Confession of Sins - SP Mark Schroeder

"It's been said, 'As a seminary goes, so goes a synod.'" ~ President Mark Schroeder, WELS.

Here is my NNIV paraphrase - dynamic equivalency - 

"It's been sad. As a seminary goes down the drain, so does the synod. And we are all to blame."

Internet Meltdown Day

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Everything went wrong yesterday, Internet-wise. Our worship service began with lags and losing the connection, and ended completely, partway through the service.

Cox was unreachable, except through their robot voice, so I figured it was system failure from the storms.

One online school had its grading function broken. "When will it be fixed?" Silence.

Because I moved from XP to Windows 7, I lost some crucial passwords, my email address list, and my main email password. That also prevented some fixes because the send a password function would go to my email address. This kept me from taking care of some other items on the computer.

My wife wanted to know about a routine test I was having. Oh, that information got wiped out.

Today has to be better.

Windows 7 Transition - Not As Bad as the ObamaCare Website

"It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

I am converting from Windows XP to Windows 7 this weekend. That means I have lost the email addresses for now. I am going to change calendars and do some other things to catch up with the 21st century.

Team Ichabod was able to use this opportunity to recycle some equipment.

The main fixes will be done today and the rest done over the next week. Backing up an old operating system and reloading it is almost as much fun as moving, which we did last year at this time.

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity. Matthew 24:15-28

The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 2013

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time

The Hymn # 4     God Himself                    4:93

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       

The Gospel              

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed             p. 22

The Sermon Hymn # 268           Zion Mourns      4:98 

Abomination of Desolation

The Communion Hymn #305            Soul, Adorn Thyself             4:23 

The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 657            Beautiful Savior            4:24  

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

King James Version (KJV)

¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Matthew 24:15-28

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

¹⁷ Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

¹⁸ Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

¹⁹ And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

²⁰ But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

²¹ For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

²² And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.

²⁶ Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

²⁷ For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

²⁸ For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

Abomination of Desolation

¹⁵ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Few resist the temptation to predict the end of the world. One part of my family become Adventists, a group that grew from two failed prophecies about the end of the world. Since Miller was the teacher, the Adventists were called Millerites. Many of them were in Battle Creek, Michigan, and they influenced Kellogg and cereal manufacturing.

Some of the Noel clan moved to Iowa and began making a living with hog farming, so they could no longer be Adventists. They became Evangelical Protestants, a name that once meant inerrancy of the Scriptures, Creation, and the articles of faith found in the Apostles Creed.

Living in the South is a time shift, reminding me that we have many Americas. In one week I talked to two college students about the Bible Bowls, where children compete in memorizing entire books of the Bible. That sort of activity was once known among Pietists, who have advanced to rationalism and social activism.

This passage in Matthew is a two-fold warning. One part consists of signs that the end is coming, so that every believer will be aware and fore-warned. This is the global version of what happened in Jesus’ ministry, when He warned the disciples to “watch and pray” (literally stay awake and pray) while they fell into deep slumber. Jesus was facing His torture and death, praying to the Father, but they were too tired to do the same.

The other part of this lesson warns against following false Messiahs, who will definitely spring up.

²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.

Rationalists dismiss Jesus predicting the future, making up various excuses, but they have to admit. This is exactly what happened. The first Jewish rebellion against Rome began about 70 AD, and that meant:

1.    The population of Jerusalem was starved and enslaved.

2.    The Temple was utterly destroyed.

3.    Rome celebrated the victory with a special coin.

Only a few decades later, another rebellion began, a Jewish Messiah leading his forces into another debacle, which was equally devastating to the Jews.

²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.

Messiah means king, so the ideal was always to be a powerful political, religious, and military leader like David. Son of David is another term for the Messiah, since Messiah means the anointed king. Christ is the Greek version of Messiah.

But God did not give Israel a Messiah like David, but one beyond their hopes and imagination. Military and political heroes fail. Their reign is limited. Their power is often taken away in an instant.

But the real Messiah – His reign has extended ever since public ministry took a heavenward turn and the Spirit began Gospel work through the Word, through the Gospels.

The false messiah warnings were even more important in subsequent centuries, since Christianity took over the Eastern Roman Empire (a fact we forget) and then the Western European part of the Roman Empire.  Many deceptive trends and frauds enticed people who no longer studied the Word of God.

²⁶ Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

Luther’s sermon reminded me of an important development, which is still with us. The monastic tradition grew out of the practice of going out alone in the desert. Qumran was one of those communities.

St. Jerome wasted away in the desert, and Augustine almost worshiped this tradition. The idea was to have people abandon a normal family life and save the world by prayer, meditation, and fasting.

The Greeks have an independent little area reserved for this today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos

In a few words, this prophecy is seen so revealed in the action of the works-saints. They will find Jesus in the desert! Most of the tales of monasteries involve someone trying to save his soul by joining. That is what happened to Luther, whose time in Augustinian monastic life gave him the authority and experience to expose it as a fraud.

Luther’s essays on monastic life, on marriage, empties the convents and monasteries. Former bachelors became husbands and fathers, leaders of the Lutheran Reformation. Luther reluctantly joined, joking about marriage to his father, and hearing his father ask why not.

“Not in the secret chambers” – There are so many ways that false versions of Christianity displace the Gospel of the Scriptures. They always involve leaving the world God has given us and creating a new secret world for the elite. Some do that with excessive prayer, others with devotion to a secret agenda. Nothing is so exciting as a secretive group. As Dickens observed, a secret group will enroll 200 people while an open volunteer group can barely gain two or three members.

So it is – everyone wants to know the real origins of the Masonic Lodge, but the clear text of the Bible – they take that for granted. The Bible is so easily accessed now that hardly anyone knows it or understands it.

Contemporary worship – that great hunk of bait to snag the unwary – has songs where the content could just as easily be Buddhist as Christian. There is no confession of truth at all.

Or an entire hymn is sung to the Holy Spirit without an indication that the Spirit is always united with the Word. And because of this confusion and ignorance, the Spirit hymn is a  hope for some ecstatic experience, as if we will this upon ourselves instead of hearing/reading the Word as the normal part of the Spirit’s work.

For example, many college students have said, “No one taught us how to write a good essay.” I am sympathetic because no one gave me the formula. I learned on my own and found out that everyone had the same answer.

There is a same answer for every Christian question, because the true Church has always existed and will always remain until the end. But to separate the good from the bad, we have to be discerning and wise rather than blindly naïve.

²⁷ For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

²⁸ For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

This warning, based on weather patterns, is vivid and memorable. We look at “accuweather” and take the predictions as an eternal maybe. Sudden storms rise up, like the windstorm yesterday. The weather began cold, warmed up, then combined that warm weather with high winds and a tiny bit of rain.

At times the storms come to rest over the area and lightning bolts precede thunder by moments, while pets shiver in bed.

We will not know the end of time until the actual appearance of Christ. Then the evidence will be so abundant that no one will doubt He is the Son of God and Savior.

SpenerQuest Adds UOC to the Vocabulary of the Hive. Jester Swoons

Read slowly, SpenerQuesters.
React - not with your usual venom and unbelief -
but with your ministerial reason.

George Mueller (Mueller) Senior Member Username: Mueller Post Number: 1070 Registered: 11-2012	Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 8:38 am:       Brett, you mocked my answer to your question about binding sins. Your mockery consisted in a rationalistic rejection of the gospel. Yet you accuse the orthodox of rationalism! You are the rationalist. You ask how all sins can be forgiven when Jesus paid for them if the sins of the impenitent are retained. That's a rationalistic argument. Your arguments against objective justification are not based on Scripture. They are based on your erring (and confused) human reason. Read article four of the Augsburg Confession. Here we Lutherans teach what justification by faith means. Read it carefully and see if you can find what the object of justifying faith is. In other words, what does the faith that justifies believe? "When they believe that . . ." Check it out and see for yourself what a Lutheran confesses. Justifying faith believes . . . what? Now this is a simple exercise, Brett. You claim to be a Lutheran and you claim to accept the Lutheran Confessions. So tell us, how does the text of the Augsburg Confession read? "When they believe that . . ." What? What is it that one believes when he is justified through faith?
Rev. David R. Boisclair (Drboisclair) Intermediate Member Username: Drboisclair Post Number: 373 Registered: 1-2002	Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 8:43 am:       Brett, you are the only one of the people who are contending with us on this topic who is willing to take a serious look at the evidence. However, you need to see that the reason that we are contending for the "Synodical Conference" doctrine is that we believe that Scripture teaches that doctrine. It is not a matter of us rationalizing it. Rydecki and now ELDoNA have restricted their view of Scripture to what they perceive the 16th and 17th century Lutheran theologians to have interpreted Scripture to say. These classic Lutheran theologians have pointed out that Romans 5:18 (Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life) points out that condemnation is decreed by God over all people because of Adam's sin. Now, as you know not all people are going to hell, so even though the verdict of condemnation is pronounced in God's Law over all people that does not mean that all people have gone to hell. In the same way as the condemnation is universal so also is the verdict of acquittal in the Gospel: all people are encompassed in that verdict of God but not all have been regenerated to receive that verdict. That is the doctrine of the Gospel, the doctrine of Universal Objective Justification. You have Universal Objective Condemnation in the Law and Universal Objective Justification in the Gospel. This is the clear teaching of God's Word not rationalism. Gregory Jackson engages in Rationalism when he slanderously accuses us of Enthusiasm because he reasons this way: Justification can only be seen narrowly as an individual's being brought to faith by God the Holy Spirit through the means of grace. Those who view Justification in a broader manner as God's action in the historic work of Christ violate that narrow view; hence, those who view Justification in a broader manner are Enthusiasts who believe that God deals with people directly without means. Another thing you should keep in mind is that Christians are permitted to use their reason ministerially (of course, not magisterially). That is what we are doing. We use our reason to serve our understanding of the Holy Scriptures not to govern our understanding of the Holy Scriptures.
Joe Krohn (Jester) Member Username: Jester Post Number: 188 Registered: 4-2011	Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 10:00 am:       "You have Universal Objective Condemnation in the Law and Universal Objective Justification in the Gospel." Spot on. I don't mean to skew this discussion, but if one would want to really expose the doctrine of Brett Meyer et al, transition to the intertwined Doctrine of Election.

SpenerQuesters, Jay Webber, his catechumen Jon Buchholz,
and various ninnies see Rambach as their Reformer.

SpenerQuest Dunderheads Do Not Trust God's Word - But We Have to Listen to Their Words...Endlessly

The UOJ Stormtroopers are Leftists; they are destroyers of faith and have no faith.

It is no wonder that WELS and Missouri do not want to call their so-called missions Lutheran or even a church, because they despise Luther's doctrine and the Means of Grace.

They are only Lutheran when they want grants from Holy Mother Sect. Then they forget their Fuller/Willow Creek nonsense and put on pious looks. We had a college student president who was a Maoist all week long, until he had to speak to the parents gathering. Then he shaved and put on a business suit (three piece) only to revert again on Monday.

Deception is deeply rooted in WELS and Missouri, especially because the radical element took over gradually only by fooling everyone.

WELS has a special institution called GA hazing, where lying is the entire program. They still deceive people by denying GA still exists.

WELS clergy know the game, so when someone tells another outrageous lie, they interpret it thus, "Thus is policy whether you like it or not. Make one more sound about it and you are dead to us."

Missouri really established the program by establishing a sex cult far away from the suspicious eyes of the St. Louis residents, where they might have built an entire suburb with their money. Instead they obeyed the orders of their syphilitic bishop and founder, Martin Stephan, and bought worthless Mormon land in Perryville.

Everyone now blames Stephan, whose death CFW Walther hastened with his brutal treatment, but everyone who left the bishop's family behind in Dresden was guilty of deception and self-deception.

Staying with the deception and abuse means, "I choose the lies over the truth of the Word. I would rather have 10 friends among the abusive than 100 in the Kingdom of God."

People whine about how their conventions are manipulated. But who is man enough to stand at the mike and say, "Point of order. You cannot do this"? No one.

UOJ Enthusiasts - All Personal Because They Have No Faith

Support our fund-raisers, which show that we cannot support ourselves.

I was having some laughs with another writer about UOJ people boiling over on SpenerQuest.

Everything is personal for them, so they have to rave about me or someone else. They do not address Luther's great Galatians Commentary because they lack the capacity to understand and teach Biblical, Lutheran doctrine.

They could develop an ability, but that is impossible when they keep circling the corpses of the Synodical Conference, raising saints from the dead, as it were.

The truth does not depend on whether I am seen as a monster or a prophet. The personal attacks make me smile, but I would rather see the yammering yahoos deal with Luther's doctrine. They refuse. That would be work, heavy labor instead of Starbucks-induced hyperventilating.

The UOJ Hive cannot cite a single Biblical passage to support their delusions. Rather than deal with Luther on "bears the sins of the world" or Paul in Romans 4, they move along with new discoveries made from skimming texts.

SpenerQuest Takes on Brett Meyer - SpenerQuest Loses

George Mueller (Mueller) Senior Member Username: Mueller Post Number: 1071 Registered: 11-2012	Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 3:06 pm:       Brett, to make it easier for you, here is Article Four of the Augsburg Confession. I have put into bold type what justifying faith believes. Perhaps this will help you understand. Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe thatthey are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight (Rom. 3-4). Do you see, Brett? Faith believes that he is received into favor and that his sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for his sins. This is what we Lutherans teach. Please notice how faith in the favor of God, faith in the forgiveness of sins, faith in Christ, faith in Christ’s death, and faith that Christ’s death has made satisfaction for one’s sins is the same faith. It isn’t a matter of believing in the forgiveness of sins or of believing in Christ. One doesn’t believe in one or the other or one before the other but in both at the same time. Please respond to what I am pointing out to you from the Augsburg Confession. Is it not perfectly obvious that the object of justifying faith is the favor of God and the forgiveness of sins and that this forgiveness is a present reality that faith grasps? ". . . their sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by his death made satisfaction for our sins." ARE FORGIVEN, Brett. Not will be when we believe. Is this not what the words plainly say and mean? Isn't this what we are to believe and through such faith be justified?
Brett Meyer (Brett_meyer) Member Username: Brett_meyer Post Number: 121 Registered: 1-2008	Posted on Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 12:52 am:       Mr. Peter Prange states, “Their very unbelief will be the basis of the divine judgment that comes on them, not God's lack of having forgiven them in Christ Jesus.” This is another UOJ teaching which winds up feeding on itself. What do I mean? UOJ teaches that God forgave the whole unbelieving world in Christ (Jesus Canceled their Debt) among those sins that Jesus forgave the unbelieving world was the sin of unbelief. No, it’s not the unforgiveable sin as the Lutheran Synods falsely claim. Romans 11:23, “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.” So then unbelief is a sin that Christ died and paid for. And since UOJ teaches God forgave all sins in Christ then what you are effectively teaching is, “That unless unbelievers believe that God forgave them all sins, including the sin of unbelief, unbelievers will go to Hell for eternity for not believing God forgave them for not believing.” I’m correct in that statement about what UOJ is teaching. UOJ makes equally circular and contradictory statements such as the statement from Joe Krohn, “God has wrath for no man / God has wrath for unbelievers.” Mr. Prange goes on to teach in harmony with the doctrine of UOJ, “If God has not forgiven unbelievers, upon what basis can he judge their unbelief? They would be failing to believe something that wasn't real and true because they hadn't believed it! “ Mr. Prange I believe your statement makes God’s Word subject to the limitations of your human experience and is consistent with the type of theology that has spawned the doctrine of UOJ. Scripture contends against this false dichotomy that UOJ teaches when God declares in John 16:8-9, “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me;” Note that it doesn’t state, ‘because they believe not that they were forgiven already’ but it states, “because they believe not on me” on Christ. The false dichotomy is that UOJ sets up the false declaration that the whole world is forgiven all sin (their sins have been canceled, debt removed, the unbelieving world has been absolved) and UOJ argues that if that declaration isn’t true then there’s nothing to believe in – so the declaration has to be true. There is no such declaration taught in Scripture or explained in the Lutheran Confessions. UOJ’s faith clings to a false declaration – no wonder you teach an individual should not look to his faith for comfort – your faith is in a false object that never occurred and not in Christ alone. No wonder UOJists find no comfort from faith for they do not have the faith of the Holy Spirit who teaches in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Mr. Mueller, we are at an impasse. You defend UOJ’s teaching that God has in fact declared the whole unbelieving world absolved, justified and righteous in Christ before faith – even if they never have faith in Christ. I believe and confess in accord with Scripture and harmony with the Lutheran Confessions that God has promised to be reconciled to, absolve, justify, declare righteous, adopt as children and save eternally all those who by the gracious gift of faith trust in Christ alone. You deny the doctrine of UOJ teaches a false object of faith by quoting the BOC here, “(men) are freely justified for Christ’s sake through faith when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ”. You teach that forgiveness must come before faith but the BOC is speaking of the result of faith in Christ alone “through faith” which is believing that they are received into favor and their sins are forgiven. The BOC confirms my confession here (note specifically 113]): The wrath of God cannot be appeased if we set against it our own works, because Christ has been set forth as a Propitiator, so that for His sake,the Father may become reconciled to us. But Christ is not apprehended as a Mediator except by faith. Therefore, by faith alone we obtain remission of sins, when we comfort our hearts with confidence in the mercy promised for 81] Christ's sake. Likewise Paul, Rom. 5:2, says: By whom also we have access, and adds, by faith. Thus, therefore, we are reconciled to the Father, and receive remission of sins when we are comforted with confidence in the mercy promised for Christ's sake… Paul on the contrary, teaches that we have access, i.e., reconciliation, through Christ. And to show how this occurs, he adds that we have access by faith. By faith, therefore, for Christ's sake, we receive remission of sins. We cannot set our own love and our own works over against God's wrath. 86] But since we receive remission of sins and the Holy Ghost by faith alone, faith alone justifies, because those reconciled are accounted righteous and children of God, not on account of their own purity, but through mercy for Christ's sake, provided only they by faith apprehend this mercy. Accordingly, Scripture testifies that by faith we are accounted righteous, Rom. 3:26. We, therefore, will add testimonies which clearly declare that faith is that very righteousness by which we are accounted righteous before God, namely, not because it is a work that is in itself worthy, but because it receives the promise by which God has promised that for Christ's sake He wishes to be propitious to those believing in Him, or because He knows that Christ of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, 1 Cor. 1:30. 113] But faith, properly so called, is that which assents to the promise[is when my heart, and the Holy Ghost in the heart, says: The promiseof God is true and certain]. Of 114] this faith Scripture speaks. And because it receives the remission of sins, and reconciles us to God, by this faith we are [like Abraham] accounted righteous for Christ's sake before we love and do the works of the Law, although love necessarily follows. 115]Nor, indeed, is this faith an idle knowledge, neither can it coexist with mortal sin, but it is a work of the Holy Ghost, whereby we are freed from death, and terrified minds are encouraged and quickened. 116] http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justificati on.php Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
George Mueller (Mueller) Senior Member Username: Mueller Post Number: 1072 Registered: 11-2012	Posted on Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 7:25 am:       Brett, it is perfectly clear that you are either unable or unwilling to engage actual arguments. I have shown you from the clear words of the Augsburg Confession that justifying faith trusts in a present reality that ones sins are forgiven. That's what the words says. You refuse to engage me on the words before us and insist on running away from the words to other words that you imagine disagree with the words to which I would bind you. You do the same with the Scriptures. You argue like a Jehovah's Witness. Whenever you try to show them how the Bible really does teach the deity of Christ, they run to another passage that they think is incompatible with it. The deniers of objective justification have a cult-like way of thinking. Dancing and bobbing around the Scriptures and the Confessions, never willing to stand still and engage on the actual meaning of the text.
Peter M. Prange (Peterprange) New member Username: Peterprange Post Number: 8 Registered: 8-2011	Posted on Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 7:33 am:       Mr. Meyer: Would you be so kind as to answer the following question? True or false: God only bestows forgiveness in baptism on those who believe.