ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
l was almost lost in the Creation Gardening surroundings of Joe Pye Weed.
We are in the 90s, humid, with no rain in sight. Joe Pye is providing countless tiny flowers for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Roses dry up as soon as they bloom as the drought continues.
Meanwhile, it is fun to provide water for plants. Joe Pye is in the front yard and also in the two backyard areas. The more earthy plant is Poke Weed, which provides tiny flowers for birds, bees, and hummingbirds, untold numbers of tiny fruit, loved by 60 species of birds plus squirrels and other varmints.
Poke grows up 8 feet and more. Thirty feet has been recorded but not likely that tall in yards.
I had to adjust the hoses to get sprinkling in the areas with Poke, Joe Pye, and hosta. The hosta flower stalks also support hummingbirds, so there is a lot of parched plants aching for moisture.
Charlie Sue has been jumping around like a cheerleader to go out more, especially with me serving as a hunting target. My menacing growl delights here and she launches a waist high attack and uses all kinds of tricks to show her hunting skills.
I find days like this very enjoyable because all of God's creatures and plants have a story to tell. Professionals make big mistakes, and I am just a part-time amateur, making similar but smaller blunders.
Liberty University and its former chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., have agreed to a settlement, ending litigation that stemmed from Falwell's ouster as leader of the prominent Virginia-based Evangelical academic institution.
According to an announcement released Friday, the two parties stated that they “have reached a global resolution agreement settling all outstanding disputes on both legal and personal matters.”
“This agreement is grounded in a firm commitment to protecting and preserving Liberty’s original mission of developing Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills essential to impact the world,” they said.
Text. Luke 19:41-48. 41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. 45 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; 46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, 48 And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.
PART 1. THE PROPHECY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.
1. This Gospel presents that which took place on Palm Sunday, when Christ rode into Jerusalem. On this occasion, he preached two or three days in the temple, which was more than he ever did before at one time.
The sum and substance of this Gospel is, that Christ grieves and laments over the afflictions of those who despise God’s Word.
2. Now you have often heard what the Word of God is, what it brings us, and what kind of scholars it has. Of all this nothing is said here. Only the punishment and distress which shall come upon the Jews because they would not recognize the time of their visitation, are here described. And let us well consider this, because the time of their visitation also deeply concerns us. If they are punished who do not know the time of their visitation, what will be done to those who maliciously persecute, blaspheme and disgrace the Gospel and the Word of God? However, here he only speaks of those who do not know it.
3. There are two methods of preaching against the despisers of God’s Word. The first is by threats, as Christ threatens them in Matthew 11:21-24: “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long’ ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum (which was his own city, where he performed most of his mighty works), shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? thou shalt go down unto hell; for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.” With these threatening words he would frighten them to their senses, and not to cast to the winds the Word which God sends them.
4. The other method the Lord gives here when he weeps, and shows his sympathy for the poor blinded people, and rebukes and threatens them, not as the hardened and stubbornly blind; but when he melts in love and compassion over his enemies, and with great heart-rending pity and cries, he tells them what shall befall them, which he would gladly prevent, but all is in vain. In the passage just quoted, Matthew 11:21-24, where he rebukes them, he does not treat them in love, but in the severity of faith.
However here, it is all sincere love and mercy. This is worthy of our consideration.
5. First, as he approached the city they went before and followed him with songs of great joy, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David? and spread their garments in the way and cut branches from the trees and strewed them in the way; the whole scene was most glorious. But in the midst of all this joy he begins to weep. He permits all the world to be joyful, while he himself was bowed with grief, when he beheld the city and said: “If thou hadst known in this day, even thou, the things that belong unto peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”
6. As though he would say: Oh, if you only knew what belongs to your peace, that you might not be destroyed, but be preserved with both temporal and eternal peace, you would yet this day consider, and redeem the time! And now it is high time for you to know what is for your highest welfare. But you are blind, and will neglect the opportunity, until there shall be neither help nor counsel. As though to say: Here you stand, firmly built, and within you are strong and mighty men, who, secure and happy, think there is no danger! Yet, about forty years more, and you shall be utterly destroyed. The Lord plainly says this in these words: “For the days shall come upon thee, when thy enemies shall cast up a bank about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side and shall dash thee to the ground, d and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation.”
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries anticipates a church in which queer leadership is valued, empowered, and celebrated: queer-led ministries are dynamic and thriving; all marginalized communities are liberated and honored, and justice flows from the sacraments as theyoverwhelm us and bring us to life.
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries organizes queer seminarians and rostered ministers, confronts barriers and systemic oppression, and activates queer ideas and movements within the Lutheran Church.
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries organizes queer seminarians and rostered ministers, confronts barriers and systemic oppression, and activates queer ideas and movements within the Lutheran Church.
You support and expand this work through your gift.
The Confession of Sins The Absolution The Introit p. 16
Introit
Behold, God is mine Helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.
He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in Thy truth, O Lord.
Psalm. Save me, O God, by Thy name: and judge me by Thy strength.
The Gloria Patri The Kyrie p. 17 The Gloria in Excelsis The Salutation and Collect p. 19
Collect
Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please Thee; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth, etc.
The Epistle and Gradual
Gradual
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth:
who hast set Thy glory above the heavens. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
V. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord:
that delighteth greatly in His commandments. Hallelujah!
The Gospel
Glory be to Thee, O Lord! Praise be to Thee, O Christ! The Nicene Creed p. 22
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 #657 Beautiful Savior
Prayers and Announcements
Sarah Buck; Pastor Jim Shrader and Chris Shrader; Kermit Way, Lorie Howell, Norma Boeckler.
Alicia Meyer Celebrated her birthday yesterday.
The flowers on the altar are in memory of Christina Jackson, Erin Joy and Bethany Jackson, from Drs. Kermit and Maria Way, Kaela and Brianna.
One year ago - Pastor Jackson was kicked off the free Christian News list for criticizing Objective Faithless Justification and the horrible Beck Bible, which is no better than the Evil Four - RSV, NRSV, ESV, NIV.
KJV 1 Corinthians 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
KJV Luke 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. 2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. 3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. 7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. 8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. 9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Ninth Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father, who hast bountifully given us Thy blessing and our daily bread: We beseech Thee, preserve us from covetousness, and so quicken our hearts that we willingly share Thy blessed gifts with our needy brethren; that we may be found faithful stewards of Thy gifts, and abide in Thy grace when we shall be removed from our stewardship, and shall come before Thy judgment, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Tempting God Is Rebuking His Teaching
KJV 1 Corinthians 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
This is one of those great passages where the Old Testament and New Testament are so clearly related to Christ. The New Testament is a series of sermons about Jesus Christ. That begins with Genesis 1 teaching and John 1 preaching. And that also means references to the Creation, are taught many ways in the New Testament, the Father commanding - the Son executing the command - the Spirit teaching us, both in the written and spoken Word.
The Exodus is the second greatest event in the Bible, surpassed only by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was active in the Exodus. As Jesus said himself, "Before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8) Therefore, the spectacular events of the Exodus are guided by the Son of God. The pillar that led them was Christ before the Incarnation.
5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
There was a great cleansing along that massive movement of people to a new land. When they suffered, the Son of God gave them what they needed. But once they had what they wanted, the began berating Moses - and God - they missed the comforts of Egyptian slavery and grew fearful about their possible death in the desert.
Those who doubted after the giving of the Ten Commandments tempted God - as if they were in charge - and they were overthrown.
But they were also protected and healed by the bronze serpents in Numbers 21 which foreshadowed the crucifixion,
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (Numbers 21:6-9)
7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
As Luther wrote, the Corinthians were in danger of repeating what happened in the Exodus, not just taking God for granted, but insulting Him in their debauchery. This was the Hollywood of ancient days, where everything except the Gospel is honored, because it was tempting and completely wrong.
9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
The people of the Exodus enjoyed the presence of the Son of God through the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night. He was protecting them and yet a large group fell into paganism, everything they could imagine. Once the Ten Commandments were given, they and Aaron let loose with idols they created with their own hands. Everything they had from God Himself was thrown away to suit their pleasure.
11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Paul wrote down this letter as a comparison with the Exodus to show how lax and self-centered the Corinthians had become. God had been helping them along the difficult road to freedom, and they put on their glad rags, created idols to worship, and had a riot of fun. They were like the Paris Olympics, which began with the most disgusting, God-mocking, and homosexual displays they could conjure up (with Aaron helping, i.e. the French leaders). The French quickly erased their garbage on the Net because of the uproar, but that was too late.
Tempting God
America is now in the stage where the denominations tempt God in every possible way. Each downward step gets them more involved in being Antichrists. "We cannot discipline homosexuals and lesbians in our colleges because the federal government will take away the student loans that prop us up." When they were blatant with a college video, Party in the MLC, they attacked me for letting people know. Every college student who participated in that video - posted on Google - was given a "divine call." That is just the tip of the iceberg that sank the Titanic, a ship where the lifeboats were not enough to sink the "unsinkable."
Once degraded behavior is fun, cute, and a requirement for being a school leader, it only gets worse. I was sent a legal case from a mother whose son was drawn in by LCMS pastors. One pastor said to the other, "You can't do that. We are not in seminary any more!" (What does that suggest?)
I published a WELS congregational picnic photos where the pastors and the men posed in women's dresses, and the children put make-up on the transvestite WELS laity and the pastor. These were all posted on the Net so everyone could enjoy them. In WELS and LCMS, Sodom and Gomorrah start at the lowest level and become their secrets among one another, including through seminary. Notice how the transvestite quickly become trans-sexual in these times. "All in good fun. Don't be a pill."
ELCA is only a little beyond what WELS and Missouri have been doing for many decades. That is why they all get along so well at Fuller Seminary, Trinity Divinity, and mega-churches that sell their evil dogma.
Some of us are old enough to remember when Scripture was behind the hymns (not songs), the liturgy (not cute plagiarized stories), and the sermons (more cute borrowed stories).
I am even old enough to remember the RSV Bible being promoted as so much easier to read in grade school. (Can they read now?) The first thing the RSV did was to remove the Virgin Birth of Christ from Isaiah 7. The RSV put it back with "or young woman" in the footnote. It grew from there, and all the denominations jumped on the chance to make money with the new, corrupted New Testament.
And the denominations all won, by selling the new versions of the Bible, training their parochial students, college students, and seminary students. Question that and they will jump on you like a hobo on a hotdog.
Tempting God Even More
They have this secret sin - which they cherish - by denying and promoting and shading and emphasizing - everyone has already been forgiven! The Lutherans are not alone,becauseall the mainline Protestant churches teach this too. There are exceptions, but they are underwhelming. That was solidified by the great, popular apostates - Tillich the adulterer, Barth the adulterer, and many more, giving the elite graduate students the power to teach the seminarians, like a storm surge rushing in, crushing, and dragging the debris so much that nothing is left. The heirs of Tillich and Barth became the honored seminary faculty. I despised one, who was finally nabbed by the conservative Mennonites for an extreme level of seducing the women who were enchanted by him, a student of Barth.
It is important and necessary to teach Justification by Faith because that is the Chief Article of the Christian Church. As the great Walter Maier taught, the two essentials of Christianity (not just one denomination or another) are the inerrancy of the Scriptures (KJV and the Luther German Bible) and Justification by Faith. Herman Otten published and distributed this book, but Herman and his wife came down hard for Objective Faithless Justification and corrupted Beck Bible (which suggests there was no empty tomb, Mark 16:9-20 is their footnote).
My Jewish-Christian member has stressed the fact that the Hebrew Old Testament is completely, excruciatingly perfected in its transmission from the earliest days. Changes are not allowed. Mistakes must be burned up and destroyed.
God Is Mocked Two Ways
Thus we can see why the Christian Faith is withering away. I can take a weed vine and cut its slender stem near the soil. At once it will curl up a bit and lose color, ever so grand until it is no longer rooted and grounded. The leaves no longer have moisture. They no longer can convert the sun's powerful rays into food. A clever weed will drop seeds and let them take over in the future.
I planted and nourished honeysuckle, which is a popular weed around here. I have watered it with rainwater to keep it reaching out for more God-given sunlight. Honeysuckle fans wait for the fragrance and the berries. Objection - "It's just a weed, Greg. I hope you did not pay for a weed!" Yes, I did and I know it will flourish.
Ninth Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The flowers are in memory of Christina Jackson, Bethany Joan Marie and Erin Joy.
"LCBC (Lives Changed By Christ) is a non-denominational multisite megachurch with twenty locations spread across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1986 and led by senior pastor Jason Mitchell, last year, they had an average weekly in-person attendance of 14,044, with another 7354 watching online. They had 12,267 first-time guests, baptized 640 people, sponsored 934 children overseas, and gave $41,115,218 in tithes and offerings."
Imagine all the time pastors have wasted studying the Bible, the Confessions, and church history. Fortunately, Church and Change - established in many other forums - developed new efforts with even less knowledge. Gimmicks are the solution, so they can all sit down to eat and rise up to play (Exodus). Bible study with booze was an innovation, because they could not get the Babtists to come out into the open with the ultimate lure of liquor.
The efficacy of the Word has its negative but powerful side. When people mock the Gospel Word, substitute various poisons, and gloat over their success, they are hardening and blinding themselves.
Note that the Growthers are quick to pounce on any pastor or layman who dares to question the Great Fake, hatched by Fuller Seminary and coached by Peter Drucker hisself. Fate propelled me into LCA Growth, then WELS and LCMS Growth, and finally the doomed CLC (sic) Growth. That moved me to question the great New Awakening that seemed so appealing to the dim-wits yet smelled like vomit.
Congratulate - The Faithless Five -
ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic).
Look back in anger, reflect on the last 50 years of Lutheran Synodality:
1. Ridiculing the KJV Bible while embracing and promoting the Left-wing paraphrases - RSV, ESV, NRSV, NIV, Becker-Otten Copycat, TEV, etc.
2. Promoting women's ordination, which opened the gates to gay ordination, or merely ordination cloaked gay - you know who they are.
3. Seminary posts derived from the Pasadena Polecats, to legitimize the district Church Growth experts and meetings with ELCA and the whole gang.
4. Women in charge of congregational worship, so the exhausted pastors can do even less work and be subordinate to the lady's ordination circle.
5. Confirmation watered down to the least possible content, but not without a 400 page Small (stop laughing) Catechism.
6. Run, crawl, spy on, and surveille the nearest clown sect (especially in one's own demi-semi-Lutheran district).
7. May your clown congregations be like Bill Hybels'. I remember the WELS pastors slobbering about Willow Creek Community Church, given money from the sect to be trained there for free.
"The scandal prompted Hybels to resign under pressure on April 10, 2018, and eventually led to the resignation of Willow Creek’s entire board.
In 2019, Willow Creek’s new board released a statement accusing Hybels of “unchecked sin and intimidating behavior.” And the board admitted that the church’s initial response, blaming the alleged victims, harmed the victims and their advocates.
28. When you read or hear this historical example, the terrible punishment the Jewish people suffered in the wilderness, think not it is an obsolete record and without present significance. The narrative is certainly not written for the dead, but for us who live. It is intended to restrain us, to be a permanent example to the whole Church. For God’s dealings with his own flock are always the same, from the beginning of time to the end.
Likewise must the people of God, or the Church, be always the same. This history is a portrait of the Church in every age, representing largely its actual life — the vital part; for it shows on what the success of the Church on earth always depends and how it acts. The record teaches that the Church is at all times wonderfully governed and preserved by God, without human agency, in the midst of manifold temptations, trials, suffering and defeat; that it does not exist as an established government regulated according to human wisdom, with harmony of parts and logical action, but is continually agitated, impaired and weakened in itself by much confusion and numerous penalties; that the great and best part, who bear the name of the Church, fall and bring about a state of things so deplorable God can no longer spare, but is compelled to send punishments in the nature of mutinies and similar disorders, the terrible character of which leaves but a small proportion of the people upright.
29. Now, if such disaster befell the nation selected of God, chosen from the first as his people, among whom he performed works marvelous and manifest beyond anything ever known since, what better thing may we expect for ourselves? Indeed, how much greater the danger threatening us; how much reason we have to take heed that the same fate, or worse, overtake not ourselves!
With reference to the things chronicled in our text, Paul tells us: “They were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” That is, we are now in the last and most evil of days, a time bringing many awful dangers and severe punishments. It is foretold in the Scriptures, predicted by Christ and the apostles, that awful and distressing times will come, when there shall be wide wanderings from the true faith and sad desolations of the Church. And, alas, we see the prophecies only too painfully fulfilled in past heresy, and later in Mohammedanism and the papacy.
30. The era constituting the “last time” began with the apostles. The Christians living since Christ’s ascension constitute the people of the latter times, the little company left for heaven; and we gentiles, amidst the innumerable multitude of the ungodly generation in the wide world, must experience worse calamities than befell the Jews, who lived under the law of Moses and the Word of God, under an admirable external discipline and a well-regulated government. Yet even in this final age so near the end of time, when we should be occupied with proclaiming the Gospel everywhere, the great multitude are chiefly employed with boasting their Christian name. We see how extravagantly the Pope extols his church, teaching that outside its pale no Christians are to be found on earth, and that the entire world must regard him as the head of the Church.
31. True, his subjects were baptized unto Christ, called to the kingdom of God and granted the Sacrament and the name of Christ. But how do they conduct themselves? Under that superior name and honor, they suppress Christ’s Word and his kingdom. For more than a thousand years now they have desolated the Church, and to this hour most deplorably persecute it.
On the other hand, great countries, vast kingdoms, claiming to be Christian but disregarding the true doctrine of faith, are punished by the Turk’s desolating hand, and instead of the incense of Christianity, with them is the revolting odor of Mohammed’s faith.
32. Great and terrible was the punishment of the Jewish people. Seemingly no disaster could befall man more awful than overtook them in the wilderness. Yet it was physical punishment, and although many, through unbelief and contempt of God, fell and incurred everlasting condemnation, still the Word of God remained with a remnant — Moses and the true Church. But the punishment of this last age is infinitely more awful, for God permits the pure doctrine to be lost, and sends strong delusions, that they who receive not the truth nor love it shall believe falsehood and be eternally lost. 2 Thessalonians 2:10. Such has been our reward; we have only too terribly suffered punishment. And if we are not more thankful for the grace God extends in his Word — a last gleam of light, on the point of extinction — we shall meet with retribution even more appalling. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
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