Conclusion - The Ten Commandments

This (I say) it is profitable and necessary always to teach to the young people, to admonish them and to remind them of it, that they may be brought up not only with blows and compulsion, like cattle, but in the fear and reverence of God. For where this is considered and laid to heart that these things are not human trifles, but the commandments of the Divine Majesty, who insists upon them with such earnestness, is angry with, and punishes those who despise them, and, on the other hand, abundantly rewards those who keep them, there will be a spontaneous impulse and a desire gladly to do the will of God. Therefore it is not in vain that it is commanded in the Old Testament to write the Ten Commandments on all walls and corners, yes, even on the garments, not for the sake of merely having them written in these places and making a show of them, as did the Jews, but that we might have our eyes constantly fixed upon them, and have them always in our memory, and that we might practise them in all our actions and ways, and every one make them his daily exercise in all cases, in every business and transaction, as though they were written in every place wherever he would look, yea, wherever he walks or stands. Thus there would be occasion enough, both at home in our own house and abroad with our neighbors, to practise the Ten Commandments, that no one need run far for them.

From this it again appears how highly these Ten Commandments are to be exalted and extolled above all estates, commandments, and works which are taught and practised aside from them. For here we can boast and say: Let all the wise and saints step forth and produce, if they can, a [single] work like these commandments, upon which God insists with such earnestness, and which He enjoins with His greatest wrath and punishment, and, be. sides, adds such glorious promises that He will pour out upon us all good things and blessings. Therefore they should be taught above all others, and be esteemed precious and dear, as the highest treasure given by God. (The Ten Commandments, #330f, The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

When the Supreme Court was deciding upon whether a state supreme court could have a monument to the Ten Commandments in a public area, no one seemed to notice that the US Supreme Court Building has always had Moses and the Ten Commandments carved in marble on its building. There is also a statue of Martin Luther in Washington DC - in a public place.

This summary by Luther is another example of his eloquence about the Scriptures. His warnings have come to pass. Many young adults have no real knowledge of the Bible. Two young women stayed after my class (introduction to the university) to discuss Christianity and how to grow in the faith. We had a long discussion about Christianity and religious training. One woman said her training consisted of "being placed on a bus every Sunday and taken to Sunday School." She had no training and home and felt somewhat lost with three children and a husband. The easy route for parents leaves the adult children in ignorance. Another generation is in danger from the spiritual inertia of the grandparents.

Lutherans need to remember this lesson. Early training after Holy Baptism is necessary. The Book of Concord says, "The head of the household..." That places the father in the teaching office of the home.

Michigan Lutheran Seminary Brochure

A layman mailed me the Michigan Lutheran Seminary brochure. I found it sad, touching, and disturbing as well. Doubtless the Luther Prep situation is almost the same, but I have direct connections to MLS through our son. Besides, MLS will be closed immediately if Wayne Mueller still has the last word on the subject. Luther Prep is slated to go as well, but that will take a few more months.

Whenever MLS students wear their logo around Saginaw, residents ask them, "Are they really closing your school?" A residential school develops quite a spirit among its students, faculty, parents, and alumni. Each question must be painful to hear. Naturally, this funereal atmosphere keeps enrollments depressed and gifts on hold. Why would someone give to a school that is closing?

I was still in the Michigan District, WELS, when the DP and his loyal robots provided the district meeting with four different ways to close Northwestern College. All four were soundly defeated, even though they were presented as if an angel from heaven wrote them. Nevertheless, the same DP, Robert Mueller, showed up at the WELS convention and spoke in favor of closing NWC.

MLS anticipated the budget pressures against the school. This is clearly a case of Wayne Mueller and Company funding their missionaries all over the world, a huge budget for technology, needless magazines, and other frills, while saying, "We cannot afford two preps, or even one." The Church Growth people will turn Luther Prep into Marty's Live Bait Shop as soon as they can get the sign painted.

MLS had a plan to create self-support for their school, but the synod leaders aborted that by announcing the closing. According to the brochure, members of the synodical council were kept ignorant of these plans when the closing was being discussed and approved. I sense personal animosity and vindictiveness behind the plans to close MLS.

I wrote this before: Church Growth people hate schools. This is the fruit of Church Growth tolerated and supported. More than one Lutheran pastor has been mugged while opposing Church Growth. Too bad so many fellow pastors stood by and watched. Now no one is left with any fight.

From a distance, I interpret the sudden drop in national giving to a complete rejection of the Mueller/Gurgel regime. The closings I interpret as retaliation by Mueller, the way school boards threaten communities with the loss of their favorite programs if the millage is voted down. As Wayne wrote on his gaseous blog, "Does it hurt enough yet?"

Coveting - The Firstfruits of Church Growth

Thou shalt not covet...

Therefore we allow these commandments to remain in their ordinary meaning, that it is commanded, first, that we do not desire our neighbor's damage, nor even assist, nor give occasion for it, but gladly wish and leave him what he has, and, besides, advance and preserve for him what may be for his profit and service, as we should wish to be treated. Thus these commandments are especially directed against envy and miserable avarice, God wishing to remove all causes and sources whence arises everything by which we do injury to our neighbor, and therefore He expresses it in plain words: Thou shalt not covet, etc. For He would especially have the heart pure, although we shall never attain to that as long as we live here; so that this commandment will remain, like all the rest, one that will constantly accuse us and show how godly we are in the sight of God! (The Ten Commandments, #309f., The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Coveting is certainly the fountainhead or energy behind many violations of the Ten Commandments. How many murders began in coveting? How many destroyed marriages and families? Coveting is the most dangerous sin listed in the Commandments because one can engage in no outward activity or words and still be guilty of coveting. In addition, as Luther noted, coveting is especially tempting for the most pious and outwardly observant.

Since the Church Growth Movement is rooted in man's wisdom, marketing, and false doctrine, we should not be suprised to find Church Growth leaders champions of coveting. What do they desire from life? Not fidelity to the Scriptures. The more they violate their own confessions (whatever denomination), the more they appeal to the Old Adam, the more popular they become. Fidelity to marriage is also optional. Their large congregations wink at their ability to switch spouses or play the field.

More than one layman has told me about Church Growth pastors who announce to non-members, "Please consider me your pastor." Clearly the ministers do this to entice members from another congregation into theirs, or at the very least, these unethical men want to involve themselves in another minister's divine call. Church Growth pastors are not content to have their trotters in the trough. They want every trough to be their own as well.

Coveting, like mercy, is twice-blest. The covetous minister attracts covetous members, who long to be associated with the mall-like church everyone knows and admires. What better place to network for business?

Reformed Doctrine - Heavy Metal Poison

One person wisely commented that Reformed doctrine, from Zwingli and Calvin and the Pietists, is more dangerous than Romanism among Lutherans. Many are infected with Romanism at Ft. Wayne, sometimes in the name of Eastern Orthodoxy. I find papal fever in the plaintive wail of someone justifying the title bishop in his micro-mini sect: "If we want to call ourselves catholic..." I understand the context of the complaint, but I wonder if this is the time to embrace or be embraced by Patristic Fundamentalism:

Gimme that old time episcopacy
Gimme that old time episcopacy
Gimme that old time episcopacy
It's good enough for me.

It was good enough for Augie (Augustine)
It was good enough for Jerry (Jerome)
It was good enough for Connie (St. Constantine, or Constantine the Great)
And it's good enough for me.

Reformed doctrine is like mercury, a toxic heavy metal often used in mining and still used in dentists' offices. Mercury clings to gold and silver. Oh no, the dentist never says, "Would you like mercury in your mouth?" He says he will use the words silver or amalgam*. Silver is too hard to be used alone, so it is blended, amalgamated with mercury to make it maleable. Gold is ideal because it is the most maleable metal and is non-toxic besides. Gold is a bit spendy, as they say in New Ulm. (Spendy in New Ulm means pricey.)

Lutherans who study Reformed doctrine and methods (the two cannot be separated) become Reformed, Pietistic, and even Pentecostal. Mequon, the LCMS seminaries, and Bethany have produced Church Growth Enthusiasts of the worst callibre. This does not happen by accident. As Rogers and Hammerstein might have written, had they studied Lutheran theology:

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught

You've got to be taught to love Church Growth,
You've got to be taught to be an oaf,
It's got to be drummed in your dear little brain.
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to quickly flee
From Means of Grace and efficacy,
And people whose trust is in God's Word.
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
You earn an M.Div. and you graduate,
To hate all the Lutherans your teachers hate
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be carefully taught.

Every single collapse of Lutheran doctrine (Prussian Church Union, Revivalism, American Lutheranism, Lutheran Pietism, Pentecostalism/Charismatic Movement, Church Growth) has happened because of Lutherans abandoning Biblical doctrine in favor of Reformed doctrine and those methods associated with the doctrine. Pietists believed in cell groups, not the worship service and the Means of Grace. Pentecostals believe in their own sweating-shrieking-spirit-baptism, not in the water/Spirit baptism of John 3.

Those converted from Lutheran orthodoxy to another religion have always masked their new doctrine while insisting that the true measure of genuine religion comes from baptism in the new authors. Find out what these people create for their reading lists and their doctrine will be revealed in a flash. Lutheran social activists were baptized in Walter Rauschenbusch, measuring everything by his set of filters. Thus we have the foundation for ELCA activism today. Even the same "parables" are used. Should we bind the wounds of the man robbed on the highway - or - make that highway safe? (The answer is obvious to them, because they cannot comprehend what the parable actually teaches. Besides, they also want to add a toll-both on the highway.)

Both the current cancers are Reformed in doctrine - Church Growth and Pentecostalism. Look at the required readings lists. Read the people they quote with such adoration in their lite books and kooky essays. They almost always reveal, at one time or another, a hatred for Lutheran doctrine, Lutheran hymns, the Creeds, and reliable translations.

*When the Church Growth liberals decided to close Northwestern College and merge it with Dr. Martin Luther College, they did not call it a closing or a merger. They called it Amalgamation. One wit called it the Anschluss. The German word was a better description. The liberals promised that the pastoral track would remain and not be watered down. As soon as the shot-gun marriage was forced, after years of resistance from all parties except the Love Shack bosses, the pastoral track was abandoned. One friend called up and said, "They lied to us." I asked, "Was this the first time? Stop drinking the Kool-Aid and face reality."

Eighth Commandment - The Forgotten Paragraph

All this has been said regarding secret sins. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it. (The Ten Commandments, #284The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

This paragraph covers two matters. One is law-breaking. The other is doctrinal. Clearly, a district president, minister, or vicar who has been convicted by a jury and sent to prison would be identified and shunned under this rubric. However, the organizations cover up for these people so that the blue-haired ladies who give all the money do not have a stroke and cancel their pledges. ("Thank heavens," say the Tetzels, "for irrevocable gift trusts.") Therefore, we find actual criminals given the best possible PR, silence, encouraging others to follow their example.

The second part is passed over quickly in this passage but occupies all of Luther's writing. As someone mentioned years ago, Luther did not discover the Gospel. He did not become the first of his generation to teach the Gospel. His distinction was to teach the Gospel and declare what was contrary to the Gospel. The Antichrist could tolerate the Gospel alone, but he could not tolerate being called a false teacher. Luther did this throughout his writings and sermons. The Book of Concord is known for its antithetical statesments as well (Formula of Concord).

The false teachers today constantly run under the shelter of the Eighth Commandment. They are being slandered when their doctrine is questioned. One notable experience took place when I identified Paul Kelm endorsing a pan-Lutheran Church Growth conference. Frosty Bivens immediately stood up and said, "I want to defend Paul Kelm's good name." I wondered to myself, "What does that have to do with the truth?"

I was asked to prove Kelm's endorsement. I produced it in its original form. Bivens then said, "Maybe this was printed without his permission." Slick Brenner noted that this was not an isolated accident with Kelm. The Church Growth chorus always chimed in for each other and knew the DPs would always be their Amen Corner. Moreover, the Church Growth chorus is pan-Lutheran: their loyalty knows no bounds.

Yelling "Slander" falsely is itself a personal attack, and it is perversely evil. However, to counter by saying, "No you are a slanderer" is a gigantic waste of breath. Readers of Ichabod would be surprised at how nasty some Lutherans are in secret when they pose as mild and moderate in public.

Any attempt to deal with false doctrine will be met with demonic rage. If someone has published an error, such as Valleskey's disastrous We Believe, Therefore We Speak, his halleluia chorus for the Church Growth Movement, then his words are worthy of being dissected. I have published the verbatim quotations of these Fuller students many times. Oh my, how they howl in protest. "They were published out of context!" That encouraged me to quote even larger sections. The cries of injustice grew even louder, reaching the ears of their Father Below.

R. Schulz posted an excellent comment already. He is correct. The false teachers demand that their published errors be addressed privately, confusing the Eighth Commandment with Matthew 19. That does not work either. When I talked to various WELS pastors about what they were doing, a future DP told me, "You are so direct that it is causing great consternation."

WELS Pastor Stadler called me up in a fury because I published something against his published essay, called Heirs Together. I renamed it Errorists Together. He told me wrathfully that I should have "withstood him to his face." Very KingJamesish. It sounded well rehearsed. So I said, "Do you want to know what I think about your essay?" He said, "No."

When pastors went to Paul Kelm about his Church Growth fanaticism, nothing happened.

When ELS pastors had trouble with the sect's Public Ministry of the WELS document, they were defenestrated. I do not have the newest editions of the Book of Concord, but I suspect that the PMW is not there...yet.

Everyone benefits when doctrine is discussed and debated. The apostates knew what they were doing when they outlawed any form of dialogue about their errors. That is a sin against the Holy Spirit. The nasties are saying right now, "There he goes again." I have heard WELS pastors say, "The Holy Spirit put the circuit pastor in that office. Who am I to question his decisions?" Questioning any errorist in WELS is a confrontation with God Almighty. Count on it being something other than a still, small voice.

Eighth Commandment - A Price To Pay

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Next, it extends very much further, if we are to apply it to spiritual jurisdiction or administration; here it is a common occurrence that every one bears false witness against his neighbor. For wherever there are godly preachers and Christians, they must bear the sentence before the world that they are called heretics, apostates, yea, seditious and desperately wicked miscreants. Besides, the Word of God must suffer in the most shameful and malicious manner, being persecuted, blasphemed, contradicted, perverted, and falsely cited and interpreted. But let this pass; for it is the way of the blind world that she condemns and persecutes the truth and the children of God, and yet esteems it no sin.(The Ten Commandments, #262, The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Martin Luther consistently taught a theology of the cross: the Word brings persecution. When people leave ELCA for a conservative Lutheran body, they are shocked by the way in which Lutherans pounce on other Lutherans. Seminarians used to be surprised after they got their first call. What they did as seminarians was lauded previously. So many would say, "I am so glad you are training to be a minister." Suddenly, a Scriptural sermon creates an earthquake.

Much of that has changed since Missouri, WELS, and the ELS began aping ELCA in filtering out candidates for the ministry. In the old days, seminarians were welcomed in all denominations if they had the basic qualifications. Then the wise guys realized that one must be very picky about the ultimate harvest. Pre-seminary interviews in the LCA allowed bad attitudes (pro-life, etc.) to come out in the open. No certification for seminary in the LCA/ELCA meant the road was blocked. The pan-Lutheran leadership gatherings let the backward synods catch on to the political value of blocking candidates.

So many stories could be told about the evil practices of today. Most of them would open old wounds in friends. Much of this comes from the top down - synod officials and seminary drones thinning out the competition. After, if intelligent and highly trained men entered the ministry with an independent spirit, what become of the addled politicians who run the show? Even the dumbest church official knows when his job is threatened. Usually, everything except abject submission threatens him.

The sad harvest of shame is this: faithful laity can hardly find shelter in an orthodox congregation. Their pastor must goose-step to the tune of "Beautiful Sunshine" (the start of McGavran's career at Fuller) or find themselves suddenly declared "out of fellowship."

Bang the Doors Shut On Michigan Lutheran Seminary, Wayne!

On pages 20 and 21 is the Synod Convention discussion - Pre-Convention Coverage. One can easily infer that MLS closure is a foregone conclusion. There are two interesting paragraphs.

Under Ministerial Education concerns ---

"If Michigan Lutheran Seminary is closed, efforts will be made to replace the number of graduates that it sends to Martin Luther College. 'We need future workers in the church', says Mueller. 'Institutionally we have committed ourselves to recruitment.' This means implementing an aggressive recruitment strategy at Martin Luther College; working with area Lutheran high schools on recruitment; and encouraging current and future MLS students to attend Luther Preparatory School, the preparitory school closer to the greater concentration of WELS members and whose campus can accommodate more students."

Under Stewardship emphasis --

"A 21 percent increase (or $3.9 million) in 2008-2009 will allow WELS to maintain all of its current ministries, including MIchigan Lutheran Seminary. Once Congregational Mission Offerings reach that level, support needs to continue to grow 5 to 6 percent annually (for inflation) in order to maintain ministry. But this is no small task. Current commitments for 2007 were up only 1.4 percent over receipts for the last calendar year."

I am no CPA and Wayne did not send me the spreadsheets, but...

I wonder why so many budget items are non-negotiable. Technology seems way out of line for a small potatoes sect like WELS. Do the DPs have to enjoy assistants? The WELS DPs are just like Episcopal bishops. They have parishes but an underling does the congregation work.

I noticed from various news releases that the Chosen Ones fly all over the map for special projects. These too are dire necessities, I am sure.

New foreign missionary projects are run by Al Sorum and Company, another black hole of expense.

The WELS budget, as presented by Wayne Mueller, reminds me of the lawyer at the end of a tort lawsuit? "Only $500,000, Judge? Doesn't my client deserve something?"

I may be the first to notice that the 1.4% increase is a message to The Love Shack - new occupants wanted, at a lower occupancy rate.

WELS Different from LCMS?

The WELS AnswerMan has done it again. I suspect AnswerMan also wrote the letter being answered. The basic content is - We visited an LCMS congregation and could not wait to get back to the oasis of orthodoxy that is WELS/ELS.

I will allow that some WELS/ELS members are so brain-washed that they actually believe this nonsense. The laity I know are a bit wiser. They judge matters congregation by congregation, pastor by pastor.

The denominational label means nothing now. A significant number of LCMS congregations are Pentecostal. Others long for the embrace of ELCA. (Get your shots first, and always, always, wear your galoshes.) WELS has had a number of pastors go Pentecostal. The Love Shack bureaucrats would love to be in ELCA. Here and there pastors want to be Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox.

Missouri, WELS, and ELS all practice open communion or semi-open communion. The confessional congregations practice demi-semi open communion. ELS MDiv theologians Jay Webber argued for giving communion to ELCA members because "it prevents a lot of conflict."

I would never join the ELS now. Their toleration of Pope John the Malefactor shows a studied indifference toward sound doctrine and a timidity alien to their history. No sect is in greater need of a regime change.

Missouri is infected with papalism. Much of it comes from Ft. Wayne. That is good medicine for them, so they can avoid real issues. Picking the right incense and arguing for titles will keep them from discussing Biblical doctrine. I actually heard a presentation from a future Ft. Wayne professor where he condemned the use of individual Holy Communion cups! Patristic legalists are another version of Pietistic legalists - why talk about the Gospel when the Law is so much more fun?

Here is a favorite story from Pietism. An Augustana (the real Augustana, not the new fake one) leader visited a church, where the young pastor gave a blistering sermon against tobacco. At the dinner afterwards, the visitor lit up a cigar. The young Augustana pastor said in shock, "Why are you smoking after that sermon I gave?" The old man said, "Simple. This is give young pastors something to preach about when they cannot give a Gospel sermon."

The high church people might want to consider this point:

When Lutherans pastors are falling over each other to join Rome or to get their Fuller Seminary/Willow Creek tattoos, the time has arrived to avoid, in the clearest way possible, any assocition with both errors. That is the meaning behind the article on adiaphora in the Formula of Concord. I will post more on that later.

I fear too many pastors want to please that invisible seminary professor in the pew. This was a problem at Yale Divinity. Every seminarian wanted to give a sermon on the Binding of Isaac because of one particular professor and course. They failed to give a sermon for the professor and certainly missed the congregation. The senior pastor said, "I never want to hear another sermon on the Binding of Isaac." Some young pastors try to please their Fuller-trained professors and their Fuller-trained mission board zombies. Others think they will succeed when they get their congregations to call them Father, demand incense, and ask - "Would you please chant the announcements from now on?" Why would a Lutheran use the term Mass, which carries so much Roman baggage and so many associations with Purgatory? Is not Holy Communion a perfectly clear term for all Lutherans?

In the future, honest Lutheran pastors will either join Rome or the Assemblies of God. Then the remaining ones can study the Book of Concord in relative peace and harmony.

Fuller Seminary The Thread Uniting Apostate Lutherans: ELCA WELS, ELS, LCMS

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 2, 2007

ELCA to Offer Worship Jubilee 2007 in Chicago, August 3-6
07-119-LL*

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) second Worship Jubilee is August 3-6 here at Navy Pier. The event precedes the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Organized by the worship staff of the ELCA, the event will draw more than 700 people involved in worship and music throughout synods and congregations of the ELCA.

The event will celebrate the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW), and the future of renewing worship under the theme, "Thanks Be to God." ELW is a new primary worship resource developed by the ELCA, released Oct. 3, 2006.

"Worship Jubilee 2007 will reflect the diversity of the worship practices of the ELCA. Although this will be the culmination of our year-long celebration of ELW, this event is where the family of resources that the ELCA offers will really begin to unfold," said the Rev. Michael L. Burk, ELCA executive for worship and liturgical resources.

Worship Jubilee 2007 will feature worship, workshops, five primary presentations, and educational opportunities for children and adults. Pre-Jubilee events Aug. 2-3 will include tours of some Chicago congregations for "pilgrimage and prayer."

Workshops to be offered include: "Worship in Bilingual Assemblies," "Preach It, Pastor -- A Preaching Primer for the Person in the Pew," "Gathered for Worship in a Wounded World," "Liturgical Drama: Enacting the Sacred Stories" and "Living Chant: The Heartbeat of the Assembly's Song."

On Aug. 4 the Rev. Gladys G. Moore and the Rev. Clayton J. Schmit will present papers on the sending sentence, "Go in peace -- Share the good news." Moore is an assistant to the bishop of the ELCA New Jersey Synod, Hamilton Square, and Schmit is associate professor of preaching, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. Moore and Schmit will discuss the relationship between worship and what it means to be an evangelizing church.

On Aug. 5 the Rev. David J. Lose and the Rev. Glaucia Vasconcelos Wilkey will each speak about benefits and challenges related to the promise that Christ is with people as they are sent out from worship with "Go in Peace-- Christ is with you." Lose is an academic dean at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and Wilkey is founder and director of the Summer Institute for Liturgy and Worship, Seattle University.

On Aug. 6 "Go in peace -- Remember the poor" will be the focus of a presentation by the Rev. Raymond L. Schultz. He has been the national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), Winnipeg, since 2001 and will leave that role Aug. 31.

Worship Jubilee 2007 will conclude Aug. 6 with opening worship service for the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, will preach and preside at the service.

Question: Will James Tiefel (Mequon) be there, taking notes? He loves unionistic worship conferences.

Seventh Commandment - For the Rich and Poor

Thou shalt not steal.

Therefore they are also called swivel-chair robbers, land- and highway-robbers, not pick-locks and sneak-thieves who snatch away the ready cash, but who sit on the chair [at home] and are styled great noblemen, and honorable, pious citizens, and yet rob and steal under a good pretext.

Yes, here we might be silent about the trifling individual thieves if we were to attack the great, powerful arch-thieves with whom lords and princes keep company, who daily plunder not only a city or two, but all Germany. Yea, where should we place the head and supreme protector of all thieves, the Holy Chair at Rome with all its retinue, which has grabbed by theft the wealth of all the world, and holds it to this day? (The Ten Commandments, #229f., The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Nothing has changed. If a ne'er do well comes to church in his scruffy clothes, he is shunned. If the pastor has invited him, the pillars are outraged. If a rich man has built his fortune with sub-standard houses and breaking the law, the seas part as he enters church with his mistress.

When an even richer man has poisoned 250,000 people with tainted food, while giving a fraction of his wealth away, he is praised into heaven. If he has married the wife of his manager, he is granted a Scriptural divorce. Nevertheless, these robber barons have the worst kind of Midas touch. They want everyone to remember the golden era when they first parted with their riches. Instead, their malignant touch brings bankruptcy to the very church bodies they need to feel grateful to them.

Sixth Commandment -For the Young

Now, I speak of this in order that the young may be so guided that they conceive a liking for the married estate, and know that it is a blessed estate and pleasing to God. For in this way we might in the course of time bring it about that married life be restored to honor, and that there might be less of the filthy, dissolute, disorderly doings which now run riot the world over in open prostitution and other shameful vices arising from disregard of married life. Therefore it is the duty of parents and the government to see to it that our youth be brought up to discipline and respectability, and when they have come to years of maturity, to provide for them [to have them married] in the fear of God and honorably; He would not fail to add His blessing and grace, so that men would have joy and happiness from the same.

Let me now say in conclusion that this commandment demands not only that every one live chastely in thought, word, and deed in his condition, that is, especially in the estate of matrimony, but also that every one love and esteem the spouse given him by God. For where conjugal chastity is to be maintained, man and wife must by all means live together in love and harmony, that one may cherish the other from the heart and with entire fidelity. For that is one of the principal points which enkindle love and desire of chastity, so that, where this is found, chastity will follow as a matter of course without any command. Therefore also St. Paul so diligently exhorts husband and wife to love and honor one another. Here you have again a precious, yea, many and great good works, of which you can joyfully boast, against all ecclesiastical estates, chosen without God's Word and commandment. (The Sixth Commandment, #217f., Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Luther's concept of Biblical law is as old as the Torah. Most people hear that the word Torah means Law. The first things we think of when we hear Law is:
1) You must not, or
2) You must.

The Hebrew word Torah really means teaching. Luther taught natural law, meaning - God commands what is good. The Calvinists never recovered from John Calvin's training in secular law. Karl Barth, the main theologian of Fuller Seminary, was an apostate Calvinist. His ethics volume begins, "The gift is a demand." Only a Calvinist could write that. Maybe his mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum wrote the sentence. She co-authored the Dogmatics, inspiring many at Fuller to follow the example of this lovely couple.

This passage from the Book of Concord teaches that marriage and children are good, intended for virtually everyone. Luther said in a sermon 500 years ago that people delay marriage simply to justify fornication. Now we have suspended marriage and avoidance of children. How can blessings follow from the avoidance of God's good teaching?

Being married young and poor is a great idea. When people wait until they can afford everything (their version), they become selfish, self-centered, and brittle. The poor years are often those times when a family can spend the most time together. When prosperity arrives, everyone is busier. Many babies now arrive (if they do at all) in a large house with two new cars and many more luxuries. Both parents work for the luxuries, so mom is back at the office in two weeks. The baby thinks, "What happened?"

We were stranded at home in Sturgis, Michigan, when the Great Blizzard of 1978 hit. No one went anywhere for one week. Church, school, work was called off for one week. The state highway was buried for one week. We all looked 10 years younger when we got back together, surrounded by mountains of bulldozed snow. We had a Sabbath for a week. Everyone looked back on it with fondness.

Our poor years were leveraged by graduate school. I earned half-tiime pay, if that, traveled three times a week to Notre Dame, and got by on student loans. We also had a very sick daughter, Bethany, who had many trips to the hospital. We had a lot of time together, in the parsonage and the car. Sometimes Martin and I would hang around Notre Dame together. The religious orders loved having a pre-K in the marble-clad library.

We thought young marriage and early children (in that order) were great blessings. We had the overwhelming blessing of being young grandparents, another distinct advantage, beating my siblings by 10 years. You can guess why. One relative could not get married until she promised to have no children for 10 years. I thought, "Well, she is already marrying one baby. Why have a second so soon?" Sure enough, he cried at the wedding.

I am fortunate to have taught thousands of adult university students. I mention every chance I get, "Babies are a great blessing." Sometimes I quote Luther, "They are the blessed fruit of marriage."

Good News - Sixth Commandment Rescinded

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Therefore God has also most richly blessed this estate above all others, and, in addition, has bestowed on it and wrapped up in it everything in the world, to the end that this estate might be well and richly provided for. Married life is therefore no jest or presumption; but it is an excellent thing and a matter of divine seriousness. For it is of the highest importance to Him that persons be raised who may serve the world and promote the knowledge of God, godly living, and all virtues, to fight against wickedness and the devil.

Therefore I have always taught that this estate should not be despised nor held in disrepute, as is done by the blind world and our false ecclesiastics, but that it be regarded according to God's Word, by which it is adorned and sanctified, so that it is not only placed on an equality with other estates, but that it precedes and surpasses them all, whether they be that of emperor, princes, bishops, or whoever they please. For both ecclesiastical and civil estates must humble themselves and all be found in this estate, as we shall hear. Therefore it is not a peculiar estate, but the most common and noblest estate, which pervades all Christendom, yea which extends through all the world. (The Ten Commmandments, #208f, The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

The Sixth Commandment is as unpopular among ELS/WELS leaders as it is in Las Vegas. ELS seminarians were taught that the synod had a "Two strikes, you're out" policy. That is, a pastor could commit adultery, destroying two families at once, and still count on getting another call. Leaving the state is a good way to keep the ELS insurance premiums from going up. Lawsuits from a distance are expensive. However, if he did not learn his lesson the first time, will he he learn it the second time? Wait a minute. He did not learn the catechism the first time, took a call to teach the Law and Gospel, violated his call and contract, and then got another call to escape the tar and feathers? Yes, the ELS is orthodox and confessional, as they never tire of telling people.

The pernicious Universal Objective Justification opinion of ELS/WELS/LCMS is probably foundational for these problems. How easy it would be for someone to say, "I know I am already forgiven," before the self-destructive acts begin.

Nothing eases the mind more than certain knowledge of another call waiting for the adulterous pastor. Adultery means another call. Criticizing the synod means defenestration. Which is more attractive to the Old Adam?

When WELS DP Robert Mueller's VP was caught in adultery in his congregation, the man was allowed to resign under false pretenses and accept a job managing a WELS nursing home. Doubtless the ladies were charmed, after watching The Producers in its first version. Mueller explained that he stopped telling congregations the truth when giving them adulterous pastors. "When I did, the men were voted down." A layman heard this and his jaw dropped to the table.

Paul Kuske, now riding in on his white charger to save MLS, was First VP of the Michigan District, WELS, when he helped create an agency to give Floyd Luther Stolzenburg a stealth pastor's job. Stolzenburg left the LCMS ministerium fast, for cause. His wife divorced him, for cause. Stolzenburg hated WELS, so WELS had to have him as a Church Growth consultant, $40k per year, plus benefits. Kuske made it happen. Then after years of teaching false doctrine to WELS members, Stolzenburg received a letter of reference from Kuske for a call to an independent congregation in Columbus.

Matters are no better in Missouri. One pastor told me of efforts he made to get a pastoral child predator out of the ministry. The Missouri DP slammed his briefcase on the pastor's desk and screamed at him. On his way out of the church property, the DP said to a member of the church, "Your pastor is one of the best ministers we have."

The pastor said, "You can imagine the rage I felt inside."

Above are examples of the destruction caused by church leaders who refuse to do their jobs, pastors and seminary professors who rewrite the Scriptures to suit the Old Adam.

Luther's explanation of the Sixth Commandment glorifies marriage as the highest possible calling. Nothing enrages the false teachers more than someone enjoying marriage. False teachers are never happily married and seldom happy about anything. Marriage disturbs their well-being because God's holiest estate is a bulwark against the most evil designs of men and their Father Below. That is why such people pick at the pastor, his wife, and his children. They hate the Word of God, but that is not a good conversation starter.

The cases of adulterous Church Growth pastors are so numerous that any minister could easily rattle off a number he knows. Church Growth puffs up ministers for several reasons.

1. First of all, they have the blessing of the ELS, ELCA, WELS, and LCMS, a bad beginning.
   
2. Second, people may respond to the marketing methods, confirming the minister in his error.
   
3. Third, certain women like to be groupies, probably out of hatred for ministers or revenge toward their husbands.
   
4. Fourth, Satan blinds false teachers so that they glory in their success until the scales are ripped from their eyes. The head of the National Association of Evangelicals had a huge church, wife and children, when a male prostitute announced their business relationship.

Lenski said this a long time ago. The men who are not faithful to the Word often fall into many other grave errors as well. He dealt with many cases as a district president. (That was when district presidents were theologians instead of being politicians.) Walther said that a man could commit adultery only if he had already lost his faith.

When pastors have talked to me about the misery caused by apostate leaders and the minority being stirred up in their congregations by these fiends, I always said, "There is something that requires no vote by any church council. No approval is needed from your DP. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your marriage."

Luther said, "God does not take the troubles from your heart. He takes your heart from the troubles."

Wayne's World, Wayne's World Party Line, Party Line

If you want to know what is going on in the bowels of The Love Shack, 2929 N. Mayfield Road, read Wayne Mueller's blog. Ichabod costs nothing, by the way, but WELS spends over $1 million a year on technology. The technology is not impressive.

The party line is clear. President-in-Waiting Mueller is saying, "We will tell you what we will do with your money. If you do not improve, we will close Michigan Lutheran Seminary. If you do improve, we will close MLS and probaly Luther Prep, too." (I almost added And your little dog Toto.) The two preps will take down Martin Luther College.

Here are the facts. About 300,000 communicants give $1,000 per year per communicant. That includes all giving through the congregation. The math is easy. WELS has $300 million in giving, give or take a few dollars. I did not install $250,000 in software on my computer, so I may be a little off. At least I haven't spent $8 million twice and blamed it on my wife!

The communicants are saying, "We won't fund the party line." The pastors are sitting on their hands instead of applauding the synod. Some ministers actually formed a mild protesting group, Issues in WELS.

Can anyone imagine what the brilliant minds at The Love Shack have conceived in the Last few decades?

1. Let's have a new feminazi hymnal, and get rid of that Lutheran name. That will bring in hordes of new members. Charismatic Worship! No, too obvious. Christian Worship.
   
2. Let's get rid of Lutheran on the name of our magazine. And Northwestern as well. Too regional. That will bring in hordes of new members. Forward in Christ!
   
3. Let's work with ELCA on evangelism and worship. They are so cool.
   
4. Let's pay pastors to study at Willow Creek. One day all our congregations will be as big as Willow Creek Community Church.
   
5. Those Michiganders need a spanking. They did not want Martin Marty speaking at our college. Let's close their prep school.
   
6. The treasurer said we couldn't spend all our reserves and then some. Let's fire him and hang him out to dry.
   
7. Fuller Seminary hates Lutheran doctrine just as much as we do. Let's get all our leadership through Fuller and use Church Growth methods to rock the planet. I can see it now - World Evangelical Lutheran Synod. No, dump the Lutheran label, and add some personality:

   Wayne's World Evangelical Cell Group Association!

   
   

WELS Church Growth Hero

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec 25, 2006 by TOM HEINEN
Martin Luther wrote the lyrics centuries ago, but the eighth- note rock rhythms that pulsated through St. Marcus Lutheran Church on Christmas Eve clearly proclaimed that this was new terrain for "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come."

Such sounds would have been verboten in the distant past within the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, known for staunch theological conservatism.

But new ways to deliver God's message have been evolving.

Exploration of modern musical forms and instrumentation also has been happening for years in other branches of Lutheranism, and in other denominations, sometimes sparking what have been termed "worship wars" as contemporary and traditional approaches to music and worship vie within congregations.

At St. Marcus, 2215 N. Palmer St., traditional hymn lyrics are retained for its alternative service at 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Even the familiar tunes usually are there - just with a blues, pop, folk or rock 'n' roll setting, all played by the "house" band Koin.

Pete Reese, 32, a string bass player from Milwaukee, describes the music as "bombastic pop, to classic rock, to folk. Even a

Touch of metal, a touch of punk here and there."

"We don't consider ourselves a praise band," said Brian Davison, 28, of Milwaukee, the band's vocalist and the church's youth and music minister. "We call ourselves a worship band or a church band. All our songs come from old hymnal songs from the Lutheran tradition, and others. We are trying to give new life to some of the old hymns that taught so well and had such beautiful words."

'Natural drive'

Take the Luther hymn, for example.

"The song has natural drive to it," said Milwaukeean Benj Lawrenz, 31, the band's creative spark, electric and acoustic guitar player, and grandson of Carl Lawrenz, a theologian and former president of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon.

"It's the shepherds explaining to the world what they have just seen with the angels. So there's a lot of energy to the lyrics. And the music has a lot of energy behind it. If you play it in an upbeat tempo, it just pushes you forward, like the shepherds were being pushed."

That hymn was one of several from the synod's 1993 book, "Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal." Adding brief narratives and Scriptural readings, the service told the Old Testament history that led up to Christ, the events around his birth and the sacrificial purpose for which he came.

"A lot of times people leave Jesus in the manger, and it's just really nice and cuddly at Christmas," Lawrenz said. "They forget that this person came to die for the sins of the world and not just to be a ploy to sell Christmas merchandise."

There is theology behind retaining traditional lyrics, which are seen by some as more accurately reflecting Scripture.

"You have to get the difference between the way the evangelicals and Lutherans look at theology," said James Tiefel, dean of chapel and a professor of worship and homiletics at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. "The evangelicals will say that a human being has to make a decision to become a Christian. And so the way you get him to make that decision becomes very important. You have to find a way to raise his emotions or convince his intellect. Lutherans will say the Holy Spirit works through the word (Scripture) to create a Christian." [GJ - So how are Church Growth WELS/Missouri/ELS/ELCA leaders different from the Reformed?]

There has been some experimentation with full-blown praise bands in WELS churches for at least 10 years, but it is not widespread, Tiefel said.

One of the noteworthy WELS examples nationally is St. Mark Lutheran Church in De Pere. About 80% of the music that its praise band plays comes from top-selling contemporary Christian music. The church, which has a $150,000 audio-visual system with two big video screens, has nearly 2,000 members and needs to expand beyond the new facility it built a few years ago, said Phil Boileau, its minister of music and family.

A growing number of WELS churches nationally are making at least some use of contemporary music and instruments beyond the organ, according to Tiefel and the Rev. Bryan Gerlach, administrator for the WELS Commission on Worship. At least 150 have gotten instruction at Gerlach's School of Worship Enrichment. [GJ - But Wayne Mueller says there is no Church Growth in WELS, not even by another name.]

25% offer alternative service

Wayne Mueller, first vice president of synod mission and ministry for WELS, estimates that 25% of the denomination's 1,263 congregations offer some type of regular alternative worship.

He thinks the push for contemporary music is coming from 35- to 40-year-olds, and that younger people prefer tradition. He also cites a study that correlates membership growth with the percentage of a congregation's people involved in Bible study.

Unlike many other mainline denominations, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has had stable membership instead of losses. There were about 317,000 baptized and confirmed members 16 and older in 1990, a majority in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. Now there are about 315,000, Mueller said. [GJ - Say what? WELS has lost members steadily for decades, under the watchful eye of Wayne Mueller.]
Formed in 1993, Koin, the St. Marcus band, took its name from an ancient Greek term for the language of the common people. With Seth Koch, 25, of East Troy as a newly added replacement on drums, and Seth Bauer, 26, of Waukesha on piano, the band recently released its second CD. Koin has played at more than 70 churches in the region.

A Man Speaks - But Who Is Listening?

WELS President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller:

God Bless Our Decisions
Last weekend the Synodical Council found itself in nearly the identical financial position as it was at the February meeting. The support forecast and budget emergencies in mid-March forced $2.3M in cuts to Home Missions, World Missions, and Parish Services. The SC applied the blessing of the 5-year gift of $2.5M to those cuts for the first year of the upcoming fiscal biennium.

For the second year of the biennium 2008-2009 half of those cuts will be reinstated to areas of ministry other than Ministerial Education. Mission divisions will each lose about a half million of their budgets for that fiscal year and Parish Services will also be cut. There will be no cuts to Ministerial Education for the next two years. BME will retain its full allocation, keep the $2.6M addition from the November 2007 meeting, benefit from a $170,000 annual gift to their special funds for 2007-2009, and retain all the savings of the proposed closing of Michigan Lutheran Seminary in their budgets.

Starting July 1, 2008, and for four years after that, the SC designated half of the new $2.5M gift annually for debt reduction. Since WELS’ debt service for more than $20M in loans currently comes out of our operating funds, this move will have the affect of relieving the operating budget of nearly a million dollars a year of debt service. This will allow the $2.5M gift to be the gift that keeps on giving long into the future and have a stabilizing affect on support for ministries.

These budget moves by the Synodical Council presuppose that the convention will uphold their recommendation to close Michigan Lutheran Seminary. If the convention reverses their decision, much larger cuts to other areas of ministry will have to be considered to cover not only the operating costs of MLS, but also the BME deficits which, with MLS open, will climb to over $5M by the end of the 2009-2011 biennium.

It was the prayer of Synodical Council members that God would bless their decisions in a way that would demonstrate their desire to maintain prep level education in the WELS, offer overall long term stability to our support of ministerial education, and live within our means while keeping our core ministries intact.

As C. Peter Wagner Stated, Church Growth Principles Just Don't Seem to Work

Commercialism Strangles Congregational Stewardship

God must not bless commercialism in His Church, because the money-changers in the Temple always drive out good stewardship.

The biggest problem with selling to the public while remaining a church is the effect on the conscience of the congregation. Soon the church members and synodical leaders are not ashamed of anything.

They all fit the old Jewish joke which goes like this. Sadie says, "If I had Rockefeller's money, I would be richer than Rockefeller." The friend says, "How?" Sadie says, "Because I would do some sewing on the side."

So the congregation and synod think Thrivent gifts and pie sales are extras. In fact, the sewing on the side suppresses giving.

One congregation got $1,000 every year from the Dow Foundation. All they had to do was write a thank-you letter. Every year they said, "We are $1,000 behind, but we will get that from Dow."

When people relie on outside sources, they trim their giving back accordingly.

The double dose of poison from Thrivent and Schwan is this - The apostate leaders control the funds (their money) and grow very lax about reporting them. People think, "They have extra money." Giving slides downhill while the genuine needs grow.

The gap grows faster because the extra money goes for luxury Wild Hair projects. No one would fund them from offerings if they knew the truth about them. So the officials spend their money (in their febrile minds) on their projects and beat up the congregations for being so stingy and mean.

The late St. Marvin of Schwan actually enabled the bankruptcy of WELS and Missouri with his outlandish gifts. They blessed his divorce and second marriage, and this is how he repaid them!

Killing and Killers

Thou shalt not murder.

Secondly, under this commandment not only he is guilty who does evil to his neighbor, but he also who can do him good, prevent, resist evil, defend and save him, so that no bodily harm or hurt happen to him, and yet does not do it. If, therefore, you send away one that is naked when you could clothe him, you have caused him to freeze to death; if you see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve. So also, if you see any one innocently sentenced to death or in like distress, and do not save him, although you know ways and means to do so, you have killed him. And it will not avail you to make the pretext that you did not afford any help, counsel, or aid thereto, for you have withheld your love from him and deprived him of the benefit whereby his life would have been saved. (The Large Catechism, Fourth Commandment, #189f, Book of Concord)

First of all, there are the cases of two WELS church workers who killed their wives. Al Just was a teacher at Arizona Lutheran Academy when he claimed his wife rolled over on a steak knife so many times that she died from the wounds. The jury convicted him. Al married his children's babysitter while in the hoosegow. The president of Martin Luther College was a character witness for Al. Busloads of brainwashed sect members came to support good ol' Al at his trial. He was convicted but spent very little time in the slammer.

WELS Pastor William D. Tabor was found in Milwaukee with a dead wife on his hands. He was allowed to move from Salem, Milwaukee to a new call in Escanaba. He never served time, but his mistress did. WELS had accepted him by colloquy even though he was a known serial adulterer.

How much hatred or cowardice must church officials have... when they condone and cover up for murder?

There are other types of murders that take place routinely. Thanks to the meddling of church officials (ELS, WELS, ELCA, LCMS), faithful pastors are driven from the ministry. Church officials encourage the parish to be cold and merciless to the former pastor. Congregations are divided and wounded. Families are alienated. Friends are lost. The financial cost is enormous for the minister, but there are prices to pay in other areas. For instance, few children of church workers today want to follow their parents in the same vocations. The main problem - contempt for their parents expressed in so many ways by the church officials. Rather than serving as buffers between the pastor and congregation, the officials serve as Iagos, enabling the murder of Desdemona while clucking their pious tongues.

Lest we forget, ELCA pays for the murder of unborn babies in the denomination's health plan - for any reason. Only an apostate could sit in the same room with ELCA leaders and plan religious efforts with these corpse-cold murderers, whose outward compassion does not keep them from ending the lives of the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak, the unborn. Still, the old Synodical Conference (WELS, LCMS, ELS) gladly works with ELCA, especially through Thrivent grants for pan-Lutheran projects.

Praise Music Doesn't

"You Are My All in All"
copyright, Dennis Jernigan, 1991 Shepherd's Heart Music

You are my strength when I am weak,
You are the treasure that I seek,
You are my all in all.
Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord to give up I'd be a fool, [fuel is a better rhyme here]
You are my all in all.

Jesus, Lamb of God -- worthy is Your name.
Jesus, Lamb of God -- worthy is Your name.

Taking my sin, my cross, my shame,
Rising again, I bless Your name,
You are my all in all.
When I fall down, You pick me up,
When I am dry You fill my cup,
You are my all in all.

A columnist for The American Spectator Online has written a fine critique of praise music for a conservative, political magazine. Is that a recursive? - critique of praise.

Here is what he wrote:
"IT IS AN INTERESTING PARADOX. Churches devoted to rigorous, difficult theology -- real Christianity, in short -- have largely adopted praise music, mainly to get people in the doors. In doing so, they have denied their parishioners an intimate connection with the art, the music, the poetry, and the history of the faith of our fathers, embodied in hymns."

He did not name the pain - Church Growth - but his diagnosis is accurate. Ever since I was ordained in 1973 I have tried to introduce good Lutheran hymns to Lutheran congregations. Ministers often take the easy route and favor the Methodist-Baptist hymns found in Lutheran hymnals. Lutheran hymnal editors have increased the icky song content in each new edition. Add to that the pit bands in the chancel and Cousin Brunhilda singing ridiculous twaddle to a back-up tape. I was shown Ron Freier's church in Michigan. Very large. He featured pop music. His son, Mark Freier, carried things farther along, left the Lutheran church, and perhaps left the ministry. The Wisconsin Synod had nothing but praise for Mark as he apostacized.

The Freier saga could be retold with variations in many other WELS families. The father stays in the synod while turning Baptist. The son does an extreme version of the same routine, with hosannas from the synod hierarchy, and leaves the Lutheran Church he already abandoned in substance.

I can imagine more than one son saying, "Pop, I did what I learned from you. Besides, the synod printed me up in bulletin inserts and praised my holy name all the while. They sent me to Fuller and paid my tuition at Willow Creek."

The worse thing to befall any pastor is the praise, support, and encouragement of the Wisconsin Synod. "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" 2 Samuel 18:33

Let us turn our attention to the praise music copied above. I am teaching creative writing at the moment. I would give this ditty a D in a spirit of compassion. As a Christian song the hackneyed words deserve an F.

The song is really praise of self, like most praise music. Remember Augustine's great statement about two loves and two cities? This song represents the Love of Self and the City of Man. A Pharisee might cloud up during its rendition. A real church musician would cry in shame. A sincere Lutheran pastor would hide in the sacristy. Worship is the ultimate expression of a congregation's doctrine, a synod's doctrine. Lutherans have stampeded to study at Fuller and Willow Creek. Is it a wonder that they sound Baptist-Pentecostal and worship in the same spirit?

To get people in the doors, Lutheran churches have sold their heritage for a bowl of soup. They have denied their own doctrine so long that they hate it without knowing what to love. Twenty years ago, I told DP Robert Mueller what members experienced visiting WELS churches in Florida. Thanks to the frenzy of Church Growth there, the members said, "The only way we could tell those churches was Lutheran was by reading the sign outside." Mueller glared at me for questioning the wisdom of this anti-Lutheran, anti-Christian movement.

Languages and Prep Schools

Americans are anti-language training.

A pastor needs to know various languages: Hebrew, Latin, Greek, German. A number of WELS pastors said, "You know German!?" I said, "You graduated from seminary and didn't learn it?!"

Latin can be taught in the sixth grade, using the Gospel of John. Translate without a pony. Learn the words and grammar by reading. Translate the words known and guess the rest. Reading the Gospel of John in Latin will be a good start for all Latin training. It is a good father-son activity.

One language start per year is plenty.

Greek should follow Latin. The grammar is quite similar. The Gospel of John in Greek is perfect for learning New Testament Greek. The idea should be read the New Testament like a newspaper, not "translate" while reading. The pony has to be chucked. No one can learn a language with a pony or with an interlinear crutch.

German is heavily reliant on Latin. The Gospel of John provides the vocabulary and basic grammar. By the way, grammar is derived from literature, not literature from grammar. Show me a grammar expert and I will show you a non-writer.

My prize student was asked, "How do you know it's subjunctive?"

He responded, "Because it looks funny." Try that in Greek, Latin, and German. Subjunctives do look funny.

A good translator looks at groups of words to make sense. A grammar weenie parses one word at a time. Grammar weenies get good grades, become language teachers trying to produce more weenies, a good example of making disciples.

Language immersion is the only way to really learn a living language. The Army does that very well. Eat, sleep, talk, read the same new language. The brain switches over so that the new language is no longer really translated. It is just known and understood. That would put the weenies out of a job, so they keep on slaughtering the innocent, making them hate all language training.

Hebrew is not tough but can be turned into a difficult language. Hebrew is absolutely essential for understanding the Old Testament. I asked to study Hebrew at my LCA seminary. The dean said, "Why?" Jonah or another simple book is a good start for Hebrew. The best teacher is one who knows and loves Hebrew. Watertown had an excellent professor of Hebrew. The men left college with a solid knowledge of Hebrew. They knew Greek and probably some Latin. Our son could speed-translate Latin, German, Greek out loud, faster than I could follow the text. He could follow Spanish TV and translate back and forth in Mexico. He knew Hebrew quite well.

I did what I could for his language training. MLS and Watertown (now Luther Prep) contributed their share. His mother contributed a rare genius for language and a photographic memory, which he inherited. Then he got involved in computer languages, which were easy compared to human language.

WELS AnswerMan Not Apt to Teach

"With regard to textual criticism, KJV advocates take the illogical position that the relatively recent manuscripts which were available to the church in 1611 are more reliable than the much older manuscripts that have become available to us since. They also fail to appreciate that the manuscripts used to produce the KJV—including the manuscript tradition known as the Textus Receptus—are themselves the products of textual criticism. If Erasmus, Tyndale, Luther, or the scholars who produced the King James Version had had access to the Greek papyri or the Dead Sea Scrolls, it’s impossible to imagine that they wouldn’t have used them."

This is one, dumb paragraph. WELS pushed pastors out of the ministry for favoring the KJV, which was formerly the standard in all LCMS and WELS congregations, in all the English-speaking world.

The KJV is really a version of the Tyndale translation. He was burned at the stake for his work, prefiguring the fate of others who wanted a good translation. The NIV is a joke, constantly changing from bad to worse, increasingly feminazi in its butchered renderings.

Returning to the stupidity expressed by AnswerMan - the KJV relies on the enormous body of Byzantine texts, thousands of them. The Byzantine Empire was highly literate, Christian, and Greek-speaking for 1,100 years. So what would they know about Greek manuscripts, eh AnswerMan?

The modern text critics base their work on three goof-balls. Wescott and Hort were told to produce a new translation but to leave the text alone. They made up a bunch of rules which are fatuous but still followed - and they create their own text of the New Testament. Tischendorf was the other fake. He "discovered" two New Testament manuscripts which he declared to be the best of all. One was at a monastery on Mt. Sinai. The other came from the Vatican. The two sources do not agree but have similar tendencies. Many scholars are suspicious of people who make their names discovering something by accident. Neither manuscript has a known origin. I am not saying they were forged. They are like the Shroud of Turin, appearing conveniently late in history.

When you read the NIV, look for all the verses cut out. A committe of five votes on them. If the vote goes 3-2 against the verse, color it gone.

Missouri and WELS have made a bundle from the NIV, a unionistic effort involving two WELS seminary professors, gobs of Pentecostals and Baptists. Free trips to Israel. Nice perks for unionists and compromisers.

The new edition of Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant has exactly one (1) verse from the NIV. The NIV is completely anti-sacrament. Surprised?

Synodical Schools Good and Bad

The Good
Prep schools are synod supported high schools designed to give a classical, European style education to future teachers and pastors. Religion is almost completely banned from public schools (except for Islam and Hinduism) but the Christian faith remains an integral part of prep school education. They do not need committee approval to sing a Christmas carol in December. Chapel services are a normal part of the day and an excellent potential for Lutheran worship education.

Money should never be an issue with a prep school student. Those who have less money should feel no more burden than the children of wealthy parents. A fair system attracts the broadest spectrum of students while a cash-hungry school will tend towards selecting only those who can afford it.

No one is ever going to replace a prep school. A private school is not the same. Many started out with a religious background, but that receded when the school became a proving ground for high society. Chapel, yes. Taken seriously, no. The public high schools are now so low in academic content that most should be shut down.

Church Growth = School Shrinkage
Church Growth leaders hate the schools because a traditional Lutheran educational system assumes the efficacy of the Word. Church Growth gurus are self-loathing snobs. They want to evangelize the fashionably foreign, flitting about from one exotic country to another. They do not want their own children educated to spread the Word. Anyone with an IQ above room temperature can see the anti-Christian roots of Church Growth, so the Enthusiasts hate intellectual rigor. Prep schools offer the potential of creating genuine Lutherans while the Fuller fans want Baptists and Pentecostals.

The Bad
The WELSian tendency to keep making the same mistakes has led to a culture of hazing.
The sadistic hazing is tolerated, even welcomed by the prep school staff. After all, they were hazed and hazed others. One seminary professor laughed when he told about the boy suspended from the window by his legs. They let go by mistake and he plunged head-first to the ground - from the second floor. Some hazing can be harmless and fun - make my bed, carry my books. Other hazing is insanely evil. The trouble is - dealing with the problem is called ratting. They have punishments for anyone who tells. That is why the typical WELS pastor is so timid. The preps and upper level schools (especially the seminary) have promoted a culture of conformity through intimidation. That is now working against the prep schools and college. SP Gurgel only needed to show up at Issues in WELS to suppress the attendance by 150%. He scowled when he should have been listening, but he got his agenda across: "Do not offend the Great and Terrible Oz!" That works better with money coming in.

Needless to say, some people remember painful experiences with hazing. They are not allowed to say it, and they are not going to go all out to fund the sadists they remember so well.

The Ugly
The area high schools have grown in number and have drained off resources and students from the preps. New Ulm once had a prep. Now they have an area high school. Phoenix has a fair number of congregations, but the nearest prep is in Wisconsin. So Phoenix has an area high school. The experts in demographics might have anticipated treating all regions equally instead of putting two preps in Wisconsin and then closing one. Regionalism is stronger in WELS than any other synod. Virtually all the leaders and professors are from the Watertown prep. That sounds like an exclusive sorority, doesn't it.

Shamelessly Copied from Issues in WELS

I found this at Issues in WELS. They copied it from a previous report.

An Interesting Thought from 1961 by Benjamin Tomczak
(6-25-07)

I was taking a look at the Proceedings of the 1961 synod convention (as I'm sure many of us have been lately), and I came across an interesting report from the Prep Course at Northwestern College (pages 65-68, if you're curious).

It appears that at that time, they were addressing concerns about the curriculum at the prep schools and the value of doing things the way they were doing them. The defense they offer for maintaining the prep school system is one that we can, should, and must make today as well. I find it interesting that these thoughts from nearly 50 years ago still ring true. I offer them here without further comment:

"Are we trying to teach too many different subjects during the eight years? If we were trying to specialize in some one language, or in history, or science, the answer would be Yes.

"But our purpose is not to specialize to train experts in one field; our purpose is rather to supply the student with the fundamentals of the subjects with which he should have some familiarity as a pastor, and to give him the tools that he can use later if he wants to concentrate on one subject. We must remember that many of the boys now in our school will one day be called upon to teach in our schools and colleges. The very nature of our whole system requires that we train our own teachers and professors as well as our pastors. We cannot avoid inbreeding. We have to lay the foundation now for the work as pastors, teachers, professors that our boys will one day have to do. Of necessity that foundation will to be rather broad.

"Why continue to teach German and Latin? It ought to be taken for granted that a Lutheran pastor who bears the name of Luther proudly should be able to read and understand Luther's language as we have it in his translation of the Bible, in our hymns, and in the originals of our confessions, such as the Catechism and the Augsburg Confession.

"As for Latin, there is no medium that is so suited to illustrate the meaning of the grammar of all languages as the Latin language. Latin is the enemy of ambiguity and obscurity. It is the source of many thousands of English words. Instruction in English, German, Greek always rests heavily on the foundation laid in Latin. A good foundation in Latin makes the mastery of all other languages easier.

"Can the course not be changed so as to make it possible for public high-school graduates to enter our college to prepare for the ministry? Suppose we waive all foreign language requirements for admission to the freshman year of college in order to make it possible for high-school graduates to enter without a handicap and with no loss of time. What would follow? After not many years our synodically operated preparatory schools would be dead. Parents would not send their sons away to school when the Synod lets them know that they can get all they need for admission to college at home, at less cost, and at less effort to the boy. In effect, this would make the public high school our preparatory school for the ministry until we had our own high schools spaced throughout the Synod. And finally, it would be impossible to start Latin, Greek, and German, all at once in the freshman year. Something would have to go, and that something would be two languages…

"Can the area high schools not take over the work now done by the synodically operated high schools in Watertown, New Ulm, Saginaw, and Mobridge? Area high schools will always be under pressure to give the kind of course that the parents in the area and the vast majority of students desire and ought to have. A course that definitely points to the ministry will be demanded by relatively few. The smaller schools will find the cost of providing special classes for these few a heavy burden. Preparatory schools should always have the broad financial support provided by the entire Synod, should have the backing of the whole Synod when times are bad, and should be under synodical, not local, control.

"There is no compelling reason to be observed in the quality and the ability of the students in our schools, nothing in the conditions under which we are operating, nothing in the financial status of our Synod, nothing in the laws of the State that would make it necessary or advisable to make a radical change in our course of studies. On the contrary, everything that is happening in the world would rather argue that we develop as soundly educated a ministry as we can. Our course is intended to develop a teaching, preaching ministry. It is a course that tends to preserve us from becoming a church of the social Gospel that spends its strength in the interest of social, physical, and economic welfare.

"It we give up the languages we shall find that the vacant space that they leave will soon be filled with the popular subjects - social studies, psychology, psychiatry, community welfare, and so on. The experience of seminaries and colleges that have lost interest in the languages proves this to be the case.

"We must not weaken our preparatory departments, because in the degree in which we weaken them we weaken the college, and consequently also the theological seminary and the ministry."

Augsburg Confession - Anniversary Today

The Augsburg Confession was largely the work of Philip Melanchthon. Luther had to stay away because his life was in danger. Imagine that. The typical Lutheran pastor today is afraid he might miss lunch, or miss being appointed to the nominating committee of his sect.

The Confessors of the past were in danger of losing their lives. Many were driven out, as Chemnitz was. Many pastors were exiled and imprisoned.

June 27th also marks the death of our dear friend, Brenda Kiehler. She died of osteogenesis imperfecta, which caused her bones to break and disappear. She had more physical problems than Job, but she could say and sing, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Her favorite hymn was "Beautiful Savior." She cared deeply about everyone and she loved Lutheran orthodoxy. She said, "I don't have anything else. I don't have health or money."

Brenda is an example of what the Gospel creates in the form of spiritual fruit. The world saw nothing but a tiny woman in a powered wheelchair. People treated her as deaf and retarded. Those who knew her realized she had a genius IQ, excellent observational powers, and a wicked sense of humor.

A day without an email from Brenda (during her health crises) was a day without sunshine. Now she rests in the bosom of Abraham, receiving all the good things for eternity.

How Norm Berg Killed Martin Luther College

I remember the old days, when WELS was entirely foreign to me. No one paid attention to WELS because the synod was almost absent where I lived and worked. I used to walk by a WELS church near a cornfield on my way to college. In my second call there was a small WELS church in Sturgis. I went to meet the pastor there.

A WELS church usually opened with a small school. Apparently they funded the building, the pastor, and a teacher. Bronze Age Lutherans remember schools with no tuition - it was part of the budget. When schools turned to tuition, they soon became private schools or even reform schools for the general public. That is the source of the lawsuit against California Lutheran High (WELS). Girls were kicked out for allegedly being lesbian, on very shaky grounds. The school was not all-WELS, so the normal excuses for abusing authority could not be used. California has strict laws about public institutions. One may expect this case to cost a bundle.

Getting back to Norm Berg, veteran of Fuller Seminary. How did I know? Do I have video of him on the campus? Do I have his tuition bill? No, I have a letter from him where he confessed. Berg was the head of Home Missions for WELS. He promoted "New Mode" evangelism, based on felt needs. Google "felt needs" and you will get Fuller material. I attended a brain-washing session where Berg bragged about taking mission church money away from the teachers. If the buildings were tinier (WEFs) and only one person funded with a pitiful salary (the pastor), then Berg could conquer North America with his missions. I was at a conference where Berg hoped out loud that he could defeat higher salaries for mission pastors to have more money for his missions. Pastors were costly overhead, but home office drones were not.

So WELS wasted millions on the ugliest, cheapest WEFs and stopped building schools. They did overfund one church in Coral Gables, Florida, filled it with Church Growth gurus, and sold the beautiful church building to Catholics when the experiment collapsed. Those gurus are not even Lutheran today.

So Berg effectively took away the need for Dr. Martin Luther College as a teacher's college. After a few decades, the need for training parochial school teachers dropped. DMLC refused state certification for years, so a degree from DMLC was pretty limiting.

WELS schools are closing right and left now. The parochial schools are closing for various reasons (costs, greying of the denomination). The preps will probably be gone soon, throwing more teachers into the secular workplace. "You mean we can't haze students in public school? Drop them upside-down from a window on the second floor? I miss my prep school."

Norm Berg is not the only Church Growth leader to put a hex on the school system. His work at 2929 N. Mayfield (The Love Shack) was all Church Growth. If you seek a monument for Church Growth in WELS, look around you. Count the empty pews, the empty buildings, and the many lawsuits.

Third Commandment Refutation of Kent Hunter, Lawrence Olson, D. Valleskey, Paul Kelm, Waldo Werning

For let me tell you this, even though you know it perfectly and be already master in all things, still you are daily in the dominion of the devil, who ceases neither day nor night to steal unawares upon you, to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against the foregoing and all the commandments. Therefore you must always have God's Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle, and the Word does not sound, he breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware. On the other hand, such is the efficacy of the Word, whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard, and used, that it is bound never to be without fruit, but always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness, and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these words are not inoperative or dead, but creative, living words. And even though no other interest or necessity impel us, yet this ought to urge every one thereunto, because thereby the devil is put to Right and driven away, and, besides, this commandment is fulfilled, and [this exercise in the Word] is more pleasing to God than any work of hypocrisy, however brilliant. (Third Commandment, #100ff, Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

One WELS pastor was kicked out of the ministry and excommunicated for believing this passage. WELS members now refuse to fund the clowns who turned a denomination into their private sandbox for Church Growth experiments (Lutheran Parish Resources, Crossroads Community Church, CrossWalk, ad nauseam).

I realize how little one individual can do against these tyrants. Many laity have said, "They ignore me because I am a layman." I always say, "I am a pastor. They still ignore me." I had the advantage of publishing my thoughts in various forms. Besides, I mailed proof of false doctrine so often that my son called it my Xerox Ministry. I told Church Growth guru James Huebner about my ministry of mailing documents to people. His faced turned pale. I wondered why.

Nevertheless, we should read this passage as the greatest possible comfort in dealing with the apostates of the Lutheran Church. All we need is the pure Word. Everything will follow from that. Nothing else is effective. Only the Word will produce the fruit God desires. Apart from that Word, nothing can be accomplished, no matter how it is packaged or forced upon the unwilling and gullible.

Pastors and laity only need a good Bible (not the NIV, but something in the KJV family), a Book of Concord, Luther's Sermons, and a few other books. Opposition will follow a return to the basics. From that antagonism will come a new appreciation for the Confessions.

The Book of Concord was meant to be studied and absorbed during a time of crisis. That time has arrived.

Third Commandment - Large Catechism

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

For the Word of God is the sanctuary above all sanctuaries, yea, the only one which we Christians know and have. For though we had the bones of all the saints or all holy and consecrated garments upon a heap, still that would help us nothing; for all that is a dead thing which can sanctify nobody. But God's Word is the treasure which sanctifies everything, and by which even all the saints themselves were sanctified. At whatever hour, then, God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read or meditated upon, there the person, day, and work are sanctified thereby, not because of the external work, but because of the Word, which makes saints of us all. Therefore I constantly say that all our life and work must be ordered according to God's Word, if it is to be God-pleasing or holy. Where this is done, this commandment is in force and being fulfilled.

On the contrary, any observance or work that is practised without God's Word is unholy before God, no matter how brilliantly it may shine, even though it be covered with relics, such as the fictitious spiritual orders, which know nothing of God's Word and seek holiness in their own works. (The Large Catechism, Third Commandment, #91ff, Book of Concord)

The problems of the Lutheran Church could be solved with the proper application of the Large Catechism, especially the section dealing with the First Table of the Ten Commandments. In Luther's day the simple were bedazzled with hilarious claims about the saints, many who never existed. The saint stories were designed to stir up good works leading to partial salvation (a bit less of Purgatory) in the Medieval Church.

Now with Lutheran ministers poping (joining Rome) and semi-poping (joining Eastern Orthodoxy) we have that old problem plus the curse of Church Growth marketing disguised as Reformed doctrine. Classical Reformed doctrine and worship are both far above Church Growth circus acts. One friend put it this way, "Our Fundamentalist church was fine until a Fuller graduate came and ruined it." Fuller graduates are equal-opportunity Satanists. They have destroyed more churches than the Chicago Fire, and just as indiscriminately.

The central thesis of this gem from the Large Catechism is the efficacy of the Word. We are not to remember the Sabbath passively, by not working, but actively, but studying the Word. God's Name and Satan are incompatible, just as Satan's trick's and God's Word are in a constant state of warfare.

Church Growth addicts, who are often Pentecostals, fool people with their constant invocation of Jesus, church, and Holy Spirit. Every Pentecostal (all denominations submerged by their common identity) is an apostle, it is thought. God speaks to them directly. They have the confidence of the totally deluded.

Pastors and laity did not stand up to the false teachers. First the false teachers assailed the text of the New Testament. And the compromisers merged Creation with Evolution. Next they questioned the canon of the Bible and its inerrancy. Naming Jesus and blaming Him for their need to create apostate mergers, the followers of their Father Below prepared everyone for the Church Growth Movement through the catastrophic losses they inflicted on their various church bodies.

A hero emerged - from the most liberal denomination - Donald McGavran, Disciples of Christ. He worked in obscurity until he was elevated to his post at Fuller Seminary, a school that openly rejected inerrancy. McGavran had no theological education beyond seminary, but that was fine. All the church politicians are M.Div.s as well.
McGavran's doctorate was secular. His book is so full of doctrinal stupidity that one can only laugh. His most notable disciple, C. Peter Wagner, is so dumb that he makes McGavran look like a theologian. Wagner is a Pentecostal. He swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all, as evidenced by his grin and book titles: Look Out! The Pentecostals Are Coming!

The Fuller marketing experts got denominational leaders frightened with statistics. They got the world mission leaders (ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS) and the home mission leaders (ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS) to study their nefarious doctrines. Many of those politicans were either neutral about doctrine or against anything from Luther. Soon they trust in spread-sheets, statistics, demographics, and the prophetic utterances of Donald McGavran. The cancer spread as pastors learned that the path to success started at Fuller, not their own seminaries.

What did the timid Lutheran pastors and laity do? Almost nothing. Their punishment is to live with the consequences of 30-70 years of false doctrine (depending on where we begin). Their donations are being wasted. Congregations are closing and merging (a stealth closing). Criminal pastors are defended while confessional pastors are defenestrated.

When there is a concerted attack on God's Word, consequences will follow.

To Fumigate the Devil

Besides, it is an exceedingly effectual help against the devil, the world, and the flesh and all evil thoughts to be occupied with the Word of God, and to speak of it, and meditate upon it, so that the First Psalm declares those blessed who meditate upon the Law of God day and night. Undoubtedly, you will not start a stronger incense or other fumigation against the devil than by being engaged upon God's commandments and words, and speaking, singing, or thinking of them. For this is indeed the true holy water and holy sign from which he flees, and by which he may be driven away. (Introduction, The Large Catechism, #10, Book of Concord)

Wallace Schulz pointed out in his article that LCMS pastor's libraries, donated to the Concordia Historical Institute, are now comprised of non-Lutheran books, for the most part. I used to look for library sales at Trinity Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, because the retiring ALC pastors left such valuable books to be grabbed. I often took home boxes of old classics to be given away. The Gentiles gathered during their apostate chapel service, lined up first, and grabbed the Luther, Walther, and General Council books. We were banned from being first in line. The students (male, female, and in transition) wanted to gather some old classics to be used as lucky charms and coasters for their future offices.

We are what we consume. If we do not dwell on the few excellent Lutheran books available along with the text of the Scriptures, we will become theologians of the sects we admire so much. WELS and Missouri pastors want to call themselves Lutheran, but they walk and talk like third-rate marketing consultants for moderate Reformed sects.

My good friend Dan warned WELS leaders they were dealing with "powers and principalities." They did not want to hear that, so they pushed him out of the ministry, a calling he loved. A fellow pastor, in the same city with the same qualms about Church Growth, also found himself pushed out. Pimps for the Church Growth Movement retire in peace, but those who read the Confessions are hounded out of the Preaching Office of the Church. "The glory has departed from Israel."

Warming Trends in LCMS Election Race Heats Up Slightly

I believe Kieschnick will be re-elected with an overwhelming vote this summer. His slate will probably win, too. LCMS will meet July 14th.

People should read about the issues.

This link is a paper about Yankee Stadium by Pastor Wallace Schulz:

Yankee Stadium.

The Schulz essay about how Missouri got so mixed up is here:

It is written.

Statistics

I saw some interesting statistics for Missouri. They have 1,000 more pastors than they did 20 years ago, but far more pastoral vacancies. I wondered how that could be. Then I saw that the number of pastors serving in non-parish positions had tripled, from around 250 to 750.

Just like WELS - pastors want to flee the Predigtamt (Preaching Office) for a real office, a big salary, perks, no catechism class, selective preaching (bonus cash) giving the same sermon a zillion times.

The denominations immune to any suggestions are the ones with the most bureaucrats per member.

Latest WELS Offering Scheme Fails

"Dear brothers,

Today the Conference of Presidents (COP) met in teleconference. They learned that 105 congregations have responded to their appeal to review 2007 Congregation Mission Offering subscriptions and to consider increasing CMO subscription for 2007—and possibly to enter a preliminary subscription already for 2008.

The COP is asking you to report this information via the WELS Web site, www.wels.net/jump/cmorevision even if you have decided not to make any changes. (NOTE: any special offerings collected for CMO beyond your congregation’s original subscription can be included in the revised CMO figure).

This appeal from the Conference of Presidents was launched after a forecast of CMO for 2007 projected an increase of 1.4% over the 2006 calendar year receipts. While the increase is greatly appreciated, it doesn’t keep pace with the increasing cost of maintaining current ministry—about 5.5% each year. If the projected increase for 2007 remains at 1.7%, WELS will not be able to meet its adopted budget. If support for synodical work does not increase further, the reality is that WELS will have to gradually dismantle the ministry we are carrying out (including further reductions in missions, ministerial education, and publications).

In order to maintain WELS ministry status quo, the synod needs to see an 8% increase in each of the next four years starting in 2008. If we boost the increase to 17% right away in 2008 we could consider restoring the portions of our ministry lost over the last five years.

Again, if you haven’t already, please visit www.wels.net/jump/cmorevision by the end of the day Friday, July 20th to complete this process according to the directions given at the site.

On behalf of the Conference of Presidents, thank you for your time and consideration. God’s blessings to all of you as you “proclaim peace through Jesus” to all those you touch with your life and ministry.

In Our Savior’s Service,
Pastor Dave Liggett
WELS Ministry of Christian Giving Director"

***

Perhaps the congregations are giving a no-confidence vote to the WELS leadership. The congregational response is beyond pitiful, more like defiant. Long ago, when a comedian was asked if he voted, he said, "I don't vote for politicians. It only encourages them." Why encourage the administration to close more schools?

Reading the tea leaves, the economic analysts at Ichabod predict that this will seriously hurt the chances of President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller to upgrade his role and salary.

The Second Commandment

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.

But, the greatest abuse occurs in spiritual matters, which pertain to the conscience, when false preachers rise up and offer their lying vanities as God's Word.

Behold, all this is decking one's self out with God's name, or making a pretty show, or claiming to be right, whether it occur in gross, worldly business or in sublime, subtile matters of faith and doctrine. And among liars belong also blasphemers, not alone the very gross, well known to every one, who disgrace God's name without fear (these are not for us, but for the hangman to discipline); but also those who publicly traduce the truth and God's Word and consign it to the devil. Of this there is no need now to speak further.

Here, then, let us learn and take to heart the great importance of this commandment, that with all diligence we may guard against and dread every misuse of the holy name, as the greatest sin that can be outwardly committed. For to lie and deceive is in itself a great sin, but is greatly aggravated when we attempt to justify it, and seek to confirm it by invoking the name of God and using it as a cloak for shame, so that from a single lie a double lie, nay, manifold lies, result.

For this reason, too, God has added a solemn threat to this commandment, to wit: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. That is: It shall not be condoned to any one nor pass unpunished. For as little as He will leave it unavenged if any one turn his heart from Him, as little will He suffer His name to be employed for dressing up a lie. Now, alas! it is a common calamity in all the world that there are as few who are not using the name of God for purposes of lying and all wickedness as there are those who with their heart trust alone in God. The Large Catechism, Ten Commandments, Second Commandment, #54-58, Book of Concord

The enormous evil of the Church Growth Movement is unmasked in this passage from the Book of Concord. Apostasy wears the cloak of spirituality. "This is for the good of the synod."

"God wants his church to grow," said the late Donald McGavran, but apparently He also wanted His followers involved in Planned Parenthood, a suggestion by McGavran. Also, according to Church Growth gurus, God does not give a hoot about pure doctrine. Make up anything and call it God's Word. He does not care, as long as the buildings are bigger and the budgets are overflowing.

God spoke to McGavran directly, chiding him about his reluctance to use statistics in India. Or so McGavran told us. I suspect God does not sound exactly like McGavran.

When people claim that God speaks directly to them, apart from the Word, they are either fakes or delusional. One WELS leader claimed that God told him to take a new position, debating with him a bit. Too bad I lost the link. There is a lot of Pentecostalism in WELS, doubtless from immersion in Willow Creek and Fuller Seminary.