ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - The antidote trusts the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10.
Monday, January 24, 2011
LCMS Pastor Vernon Harley - UOJ Study - Introduction
Mrs. Ichabod and I met Pastor and Mrs. Vernon Harley when we were living in New Ulm, Minnesota. He has died since then, but she still lives in Fairmont.
Pastor Harley, LCMS, wrote against UOJ for many years, and published his essay for anyone to see. No one took action against him.
I will publish his materials as time allows.
He had access to the early history of Missouri, when UOJ did not reign supreme. The Stormtroopers would love to have people imagine that UOJ was the official stance of the Syn Conference from the beginning, making it completely orthodox!
Where else do we find people teaching false doctrine as being the ancient teaching of the Church?
Answer - in Roman Catholicism, the Assumption of Mary is taught as originating in the earliest days of the Church, even though it was fashioned from the Dormition (Falling Asleep or Death) of Mary worship services and some very strange, late documents - The Travels of Mary - Transitae Mariae.
Exegetical Study of UOJ - LCMS Pastor Harley - Pages 1-5
Wisconsin Sect Still Trying To Plug the Leakin' Lena
I have heard from a handful of people that WELS is accusing them of leaking information to this blog. One was public, on Facebook itself, so I did not need to be told about it. Other confrontations are similar to "prove you are not guilty."
More than once I have been given stories that were already published. I do not expect everyone to read or remember what is posted.
WELS thinks they can run around intimidating people or identifying friends to keep the facts from being published. They should shut down Google, or tell their braggart false prophets that the Net should no longer be used.
I copy material from websites because the Shrinkers erase or change the material once people find out. Naturally, the quick change tells everyone that the perpetrators are guilty and know it.
Here are some basic facts, to allow the synodical plumbers to relax their vigil in plugging leaks.
1. I have multiple sources for many different incidents. They are not the same people each time.
2. I do not publish information unless I can verify it. Perverted WELS has tried to pass false information to me through friends, so the synod can call me a liar when the planted deceptive story comes out. For example, one WELS board member was identified as an adulterous pastor, about to lose his call or get divorced. I checked out the story with several pastors and it was a lie. I could trace who told the fable - too clever by half. Yes, they are willing to slander their own brothers to get at me.
3. The least likely source is someone on my Facebook list of friends. If someone wants to lurk on my FB page to find out what I am doing - good luck. I write to Moline friends and post conservative political links (church/state separation). I seldom deal with theological controversy, because I do not like getting 50 emails from FB posting alerts. There were two cases of officials jumping on someone for the sin of being my FB friend. One was accused of being my source. The other was asked, ominously, "How do you know him?" Those warped synodical brains work overtime on the wrong people.
The solution is to fix the problem - not me. I am like the driver who honks his horn and tells a stranger that he has a flat tire or a hand reaching out of the trunk. In one case, a boy was trapped on the front of a truck. Strangers alerted the driver, who had no idea what had happened. Why be angry with me for telling the truth?
Someone else will take over when I reach room temperature. Based on my parental health and longevity, though God alone knows, I have about 18 years of publishing left. By then the title of the blog will be:
Ichabod, The Nightmare Finally Ends, Part One.
"It's simple. Justification is atonement and atonement is justification. Everyone is forgiven but not forgiven, because they have to be justified twice. I must teach the thick-headed laity because they were not lazy, bad students of Greek, as I was in seminary."
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Cone has left a new comment on your post "Wisconsin Sect Still Trying To Plug the Leakin' L...":
Exactly. They obviously have something to hide.
"The solution is to fix the problem - not me. I am like the driver who honks his horn and tells a stranger that he has a flat tire or a hand reaching out of the trunk."
I hope I am correct in assuming that was a joke about the hand. Then I won't feel guilty for laughing myself a six pack.
One Way To Decrease Attendance at the Big Anglican Meeting
Special Report
Will priestly lesbian nuptials by Massachusetts Episcopal bishop accelerate Anglican schism?A Cathedral Wedding
The New Year's Day lesbian wedding of an Episcopal seminary president to a high ranking diocesan official has accelerated the long-running controversy over same-sex unions in both the U.S.-based Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion.At least eleven Anglican Primates (heads of national churches) have said they will not attend the annual Anglican Primates meeting January 25-31 in Dublin, due to the inclusion of U.S. Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Conservative global south primates are increasingly unwilling to affiliate with U.S. Episcopal Church liberalism, especially same-sex unions. The eleven boycotting primates represent about 80 percent of the global Anglican Communion's roughly 80 million members.
The Rev. Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, married the Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, dean and president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, with Bishop M. Thomas Shaw presiding, and 400 friends attending.
Ragsdale's Episcopal Divinity School has touted the union, distributing an 800-word press release acclaiming it as "historic." While the blessings of same-sex unions are now commonplace in many liberal Episcopal dioceses, same-sex "marriages" are a relatively new development.
Ragsdale has been a controversial figure in the 2.1 million-member denomination for both her outspoken affirmation of same-sex "marriage" and homosexual clergy, as well as her unqualified defense of abortion.
Nicknamed by conservative critics as "The High Priestess of Abortion" for enthusiastically backing unrestricted abortion rights, Ragsdale formerly chaired the Washington, D.C. based Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) and is a board member of NARAL Pro-Choice America. She came under renewed heavy criticism three years ago for declaring "abortion is a blessing" while at a rally outside an Alabama abortion clinic. That criticism escalated when Ragsdale became president of Episcopal Divinity School, one of the Episcopal Church's most liberal of 11 accredited seminaries. Ragsdale is only the second ever female Episcopal seminary chief and the first professed homosexual one. She is also the former director of Massachusetts-based Political Research Associates, a watchdog of conservatism in America.
"It's astonishing how the world is changing,'' Ragsdale gushed in her seminary's release about her marriage. "When I grew up, I never believed I would be able to have someone special in my life and now to have almost 400 people show up to support us at our marriage ceremony is wonderful."
As celebrant at Ragsdale's nuptials, Bishop Shaw has openly supported same-sex marriage for years. He gave his parish priests permission to perform homosexual marriages soon after the 2009 Episcopal General Convention voted to allow "generous pastoral response" in such situations.
Much like the consecration of openly partnered homosexual Bishops Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and Mary Glasspool of Los Angeles, the Episcopal Church's embrace of same-sex unions continues sharply to divide liberal U.S. Episcopalians and Anglican traditionalists, especially in the Global South. Refraining from same-sex blessings was one of the moratoria requested by leaders of the global Anglican Communion. Liberals in the Episcopal Church argue for what they attest to be widening human experience about sex, while traditionalists cite historic church teachings and a plain reading of Scripture.
"This is another action of reckless disregard for the life of the Anglican Communion and the authority of the Bible by The Episcopal Church," the Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, told the Christian Post. "They continue to ignore the Communion's pleas for restraint and continue to go their own way." Anderson is a bishop in the Anglican Church of North America, formed by orthodox dioceses, congregations, clergy and laity who broke away from the Episcopal Church after the 2003 consecration of its first openly homosexual bishop.
According to an analysis of the liturgy by Anglican writer Peter Ould, the wedding at St. Paul's Cathedral Church used a modified version of the marriage ceremony from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. In addition to replacing the traditional husband/wife language to accommodate two persons of the same sex, the service eliminated all reference to procreation and that the bond and covenant of marriage "was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee."
The Diocese of Massachusetts has seen membership shrink over the past decade, with weekly attendance dropping from about 24,000 in 2001 to about 18,000 in 2009. Declining numbers for the diocese have been mirrored by Episcopal Divinity School, which has struggled with a diminishing number of both enrolled seminarians and finances in recent years. In 2008, the school announced the transfer of many of its historic buildings to neighboring Lesley University in a sale that generated $33.5 million in urgently needed income.
Prior to their current positions, Ragsdale served as vicar of St. David's Church in Pepperell, while Lloyd was for six years the rector of Christ Church in Plymouth. Both congregations have declined significantly, with St. David's dropping from 70 attendees in 1999 to less than 30 in 2009, while Christ Church dropped from 200 attendees in 1999 to 150 in 2009, according to the diocese's self-reported statistics.
The decline of the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts of course reflects the U.S. Episcopal Church's national decline. Meanwhile, Anglican churches throughout Africa and in Asia continue to grow. Orthodox global south primates are increasingly unwilling to submit to traditional leadership by shrinking, heterodox Western churches. Bishop Shaw's cathedral wedding for two prominent lesbian priests will likely accelerate that trend.
WLC showed three people from Gunn's CrossWalk on their board--including Gunn--then hid that information once I published it.
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GJ - After Gunn was put on the WLC board, when apparently under discipline or at least getting frowns from DP Buchholz, he was featured at the only national WELS youth conference this year - Jeske's. And Buchholz promoted that in his own parish newsletter.
WELS is no different from The Episcopal Church in its willingness to feed sheep to the wolves.
WELS is the only Lutheran group with its own gay college video - Party in the MLC.
Say It Isn't So, Joe
The Nation's Pulse
Classic Collapse
Michael Johnson | 1.24.11 @ 6:07AM
The market for classical music in the U.S. is in deep trouble.
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GJ - I thought Joe Krohn was posting on the American Spectator site.
Cause and Effect:
Who's Your Daddy?
LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "WELS Anti-Christian":
One only has to teach the Scriptures in truth and purity to avoid such things as synergism instead of preaching universal absolution and crypto-universalism...
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GJ - A new book, a dissertation about Herman Otten and the LCMS split, will be coming out soon. I am getting a review copy, so I will discuss the parts I know. Various participants have offered their perspectives.
Joe Krohn's comment above got me thinking about how the issues are framed, spun, and tucked away in the memory archives.
For example, the LCMS Seminex crisis was built around the topic of inerrancy, a term that still makes liberal Lutherans fulminate.
Unfortunately, the Lutherans chose to plant their stake in a Calvinistic term rather than Biblical, Lutheran doctrine, because they saw the conservative Calvinists as their allies. A similar discussion has taken place over women's ordination rather than women teaching men, women usurping authority from men. As one drunken guest lecturer at Notre Dame said, "I will bracket that discussion for now."
The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible, without error or contradiction. However, when the Lutherans attached themselves to the inerrancy term without addressing the efficacy of the Word and the problem of Enthusiasm, they renewed their kinship with Calvinsim.
Luther and the Concordists did not debate inerrancy and seldom mentioned it, because almost no one argued against the concept. Calvin pretended to be Lutheran but finally came out of hiding on the topics of Enthusiasm, the Sacraments, and so forth.
The Missouri debate led them to make common cause with the conservative Calvinists in America, who were also saying, "Why can't we go back to ye Olden Days?"
Instead of preparing people against the errors of rationalism and Enthusiasm, the Preus-Otten-McCain coalition drummed Calvinism into putty-soft heads. I have read a fair number of Calvinistic works. They are always anxious to prove that the Bible really is correct, an insight no more illuminating than "water is wet" and "the sky is blue."
Calvinism is the gateway drug of Unitarian-Universalism. First, they divorce the Holy Spirit from the Word. Second, they subordinate the Word of God to human reason. Those two influences alone will lead to atheism in time, whether the path goes through intellectual Calvinism or emotional Pentecostalism.
The Babtists have 57 flavors that include everything from Calvinism to rattlesnake-handlerism. Apart from the issue of infant baptism, they are quite close, and even agree on baptism being a mere ordinance, an act of man rather than a Means of Grace.
Doctrinal DNA will always give away the daddy.
Some will say, "Then Preus, Otten, and McCain drove Missouri in the wrong direction?"
The various Christian News leaders were being true to their Calvinistic heritage, true Waltherians.
Calvin and Walther started with propositions and made the Scriptures support their theses.
Calvin and Walther separated the Holy Spirit from the Word, divorcing grace from the Means of Grace.
Note that the current synod leaders are incapable of communicating as Lutherans. When they issue their encyclicals, they sound exactly like generic Protestants - stand firm on the Word, Gospel outreach, be friendly, balance the budget.
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Cause and Effect:Who's Your Daddy?":
I never quite understood the appeal of Calvinism until I became an Ichabodian. When it is understood that the very first step is the separation of the Holy Spirit from the Word, then the doctrine of the efficacy of the Word is undermined. This opens the door to the spectrum of human reason. Human reason in action is pragmatism. This becomes easy to sell to the unsuspecting laity who will rely upon what their senses perceive.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
WELS Anti-Christian
One Eponymous Archon (https://me.yahoo.com/oneeponymousarchon) has left a new comment on your post "Connect the Dots To See How Anti-Lutheran WELS Has...":
Dr. Jackson,
I think you have it - almost. The WELS became apostate many years ago. Thus, not only is it non-Lutheran, it is becoming increasingly non-Christian. If these fools would have been around a thousand years ago, they've have been burned at the stake! No, wait, that would be an insult to Hus and Savanarola! I'm -
One Eponymous Archon
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GJ - The UOJ message is un-Christian and anti-Christian, so I agree with you. The UOJ message was once a fringe idea, but it has permeated the Synodical Conference, as bad yeast always will.
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship
Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Time
The Hymn #44 Ye Lands 2.41
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 # 264 Preserve Thy Word 2.55
Commending Faith
The Hymn # 249 Isaiah Mighty Seer 2.75
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 #45 Now the Hour of Worship 2.95
KJV Romans 12:16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. 17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
KJV Matthew 8:1 When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
Third Sunday After Epiphany
O almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all dangers and necessities stretch forth Thy mighty hand, to defend us against our enemies; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Commending Faith
First miracle, Lenski:
“This leper is willing, if Jesus shall so will, to remain in his living death. Submissive faith can go no farther. This leper distinguishes divine temporal from divine spiritual and eternal gifts. He knows that he is asking only for the former which God’s wisdom and love may and often does withhold from us; but gifts such as pardon, peace, spiritual consolation and strength are always freely granted since it is without question God’s will that we have them. How this leper came to such faith we are unable to say; but his case is one that shows clearly how the teaching of Jesus produced the most blessed spiritual effects.
On leprosy see the Bible Dictionaries and Trench, Miracles. Luke states that the man was “full of leprosy”; the disease had progressed very far. The leper was accounted as one dead and thus as unclean. It was a bold act on the part of this leper to work his way through the crowd to the feet of Jesus.”
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of St. Matthew's Gospel. Minneapolis, MN. : Augsburg Publishing House, 1961, S. 319
This Gospel consists of two miracle healings. There are many healing miracles in the Gospels and even groups of miracles mentioned. When details are offered, they have great significance, especially since the Gospels are so short in length.
The first miracle involves a man full of leprosy, in Luke’s version. In other words, he is close to death and hideously deformed. No one can miss the fact of his leprosy, and he is also shunned and excluded from human company, except for other lepers.
He was bold to come through the crowd and to come forward. As Lenski observed, his question itself shows great faith in Christ. If someone wanted to nitpick, the bowing and the use of Lord were not so great, since that was common in that area of the world. Alexander the Great caused great conflict in his Greek soldiers by asking to be treated that way, which was entirely foreign to them. The Greeks created one of the few democracies in the history of the world. Before this time our presidents have never bowed before kings because our tradition, from the Greeks, of freedom.
The lepers question was the key item, because he said in a few words, “You have the power to change this wasted, ravaged body and made it healthy again – with just a Word.” The leper’s entreaty does not question Jesus’ ability. It emphasizes his trust in the power of Christ with a Word.
The divine power of Jesus spread in every direction from the healings, the style of those miracles (beyond any human’s), and the other miracles. Some were seen by only a few – the disciples. But in the course of three years, Jesus raised up three people from the dead: the young girl, the widow’s son, and Lazarus. He walked on water and stilled the storm. His first miracle, turning water into wine, was public and witnessed by many who never expected or imagined such a thing. Therefore, His reputation spread in all directions, and the leper clung to the hope of the Savior cleansing him.
Our translations make it seem to be a matter of Jesus wanting to. Another way to express the leper’s request is to translate, “If You choose to heal me, You can make me clean again.” Jesus reached out His hand and said, “I do choose to heal you.” And the leper was cleansed.
Luther pointed out that, no matter what the conversations involved, Jesus always granted the request of those who asked Him for help. Many people balk at certain details, such as when Jesus appeared to be difficult (Canaanite woman, asking for her daughter). But each miracle has a lesson or two embedded and we only need to listen.
Jesus healed lepers and the blind. We can only imagine the thrill and the joy they experienced when their lives were changed in a moment.
This example of faith shows us what it means to trust utterly in Christ. Jesus said (John 16) –“The Holy Spirit (preaching the Word) will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe on Me.”
The purpose of all preaching is not to show people their carnal sin, which they realize already, but to create and renew their trust in Christ by proclaiming the Word of the Gospel.
The carnal sin preachers begin and end with Law. Notice that all false teachers rely on the Law because they do not trust the Gospel themselves. In the name of Jesus they extinguish faith in Jesus.
All the New Age ministers are influenced directly by the Pentecostals, who conjure up the Holy Spirit on their own, without the Word and Sacraments. But their real masters are the occultic teachers of Asian religion. That is where Norman Vincent Peale got the book he plagiarized (The Power of Positive Thinking) and turned into a best-seller. Schuller copied the concept as Possibility Thinking, and Fuller Seminary copied him. When I hear Jeske calling on the powers of the universe to help us with our personal problems, Time of Grace, I am hearing Asian religion – which I have covered in about 50 university classes.
So let’s look at this leper’s faith, which is a prelude to the Roman officer’s faith story. The leper did not deserve to be in the crowd. He was loathed and feared by everyone. They did not want to catch his disease, which can be communicated. Worst of all, he had the look of a dying man. If he had a shack, he would never put up a mirror to see what he had become. Doubtless he was very weak too. The crowd could have pushed him into the ditch or beaten him away with their staffs. In spite of his fears and self-loathing, he went forward and asked in faith.
So it is when we come before God to receive His grace through the Means of Grace. We do not come to the Throne of Mercy because we are worthy but because we need His cleansing. The Gospel is not logical or reasonable. We have to overcome the limits of our human reason to trust in God’s mercy, to receive His love and forgiveness.
And the way we deepen that trust is to abide with Christ in the Word and Sacraments. As God taught us, this alone is the way in which His grace comes to us. This alone is the work of the Holy Spirit. And only through the Means of Grace do we produce the fruits of the Spirit, because the fruits come from God – not us.
The Roman Officer
The centurion was a high-ranking Roman officer, a man who had survived many battles and the incredible rigor of Roman military life. A Roman soldier never rested. He was always in training or in battle. If he needed work to be done, there were camps to be set up and stone walls to be built. Many European towns began as Roman outposts and camps. Just to illustrate one job of the soldiers. They built 10 foot walls for their camps, but also dug 10 foot deep ditches in front of them, sometimes behind them as well. That is an enormous amount of soil and rock to remove. The idea was to make the wall intimidating and almost impossible to scale. No soldier was ever asked if he felt motivated to do such work. The orders were given and he obeyed. Death was the penalty for not obeying, and there was no trial.
The only way to understand the second miracle completely is to realize that the officer trusted in Jesus so completely that he confessed before the crowd –
“I am a Roman officer. I do not deserve to have You enter my house. If I command something to be done, it is done in an instant. No one doubts or questions my word. I do not debate whether it will be followed. I know it will because I have absolute authority given by Rome. I hold life and death in my hands. Therefore, to heal my dear servant, You do not need to come to my home. You only need to say the Word and he will be healed. I know that, because I understand that You have divine authority far beyond my human authority.”
10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus marveled at the officer’s faith, so faith in Christ must be very good indeed. He even said that the centurion’s faith was greater than anything in Israel. The typical request was to have Jesus present, but the centurion understood the efficacy of the Word. He had that kind of human authority, but it was derived from Rome. Jesus had and still has divine authority from Himself – as God.
How troubled must many Lutherans be, to overlook this passage and think that faith is a virtue of man and must be denigrated! That is the position of UOJ, which comes from Pietism. And yes, it is Pietism that trusts in the works of man and the outward signs of religion. Pietism is Law-oriented: real, relational, and relevant – they claim.
The faith of the centurion means utter trust in God’s Word. Jesus is conveyed to us in the Word and no other way. Mormons tried to tell me the Bible was confusing. I said, trying to be Baby Blue Eyes, “Do you mean that God became man, died on the cross for our sins, rose from the dead, and then communicated this message so that no one could understand?”
The Pietistic cell groups (small groups, lay led koinonia groups, share, care, affinity groups) demand works.
The centurion was a prime example for his time. If he stood in the market and ordered people to leave, they would leave without hesitation.
Therefore, when Jesus said, “Be healed,” at whatever distance, the servant was healed.
God says, “Your sins are forgiven.” They are forgiven. This is God’s command, not our feelings.
God says, “This is My Body, given for you for the forgiveness of sin.” That means receiving the Sacrament in faith forgives our sins. Rather than doubting the abundance of the Means of Grace, as the non-Lutherans do, we should be thankful for the many ways in which God’s grace comes to us in the form of the Word.
Connect the Dots To See How Anti-Lutheran WELS Has Become.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS Welcomes Winsome Waldo Werning":
(W)ELS Synod has been supporting the New Age Emergent apostasy for a long time by enabling and protecting the Church and Change false teachers. It's no mistake that DP Buchholz' church is currently promoting David Kehl's church growth business in their Jan 2011 Newsletter along with Jeff Gunn and the (W)ELS MOG apostate conversion of your kids. Here's the snippet from Church and Change's 2007 Conference featuring Kehl and other wolves in the (W)ELS.
109.... Learning to Teach Adults Today
Pastor Dave Kehl
(Dave.Kehl@sab.wels.net)
How can we best draw people into the life-giving words of Scripture to discover the mysteries unfolded for their lives? Brain research, cultural awareness and technological advances bring new insights on how adults learn. This workshop will look at four basic areas of brain discovery that help increase the learning connection. During the workshop we will also discuss and demonstrate six techniques available to enhance the communication of Bible truths to our audiences today.
Pastor Kehl is Administrator of WELS Adult Discipleship and Director of Milwaukee Institute of Christian Studies for the development of spiritual growth and lay leadership.
http://www.churchandchange.org/home/2384/2384/files/CanCprogram.Web.pdf
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GJ -
1. David Kehl was one of The Guilt Factory staff in charge of their Airport meetings, which were nothing more than Church Growth conferences, perhaps one last gasp at "getting things going." As the comment above shows, Kehl is a Church and Change leader.
2. David Kehl is speaking at the Kingdom Workers workshop, which is promoted by District President Buchholz, who complains that the Boomers are slack in doctrine.
3. David Kehl is connected with Waldo Werning, Who's Who in Church Growth in the LCMS, according to C. Peter Wagner.
4. David Kehl is an advisor to the WELS feminist conference, also involved with Thailand. Synod President Schroeder promoted the feminist conference in his own email newsletter, although that was billed as an accident caused by some gremlin while he was away in India.
As anyone can see, truth is on the scaffold and error on the throne.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Lutheran | Moving forward: Congregations split, thrive following 2009 Churchwide Assembly action
The Lutheran | Moving forward: Congregations split, thrive following 2009 Churchwide Assembly action
 |
| A year ago, some 60 people began a new church when their congregation, Central Lutheran, Elk River, Minn., voted to leave the ELCA. Elk River Lutheran just celebrated one year as a new congregation. They gather in leased retail space, led by their pastor, Cynthia L. Ganzkow-Wold, who says it is "a welcoming, biblical and joy-filled place to be." |
Justification Book Proof Copy - 99% Done
I received the proof copy of Luther versus the UOJ Pietists: Justification by Faith.
The lay-out looks great and the contents are coherent. I am doing final fixes, with my gruff but likable editor, and some other readers. I can do ongoing improvements and additions in the future.
I will be sending copies around to seminaries, colleges, students, and professors. If you would like to help, the cost to send one copy at my price is $15 with shipping. You can write the check to Bethany Lutheran Church, 1 Silden Lane, Bella Vista, AR 72715. Bethany is an ecclesiastical corporation, a real church.
You can also bulk order at wholesale prices through me. Let me know at
gregjackson1948@qwest.net.
Pope John the Malefactor in Art
The Prime Minister, as Alladin, pulled out an imperial crown for Victoria.
Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "Norman Teigen on WELS Dominance of the Little Sect...":
W you please remove the caricature of President Moldstad. I find it offensive and do not wish for anyone to think that I approve of it.
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Norman Teigen on WELS Dominance of the Little Sect...":
The best part is that it isn't a caricature.
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GJ - I am solely responsible for the delightful, fun-filled Photoshops on this blog. Caricatures always have fun while making a point. I am British on my mother's side, so I am inclined to admire and copy the work of Punch magazine. The example above is no longer under copyright.
One Punch cartoon showed Queen Victoria with Mr. Brown, rumored to be her husband, thanks to a morganatic marriage after Prince Albert reached room temperature.
British rulers in India had a habit of grabbing nearby territory on a pretext, because the subcontinent was actually managed by a corporation, the British East India Company, just as Canada was first managed by the Hudson Bay Company. One British agent grabbed the province of Sind, so Punch ran its cartoon with this Latin caption - Pecavi. In English, that means "I have sinned," a great pun on "I have Sind."
If the British can have fun with their monarch and Prime Minister, I can post Photoshops of Lutheran mis-leaders. Moldstad threatened to kick a congregation out of the Little Sect if they did not void their call of Pastor Rolf Preus. That is papal rather than Lutheran.
There are three reasons to remove a man from the ministry:
1. False doctrine.
2. Inability or unwillingness to do the work of the pastor.
3. A scandalous life.
In all three cases, proper procedures must be followed, so the leaders are not tempted to become dictators who remove pastors and teachers for disagreeing with them.
District Popes are doctrinal pussycats until someone has a different opinion or points out something wrong. The congregation gives up the concept of the divine call when it allows meddling church officials to violate that call, especially when it is done in the background through disruptive, dysfunctional members.
Readers should remember that the same hoity-toity poobahs of Lutherdom have covered up murders, child molestations, embezzlements, and many other crimes - even to the point of committing felonies themselves. Obstruction of justice, hiding evidence, is a felony.
Pope John Paul II had priestly records removed to Rome, where they could no longer be subpoenaed by the courts.
WELS Welcomes Winsome Waldo Werning
Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Dave Kehl and Waldo Werning and WELS Womens Minist...":
Dave Kehl is being promoted by (W)ELS CA/AZ DP Pastor Jon Buchholz' Emmanuel Church in Arizona.
WELS Kingdom Workers
Men's Workshop
"Taking Christian Leadership to the Next Level" Jan 29, 2011
http://www.elctempe.org/home/180001623/180001623/2011-01%20January.pdf
Whether they turn a blind eye or give them a leg up, (W)ELS Leaders are enabling the plummeting spiral of apostasy in the Lutheran Synods. The leaders have made this choice on their own but it's the laity who are being sheered of their Confessional Lutheran wool, left naked and broke on the side of the road, to be picked up by another false prophet because what they've been fed is the same thing being fed to the lost.
What a shame, the laity should be disgusted.
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GJ - Werning is not known for being a confessional Lutheran in the LCMS. He is known for promoting Church Growth doctrine (Enthusiasm) for decades. C. Peter Wagner listed him as one of five (5) LCMS leaders in the Who's Who in Church Growth list. Valleskey quoted him lovingly in that odious essay extolling the Church Growth Movement.
Nothin' says lovin' false doctrine more than the Changers working with Werning and Hunter, promoting Sweet and Stetzer.
The Werning/Hunter confab was blocked - gasp! - but the Sweet conference was held. Remember the write a letter, tell me to my face rubric of WELS? Paul Calvin Kelm would not even answer anyone about the Sweet conference.
Norman Teigen on WELS Dominance of the Little Sect on the Prairie
Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "Where Are the Works of Faith with UOJ?":
There is, sadly, a legacy of church toxicity present in all denominations. As one who was raised in the conservative Lutheran tradition (ELS) I have seen my share of sorrow in the Little Norqegian Synod.
Your post and a pastoral retirement this weekend brought the subject of religious toxicity back into my thoughts.
The retiring pastor is LC-MS. He is one of about 15 or 20 ELS guys who were forced out when they were young. Now these men, having faithfully served in the pastoral ministry for many years, are at retirement age.
I see it as a generation of pastors sacrificed for a hollow set of ideals.
I am not exaggerating when I say that the ELS is less of a synod with these lost men who have been replaced by men of mediocrity.
The ELS has particularly been adrift since the late 1980s when the Orvickean hierarchy kow-towed to the men of WELS. The WELSification of the ELS is noted by all and mourned by many.
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GJ - I still have the essay that the ELS leaders wrote against the leftward drift of the LCMS. I keep that as proof that clergy once had spines.
The leaders are not going to change what has feathered their nests, given them trips abroad, and left them unchallenged.
They all saw the Thrivent and Schwan money as a great blessing from heaven, but selling a billionaire an indulgence so he can marry his married, papist girlfriend? Could that be corrupting? Not for those who believe, teach, and confess UOJ.
Dave Kehl and Waldo Werning and WELS Womens Ministries
WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "Waldo Werning, LCMS, Reveals His Church Growth Net...":
Dave Kehl is advisor to the WELS Womens Ministries. Wake up people! If you are lucky to attend one of these workshops, you had best keep your wallet on a chain. A string of garlic around your neck would not hurt either.
If Joe Krohn is reading this post, could he ask Mrs. Krohn to share her comments regarding the deaconess program. (I did not want to share email contents without permission)
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
Ho, Ho
Narrow-minded Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "Bueller, Bueller. Anyone? Anyone?":
Sorry I poorly worded my point. ELCA is rotten, but the smugness of Missouri and WELS is nauseating. It would be like going on a date with a known prostitute vs. going out with a "nice" girl that tells you she is a part-time prostitute as you walk her to the door at the conclusion of the date. Once the "nice" girl is discovered to be not-so-nice, would you not run as fast as you could? Wouldn't you feel proud to take her home to Mom and Dad?
This was me five years ago in Missouri. Yes, we always pointed out the errors of ELCA, and rightly so. When I started considering sem, I began to study and look into things. The conclusion was that practice was not nearly as orthodox as the talk. I also concluded from this study that the vast majority of the laity are either ignorant, poorly catechized, or simply will never leave or make waves because their great-grandparents were LCMS-ers.
Missouri bad-mouths ELCA for their tolerance of homosexuality, and rightly so; but Missouri fails to discipline in the case of an openly-homosexual music director out West. Missouri bad-mouths ELCA for liberal Communion practice; but an LCMS seminary prof told me that it's the DP's job to enforce closed Communion when I asked him why the LCMS was not addressing the issue of closed Communion. Missouri bad-mouths female ordination in ELCA, yet LCMS females are allowed to assist in the distribution and readings.
I could go on for pages, so enough. My ultimate point is that LCMS is twenty-to-thirty years behind ELCA.
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GJ - WELS and Missouri are almost the same. The Little Sect on the Prairie objects to nothing in WELS and has its own Church and Change (Emerging Church) parish.
So ditto the ELS.
WELS Invited Werning and Kent Hunter, Both Fuller Alumni, To Teach Them
Narrow-minded Lutheran has left a new comment on your post "Waldo Werning, LCMS, Reveals His Church Growth Net...":
I started to read "Making Missouri Functional Again," but couldn't bear to finish it. From skimming through it, the point just seemed to be to slam Fort Wayne. Dr. Scaer and Dr. Marquart were portrayed as part of some conspiracy.
I often wonder what caused the Ft. Wayne mass-exodus to Constantinople. Yes, most of it is simply not adhering to the Lutheran confessions. But I also believe some of it was over-compensation for the CG infection in the LCMS. "High Church to the max" for the sake of Law and not Gospel could lead to infatuation with EO, witness Fenton.
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GJ - Lest you forget, Werning also went after me for two pages in Functional.
The irony about The Surrendered Fort and Our Lady of Sorrows* is this - they were so disgusted with Entertainment Evangelism from Church Growth that they went for Entertainment Evangelism from Rome and Constantinople.
I favor formal, liturgical services - even high church worship. However, the new mode is clearly a case of worshiping the style of worship while sinuflecting to Rome, perhaps with a short stay in Istanbul first. UOJ led the way to Church Growth and to Incense Growth.
* - The Surrendered Fort is Concordia, Ft. Wayne
Our Lady of Sorrows is Concordia, St. Louis.
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WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "WELS Invited Werning and Kent Hunter, Both Fuller ...":
Waldo Werning! He was awarded the McGavran(spelling?) Church growth award. It's true. Could you even imagine? Bruce Eberle(aka Jeske's BFF, aka rightwing Washington insider of fund raining scams, aka gazillionaire) of the Church And Change fringe of the WELS, worked for Werning's God's Word To The Bible Society. This is all part of the deadly achievement of a one world religion. God has been demoted to the Grand Architect. I thought that we were saved through faith in Jesus.
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
[GJ - Spelling does count in WELS.]
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