Tom Fisher - The Blunder of Church Membership versus Holy Baptism

 

 "There were four lambs playing king of the hay bale and this stout little fellow ended up on top." Photo by Tom Fisher

Dear Pastor Jackson,

Please post this article and add you comments as you wish. You may use my pictures and videos freely.

Please pray God will heal and fight off the tooth infection until I have oral surgery on May 1.

Please pray God will help me to write about His Word to strengthen faith in Jesus without adding our own works. Especially pray God will help me to share God's Word and my faith in Jesus with my brothers and their families. 

Pastor Jackson I want to thank you for posting my articles on your web site. This gives me encouragement to write. 

Modern day "church membership" replaces Holy Baptism. Why do we trust our own works instead of God's Work in Holy Baptism? Baptism makes us members of God's church and gives us the gift of God the Holy Ghost. At Pentecost God added 3,000 souls to His church by His Word, Will, Name, and Work in Holy Baptism. 

Modern day "church membership" is actually an unspoken loyalty oath where you promise not to attend Holy Communion at a different church or Lutheran synod. This completely destroys Holy Baptism and faith in Jesus. Why do we reject God's Work in our Baptism by adding our own works, will, endeavoring, devotions, and loyalty oaths. 

Modern day "church membership" is the same as joining a country club or a football team where you fight for the team and their uniform and name. The result is complete destruction of God's Will and Work in Holy Baptism and His efficacious Word. 

God's efficacious Word and His Will and Work in Holy Baptism must prevail and replace our own works, will, endeavoring, loyalty oaths, promises, and "modern day church membership".

Why do we put our trust and confidence in our "church membership" instead of God's Work in our Baptism? Why are we afraid and unwilling to say "I am Baptized in the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost instead of saying, "I am Lutheran."

 Today the label of "Lutheran" actually means you reject justification by faith and cling to justification prior to and without faith in Christ (Objective and subjective justification). The label of "Lutheran" means you reject God's pure Word in the King James Bible and cling to the corrupt modern Bibles (NIV, ESV, NKJV, NASB, RSV, Beck's, Nestle-Aland, Westcott-Hort, Vaticanus, Sinaticus, etc ). During the reformation, God clearly rejected this family of corrupt Bibles and chose the INCORRUPTIBLE family of Bibles ( Greek TEXTUS RECEPTUS, Ben Chayyim Masoretic Hebrew Text, Luther's Bible, King James Bible, Russian Synodal Bible, Spanish Reina-Valera Bible, Czech Bible of Kralice, Portuguese Almeida Recebida Bible, Dutch Statenvertaling Bible, etc ) that contain NO errors or omissions. 

The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. Psalm 12:6-7

In Christ,

Tom Fisher

The Church Growthers Are Sterile, Whether ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, or the Remainders

 

Conference of Presidents holds April 2025 meeting

The WELS Conference of Presidents (COP) held its spring meeting this month at the WELS Center for Mission and Ministry, Waukesha, Wis. The COP comprises the 12 WELS district presidents, the synod president, and two synod vice presidents. Here is a summary of what they discussed.

• The COP continues to develop sample governance models for congregations developing congregational constitutions and bylaws.
• The COP reviewed the procedures it will follow as it carries out teaching assignments at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., in May, including clarifying that preseminary graduates (who do not continue at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary) are not automatically certified for non-pastoral ministry. Those called to other types of service (such as teaching) will normally need to enroll in the synod’s teacher certification program.
• The COP continues to review the calling process, especially in view of the challenges of pastor and teacher shortages.
• The Assignment Committee will continue to consider emergency teaching calls after the assignments are made in May.
• The COP was asked to reconsider a proposal to change the synod convention from a biennial to a triennial schedule. The 12 districts heard this proposal last summer, and the majority of districts were not in favor of the change. In view of that, the COP declined to reconsider the proposal at this time, but it did decide that additional rationale could be placed before the district conventions in 2026.
• The COP reviewed the new long-range strategic plan that will be presented to the synod convention in July.
• As of the April meeting of the COP, there were 156 pastoral vacancies in the synod, with 149 of those being parish pastor positions. The 2025 seminary graduating class will provide candidates numbering in the mid-20s, meaning that the pastoral vacancy situation will improve only slightly in the near term. Larger classes at the seminary in the coming years, however, will provide some relief in the future. In the meantime, the COP asks every WELS congregation and member to encourage young men to consider training for the pastoral ministry.
• A similar high vacancy rate is taking place in teacher positions. WELS school enrollments have increased significantly in the last two years—a real blessing—but that has caused a need for more teachers than are currently available. It’s estimated that even after teacher candidates are assigned at Martin Luther College in May, there will still be approximately 100-120 vacancies in teaching positions. The Commission on Lutheran Schools has been working with congregations to find ways to fill the vacancies. At the same time, Martin Luther College has been redoubling its efforts to recruit both traditional and non-traditional teacher candidates. It will also be exploring other ideas to provide more teacher candidates. As in the case of pastors, those in the best position to recruit and encourage young people for the teaching ministry are congregational members, called workers, parents, and grandparents.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder

Archbishop Liz Eaton Majors in the Minors - The Big Five Apostates - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) Agree, More or Less

 

March 31, 2025

CHICAGO (March 31, 2025) — ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton has issued a video message for Transgender Day of Visibility.

 

In the video, Eaton speaks out against the inhumane actions by legislatures and executive orders while also speaking directly to the transgender and nonbinary community.

“God created you in God's image and loves and cares for you exactly as you are. ... You deserve to be safe in our communities. Bullying and discrimination have no place in the body of Christ,” Eaton said.

Watch the video.

The ELCA’s commitment to civil and human rights can be found in our resources for the LGBTQIA+ community at ELCA.org/lgbtq.

Another way to learn more about the church's commitment can be found at reconcilingworks.org, an independent Lutheran organization.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Easter Sunday 2 - "To this I reply: I have often said before that feeling and faith are two different things. It is the nature of faith not to feel, to lay aside reason and close the eyes, to submit absolutely to the Word, and follow it in life and death. Feeling however does not extend beyond that which may be apprehended by reason and the senses, which may be heard, seen, felt and known by the outward senses. For this cause feeling is opposed to faith and faith is opposed to feeling. Therefore the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes of faith: “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.” For if we would see Christ visibly in heaven, like the visible sun, we would not need to believe it. But since Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification, we cannot see it nor feel it, neither can we comprehend it with our reason. Therefore we must disregard our feeling and accept only the Word, write it into our heart and cling to it, even though it seems as if my sins were not taken from me, and even though I still feel them within me."

 

Luther's Sermons - Mark 16:1-8.
Easter Sunday. Second Sermon

10. Here we also refer to the passage in Hosea 13:14, which Paul quotes in reference to the victory that Christ has won by his resurrection and by which he has conquered sin, death, hell and all our enemies. Paul says that death is swallowed up in this victory, and he defies death with these words: “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”

Just as if Paul would say: O death, where are thy teeth? Come, bite off one of my fingers. Thou formerly hadst a spear, what has become of it now?

Christ has taken it from thee. Death, where is now thy spear, etc.? Sin, where is now the edge of thy sword and thy power? Paul says that the power of sin is the law. The more clearly we understand the law, the more sin oppresses and stings us. For this reason Paul says that Christ has completely destroyed and annihilated the spear and whetstone of death.

Now, this Gospel he has not taken with him into heaven, but he caused it to be preached throughout the world, so that for him who believes in Christ, spear and whetstone, nay, sin and death, should be destroyed. This is the true Gospel, which bestows life, strength, power and marrow, and of which all the passages of Scripture speak.

11. Therefore seek and learn to know Christ aright, for the whole Scriptures confer upon us the righteousness of the true knowledge of Christ. But this must be brought about by the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore pray God that his Gospel may prosper, that we all may truly learn to know Christ and thus rise with him and be honored by God as he was honored.

12. The question now arises: If Christ has taken away death and our sins by his resurrection and has justified us, why do we then still feel death and sin within us? For our sins torment us still, we are stung by our conscience, and this evil conscience creates the fear of hell.

13. To this I reply: I have often said before that feeling and faith are two different things. It is the nature of faith not to feel, to lay aside reason and close the eyes, to submit absolutely to the Word, and follow it in life and death. Feeling however does not extend beyond that which may be apprehended by reason and the senses, which may be heard, seen, felt and known by the outward senses. For this cause feeling is opposed to faith and faith is opposed to feeling. Therefore the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes of faith: “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.” For if we would see Christ visibly in heaven, like the visible sun, we would not need to believe it. But since Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification, we cannot see it nor feel it, neither can we comprehend it with our reason. Therefore we must disregard our feeling and accept only the Word, write it into our heart and cling to it, even though it seems as if my sins were not taken from me, and even though I still feel them within me. Our feelings must not be considered, but we must constantly insist that death, sin and hell have been conquered, although I feel that I am still under the power of death, sin and hell. For although we feel that sin is still in us, it is only permitted that our faith may be developed and strengthened, that in spite of all our feelings we accept the Word, and that we unite our hearts and consciences more and more to Christ. Thus faith leads us quietly, contrary to all feeling and comprehension of reason, through sin, through death and through hell.

Then we shall see salvation before our eyes, and then we shall know perfectly what we have believed, namely, that death and all sorrow have been conquered.