Delusional Dullards at LutherQ - No Wonder the Synodicals Are Melting Faster Than a July Frost

 

This WELS history of loving Church Growth is matched by the LCMS, ELCA, and the ELS. Notice how none of the brave souls on LutherQuest (sic) can offer any ideas, research, or regrets.

I prepared a paper for a recent pastoral conference [LCR] entitled “Catechetical helps against the spirit of antichrist.”

The paper holds out an approach to correct the six chief false doctrines used to create a power base in both Roman Catholicism and in churches which teach Soul Competency. (Baptist, Mennonite, Assemblies of God, virtually any church that is PC or lax in practice of the office of the keys.)

The best comment came from a formwer (sic) WELS pastor who noted that the WELS committee which created CGM overtly researched and copied Baptist methods. If this is so, then WELS intentionally sought out the spirit of antichrist, and infected their local churches. The pastor who made the comment had sold the book by jackson (Gregory L. Jackson?) in which he broke the story that CGM in WELS is really Baptist.

Has anyone heard of such a book?

If not do you have citable evidence that CGM is Baptist in origin?

Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Your servant in Christ,

youngdrj

+++

The Disciples of Christ are among those groups that teach soul competency (My Church and Others, Mueller, 1968, p. 56ff).

I think I will have to get into the guts of how WELS implemented CGM, to see if the six principles that I attribute to soul competency are also present there in CGM as implemented in WELS and LC-MS. Does LC-MS have a position on CGM? Official or otherwise?

Does anyone have a resource for WELS and/or LC-MS implementation of CGM?

Thanks in advance for the great help,

Your servant in Christ,

youngdrj

***

GJ - I would be glad to send a few books free to Jeffrey Young. The publication response of the Walther sects (LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC) has been shock, denial, stink-eye, and extending the Left Boot of Fellowship. Now the Objective Faithless Justification savants are reaping the bitter fruit as they fulfill the warnings of John 15. 

KJV John 15:6  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

Luther Quislings will not respond to the question, except for sputtering and fuming.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 25 - “And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

 

Complete Luther Sermon ->Matthew 24:15-28. 

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity

8. But the abomination of which Daniel writes is that the Emperor Cajus, as history tells, had put his image in the temple at Jerusalem as an idol, for the people to worship, after everything there had been destroyed. For the Scriptures call idolatry really an abomination, because God abhors and abominates it, inasmuch as he is the enemy of no sin so much as of this.

The others he does truly punish, but he does not cast the people away if they repent, as he says in Psalm 89:31-34: “If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” But this sin, called idolatry, which is really unbelief and denial of God, which he cannot at all endure, condemns man completely. For where this remains in the heart of man, so that he teaches and believes correctly, indicates that our works are nothing, and that we shall be acceptable to God and serve him aright alone through faith, then there will be a truly godly character; there light and truth abide. Although along side of faith there runs a sense of the weakness of the flesh. It is not an abomination before God, but only a daily sin that God will punish unto repentance; yet he keeps the people, spares them and forgives them, when the people turn to him and learn to acknowledge his goodness. On the other hand, where this faith and doctrine do not exist, everything is lost; for it is impossible for man not to establish for himself a false worship and choose his own opinion and work, and worship it, so that he really denies God and his Word, and God is entirely turned aside; so that his grace cannot operate. Such abomination is generally the most beautiful and the greatest holiness in the eyes of the world, which outwardly appears in beautiful works and customs; but inwardly is full of filthiness, as we can see at the present day in our orders and church services where they are at their best. However there are again some Christians who are not like these in their works and ways; but are truly holy before God.

9. Now Christ says, when the abomination, that is, this idol, shall stand in the temple, the kingdom shall finally be made desolate and destroyed, so that it can never be rebuilt again, as Luke expresses it clearly in these words, Luke 21:20f: “But when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that our desolation is at hand. Then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains; and let them that are in the midst of her depart out; and let not them that are in the country enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”

And further, “Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight may be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath: for then shall be great tribulation, such as had not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be.”

10. All this pertains still to the Jewish nation. For if this should come upon us at the end of the world, then would we, according to the text, have to be in the land of Judea, because he really points to that country. It is also true, when he says that no greater calamity has been or can be upon the earth than was at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; as we see in history, how unmercifully they were slaughtered and even killed one another, cast themselves into the fire, and permitted themselves to kill one another. Yea, the famine was so great that they ate the strings of cross-bows and even their own children. It was so shameful and abominable that like pity and distress shall never be heard again.

11. But they themselves wanted it, hence God permitted them to be thus blighted and destroyed. He would gladly have had mercy upon them and preserved them, but they brought themselves to such distress with their stiff-neckedness, that they killed and consumed one another; that as they began it, all such murder and bloodshed had to increase. Thus the death of Christ and of all the prophets is most abominably avenged on them, and that without ceasing, they raged against the Word of God, and persecuted and drove away the Apostles, as St. Paul says in Thessalonians 2:15-16, that the wrath of God finally came upon them.

12. When such fearful wrath and abominable plagues are at hand, says Christ, then flee wherever ye are able to flee; for these words, “Then flee unto the mountains, he that is in Judea, and he that is upon the housetop,” etc.; then; “He who is in the field,” etc., are all written or spoken symbolically, as if to say, hasten quickly away; the sooner the better, and let no one find or overtake you. This also came to pass. After the Jews had been sufficiently warned by many signs, that they should submit themselves to the Romans, and they would not; then the disciples and apostles fled away and followed this saying of Christ, they left everything behind that was in Judea and never returned to take anything.

13. “And pray ye,” he says further, “that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Sabbath;” that is, see to it that you flee at the right time, that you be not overtaken. For he did not want to perform a miracle and keep them safely in the midst of the enemy, although he could have done so; for he had determined that everything that was there should be completely destroyed together; therefore all as one mass were only fit for destruction.

If there were indeed a great multitude at Jerusalem according to the record, a million and a hundred thousand men were melted together, as many as were in the city. Therefore Jesus admonishes the disciples that they should not postpone their flight to the Sabbath, when they did not dare to journey; nor to the winter, when it would be cold; but that they should depart, the sooner the better; that if they hesitate, an inconvenient time to flee would come.

14. Thus far Jesus speaks concerning the Jews. Now I have said before that Matthew and Mark unite these two ends together. Therefore it is difficult to discriminate, and yet we must discriminate between the two. Therefore notice that what had been said up to the present, all referred to the Jews; but now he weaves both together, breaks off abruptly, does not concern himself about the order in which the passages were spoken by Christ, and how they are connected with and follow one another; but leaves it to the Evangelist Luke, yet he wants to say that it shall be thus at the last day, and says: “And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Rush Limbaugh - The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

 

Nota Bene - Which in English Means - "Notice, Ben!"

 

The corporate managers of the ELCA-ELS-WELS-LCMS sects are delighted to deny Christ and embrace Donald McGavran.

Several matters have come up in the last few weeks.

I.

One is the obvious collapse of the LCMS-ELS-WELS higher education apparatus. Long ago the synods decided to throw the cost of college and seminary onto the students, unlike those grey beards who took advantage of their own dirt-cheap tuition.  One Augustana Seminary student brought in potatoes from his farm as payment for tuition - truly dirt cheap. I paid $75 per semester at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in 1970, which it was LCA and not ELCiC, eh. At some point the pain became unbearable and students rushed for the exits - or simply avoided the ghastly entry fees. Martin Luther College (WELS) charges huge fees for providing professors with nothing more than a MDiv from Mequon, and the seminary is no better. A DMin is not a doctorate but a joke. Five hundred years ago, a real doctorate was expected of Luther, Chemnitz, and the rest. Mel earned it but was not given the title because he looked so young. 

The worst of all worlds is a series of "Lutheran" schools teaching nonsense, mocking the Lutheran Reformation, rejecting the Apostolic text of the Bible,  and attacking Justification by Faith. The toxic Jesuits - who did their best to counter the Reformation - are now teaching in the Lutheran chimera of higher education.

II.

 The Little Red Schoolhouse on the Prairie is overbuilt for its needs.
"We built this synod on Marvin Schwan!"

The synods are falling apart, like the tofu buildings of China, where building materials are so corrupted that structures fall apart within a few years. Because they are crumbling and bumbling, they have no recourse except to work together (ELCA-WELS-ELS-LCMS) in extracting money from Thrivent's pro-abortion and multi-sexual goals.

Two students per class year at Bethany Seminary! Are they aware of the real Marvin Schwan story? Not likely. I sent the Forbes magazine to Herman Otten, so it was my fault that Marvin dumped his wife for his manager's! Does anyone have a conscience today?

III.

If the sect managers only exalted the Scriptures as much as ice cream money!

KJV Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

I am encouraged to hear that there is a network of Lutherans who know their sects have been slowly destroyed by promoting false Bibles, bad hymnals, and predatory managers of mammon. They look forward to Ichabod posts and they love the idea of the Reformation Seminary. Compare our tuition fee - $0 - to the seminaries.  Do not forget their book fees, chapel fees, intern charges, parking fees, overpriced meals, and debt.

One long-time friend told me he looked for articles three times a day, and I used to check that - he was right.

The nickname for Mequon is The Sausage Factory.

ELCA-WELS-ELS-LCMS-ELDONUTs-CLC: they share one great hatred - the King James Version.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 25 - "Notice therefore that Matthew unites the two and at the same time conceives the end, both of the Jewish nation and of the world. He therefore cooks both into one soup."

 

Complete Luther Sermon ->Matthew 24:15-28. 

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Text: Matthew 24:15-28. When therefore, ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains: let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house: and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a sabbath: for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.


1. In this chapter there is a description of the end of two kingdoms; of the kingdom of the Jews, and also of the kingdom of the world. But the two Evangelists, Matthew and Mark, unite the two and do not follow the order as Luke did, for they have nothing more in view than to relate and give the words of Christ, and are not concerned about what was said either before or after. But Luke takes special pains to write clearly and in the true order, and relates this discourse twice; first briefly in the 19th chapter, where he speaks of the destruction of the Jews at Jerusalem; afterwards in the 21st chapter he speaks of both, one following the other.

2. Notice therefore that Matthew unites the two and at the same time conceives the end, both of the Jewish nation and of the world. He therefore cooks both into one soup. But if you want to understand it, you must separate and put each by itself, that which really treats of the Jews, and that which relates to the whole world. This we wish to do now.

3. Notice, first, how Christ prophecies in this chapter concerning the final destruction of the Jewish nation, which the Jews did not at all believe, even though they had been dearly told through great signs and words, the promises of God which he made to the fathers, like unto which had happened to no other people upon the earth. For this reason they strongly insisted and depended upon it, thought it will continue forever, as they think even at the present time; that their kingdom is not destroyed but has only disbanded a little and shall be re-established. They cannot get it out of their minds that they are not completely ruined.

4. For this reason God announced besides his miracles with clear and plain prophesies that their kingdom shall have an end and that God had abolished the external reign of the law, meats, offerings, etc., and would establish another which shall endure forever, as the angel announced to the virgin concerning Christ, as recorded in Luke 1:33. “And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

5. Among the various passages which treat of the end of Judaism there is especially one that is introduced by Christ, namely: the prophet Daniel, 9:25f, speaks of the terrible abomination, standing where he ought not, when he says concerning the Jewish nation, “Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three-score and two weeks,” that makes together seventy weeks or years, “And after the three-score and two weeks, shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined. And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.”

6. The Prophet Daniel desired to know the definite time when this should come to pass, but he could not learn it, and although the angel pointed out a definite time, it was nevertheless too dark for the prophet to understand, hence he said before: But at last, at the last time, you shall see everything, that is, your prophecy, that is to be revealed to you, shall transpire at the end of time. For when Christ sent out the Gospel through the ministry of himself and of the Apostles, it lasted three or three and a half years, that it almost amounts to the calculation of Daniel, namely the 490 years. Hence he also says, Christ shall take a half a week, in which the daily offerings shall cease; that is, the priesthood and reign of the Jews shall have an end; which all took place in the three and a half years in which Christ preached, and was almost completed in four years after Christ, in which the Gospel prospered the most, especially in Palestine through the Apostles (that when they opened their mouth, the Holy Ghost fell as it were, from heaven, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles), so that a whole week, or seven years, established the covenant, as Daniel says; that is, the Gospel was preached to the Jews, of which we spoke before. Now, when the time came that a new message or sermon began, there must also begin a new kingdom, that is, where Christ rules spiritually in our hearts through the Word and faith.

If this is now to continue, then the other must be set aside and has no more authority and must cease. This is the part of the prophecy of the prophets, which Christ is explaining.

7. The other treats of the abomination of desolation. Here Christ now says, When ye shall see this one standing in the temple, then take heed (he wants to say) for that is a sure sign from Daniel’s prophecy that his kingdom is now at an end; and do not let yourselves be deceived because the Jews and weak Christians think that it shall never be destroyed.

Eight "Conservative" Lutheran Jesuits - 2022 Reprint

Erik Ankerberg, PhD - Marquette University, Jesuit to its core. Will he hire back Gregory Schulz, a fellow Jesuit PhD?

John F. Johnson, got his PhD from the Jesuit St. Louis University, because he thought his Concordia St. Louis ThD was useless outside of the Missouri Synod. He sports the lopsided smile so familiar in the Olde Synodical Conference.

I visited Johnson in his office at Concordia, St. Louis, and got him to start raving about how great the adulterous Karl Barth (Swiss theologian) was. He saw I was not on his adulatory wavelength and immediately switched to another topic. He discussed having a ThD from the LCMS was worthless outside of the LCMS, so he earned a PhD at St. Louis University to be more marketable in academics. No wonder Missouri was so eager to make Johnson a higher education leader.

Guided by our enduring Jesuit mission, we offer our nearly 13,000 students a highly rigorous and deeply transformative education that helps them develop into bold, confident leaders. Rated among the nation’s top research universities, SLU boasts 15 graduate and undergraduate programs ranked among the top 50 in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

I could not find David Luy on LinkedIn so I just googled his name + Lutheran. That brought up the page from his previous job at Trinity Divinity. He got his PhD from the Jesuits - Marquette! All roads do lead from Rome nowadays. I need to build a gallery of Jesuit PhDs:

1. John Sparky Brenner - WELS professor at Mordor, Dean of GA Hazing Rites.
2. Jack Kilcrease - Our Lady of Sorrows Convent School (a nominal LCMS guy trained in ELCA albeit born in a WELS parsonage).
3. Gregory Schulz - LCMS ex-professor, C.U. Mequon.
4. Karl Fabrezius - LCMS pastor.
5. David Luy - NALC Seminary.
6. Charles Cortright - Wisconsin Lutheran College, WELS.
7. John F. Johnson and.......drum roll
8. Erik Ankerberg, Marquette U. PhD

Sparky Brenner proves that WELS is in fellowship with everyone except Martin Luther.
The Jesuits were organized to destroy the Reformation.

Not one of these Lutherans would admit knowing that I exist, and I know four of them one way or another (fewer is better).

Maybe if I wore all black and always played word games with the truth...

The Pope is a Jesuit, not a Franciscan.

Taught by the Jesuit Sparky Brenner, A Recent Mequon Grad Tries to Prop Up Objective Faithless Justification

Sparky began his doctorate at U. of Wisconsin, but switched to a Jesuit university to complete his PhD.  Going Jesuit is definitely a trend in the collapsing WELS-ELS-LCMS.

"Many, if not all, Wisconsin Synod pastors are aware of those internet blogs offering their “gracious and loving” critiques of the WELS doctrine of justification. Many, if not all, Wisconsin Synod pastors are aware of a few pastors who have left our fellowship in recent years due to the WELS teaching of universal and objective justification. These controversies have not escaped the notice of WELS pastors. However, not all pastors may be familiar with Samuel Huber and Aegidius Hunnius, two theologians who are often cited by American objective justification deniers to refute the doctrine of justification as taught in WELS, ELS, LC-MS, and by extension, the members of the former Synodical Conference. It is the goal of this thesis to examine the writings of Huber and Hunnius and to compare their teachings on justification to what was taught in the early days of the Synodical Conference. Finally, this thesis will demonstrate the faulty use of church history by those who deny universal and objective justification."

Student essay from the precious WELS Essay File.

Cracked Pots Are a Good Visual for Yet Another Mequon Seminarian Essay

Someone (name withheld) sent me the link for the latest failing effort to prop up Objective Faithless Justification. I was justifiably hurt to discover that the lad did not make any effort to obtain and read my books which address the issue and provide vast amounts of information, especially on the efficacy of the Word and Justification by Faith. I have sent free copies of my books to Mequon and I gladly send free books to individuals who ask for them. This blog has freely produced information from many sources.

The Mequon aversion to actual study is bound to echo the repeat-after-me statements of the poorly trained professors. Brenner is one of eight Jesuit PhDs who teach theology among the "conservatives." I obtained his dissertation and bought his pots book. He backed the reality of Walther using the phony "grace controversy" to bring OJ in the back door when he had failed to force it on his members and professors through his bullying. The "grace debate" is where one finds the WELS-ELS-LCMS claiming that faith is a "work," a stupidity so dense that it clogs the brains of Midwestern Germans to this day.

The phrase Justification by Faith does not appear in the bloated abstract, but the lad loves the word "justification" by itself, demonstrating a staggering lack of knowledge in Greek and English. He is like the other dullards who defend OJ and Church Growth as if fighting angry bees, crying and trying to find relief from the pain.

My eyes are tired from laughing at all the face-plants encouraged and supported by Brenner, so I am adding a few graphics. A crooked foundation leads to a crumbling foundation and apostate clergy.

 Kilcrease is another Jesuit PhD.

 The Preus kids and grandchildren do not understand Robert's book.

Walther's syphilitic bishop, Martin Stephan, taught him OJ (fresh from Halle)
and Walther never varied from its grip on him.

A few people attended the Emmaus conference, where the truth was not allowed.
Why do the OJ fanatics have to keep dressing up their tin idol, Walther, and heritage of Bishop Stephan?

Read this slowly, out loud, and ask whether Objective Faithless Justification has any relationship to the Reformation, Luther, and the Book of Concord. 

Trinity 24 - Two Miraculous Healings

The Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2023

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

Vimeo Link to the Trinity 24 Service

The Hymn #  11                 Safely Through Another Week                      

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16

Introit

Oh, come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.

For He is our God: and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Psalm. Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.

The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19

Collect

Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of Thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth, etc.

The Epistle and Gradual   

Gradual

Thou hast delivered my soul from death: mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

V. I love the Lord: because He hath heard my voice and my supplication. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

V. With Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light. Hallelujah!

    

The Gospel              

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22

The Sermon Hymn #236                Creator Spirit By Whose Aid         

              

Two Examples of Faith and Power

The Communion Hymn #  307            Draw Nigh and Take the Body of the Lord   

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 #199      Jesus Christ Is Risen Today

Prayers and Announcements

• Thanksgiving Eve Vespers Service, 7 PM.
• Our Biblical doctrine series has a name - Reformation Seminary.
• In treatment - Kermit Way; Randy Anderson; ; Pastor Jim Shrader and Chris; Sarah Buck; Lori Howell; Dr. Lito Cruz and his father. 
• Callie and her parents; little Aaron with the heart problem;
• Those suffering from emotional and metabolic stress.

Colossians 1`:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Matthew 9:18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. 19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, 24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. 26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

Two Examples of Faith and Power

Matthew 9:18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

There are many miracles in the Gospels, and they are revealed to us in different ways. This causes opposite responses in people today. It is often the reason why people reject Jesus as the Son of God, saying they do not believe in miracles. Many of them are clergy and professors who teach the Scriptures. They fall into the trap of experience and rationalism.

Experience teaches them, they say, that miracles do not come true, because they have prayed and were disappointed. People can find a thousand ways to reject the miraculous and one excuse builds on even more. The crowds were drawn to Jesus because of His miracles and yet they also insisted on even more. The religious were antagonized by the miracles of Jesus even though they were there, hearing and seeing the truth.

Rationalism has had a major impact because the masses are given explanations that blind people from seeing the power and mercy of God. A guide at the Grand Canyon explained what the scientists said about the cause of all the beauty we saw, taking millions of years to slowly develop the national park. He paused and I said - "or the Flood." He immediately began to agree about the alternative, and he seemed far more comfortable about the divine. 

People are impressed by a yard full of hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and flowers, but some seem rattled by the term Creation Garden. I told a neighbor about growing roses and he phoned his wife, saying, "We're doing it all wrong. Listen to him." All I did was explain how God instilled the complexity and did almost all the work. He asked for the book.

Rationalism means changing the perspective of all that God has given us, even though there are hundreds and thousands of ways the truth can be known and appreciated. Scholars either claim something or say they are divided. 

19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

Jesus did not reject the man but immediately followed him, His disciples going along with Him. Those who remember each story might wonder why do they happen in different ways. Each one is given to us to increase our faith, because trust in God can be so fragile at times, powerful against His will and His work. Luther often wrote about the darkness he felt as a monk, trying to do everything right and yet tormented by the burden of the Law. I gave my four-volume Luther set to a Roman Catholic leader in worship. Years later, he wrote and said, "I still have the Luther set and I still read it." (The LCA stopped printing it. An ELS pastor got the other set I owned and still does not understand Luther.)

20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

As many know, the woman would have been known as unclean, and she was plagued by her disorder for 12 years. The more she was treated by doctors, the worse she became. This was not only a oppressive burden in her life, an unending one, but also tinged with shame, the feeling of unworthiness. So she was full of faith but also ashamed. Touching his garment, she was sure, would cure her, without bothering Jesus.

22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Mark 5 - 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

 One of the early church fathers said, "If touching the hem of Jesus' robe can make a person whole, how much more than the receiving of the Body of Christ in Holy Communion?" That was not said to emphasize magical properties (which the Middle Ages turned into an Amazon of religious relics) but to remind us of God's powers. That is why we have holy places, to shut out the noise and distractions of the day and focus on the divine.

    As I have said more than once, I go through the names of our little congregation (and others) every night and pray especially for those dealing with various difficulties. I begin by thanking God for so many blessings, especially the difficult people who did so much to make freedom of the Gospel possible. That is the odd climax of the Beatitudes - and it becomes increasingly true over time.  

23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, 24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

The contrast between faith and unbelief is very clear. The Savior came to help the daughter of the synagogue's leader. He told them the truth, and they laughed their heads off.

25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. 26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

Mark 5: 38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. 39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. 41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. 42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. 43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.

Is that a contradiction that the fame/rumor (Romans 10, Isaiah 53) went everywhere but Jesus told them to remain quiet? The problem was not the lack of publicity but the overwhelming amount and reaction to the miracles. After all, they wanted to anoint Jesus as the Messiah but His time had not yet come.

Every part of our lives is in God's hands, with legions of angels helping in the work and the King of Kings guiding that work across the globe, the Spirit working through the Word. With faith in Christ we see and experience the miraculous. I have seen that many times.

The End

The Basic Cost of College for One Year - The Grandchildren of the Boomers Are Being Fleeced

 

Now at MLC - part of initiation, the statue is or was the center of unspeakable "fun" for freshman initiation: way ahead of ELCA. The seminary - dubbed The Sausage Factory - requires more of the same abusive initiation. 

One WELS pastor said to me, on the Mequon campus, "Our millionaire has much more integrity than yours in Columbus." Ask the Schwan fans  - or Christian News - or WELS how Marvin's ex-wife died.

Martin Luther College - $26,000 plus estimated student expenses of $4,000. 

Why are students paying so much to learn from false teachers like L. Olson (DMin, Fuller Seminary), M. Smith ("PhD" from the Trinity Bobble Online Server), J. Schuetze (DMin from Trinity Divinity, the Fuller of the Corn Belt), Ross Stelljes MDiv only - from the Sausage Factory), Jeff Schone MS Conseling (sic) and Student Personnel, Martin Spriggs knee-deep in Church Growth (who gave "sermons" verbatim from Church Growth gurus, even when told to stop).

Wisconsin Lutheran College - $35,000 plus $11,889 for room and board, student expenses - anything goes.

Bethany Lutheran College - hard to figure.