O almighty, eternal God: We confess that we are poor sinners and cannot answer one of a thousand, when Thou contendest with us; but with all our hearts we thank Thee, that Thou hast taken all our guilt from us and laid it upon Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and made Him to atone for it: We pray Thee graciously to sustain us in faith, and so to govern us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may live according to Thy will, in neighborly love, service, and helpfulness, and not give way to wrath or revenge, that we may not incur Thy wrath, but always find in Thee a gracious Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Background for the Sermon - Reformation Day
We are the Evangelicals and the Protestants. First, of all, Luther did not want his name used for those who disagreed with the Church of Rome. Instead, they were called the Evangelicals or the Evangelical party, which is now ironic, since the Lutherans are deprived of the term - Evangelical, for continuing the Creeds, the liturgy, and the Sacraments.
Later, the Evangelicals used the term Protestant, which literally means "a positive witness," in countering Roman Catholic claims. Protest did not mean "against" but a testimony in favor of the truth. Rejecting the liturgy and sacraments came from Zwingli first and was followed by his equally prolific and rationalistic counterpart, Calvin.
The German Luther Bible was created by Luther and his associates, using the Majority or Traditional Text. The King James Version uses the same Apostolic text, which has over 5,000 witnesses. The Church of Rome has its own text, and has many versions of this Latin Vulgate. They promote the Vaticanus Text, which is a Greek version of the (later) Latin Vulgate, which Erasmus refused to consider. Today, Lutheran apostates promote the corrupt Vaticanus "Greek" text.
Playing around with the Scriptures - rejecting the original text and the good translations - comes from denying the efficacy of the Word of God.
If that were not enough, they separate the Holy Spirit from the Word, which makes the Word "a dead letter" in their version or invents new, strange content (Enthusiasm) the basis for all false doctrine.
- If people start with their human reason in dealing with the Bible, they are bound to distort the results, as Zwingli and Calvin did.
- If they consider their church the ultimate authority, as the Church of Rome always has, that will also distort the text and the translation.
- Another type of corruption comes from the ecumenical wing, where the participants, in the name of unity, love every doctrine but their own. This is the majority attitude today.
The Turmoil Made Plain
KJV Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. [GJ - the Kingdom is forceful, and the forceful seize it]
This lesson seems perplexing, which is often true with a few verses by themselves. However, the context teaches us a lot about its meaning. The issue is - John the Baptist. Many events built up before the appearance of Jesus preaching.
- The Star of Bethlehem signaled a great change coming, and Herod saw it as a challenge to his throne.
- The Wise Men were equally disturbing because that meant the Star was known outside of their little kingdom, so that gave it even more meaning.
- The Age of Prophesy was over for centuries, but they looked for a new Elijah, a signal that a new age was upon them.
- John the Baptist fulfilled what was promised in Isaiah 40 - the Voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the Way of the Lord.
There were two objections to this. One was that John was just a man, and it is easier to be awed by a promised man than by someone standing there and being so ordinary looking, maybe even dusty and sweaty. So the excuses start rolling out - he is just another man!
Secondly, Jesus was the least likely prophet of them all, because He was to be even greater than the Elijah - the Messiah, not just a great prophet. Because He did not display His divinity all the time, Jesus was the most difficult one to be promised by the wilderness prophet. Where was the glory? the power? the thunder and earthquakes?
This verse by itself is a puzzle, because of that word violence. Let's try - forceful. The Kingdom of God comes along forcefully - by God's will, not man's will. Go spoke through the prophets who risked their lives to speak the truth - they were forceful too and died for teaching through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The history of Christianity began with the slaughter of Christians for the entertainment of the pagans in Rome. The early martyrs accepted the violence because they knowingly went to eternal life by allowing the forcefulness.
How many of the apostles were killed for the Faith? Most of them. One telling fact is that we know little about them, only a fragment about Paul, most of it his writing. Luther assumed he was going to his death at the Diet of Worms, 1517, and in 1530 could not be present at the Augsburg Confession.
13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
Jesus commended John for being more than a prophet, by teaching the truth, John the Baptist was jailed and beheaded. He might have confessed his sins or run away to escape violence, but he felt and knew the power of the Spirit, which would give him the strength to continue as long as God allowed. "Elijah" means John was the last prophet and the sure sign of Jesus being the promised Messiah.
14 And if ye will receive it, THIS is Elias, which was for to come. 15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
14 και ει θελετε δεξασθαι, αυτος εστιν ηλιας ο μελλων ερχεσθαι
Pronouns are very important, which is why people are trying to corrupt them and mix around he and she. The Greek pronoun here is for emphasis and is found used the same way in John 1. Who listens and accepts what is coming? The forceful receive the Kingdom of Christ and accept what comes with it.
The Cross Denied
Some of us have been discussing how the Christian Church in America became so riddled with false doctrine and false teachers - not the tiny details which people love to fuss about, but the basics of the Christian faith and the authority of the Bible.
I date the beginning with the hated failure, the 1881 Revision of the King James Version. Various power brokers allowed the worst people to take over the slight revision of the KJV and turn it into a freak of text and translation - unsellable after the first edition was exposed as horrible and false.
The minority in England and America chose to work on their minority view and began showing their oats by 1930 or so. Since then, it has been a race to the bottom of the barrel - silly translations, false texts, thick books filled with denying all the articles of the Christian Faith.
And one dare not respond to this debacle. Whether one denomination or another, Lutheran or Methodist, the apostates and unbelievers were in control and perfect at dramatizing the evil of the faithful.
My wife and I exposed how the insurance companies (united as Thrivent) were working with ELCA, WELS, and the LCMS in the same programs. I let ELCA know that their friends were lying about working with them. The answer was - no more stories about them all working together.
The best we can do is teach the basics to the next generation. The Boomers have failed and their children are already abandoning what is left in favor of what is Left.
.jpg)
