Sing This Hymn at the Next Church and Change Conference for WELS

Bruce Becker is the Administrator of WELS Parish Services (Wayne Mueller's old job) but he failed to inform the Synod President that DPS was calling Paul Kelm back to The Love Shack. Rev. Bruce is also a board member of Church and Change, where Wayne Mueller's son is a bigwig.

Paul Kelm, Larry Olson, and James Huebner were trained at Fuller Seminary to be Parish Consultants. That is Kelm's new call, to spread the false doctrine of Fooler Sem and Willow Crick Community Church. No decision so far.

New Age Methodist Leonard Sweet was head of the seminary that trained Rev. Jeremiah Wright ("God _____ America!"), so Church and Change made him their keynote speaker. The fierce rabbits of the WELS ministerium finally stomped on their paws and said, "No!" blocking the conference. Church and Change pouted, regrouped, and launched their next conference from the WELS.net website. Doubtless they were helped by having the head of WELS technology as a Willow Crick addict, who once channeled Hybels in every sermon - verbatim.

Church and Change was founded to overturn Lutheran doctrine. They imagine they own the Wisconsin sect now. No one elected them at convention. As evidenced by Kelm's stealth call, they do not think they need to be courteous or orderly.

"Lord Jesus Christ, With Us Abide"
by Nikolaus Selnecker, 1532-1592
Selnecker was an editor of the Formula of Concord, 1580. He was bitterly attacked and severely persecuted by the Reformed, deposed when Augustus died, reduced to poverty, and not allowed to remain in Leipzig as a private citizen. [GJ – Imagine that!]
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: General Council Publication Board, 1911, p. 310ff.

1. Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For round us falls the eventide;
Nor let Thy Word, that heavenly light,
For us be ever veiled in night.

2. In these last days of sore distress
Grant us, dear Lord, true steadfastness
That pure we keep, till life is spent,
Thy holy Word and Sacrament.

3. Lord Jesus, help, Thy Church uphold,
For we are sluggish, thoughtless, cold.
Oh, prosper well Thy Word of grace
And spread its truth in every place!

4. Oh, keep us in Thy Word, we pray;
The guile and rage of Satan stay!
Oh, may Thy mercy never cease!
Give concord, patience, courage, peace.

5. O God, how sin's dread works abound!
Throughout the earth no rest is found,
And falsehood's spirit wide has spread,
And error boldly rears its head.

6. The haughty spirits, Lord, restrain
Who o'er Thy Church with might would reign
And always set forth something new,
Devised to change Thy doctrine true.

7. And since the cause and glory, Lord,
Are Thine, not ours, to us afford
Thy help and strength and constancy.
With all our heart we trust in Thee.

8. A trusty weapon is Thy Word,
Thy Church's buckler, shield and sword.
Oh, let us in its power confide
That we may seek no other guide!

9. Oh, grant that in Thy holy Word
We here may live and die, dear Lord;
And when our journey endeth here,
Receive us into glory there.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #292
Text: Luke 24:29
Author: Nikolaus Selnecker et al., 1611
Translated by: composite
Titled: "Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ"
Tune: "Ach bleib bei uns"
1st Published in: Geistliche Lieder
Town: Leipzig,1589

***

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Sing This Hymn at the Next Church and Change Confe...":

Pres. Schroeder didn't know Kelm was called to "the Love Shack"? This is just one example of how you spread lies. Did Pres. Schroeder tell you this, or did you just pick it up on Bailing Water? Ever hear of the 8th Commandment?

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Sing This Hymn at the Next Church and Change Confe...":

I personally emailed Schroeder concerning Kelm's call. Schroeder (sic) response was identical to Reverend Jackson's explanation of events.

[GJ - One typo in only one line, definitely a WELS writer.]

**

GJ - I have gone all day without being accused of violating the 8th Commandment. Of course, a false accusation like the one above is slander, anonymous slander at that. I verified the information, just as John at Bailing Water did (independent of me). John added that the call was intended to be "a kick in the groin for SP Schroeder."

Ichabodians can thank the apostates for being so quick to accuse me. I make sure I have the information exactly right. NorthWest says, "Any time I could verify the information, Greg, you were always correct."

Since Rev. Mouse is so keen to bring up how this happened, perhaps he could provide the memo, email, or other details about exactly when Church and Church board member Bruce Becker informed the Synod President about the call to Kelm. I eagerly await the results. Bruce Becker, Church and Change, and all The Love Shack denizens should admit to the Wisconsin Synod that they put out the news of the call so that the Synod President would learn about it the way everyone else did - from reading the call list. The time has come for the Augean Stables to be cleansed.

Hard Drives Do Crash

Computer experts learn the hard way to anticipate catastrophe.

The Plucked Chicken:
Update 2008-10-11

Amazon has shipped the new hard drive. (Amazing how cheap storage has become!) They estimate delivery on the 15th of October. I also need to buy a new fan for the power supply. The new hard drive will be the biggest in the house. I may use it in the machine that hosts the Plucked Chicken, effectively making it a file server for our house to which we can back things up. Or, I may swap it into my desktop machine. I like the idea of a large file server, though. Hang tight.

The Plucked Chicken is offline due to a hard drive crash. It may be possible to recover the old posts and comments from the database, which resides on a different hard drive. Whether or not that's possible, the Plucked Chicken will rise again... later. Right now there are other things to do.

***

GJ - Hard drives crash, often without backup. There are many ways to backup the most valuable files on a hard drive:
1. Upload them to a website, with the knowledge that people can find and read them, even when they are not linked on webpages.
2. Save them to your backup computer in the same location (not so hot when there is a fire or a flood).
3. Save them on a thumb (jump) drive, although these little miracles are the best way to lose large amounts of confidential data.
4. Back them up remotely with Norton 360, a service provided with their virus protection, firewall software.
5. Back them up remotely with Dell's service.
6. Back them up remotely with Carbonite.com ($50 a year). A new hard drive is cheap. Remote backup is probably cheaper.

I am not being holier than thou, because I have crashed three hard drives. I have lost work, but not enough, according to Rev. Mouse.

The remote backup is the best solution because remote Internet storage will check the computer every night and backup the newest files.

Look Out, Episcopalians

Will The Keys to Your Church Belong to The Episcopal Church in 2009?

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

www.virtueonline.org

10/8/2009

If Katharine Jefferts Schori and her attorney David Booth Beers have their way a resolution will be put on the table at GC 2009 forcing all parishes to reconstitute their legal titles to reflect irrevocable trusts with their respective bishops as beneficiaries, and by extension, The Episcopal Church, VOL has learned.

According to a canon lawyer and bishop, the Dennis Canon does not currently (nor can it) require a reconstitution of deeds and local church titles. However, there MIGHT be a move to amend the canons to make new requirements. "It does appear that massive amendments on a number of issues is in the wind," he told VOL.

Although the Episcopal Church does not have a corporate identity beyond New York State, remaining orthodox' bishops will be hamstrung, unable to exercise their ecclesiastical prerogative regarding negotiating settlements with any parish wishing to realign.

Such an outcome will render any notion of "tolerance" within TEC the Big Lie.

In a comment during debate on resolutions, South Dakota Diocesan Chancellor Steve Sanford mentioned that he had spoken with Episcopal Church Attorney Beers about this issue. Beers replied that they would deal with this "exposure".

Beers apparently told the Chancellor that lawsuit problems would decrease in the future because TEC would deal with "the exposure issue."

TEC leaders are hoping GC2009 will give TEC the keys to your church. This makes it almost certain that there will be some new legislation for the 2009 General Convention.

Is this the springtime for Mrs. Jefferts Schori and David Booth Beers?

Obama Had a Bomb-Throwing Ghost Writer

-------------------------------------------

Obama didn't write 'Dreams from My Father'

------------------------------------------
Posted: October 13, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

Jack Cashill

The emergence of a previously unseen writing sample proves all but conclusively that Barack Obama did not in any meaningful way write "Dreams from My Father," the book Time Magazine has called "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."

The emergence of a second writing sample, this one by a legitimate author, provides convincing evidence as to who did.

In 1990, the University of Illinois at Springfield published a collection of essays called "After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois." Obama contributed a chapter, titled: "Why Organize? Problems and Promise in the Inner City."

The year 1990, by the way, was when Obama, the newly elected president of the Harvard Law Review, received a six-figure advance from Simon & Schuster to write what would become "Dreams from My Father."

The publishers must not have read "Why Organize?" Although the essay covers many of the issues raised in "Dreams" and uses some of the memoir's techniques, it does so without a hint of style, sophistication or promise.

Indeed, the essay is clunky, pedestrian and wonkish – a B- paper in a freshman comp class. The following two excerpts capture Obama's range, or lack thereof:

Moreover, such approaches can and have become thinly veiled excuses for cutting back on social programs, which are anathema to a conservative agenda.
But organizing the black community faces enormous problems as well … and the urban landscape is littered with the skeletons of previous efforts.

These cliché-choked sentences go beyond the merely unpromising to the fully ungrammatical. "Organizing" does not "face." "Efforts" do not leave "skeletons." "Agendas" do not have "anathemas."

In "Why Organize?" Obama makes use of the fully recreated conversation, a technique used to somewhat better effect in "Dreams." Here, his ungainly conjuring of black speech makes one cringe:

"I just cannot understand why a bright young man like you would go to college, get that degree and become a community organizer."
"Why's that?"

"'Cause the pay is low, the hours is long, and don't nobody appreciate you."

Obama asks us to believe that five years later, without any additional training, he was capable of writing passages like the following from "Dreams":

Winter came and the city turned monochrome-black trees against gray sky above white earth. Night now fell in midafternoon, especially when the snowstorms rolled in, boundless prairie storms that set the sky close to the ground, the city lights reflected against the clouds.
To read "Why Organize?" in its entirety is to understand the fraud that is Obama, the literary genius. As the reader will see, one does not need forensic software to sense the limits of Obama's skills.

Allow me to reconstruct how Obama transformed himself in a few short years from an awkward amateur into what the New York Times has called "that rare politician who can write … and write movingly and genuinely about himself."

There is an element of speculation in this reconstruction, but new evidence continues to narrow the gap between the speculative and the conclusive.

One clue comes from an unexpected source: Rashid Khalidi, the radical Arab-American friend of Obama's and reputed ally of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

In the acknowledgment section of his 2004 book, "Resurrecting Empire," Khalidi pays tribute to his own literary muse, the man who has made "unrepentant" a household word, Bill Ayers.

Writes Khalidi, "Bill was particularly generous in letting me use his family's dining room table to do some writing for the project." Khalidi did not need the table. He had one of his own. He needed the help.

Khalidi had spent several years at Chicago University's Center for International Studies. At a 2003 farewell dinner on the occasion of his departure from Chicago, Obama toasted him, thanking him and his wife for the many dinners they had shared as well as for his "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases."

Chicago's Hyde Park was home to a tight, influential radical community at whose center was the charismatic Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn. In this world, the Ayers' terrorist rap sheet only heightened their reputation. Obama had to know.

The couple had given up revolution in 1980 for the long, slow march through the institutions. By 1994, if not earlier, Ayers saw a way to quicken that march.

(Column continues below)




I believe that after failing to finish his book on time, and after forfeiting his advance from Simon & Schuster, Obama brought his sprawling, messy, sophomoric manuscript to the famed dining room table of Bill Ayers and said, "Help."

With all due respect to Sarah Palin, Obama likely saw Ayers and Dohrn less as "pals" and more as parents. Dohrn and Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, were born the same year, 1942.

In fact, as young women, the two looked enough alike that I had to double check before disproving that a photo floating around the Internet of Dohrn with Ayers was not a photo of Dunham with Ayers.

As to Ayers, envision him as the seafaring Odysseus to Obama's father-hungry Telemachus. By Obama's own admission, "Dreams" would become "a record of a personal, interior journey – a boy's search for his father."

The question is often asked why Obama associated with Ayers. The more appropriate question is why the powerful Ayers would associate with the then-obscure Obama.

Before Obama's ascendancy, it was Ayers who had the connections, the clout and the street cred. Ayers could also write, and write very well. By the mid-1990s he had several books published.

My suspicion is that Ayers saw the potential in Obama, and he chose to mold it. The calculation in "Dreams" is palpable. Nothing about the book would deny a black Democrat the White House. And if "Dreams" were beautifully written, it could launch a career.

As I have documented earlier, one thread that ties Ayers to "Dreams" is the repeated use of maritime metaphors throughout both books, a testament to Ayers' anxious year as a merchant seaman.

There is, however, a deeper thread, namely a shared postmodernist perspective. A serious student of literature, Ayers has written thoughtfully on the role of the first person narrator in the construction of a memoir.

In true postmodernist fashion, Ayers rejects the possibility of an objective, universal truth. He argues instead that our lives are journeys with "narratives" we "construct" and, if we have the will and the power, impose on others.

Thus, "Fugitive Days" is laced with repeated reference to what Ayers calls "our constructed reality." So, curiously, is "Dreams."

"But another part of me knew that what I was telling them was a lie," writes Obama, "something I'd constructed from the scraps of information I'd picked up from my mother."

The evidence strongly suggests that Ayers transformed the stumbling literalist of "Why Organize?" into the sophisticated postmodernist of "Dreams," and he did so not by tutoring Obama, but by rewriting his text.

Ayers' quotes that follow come from an essay of his, "Narrative Push/Narrative Pull." The Obama quotes come from "Dreams":

Ayers:
"The hallmark of writing in the first person is intimacy. … But in narrative the universal is revealed through the specific, the general through the particular, the essence through the unique, and necessity is revealed through contingency."

Obama:

"And so what was a more interior, intimate effort on my part, to understand this struggle and to find my place in it, has converged with a broader public debate, a debate in which I am professionally engaged … "

Ayers:

"Narrative begins with something to say – content precedes form."

Obama:

"I understood that I had spent much of my life trying to rewrite these stories, plugging up holes in the narrative …"

Ayers:

"Narrative inquiry can be a useful corrective to all this."

Obama:

"Truth is usually the best corrective."

Ayers:

"The mind works in contradiction, and honesty requires the writer to reveal disputes with herself on the page."

Obama:

"Not because that past is particularly painful or perverse but because it speaks to those aspects of myself that resist conscious choice and that – on the surface, at least – contradict the world I now occupy."

Ayers:

The reader must actually see the struggle. It's a journey, not by a tourist, but by a pilgrim.

Obama:

"But all in all it was an intellectual journey that I imagined for myself, complete with maps and restpoints and a strict itinerary."

Ayers:

"Narrative writers strive for a personal signature, but must be aware that the struggle for honesty is constant."

Obama:

"I was engaged in a fitful interior struggle. I was trying to raise myself to be a black man in America."

Ayers:

"But that intimacy can trap a writer into a defensive crouch, into airing grievances or self-justification."

Obama:

"At best, these things were a refuge; at worst, a trap."

Although I cite one example for each, "Dreams" offers many more. There are 10 "trap" references alone and nearly as many for "narrative," "struggle" and "journey."

To be sure, there are other postmodernists in Chicago, but few who write as stylishly and as intelligibly as Ayers. There are fewer who make their dining room tables available to would-be authors, and fewer still who write as poetically about the sea as Obama seems to do.

Of course, too, no one but Ayers got Obama named chair of the multi-million Chicago Annenberg Challenge months before his book was published, and no one else hosted his political debut months afterward, all in the magic year of 1995.

Two years later, in his 1997 book, "A Kind and Just Parent," Bill Ayers walks the reader through his Hyde Park neighborhood and identifies the celebrities therein.

These include Muhammad Ali, "Minister" Louis Farrakhan, the "poet" Gwendolyn Brooks and "writer" Barack Obama.

The "writer" identification seems as forced as the listing of Obama among the notables. It is almost as Ayers were constructing his own narrative, one designed to climax in the White House, one that he may have the will and power to impose on America, truth be damned.

Life is all "a lie" anyhow.

***

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Obama Had a Bomb-Throwing Ghost Writer":

Boring. Like everyone else, I'm not interested. Hysterical desperation! Get a life foe (sic) goodness sake. And while you're at it, get some self respect.

Natasha

Episcopalian Priestess Against Prop 8 in California

"You have a problem with that?"

CALIFORNIA: Episcopal Lesbian Priest in Desperate Plea to Deep Six Proposition 8

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/10/2008

"Only the rock of complete and irrevocable love between man and woman is capable of acting as a foundation for a society that can be home to all human beings."-Pope Benedict XVI, addressing the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, May 11, 2006

In a desperate bid to deep six Proposition 8 - a proposition upholding traditional monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, a lesbian priest from All Saints', Pasadena, and leader of the Episcopal organization known as Integrity, has written a frantic letter to Californians urging them to vote 'no' when it comes time to vote on the issue.

In a flier on disinformation on Proposition 8, the Rev. Susan Russell and her followers are in a deep sweat regarding the proposition because new polls are trending in favor of traditional marriage.

The irony is that substantial numbers of black voters turning out for Obama will vote Yes on 8. Homosexuality goes against the grain for the vast majority of black church folks.

"Don't just watch the polls go the wrong way and sit home and yell at your television set! Come join us at All Saints Pasadena and Phone Bank to Defeat Proposition 8! (And with the negative, misleading ads coming out of the YES on 8 camp, we need you more than ever!)," screamed Russell.

"Between now and the election, All Saints is providing space every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., for the purpose of contacting undecided voters and encouraging them to vote NO on proposition 8.

"Training is provided by 'No on 8 trainers' in the Acolyte room, with phoning in the Office of Creative Connections trailer. You can just show up (with your fully-charged cell phone in the event there aren't enough phones) and bring a friend!"

Integrity President Russell applauded a Connecticut Supreme Court Decision ruling in favor of marriage equality. "Today's decision is a decision in favor of marriage and against bigotry," said Russell.

"It is another step forward toward making this a nation of liberty and justice for all -- not just some -- and it is a cause for celebration for all Americans. It is also a source of great encouragement for those of us working to preserve marriage for all in California."

"Integrity is committed to continue to work toward full inclusion for the LGBT faithful in the Episcopal Church and to advocate for equal protection for LGBT Americans -- and we give thanks for those who made today's Connecticut Supreme Court decision possible," she said. With the one exception - the Diocese of San Joaquin - all the other Episcopal California bishops are in favor of voting No on Proposition 8.

A new poll shows Proposition 8 is gaining among younger voters. A CBS 5 (San Francisco) poll released last week indicates that support for Proposition 8 is growing amongst younger voters. Among likely voters, the marriage amendment now leads 47-42%. Voters 18-34 support the measure 53-39%.

"This issue isn't about bigotry or ignorance," explained Karen England, campaign director for Yes on Proposition 8. "Young people have grown up in a culture that increasingly devalues the importance of a two-parent home. These young voters crave a society that encourages solid marriages with a mother and father raising their children. The new polling shows that when given a choice, young people will always choose a home with both their mother and father."

The Roman Catholic Church has mounted a vigorous campaign to restore the definition of marriage with a Constitutional Amendment.

California Catholic bishops wrote this: "The issue before us with Proposition 8 is "marriage"-an ancient, yet modern, human institution which pre-exists both Church and government. Marriage, history shows us, is intrinsic to stable, flourishing and hospitable societies. Although cultural differences have occurred, what has never changed is that marriage is the ideal relationship between a man and a woman for the purpose of procreation and the continuation of the human race.

"On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the current law defining marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutional. This radical change in public policy will have many profound effects on our society, because it

* Discounts the biological and organic reality of marriage-and how deeply embedded it is in our culture, our language and our laws and ignores the common understanding of the word marriage; and because it

* Diminishes the word "marriage" to mean only a "partnership"-a purely adult contractual arrangement for individuals over the age of 18. Children-if there are any-are no longer a primary societal rationale for the institution.

"We, as bishops, offer counsel to our Catholic people in California in their response to this radical change in California's public policy regarding marriage.

"First, same-sex unions are not the same as opposite-sex unions. The marriage of a man and a woman embraces not only their sexual complementarity as designed by nature but includes their ability to procreate. The ideal for the well being of children is to be born into a traditional marriage and to be raised by both a mother and a father. We recognize that there are parents who are single and we laud them for the great sacrifices they make in raising their children.

"Second, we need to recall that marriage mirrors God's relationship with us-and that marriage completes, enriches and perpetuates humanity. When men and women consummate their marriage they offer themselves to God as co-creators of a new human being. Any other pairing-while possibly offering security and companionship to the individuals involved-is not marriage. We must support traditional marriage as the source of our civilization, the foundation for a society that can be home to all human beings, and the reflection of our relationship with God.

"Third, we need to remember that we are all children of God possessed of human dignity and that each of us is created in God's image. Protecting the traditional understanding of marriage should not in any way disparage our brothers and sisters-even if they disagree with us.

"Fourth, we must pray and work for a just resolution of this issue which is so important to the well being of the human family.

"Fifth, as citizens of California, we need to avail ourselves of the opportunity to overturn this ruling by the California Supreme Court. On the November general election ballot, there will be Proposition 8 which reads: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." That language simply affirms the historic, logical and reasonable definition of marriage-and does not remove any benefits from other contractual arrangements.

"And finally, we strongly encourage Catholics to provide both the financial support and the volunteer efforts needed for the passage of Proposition 8. And-please exercise your citizenship and vote in November."

As one VOL reader in California noted, "The Connecticut decision will be fodder for the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, illustrating an out-of-control judiciary imposing legal sanction on immoral behavior. The voters of California will have one, and one opportunity only, to stem the tide of judicial tyranny. Should California succumb and vote down Prop 8, the floodgates will open for same-sex couples to 'marry' in California and return to their states of domicile and challenge both state statutes and constitutional amendments defining marriage. It would be then all over for traditional marriage and the people will have no further say in defining it."

END

Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

The Twenty-first Sunday After Trinity

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 8 AM Phoenix Time

The Hymn #292 by Selnecker Ach bleib bei uns
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 Eph 6:10-17
The Gospel Luke John 4:46-54
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #370 Magdalen

Armor of Christ

The Hymn #304 by Loy, St. Crispin
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 #202 Sei du mir

Note - The qwest.net email will no longer work after Monday morning. I am switching back to cox.net. The last name of the Second Martin is the address for now.

Alicia Meyer will have foot surgery on October 14th. Remember her in your prayers.

Today is the anniversary of Walter and Norma Boeckler. Walter died after many years of disability.

KJV Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

KJV John 4:46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. 48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. 49 The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. 50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. 52 Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. 53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. 54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

Twenty-First Sunday After Trinity
Almighty and everlasting God, who by Thy Son hast promised us the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and everlasting life: We beseech Thee, do Thou by Thy Holy Spirit so quicken our hearts that we in daily prayer may seek our help in Christ against all temptations, and, constantly believing His promise, obtain that for which we pray, and at last be saved, through Thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

ARMOR OF GOD

We can see from this lesson that there are two kingdoms only, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. They are the only superpowers. There are no others. One cannot be partly in one kingdom and partly in another. That is impossible. The Bible only teaches us about believers in Christ and unbelievers. Believers belong to the Kingdom of God. Unbelievers belong to Satan.

God constantly works through the Word and His appointed servants to claim people from the Kingdom of Satan. We are conceived as unbelievers and born as unbelievers. Baptism makes a child a member of the Kingdom of God. Our heavenly Father first claims us for His Kingdom, then nurtures us in faith through the Word. Just as ministers are appointed to preach and teach the Word of God and administer the Sacraments, so are parents appointed to teach the child the Word in the home and apply it day by day.

Unfortunately, Satan also works hard to convert people. He does not tempt his own. Unbelievers do whatever they wish and find a certain amount of peace, security, and prosperity in doing so. But Satan never stops tempting believers, not in this way or that way, but in any way necessary for a particular person.

We should feel very much intimidated by the warfare that goes on because of our immortal souls. We are like the tiny countries fought over by the superpowers, significant in one way, but overwhelmed by the power on each side.

Paul’s exhortation to us is to be strong in Lord and in the power of His might. Unlike the gurus around us, he does not order us to trust in our own powers or to find resources within ourselves. Instead, the Holy Spirit tells us through Paul to put on the whole armor of God.

Children can learn the armor of God very easily, because each part represents the armor used by soldiers of that time (and ours). It is vivid and easy to picture in our minds. You can count up the six parts of the armor. As I have mentioned many times before, God’s work is done or described in groups of three (faith, hope, and love; 9 fruits of the Spirit).
The six pieces of armor are:
1. The belt of truth.
2. The breastplate of righteousness.
3. Shoes – preparation of the Gospel of peace.
4. The shield of the faith.
5. The helmet of salvation.
6. The Sword of the Spirit, the Word.
Those few who know Greek will note that the these are middle verbs, emphasizing the self. Gird yourself with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness… English uses the reflexive pronoun. God chose the eloquence of Greek for a reason. Robertson and Lenski say, “There are sermons in tenses.” (Ephesians, p. 663)

Wear the Belt of Truth
The belt of truth stands for the truth of God’s revelation. Knowing that God’s Word is truth and trustworthy guards us against all kinds of daily assaults. If I make science and technology “truth,” then I must judge the Bible by science and technology. Doubts creep in right away, because the standard has changed, and the standard itself changes every day.

Assurance of God’s truth makes other claims funny or petty. Whenever we tour a wonder of Creation, the guide tells us, “This happened exactly 300 million years ago.” They fret over the disappearance of the dinosaurs – some but not all. An asteroid hit the earth exactly 65 million years ago, right where Iceland is. No, right off the coast of Mexico.

At the Phoenix Zoo we learned that animals take care of the environment because they know that is the only environment they have. This puzzles me, because I have never met an animal that thinks. A few of us laughed, but not enough.

No scientist can answer the question of purpose. Animals and plants clean the environment because they were created by God to do so. Their relationships with each other represents complexities within complexities. Within each animal, even the simplest, such as a lowly slug, one little thing wrong will end its little life. The slug to a Michigan gardener is terrible predator, marring the crop, leaving its slime trail, but one little nick in its skin ends his life.

So man, blinded by doubts, creates a phony explanation for what God has done in His infinite wisdom, power, and might. When we gird ourselves with the truth, the Holy Spirit reveals these things to us through the Word.

Human reason, used to prove God’s truth, is more dangerous than secular doubts. If man’s wisdom is needed to prop up the Bible, God’s Word is very weak indeed. But God urges us through Paul to gird ourselves with His truth, not with man’s truth.

The Breastplate of Righteousness
Once it was a metal plate over the chest to protect the heart and lungs. Now the US Army uses Kevlar for the same purpose. The breastplate of righteousness is not our righteousness that we earn or created, but the righteousness of Christ.

How does this forgiveness of sin, received from the crucifixion of Jesus, protect our vital organs? If we think forgiveness is based upon our own works or merit, then we are unprotected against Satan’s mortal attacks. He drives some to despair over their worthiness, others to incredible hardness of heart. Satan can destroy people with anxiety or arrogance.

As we sang last Sunday, “clothed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” TLH, #370.

Shoes – Preparation for the Gospel of Peace
No one needs to ask about shoes in Phoenix. There are many reasons to wear them. On a pleasant sunny day in July, the sidewalks are so burning hot that a barefooted person is tempted to jump into the grass for relief. There dozens of goats-head thorns wait to imbed themselves into bare feet.

In the spiritual battle we all face daily, the Gospel of peace gives us a sure footing. The Gospel of peace makes eager to go to battle. That peace, the peace that passes all understanding, is the peace of God from salvation.

In the Battle of the Bulge, toward the end of WWII, the American soldiers simply could not go on because of constantly wet, cold feet, leading to gangrene. Once they got the proper boots, one soldier said, “We could fight all day and not feel cold.”

How many people have been ready to stand up for the truth and said, “I got cold feet.” I went to the meeting and I got cold feet. One pastor got 10 ministers lined up to support him at a ministerial meeting on a doctrinal issue. They all got cold feet, he said.

Why do we get cold feet? Because we step out without the Gospel of peace. The Gospel belongs to God and His power, not to man. Apparent losses are often victories in retrospect. Apparent victories are often long-term losses. When Luther was in danger of burning at the stake, year after year, and locked in a castle, he seemed to be the tiniest person in the world. He was. He experienced the terrors of Hell, virtually alone with his doubts in the Wartburg Castle. But he used the time to translate the New Testament into German in a few months.

The Shield of the Faith
Faith can be used in different ways in Greek, just as it is in English. When James says that faith without works is dead, he means that faith without works is not faith at all, just knowledge. God creates faith, and it is a living, active faith that never stops to wonder what is God’s will but does it. The Gospel bears fruit in good works, so faith is active in love.

Faith is also used in the sense of trust in God. When the Holy Spirit proclaims, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ,” faith is trust in the merits of Christ.

The New Testament also speaks of The Faith, as we do, all the doctrines of the Bible. The grammar of the passage helps us understand what is meant. Here Lenski argues for The Faith, and it makes sense in the context. The Faith is a shield against the weapons of Satan, his fiery darts. When we know and believe what the Word of God teaches, and we are sure from many trials, the Christian faith is a shield to protect us.

The blessings of the Christian faith become apparent to us over time, when we see that grounding our lives upon the Word of God and the forgiveness of Christ will give us blessings beyond our imagination, as God has promised.

The Helmet of Salvation
When the US Army improved its body armor through the laboratory at Natick, Mass, they designed a new helmet to protect the head. Football helmets became so safe and comfortable that for a time the players were using their heads as weapons, until it was called “spearing the opponent.”

God Himself puts on a helmet of salvation in Isaiah.
Isaiah 59:17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.

No one would arm himself for battle and omit one article protection. So we are urged to put on the whole armor of God, to be able to stand in battle. Salvation is the result of having our sins forgiven through Christ.

The Sword of the Spirit, the Word
The Word of God is compared to a sword in several places. In this passage it is the only weapon, but of course it is both an offensive and defensive weapon. The other parts of armor are passive in nature, protecting the body.

The Sword of the Spirit is wielded to smash the weapons of Satan and to kill diabolical opponents. Whenever someone uses the Word of God, he is brandishing God’s only method means for accomplishing His will.

Whenever man’s word is used, God’s will cannot be accomplished. So people build larger church buildings, thinking a building converts people. They build larger parking lots, and brag about them, although parking lots are the Means of Grace. They air-condition and increase social events. It is possible that people who join a church because of social events are there for the wrong reasons.

We also see that people win in church disputes with threats, appeals to loyalty, or citations of blue-blood (synodical in-breeding, which often produces idiots).
Luther’s crime, in the eyes of the Church of Rome, was not that he proclaimed the Gospel. Others had done that for centuries. Luther’s terrible sin, and it has not been forgiven, was that he identified false doctrine and contrasted it with the whole counsel of God.

For instance, any pagan will agree in various ways with the concept that Jesus is the Son of God. So we can have peace and unity if we all say, God is love; Jesus is the Son of God. But if we say that Jesus is the only source of salvation, that we cannot be saved by works, then no false teacher will agree. In fact, they will scream while covering their ears (Acts; stoning of Stephan) and kill us.

Stephan was stoned to death, but he proclaimed the Word of God before he died. It must have seemed to be a waste of time, especially to Saul, who held the cloaks of others while people stoned to death the first Christian martyr. The opponents of Christ seemed to win at that moment, but soon after, Saul was converted to Christ by the risen Lord Himself, and became the greatest and most productive apostle.

Quotations

Preaching of the Gospel – Stone in a Pond

"The preaching of this message may be likened to a stone thrown into the water, producing ripples which circle outward from it, the waves rolling always on and on, one driving the other, till they come to the shore. Although the center becomes quiet, the waves do not rest, but move forward. So it is with the preaching of the Word. It was begun by the apostles, and it constantly goes forward, is pushed on farther and farther by the preachers, driven hither and thither into the world, yet always being made known to those who never heard it before, although it be arrested in the midst of its course and is condemned as heresy."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 202. Ascension Day Mark 16:14-20.

"Shall we permit this to be done! in the name of Christian unity! and by a latitudinarianism that is our own heritage, which rises ever anew from the embers of the past to find such veiled support and strength in the citadel of Zion that Confessionalism is told to whisper low in Jerusalem lest she be heard on the streets of Gath."
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 941.

"Is the Lord's Supper the place to display my toleration, my Christian sympathy, or my fellowship with another Christian, when that is the very point in which most of all we differ; and in which the difference means for me everything--means for me, the reception of the Savior's atonement? Is this the point to be selected for the display of Christian union, when in fact it is the very point in which Christian union does not exist?"
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 905f.

"The modern radical spirit which would sweep away the Formula of Concord as a Confession of the Church, will not, in the end, be curbed, until it has swept away the Augsburg Confession, and the ancient Confessions of the Church--yea, not until it has crossed the borders of Scripture itself, and swept out of the Word whatsoever is not in accord with its own critical mode of thinking. The far-sighted rationalist theologian and Dresden court preacher, Ammon, grasped the logic of a mere spirit of progress, when he said: 'Experience teaches us that those who reject a Creed, will speedily reject the Scriptures themselves.'"
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: General Council Publication Board, 1911, p. 685. Trinity

"The real question is not what do you subscribe, but what do you believe and publicly teach, and what are you transmitting to those who come after? If it is the complete Lutheran faith and practice, the name and number of the standards is less important. If it is not, the burden of proof rests upon you to show that your more incomplete standard does not indicate an incomplete Lutheran faith."
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 890.

[Selnecker, who wrote "Ach bleib bei uns" (TLH #292) was bitterly attacked and severely persecuted by the Reformed, deposed when Augustus died, reduced to poverty, and not allowed to remain in Leipzig as a private citizen.] GJ – Imagine that!
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: General Council Publication Board, 1911, p. 310ff.

"It is not the devil's aim to plague us physically; he is a spirit who is always thirsting for the tears and the drops of blood that come from our hearts. He wants us to despair and to perish from sadness. This would be his joy and delight. But he will not succeed."
Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1244. John 15:19.


Satan and Devil for TSW
January, 1999

"Hence the Pope is the true Antichrist, and his high schools are the devil's own taverns and brothels. What does Christ signify if by effort of my own human nature I can obtain God's grace? Or, having grace, what more will I desire?" Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 284. New Year's Day, Galatians 3:23-29

"So when we see a bishop assuming more than this text gives him warrant for, we may safely regard him as a wolf, and an apostle of the devil, and avoid him as such. Unquestionably he must be Antichrist who in ecclesiastical government exceeds the authority here prescribed." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 65 Third Sunday in Advent, 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

"Observe, however, what the devil has accomplished through the Papists. It was not enough for them to throw the Bible under the table, to make it so rare that few doctors of the holy Scriptures possessed a copy, much less read it; but lest it be brought to public notice they have branded it with infamy. For they blasphemously say it is obscure; we must follow the interpretations of men and not the pure Scriptures. What else is their proceeding but giving Paul the lie here where he says the Bible is our manual of instruction? They say it is obscure and calculated to mislead." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 41 Second Sunday in Advent Romans 15:4-13

"THE DEVIL'S DIRTY DOZEN: TWELVE WAYS (AND MORE) TO KEEP YOUR CHURCH FROM GROWING..."Limit worship experience only to pages 5 and 15...Bulletin should be 'worship service' oriented rather than 'announcement oriented'...Expect unchurched to accept traditions as though they were doctrine." School of Outreach IV, Notebook, WELS Evangelism Commission p. O-1.

"Several of our brothers have been warning us to be careful about the leaven of The Church Growth Movement and the insidious Reformed doctrine contained within. Not a few of us have heard their warning and have thought to counter the danger by saying we will weed out the erroneous material and use only that which is proper and beneficial to the Lord's work in our congregations. Fellow-shepherds, there is some evidence to show that that is exactly what the devils wants us to think. That seems to be used to lull us and our members into sleep, and without our intending it, the soul-harming false doctrines creep in undetected, under the guise of religious printed materials and programs." Michigan District President Robert Mueller, (WELS), "President's Report to the Conferences, Spring, 1991, p. 2.

"Let us, then, prepare ourselves to be patient and lern to bear the furious attacks and the blows of Satan, who is trying to tear the church of Christ to pieces and to establish his own church. We are not any better than the fathers. At the cost of much sweat and labor they, too, scarecely succeeded in their effort to preserve the Word and to snatch a few souls from the jaws of Satan." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, I, p. 280. W 42, 425. Genesis 11:10ff.

"Therefore nothing but a satanic, seductive, and sinister strategy is involved when we are called upon to yield a bit and to connive at an error for the sake of unity. In this way the devil is trying cunningly to lead us away from the Word. For if we adopt this course and get together in this matter he has already gained ground; and if we were to yield him a fingerbreadth, he would soon have an ell." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1411f. Ephesians 6:10-17.

"The devil has the advantage of being able to find pupils for a doctrine or a dream no matter how absurd the doctrine or the dream may be. The more absurd it is the sooner he finds pupils." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 632. WLS #1940 Mark 7:31-37.

"If the devil were to identify himself and show himself as black as he is, who would want to follow him? But now he peddles his poison and false doctrine under the cover of God's name and does so with an impressiveness greater than that with which the true doctrine is presented." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 633. 2 Corinthians 11:14.

"If the devil were to identify himself and show himself as black as he is, who would want to follow him? But now he peddles his poison and false doctrine under the cover of God's name and does so with an impressiveness greater than that with which the true doctrine is presented." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 633. 2 Corinthians 11:14.

"All the others also say that they are teaching the Word of God. No devil, heretic, or sectarian spirit arises who says: I, the devil, or a heretic, am preaching my own views. On the contrary, all know how to say: This is not my doctrine; it is God's Word." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 640. "As Luther says: You 'cannot remain in the same stall with others who propagate false doctrine or are attached to it or always speak good words to the devil and his crowd.'" [XVII, 1477; probably St. Louis edition] Francis Pieper, The Difference Between Orthodox And Heterodox Churches, and Supplement, Coos Bay, Oregon: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1981, p. 49.

"When you preach or confess the Word, you will experience both without, among enemies, and also within, in yourself (where the devil himself will speak to you and prove how hostile he is to you), that he brings you into sadness, impatience, and depression, and that he torments you in all sorts of ways. Who does all this? Certainly not Christ or any good spirit, but the miserable, loathsome enemy...The devil will not bear to have you called a Christian and to cling to Christ or to speak or think a good word about Him. Rather he would gladly poison and permeate your heart with venom and gall, so that you would blaspheme: Why did He make me a Christian? Why do I not let Him go? Then I would at last have peace." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 928.

"All this is the old devil and old serpent, who also converted Adam and Eve into enthusiasts, and led them from the outward Word of God to spiritualizing and self-conceit, and nevertheless he accomplished this through other outward words. Just as also our enthusiasts [at the present day] condemn the outward Word, and nevertheless they themselves are not silent, but they fill the world with their pratings and writings, as though, indeed, the Spirit could not come through the writings and spoken word of the apostles, but [first] through their writings and words he must come. Why [then] do not they also omit their own sermons and writings, until the Spirit Himself come to men, without their writings and before them, as they boast that He has come into them without the preaching of the Scriptures?" Smalcald Articles, VIII., Confession, 3-5, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 495. Tappert, p. 312f.

"In a word, enthusiasm inheres in Adam and his children from the beginning [from the first fall] to the end of the world, [its poison] having been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power [life], and strength of all heresy, especially of that of the Papacy and Mahomet. Therefore we ought and must constantly maintain this point, that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments. For God wished to appear even to Moses through the burning bush and spoken Word; and no prophet, neither Elijah nor Elisha, received the Spirit without the Ten Commandments [or spoken Word]. Neither was John the Baptist conceived without the preceding word of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without the voice of Mary." Smalcald Articles, VIII. Confession, 9-10 Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 497. Tappert, p. 313. 2 Peter 1:21.

"The nice, envious person who is sad when another prospers, and would gladly have one eye less if thereby his neighbor had none, is the product of Satan." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 102. Third Sunday after Easter John 16:16-23.

"Faith is a tender, subtle thing, and we so easily make a mistake and are liable to stumble; but the devil is watchful, and unless men exercise watchfulness, he quickly gains his point." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 265. Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, John 4:46-54; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12

"For this reason one should not be too credulous when a preacher comes softly like an angel of God, recommends himself very highly, and swears that his sole aim is to save souls, and says: 'Pax vobis!' For those are the very fellows the devil employs to honey people's mouths. Through them he gains an entrance to preach and to teach, in order that he may afterward inflict his injuries, and that though he accomplish nothing more for the present, he may, at least, confound the people's consciences and finally lead them into misery and despair." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 322. Easter Tuesday Luke 24:36-47.

"Even the history of the world shows how great is the power of the devil's kingdom. The world is full of blasphemies against God and of wicked opinions, and the devil keeps entangled in these bands those who are wise and righteous [many hypocrites who appear holy] in the sight of the world. In other persons grosser vices manifest themselves. But since Christ was given to us to remove both these sins and these punishments, and to destroy the kingdom of the devil, sin and death,it will not be possible to recognize the benefits of Christ unless we understand our evils. For this reason our preachers have diligently taught concerning these subjects, and have delivered nothing that is new, but have set forth Holy Scriptures and the judgments of the holy Fathers." Apology Augsburg Confession, Article II: Of Original Sin Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 119. Tappert, p.

"The deeper a person is sunk in sadness and emotional upheavals, the better he serves as an instrument of Satan. For our emotions are instruments through which he gets into us and works in us if we do not watch our step. It is easy to water where it is wet. Where the fence is dilapidated, it is easy to get across. So Satan has easy access where there is sadness. Therefore one must pray and associate with godly people." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1243. 1532

"It is not the devil's aim to plague us physically; he is a spirit who is always thirsting for the tears and the drops of blood that come from our hearts. He wants us to despair and to perish from sadness. This would be his joy and delight. But he will not succeed." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1244. John 15:19.

"One day I overheard my stepmother say to my father: 'The only real devil that exists in this or any other world is the man whose business is that of making devils.' I accepted this statement instantly and never have departed from it." Napoleon Hill, Grow Rich With Peace of Mind, New York: Fawcett Crest, 1967, p. 212.

"Having ascended Mount Carmel and having met the monks there, Saint Louis [Louis IX of France] is astounded by the account of a most unusual tradition. The saintly monks say that they are the descendants of the Prophet Elias and call themselves 'Hermits of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel' because the fiery prophet, whom they imitate, had beheld, in a foot-shaped cloud that had divinely soared from the sea below them, a prophetic image of the Immaculate Virgin Mary who was to bring forth man's Salvation and to conquer the pride of Satan with Her heel of humility." John Mathias Haffert, Mary in Her Scapular Promise, Sea Isle City, NJ: The Scapular Press, 1942, p. 5. Genesis 3:15.

"Therefore we should not be afraid of powers. But we should fear our prosperity and good days which cause us more harm than our anguish and persecution; and we should not be afraid in the face of the wisdom and the shrewdness of the world, for they can do us no harm. Yes, the more the wisdom of the world opposes the truth, the purer and clearer does the truth become, consequently the Gospel can experience nothing better than that the world rise up against it with all its force and wisdom; yea, the more my conscience, sin and Satan attack me, the stronger does my righteousness become." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 299. Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:15-22

"Lastly, it is nothing else than the devil himself, because above and against God he urges [and disseminates] his [papal] falsehoods concerning masses, purgatory, the monastic life, one's own works and [fictitious] divine worship (for this is the very Papacy [upon each of which the Papacy is altogether founded and is standing]), and condemns, murders, and tortures all Christians who do not exalt and honor these abominations [of the Pope] above all things. Therefore, just as little as we can worship the devil himself as Lord and God, we can endure this apostle, the Pope, or Antichrist, in his rule as head or lord. For to lie and to kill, and to destroy body and soul eternally, that is wherein his papal government really consists, as I have very clearly shown in many books." Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article IV, The Papacy, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 475. Tappert, p. 301. 2 Thessalonians 2:4. [Marks of the Antichrist: the falling away, apostasia, verse 3; seat in the temple of God, verse 4; acts godlike, verse 4; works have the power of Satan (also see John 8:44); will remain until Judgment Day, verse 8.] Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 463f. 2 Thessalonians 2:3ff.

"Satan torments you until you conclude that you are lost and ruined, that heaven and earth, God and all the angels, are your enemies." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 247. Exaudi Psalm 6:7-8. "For that rogue, the devil, has a sharp vision and easily becomes conscious of the presence of a true Christian. Therefore he exerts himself to entrap him, and surrounds and attacks him on all sides; for he cannot bear that anyone should desert his kingdom." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 264. Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, John 4:46-54; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12

"Neither is he [Satan] truthful; he is the spirit of lies, who, by means of false fear and false comfort having the appearance of truth, both deceives and destroys. He possesses the art of filling his own victims with sweet comfort ; that is, he gives them unbelieving, arrogant, secure, impious hearts...He can even make them joyful; furthermore, he renders them haughty and proud in their opions, in their wisdom and self-made personal holiness; then no threat nor terror of God's wrather and of eternal damnation moves them, but their hearts grow harder than steel or adamant." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 302. Pentecost, Third Sermon John 14:23-31.

"Thus also the devil is angry because God wants to trample him under foot by means of flesh and blood. If a mighty spirit were opposed to him, he would not be so sorely vexed; but it greatly angers him that a poor worm of the dust, a fragile earthen vessel defies him, a weak vessel against a mighty prince. God has placed his treasure, says St. Paul, in a poor, weak vessel; for man is weak, easily aroused to anger, avaricious, arrogant, and weighed down with other imperfections, through which Satan easily shatters the earthen vessel; for if God would permit him, he would soon have utterly destroyed the whole vessel." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 268. Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, John 4:46-54; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12

"The devil does not sleep, he will do many more such things, he looks around and exerts himself to exterminate the pure doctrine in the Church and will finally, it is feared, bring it to this, that should one pass through all Germany he would find no pure pulpit, where the Word of God is preached as in former days. He tries with all his might to prevent the pure doctrine from being taught, for he cannot endure it." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 266. Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, John 4:46-54; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12

"The devil also is able to present to the factious spirits the idea that they regard themselves as right, like the Arians who thought their cause was right." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 266. Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, John 4:46-54; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12

"The reference [the Votum] is simply to a disposition to trust and love God sincerely, and a willingness of heart and mind to serve God and man to the utmost. The devil seeks to prevent this state by terror, by revealing death and by every sort of misfortune; and by setting up human devices to induce the heart to seek comfort and help in its own counsels and in man. Thus led astray, the heart falls from trust in God to a dependence upon itself." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 111. Fourth Sunday in Advent, Philippians 4:7

"If Satan were only prudent enough to keep quiet and let the Gospel be preached, he would receive less injury from it; for if the Gospel is not attacked it completely rusts and has no occasion or reason to make its power and influence manifest." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 300. Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:15-22

"When one heresy dies, another presently springs up; for the devil neither slumbers nor sleeps. I myself--though I am nothing--who have now been in the ministry of Christ for twenty years, can truthfully testify that I have been attacked by more than twenty sects. Some of these have entirely perished; others still twitch with life like pieces of dismembered insects. But Satan, that god of factious men, raises up new sects." Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, III, p. 1270. Preface, Galatians Commentary Galatians.

"Indeed, more factious spirits shall arise and it shall come to pass that they will not regard Christ as God, nor as the son of a virgin. For the devil is so cunning and skilful that, if one thing is taken from him, he makes use of another. Thus it has been from the beginning, and it will continue to be so in the future." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 269. Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, John 4:46-54; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12

"In like manner must all come to shame and be overthrown who rise up against this divine wisdom and the Word of God. Consequently no one should fear even if all the wisdom and power of the world oppose the Gospel, yea, even if they plan to suppress it by the shedding of blood; for the more blood is shed, the more Christians there will be. The blood of the Christians, as Tertulian says, is the seed from which Christians grow. Satan must be drowned in the blood of Christians, consequently there is no art that can suppress the Gospel by force." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 299. Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:15-22

"We have now sowed a little of the Word, and this the devil cannot stand, for he never sleeps; the worms and the beetles will come and infect it. Yet so it must be, Christ will prove His Word, and examine who have received it and who not. Therefore let us remain on the right road to the kingdom of Christ, and not go about with works and urge and force the works of the law, but only with the words of the Gospel which comfort the conscience: Be happy, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven." Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 201. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 9:1-8

Thousands of Americans Died in Stalin's Russia, Volunteers for the Workers' Paradise

Comrade Stalin, a mass murderer whose crimes were exceded by Mao.

National Review Online has an important book review:

The long list of apologists for Stalin’s terror — who denied its very existence — included the Asian scholar Owen Lattimore, Vice President Henry A. Wallace, the Communist baritone Paul Robeson, and the New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Walter Duranty. All of them did their part to hide the truth and paint a false picture of a benign Stalin who was America’s best friend. Tzouliadis devastatingly portrays the harm they did, and their moral culpability in the crimes of Stalinism.

***

GJ - Russia asked for laborers and received 100,000 applications for 10,000 jobs. He took away their passports. America's diplomats did nothing to help their fellow Americans, who died in abject poverty or were executed.

The American media are just as guilty today for hiding the associations of Obama from the public. His first job after Harvard Law School was working for a project, with William Ayres, to radicalize the Chicago schools. Ayres bombed the Pentagon, a judge's home, and many other places. Obama began his political career in Illinois, at function hosted at Ayres' home. Ayres' wife is also a known domestic terrorist. Both live in comfort and security today.

I spoke with a teacher today who knew nothing about this.

Four Groups of Episcopalians - Sound Familiar?

Four Groups Emerge as the Future of The Episcopal Church is Being Weighed in the Balance

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
10/9/2008

There are now four distinct groups of North American Episcopalians/Anglicans.

PB Jefferts-Schori
The first group is those who are deeply committed to The Episcopal Church, come hell or high water. These are institutionalists, life-long Episcopalians often with deep family roots going back several generations. Nothing will move them. Whatever it is they believe in (and it may not be very much), for them the Episcopal Church is THEIR church and they will not be moved from it regardless of anything that might issue forth from 815 2nd Avenue, NY or whatever sexual preference a bishop might choose.

They are Episcopalians to the end. They will live and die Episcopalians. They will be buried in the church graveyard either with a full headstone or simply in a columbarium. Many, if not most, do not have much of an inkling about what is going on in the Episcopal Church because their diocesan newspapers do not tell them anything. If they do, it will be the bishop’s spin on Lambeth, Robinson, GAFCON or an Anglican Church near them that is not like them.

The bishop will usually write something in a local newspaper, a "From the Bishop" in his diocesan newspaper or at a church forum saying in effect that such and such an Anglican church is not recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury as authentically Anglican and should be ignored. These Episcopalians are happy to oblige.

If scandal erupts, it is localized and the bishop moves swiftly to limit damage control. If the problem IS the bishop himself, as in say Bishop Charles Bennison (PA) or Michael Garrison (WNY), then things can get messy, especially if the local press picks up the story and runs with it.

Nonetheless, these Episcopalians will not be moved. They usually have a certain nostalgia for the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, but have settled happily for the 1979 Prayer Book…a concession they can live with as it is does not upset the status quo. They are generous and give when asked to by their rector. They will live and die Episcopalians even if, God forbid, Jack Spong should announce that he, after all, is god and demands to be worshipped. His heresies and 12 Theses are largely unknown to them. Even if they were to find out about them, they would not be moved to leave The Episcopal Church. They say things like "not in my church" and then move on.They may have a nodding acquaintance with Mrs. Jefferts Schori’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but such information will not touch their lives. They may write out a larger check and then go home to watch the news.

Louis Crew
The second group is those who have interloped into the Episcopal Church with an agenda alien to the historic church, the gospel and Holy Scripture. They have captured the reins of ecclesiastical power with a pansexual agenda. Over the course of the last 40 years they have deftly maneuvered and manipulated committees and executive counsels, and promoted pansexuality first to the clergy and then to the bishops. Seminaries were then co-opted so that the next generation of clergy, fearful of being called fundamentalist, homophobic, uninclusive and lacking diversity, quickly rolled over, allowing the "new thing" coming out of the pulpits to dumb down the next three generations of lay Episcopalians. This second group was led primarily by Dr. Louie Crew with his formation of the homosexual organization Integrity leading ultimately to a plethora of sexualities under the banner of LGBT. It has been a brilliant and masterful takeover. It is now almost complete.

Third Group
The third group is comprised of those who have "seen the light" and no longer believe in the 10-watt light bulbs running The Episcopal Church. Many of these folks began reading VirtueOnline when it was Virtuosity back in the mid-nineties. The theological and moral stench was too much for them so they began a slow exodus from TEC.

The first to go and reorganize was the Anglican Mission in America, now the Anglican Missions in the Americas, back in the year 2,000. This was three years before the Gene Robinson putsch. The issues then were more theological surrounding the authority of Scripture and holy living (sodomy was swinging but not in full swing). The failure of the church to uphold certain basic doctrines – the failure of Resolution B001 – encapsulated the light in the theological loafers of most bishops and House of Deputies appartik.

These flee-ers were all mostly Episcopalians though their base has widened as a mission outreach to 130 million unchurched Americans. Later CANA, (Nigeria), Uganda and Kenya began Anglican plants on U.S. soil. To date, two dioceses have left The Episcopal Church. Two more plan to do so. Nearly 500 parishes will have departed TEC by the end of the year. The loss of individual Episcopalians remains constant at about 1,000 a week. (This week St. Bartholomew’s in Western New York departed with a thousand members, a case in point.)

By the end of this year it seems almost certain that a new North American Anglican Province will be formed drawing together all the disparate evangelical and Anglo-Catholic groups under one ecclesiastical umbrella with Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan as its archbishop or Primate. The GAFCON Anglican Primates will recognize it, but not necessarily will the Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi (Uganda) has said he will welcome Archbishop Duncan with open arms…he has long ones as he is very tall.

Fourth Group
The fourth group of Episcopalians is orthodox stayers who are sleeping badly at night over what is happening to the Episcopal Church. Here is a sample of their writings: "We write as an informal group of Episcopalians who share a desire to remain active and loyal members of the Episcopal Church. Most of us find ourselves profoundly at odds with several controversial decisions made by our leaders (General Convention, the Presiding Bishop and Church Center staff, Executive Council, among others) over the past several years. We are alarmed that they seem to represent a consistent trend away from theological, ethical, and pastoral norms that we understand as essential to Anglican faith and practice. Others among us are more open to the reconfiguration of some of these traditional boundaries, yet are concerned that the manner in which this process has been pursued has needlessly alienated many within our own church, raised substantive issues of mutual accountability between Anglican provinces, and increased the awkwardness in our relations with many ecumenical partners, both locally and globally.

"We are deeply saddened by the steady stream of departures from the Episcopal Church that this ongoing crisis has provoked, especially as it has moved beyond individuals to include parochial and diocesan structures. We are not, as a matter of conscience, inclined to join them in their decision to leave. Moreover, we have varying degrees of disagreement with their perception of the necessity or advisability of doing so. Nonetheless, we are not without significant empathy for their position, and hold many of them as cherished friends and co-laborers in the work of the gospel. It is our desire to do whatever may be within our power to prevent the fences that have recently been erected between Anglicans (seen as protective fences by those who have erected them) from evolving into permanent walls, and, should it please God, to facilitate the conditions under which they might be removed.

"At the same time, even amidst our deep uneasiness, we can confidently affirm that the Episcopal Church has not—in a formal and official and corporately univocal way—abandoned the inheritance of faith and practice that underlies Catholic and Anglican Christianity. We rejoice in the orthodoxy of our Book of Common Prayer (1979), in both its liturgical and catechetical texts, as well as the creedal documents that it includes. We recognize it as articulating the faith and teaching of the Episcopal Church, despite the statements and actions of some leaders that are reasonably construed as departing from it.

"Moreover, we are cognizant of our obligation under the vows of our common baptism to assume the good faith and honorable intentions of fellow Episcopalians with whom we may have deep differences on contested questions. We find it important as a matter of principle to avoid demonizing or anathematizing those whom we disagree, even as we remain forthright in the articulation of our disagreement. We rejoice in any opportunity to make common cause with those whom we may perceive as adversaries (never enemies) in acts of gospel witness and service that transcend our differences.

"In these days of great difficulty—indeed, crisis—within both the Episcopal Church and the entire Anglican Communion, we find it worth observing that many who would only recently have been considered "moderately conservative" in the Episcopal ecclesio-political spectrum now, as a result of rapidly shifting dynamics, occupy the veritable "right-wing fringe" of the Episcopal Church. A number of us feel mounting pressure to distance ourselves from the public image of the very church of which we are devoted members.

"This is not an indefinitely sustainable situation. It seems "meet and right," on a number of levels, to seek some measure of structural relief as would decrease that pressure and allow us to live and move and have our being as Episcopalians. If the new "conservative fringe" is to remain securely connected to the institutional whole, some accommodation to their perceived need for insulation from many of the actions of that institutional whole, and the utterances of its leaders, would be immensely helpful."

Now some of these folk can be described as crossover types (not to be confused with transgendered) whose views represent the "majority party". They want to find a language to create and preserve a secure place within the structures of the Episcopal Church for those who hold traditional perspectives that do not reflect those currently held by the leadership, perhaps even including resolutions—legislative and otherwise—for consideration by the 76th General Convention next July.

Whatever counter proposals they propose, they have no real standing at General Convention and when rites for same sex blessings are finally passed at GC2009, David Booth Beers and Jefferts Schori make their final grab for all Episcopal properties and feelers are put out that the next sexual frontier is the full inclusion of transgendered folk. Then a point of order will be declared that speakers at microphones must identify what gender they are before speaking as this could cause confusion among the House of Deputies with some swing (switch hitter) votes going in the wrong direction. God help us all if that should happen.

Orthodox stayers are on precarious ground. This has been more than broadly hinted at by the new Bishop of South Carolina, Mark Lawrence. "There will be louder, more urgent, and convincing calls (indeed they have already been heard in several quarters) for another Anglican Province in North America," he recently wrote.

Several things now seem clear. Never again will a bishop, whose views on women’s ordination and pansexuality which are not in line with 815, obtain consents to be a bishop of an Episcopal diocese. South Carolina was the last one.

In time, the remnant orthodox will either be driven out or for the sake of their consciences leave.

A new North American Anglican Province will look extremely attractive to many fence sitters and the undecided especially if it is recognized with Archbishop Duncan being seated with the other primates of the Anglican Communion.

Tens of thousands of loyal Episcopalians will no longer be able to ignore the elephant in the sacristy – a new Anglican province. They may not like it, but it will be a done deal. Groups like the Windsor bishops, those looking for a Covenant to save them, the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI) deep thinkers, Dr. Poon’s Global South blog, the Anglican Consultative Council et al will be made largely irrelevant. They will be talking to themselves. The orthodox will no longer listen to anything they have to say. The Episcopal Church’s leadership will now, and far into the future, be in the hands of revisionists.

With each passing month, The Anglican Communion grows more divided. There is a growing momentum that the GAFCON primates themselves may no longer tolerate the innovations of Western pan-Anglican liberalism. This will be bad news for Dr. Rowan Williams.

For the Anglican Communion, the future looks less and less hopeful, but it is equally clear that a new day is dawning. A new vital biblically-based Anglicanism is emerging which will not be put down nor go away.

END

LCMS/ELCA Cooperate - Oh, So Closely

Every month, when I receive my copy of the LCMS Reporter "newspaper", I become uneasy. Usually, it's simply because of the colossal waste of funds that are spent in its printing and sending. I end up spending five minutes glancing through it and throwing it away. This time, however, the following job posting caught my attention:

The LCMS Northwest District and several Northwestern synods of the ELCA seek to fill the position of Director of Consultation to Clergy.

I was confused, was this multiple positions or one position? After visiting the website listed in the posting, www.consultationtoclergy.com, I learned that this position is serving in an organization called, not surprisingly, "Consultation to Clergy," described as "a pastoral care service of the Northwest District of the LCMS and the Akaska, Eastern Washington, etc...synods of the ELCA.

Not all that surprising, I know. Joint synodical efforts are good for public relations, if nothing else. Still, when I read the rest of the job posting, it was interesting to note that if I wanted more information, I should "contact Rev. Penelope Guntermann."

A female "pastor" in the want ads of the LCMS newspaper. No one will notice anway, right? Perhaps not. But it should be noted, our friend Rev. Penelope has her signature on a "Faith-Based Statement in Support of Homosexual Marriage" http://www.seattlefirstbaptist.org/Default.asp?c=Thu%20Oct%209%2022:29:21%20EDT%202008&o=240&rW=1024&rH=768&Header=Prophetic%20Statements&Locator=Prophetic_Statements, on the site of a liberal Baptist church in Seattle, Washington.

Comment on this as you will. Even I was a bit surprised at this one.

Swede

***

GJ - I was disgusted with the LCA's advocacy when I left in 1987. The LCMS could never part with its liberal sistern, so this is the result. A lot of it was going on years ago. The recent copy of some unionism quotations show how WELS, Missouri, and ELCA worked together--under the leadership of a woman executive pastor at ELCA--in the insurance funded Church Growth Initiative (or whatever they called it). All three worked together for the Joy religious radio project, "the first joint ministry of ELCA, WELS, and Missouri." There are many examples. When I started posting them all in Christian News, the two insurance companies (now Thrivent) went into stealth mode.

Pope Kieschnick the Unembarrassable has been working in this direction for years. The Old Guard is in retirement or in the bosom of Abraham. The pliable, self-centered Boomers are dominant. They would gladly sell out Jesus for a better call - and they have.

Meanwhile, one more president and sodomite marriages will be enshrined as a Constitutional right. People accept that today. For one example why this has happened, look at Missouri's and WELS' willingness to work with ELCA for the last two decades. The Episcopal Church is a glimpse into the immediate future. The Unitarian Universalists are a few years ahead of them.

UOJ Stormtroopers: My Little Pony

UOJ Stormtroopers are getting tame.

The Universal Objective Justification stormtroopers used to show up rattling their light sabres every time I questioned their non-Christian doctrine. They are getting tame because the laity have challenged them successfully so many times. Well read laymen got me interested in the topic, which I sensed was just as explosive as criticizing Church Growth.

I used to think the basic answer to UOJ springing up in the mid-19th century was a doctrinal shift away from the Book of Concord. The history and influence of Pietism is the key. More will be coming out to show how true this is.

Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming In

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Church and Change - Cannot Count Either":

If you are making more teaching critical thinking than I can imagine, I pity your poor students. They are being cheated. You dispute any statement that doesn't match your preconceived notions by using ridicule and insults, rather than logical arguments. That is hardly evidence of an open, evaluative mind or someone who knows how to discriminate among multiple philosophies or ideas.

[GJ - Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel. And give us your name, so we can sit at your feet and drink in the wisdom.]

Your response adds a small number of congregations to the list, two of which are no longer WELS and haven't been for years. Oh, that's right, you haven't been a WELS member for years either, and have no direct personal knowledge of the current state of most WELS congregations and pastors. Instead, you rely on half truths and innuendo from disgruntled "insiders" to bolster your arguments.

[GJ - The trend is obvious, and it spread to WELS Lutherans For Life, the hymnal (so ghastly it should not have Lutheran on it), and the magazine (which Slick Brenner called the Ladies Home Companion). Institutional stealth is even more suggestive of unionism, Sweetism, and Hybelism. Posts like this encourage even more information to come in. Thanks.]

One of your favorite retorts is to criticize the spelling and grammar of those commenters whom you believe to be "Church and Change" adherents. Yet, your own writing style is blase and uninteresting. Copying and pasting long lists of quotes from your Megatron database, most of which are 10-15 years old, is a wonderful demonstration of the poorest form of writing and communication. I may use it as an example in my class entitled "How Not to Write."

[GJ - One WELS teacher wrote in to say that he or she noticed the same thing about WELS bad spelling, chuckling about it. Bad spelling on the official website is funny, but promoting Church and Change on it - not. Many of my quotations are 500 years old, well worth reading. Sometimes I quote Augustine, 1600 years old.]

Your online sermons are no better - they are stilted and boring. The core message of most of them is your dissatisfaction with organized churches. This is the most likely reason you have had to create your own "church" to gain a hearing. No one else would be interested in someone with so little aptitude for teaching and preaching the Gospel.

[GJ - Ichabodians. Notice the comparison. The quotations are annoying and the sermons no better. I think this person is very disturbed about the orthodox Lutheran quotations. The sermons are provided for those who wish to read them. As far as I know, Ichabod is not required reading for anyone. According to this dyspepsic reader, thousands of Lutherans have erred in buying books I have written. Brug suggested Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant to the students at the Sausage Factory. Kurt Marquart recommended the book.]

And, finally, I am not a reverend. Nor am I a member of Church and Change.

[GJ - No, you are not reverend. I am not sure what a member of Church and Change is. I believe the official levels there are Obi-wans, Robots, and Useful Idiots with Money.]

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming In":

Hilarious! The WELS troopers scream, “no one reads your blog Jackson.” Yet it is probably one of the most read Lutheran blogs.

Everyone screams and hollers about what you write. Yet they keep coming back.

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GJ - I was emailing doctrinal bulletins for a long time. I decided to blog after being kicked off a conservative website because I said Bush was a liberal. Some ask about publishing with Christian News, but this gets to people immediately without an editorial filter.