May Otten burn in hell for the discord that he sewed in the church for decades.
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.
May Otten burn in hell for the discord that he sewed in the church for decades.
The Scriptures, Luther, and the Book of Concord teach Justification by Faith, the Chief Article of Christianity, but the LCMS and Sam Nafzger do not.
As Nafzger (Harvard PhD) must know, CFW Walther learned Objective (Faithless) Justification from his Pietistic Bishop, Martin Stephan. Walther never deviated from that dogma, lovingly repeated and quoted by the ELS below -
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Walther's "make a decision for world absolution" was taken from his syphilitic bishop via Halle University Pietism, a misinterpretation of 1 Timothy 3:16. |
Running through the writings of the sixteenth-century Lutheran confessors is a constant theme: God declares sinners right with Him by His grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide), p. 395.
This is clever double-talk, because LCMS, WELS, ELS, and CLC (sic) are delighted by their OJ agreement. They use ambiguity to cloak their agenda. The OJists love the Walther approach, so they soften the stupidity so the sheep may be slaughtered and scattered.
As WELSians like to say, "The Nafzger quotation ca-a-a-a-a-an be taken the right way."
It only takes a page turn to see Wiley E. Nafzger spring the trap -
After years of struggling with this problem, Luther finally was led to see through his study of Holy Scripture that God's justification of sinners is not a process but rather His declaration that the sins of the world have been forgiven on account of Jesus' substitutionary death on the cross, p. 396.
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Nafzger is perfect ELCA, perfect Rambach, perfect Halle Pietism, perfect Stephan - but not Scriptural, not Book of Concord. |
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Rolf Preus used to declare "raised for our justification" by itself until I repeated Romans 4:24 with 4:25...many times. He seems to have stopped mentioning Justification and Rome too. |
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The background is roses, but the foreground is a photo of some of the damage from the 2011 Joplin tornado and storm, which howled and thundered all night, 50 miles away from us in Bella Vista. |
Link to Complete Luther Sermon for Jubilate Sunday
4. "A little while," he says, "and ye behold me no more," for I shall be taken prisoner and they shall deliver me to death. But it will not last long, and during this short time ye shall be sorrowful, but only remain steadfast in me and follow me. It will soon have an end. Three days I will be in the grave; then the world will rejoice as though it had gained a victory, but ye shall be sorrowful and shall weep and lament. "And again a little while, and ye shall see me; and, Because I go to the Father." That is, on the third day I will rise again; then ye shall rejoice and your joy no man shall take from you, and this will not be a joy of only three days, like the joy of the world, but an eternal joy. Thus the Evangelist John most beautifully expresses the death and resurrection of Christ in these words, when Christ says, "A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me; and, Because I go to the Father."
5. An example is here given us, which we should diligently lay hold of and take to heart; if it went with us as it did in the time of the apostles, that we should be in suffering, anxiety and distress, we should also remember to be strong and to rejoice because Christ will arise again. We know that this has come to pass; but the disciples did not know how he should be raised, or what he meant by the resurrection, hence they were so sorrowful and so sad. They heard indeed that they should see him, but they did not understand what it was or how it should come to pass. Therefore they said among themselves, "What is this that he saith to us, A little while? We know not what he saith." To such an extent had sadness and sorrow overcome them, that they quite despaired, and knew not what these words meant and how they would see him again.
6. Therefore we must also feel within us this "a little while" as the dear disciples felt it, for this is written for our example and instruction, so that we may thereby be comforted and be made better. And we should use this as a familiar adage among ourselves; yea, we should feel and experience it, so that we might at all times say, God is at times near and at times he has vanished out of sight. At times I remember how the Word seems neither to move me nor to apply to me. It passes by; I give no heed to it. But to this "a little while" we must give heed and pay attention, so that we may remain strong and steadfast. We will experience the same as the disciples. We cannot do otherwise than is written here; even as the disciples were not able to do otherwise.
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Norma A. Boeckler, The Burial of Jesus |
Link to Complete Luther Sermon for Jubilate Sunday
I. What Moved Christ to Deliver This Sermon of Comfort
1. Here in this Gospel we see how the Lord comforts and imparts courage to his children whom he is about to leave behind him, when they would come in fear and distress on account of his death or of their backsliding. We also notice what induced the evangelist John to use so many words that he indeed repeats one expression four times, which according to our thinking he might have expressed in fewer words. There is first of all presented to us here the nature of the true Christian in the example of the dear apostles. In the second place, how the suffering and the resurrection of Christ are to become effective in us.
2. We also see that Christ announces to his disciples, how sorrowful they should be because he would leave them, but they are still so simpleminded and ignorant, and also so sorrowful on account of his recent conversation at the Last Supper, that they did not understand at all what he said unto them; yea, the nature of that which Christ presents to them is too great and incomprehensible for them. And it was also necessary that they should first become sorrowful before they could rejoice, even as Christ himself was an example to us that without the cross we could not enter into glory. Hence he says in Luke 24, 26 to the two, with whom he journeyed to Emmaus: "Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?" If therefore the dear disciples were to have joy, they must first of all pass through great sorrow. But this joy came to them through the Lord Jesus; for it is decreed in the Gospel, that without Christ there is no joy; and on the other hand, where Christ is, there is no sorrow, as is plainly stated in the text. Hence when Christ was taken from them, they were in great sorrow.
Norma A. Boeckler, The Empty Tomb |
Bethany Lutheran Church
Springdale, Arkansas
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
Misericordias Domini –
The Second Sunday after Easter, 2023
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Hymn #436 The Lord's My Shepherd
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
Introit
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord: by the word of the Lord were the heavens made. Psalm. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
Collect
God, who by the humiliation of Thy Son didst raise up the fallen world, grant unto Thy faithful ones perpetual gladness, and those whom Thou hast delivered from the danger of everlasting death do Thou make partakers of eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth, etc.
The Epistle and Gradual
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
V. Then was the Lord Jesus known of the disciples: in the breaking of bread. Hallelujah!
V. I am the Good Shepherd: and know My sheep and am known of Mine. Hallelujah!
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #196 I Am Content
I AM the Good Shepherd
The Communion Hymn # 328 O Jesus Lamb of God Thou Art - CPE Bach
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #50 Lord Dismiss Us
Prayers and Announcements
Second Sunday After Easter
Lord God, heavenly Father, who of Thy fatherly goodness hast been mindful of us poor, miserable sinners, and hast given Thy beloved Son to be our shepherd, not only to nourish us by His word, but also to defend us from sin, death, and the devil: We beseech Thee, grant us Thy Holy Spirit, that, even as this Shepherd doth know us and succor us in every affliction, we also may know Him, and, trusting in Him, seek help and comfort in Him, from our hearts obey His voice, and obtain eternal salvation, through the same, Thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
KJV 1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
KJV John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Three of Luther’s sermons on this text:
A new/old book arrived that showed me how cleverly the Bible has been defamed in the last 150 years. I have 20+ books on this topic. The author of this book pointed out how easily the new Bibles were accepted, and how many denominations had a variety of translations they used without much fuss at all. The reason is - the battle was over. The corrupt Greek texts (fraudulent Sinaiticus and corrupt Vaticanus) - mixed in with Apostolic (Traditional, Received, Byzantine) Text - were easily passed off as "scholarly, the oldest, the best, the most accurate, the earliest" Greek New Testaments.
Vimeo Link to the Ten Commandments
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The Vimeo will be on the main blog, Ichabod, the video location - Gregory L. Jackson, and the Vimeo location.