All About the Savior

"Built on the Rock the Church doth Stand"
by Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1783-1872
Translated by Carl Doving, 1867-1937

Tune - Kirken den er et" is linked here

1. Built on the Rock the Church doth stand,
Even when steeples are falling;
Crumbled have spires in every land,
Bells still are chiming and calling,
Calling the young and old to rest,
But above all the soul distrest,
Longing for rest everlasting.

2. Surely in temples made with hands,
God, the Most High, is not dwelling;
High above earth His temple stands,
All earthly temples excelling.
Yet He whom heavens cannot contain
Chose to abide on earth with men,
Built in our bodies His temple.

3. We are God's house of living stones,
Builded for His habitation;
He through baptismal grace us owns
Heirs of His wondrous salvation.
Were we but two His name to tell,
Yet He would deign with us to dwell,
With all His grace and His favor.

4. Now we may gather with our King
E'en in the lowliest dwelling;
Praises to Him we there may bring,
His wondrous mercy forthtelling.
Jesus His grace to us accords;
Spirit and life are all His words;
His truth doth hallow the temple.

5. Still we our earthly temples rear
That we may herald His praises;
They are the homes where He draws near
And little children embraces.
Beautiful things in them are said;
God there with us His covenant made,
Making us heirs of His kingdom.

6. Here stands the font before our eyes
Telling how God did receive us;
The altar recalls Christ's sacrifice
And what His table doth give us;
Here sounds the Word that doth proclaim
Christ yesterday, today, the same,
Yea, and for aye our Redeemer.

7. Grant then, O God, where'er men roam,
That, when the church-bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ His message is bringing:
"I know Mine own, Mine own know Me;
Ye, not the world, My face shall see.
My peace I leave with you." Amen.

Hymn #467
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Eph. 2: 19-22
Author: Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1837
Translated by: Carl Doving, 1909, alt.

All About the Savior

Where do we find the key revelation in the entire Bible - a summary, a portrait, an anchor, or simply - bedrock? The famous Jesus v. Peter is brushed aside, as if the climax has Jesus building on the first Pope, for "On this Rock I will build My Church."

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter (a rock), and upon this Rock (bedrock) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Church of Rome gets this verse completely twisted, and today no seminarian or pastor will stop and study this in Greek, no matter which denomination, because so few take the time to clarify this tiny little verse in the original. 

I am willing to bet that all the denominations openly or furtively align themselves with the papacy, even if only through the Almy catalogue. LCMS and WELS pastors used to adorn themselves with grim, black Calvinist robes - adorned with colorful stoles in the latter days. More each year are going full papacy with the best of costumes and smoke pots.

His Eminence, Bishop Jim Heiser (fish hat) gave Ichabod readers a sample of the high church, Rome-centric pastors from Ft. Wayne and the Other One. Wayners resist saying "St. Louis" because of their imaginary superior status. Sadly, these photos are no longer being published, since they lack gravitas and sanctimony.

Bedrock

Modernists cannot abide the thought of Jesus being divine, so they are very cozy with the Church of Rome, where the Savior is downplayed to emphasize the holiness of the Pope and His underlings (Let him that readeth understand, Matthew 24:15).  Note that the papal wannabees go along with gazillion holy days, prayers, and honors for every dead person except the Savior, the only one who rose from death.

The modernists make the Word of God devoid of anything except their own material desires. ELCA - in one small corner of their world - Explores Lutheran Values - with an emphasis on abortion. They glory in their shame. And yet, from the anxious bleating of the sheep who happen to be wolves, the Faithless Walther Four - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) follow ELCA and even get ahead of the apostasy.

The Singular in the Trinity

The Savior Jesus is the keystone, so believers know that the Bible begins and ends with the Son of God, from  the Creating Word in Genesis 1 and John 1 to the ending of Revelation.

Everyone should be furious that colleges, seminaries, and denominational drones are intent on replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with second-rate sales gimmicks, still being borrowed from Peter Drucker and the gang at Fuller Seminary and other bandit hide-outs.

Even worse, they have kidnapped the Bible business to keep it in harmony with the frauds from the Church of Rome, Tischendorf, the American Bible Society, and the even worse United Bible Society.

The Faithless Walther Four - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) are eager to make money from selling bad, expensive, conflicted Bibles. All their changes are against the divinity of Christ and faith in Him.

I ran across a so-called Lutheran blog, now deceased, that complained about the Walther Four denying the use of the New KJV. The so-called best of the alternatives (like gourmet vomit) happily engages in changing the main text and also in providing apostate readings in the footnotes.

Scholars are divided. Isaiah 7:14. It was either the Virgin Birth or not.

Scholars are divided. Mark 1:1. He was the Son of God or not.

The establishment of alternatives argues that the New Testament is not reliable - and Scriptural doctrine is whimsical.  

Jesuit training pays off, and the Walther Four have at least 8 Jesuit PhDs.

Walzing Matilda

 

https://spectator.org/the-manchurian-by-way-of-minnesota-candidate/

"It’s not as though the vice presidential nominee needed to travel to all the way to China to learn to treat reporters as children better seen and not heard. But he surely absorbed by osmosis the folkways of Chinese politicians vis-à-vis the press on his many visits to the Middle Kingdom.

Walz first traveled to China 35 years ago around the time of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Despite it serving as a mostly peaceful protest, Chinese officials did not treat it with the indifference initially shown by Walz toward the violent George Floyd riots in Minneapolis four years ago. The Chinese Communists murdered an unknown number of protesters that certainly number in the hundreds and perhaps reach well into the thousands."

***

GJ - Walz - like Kamala - has a definite, extensive, glaring background in Marxist cooperation and promotion with China. The article linked above should be read along with many more details.

Similarly, Walz' behavior as a governor should offer him a chance to reveal himself as a tool.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - "Moreover whatever they need of temporal things for this life and the necessaries for present wants they are to expect also from him, and they are not to be terrified if they do not see this before their eyes and have it prepared for the future, and are tempted by want and need."

 

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
   

SECOND SERMON.

MATTHEW 6:24-34.


KJV Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOT BE ANXIOUS FOR THINGS OF THIS LIFE, BUT SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

* Avarice and anxiety are the fruits of unbelief.



1. This Gospel is a part of the long sermon Christ delivered to his disciples on the mount, in which among other things he especially warned and admonished his disciples against the infamous vice of avarice and anxiety for daily bread, the legitimate fruit and proof of our unbelief. This does great harm in Christendom when it takes possession of those in the office of the ministry, who should be occupied by nothing except teaching the Word of God and faith aright, and chastising the error and sin of the world; or when it possesses these it should confess God’s Words before all persons and be prepared to serve everybody for the sake of God, even if they be obliged on that account to lose their riches, honor, body and life.

2. Christ wishes also to teach here how he desires to have his kingdom distinguished from the civil life and government, that he will not govern his Christendom upon earth so that it be conceived and vested as a government where Christians are first of all to be amply provided with temporal goods, riches and power, and who need not fear any need or danger; but he wishes to provide them with spiritual treasures and what their souls need, so that they may have his Word, the consolation of his grace, and the power and strength of the Holy Spirit against sin and death unto everlasting life. Moreover whatever they need of temporal things for this life and the necessaries for present wants they are to expect also from him, and they are not to be terrified if they do not see this before their eyes and have it prepared for the future, and are tempted by want and need. On the other hand they are to know that their God and Father will care for them and will surely give them all if they with firm faith are only anxious about and seek how they may continue faithful to his word and in his kingdom, and serve him there.

3. Therefore Christ makes a distinction in this sermon, by which he separates his Christians from the heathen and unbelievers. For he does not deliver this doctrine to the heathen as they do not accept it, but to those who are already Christians. He does not however consider those Christians, who only hear his word and can repeat it, like the nuns do the Psalter. In this way satan also hears the Gospel and the Word of God, yea, he knows it better than we, and can preach it just as well as we, if he only wished to do so. But the Gospel is doctrine that is to be a living power and put into practice; it should strengthen and comfort the people and make us courageous and aggressive. Therefore they who only hear the Gospel thus, so that they know and can speak about it, are not to be classed among Christians; but those who believe and do as the Gospel teaches are righteous. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or else he will hold to one and despise the other.”

4. Now he, who tries to serve two masters, will do it in a way that cannot be called serving at all; for it will certainly be as the Lord here says. One can indeed compel a servant to do a certain work against his will and he may grieve while doing it; but no one can compel him to do it cheerfully, and mean it from the bottom of his heart. He of course does the work as long as his master is present, but when he is absent, he hurries away from his task, and does nothing well. Hence the Lord desires our service to be done out of love and cheerfully, and where it is not done thus, it is no service to him: for even people are not pleased when one does anything for them unwillingly. This is natural, and we experience daily that it is so.

Now, if it be the case among human beings that no one can serve two masters, how much more is it true in the service of God, that our service cannot be divided; but it must be done unto God alone, willingly and from the heart; hence the Lord adds: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

 Norma A. Boeckler

5. God cannot allow us to have another Lord besides himself. He is a jealous God, as he says, and cannot suffer us to serve him and his enemy.

We find very few, who do not sin against the Gospel. The Lord passes a severe judgment and it is terrible to hear, that he should say this of us; and yet no one will confess, yea, no one will suffer it to be said that we hate and despise God, and that we are his enemies. There is no one, when asked if he loves God and cleaves to him, who would not reply: Dost thou take me to be such a desperate character as to be an enemy of God? But see how the text here closes, that we all hate and despise God, and love and cleave to mammon. For it is impossible that he, who loves gold and riches and cleaves to them, should not hate God. Christ here holds the two opposed to one another and as enemies, and says: If you love one of these two and cleave to the same, then you must hate and despise the other.

However well a man may live here upon the earth, if he clings to riches it cannot be otherwise than that he must hate God. And whoever does not trust in gold and worldly riches, loves God. This is certain.