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.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
The Big Five Apostates - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) -
Drank the Church Growth/Objective Justification Swill -
Now They Cannot Get the Taste Out of Their Jowls!
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton administers communion during the closing worship of the Service and Justice gathering on August 3 at the Q Center in St. Charles, Ill.
What does a team do when they cannot meet in person because the work spans the globe? If you are part of the Service and Justice home area of the ELCA, you hold a weeklong gathering to talk about the evolving landscape of the church, the mission abroad, and themes of love, gratitude and adaptive change. The July 27-Aug. 3 event at the Q Center in St. Charles, Ill., featured discussions on the church’s future in the landscape of an ever-increasing secularization in the United States, the continued importance of global work, and the need to embrace new forms of ministry to serve God’s call.
The ELCA, like the rest of Christianity in the United States, has seen a steady decline in membership since the 1990s. This reality anchored conversations as members of the Vision team discussed the ever-changing landscape of faith in America. The Vision team is a new group in the ELCA tasked with looking at different ways to be church in a secular world while adhering to the tenets of faith and doctrine. Ernie Hinojosa, associate executive for Vision, admitted the data shook him.
“It was hard for me to see this because I love this church,” he said. “To see that grieves me.”
But Hinojosa and Louise Johnson, executive for Vision, believe the data doesn’t mean people are losing faith, just that they are not embracing that faith in a church setting. The need for a “mixed ecology,” as Hinojosa described it, reflects that the ELCA’s future is found in the coexistence of traditional congregations and new forms of ministry that can thrive in differing environments. These new ministries, Johnson said, are reaching people on the margins and connecting with individuals who might never set foot in a church but are nonetheless seeking spiritual engagement.
The need to collaborate on these discussions came to the forefront during that presentation and when Yehiel Curry, bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, discussed the way different perspectives can lead to different approaches. Using a visual exercise, Curry demonstrated how everyone can look at the same image and come away with a different experience.
“The goal for us is to know that in this there is creative bias,” he said. “This [demonstration] isn’t about the final answer as much as it is about the diversity in the room.”
The presentations preceded a multipart session on the theme “Behold, I am doing a new thing,” the first part of Isaiah 43:19. Chad Rimmer, rector and dean of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, spent the bulk of the gathering speaking about the ecologies of belonging and being, key aspects of “breathing out and breathing in” the Great Commission, and the way Service and Justice tangibly lives out these ideas in the wide range of its work.
Service and Justice is the largest of the four “home areas” that make up the ELCA’s churchwide organization, the others being Christian and Community Leadership, Innovation and Operations. The team comprises of missionaries deployed all over the world through various programs, the Ministries of Diverse Cultures and Communities, Witness in Society, ELCA World Hunger, Lutheran Disaster Response, Building Resilient Communities, and the AMMPARO migrant ministry. As such a large team operating throughout all five continents, gathering as a single team is not easy to do. This marked the first such gathering since the area was formed in early 2021 and the first large event under the new executive Khader Al-Yateem.
ELCA Gives the Untied Methodist Church a Big Smooch
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| No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o! |
Projectile Vomiting from Liz Eaton:
Seeing ELCA in the Mirror of Methodism
Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, has issued a pastoral letter on the United Methodist Church (UMC) General Conference, which concluded last week in Charlotte, N.C., after having been postponed since 2020. “For 15 years we have accompanied our full-communion siblings in the UMC through joyous and challenging times,” the letter read, in part. “We know firsthand the pain of debate, disaffiliation and division that they have experienced. Yet we also know the hope-filled renewal of Christ’s church.”
The letter continued: “With each day’s news we witnessed our partner church emerging strengthened, revitalized and united. Several actions will shape the future of the UMC. These include the adoption of a plan for worldwide regionalization to restructure the UMC as a truly equitable, diverse and global church, which now goes to annual conferences for ratification.” Regionalization will allow for unity within the worldwide UMC structure, Eaton said, even as members hold diverse opinions on actions taken. Those actions included:
- Lifting a 40-year ban on the ordination of practicing homosexual clergy.
- Lifting restrictions on clergy to officiate at, and on congregations to host, weddings between adults of the same gender.
- Eliminating from the UMC’s Social Principles the assertion that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.
- Broadening the definition of marriage to be between either a man and a woman or two consenting adults.
“These significant actions and the UMC’s witness to the ecumenical vocation we share come as we celebrate 15 years of full communion,” Eaton said.
Reformation Seminary Lecture - John 12 - Part 2
YouTube
KJV John 12:23-50
23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. [Corn once meant a grain; now corn is American, maise]
25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
28 Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
29 The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.
30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.
34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?
35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
[Isaiah 53
39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.
42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.
46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 26 - "Such are the thanks to the blessed Gospel, by which men have been freed from the bondage and plagues of the Pope, that they must become so shamefully wicked in these last times."
Luther's Sermons - Matthew 25:31-46.
Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity
9. Now Christ says also in Matthew 12:36, that men must give an account on the day of judgment not only of the transgressions of these commandments, but also of every idle word they have spoken. Then where shall the works of the first table, the greatest commandment, as right teaching, faith, prayer, hearing and preaching of God’s Word, and the like, find their place? Why does he pronounce such a harsh and severe judgment only upon those who have omitted to do the works of the fifth commandment? Because these works appear almost the same as those which the heathen do. For the Turks do more works of this kind and boast more of them than we who are called Christians. Among them each one regards his neighbor as his brother and shares with him whatever he has.
Nay, they regard it the greatest unfaithfulness and most shameful vice not to share bread with a neighbor in times of hunger. Why does he so highly extol these works which shine so brightly also among the Turks and among the heathen? Certainly he does not mean to say that those also who are not Christians merit eternal life by reason of such works?
10. For Christ himself shows that he is speaking of the works of believing Christians, when he says: “I was hungry and ye gave me to eat,” etc.; “what ye have done unto the least of these my brethren ye have done unto me.” For there is no doubt that he who performs such works of mercy to Christians, must himself be a Christian and a believer; but he who does not believe in Christ, will certainly never be so kind toward a Christian, much less toward Christ, so that for his sake he would show mercy to the poor, and needy; therefore he will refer to these works at the judgment, and accordingly pronounce the verdict to both parties, to those who have done, and those who have not done these works, as a public testimony of the fruits of their faith or of their unbelief.
11. It seems as though he meant hereby to show that many Christians, after receiving the preaching of the Gospel, of the forgiveness of sins and grace through Christ, become even worse than the heathen. For he also says in Matthew 19:30, “Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” Thus it will also be at the end of the world; those who should be honest Christians, because they heard the Gospel, are much worse and more unmerciful than they were before, as we see too many examples of this even now.
Aforetime when we were to do good works under the seduction and false worship of the Papacy, every one was ready and willing; a prince, for example, or a city, could give more alms and a greater endowment than now all the kings and emperors are able to give. But now all the world seems to be learning nothing else than how to estimate values, to rake and scrape, to rob and steal by lying, deceiving, usury, overcharging, overrating, and the like; and every man treats his neighbor, not as though he were his friend, much less as his brother in Christ, but as his mortal enemy, and as though he intended to snatch all things to himself and begrudge everything to others.
12. This goes on daily, is constantly increasing, is a very common practice and custom, among all classes of people, among princes, the nobility, burghers, peasants, in all courts, cities, villages, yes in almost every home.
Tell me, what city is now so strong and pious as to be able to raise an amount sufficient to support a schoolmaster or a preacher? Yes, if we did not already have the liberal alms and endowments of our forefathers, the Gospel would long ago have disappeared in the cities on account of the burghers, and in the country because of the nobility and peasants, and poor preachers would have nothing to eat nor to drink. For we do not love to give, but would rather take even by force what others have given and endowed. Therefore it is no credit to us that a single pulpit or school is still maintained. Yea, how many there are among the great, the powerful, and the rich, especially in the Papacy, who would like to see nothing better than all preachers, schools, and arts exterminated.
13. Such are the thanks to the blessed Gospel, by which men have been freed from the bondage and plagues of the Pope, that they must become so shamefully wicked in these last times. They are now no more unmerciful, no more in a human, but in a satanic way; they are not satisfied with being allowed to enjoy the Gospel, and grow fat by robbing and stealing the revenues of the church, but they must also be scheming with all their power how they may completely starve out the Gospel. One can easily count upon his fingers, what they who enjoy the Gospel are doing and giving here and elsewhere; and, were it only for us now living, there would long since have been no preacher or student from whom our children and descendants might know what we had taught and believed.
Nay, they regard it the greatest unfaithfulness and most shameful vice not to share bread with a neighbor in times of hunger. Why does he so highly extol these works which shine so brightly also among the Turks and among the heathen? Certainly he does not mean to say that those also who are not Christians merit eternal life by reason of such works?
10. For Christ himself shows that he is speaking of the works of believing Christians, when he says: “I was hungry and ye gave me to eat,” etc.; “what ye have done unto the least of these my brethren ye have done unto me.” For there is no doubt that he who performs such works of mercy to Christians, must himself be a Christian and a believer; but he who does not believe in Christ, will certainly never be so kind toward a Christian, much less toward Christ, so that for his sake he would show mercy to the poor, and needy; therefore he will refer to these works at the judgment, and accordingly pronounce the verdict to both parties, to those who have done, and those who have not done these works, as a public testimony of the fruits of their faith or of their unbelief.
11. It seems as though he meant hereby to show that many Christians, after receiving the preaching of the Gospel, of the forgiveness of sins and grace through Christ, become even worse than the heathen. For he also says in Matthew 19:30, “Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” Thus it will also be at the end of the world; those who should be honest Christians, because they heard the Gospel, are much worse and more unmerciful than they were before, as we see too many examples of this even now.
Aforetime when we were to do good works under the seduction and false worship of the Papacy, every one was ready and willing; a prince, for example, or a city, could give more alms and a greater endowment than now all the kings and emperors are able to give. But now all the world seems to be learning nothing else than how to estimate values, to rake and scrape, to rob and steal by lying, deceiving, usury, overcharging, overrating, and the like; and every man treats his neighbor, not as though he were his friend, much less as his brother in Christ, but as his mortal enemy, and as though he intended to snatch all things to himself and begrudge everything to others.
12. This goes on daily, is constantly increasing, is a very common practice and custom, among all classes of people, among princes, the nobility, burghers, peasants, in all courts, cities, villages, yes in almost every home.
Tell me, what city is now so strong and pious as to be able to raise an amount sufficient to support a schoolmaster or a preacher? Yes, if we did not already have the liberal alms and endowments of our forefathers, the Gospel would long ago have disappeared in the cities on account of the burghers, and in the country because of the nobility and peasants, and poor preachers would have nothing to eat nor to drink. For we do not love to give, but would rather take even by force what others have given and endowed. Therefore it is no credit to us that a single pulpit or school is still maintained. Yea, how many there are among the great, the powerful, and the rich, especially in the Papacy, who would like to see nothing better than all preachers, schools, and arts exterminated.
13. Such are the thanks to the blessed Gospel, by which men have been freed from the bondage and plagues of the Pope, that they must become so shamefully wicked in these last times. They are now no more unmerciful, no more in a human, but in a satanic way; they are not satisfied with being allowed to enjoy the Gospel, and grow fat by robbing and stealing the revenues of the church, but they must also be scheming with all their power how they may completely starve out the Gospel. One can easily count upon his fingers, what they who enjoy the Gospel are doing and giving here and elsewhere; and, were it only for us now living, there would long since have been no preacher or student from whom our children and descendants might know what we had taught and believed.
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