Seminex Returns - Tietjen Reborn - Matt the Fatt Slugs the Tarbaby

 

They came back for lunch at the seminary - the same day! "An army travels on its stomach." So did these mighty martyrs, and many became ELCA bishops. Really!

From the LCMS Reporter:

On Aug. 8, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Board of Directors (BOD) reached out to the Concordia University Texas (CTX), Austin, Texas, Board of Regents (BOR) seeking a board-to-board meeting in keeping with the spirit of Resolution 7-03, adopted on Aug. 1 by the Synod in convention. In that letter, the LCMS BOD also asked the CTX BOR:

To recognize and seat the four CTX regents elected by the Synod convention on Aug. 3; and

Not to seat anyone who has not been elected or appointed to the CTX BOR under Synod Bylaws.

The next day, on Aug. 9, CTX President Dr. Donald Christian notified the LCMS BOD via email that the four CTX regents elected by the Synod convention would not be seated on the CTX BOR.

Attached to Christian’s email were copies of letters from Christopher Bannwolf, CTX BOR chair, that previously had been sent to each of the four newly elected regents. Those letters referred to the regents’ “purported election” to the CTX BOR. They also claimed that the current CTX Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws “do not allow for Regents to be elected or appointed externally by someone else,” including by the LCMS convention.

The Synod BOD has been informed by Bannwolf that the CTX BOR will meet soon to discuss its response to the Synod BOD’s Aug. 8 letter requesting a meeting.

The 7,000 Mile Delivery Problem

I saw a Pilgrim's Progress, excellent condition, on eBay, and soon after it "was delivered." But I could not see it. I phoned eBay after waiting for this delivery a few more days.

The young lady was quite friendly and helpful. After jousting over where the book was, she discovered that it was indeed dropped off on the date of my eBay email. The only problem? - the book was sent to the distribution center 7,000 miles from my little library. 

I thought I gave away my Limited Edition of the book, which I do whenever I have the chance. I did not order that one but another one of the 2,002 editions of the book. 

I hauled the latest collection of Lutheran Library books into the library room. In straightening out the books I discovered... the Limited Edition of Pilgrim's Progress, so I will have a PP pair for now. 

I had to browse the used book market and saw that one person collected the book for 25 years. The 325 books about  or editions of PP will sell for $17,500 - out of my range. 

 Time to get organized!

Efficacy - One Word To Cure the Ills of Christendom - Church Growth Snake Oil Is the Magician's Tool

The Church Growth sect leaders must realize by now that they are fools.

I have two true stories for today. The first one happened at Mequon (aka Mordor) where I was required to study Church Growth under the leadership of David Valleskey, Paul Kelm, Larry Olson, and other clowns. 

Kelm asked, as his ultimate question at the end of the week-long torture, "Now can you think of ANYONE who - looking at all we have to offer - would not join the Wisconsin Synod?!"

The audience was completely quiet. I waited a few seconds and said, "Herb Chilstrom?" The entire room rocked with laughter, which kept starting over and over again. Earnest Paul Kelm was not happy at all. Chilstrom was the leader of ELCA, known for his delight in apostasy. Foolish Paul Kelm had a false premise - make the product irresistible and everyone will rush to grab it. Long before, when he tried starting a new mission, the people found out what WELS really taught and tossed Paul out, changing to an ALC/LCA affiliation.

Thanks to Donald McGavran (Disciples of Christ, advocate for Planned Parenthood) and Peter Drucker (self-appointed corporation expert), Fuller Seminary tossed the Scriptures overboard and pursued Management by Marketing. When Fuller went public with their rejection of inerrancy, everyone was already indifferent to Biblical doctrine and greedy for big, booming success.

Because these charlatans have no faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Savior, born of the Virgin Mary, miracle worker and healer of leprosy, who raised people from the dead, died on the cross, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven, they have nothing to offer except blindness and hardness of heart. 

Parking lots do not cause faith in the Savior. One WELS pastor declared they would have a world-class parking ministry (St. Paul German Village). He ended up an atheist, the final resting place or stage of Fuller parasites. The parish is almost gone.

Entertainment and food do not lead to faith in the Son of God. The people followed Jesus into the desert because they had faith in Him. They only knew His divine power and His efficacious Word. He fed the multitude.

Jesus summoned the fish, but only after His sermon, after Peter confessed his sinful nature, after Jesus commanded the impossible. Jesus taught His disciples to be fishers of men, not agents or thralls of Unstuck.



Gimmicks and tricks are just that, devoid of divine efficacy. The men who rely on the superficial find out the meaning of defenestration, sooner or later.


I can offer a true story of how easy it is to lead people in the wrong direction with a few enticing words.

One Sunday in Sturgis, Michigan, I had visitors in church, from the magicians convention taking place. The announcements at the end of the service went like this -

"We are happy to have magicians here today, because of the big convention nearby. I have to report there was a serious accident there."

The congregation became especially quiet and listened.
"The woman in the sawing in-half-act was injured."
Everyone gasped and listened even more closely.

"She is at Sturgis Memorial Hospital..."
This is the verifying statement, very effective.

"In Room 101 and 102."
The place came unglued!

Yes, that really happened. I only dredged it up to remind people how a few words can lead people toward a mirage, a fantasy, a dream or horror. Why do the denominations - not just foolish Lutherans - throw millions of dollars at Fuller, Trinity Divinity, and other seminaries of ill repute?

They get their diplomas at Mequon, St. Louis, Ft. Wayne, Mankato, and just know how effective their Church Growth principles will be.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Holy Trinity Sunday - "...We cannot expound the mystery of these divine things by the speculations of reason and a pretense of great wisdom."

Complete Sermon Link ->Luther's Sermons - Romans 11:33-26. Trinity Sunday

5. But from within (a priori) no human wisdom has been able to conceive what God is in himself, or in his internal essence. Neither can anyone know or give information of it except it be revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.

For no one knoweth, as Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:11), the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God none knoweth save the Spirit of God. From without, I may see what you do, but what your intentions are and what you think, I cannot see. Again, neither can you know what I think except I enable you to understand it by word or sign. Much less can we know what God, in his own inner and secret essence is, until the Holy Spirit, who searcheth and knoweth all things, yea, the deep things of God—as Paul says above—reveals it to us: as he does in the declaration of this article, in which he teaches us the existence in the divine majesty of the one undivided essence, but in such manner that there is, first, the person which is called the Father; and of him exists the second person called the Son, born from eternity; and proceeding from both these is the third, namely, the Holy Spirit. These three persons are not distinct from each other, as individual brothers or sisters are, but they have being in one and the same eternal, undivided and indivisible essence.

6. This, I say, is not discovered or attained to by human reason. It is revealed from heaven above. Therefore, only Christians can intelligently speak of what the Godhead essentially is, and of his outward manifestation to his creatures, and his will toward men concerning their salvation. For all this is imparted to them by the Holy Spirit, who reveals and proclaims it through the Word.

7. Those who have no such revelation, and who judge according to their own wisdom, such as the Jews, Turks and heathen, must consider the Christian’s declaration the greatest error and rankest heresy; they must say that we Christians are mad and foolish in imagining that there are three Gods, when, according to all reason—yea, even according to the Word of God—there can be but one God. It would not be reasonable, they will say, that there should be more than one householder over the same house, more than one lord or sovereign over the same government; much less reasonably should more than one God reign over heaven and earth. They imagine that thus with their wisdom they have completely overthrown our faith and exposed it to the derision and scorn of all the world. As if we were all blockheads and egregious fools and could not see their logic as well as they! But, thank God, we have understanding equal to theirs, and can argue as convincingly, or more so, than they with their Koran and Talmud, that there is but the one God.

8. Further, we know, from the testimony of Holy Writ, that we cannot expound the mystery of these divine things by the speculations of reason and a pretense of great wisdom. To explain this, as well as all the articles of our faith, we must have a knowledge higher than any to which the understanding of man can attain. That knowledge of God which the heathen can perceive by reason or deduce from rational premises is but a small part of the knowledge that we should possess. The heathen Aristotle in his best book concludes from a passage in the wisest pagan poet, Homer: There can be no good government in which there is more than one lord; it results as where more than one master or mistress attempts to direct the household servants. So must there be but one lord and regent in every government. This is all rightly true. God has implanted such light and understanding in human nature for the purpose of giving a conception and an illustration of his divine office, the only Lord and Maker of all creatures.

But, even knowing this, we have not yet searched out or fathomed the exalted, eternal, divine Godhead essence. For even though I have learned that there is an only divine majesty, who governs all things, I do not thereby know the inner workings of this divine essence himself; this no one can tell me, except, as we have said, in so far as God himself reveals it in his Word.