My parents said, "We are going the way of Rome!" more than once at the supper table. We were prepared. Our public schools taught up to four years of Latin, and we were warned, "You won't get into a good college if you skip Latin." We had no idea about how bad the Roman Empire was, but at least we had the advantages of grammar, spelling, science, math, and languages.
But everyone wondered, "Why major in Greek at Augustana? There are no jobs waiting for teaching Greek." The college was already treating Latin and Greek as cast-offs, not as valuable intellectual tools for a lifetime - and many specialties: law, medicine, science, literature, math, art, drama, and comedy. Those trained in the classic disciplines produced students who avoided the bewilderment of big and yet obvious words. A seminary professor had a pneumoencephalograph. His colleague tried to figure out its meaning, so I said, "Air in the brain, graphed."
Whenever I heard a doctor talking about various complicated and expensive procedures, I would drop into the conversation with "iatrogenic." That simply means a disorder caused by the physician, polite but a bit of a threat. I blocked a number of proposed, dangerous prescriptions.
America is no longer a Constitutional Republic and there are few reasons to imagine it can come back. As if by magic a few years ago, many universities began Diversity, Inclusion, Equity. Augustana College hired a new president whose great strength was DIE. (They avoid the implications if they write DEI.) The University of Phoenix suddenly made the teaching of this toxin mandatory.
There must be managers at the top to have utilities and universities bow their knees before their DIE. That is where the decisions are made and forced upon everyone else.
And yet, what really changed the world? God's own Son was born of a Virgin and proclaimed by a host of angels. When Jesus began His ministry, He was following another leader who prepared the way of the Lord. His three-year ministry yielded many followers but arrest, beatings, and the cross.
All tyrants relish the idea of crushing those who get in their way. But once the disciples saw the risen Christ, learning from Him and the Holy Spirit, they were imbued with the singular power of spreading the Gospel across the land. The Gospel wrecked the Western Roman Empire (centered in Rome, as one might assume) and converted a tiny town Byzantium into the New Rome, which was Christian. The Eastern Rome continued until 1453 AD, when the Turks captured the isolated city.
As bad as that was, the Fall of Constantinople released the Greek scholars into Europe, where the Renaissance blossomed, literacy grew, and Luther translated the Greek New Testament into German.
The situation then was very much like our new little Vatican wannabees. If we look at ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC-ELDONA, their boasting claims are contrary to what they actually teach. Their alleged Luther quips seem to come from Chinese cookies, nothing more.
All of them reject and ridicule the King James Version of the Bible, mostly by removing words, phrases, and sections that emphasize faith in Jesus and the divinity of Jesus. Look over the list of ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC-ELDONA managers. They are poorly educated clowns who glory in making things worse.
As Dr. Lito Cruz opined, "No moderns support the inerrancy of the Scriptures, because they all have different errors in the Biblical editions they adore." The modern editions contradict one another and make money off the latest because it is "by far the most accurate, most precise, most readable Bible ever! 20% off the introductory price, and it will last forever until the next one is ready."
Matt the Fatt Harrison does not have an earned doctorate, not even an STM. His own denomination gave him an honorary divinity degree because he won his first election. Who better to use Luther in mocking the traditional Bible?! Who better to lead a large group astray. Wait - they are leaving in large numbers.
The numbers do not matter. Biblical doctrine does. Since the established seminaries cannot find a way to teach the doctrine of Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz, our little congregation is starting its Reformation Seminary, headquartered in "the spare room of a rented house."
