The Missing Elements in The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)

The ones who ignore the Means of Grace are the same ones who like to talk about grace apart from the efficacious Word.

The missing elements in The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - are easy to discuss from the correct sources.

The efficacious Word is central for all of this talk about Christian theology. Another way of saying it is The Word never without the Spirit; the Spirit never without the Word (A. Hoenecke).

If the efficacious Word is dismissed, then so are the Instruments (or Means) of Grace. Those means are:

• The Word when preached, taught, and remembered.
• Holy Communion.

God's grace comes to us only though faith in Jesus Christ. So many clergy are aping Rome that they overlook both. In fact, one self-appointed bishop was in close contact with Missouri's Higher Things, which centered on Objective Faithless Justification. These two verses are worth remembering when people talk about grace but do not believe the Scriptures -

KJV Romans 5:5 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Faith in Jesus Christ - The Center of All Teaching and Worship

If people are really interested in teaching and living God's grace, then they must be taught faith in Jesus Christ. Lutheran pastors today seem to be aping the Church of Rome or the MBA denizens of Fuller Seminary.

The twin fallacies are so poisonous among the management bullies that pastors and congregations need to escape from the two traps - Rome and Fuller - and return to Luther's sermons and Biblical teaching. 

If the congregation is promoting everything except faith in Jesus Christ, its purpose vacated, erased, forgotten. That has come about through the efforts of 

• incompetent and unbelieving college/seminary professors, 
• political synod managers - all the way down to synod president - 
• and lost, bewildered parish pastors. 

The matters should be addressed by the pastor and congregation. These would be typical changes:

1. Sermons are always about the Savior, the meaning of His Gospel, His sermons and miracles. He is the most important part of both Testaments, which are really one. 
2. Adult classes are about the Bible and how people understand and appreciate the Gospel.
3. Children are trained at various levels in their knowledge of the Gospel.
4. The Sacraments are observed without becoming a show - either through silliness or Romanism.
5. The pastor visits members who are sick and shut-in and in various other ways. The Internet connects everyone on websites, blogs, and Zoom. Blogs are free and Zoom is around $15-20 a month. Cello phones cost more than Zoom so get over it.
6. Because of Zoom, the worship services and classes can be broadcast around the world, converted into YouTube videos quickly and easily. 

Pastors - Read these quotations carefully. 

Download them and share them.

The Word is always efficacious and God knows before we even begin to ask.

Pastoral training can include being denied food, driven out, chased by dogs, and pelted with manure.

There can be a lot of sorrow in life. The bottom half of this graphic is from the tornado, in Joplin, Missouri. We heard the storm howl all night, 50 miles away. The Christian Faith is a great comfort to those who are taught it.

Why Are The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - Remarkably Alike? Affinity Is More Powerful Than Divinity to Them.

 

Slick dark roads, take me home, to the Hell where I belong!
Church Growth Movement, nursing mother,
Take me home, Church Growth song.

I was drinking some Earl Grey tea and pondering the hypocrisy of the Little Three -WELS-ELS-CLC (sic). They live on being shocked by how loose Missouri and ELCA are. That is so hilarious. They were silent when Marvin Schwan gave so much "orthodox Lutheran" money to the Missouri Synod. I was writing about Marvin when several news organizations asked me about Schwan's investments in gambling. I knew nothing about that, but the news people were hot on that trail. 

Kids putting make-up on men who all wore dresses? That's so ELCA!
No, that is so WELS, from the cross-dressing "pope" in their hazing week
to the Party in the Fire Island Pines plagiarized video (but worse).

We all know how family oriented the Little Three are. Marvin dumped his wife and married the wife of one of his executives. Schwan was featured in Forbes magazine laughing uproariously about giving up $1 million and a Cadillac to leave his wife and marry his employee's wife. The Little Three did not make a peep, chickens as they are. I sent the story to Herman Otten and he reproduced it. Pastor Jay Webber (of Objective Faithless Justification fame) denounced me on the phone for doing that. I said, "It is a national publication, not a secret." He responded, "Nobody reads Forbes." The Little Three are not used to reading more than CN and their synodical publications.

Two out of three gained weight, andThrivent builds.

Earlier, Otten invited us to the dedication of the St. Louis seminary church. He had some Russian visitors along. Christina also went in our Aerostar van. I never overlook possible evidence, so I checked out bulletin boards and saw - gasp - Marvin Schwan being a major donor to their new cathedral. If anyone has heard a WELSian roar about the apostasy of the Missouri Synod, the silence was telling. The previous pastor at Shepherd of Peace (WELS) said he left the table during his LCMS brother saying the prayer. How many souls were saved by that gesture of purity? One should read his books and study his "ministry" in WELS.

The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - did this, not just WELS.
Hartman gave the dates.

Nobody had any problem with Marvin's shenanigans in WELS or the ELS. I think the CLC (sic) focused on the evil of using the wrong insurance company, because they had no other distinct object of their stink-a-thons. And yet there is more on that topic.

Marvin spread his money around for the ELS, LCMS, and WELS. As those buildings age and accumulate the costs for shrinking populations, some will admit they spent a lot on nothing and now must pay. And yet, the WELS and ELS are building spectacular gyms for their colleges, somewhere around $15 million each, 35 miles across. That is no farther than Bella Vista to Fayetteville in Arkansas, 36.5 miles. 

The strangest addiction of the Walther Four - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - has been their intoxicated, dreamy devotion to the Church Growth Movement. Who among the Lutherans are more caustic and sanctimonious about the Calvinists than the Walther Four? Yes, you got that on the first try - Walther and his idolaters! The best anyone can say about them - is Peter Drucker remains their idol. I was hearing his nonsense already in the LCA, when they used his snore-a-thons for clergy meetings. At least the Walther Four kept God out of their reveries. It was and still is a perfume of money, buildings, praise bands, and empty sermons. 

Oh! Oh! Oh! Let's hear it from the LCMS Purple Palace - another white elephant.

I knew the Church Growth lingo before I left the Lutheran Church in America. Their evangelism meetings were besot with Fuller dogma. I found WELS even more intoxicated. The ELS and CLC (sic) were anxious to do the same and deny it, because they were so pure. Instead of confessing their doctrinal sins, they hushed up anyone who dared to mention the sacred words of Pasadena, McGavran, and Wagner. They welcomed anyone who hated Luther's Biblical doctrine and gloried in their apostasy.  As Wayne Mueller (WELS CG star) said at a youth meeting, "Evangelism is easy. All you have to do is say, You are already forgiven." 

No one wants to admit now that they wrecked their synods in the name of GROWTH!

1. They chose rah-rah language over the Means of Grace.
2. They made fun of Luther but never looked in the mirror about their fantasies.
3. They wasted money and pursued the elderly to give even more with irrevocable charitable trusts.
4. They never examined their motives and lusts.
5. They loved to kick out those who even suggested their fallibility.
6. They drove the youth out of the churches.
7. They hated the KJV and promoted the NIV-RSV-NRSV-ESV-Beck bogus Bibles.

Reformation Seminary - New Testament Greek Second Lesson - 11 AM Central

 

The Gospel of John in Greek, Traditional/Stephanus

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=TR1550

The Gospel of John, KJV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201&version=KJV

John 1

1 εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος

2 ουτος ην εν αρχη προς τον θεον

3 παντα δι αυτου εγενετο και χωρις αυτου εγενετο ουδε εν ο γεγονεν

4 εν αυτω ζωη ην και η ζωη ην το φως των ανθρωπων

5 και το φως εν τη σκοτια φαινει και η σκοτια αυτο ου κατελαβεν

John 3:16f

3:16 ουτως γαρ ηγαπησεν ο θεος τον κοσμον ωστε τον υιον αυτου τον μονογενη εδωκεν ινα πας ο πιστευων εις αυτον μη αποληται αλλ εχη ζωην αιωνιον

17 ου γαρ απεστειλεν ο θεος τον υιον αυτου εις τον κοσμον ινα κρινη τον κοσμον αλλ ινα σωθη ο κοσμος δι αυτου

18 ο πιστευων εις αυτον ου κρινεται ο δε μη πιστευων ηδη κεκριται οτι μη πεπιστευκεν εις το ονομα του μονογενους υιου του θεου

All Videos - Link at the Bottom of the Masthead Area

 

This is how I felt about Zoom.

One of our members created the link to include all our videos. They are in reverse order - the newest ones at the bottom of the masthead area.

The link is - Click here for all previous YouTubes.

I was shocked to find out how easy it is to convert the Zoom file into a YouTube video. Therefore, it was easy to post the video with the worship services and with the lectures. That takes about 10 minutes after the event is over.

The posts in the left column are one way to find essays.

"Control f" is useful for finding topics.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Easter 4 - "What wilt thou do now in order to be helped? This thou must do: Believe on the Savior, the Lord Christ, that he has taken away thy sin. If thou believest this, he is thine and thy sins will disappear; if not, then thou wilt never get rid of sin, but wilt always fall into it deeper and deeper."

 

Complete sermon -> Cantate. Fourth Sunday After Easter. John 16:5-15. How the Holy Spirit Convicts the World of Sin, Righteousness, Judgment

Therefore, on this account alone, thou wilt be condemned, because thou hast not Christ.

11. This sentence, then, is given for the honor and glory of the high grace, which God has given us in Christ the Lord. What reason would have ever been so wise as to discover that this was done for man’s sake? Reason is not able to rise higher in its thoughts than to say: I have sinned in deeds done. I must make good by doing other deeds. I must blot out and pay for the sin, in order that I may thus obtain a gracious God. If reason comes so far, it has reached its climax. Still it is nothing but foolishness and blindness.

12. But God speaks thus: If thou wilt be rid of sin, thou must do other works wherewith to pay the price. But with all the works which thou dost, thou canst do nothing but sin, even with the works wherewith thou thinkest to reconcile me and to do penance for thy sins. How wilt thou then, thou fool, blot out sin with sin? For even in the works which thou considerest the best and which thou canst do, thou sinnest if thou dost not do them willingly and from the heart. For if thou didst not fear punishment, thou wouldst rather not do them at all. Thus thou dost no more than that thou seekest to blot out little sins by doing greater ones; or else to commit such great ones that thou mayest lay aside others.

13. Wherefore, it is ever great blindness that a man does not see what sin is, nor know what good works are, but accepts sin for good works. When the Holy Spirit comes, he convicts the people and says: The works which thou hast done, as well as those which thou art still doing, are nothing but sin; therefore, it is all in vain that thou dost attempt to make satisfaction for thy sin according to thy ability. Then they feel compelled to say: Behold, this I did not know. Then says he: For this purpose I am here, in order to tell thee this. If thou hadst known it, it would not have been necessary for me to come and make it known. What wilt thou do now in order to be helped? This thou must do: Believe on the Savior, the Lord Christ, that he has taken away thy sin. If thou believest this, he is thine and thy sins will disappear; if not, then thou wilt never get rid of sin, but wilt always fall into it deeper and deeper.

14. Thus, with this passage everything has been completely overthrown that has hitherto been preached about penance and satisfaction for sin, and all else that has been practiced and urged. For this reason there have been founded many orders and masses, and on this account we have become priests and monks and have run to and fro in order best in the world, which the world considers pious and holy, to get rid of sin. Therefore, it also follows: Whatever is that is nothing but mere sin and a damnable thing. Thus we have considered one part of this Gospel.

15. The second thought then follows: “The Holy Spirit will convict the world in respect to righteousness, because I go to the Father,” says Christ, “and ye behold me no more.” Righteousness means piety and a good and honorable life before God. What is this now? It is, says Christ, “because I go to the Father.” We have often said about the resurrection of Christ that it came to pass not for his sake, but for our sakes, in order that we may apply it to ourselves as a blessing which is our own. For this reason he is risen from the dead and has ascended to heaven, that he might begin a spiritual kingdom, in which he reigns in us through righteousness and truth. Therefore, he sits above; he does not rest and sleep, does not play with himself, but, as Paul says, Ephesians 1:22, has his work here upon the earth, governing the consciences and the souls of men with the Gospel.