The Social Gospel - Look at Its Foundations

 

I had a project, to research an Augustana Synod professor and explain his career. He went to Yale Divinity for extra credibility, since he already had an STD - when that was just a seminary degree - Doctor of Sacred Theology. He was A.D. Mattson.

He became enchanted with the Social Gospel Movement, best known through Walter Rauschbusch, who gave his famous lectures at Yale, also his book A Theology for the Social Gospel. Rauschenbusch was a liberal Baptist who already accepted the rationalistic approach to the Scriptures. The liberal element in the Augustana Synod and the mainline denominations were definitely for the Historical-Critical Movement of Biblical analysis.

A litmus test for liberals (or rather - apostates) is asking about Rauschenbusch. The Social Gospel Movement is either the capstone or foundation today. 

Lacking in all the mainline denominations today is faith in Jesus Christ. They have lots of social activism, which may prompt people to say, "Are we better than we were before WWII?" Social activism is now 99% of mainline work, including The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic). The smaller synods may deny their affinity with ELCA's agenda, but in some cases they are way ahead, such as the gay obsessions of WELS, cloaked by hazing and "we were just having some fun."

The Church Growth Movement was hatched by Donald McGavran, liberal sociologist, B.D. Yale, PhD Columbia University.

The Social Gospel Movement stopped using its name but continued its Left-wing work. The Church Growth Movement was unionistic and Left-wing, from the start. Fuller Seminary's Thought Police insisted that any pastor objecting to women's ordination would be visited by their feminist Gestapo units. 

Do you really think that LCMS-WELS-etc stood up to the feminist bullies or declared, "We are on your side, Rev. Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson - The Blessed!?"

The denominations and synods do not have the basics of the Christian Faith. Unfaith cannot produce faith through the efficacious Word. Church Growth has been sold and smeared in everyone's face, and the results are in. Their agenda is hardened concrete. 

Do you remember when the rainbow was a sign from God?

Kudzu vine was brought to the USA because it spread so quickly - and alas - smothered everything useful.

It only took a few decades to unleash Smells and Belles and expensive costumes.

Werning spread the Church Growth disease around in all sects - LCMS, WELS, ELS.

Met a Minister Who Loves Luther - Not a Lutheran

 CPH wanted people to give them money to keep their income up.

 CPH morons sold doggy Reformation clothing.

CPH golf tees.

Luther faced death in 1517. Concordia Publishing House merchandised it - for the 500th anniversary.

Today a couple knocked on the door, grandparents with their granddaughter. They were thinking about moving to Springdale for their married daughter next door and her three daughters. 

Soon I learned he was a minister, and he learned I was an independent Lutheran. I had to explain to him - the Lutheran denominations hate Luther and make fun of him. He said, "Luther has always been my favorite!" They had to leave for the airport.

 This is what people call a serendipity event.

Numbed by Numbers - The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic).Is That All There Is To Church Growth?

 

"Is that all there is to Church Growth?" A WELS District Pope said - "Not church GROWTH, but CHURCH Growth." His stammering voice betrayed his uncertainty.

Long ago and far away, Christina and I would go to Chicago for a few days. We would get cheap tickets and see  live performances by Vincent Price, Rose Marie, Rosemary Clooney, Yul Brynner, Katherine Hepburn, and Peggy Lee, whose parents were Swedish and Norwegian (known humorously in Moline as a mixed marriage). 

Peggy Lee was a Lutheran, known for her ability to sing and compose music. She is still famous for "Is That All There Is?" - a song about betrayal and disappointment.

Looking into the connection between Evangelical Free churches and Church Growth, I found one of the so-called experts saying "Measure everything." One E Free pastor meticulously described how membership goals and staff growth were the key to congregational success. CGM is a navel-gazing obsession, resulting in shifting from the Gospel to building up the numbers.

This is a priceless summary:

As the church growth movement picked up steam, one would expect that church attendance nationally would have begun to move upward. In fact, the opposite occurred. As the church growth movement increased in influence, church attendance began to decline. Seeker-sensitive churches swelled as smaller traditional churches shuttered their doors. Pastors have been well-aware that they lost people from their traditional churches to seeker-sensitive churches. The church growth movement hit its peak around the turn of the century, and yet as it grew to the pinnacle of its influence, American Christianity witnessed its greatest decline.

The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) are so mesmerized that they cannot escape from their own follies -

1. Selling cash-cow Bibles of the worst sort to make money for themselves.
2. Aiming at fun events like Bible studies in bars and soccer camps for confirmation.
3. Frantically trying new methods (note the Greek root) and asking "Is that all there is?"
4. In their weak and hopeless rejection of the efficacy of the Gospel, playing around in papal and Eastern orthodox costumes, snorting incense, playing the fool.
5. Bullying and removing those who want to emphasize faith, the only way they can be fruitful.
6. Selling their church properties after being led by harpies.

The Big Five Plus One - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)-ELDONA.Baylor Baptist University Goes Woke

 

Why Does Baylor University Have a Pro-Choice, Gay-Affirming, Trans-Affirming Professor?

Protestia.com

A woke professor at Baylor University has come under fire for blasting acclaimed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowing for her opposition to normalizing the transgender movement, calling her out for her apparent ‘hatred of trans-people.’ While this is deeply troubling, it is hardly the worst thing about him.

Founded in 1845 and claiming 16,000 students, Baylor University is the world’s largest Baptist University and one of the oldest. Like many once-faithful institutions that have gone before her, however, Baylor is deeply compromised and is inexorably on the downgrade. 

Not only have they hosted Beth Moore and Jemar Tisby for a conference on “Racism in the White Church,” an embarrassment of cringe if there ever was one, but Baylor recently hosted a “Queer Sex-Ed Night whose advertisements featured a Planned Parenthood logo.

Despite affirming that “The mission of Baylor University is to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community” and “the biblical understanding that sexual relations of any kind outside of marriage between a man and a woman are not in keeping with the teaching of Scripture,” they don’t actually believe this, and it’s easy to see why. 

Enter Greg Garrett, Baylor’s pro-choice, gay-affirming, trans-affirming professor of Literature and Culture. He recently gained a couple of million views after chastising Rowling for posting a lengthy Twitter thread where she repeatedly called a bunch of trans-women “men” on Trans Day of Visibility, something he found intolerable. 

***

GJ - I could not resist posting from Protestia.com again.

Rev. Kent A. Heimbigner, Ph.D. has left a new comment on your post "Baptist Theologian Takes Congregation Out of LCMS:...": 

Hi Greg:

Thank you for your interest in what my good and faithful congregation has done. I have met you, and certainly appreciate your sense of humor, but for the sake of those who may not understand it, I offer a couple of points of clarification:

1) There is no such thing as "Baylor Baptist University." There is only "Baylor University," which has a Baptist history, but is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination. 

2) I am not a "Baptist theologian," nor am I going to join the Eastern Orthodox. I am getting a chuckle out of putting those together and imagining what it would be like to be an Easternizing Baptist. I guess they are both synergists, but I'm not. I will remain Lutheran. At ordination, I swore an oath. It matters to me. And my beloved congregation is on that same "we've got to stay Lutheran" page with me.

BTW, for my response to Fr. Fenton heading east, check out my blog on the website, http://www.confessionallutheran.org/content/view/142/91/

Todd, thanks for your clarifying posts. Greg, it's been too long, and I hope our paths cross again in due course. Peace be with you both.

***

GJ - Actually, Kent, you asked to stay here for the LCMS conference and didn't show up or explain.

I see you share Todd Wilken's sense of humor. Or, as Bruce Church suggested, "What's the point?"

***
GJ -

2016 Update.

Here is the original post, which still bothers ELDONA seven (7) years later.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2009/01/baptist-theologian-takes-congregation.html

Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is a private Baptist university, and a nationally ranked liberal arts institution. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas, Baylor is the oldest, continually operating university in the state. Though 80% of our students come from within Texas, we are home to students from all 50 states, and 70 countries.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote. Second Sunday After Easter. John 10:11-16. "This kingdom, as we have said, is so constituted that we all must daily increase and grow in holiness, and it is not governed by any other power save the oral proclamation of the Gospel."

 

Complete Sermon -> Misericordias Domini. Second Sunday After Easter. John 10:11-16. Christ’s Office and Kingdom; or How Christ is the True Shepherd

MISERICORDIAS DOMINI - SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER


Psalm 51 (Misericordias. Also called “Shepherd Sunday”).

Text: John 10:11-16. 

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

1. This is a comforting Gospel, which so beautifully portrays the Lord Jesus and teaches us what manner of person he is, what kind of works he does, and how he is disposed toward men. And there is no better way to understand it than to contrast light and darkness and day and night; that is, the good shepherd with the wicked one, as the Lord himself does.

2. Now, you have often heard that God has given the world two different proclamations. One is that which is declared in the Word of God when it says: Thou shalt not kill, not commit adultery, not steal (Exodus 20:13-15), and when it adds the threat that all who do not keep these commandments shall die. But this declaration will make no one godly at heart. For though it may compel a man outwardly to appear godly before men, inwardly it leaves the heart at enmity with the Law, and wishing that there were no such Law.

3. The other proclamation is that of the Gospel. It tells where one may obtain that which will meet the demands of the Law. It does not drive or threaten, but tenderly invites us. It does not say, Do this and do that, but rather: Come, I will show you where you may find and obtain what you need to make you godly. See, here is the Lord Jesus; he will give it to you.

Therefore, the two are as contrary to each other as taking and giving, demanding and presenting; and this distinction must be well observed. Thus God ever has ruled and still rules the world today. To coarse and rude persons, who are not influenced by the Gospel, the Law must be declared, and they must be driven until they are humbled and acknowledge their imperfections. When this has been accomplished, the Gospel is to be applied.

4. These are the two divine proclamations, which come from heaven. Besides these there are others that are not from heaven, but are human prattle, which the pope and our bishops have invented that they might terrify our consciences. Such men are not worthy of being called shepherds or hirelings, but they are here designated by the Lord Jesus as thieves, murderers and wolves. For if men are to be savingly governed, it must be done with the Word of God; and if it is not done by the Word of God, they are not properly governed.

I. THE NATURE OF THE OFFICE AND KINGDOM OF CHRIST EXPLAINED.

5. Now, here Jesus has in mind the second proclamation. He explains it and sets himself forth as the chief shepherd, yea, as the only shepherd; for that which he does not tend is not kept. This comforting and sweet proclamation we will now consider.

6. You have heard that after his sufferings and death Christ our Lord arose from the dead and entered upon, and was enthroned in, an immortal existence. Not that he might sit up there in heaven idly and find pleasure in himself, but that he might take charge of the kingdom of which the prophets and all the Scriptures have so fully spoken, and might rule as a king. Therefore, we should think of him as being present and reigning among us continually, and never think of him as sitting up there doing nothing, but rather that he from above fills and rules all things, as Paul says to the Ephesians 4:10, and especially that he is taking care of his kingdom, which is the Christian faith, and that therefore his kingdom among us here on earth must prosper. This kingdom, as we have said, is so constituted that we all must daily increase and grow in holiness, and it is not governed by any other power save the oral proclamation of the Gospel.