ALPB Online Discussion Forum - The Lutheran Church Establishment Is Built on Quicksand

 

Shaw developed great fame as a socialist playwright. He understood the King James Version as a great work of literature and the very voice of God. Too bad the ALPB Lutheran establishment is so tin-eared they love the NIV, the RSV, NRSV, the Message (!), and TEV. The NKJV came up once so far, and the KJV not at all. 

George Bernard Shaw

"The translation was extraordinarily well done because to the translators what they were translating was not merely a curious collection of ancient books written by different authors in different stages of culture, but the Word of God divinely revealed through His chosen and expressly inspired scribes. In this conviction they carried out their work with boundless reverence and care and achieved a beautifully artistic result...they made a translation so magnificent that to this day the common human Britisher or citizen of the United States of North America accepts and worships it as a single book by a single author, the book being the Book of Books and the author being God."

The Men Behind the King James Version, by G. S. Paine; Baker Book House; Grand Rapids, Mich.; 1959, 1977ed., pp. 182-183.

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GJ - The ALPB Online Forum and Ovaltine Drinking Club took on the topic of favorite Bible versions. They are self-confessed straw-brains with no concept of Bible texts and honest translations. As Melville said, the pulpit leads the way, and these people are lookouts on the Titanic!

They honored Luther's anniversary as little as the KJV's. But they think Vaticanus is a decent source for the Gospel of Mark (with the ending removed).

 The 500th! - no words.

 Shot glasses describe the Lutheran clergy better than anything else.

PS - I put that Shaw quote on ALPB's discussion page, but it was not answered but buried under the established yakkers on the site, one of them working with Floyd Luther Stolzenburg. He may have some issues, because the Forum is not "a safe place."

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Benke

"Thanks for posting about KJV. As a child raised in an LCMS church and and school and confirmed by a pastor who later became a seminary professor, we were really put through the entire catechetical helps sequence in the CPH catechism. That meant memorizing through our confirmation class years around 700 passages, all with chapter and verse and all from KJV.

So it's my "heart" Bible version. And it still comes out of me decades later in various pastoral circumstances. It's hard for me to speak ill of it. The quote from George Bernard Shaw is also directly on point."

Dave Benke

A Hymn for Sunday - Jesus Came the Heavens Adoring

"Jesus Came, The Heavens Adoring"
by Godfrey Thring, 1823-1903

Tune - Sieh, hier bin ich - linked here

1. Jesus came, the heavens adoring,
Came with peace from realms on high;
Jesus came for man's redemption,
Lowly came on earth to die;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Came in deep humility.

2. Jesus comes again in mercy
When our hearts are bowed with care;
Jesus comes again in answer
To an earnest, heartfelt prayer;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Comes to save us from despair.

3. Jesus comes to hearts rejoicing,
Bringing news of sins forgiven;
Jesus comes in sounds of gladness,
Leading souls redeemed to heaven.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Now the gate of death is riven.

4. Jesus comes in joy and sorrow,
Shares alike our hopes and fears;
Jesus comes, whate'er befalls us,
Glads our hearts, and dries our tears;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Cheering e'en our failing years.

5. Jesus comes on clouds triumphant
When the heavens shall pass away;
Jesus comes again in glory.
Let us, then, our homage pay,
Alleluia! ever singing
Till the dawn of endless day.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #56
Text: Zechariah 9:9
Author: Godfrey Thring, 1864
Tune: "Sieh, hier bin ich"
1st Published in: Geistreiches Gesangbuch
Town: Darmstadt, 1698

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Reader Request - Essentials of the Christian Faith

 Duerer's Adoration of the Trinity

As requested by a reader - The essentials of the Christian Faith -

The Scriptures are viewed as the direct, unified, and harmonious Word of God, excluding the Roman Catholic Apocrypha. Inerrant and infallible are good descriptive words, but having a quia subscription is meaningless in sects promoting modernist Bibles and their eclectic, snip-and-clip Hebrew and Greek texts.

The term Sacred Scriptures means the Holy Spirit always works with the Word and never apart from the Word, as taught especially in Isaiah 55.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the Persons of the Trinity, and yet the Trinity is one.

The singular task of the Bible is to teach faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and therefore to teach Justification by Faith apart from the works of the Law.

The Son of God has existed from the beginning, proceeding from the Father, born of the Virgin Mary, having Two Natures in Him, human and divine. He gathered disciples, taught and performed miracles, faced His torture and death, rose bodily from the dead, and ascended to Heaven.

Because the Sacraments are the Visible Word of God, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are Means or Instruments of Grace, just as preaching and teaching the Gospel are.

Worship, receiving Holy Communion, and study of the Scriptures are basic to the Christian life.

Prayer is the fruit of faith receiving the Promises of God. The Spirit moves us and helps us to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. The Father loves those who love the Son.

Faithfulness to the Gospel of the Savior means bearing His cross, which reminds us of His cross and sanctifies our lives.

 "No cross, no crown" is a saying in Europe.

Essential Books for Christians

Essential Lutheran Library

These books comprise a library of solid and faith-strengthening works for pastors and all Christians. They are flowering buds of American Biblical Christianity and the Lutheran (Protestant) Reformation.

Three Basic Books for New Christians and Everyone

• The Way Made Plain Also in paperback

“I realize that this city, and all cities, are filled with people who have been unfortunate enough not to have the right kind of parents, who have been unfortunate enough not to have had the right kind of training, who have become busy, and so busy that they must be saved in a few months time or lost forever… We have in view during the next seven Thursday evenings to show the Way and make it plain to every intelligent one who will come and sit down in this center row of pews…” — Simon Peter Long

• Luther’s Small Catechism Also in paperback

Luther’s Little Instruction Book (Small Catechism) has been translated into many of the languages of the world. Williston Walker in his History of the Christian Church describes it as “one of the noblest monuments of the Reformation”. Of it, Luther writes, “The Catechism is the Bible of the laymen. In it the entire body of Christian doctrine, which every Christian must know in order to be saved, is contained…”

• The Doctrine of Justification Also in paperback

“Human reason and inclination are always in their natural state averse to the doctrine of Justification by faith. Hence it is no wonder that earth and hell combine in persistent efforts to banish it from the Church and from the world. This great doctrine of the sinner’s justification by faith in the Redeemer of the world, who lived and suffered and died to save our lost race, is the very soul of the supernatural revelation given in Holy Scripture. But it is, therefore, also the doctrine against which the attacks of Satan are mainly directed, and against which the world and the flesh most obstinately array themselves.

Beyond the Basics

• Luther’s Large Catechism Also in paperback

“The attentive reader… will see that the matters here treated are not antiquated or obsolescent, but enter most deeply into the issues of the hour.” — Henry Eyster Jacobs

• Melanchthon’s Apology Also in paperback

“It abounds in forcible illustrations, in exhaustive treatment of scriptural texts, in proofs from patristic literature and the history of the Church, overwhelming with confusion the arguments which the adversaries had drawn from the same sources. Its spirit is so mild and conciliatory, its style so clear and lucid, its language so animated and eloquent, its entire mode of reasoning so manifestly the sincere expression of a mind that has been long occupied and deeply agitated by the contemplation of divine things, that it cannot fail to deeply interest all devout students of Scripture. — Henry Eyster Jacobs

• The Formula of Concord Also in paperback

“Never was there a more careful and discriminating Church document written, guarding in each article against exaggerations on each side, and then, in most precise and definite words, setting forth the teaching from the Holy Scriptures on the subjects concerning which there had been misunderstanding and alienation of feeling.” — Henry Eyster Jacobs

• The Confessional Principle Also in paperback

This is Dr. Schmauk’s magnum opus on Christian Confessionalism, a treasure of approachable, Biblically Conservative scholarship. “This book is written in the belief that the one ultimate authority among men is truth.” – Theodore Schmauk

Theodore Schmauk’s exploration and defense of the Christian faith consists of five parts:

• Historical Introduction
• Part 1: Are Confessions Necessary?
• Part 2: Confessions in the Church
• Part 3: Lutheran Confessions
• Part 4: The Church in America

Essential References

• Summary of the Christian Faith Also in paperback

A Summary of the Christian Faith has been appreciated by Christians since its original publication for its easy accessibility and “frequently asked question” format. Henry Eyster Jacobs was both a teacher and a scholar. The volume also includes “Luther’s Speculations Concerning Predestination”.

• The Augsburg Confession with Saxon Visitation Articles Also in paperback

The Augsburg Confession is the essential document of the Lutheran Reformation. The Saxon Visitation Articles were used by pastors to instruct their congregants in the basics of the Christian faith. They appeared in Saxon editions of the Book of Concord until the forced union of Lutheran and Reformed in the Nineteenth Century.

More Christian Book Lists