Why train the pastors to be wolves instead of shepherds?

Dear Pastor Jackson,

LCMS pastors are oblivious to the fact that they have once again caused doubt in the resurrection of Christ by using the ESV Bible to suggest Mark 16:9-20 is actually not present in the text. They are not afraid to speak a word against God the Holy Ghost saying, "We do not have the original autographs, therefore we do not have any words God inspired the prophets and apostles to write with any certainty." They place this footnote in reference to the entire Bible. No Bible translation or Hebrew text, or Greek Text is immune from this blasphemous footnote against God the Holy Ghost.

Back in the 1990's I was seriously considering going to seminary to become a LCMS pastor. At that time I was working at Caterpillar in Joliet, Illinois. The Joliet plant manufactured the massive 994G wheel loader. I was in charge of coordinating engineering changes on the line. It was awesome when they cranked up the 16 cylinder Cat diesel engines and wound them up to full throttle. I had a great boss who would let me take vacation days. So I would take a few days off work and head for Ft. Wayne Seminary to talk with professors of theology and sit in on their classes.  I even went to several seminars for laymen. I would stay overnight in the dorm and became friends with many of the seminary students. 

On Sunday morning, I would attend Zion Lutheran Church and listen to Matthew Harrison preach.  After one of the services, we discussed the TEXTUS RECEPTUS and how LCMS should return to it. I even told him the "critical apparatus" was worthless and created doubt rather than certainty.  It would list all the "earlier more accurate" manuscripts to create doubt in the pure Word of God in the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS. Toward the end of our discussion Pastor Harrison leaned forward and with seemingly genuine sincerity said, "Tom it would be so much easier to just go back to the TEXTUS RECEPTUS". I said, "Amen".

Later in the afternoon, I visited the Ft. Wayne Seminary library. I searched and searched and searched for at least one copy of the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS.  I found many copies of the corrupt Nestle-Aland Greek Text.  Finally I found a dog eared battered TEXTUS RECEPTUS. It was completely abandoned and forgotten on the bottom shelf. 

But God the Holy Ghost never abandoned His pure Words He preserved for us in the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS: Words He inspired the prophets and apostles to write thousands of years ago. He is the Spirit of truth and guides us into all truth. He attached Himself to the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS for 400 years with no blasphemous successful challenges from the enemy.

Finally Satan launched his most successful blasphemous and cunning attack against God the Holy Ghost and His Words that He preserved for us in the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS. Satan commissioned two men to launch a most successful, cunning, deceitful, and blasphemous attack. 

I bought a Wescott and Hort Greek New Testament. I was surprised that "Son of God" was omitted from Mark 1:1 - with no explanation or references below.

BibleGateway.com provides all these Greek New Testaments for free on their site. Ask your pastor about the Westcot and Hort. The Stephanus is the Textus Receptus or Traditional Greek Text.

Here comes Bishop Wescott and Reverend Hort to print their own Greek text with the fraudulent Greek Texts (Sinaticus and Vaticanus) promoted by sneaky Tischendorf (see pgs. 170-189, The King James Version: Apostolic Texts, Precise Translation verses Fraudulent Texts and Heretical Translations; Gregory L. Jackson, PhD, ISBN 9798429093451). Oh my! We are getting in the weeds too much! Let's take a break.  I still need to prepare for the First Sunday after Easter.

So I open the English Standard Version LCMS pew Bible to Acts 1 and begin reading. Everything seems somewhat fine. Wait a minute! Something is missing in Acts 1:3. I type in Bible gateway on my cell phone and pull up Acts 1:3 in the King James Version:

"To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:" Acts 1:3

The word "infallible" is missing from the corrupt ESV. There is no footnote from a renowned doctor of theology.  They just removed it to get rid of the absolute infallible proofs of Christ's resurrection from the dead. Here are the words God the Holy Ghost attaches Himself to today in Acts 1:1-5

1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

I was so excited by my discovery I told my LCMS friend that the ESV omitted the word "infallible" from Acts 1:3.

My friend yawned deeply and replied, "Oh it doesn't matter. The ESV is the Word of God the same as the King James!! It's close enough. Quit being so picky. Hey did you see the Cardinal's baseball lineups." I had to laugh because I needed to laugh at his puppy like instinct to run away from a potential spanking from the true Word of God in the King James Bible. My friend's puppy play puts him under the control of Satan's ultimate footnote referencing all Bibles:

"We do not have the original autographs, therefore we do not have any words God inspired the prophets and apostles to write with any certainty." 

Oh, I forgot to mention the decadent wine and cheese tasting I stupidly attended with renowned Fort Wayne professors of theology and other Lutheran Laymen and seminary students. I wanted to ask the professors challenging questions about the corrupt Nestle-Aland Greek omitting "Theos" (God) from 1 Timothy 3:16.

"God was manifest in the flesh" 1 Timothy 3:16

They were NOT amused! "How dare you interrupt our decadent wine and cheese tasting get together!! HOW DARE YOU have the audacity to question the Nestle-Aland  Greek Text!!!. We do not have the original autographs, therefore we do not have any words God inspired the prophets and apostles to write with any certainty." 

Wait, Wait, Hold on guys. No need for you to get all feathered out!  I didn't do it!!!! Honest! God did it!! Yes, God the Holy Ghost perfectly preserved the Words He inspired the prophets and apostles to write. He preserved them in the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS and the translations that followed (Luther's 1545 Bible, King James Bible, and many more). So everything you say against the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS and it's translations (Luther's 1545 German Bible, King James Bible and many more) is spoken against God the Holy Ghost. 

In contrast listen to pastor Gregory Jackson, PhD describe his professor at Yale:

"Yale's Nils Dahl asked his doctoral seminar what they knew for certain about the New Testament. We were all stymied. He said, "The text! The text! We have the text!" That is how he moved away from 19th century apostate theories." (See Figure 18 on pg. 189; The King James Version: Apostolic Texts, Precise Translation verses Fraudulent Texts and Heretical Translations; Gregory L. Jackson, PhD; ISBN 9798429093451 ).

6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. Psalm 12:6,7

In Christ 

Tom Fisher

God-given Workers for His Harvest Field: The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) at Work And Play.

 That should be a much better book for WELS, no?

 

 "Assignment days at MLC and WLS are joyful days—joyful for the young men and women who learn where God will have them serve in the ministry and joyful for the members of the synod who see God keeping his promise to send workers into his harvest field."

I was thinking about the slide in church positions when the latest rah-rah from the WELS president was posted. They will graduate 27 men from their Mequon seminary. When I was there for a semester, there were 60 graduating as pastors. People have written to me that the GA abuse against first year students was the reason for them never applying. The hazing at the youngest prep level gets them ready for college hazing/drinking and then seminary's GA mind game. By the time they are ordained, Holy Mother WELS can do anything to them, unless they have DNA from district presidents, faculty, and circuit priests. Then they are absolved, whether felonies or misdemeanors. Actual crimes are swept under the carpet as fast as they can and lame alibis are produced at high speed.

The little sects model themselves after the big ones - they covet the numbers, the buildings, and bureaucracies. Even though ELCA and LCMS are shredding members faster than the Biden Fan Club, they still look big to the little ones.

Forty years ago, WELS was working with ELCA and borrowing the sanctified programs of the Big Guy. I asked, 

"How come WELS is distributing verbatim material on stewardship, the same words and graphics of the soon-to-be ELCA?"  "

"Why did SP Mishke go to Snowbird and confer with President Bohlmann and Bishop Chilstrom?" Snowbird was packed with staffers, all feeding off the insurance company du jour. Lutheran Brotherhood and AAL merged because of their impending financial failures. The Big Five loved them anyway.

I could ask the Michigan DP something and know he was lying by playing fumble-bumble - the old GA hazing they called playing mind games.

If we look at ELS and CLC (sic) history, the disasters are greater and the excuses monumental.

The key consideration is the bureaucracy providing a warm nest for in-laws, relatives, and ex-parish pastors. Hardly any pastor will rebel against their apostate leaders. 

Don't Fail To Miss This ELCA Preaching Conference!

 

Years ago, Jeske was organizing joint ELCA-WELS-LCMS conferences, financed and approved by Thrivent and the Seibert Foundation. Everyone in the Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) is part of the progress now being made. The only question is - "When will we have the Sparkle Creed included in our outmoded, not cool hymnal?"

Protestia seems to watch carefully over the latest in ELCA disasters. I found its new link about an ELCA preaching conference a bit incoherent. The ambitious reader might want to check the Protestia link about Luther Seminary's connection.

The idea is to gather a whole bunch of talented, experienced, Biblical men for this task - and keep them home! The goal is to highlight the worst of the worst possible leaders. The sputtering remnants of denominational seminaries will get even more radical in the next few years. Divinity schools will merge and use their endowment money to feature and promote a wide variety of notorious instructors, longing to get a big salary for spouting their Marxist-Gay propaganda.  

Union Seminary is so broke they sold their library to Columbia University to make ends meet. My Hebrew Professor at Yale came back from teaching at Union for a year. He told our all-male class that Union wanted to make their student body 50% female in the years to come. That could never happen, he thought, even at Union. Now it is true of all denominations, some using deliberate end-runs, such as the WELS "College of Ministry." 

Here is one example of an expert to speak at the Luther conference - "E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor, Dean emerita and University Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society and Gender and Sexuality Studies, Vanderbilt University."

Reformation Seminary Lecture - The Son of God And Son of Man In the Old and New Testaments

 

April 4, 2023 Reformation Seminary Lecture, 11 AM Central

YouTube 

1. KJV Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (God commanded - the Son executed the command. Creating light preceded the division of light and day.) Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

2. The First Gospel - KJV Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Roman Catholic bogus translation - her heel - Douay Rheims Genesis 3:15 I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. Mary and Elijah and  "the foot shaped cloud." Mt. Carmel. 1 Kings 18:44. Thus Carmelites are considered the most hold order.)

3. KJV Genesis 32:22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. 23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. 27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. 30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

4. KJV Isaiah 53

5. KJV Psalm 22

6. KJV Daniel 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

NIV Daniel 3:25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Sunday after Easter - "Amid their fear and anguish the Lord comes, quiets their hearts and makes them glad, so that their fear is removed, not by removing the danger, but in that their hearts were no more afraid."

Complete Sermon -> The First Sunday after Easter

6. First, the disciples sit there behind barred doors in great fear of the Jews, afraid to venture outside, with death staring them in the face. Outwardly they indeed have peace, no one is doing them any harm; but inwardly their hearts are troubled, and they have neither peace nor rest. Amid their fear and anguish the Lord comes, quiets their hearts and makes them glad, so that their fear is removed, not by removing the danger, but in that their hearts were no more afraid. For thereby the malice of the Jews is not taken away, nor changed; they rave and rage as before, and outwardly everything remains the same. But they are changed inwardly, receiving such boldness and joy as to declare: “We have seen the Lord.” Thus he quiets their hearts, so that they become cheerful and fearless, not caring how the Jews rage.

7. This is the true peace that satisfies and quiets the heart; not in times when no adversity is at hand, but in the midst of adversity, when outwardly there is nothing but strife before the eyes. And this is the difference between worldly and spiritual peace. Worldly peace consists in removing the outward evil that disturbs the peace; as when the enemies besiege a city there is no peace; but when they depart peace returns. Such is the case with poverty and sickness. While they afflict you, you are not contented; but when they are removed and you are rid of the distress, there is peace and rest again from without. But he who experiences this is not changed, being just as fainthearted whether the evil be present or not; only he feels it and is frightened when it is present.

8. Christian or spiritual peace, however, just turns the thing about, so that outwardly the evil remains, as enemies, sickness, poverty, sin, death and the devil. These are there and never desist, encompassing us on every side; nevertheless, within there is peace, strength and comfort in the heart, so that the heart cares for no evil, yea, is really bolder and more joyful in its presence than in its absence. Therefore it is peace which passeth and transcendeth all understanding and all the senses. For reason can not grasp any peace except worldly or external peace, for it can not reconcile itself to it nor understand how that is peace if evil is present, and it knows not how to satisfy and comfort a person; hence it thinks if the evil depart, peace departs also. When however the Spirit comes, he lets outward adversity remain, but strengthens the person, making the timid fearless, the trembling bold, changing the troubled into a quite, peaceful conscience, and such an one is bold, fearless and joyful in things by which all the world otherwise is terrified.

9. Whence does he receive this? From his faith in Christ. For if I truly believe in the Lord from the real depth of my heart, that my heart can truly say: My Lord Christ has by his resurrection conquered my need, my sin, death and all evil, and will be thus with and in me, so that body and soul shall want nothing, that I shall have all I need, and no evil shall harm me: if I believe this, it is impossible for me to be faint-hearted and timid no matter how much sin and death oppress me. For faith is ever present and says: Does sin burden you, does death terrify you, look to Christ who died for your sake and rose again, and conquered every evil; what can harm you?

Why will you then fear? So also in case other misfortunes burden you, as sickness or poverty, turn your eyes from it, lock the door to reason and cast yourself upon Christ and cleave to him, so shall you be strengthened and comforted. If you look to Christ and believe on him, no evil that may befall you is so great that it can harm you and cause you to despair. Therefore it is impossible for this fruit to remain outside, where faith is, so that peace does not follow.

10. From peace the other fruit now follows, as is taught in this Gospel. When Christ came to the disciples and said: “Peace be unto you!” and showed them his hands and feet; then they were glad that they saw the Lord. Yes, to be sure they had to be glad, for that they saw Christ was the greatest joy the heart of man can experience. Hitherto we have been permitted to see our hands, that is, we have been taught to trust in our works; this brought no gladness. But to see Christ makes us glad. And this takes, place by faith; for thus St. Paul in Romans 5:1-2 says: “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

11. Thus we have the fruit whereby we know who are true Christians. For he who has no peace in that in which the world finds nothing but unrest, and is joyful in that which in the world is nothing but gloom and sorrow, is not yet a Christian, and does not yet believe.

How Do the Four Waltherian Sects - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - Get Away with Claiming the Resurrection of Christ Is the Absolution of the World?

 

Walther, following his mentor Bishop Martin Stephan, jettisoned Justification by Faith and replaced the Chief Article with the universal absolution of all people - without faith.

Fuller trained David Valleskey became the WELS seminary president, publishing this twaddle, possibly even worse than the Walther quotation above.

Nothing should bother the laity more than the Chief Article of Christianity - Justification by Faith - being rejected and replaced by the universal absolution of the entire world - often portrayed as Universal (Faithless) Justification. ELCA loves the stealthy Universalism of the Four Waltherian sects - that is why they are all shrinking rapidly.

The Four Waltherian Sects heralded their contempt for Justification by Faith by abusing Romans 4 and cutting a sentence in half to make their sorry case for Universal Absolution. They have used their "raised by 

KJV Romans 4:20 He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. [Justification by Faith]

23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

What did Pieper, Ed Preuss, the Brief Statement, and Rolf Preus do with this passage? - The Walther mob cried out - and still howls - "delivered for our offences, and raised for our justification" - twisting the Chief Article into their fallacious and damning false dogma. The crypto-Universalists use the same lobotomized tactics to make Romans 5 into another citadel of Justification without Faith.

The Four Waltherian Sects have repudiated the King James Version and replaced it with the NIV, the even worse New NIV, the shocking ESV, the Beck disaster, and the National Council of Gay-Marxist Churches' RSV/NRSV. 

WELS is trying to conjure up some new missions and a deluxe gym combo with the ELS. Nothing they are doing with correct their toxic dogma until they return to original source, the Scriptures, and their much abused confessions in the Book of Concord.

I admired one WELS Seminary student for his use of the Book of Concord, Triglotta style. Every day in Mudslide's class, he pulled out his Triglotta and propped it up so he could fall asleep.

Notice that the Church Growth UOJists never tire of calling me names, but they never get around to addressing Romans 4. If they are such brilliant Biblical scholars, they should have a conference on Romans 4 in Greek and prove to everyone that they are not as lazy as they appear.

Edward Preuss became a Roman Catholic scholar, but not before he published his delirious, preposterous booklet on Justification. Cascione and McCain thought they had upended me when they quoted this notorious, shameful passage. I graciously and politely repeated this quotation as often as I could.

From LutherQuest - Good News about the Federal Gubmint Responding To Their Own Failure To Support the First Amendment

 

Excerpted from a March 19, 2024, American Center for Life and Liberty article, "ACLJ Obtains Victory in Lawsuit Against Smithsonian – One of the Largest Reported Settlements Against Federal Government in First Amendment Case – After It Unconstitutionally Kicked Out Christian Students for Wearing Pro-Life Hats":

---

quote:

Last year, on the 50th annual March for Life event in Washington, D.C., groups of pro-lifers were targeted because of their pro-life apparel while visiting several different government buildings before and after the March for Life. They were required to cover up their pro-life apparel, or leave the buildings, in violation of their free speech rights as protected by the First Amendment....

In documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian has agreed to settle with our clients, providing a monetary amount of $50,000, a private tour to be given by the director of the National Air and Space Museum, personal apologies, and the public dissemination of an “after action” report that was conducted by the Smithsonian following the incident that occurred. In addition, the Smithsonian will “further reiterate via a bulk distribution method to all security officers stationed at all Smithsonian museums open to the public and the National Zoological Park, the current Smithsonian policy regarding the wearing of hats or other types of clothing with messages, including religious and political speech.” [Boldface added]

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - The Sunday after Easter - "And when he thus stands within our hearts, we at once hear his loving voice saying to the troubled consciences: Peace, there is no danger; your sins are forgiven and blotted out, and they shall harm you no more."

 

Complete Sermon -> The First Sunday after Easter

Jesus Appears to His Disciples, 

Or the Nature, Fruit, and Power of Faith

SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.   

TEXT: John 20:19-31. 19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

1. This Gospel praises the fruit of faith, and illustrates its nature and character. Among the fruits of faith are these two: peace and joy, as St. Paul writes to the Galatians, where he mentions in order all kinds of fruit saying: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22. Thus these two fruits are also mentioned in our text. In the first place, Christ stands there among the disciples, who sit in fear and terror, and whose hearts are greatly troubled every hour expecting death; to them he comes and comforts them, saying: “Peace be unto you.” This is one fruit. In the second place there follows from this sweet word the other fruit, that they were glad when they saw the Lord. Then he further bestows upon faith power and authority over all things in heaven and on earth, and truly extols it in that he says: “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” And again: “Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Let us now consider each thought in order.

2. Faith, as we have often said, is of the nature, that every one appropriates to himself the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which we have already said enough; namely, that it is not sufficient simply to believe Christ rose from the dead, for this produces neither peace nor joy, neither power nor authority; but you must believe that he rose for your sake, for your benefit, and was not glorified for his own sake; but that he might help you and all who believe in him, and that through his resurrection sin, death and hell are vanquished and the victory given to you.

3. This is signified by Christ entering through closed doors, and standing in the midst of his disciples. For this standing denotes nothing else than that he is standing in our hearts; there he is in the midst of us, so that he is ours, as he stands there and they have him among them. And when he thus stands within our hearts, we at once hear his loving voice saying to the troubled consciences: Peace, there is no danger; your sins are forgiven and blotted out, and they shall harm you no more.

4. And this entrance the Lord made here through barred doors, going through wood and stone, and still leaving everything whole, breaking nothing, yet getting in among his disciples. This illustrates how the Lord comes into our hearts and stands in us, namely, through the office of the ministry. Therefore, since God has commanded men to preach his Word, one should in no wise despise a mortal man into whose mouth he has put his Word; lest we get the idea that every one must expect a special message from heaven, and that God should speak to him by the word of his mouth. For if he imparts faith to any one, he does it by means of the preaching of man and the external word of man.

This is going through closed doors, when he comes into the heart through the Word, not breaking nor displacing anything. For when the Word of God comes, it neither injures the conscience, nor deranges the understanding of the heart and the external senses; as the false teachers do who break all the doors and windows, breaking through like thieves, leaving nothing whole and undamaged, and perverting, falsifying and injuring all life, conscience, reason, and the senses. Christ does not do thus.

Such now is the power of the Word of God. Thus we have two parts, preaching and believing. His coming to us is preaching; his standing in our hearts is faith. For it is not sufficient that he stands before our eyes and ears; he must stand in the midst of us in our hearts, and offer and impart to us peace.

5. For the fruit of faith is peace; not only that which one has outwardly, but that of which Paul speaks to the Philippians ( Philippians 4:7) saying it is a peace that passeth all reason, sense and understanding. And where this peace is, one shall not and cannot judge according to reason. This we shall see still farther in our Gospel lesson.

Tom Fisher Knows More Than the Cash-box Waltherian Seminaries. Question - Who Kept Bishop Stephan's Gold? Hmmm?

 

Dear Pastor Jackson,

It is almost Easter already! Soon LCMS pastors will be reading the Easter account from Mark chapter 16. So I open my English Standard Version Bible to Mark 16 and begin reading in preparation for the Easter service. Everything seems somewhat fine until I arrive at verses 9-20. O my!! Verses [9-20] are bracketed.  What could these brackets [ ] intend to imply about verses [9-20]?  I wonder if there is a footnote from some renowned doctor of theology.  Oh, here it is!  The footnote says, "Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9-20." This seems to imply that the earliest manuscripts are the most reliable and accurate; therefore Mark 16:9-20 must be omitted or at the very least doubted.  Oh my!! These brackets and footnotes attack the certainty of the resurrection in Mark 16:9-20.  Then I remember reading Mark 16 from my grandmother's King James Bible with my brother Dan when were growing up. There were no brackets or footnotes in grandma's King James Bible! My grandma would have my brother Dan and I read the scripture passages from Portals of Prayer. We never found any brackets or footnotes. That's because the King James Bible is the pure Word of God!!

I must stand in awe of God working in history to perfectly preserve His Words for us in the King James Bible.  The King James Bible is the most renowned, revered, and trusted book in the world!  It even bears the name of the most powerful King in the world: King James of England!  No book in this world has ever been commissioned by such a powerful King. Hello!!  God is showing you the Bible He has attached himself to during the reformation and especially today in this age of lies, deception, and apostasy!!

During the Reformation, God's Word needed to be translated from the original Greek and Hebrew into the languages of the people: German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Czechoslovakian, and many other languages.

Here comes Erasmus of Rotterdam, the world's most skilled, and renowned linguist; but the arch enemy of the Christian church.  Erasmus was a humanist, not a Christian. Surely God would not use him to preserve His Word!  But it is God's nature to purposely enrage our corrupt reasoning.

Even God's enemies must bow to His will.  So Erasmus published the TEXTUS RECEPTUS, having rejected the corrupt Vaticanus Greek Text held by the Catholic church.  Gutenburg had just invented the printing press so God's pure efficacious Words could be published in all languages throughout the whole world. 

Stand in awe my friends at God's Power, Foreknowledge, Will, Council, and Might working throughout history to fulfill His Word and promises for us His dear Christians.  God promised to perfectly preserve His Words for us in all languages:

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm 12:6,7

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Revelations 14:6,7. 

At the Reformation we see and experience God's hand preserving His Word for us Christians. We see two families of Bibles emerge: one pure, and the other corrupt.  The one held by the  Catholic Church called VATICANUS is corrupt, the one chosen by God is called TEXTUS RECEPTUS.

[GJ - Concordia Publishing House's two-volume commentary on the shortest Gospel - Mark - begins with making Vaticanus the basic test. Where are the scholars? Answer - polishing their Objective Justification essays, tweets, epigram's and jokes.] 

Gutenburg and his new printing presses were ready and eager to print the pure Word of God through the whole world. What an exciting and wonderful time!! It was like the beginning of a famous horse race at Balmoral.  The starting gun went off, and the printing presses whirled publishing God's pure Word in the Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS from which His pure Words would be translated into all languages: Luther's 1545 German Bible, the English King James Bible, the Spanish Reina-Valera Bible, the Portuguese Almeida Recenida Bible, the Czech Bible of Kralice, and many many others.  Today the modern high tech printing presses and internet whirl on, publishing God's pure Words in all languages throughout the earth. It falls like a gentle rain bringing forth fruit throughout the whole world. God's pure Word is always efficacious and abundantly fruitful.  It always produces invincible certainty in God and His Word. 

"For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Isaiah 55:10,11

So God's pure words in the King James Bible are like a gentle rain nourishing faith in Christ and a deep and abiding certainty of His resurrection from the dead recorded for us in Mark 16:1-20.

In contrast, the ESV (From the corrupt Vaticanus family) is like a heavy torrential rain washing away faith in Christ and bringing forth doubt, unbelief, and a deep uncertainty of Christ's resurrection from the dead recorded in Mark 16:1-20. 

Hang your heads in shame you LCMS English Standard Version preachers.  You create doubt in the resurrection recorded in Mark 16 by reading from the corrupt ESV Bible at Easter. The footnotes and brackets sprinkled throughout the ESV create doubt. The shocking omissions chew away the certainty of our faith, especially Christ's Godhead and divinity.

Well, let's give the ESV another chance.  Perhaps the mice have not left their footnote turds and chew mark omissions in Matthew's account of the resurrection!!  So I open my ESV to Matthew 28 and begin to read.  Oh no!!  There are mouse turd footnotes and omission chew marks in at least five places!! The most devastating footnote and omission is in Matthew 28:6, deleting the word 'Lord' from God's word. It creates doubt by stating, 'some manuscripts the Lord.' In contrast, God's pure Word in the King James Bible says with absolute certainty:

"Come see the place where the Lord lay." Matthew 28:6. 

Oh.no!! Another footnote turd of doubt rolls out of ESV Mark 1:1.  It creates doubt by saying, "Some manuscripts omit 'the Son of God'." In contrast, God's pure Word in the King James Bible says with absolute certainty:

 "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;" Mark 1:1.  

When I was growing up our family would skip breakfast and go to the sunrise service at Easter.  We were all hungry when we got home. This led to the tradition of cooking pancakes after the sunrise service. My brother  and I would take turns making the pancakes from Bisquick pancake mix.  On one memorable occasion, I was carefully measuring the Bisquick pancake mix and suddenly noticed a black speck in the measuring cup. Oh no!! A tiny mouse turd.  I knew I had to throw out the entire box of Bisquick due to that one tiny little mouse turd of corruption. 

The ESV Bible is just like that corrupted box of Bisquick.  Just one footnote of doubt corrupts the entire Bible.  Luther stressed that God's word must be studied and grasped as a perfectly harmonious whole. The corrupted Vaticanus family of Bibles (ESV, NIV, RSV, NASB, Beck's, NKJV, Nestle-Aland, United Bible Society, etc) completely shatter the perfect harmony of God's Word with doubt creating footnotes, omissions, and changes.

The resurrection account in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all harmoniously tied to Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 John 5:7,8 and many other passages. All of these passages are corrupted in the Vaticanus family of Bibles (ESV, NIV, RSV, NKJV, NASB, Beck's, Nestle-Aland, United Bible Society etc). 

In contrast, the TEXTUS RECEPTUS family of Bibles(King James Bible, Luther's 1545 Bible) chosen by God create absolute certainty in Christ's two natures, and his resurrection:

"All the power of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily." Colossians 2:9

"God was manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." 1 John 5:7,8

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:10-14

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:14-16

Luther said to always hold to Christ as one person both God and man at the same time.  Jesus is God begotten of His Father from all eternity. Jesus is true man born of the virgin Mary. Jesus died for our sins according to the true gospel. He was dead and buried in a sepulchre. On the third day Jesus rose from dead, ascended into heaven and sat down on the right hand of God the Father. 

Jesus bore all our sins in his own body on the tree to make us dead to sin and alive to righteousness. He does this for us in our baptism, clothing us in the righteousness of Christ.

"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. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 1 Peter 2: 24,25

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." John 10:27-30

God has preserved the words He inspired the prophets and apostles to write. He preserved them for us in the TEXTUS RECEPTUS and the translations into other languages (King James Bible, Luther's 1545 Bible, and many others.) 

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm 12:6,7

Jesus is true God and man in one person. We grasp this by faith in his words. 

Jesus rose from the dead the third day. The apostles were in a room with the doors locked. While they were talking Jesus himself stood with them and said "Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Luke 24:36-39

In Christ,

Tom Fisher

What are they feeding the lambs growing up in Walther-land?

Reformation Seminary Lecture - The Holy Spirit - 11 AM Central Standard

 Link to today's YouTube

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Psalm 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

Mat 3:16  And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Mat 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.