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.
Saturday, November 5, 2022
From a Reader - Why Are Lutheran Pastors using the Angel Pose? - AKA Orans
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| Pope Saint Paul VI - This papal tiara is nicknamed "the artillery shell," his sanctified and sanctifying hands are in the orans (silent praying) pose. A reader wondered about the "angel pose" among the ELDONUTs. Decades ago, a Lutheran layman came back from an Episcopal wedding, complaining that the groomsmen had to walk in and stand using the angel pose. He hated how prissy it looked. How did this get into Lutherdom? The Ft. Wayne and St. Louis seminary graduates are brainwashed in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. They despise Luther's Biblical doctrine and fuss over how to barbeque the incense. Most of all, they love to parade in their expensive costumes. Their services, as Chemnitz wrote in Examination of the Council of Trent, is either a tragedy or a comedy.  |
Book of Concord, Formula of Concord, Article 10, Adiaphora -
Likewise, the article concerning Christian liberty also is here at stake, which the Holy Ghost through the mouth of the holy apostle so earnestly charged His Church to preserve, as we have just heard. For as soon as this is weakened and the ordinances of men [human traditions] are forced upon the Church with coercion, as though it were wrong and a sin to omit them, the way is already prepared for idolatry, and by this means ordinances of men [human traditions] are afterwards multiplied and regarded as a divine worship, not only equal to the ordinances of God, but are even placed above them.
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| Who stole my stole? Pope Francis, SJ, was photographed wearing Pope Paul VI's stole. |
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| ELDONUTs - note the bishop's mitre (fish-hat). No tiara? Not yet. |
16 Moreover, by such [untimely] yielding and conformity in external things, where there has not been previously Christian union in doctrine, idolaters are confirmed in their idolatry; on the other hand, the true believers are grieved, offended, and weakened in their faith [their faith is grievously shaken, and made to totter as though by a battering-ram]; both of which every Christian for the sake of his soul’s welfare and salvation is bound to avoid, as it is written: Woe unto the world because of offenses! Also: Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea [Matt. 18:6, 7 .
Friday, November 4, 2022
Clergy Deception - Even Before WELS
The Keys were supposedly given to the Pope, the locking key for punishment and the absolution key for forgiveness. The shiny, bright locking key is favored, used constantly, and ideal for extracting money. Ask Marvin Schwan.
§ 37. — To return to the origin of these lying wonders, Mosheim remarks (vol. i., p. 371), that “the interests of virtue and true religion suffered grievously by two monstrous errors which were almost universally adopted in the fourth century, and became a source of innumerable calamities and mischiefs in the succeeding ages. The first of these maxims was, that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the interests of the church might be promoted; and the second equally horrible, though in another point of view, was that errors in religion, when maintained and adhered to, after proper admonition, were punishable with civil penalties and corporal tortures. The former of these erroneous maxims was now of a long standing; it had been adopted for some ages past, and had produced an incredible number of ridiculous fables, fictitious prodigies, and pious frauds, to the unspeakable detriment of that glorious cause in which they were employed. The other maxim, relating to the justice and expediency of punishing error, was introduced with those serene and peaceful times which the accession of Constantine to the imperial throne procured to the church. It was from that period approved by many, enforced by several examples during the contests that arose with the priscillianists and donatists, confirmed and established by the authority of Augustine, and thus transmitted to the following ages.”
From Dowling, John. History of Romanism: From The Earliest Corruptions of Christianity. New York: Lutheran Library. 1871/2023. Part II, chapter 5: “Origin Of Romish Errors Continued — Worship Of Saints And Relics, Etc.”
Ridiculous Rites and Ceremonies
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| Pope Paul VI also wore the beehive, the papal beehive. It looks very silly. |
In the sixth century, the public teachers seemed to aim at nothing else than to sink the multitude into the most opprobrious ignorance and superstition, to efface in their minds all sense of the beauty and excellence of genuine piety, and to substitute, in the place of religious principles, a blind veneration for the clergy, and a stupid zeal for a senseless round of ridiculous rites and ceremonies.
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| Pope Benedict XVI admired the crown but did not wear it in public. Here is a good history of the tiara. |
From Dowling, John. History of Romanism: From The Earliest Corruptions of Christianity. New York: Lutheran Library. 1871/2023. Part II, chapter 5: “Origin Of Romish Errors Continued — Worship Of Saints And Relics, Etc.”
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| Pope John XXIII - a closeup - the shoes of the fisherman, not exactly. |
Alec Satin, The Lutheran Librarian, The Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry
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