No Sizeable Lutheran Synods Are Left - They Nestled into Romanism or Calvinism, Hating the Bible and Luther with One Accord

 

More than half of the ELCA bishops are women, great strides toward giving minority status to men. Several of these bishops told a newspaper that the Holy Spirit was in the closet but raring to get out. 

The ELCA path is easy to follow. LCA President James Crumley pursued the Pope with letters that were published and sent to every LCA pastor. They adopted the bishop and presiding bishop titles, becoming more dictatorial, in spite of their claims otherwise. Worship events catered to Roman costumes and hats, incense, high church, and the Society of the Holy Trinity (STS for the Latin). One ELCA pastor posted 10,000 times on the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau's Online Forum (the Ovaltines). However, not one Ovaltine noted that he was arrested and given a cell to call his own - very Roman. I wonder if he has kept his STS dues paid up. "That's my last incense coated on the cell. I scraped but cannot clean it off so well."

From LCA's James Crumley on - LCA/ALC/AELC merging into ELCA - the merger has been a disaster, except for the deluxe C. M. Almy purchases.

Liz Eaton was a Harvard Divinity student when Ohio Bishop Ken Sauer was in office. She was already an ELCA bishop when she defended the ELCA 2009 vote for radicalism. She mocked those who "felt threatened." ELCA has lost 50% of its members. Sauer left the ELCA with five other bishops, all conveniently retired.

The "Conservative" Lutheran Synods Are Not Lutheran: Calvinism Thrives

Bless their flinty little hearts, the  "conservative" Lutheran synods have rushed to the Calvinists with the same fervor as ELCA jumping into bed with Rome. 

This love for Calvinism and Pietism began with their leader convicted - Martin Stephan - taking his cult with him to America. CFW's circle of pastors suddenly realized that the man they made a bishop was a predator. The cult conveniently took Bishop Martin Stephan's gold, property, land, and books, forcing him at gunpoint to escape to Illinois. 

Walther's acolytes - teaching Objective Faithless Justification - include the LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC (sic), and ELDONA, plus a few other shavings off the dead stump. Walther's dogma harmonizes with Halle University's Pietism/Calvinism and with Calvinism today.

Read this slowly, because Zwingli spouted this nonsense and Calvin later made it look more elegant. The Lutherans today are Zwinglians when they are not copying the Church of Rome. The Church Growth Movement was a way for poorly educated WELS-LCMS clergy to steal millions from the church to pay for their DMins. They could call themselves Doctor as soon as the ink dried on their diplomas, but they only engaged in c-gasms every time they discovered "a new Church Growth principle!"

ELDONUTS Short of Two Players - At Least - But Continues To List Them

 

Papal costumes, a mitre, and superfluous masks suggest comedy, especially when tummies look overfed.

Heiser was welcoming the Rolf Sect into fellowship with the ELDONUTs, when he told me in advance "We are getting rid of Rolf."

Heiser also welcomed Robert Larson into fellowship, another papal pratfall.

The Lutheran ELDONUT Herald went covert after I posted telling photos and information from its pages, three pastors having left the heaven-on-earth sect. But the Herald popped up again. Two more (1 pastor, 1 deacon) have left, according to the website of Good Shepherd in Rogers, Arkansas. Why are people allowed to imagine otherwise? Must I report the facts?  Confessionalism is told to whisper low in Zion lest she be heard on the streets of Gath.

Is ELDONA Crumbling Under the Iron Thumb of the Right Reverend Bishop James Heiser, STM?

 

ELDONA was enticing Good Shepherd Lutheran, Rogers, Arkansas, into its shrinking orbit. Heiser recently had three pastors leave the ELDONUTs at the same time, perhaps due to his papal demands (not  to be confused with PayPal demands).

Ask The Pastor was being promoted at Good Shepherd, then dropped, and now is back again. One of the strange behaviors of Lutheran clergy, from LCMS on down to ELCA, is obsessing about the Apocrypha when they reject or ignore the inspired teaching of St. Paul the Apostle. 

Heiser blocked then edited the newsletters and photos of his sect, which makes people wonder how their news gets out, perhaps in the Mars Society back pages? I see The Lutheran Herald is no longer behind a barrier, and it seems as though the split with some pastors/congregations has been erased.

Leaving ELDONA and avoiding any other quirky sect is headlined by Good Shepherd's (Rogers) blog, though the precise date is absent.

Today, too, there are those who elevate human traditions to the point where they get in the way of preaching Christ crucified and offering the comfort and assurance of the Gospel to sinners. Instead of being satisfied to preach Christ and the clear teaching of His Word, they make up rule after rule as to how one should worship and serve Christ and partake of His benefits.

When this occurs, we must hold fast to Jesus and his Word and not submit to man-made rules and traditions, as though they somehow are required of us or make us more acceptable to God.

The only way to be acceptable to God is through faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world. And, the only way for our worship to be acceptable to God is through faith in Jesus.

It is for this reason that our congregation is no longer affiliated with a diocese or synod, nor do we burden ourselves with man-made rites and traditions which merit us nothing before God. We desire to keep our focus on Christ and his life-giving Word and not on the traditions of men.

Author Pastor Randy Moll

Eric Stefanski has been the nearby ELDONA pastor coaxing Good Shepherd, Rogers, into the heaving bosom of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America and Adjoining Continents.

 

CPH will sell pastors a backdrop which is a photograph of their favorite, albeit unread, publications. 

 What happened? Ask the pastor.

Management by Shunning - Lutheran Synods and ELDONUT Mini-Popes Nose-Dive

ELDONUTs imagine they are cool when they wear masks with their papal costumes. Hint - the masks do not match and the belly-ropes are sagging.

 "Church Growther, no Papist! Church Growther, no Papist!" Why not both?!

I would love to have a list of all those seminary professors who studied at Fuller-Trinity Divinity- Willow Creek and/or joined the Church of Rome wannabees.

Robert Preus published Justification and Rome because he was worried about Romanism among his own faculty members - decades ago. Ft. Wayne was also hotter than Georgia asphalt for Church Growth, even promoting a DMin in Church Growth, the prestigious degree earned by Kincaid Smith, ELS. Smith admitted in print that my criticism of Church Growth made him angry.

Anger is the key term for the apostate synods and sects. The lesser anger - shunning - is used to warn people against sound doctrine. The greater anger includes extending the Left Boot of Fellowship. WELS calls it "fellowship issues," which has to be fun when going to summer camp every year in Pasadena. That is where they mix with ELCA and the other sects they routinely degrade. They all believe in safe sects at Fuller and the satellite training centers. Indeed, the WELS-ELS-LCMS pastors are twice as likely to get a date in Pasadena.

Laity must be disciplined too. No one dares to identify the foolishness of Fuller, not even a little bit.

The final result is a rush to the exits. Look at the seminaries collapsing, no matter how many statistics they run up by counting foreign students, women, and online one-course-at-a-time people. 

Likewise, the largest church attendance members are the most offended and the quickest to quietly leave. Large buildings close with fat savings accounts and synod staff gladly liquidating the property and keep the profits. One pastor said, without laughing, "My mission was to close that congregation." Heads nodded a silent Amen.

Everyone needs to smile more and invite people to come to church, because the Fuller stuff did not work.

Read Church Mouse about the Coronation of King Charles and His Mum Queen Elizabeth

 

Church Mouse is posting blogs about the coronation of King Charles III (my hosta buddy) and reflecting on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth so long ago.

I have posted a number of times about his blogging work from England and its value for us. I have noticed that he has generously linked all kinds of Lutheran blogs, instead of giving independent thinkers the stink-eye and Left Foot of Fellowship

I laugh to myself when I think of the American synods and their sycophants complaining about losses when they are the primary culprits:

1. No grasp of Justification by Faith but drooling praise for Objective (Faithless) Justification.
2. Praise for every Bible except the King James - the highest quality translation and text - much like Luther's Bible. The Evil Four plus One - NIV, RSV, NRSV, ESV plus the Beck serve to pad the synodical accounts and litigation costs.
3. Their solutions for higher education involve expensive buildings and hire-a-drunk faculty, very pricey in more ways than one.
4. None of the synods today have a Loy, Reu, Krauth, Schmauk, Leupold, or Lenski to lead them. 
5. Synod Presidents and Archbishops (ELDONA) are more concerned with their egos than their dogma-du-jour.
6. The leaders bled themselves dry through their Church Blasphemy Movement: their slime on your dime. "R U Unstuk?" as a recent Mequon graduate asked.

 Church Mouse Garden - 100% organic.

The Two Sacraments of Pietism - The Stink-Eye and Shunning. WELS-LCMS-CLC-ELDONA-ELCA

The "Why are you even alive?" stink-eye is especially comical among the Pietists, who do not get their own joke.

All Time Views  -9,888,217

When someone new comes to church, this happens when they cannot prove bloodlines or the place where they were born or went to school. One Mordor seminarian said in class, "The only real Lutherans are the ones in Wisconsin." The same dunderhead thought that Luther was wrong about Holy Communion - and that Zwingli was right!

This father-son stink-eye team should make people tremble, but the dogs still look cute.

America seems to be primarily Pietistic and Calvinistic, lacking the Means of Grace and easily becoming prey to rationalism and boosterism. A good example is having "greeters"  at the church door - wearing GREETER badges - who are friendly to their own friends and suspicious about others. "What synod are you? WELS? Are you from Wisconsin?"

If someone happens to be OK, bowing to the synodical stars, and dares to question the latest fiasco, the stink-eye is engaged and shunning is soon maxed out.

The comical side of this tragedy is the leaders guiding their process in the name of having everything done smoothly. No dissent. Buffoons carry on with their obsessions last buffed up at the recent conference. Pretending to shun one another, they sit together and learn 

1. at the Thrivent table together, 
2. at the Fuller conference, 
3. at the Trinity Divinity genu-wine Pietism training event, etc. '
4. at Willow Creek Community Church, where the famous pastor chased women around the altar when no one was looking. He made sure only feminist Bibles were used at his cross-free building.

The LCMS-ELDONA tag team is especially keen about following Church of Rome worship rules. I see their virtue-signaling popping up - all over the blogs and discussion sites. They even have very special circles within the circles. The comedy comes from these elite pastors (in their minds) having no grasp of Biblical Lutheran doctrine but hammering every detail of the latest things to do, always edging toward Roman or Eastern Orthodox ordination. Like Richard J. Neuhaus - LCMS, Seminex, ELCA, Rome - they hover at the Lutheran discussion sites to shred the last shreds of Lutherdom, the bland leading the bland while posturing as martyrs burning for the sake of the Mass.

Faith in Jesus Christ unites, but these people are sectarians who must have their organization united under their own strict but flaky rules. Is it any wonder that their denominations are falling away, nay, running from them?

Faith in Jesus Christ draws people together, because their object is the Savior, not the organization. The fruits of the Spirit come from the Gospel. Love, joy, and peace are not program targets but the divine product of the efficacious Word, the Means of Grace.

Cardinal Stritch University Will Soon Close

Someone had the strange idea to honor Cardinal Stritch by featuring his costume as decoration on a building. ELDONUTs - take note.

The Right Reverend Bishop-for-Life Heiser published this hilarious photo and then closed off access to commoners.

 Stritch is on the far right, Mundelein is next to him - two colleges named after two cardinals. Alas, Mundelein College was absorbed by Loyola Jesuit University.

Northwestern College (WELS) was merged into Dr. Martin Luther College, New Ulm. People have figured out that a dinky school with huge costs would not be beneficial. Add the problems of abuse, alcoholism, and nepotism to finish off a doomed school of the 20th century.

The LCMS is busy closing its colleges aka universities. 

"Dr." Matt the Fatt has the same academic credentials as The Great Walther, BA DD, and Dr. Larry Olson, DMin.

Are the ELDONUTS Cheaper by the Dozen? Bailing Out of the Archdiocese

 

 World traveler Jim Heiser has spent a lot of money going to Finland twice and the Philippines at least once. The script reads, "If this is Tuesday, you are in or near Manilla."

First, I heard that Paul Rydecki was no longer in ELDONA, which was verified by Paul's own words on his website. 

Then I learned that others had left the stony vastness of ELDONA:

Pastor Sullivan - Ask the Pastor - is no longer affiliated with ELDONA and the Rogers Arkansas congregation has excommunicated those items from their website. I am not hip on social media defenestrations. Apparently, a video can be recommended as kosher one week and jettisoned another week. 

Pastor Carver - He was touted by ELDONA as a Missouri Synod pastor leaving the fetid swamps of that denomination. The little sect of Texas did not mention Heiser clinging to the Missouri Synod while waiting for his pension benefits to vest. Carver gave up his call, unlike Bishop Heiser, and is not in ELDONA. 

Time Flies - Eric Stefanski, ELDONUT, Excommunicates the LCMS, 2006

ELDONUT Pastor Eric Stefanski

The LCMS is worse than I am!
And why? Because they do not listen to the minister who
was promoting UOJ for years on his website.

The ELDONUTS have a strange obsession with rock music,
given their veneer of old-fshioned popery.

As the Spartans said to Philip of Macedonia, "IF."
I missed the fireworks too, Richard, but heard the whining.
Your review of Thy Strong Word gained us a member, so thanks.

As I wrote before, Martin Luther described the factious Synodical Conference sects with great discernment here, in his Galatians Commentary.

I snipped the timeless tosh of Rev. Stefanski from his Facebook page, lest he erase his words and charge me with misquoting him. So in the midst of excommunicating all of the LCMS clergy, he has to heave a digression full of unwarranted accusations, an ad hominem sputter, to avoid dealing with the facts of their nasty two-faced attitudes.

I would be wary of dealing with them in any fashion. They let their drama queen emotional state get in the way of the truth. They are currently in a status confessionis with me - or more accurately - status epilepticus. In other words, they do not talk to me, although my email is clearly posted. But they loudly complain about me on their Facebook pages, and "like" one another's little witticisms, so precious in the sight of the Lord. They they prove they aim to be what Luther described about Paul's opponents.

Luther:
When he says, “to his face,” this is aimed especially against those poisonous spirits who slander those who are absent but do not dare open their mouths in the presence of these people. That is what the false apostles did; he touches them obliquely here, because they did not dare slander him in his presence; they did so only in his absence. “I did not,” he says, “speak evil of Peter in the way; but I opposed him candidly and openly, not because of any pretense, ambition, or other human affection or mental disease, but because he himself was deserving of attack.” Page 108 of LW Lectures on Galatians

They imagine their little fulminations are hidden away, since I have blocked the ELDONUT Enthusiasts on Facebook, but I can still read and copy their posts. The kids these days are so naïve.

The Word of God is a better weapon - you better upgrade, ELDONA.

Strange Accusations That Impugn Their Character

One ELDONUT claimed that their Pastor X "worked with people" but I do not.

That moved me to tears - tears of laughter. I was working with Pastor James Heiser around 20 years ago, when he was selling books with Lutheran Confessional Synod Bishop-for-Life Randy DeJaynes.

That situation blew up and I was again in contact with Heiser when he received a call to Malone and began working to get out of the LCMS. I promoted his books, sold his books, and he sold Thy Strong Word. He liked to play both sides of the fence, so he was working with Paul McCain to sell his Repristination books through Concordia Publishing House.

As an AAL agent once said to me, "If a man has two stories, he does not believe either one."

This went on for a long time while I was in Phoenix and we had many long phone calls, mostly from Heiser calling me, all the way through taking the congregation out of the LCMS. He wanted to be at the independent Lutheran conferences I helped organize, and he was welcomed, but he seemed to have a hidden agenda.

When Stefanski joined his group, I figured that Heiser would have to face the Justification by Faith issue, but that did not happen. Anyway, Heiser wanted subordinates who bought his bishop-for-life status, so he went silent.

When WELS Pastor Paul Rydecki showed up at the Emmaus Conference, he got a free copy of a justification book from Brett Meyer. ELS Pastor Jay Webber hid behind a column, motioning to get Paul to go to lunch with him. Rydecki and I discussed publishing at great length, and I encouraged him to publish with ELDONA, not with me, because so many faux-Lutherans boycotted me and withhold any association. And I thought ELDONA was better than solo, which I stated clearly enough. I mostly help people think through options, instead of bossing them around.

It became clear that Rydecki was associating with ELDONA, as Doug Lindee of the Intrepid Lutherans did. I had many friendly exchanges with Lindee over the years, when he was Freddy Finkelstein. Funny how people associate with ELDONA and stop being friendly. That is no longer surprising, based on the raging of their bishop-for-life.

I have concluded a few things:

• Concordia Seminary in Ft. Wayne really damaged a lot of pastors they produced, not only with UOJ fanaticism from Preus and Scaer, but also in their abusive, dishonest, and opportunistic behavior. ELDONA is largely a product of Ft. Wayne, where Jay Webber and Paul McCain graduated during the same time.
• ELDONA is not really a Justification by Faith group. They went through the motions, but they are like the other mini-micro sects in being not-LCMS, not-WELS, not-something, and really obsessesed with leaving Babylon for their Paradise.
• ELDONA is another sect-worshiping sect, glorying in how perfect they are. Just listen to them. Mercy! 

Someone Asked

Yes, I work with people all the time, various people from all over the world, at many different levels. A typical day involves communicating with three or four different people, not the same ones each day. 

Many abused people contact me because their synods ignore and shun them. I keep their secrets and share their sorrow. In fact, Heiser used to have pastors contact me after they were kicked out of the LCMS. I knew the process and tried to help in the recovery.

Twitter Head Adopts ELDONA Look - A Covert Aspirant?

Jack Dorsey - aka Beards Gone Wild - a covert Eldonut?

==

Chilstrom Left a Trail of Destruction - First ELCA Bishop Dead

 Herb Chilstrom did not become an LCA bishop, one of his goals, but he became the first ELCA bishop.

 Chemnitz is next to Chilstrom in my good guys/bad guys graphics folder. Other than that, there is no connection at all.

The origin of ELCA as a factory for social justice warriors is well known. The key to being hip in the LCMS/LCA/ALC was loving the Social Gospel Movement, which rejected Christian doctrine in favor of reforming society through government regulation and federal laws. Pietism was a good starting point because the Pietists saw the congregation as a convenient place to organize the "real church" - the conventicles or cell groups. Those who value the Means of Grace and worship are not real Christians, according to the cell group denizens.

 Putting a lot of money in, to get a chance at grabbing some cheap toys - that sounds like the Church Growth Enthusiasts.

Pietism is also ecumenical, which is a great way to break down doctrinal barriers and doctrine itself. Just listen to the self-proclaimed growth experts and coaches of the LCMS-WELS. They loathe Luther and ape Barth/Kirschbaum. They have eviscerated their own synods and long to be like ELCA. But do not worry - they have a brilliant new program for healing the injuries caused by previous programs, vision statements, and pipe dreams.

The solution is not to go synod shopping, because they are alike in various ways. The Luther module in their training was replaced by the Peter Wagner Fuller module. Whose idea was that? Peter Wagner's! He got all the denominations to send their executives to Fuller, and the executives got their underlings to go. Soon the ambitious (but simpleton) pastors signed up for easy access to better synod positions.

A Methodist church is rebirthing itself by eliminating all the older members from membership. Roger Zehms, Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, and Paul Kuske started a mission with no Lutheran attributes (worship, name, etc) and warned Lutherans not to attend or join. Pilgrim Community Church closed faster than a snake-handlers parish in White Fish Bay, Wi. They featured a Plymouth Rock graphic with the wrong date on it. Calvinist outreach?

 The Lutheran Librarian is discovering treasures from the past - more than 150 ebook titles and many print copies coming out. Like Spindletop, the source was locked up until it was tapped.

The solution is widespread knowledge of Luther, the Confessions, and Biblical basics. Our little congregation pondered what we could do about the situation. The synods largely ignored the Reformation's 500th Anniversary, so we published 11 volumes of Luther's Sermons, print and Kindle, and then made merged PDFs to give them away for free. The next step is Word files for free distribution, editing, and translating - no fees, no corporate attorney will send a certified letter.

Luther's primary emphasis was the sermon. So what do the synodocrats do? Answer - they produce failing Calvinist programs to degrade the sermon to the point of plagiarized mockery. They are being honest with their underlings - only a dummy would copy the garbage being produced and devoured by the Fulleroids.

The sermon is a chance to teach a significant part of the Bible in the church year. Jesus converted people through preaching. So did the apostles. Martyrs died because they preached the Gospel to people ruled by leaders of darkness.

There are two verbs for teaching in the Great Commission, no verb for manufacturing disciples.

Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, and 30 other books can be found here - non-profit, public domain.

Preaching is primary. Supplemental teaching follows. Our little group gathered as many out of print Lutheran books as possible and posted them as free ebooks - thanks to Alec Satin. Now many of them are being offered at non-profit prices on Amazon.

Norma A. Boeckler is already working on Understanding Pilgrim's Progress, which is being written for the sessions on Wednesday at 7 PM.

Besides that we have the unceasing work of illustrating the Bible through Norma Boeckler. Who can determine how far those have traveled on the Net? One pastor denounced uncredited copying on a page where he featured Norma's art, uncredited. I kidded him about that - he did not know. Norma did not stop with art or her own books, but went on to help others produce their books.

 Do you want a packed Sunday School? Start a mission. This is our Philippine Mission, Pastor and Mrs. Jordan Palangyos.

A Philippine mission came to us, and they are in the second stage of the chapel - putting on the permanent roof. They are very interested in education and printing too. They now have their own printer (before the roof!). The Apostles started with publishing the Old Testament in Greek.

We have more opportunities, with Travis and Lauren Cartee are interested in producing the spoken Word on Youtube.

We also have a recent MDiv graduate, Zach Engleman. Scholars within our group discuss doctrinal topics via email.