ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
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| The Bethany Lutheran Blogspot |
I almost wrote - "four new hymns." The hymns on the Bethany Lutheran Hymnal Blog are classic, but the illustrations are new. Thank you, Norma Boeckler.
The best known hymn tunes are linked to the Tacoma Lutheran Church site, where they have posted most of the tunes of The Lutheran Hymnal.
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| John Mason Neale was a prolific hymn writer and hymn translator. |
"In the struggle with conscience the feeling of sin, the wrath of God, death, hell, and all other terrors exert a powerful control, as we know by experience.
Then we must tell the tempted one: Brother, you desire to have a righteousness that one is able to feel, that is, you want to feel your righteousness as you feel your sin. But it will not be so…
Your righteousness cannot be seen, cannot be felt; rather you must hope that it will be revealed in due time. This is why you must not judge by the feeling of sin, which troubles and terrifies you, but by the promise and teaching of faith, by which Christ is promised, who is your perfect and everlasting Righteousness."
From Plass. What Luther Says_. p 668
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| Otto H. W. Heick taught at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary and befriended us. He took us out to dinner and ate at our apartment |
First of all, I thank God for placing in my life so many Lutheran leaders who were incompetent, apostate, and just plain dishonest. Some were laity, too. I can name them and match their paradoxical influence with things I learned from the Scriptures, Luther, and the Book of Concord, which they pretended to know. If everything had gone well instead awry, I would have been a placid, no-nothing, blander than milquetoast manager of sorts, very comfortable.
Secondly, I thank God for Christina, from the first day of college to her first day in eternal life, 55 years - almost to the day. The funny-hilarious-dramatic-genius moments with her are not so painful to recall now. She had everything to do with many blessings for me, her children, members, her friends - especially those almost friendless or overlooked.
I am thankful to God for this far-flung congregation and group of readers. Yes, I welcome and am thankful for those who read the blog out of fear, anger, or curiosity. Some have been angels unaware, thereby converted to the truth of the Scriptures, Justification by Faith, and the Means of Grace.
Someone asked the Yale philosopher-theologian Paul L. Holmer why he was a Christian. They expected something deep, cryptic, and incredibly complicated. He said, "My mother taught me." I can say the same thing. I remember my mother teaching me the 23rd Psalm (KJV). When she was dying in our house, 90+ years old, I said, "You taught me this, Mom." And I read it to her. She breathed deeply and passed into eternal life.
Ultimately, the Scriptures taught me, and I had my mother's deep knowledge of science and nature plus her trust in the Word of God. There was no contradiction.
The Book of the Holy Spirit is wiser than any man or book, so I feel like I just discovered a KJV at my doorstep because of the effect of defending and promoting this translation. In fact, a KJV did show up at our doorstep, the lectern Bible that rests on the stand which I built from an Amazon kit.
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| Paul L. Holmer, Guggenheim Fellow, Yale philosopher-theologian. |
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| Nils A. Dahl was head of the Yale New Testament department, devoted to the text, not the theories. |
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| He was selected by Dahl to teach at Yale. |
