiven through faith in Christ.






Explanation for the "Cub Editor" of Christian News

 Jack Larson ...played the role of Clark Kent’s sidekick, Jimmy Olsen, the earnest, bumbling cub reporter on the 1950s television series “Adventures of Superman,” NY Times

+++

One reader was puzzled about the Christian News editor being called the Cub Editor of the aging tabloid. Generations have lost the original Superman TV show - Latin and Shakespeare - so the elderly must close the gap. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more..." (Earl of Oxford, aka Shakespeare).

The bumbling editor of Christian News stays true to Otten's agenda - a blackout on anything supporting the Chief Article of the Christian Religion - Justification by Faith.

The OJ Stormtroopers do not realize it yet, but their wholesale silencing of Justification by Faith accentuates their cowardice and highlights the truth.



Cub Editor Hale thinks he is continuing the legacy of Christian News - and he is. Hale is pictured here with Calvin, who was heavily promoted by Otten for decades, always eager to capture the Reformed audience and wallets. The lower left features Knapp, the Halle University professor whose lectures translated into English were significant in spreading the terms Objective Justification and Subjective Justification. I hasten to add the the translator used those terms, but the note had the same effect as Spener riding the wave of popularity for Arndt.


 Hale's review states that the Scriptural path to Justification is "the wrong one."


+++

Here is Hale's Review with Commentary, Providentially Preserved by This Blog


Complete Review (ahem) by Pastor Philip Hale, Ft. Wayne Graduate, 
My Commentary Is Added in Blue. 

GJ - I wonder if Hale learned OJ at seminary, because Bishop James Rodham Heiser claims he had no knowledge of OJ until Rydecki was kicked out of WELS!

A Message from Pastor Hale
Justification, God’s declaration of sinful man to be righteous on account of Christ, has always been a central topic of Lutheranism. 
GJ - Factual error. Hale is using OJ language to impose his dogma on the Reformation. Like all the dishonest OJ salesmen, he is ambiguous in his choice of words. "Error loves ambiguities."


Justification through faith in Christ, as opposed to man’s works, was a stirring refrain of the Reformation. However, in the last century and a half there has been a new debate over the cause of man’s justification before God within Lutheran circles. 
GJ - So slippery! The Calvinist-Lutheran Huber began the debate soon after the Book of Concord, 1580. As failed PhD student Scaer admitted, one can go to Calvinists (as Robert Preus did) to shore up the sagging dykes of OJ.
It precedes the issue of faith versus works, portraying how Christ’s work activated and brought forgiveness to mankind. This is a needed doctrinal emphasis, since “faith” is often considered a worthy, active power meriting salvation within modern Christianity. This wrong view of faith within Protestantism has become just as dangerous to justification and prevalent as works-righteousness within the Roman church.
GJ - The only people who hold this perverted definition of faith are the OJ advocates, who use this straw man fallacy at every opportunity.
What is termed “objective justification,” that is, the basis for personal justification by faith, has divided modern Lutherans off and on at various times, but especially this decade. Put another way, objective justification is not another sort of justification apart from faith, but brackets off faith doctrinally to look at the foundation for justification – what brings about Christ’s righteousness that is applied to man. This world reconciliation is considered from God’s side, apart from man’s response. 
GJ - Hale makes clear he is not writing a book review but using a Scriptural book to restate his regurgitated Calvinist Enthusiasm. A book review deals with the author and with the content of the book, whether agreeing or disagreeing with the book. Book reviews are a great source of summaries about books we might want to read. They often provide a wealth of information from the book, perhaps a new theory, or taking a stand about a debate.
It highlights the objective power of the Gospel and the cause of the forgiveness of sins, regardless of whether one believes or disbelieves the Gospel of Christ preached in time. Objective justification, properly understood, does not deny that God declares sinners righteous in Christ through faith, but highlights that justification depends in no way on man or his faith, but solely on Christ Jesus. Indeed, it is this prior, existing righteousness that the reconciled God offers to the world, and which comes in the Gospel, upon which faith feeds and lives. 
GJ - Like Jay Webber and a host of Ft. Wayne graduates, Hale demonstrates that pompous declarations without Scriptural support are to be broadcast and savored, world without end, amen.
The increased emphasis on the objective side of justification is necessary because faith is actually a preeminent work for many Christians today that earns and deserves forgiveness from God, eclipsing entirely what Christ did in dying and rising from the dead. The teaching of objective justification preserves the universal character of the Gospel of forgiveness which Scripture presents.
GJ - Readers must have already forgotten the straw man fallacy, faith as defined by the clown David Scaer and his devoted groupies. So it is repeated for our enjoyment. Although OJ is not clearly defined - which would horrify most members and some pastors still under the influence - all terms remain vague.
In The Path to Understanding Justification, Gregory L. Jackson continues what seems to be his singular mission in life – that of trying to convince basically all of American Lutheranism that they have been wrong on justification for at least 150 years. 
GJ - This statement is so deceitful that I blush at Hale calling himself a Lutheran. OJ did not make a dent on LCMS or WELS for a long time. Their catechisms and official statements were Justification by Faith in the early days. I have proven that, thanks to the research of another person, in The Path To Understanding Justification. Walther's error in teaching an Easter absolution of the world (no Word, no Means of Grace, no faith) was not a winner, so he promoted the Calvinist Election without Faith to split the Synodical Conference and to make himself Pope. OJ is the radical, left-wing opposition to the Gospel, started by Calvinists, burnished by Pietists, and embraced by false teachers.
Though he once published in support of objective justification in an early writing (the first edition of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant), he is now convinced that it is the greatest error possible in doctrine today. 
GJ - Hale is simply wrong in this claim. I have never supported the actual meaning of OJ, but used the term in the first of three editions of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant. I doubt whether Hale does much study, and this is proof. Like many, I was awakened by the buzzing and biting of the OJ fanatics, so I accumulated as many examples of definitions as I could. They are preserved verbatim, with citations, in Thy Strong Word.
According to Jackson, it bridges the conservative–liberal divide by including: the “ELCA,” “LCMS – Concordia Publishing House, Higher Things, both seminaries, Christian News,” “All the mainline, apostate denominations,” “The Evangelical Lutheran Synod [ELS],” “WELS,” “The Church of the Lutheran Confession [CLC]”, and “Francis Pieper and his acolytes” (8). Jackson is brutally direct, inflammatory, and takes his status as an “independent Lutheran” seriously.
GJ - This is the first direct reference to a book he claims to be reviewing. Notice that he avoids the Scriptural structure of the entire book in order to engage in ecstatic OJ-speak.
However, simply put, Jackson is wrong. His argument is actually not theological, but instead evolutionary. He traces the history of this supposed error (objective justification) through different historical periods and theological schools, as if it were a virus infecting people genetically within institutions. “The great and wise Pietists and Rationalists, even since Halle University’s F. Schleiermacher [1768–1834], have defined Justification as God declares the entire world forgiven and saved, apart from faith” (8). But even on the historical side, Jackson is in error.
Most conservative Lutheran churches in America have confessed that Christ’s righteousness avails for the world, since justification depends on His finished work, not the presence of faith in the individual. But the church bodies that denounced the Synodical Conference (the WELS and LCMS) on objective justification in the 19th and 20th centuries (such as the Augustana Synod, and later, the Iowa and Ohio synods) ended up merging into what eventually became the liberal ELCA. It was the doctrinally flimsy Lutheran churches that thought objective justification was offensive to reason and piety. Furthermore, there has even been a divergence in how this teaching is applied in the parties that hold that the world was absolved in our Lord when He rose from the dead. Since the early 19th century, specifically, several theologians at the WELS Wauwatosa seminary, certain elements of WELS and ELS have applied this teaching of world-forgiveness to specific individuals who are outside of Christ, that is, faith. The LCMS for the most part did not do so, but left this world-forgiveness generic, saying that the world as a whole, or unit, was absolved in Christ's resurrection, as Scripture does – not particular individuals outside of Christ (faith). So, not all who uphold the term or concept of “objective justification” fully agree. This 20th century development and the theological nuances of this issue are detailed much further in my 2019 book Aspects of Forgiveness: The Basis for Justification and its Modern Denial.
GJ - Now we begin to smell the pot-roast! Hale is promoting his books - it is Hale reviewing Hale!
The conflict over objective justification has been purposely made vague and confused by its deniers. The real argument is not over human words, as if we need perfect, heavenly terms to speak the truth of God. Instead, at the core of this debate is whether Christ’s finished redemptive work is the cause of the forgiveness applied in justification or faith in man activates Christ’s righteousness. The main issue has not been elucidated in The Path to Understanding Justification. It includes many Bible passages (even some in Greek), but does not honestly show what his opposition (all of Lutheranism) actually believes. Instead, Jackson chases lines of endless theological genealogy and casts odd insults without helping lead anyone to understanding.
GJ - The entire book is devoted to the Scriptural revelation of Justification by Faith, starting with Genesis 15:6 and clearly explained in Romans 4. Where does Hale even hint at these passages? Hale imagines Justification by Faith = OJ Denier! Have Paul, Augustine, Luther, and Chemnitz been warned about this newly created dogma?
What is the main issue, according to Jackson? He accuses most modern Lutherans of universalism – that all are saved, regardless of faith or belief. But this is not the position of those he attacks. He provides no citations or quotes to buttress his argument. 

 I have cited this many times, and Jon-Boy is a follower of Ft. Wayne flunkie Jay Webber.


In his mind, it is the inevitable logical conclusion. But Scripture’s words establish true Lutheran doctrine, not what we think a doctrine must lead to or imply. Surely over hundreds of years of this “error” and thousands of pastors being taught this he can quote one seemingly orthodox man who simply says that because of Christ’s righteousness being won for the entire world, all people are automatically saved by this world-forgiveness without faith. But he cannot seem to find in practice what he accuses so many of. 

GJ - I have published the information many times. Do some serious study instead of drooling over the complete works of Stephan's pimp and enforcer, CFW Walther.

Instead, like the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA), a small church body who has similarly aligned themselves against all of North American Lutheranism on justification, Jackson delights to single out Samuel Huber [1547–1624], a minor, long dead errorist, who is inconsequential to the real debate.
GJ - The man who brought Walther and other stooges to America was Martin Stephan, a remorseless sex offender who shared his syphilis with his wife, children, and young women in his cell groups. He taught them Halle Easter absolution -  OJ - yet Hale does not honor the real founder of the LCMS, Bishop Stephan.
Jackson’s foundational premise is flawed. He thinks “justification by faith,” as a slogan or summary formula, is the only way to talk about justification. A justification without mentioning faith must be a personal justification leading to salvation without faith, in his view. But justification in Scripture, according to its root, deals with righteousness. Objective justification is not the full picture of justification or some kind of blatant universalism. It merely highlights what the Gospel and Christ’s righteousness is, before faith and preaching come into the picture. It describes and upholds the universality of the Gospel, which is not dependent on whether man believes it. This is a very practical issue. If personal faith actually completes forgiveness, then the true Gospel must not (and cannot) be spoken to one who does not believe. If objective justification is denied, then the Gospel becomes a conditional statement demanding a work of faith: “If you believe, then you will be justified.” But the Gospel itself is unconditional forgiveness to the world, and though it is only personally received in faith, it has been earned by Christ for the world. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom. 5:18). The forgiveness of all sin for all mankind is complete and accomplished in Christ. This truth establishes the power and sufficiency of the Gospel to create the Church on earth.
GJ - As Carl Rogers would say, "You are really angry, aren't you?" Reading the book would really help because it is based on the Scriptural passages, not dogmatics notes from seminary.
We do not say Christ died for only some (the error of Calvinism), nor do we say our Lord assumed human flesh only for the elect. The critical issue in making the Gospel truly good news is: who was Christ raised for? Rom. 4:24-25 states that Christ “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” 
GJ - This should encourage readers to study Romans 4 as a unit, not as an OJ source, and find its summary in Romans 5:1-2.
There is a biblical parallel between Christ’s death and His resurrection. His death was for the world, as also, in some sense, was His rising from the dead. While Rom. 4 and many other parts of Scripture connect justification to faith, it does not always do so. This is because justification is only received in faith, but it does not depend on faith. It is complete and whole in Christ. The real issue is Christ’s work, the source of the righteousness received in personal justification. Is it complete, and forgiveness truly valid for all mankind, because of what Christ did in the flesh? Or is the free forgiveness of sins something that is illusionary, until the ingredient of faith is added and makes what Christ did in His body truly effective? The latter is the error of much of general Protestantism, implying that forgiveness is something that is brought about or completed by the act of faith. Personal faith becomes more important than Christ. “Objective justification” is not a necessary term, but it has been helpfully used by many to highlight the source of our righteousness and the power inherent in the Gospel.

 These words have a familiar ring in Hale.

The proof text for this teaching is 2 Cor. 5: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (18-21). God has reconciled the world in its entirety through Christ, meaning its status has changed to God the Father. But that does not mean every sinner is ok and does not need to hear the Gospel or repent – quite the contrary. Because of Christ’s completed work of appeasing God’s wrath and His resurrection to life in mankind’s stead, the Gospel must go out to all, so that Christ’s presently available righteousness is applied to individuals. This happens through “the message of reconciliation,” which is a universal message of forgiveness to the whole world. The preaching of Christ does not bring about forgiveness in believers when faith is added, since the Gospel itself is the actual forgiveness of sins offered to all humanity.

GJ - The Atonement (reconciliation) is the Gospel from Isaiah 53. Hale is one more OJ zombie who merges the Atonement with Justification to create - voila! - OJ!
The Gospel is empowered and valid because of what Christ has already done in defeating sin and rising to life for all. It does not depend on whether a particular hearer accepts the message or not. But Jackson says we cannot take a few individual Bible verses too seriously: “The sectarian approach is to isolate a verse, part of a verse, or a few verses to shape their little group, to the exclusion of the rest of the Scriptures” (43). Much like ELDoNA, Jackson cannot fit this universal nature of the Gospel into his rational scheme. Since it does not fit logically, it must be the error of universalism. But true Lutherans uphold the unity of God’s Word in all its verses. We must hold together, and not assume a contradiction, the twin truths that a person is justified by Christ in faith and also the biblical truth that righteousness has come to mankind in Christ. This justification of the world is not outside of Christ, but comes in His Gospel. This confession of the objective nature of the Gospel allows forgiveness to be spoken to all, so that faith is created and sinners justified. It is the greatest comfort to know that the forgiveness of my sin does not depend on my faith or reaction to the Gospel, but Christ alone. It is because its power does not depend on man’s response, that it saves poor, wretched sinners who cannot stop sinning against their God on their own. This objective side of justification does not dull the need for sinners to actually hear the Gospel, nor the demand to stop sinning and repent of deadly sins.

 Hale's entire argument is building and correcting Justification by Faith, far more dangerous than honest repudiation.

While “justification by faith” can be understood correctly, as a simplistic slogan it is not the full picture of justification because it does not even mention Christ! And our Lord who died, and did not stay dead, is the source of all justification. Forgiveness is not won or created within the believer when faith comes, instead the sinner is made alive by the Spirit in the external Word, so that he believes in the objective righteousness of Christ that exists for the entire world. Forgiveness, Christ’s righteousness, and real absolution for all sinners must precede faith in that same forgiveness. The failure of Jackson to address the real concerns of the proponents of objective justification makes his writing most unprofitable and The Path to Understanding Justification a path not worth taking.
GJ - Hale has proven once again that the merger of Atonement and Justification means faith in world absolution not faith in Christ, recklessly ruining the meaning of the Atonement and Justification by Faith.



Writings from the desk of Pastor Philip Hale

Monday, April 26, 2021

Basic Outline of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love
The Word of God


The approximate plans for The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Love the Word of God include:


Part One

  • Basics of the Bible (Efficacy of the Word, Inerrancy, etc)
  • The Gospel in the Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms
  • Abraham in the New Testament
  • Apologetics
Part Two - The History of the Bible

  • The Old Testament, Hebrew and Greek
  • The Greek Christian Byzantine Empire
  • The Ottoman Empire and the Fall of Constantinople
  • The Renaissance
Part Three - the Reformation Translators
  • Waldensians
  • Erasmus
  • Luther
  • Tyndale
Part Four - The King James Version
  • English Bibles Inadequate
  • The Call for One English Bible
  • The KJV Translators
  • The KJV Today and Bad Excuses
  • The KJV Family of Translations
Part Five - Bible Apostates Take Over - Dishonest Text Criticism Precedes Doctrinal Corruption
  •  Tischendorf
  • Wescott and Hort
  • Kurt Aland - The "Standard Edition" (Hort)
  • The Ending of Mark Dumped

 Their prejudicial and irrational editing changed the New Testament.


Draft - From the Loss of Greek to the Renaissance in Europe.
The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God

The Emperor Constantine, "Equal to the Apostles:"
he convoked the Council of Nicea, near his home base, which gave us the Nicene Creed.

 

The Septuagint and the Subsequent Loss of Greek

            One of the greatest achievements of Biblical versions came from the need of Jews to have the Old Testament studied a common language. The name Septuagint is often represented by the Roman numeral LXX for 70. No one knows exactly when it was translated or the exact dates. The translation probably began around 285 BC, so it was available not only to Jews but to those who knew Greek.

            The glory of Greece was far gone when the Son was born of the Virgin Mary. However, the language remained in all territories conquered by Alexander and ruled by his generals afterwards. Rome got into peace-making, often called occupation, when they were called in to settle the constant fighting in the Holy Land, around 60 BC. For a time, people teaching the Bible claimed the New Testament was written in Aramaic, that Jesus taught in Aramaic. No one has found this proposed Aramaic New Testament, a theory which ignores how useless a local idiom might be - contrasted to the language used around the civilized world, Koine Greek, or common Greek. They did not use the same style of Greek as Homer did centuries earlier but the simplified Greek of conversation, letters, and commerce.

(Hat tip, Bruce Christian D.D.)

            Jesus was born in the pagan Roman Empire, seemingly at the peak of its size, power, and grandeur. But the decline had started and rushed to a conclusion a few centuries later, the Western Roman empire conquered by outsiders. However, the Eastern Roman Empire began with the Emperor Constantine Christianizing its lands, which lasted a more than 1100 years, 306 – 1453 AD. The Fall of Rome led to the fragments of the Western Roman Empire – Europe – adopting Latin Bibles while the Eastern Roman Empire - called Byzantium after its capital city - preserved Greek, Greek literature, and Greek culture with Christianity the main religious force.

            Constantine became Emperor of Rome in 306. He was enough of a Christian to create a new capital at Byzantium, a small town ideally placed for trade between the West and Asia.[1] He wanted a Christian capital and enticed Roman families to move to his new home, which he dubbed the New Rome.[2] As a trading city for jade and silk, the city became known as Constantinople. Vast wealth accumulated and enemies were defeated in their attacks on the city. In spite of a long and glorious history, from growth to decline and defeat, historians have given little thought to the Byzantine Empire. As a result, most people think the Roman Empire collapsed around 400 AD, but that was only the European part. While Europe seemed divided into little fiefdoms and duchies, developing new languages, Byzantium preserved the Greek language, Greek art, and the Greek manuscripts. The tragedy of Constanople’s fall is directly connected to the Renaissance in Europe, when Greek scholars and manuscripts made their way into Europe as they escaped.

The Ottoman Empire

            After the prophet Mohammed died, in 632 AD, his enemies rose up to remove his influence from Arabia. Instead, his followers countered and wiped out all active opposition.

The Byzantine Empire was protected against invasion until the growth of the Ottoman Empire in the 1300s. Byzantium did not have a warlike culture, but the Muslims were active in conquest. By 1453, the Byzantine Empire had been whittled down to Constantinople alone, and it fell on May 29th. The last emperor of Constantinople, who died fighting, was named Constantine, just as the last emperor of Rome was named Romulus and died fighting in 476, which was considered the end of the Roman Empire.

Constantinople became Istanbul by combining the Greek words for “into the city.”[3] The great and golden metropolis was simply called “The City,” just as New York City is today. A lawyer who worked in New York said to us, “I can do my work in the suburbs, so I seldom have to go into the City.” He added, “That is how we tell newcomers from old hands. New York is simply The City.”

The fall of Constantinople was accompanied by Greek scholars and artists fleeing to Europe with their treasures, which initiated the Renaissance. Ancient Greek culture was admired and copied in many ways, and the Greek New Testament came to replace the Vulgate. Thus the end of the two empires, Rome and Byzantine, mark the beginning and end of the Middle Ages.

            The fall of Rome facilitated the Church in governing Europe, with its common language – Latin – and its network of bishops and priests. The struggle began, not the first, but the most effective, the Gospel versus the Antichrist.

 

 

 

           

 

           

           


 



[1] Scholars are divided about how sincere his faith was. He named himself Equal to the Apostles, but his actions did not always reflect that title.

[2] Empires after Rome have sought to be the New Rome, first the Byzantine, then the Holy Roman Empire, Russia with its Caesars or Tsars, and Germany as the Third Empire – Rome, Holy Roman, and Nazi. However, the Byzantine was the longest surviving and remains the most ignored by historians.

[3] εις την Πόλιν