Alec Satin, The Lutheran Librarian, The Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry

 

Newsletter from The Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry

In This Issue

The Way of Salvation In The Lutheran Church by George Gerberding The Life and Teachings of Theodore Emanuel Schmauk by George W. Sandt The New Theology: Samuel Schmucker and Its Other Defenders by James Allen Brown Sermons on the Gospels by Matthias Loy My Experiences In The Mission Field Of South Dakota by Frank Albert Kiess

Featured

The Way of Salvation In The Lutheran Church by George Gerberding “The aim of the author is to present a clear, concise, and yet as comprehensive a view as possible, of the way of salvation as taught in the Scriptures, and held by the Lutheran Church.” — M. Rhodes. Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed. George Henry Gerberding (1847-1927) studied under Charles Krauth and C. F. Schaeffer and assisted the Rev. Passavant. An indefatigable worker, he established and restored churches in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Fargo, ND. His Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church was one of the most successful books ever published by the English Lutheran Church. Chapters Introduction. The Story Of The Book. Achievements Of The Book Preface Prefatory Scripture Passages 1 All are Sinners. 2 All That Is Born Of The Flesh Must Be Born Of The Spirit. 3 The Present, a Dispensation of Means. 4 Baptism, a Divinely Appointed Means of Grace. 5 The Baptismal Covenant Can Be Kept Unbroken. Aim and Responsibility of Parents. 6 Home Influence and Training in Their Relation to the Keeping of the Baptismal Covenant 7 The Sunday School in Its Relation to the Baptized Children of Christian Parents. 8 The Sunday School – Its Relation To Those In Covenant Relationship With Christ, And Also To The Unbaptized And Wandering. 9 Catechization. 10 Contents, Arrangement and Excellence of Luther’s Small Catechism. 11 Manner and Object of Teaching Luther’s Catechism. 12 Confirmation. 13 The Lord’s Supper – Preliminary Observations. 14 The Lord’s Supper – Continued. 15 The Lord’s Supper – Concluded. 16 The Preparatory Service; Sometimes Called The Confessional Service. 17 The Word As a Means of Grace. 18 Conversion, Its Nature and Necessity. 19 Conversion – Varied Phenomena or Experiences 20 Conversion (Concluded) 21 Justification. 22 Sanctification. 23 Revivals 24 Conclusion. The Reformation Church Reader’s Guide Questions Download the eBook PDF Apple/Kobo EPUB Kindle AZW3 Legacy MOBI (If EPUB or AZW3 won’t work on your device) You can expect your book to arrive within a few hours. If you don't find it, check your spam or junk mail folder. You can also request a copy of this or any Lutheran Library e-book by sending an email with the book's title and format. Enjoy the book! Publication Information Lutheran Library edition first published: 2019-04-30 Updated: 2019-04-30 Copyright: CC BY 4.0 Read more

Recent Books and Articles Published

The Way of Salvation In The Lutheran Church by George Gerberding “The aim of the author is to present a clear, concise, and yet as comprehensive a view as possible, of the way of salvation as taught in the Scriptures, and held by the Lutheran Church.” — M. Rhodes. Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed. George Henry Gerberding (1847-1927) studied under Charles Krauth and C. F. Schaeffer and assisted the Rev. Passavant. An indefatigable worker, he established and restored churches in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Fargo, ND. ... Read more The Life and Teachings of Theodore Emanuel Schmauk by George W. Sandt “Lutheranism clings to God’s Written Word. Her motto is the Word of God, the whole Word of God, and nothing but the Word of God, not as a prescriptive letter, but as the power of God unto salvation.” – Theodore Schmauk “[Dr Schmauk] ranks as one of the ablest and most consistent defenders of the Lutheran faith. His catholicity of spirit enabled him to put himself in the place of his opponent and see things from the latter’s point of view… And yet he never swerved from the ... Read more The New Theology: Samuel Schmucker and Its Other Defenders by James Allen Brown “Suffice it to say that faith is faith, and not obedience, or love or delight in God, or any other distinct grace or virtue. Nor does the Bible say being justified by obedience, or love, or delight, or good works, but ‘being justified by faith, we have peace with God.'” Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed. Justification by Faith versus Schmucker’s “New Theology” “The substance of this fundamental doctrine may be ... Read more Sermons on the Gospels by Matthias Loy “When you feel your burden of sin weighing heavily upon you, only go to Him… Only those who will not acknowledge their sin and feel no need of a Savior — only these are rejected. And these are not rejected because the Lord has no pity on them and no desire to deliver them from their wretchedness, but only because they will not come to Him that they might have life. They reject Him, and therefore stand rejected. But those who come to Him, poor and needy and helpless, but trusting in His ... Read more My Experiences In The Mission Field Of South Dakota by Frank Albert Kiess “I received my first call into the largest mission field of the Northwest, in the State of South Dakota, far away from good old home. In September, 1892, I left home for my long journey. My good mother and a brother-in-law, Joseph Koby accompanied me as far as Chicago, where I kissed mother goodbye, but my brother-in-law went with me as far as Milwaukee. There we stayed one week, he returned and I went on to the icy North…” Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter ... Read more The Forgiveness of Sin: And the Possibility of Attaining a Personal Assurance of it by Timothy East Timothy East’s practical book is intended to, “disturb the false peace of the criminally indifferent… impart consolation to the conscientiously fearful, (and to) excite to higher degrees of gratitude the comparatively few, who know that they are safe for eternity.” Timothy East (1817-1892) was the writer of the famous “Evangelical Rambler”, later republished under the title “The Sheepfold and the Common.” Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter ... Read more Scripture Selections for Daily Reading by Rev. Jesse Hurlbut “…A good selection of Scripture passages well suited for reading at family worship…chosen to furnish a reading for every day and to complete the bible in a year. Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed. Rev. Jesse Hurlbut writes, “It has seemed to me that there is need of a good selection of Scripture passages, of nearly uniform length, fitted for reading at family worship, so chosen as to furnish a reading for every day in the year and to ... Read more May God cause his face to shine upon you and bring you peace. From Your Lutheran Librarian editor@lutheranlibrary.org

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The Chasm Developed Over 100 Years Ago

 The chasm developed over 100 years ago. Schodde and Lenski participated in writing this classic.

“Such is the contrast between the Bible of the old and the Bible of the new theologies. That there are compromise systems between the two—or at any rate attempts at a compromise — is certainly true; but it is impossible to effect a compromise between systems fundamentally and essentially at variance. This is a case of either — or, Delitzsch was right when he maintained that a “deep chasm” existed between the old and the new theology, and this chasm exists because there is a chasm between the Bible of the old and the Bible of the new theologies. In one word, the Scriptures of the one is the Bible without God; the Scriptures of the other is the Bible of and with God.”

     “The Bible Of The Old And The Bible Of The New Theology.” By Rev. Professor George H. Schodde, Ph. D., Columbus, O. in Loy, ed. The Columbus Theological Magazine. Vol. 18, 1898. LutheranLibrary.org. Schodde earned his PhD at Leipzig and was a parish pastor (Canal Winchester) before teaching at Capital U. in Columbus, Ohio.

Harold Lindsell's The Battle for the Bible was itself a farce, exposing the more radical apostasy at Fuller Seminary. The school began with compromised inerrancy and later, during its Church Growth fever, abandoned inerrancy in a huff.

The first stage of abandoning inerrancy came from the academic pirouette that dazzles the mind - "The Bible is inerrant in doctrine, but not in history or geography." That was the original Fuller Seminary claim when it began about 1947. The slogan conveys the rationalistic idea that God was good on doctrine, but faulty on the history and geography in the Bible. However, in contrast to the mainline seminaries, Fuller was an oasis - or really, a mirage - in the desert of radicals like Bultmann, Tillich, and Barth/Kirschbaum.

In a series of moves, Fuller hired David Hubbard to push the independent seminary to the Left. Next, in 1965, Hubbard hired Donald McGavran to be the Church Growth guru. The partial inerrancy group (Lindsell, etc.) left, and the sincere crackpots took over. Hubbard said they did not have the time or energy to deal with the inerrancy issue. 

 Fuller has a gimmick for our dying denominations. Whee! Get a quickie DMin and get promoted.
Wooo Pig Souie!

The McGavran-Peter Wagner cabal invited the denomination leaders to learn about the wonders of Church Growth. Fuller was no threat to the church leaders. McGavran was a pro-abortion activist and Wagner thought manufactured miracles were the key to success.

Fuller Seminary invited the world mission executives for brain-washing, and the executives got the American missions on the payoff list.

Paul Kelm is one of many dunder-heads who fell for this Calvinistic clap-trap and influenced others. He is the Fort Knox of Church Growth Fool's Gold.

A galaxy of failing stars - Paul Kelm! - Ron Roth! - Robert Hartman!

Olson denied his Fuller status three times, and the Doc crowed. And Wayne Mueller published his famous claim - "There is no Church Growth in WELS."

The LCMS was doing the same thing at Fuller Seminary. Robert Preus promoted a Church Growth DMin program at Fort Wayne, perhaps because WELS/LCMS bragged they had more "graduate students" at Fuller than at their own seminaries. 

The funniest thing about the Fuller follies was that the school's most ardent supporters flipped out when they were exposed as Fuller students -

• David Valleskey, Mordor Seminary President, who admitted he was a Fuller pilgrim to his CLC pal but denied it when convenient. 
• Wayne Mueller, Head of Programs That Were NOT Church Growth
• Larry Olson, DMin - But Not From Fuller
• Frosty Bivens, Mordor Professor, told me and the Midland Circuit he went to Fuller, then called me a liar for saying he did.
• Waldo Werning, a Fuller student who flew into a rage when I caught him lying about it.

This is just a sampling of the dunderheads who accelerated the decline of their own synods - ELCA too - in falling for the super-doper magic of Fuller, which continues to fulminate even now. 

Herman Melville - "the pulpit leads the world." Long ago, Fuller made it clear that anyone questioning the concept of women pastors would be confronted by a disciplinary committee to straighten that parson out. Thus they became a powerful force in shrinking the denominations in the name of growth. Who is behind all this destruction - or rather, its self-destruction?

 Tis funny how DMin sounds like demon!

Apostolic Succession - What ELDONA Does Not Have - It Should Be - The EL-DON'T-YA Have Sect

 All you need is an endowment for robes and incense.

 Not every Roman Catholic parish is an example of high church worship. 

 

Amidst all these varying and opposing lists, this contradiction and confusion worse confounded, how utterly baseless must be those pretensions, whether made by the papists of Rome, or the semi-papists of Oxford, which are founded upon a supposed ascertained, and unbroken descent from the apostles? 

The arguments to sustain them are lighter than air. Hence we are not surprised to hear that bright luminary of the British establishment, Archbishop Whately, declare his solemn conviction, that “There is not a minister in all Christendom, who is able to trace up, with any approach to certainty, his own spiritual pedigree. The ultimate consequence must be,” remarks the same excellent prelate, “that anyone who sincerely believes that his claim to the benefits of the gospel covenant depends on his own minister’s claim to the supposed sacramental virtue of true ordination, and this again on apostolical succession, must be involved, in proportion as he reads, and inquires, and reflects, and reasons on the subject, in the most distressing doubt and perplexity. 

It is no wonder, therefore, that the advocates of this theory studiously disparage reasoning, deprecate all exercise of the mind in reflection, decry appeals to evidence, and lament that even the power of reading should be imparted to the people. It is not without cause that they dread and lament ‘an age of too much light,’ and wish to involve religion in a ‘solemn and awful gloom.’ It is not without cause that, having removed the Christian’s confidence from a rock, to base it on sand, they forbid all prying curiosity to examine their foundation.” 

(Whately on the Kingdom of Christ, Essay ii. § 30.)

***

GJ - Lord Jim Heiser does not have the Apostolic Succession. His minions are copies of him, just as he copied Bishop DeJaynes in the office of fakery.

Doubtless it has bothered the faux-bishop Heiser that I was ordained by an Augustana Synod pastor - and later bishop - who was ordained by a Swedish prelate. The Augustana Synod was high church and enjoyed a continuing relationship with the Church of Sweden. Therefore, they are part of the Apostolic Succession. 

Members kid me about the prohibitive cost of a fish-hat and the massive price-tags of Almy costumes. 

The true apostolic succession rests on faithfulness to the Word of God, which the ELDONUTs continue to reject. They were fanatical in favor of Objective Justification, as Heiser was. Now they accept his imitation of papal infallibility: he is the ultimate authority. False doctrine never improves itself and usually scrapes the bottom of the dogma pile soon enough.

Wikipedia says that some of DeJaynes' followers joined up with Eastern Orthodoxy. Heiser began the bishop game with DeJaynes. CFW Walther was wanted for the felony kidnapping of his niece and nephew and signed the document making Martin Stephan his bishop. As my friend says, "A bishop and a pope stepped off the boat in America."

Autumn Is Upon Us

 

 Grape hyacinths are easy to plant and enjoy a sweet fragrance. They multiply over time and come in blue, blue/white, white, and pink.

Tomorrow promises 100% rain, once started. The leaves are coming down quickly, and the serious cold will start on November 11th.

The bulbs are planted, with a few daffodils hiding in one of many cardboard boxes. My favorite way of finding things is not looking for them. Then they show up in surprising and mysterious places.

The new grape hyacinths just sent their leaves above ground. Every bulb starts its roots, once planted. The greens will feed the hidden flower, but I doubt the flower will show up before spring. 

My next trick is remembering where all the bulbs have been buried. It is easy to say, "But they will be blooming all over the gardens. Take notes, make a map, photograph them." 

Creation does not allow all bulbs to have the benefits of the others. Because we have such early and late warmth, the hardy (or autumn) bulbs do not fare well - except for daffodils and grape hyacinths. I have tried tulips and other beautiful bulbs, but they come up looking sick and not very hardy.

On the other hand, I can keep cannas and glads in the ground and not dig them up. They are tender or spring bulbs, but they will stay in the ground over winter and come back again.

 I have seen spectacular cannas in the neighborhood. Their roots spread and tolerate our cool weather.

Soon - The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John Should Arrive by Saturday or Sunday. Mine Was One Day Late, So That Can Happen.

I sent one or more copies of - The I AM Sermons in the Gospel of John: The Name of God in Exodus 3 - using Prime, so the copies should arrive this Saturday or Sunday. I was promised yesterday for mine, but it came today.

Don't be shy about emailing me if you did not get yours by Monday, or if you need more copies. Email - greg.jackson.edlp@gmail.com

Cub Editor Phil Hale will get his copy of The I AM Sermons in John. He will probably use it to stabilize the kitchen table leg. The WELS, ELS, and LCMS Seminary libraries are getting theirs. I skipped the ELCA seminaries because I do not know which one will close next.

The Synoptic Parables are next, and my academic calendar has been trimmed by me. Three classes tended to morph into more, so I am now keeping the number at two online classes.

I will work on audio for the broadcasts tomorrow morning. We had a big improvement in sound, with two more steps to take - 

1. using the hymn files, not linking from the Net, and 
2. using the Broadway Mike alone for sound coming from the same approximate place. I will record that tomorrow morning, d.v.

WELS spies were sent to the Southern Babtists - and were dismayed by the convention banning the NIV from all their bookstores. And you wonder why WELS and Missouri are fading as fast as ELCA?

In 1914 John Alexander Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University, told his new class of undergraduates:

“Gentlemen, you are now about to embark on a course of studies which will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But I would like to remind you of an important point. Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.”

 Editor of the worst hymnal ever, until WELS cranked out another one, even worse.

 Why no apologies?

Words Cannot Describe

 Kathryn Kleinhans, dean of Trinity

Committed to womanist theology, Trinity Lutheran Seminary and the ELCA’s Quality of Call Initiative for Women in Ministry have appointed Denise Rector as the seminary’s first joint doctoral scholar-in-residence (DSIR).

Womanist theology is an understanding of God and the world that centers on the experiences and insights of Black women. Trinity, part of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, has made increasing efforts to give voice to historical and contemporary exploration of Christian faith based on the unique experiences and contributions of women of African descent.

 ELCA leaders

 Does anyone guess where Eaton, a mere bishop, stood after the 2009 vote?

The DSIR is awarded to ELCA women of color who are completing their dissertations in theology, biblical studies or religion. The position supports the practical and professional requirements of doctoral candidates as they complete their dissertations in fields that serve the ongoing reformation of the church.

 Nadia

Rector is completing her doctorate through the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Her dissertation explores the feedback loop between historiography (how we imagine and write history) and epistemology (how we know) in the construction of African American racial identities throughout U.S. history and in the church.

“I became interested in the study of womanist theology when I realized that I wasn’t seeing myself—a Black woman—or the history of Black women represented in the teachings of some of the theology classes I was taking,” Rector said. She finds that womanist theology “recognizes the importance of including people … whose rich, cultural understandings of the divinity of God may not always show up in church on Sunday morning.”

Rector said it was essential to explore these issues faithfully and theologically and to understand their effect on how church history and American history are incorporated into the teachings of God’s creation. “For a long time, there has been an Americanist religion that doesn’t always reflect the racial and ethical variety of creation.”

Womanist theology “recognizes the importance of including people … whose rich, cultural understandings of the divinity of God may not always show up in church on Sunday morning.”

Kathryn Kleinhans, dean of Trinity, said the seminary is committed to looking at American history “through marginalized groups and telling their stories of history, theology and ethics that we haven’t told yet.”

In 2021, both ELCA Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment and the anonymous-donor-funded ELCA Quality of Call Initiative supported Trinity’s activities related to the ELCA Womanist Theology Initiative. The project allows students at all ELCA seminaries to take classes focused on womanist theology, regardless of which seminary offers the course.

The appointment of Rector also builds on the success of “Hush No More: Perspectives From Womanist Theologians,” a series of seminars hosted by Trinity in fall 2021 on the development of womanist interpretation of Scripture and womanist perspectives on pastoral care.

Mary J. Streufert, ELCA director for the Quality of Call Initiative and for Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment, said the doctoral scholar-in-residence is an investment in women.

“Supporting women of color working in fields such as womanist theology is also an investment in ministerial imagination and formation in the ELCA,” Streufert said. “I cannot wait to see the Holy Spirit continue to work.”

Rector, who expects to finish her dissertation in 2024, said Black women seminary professors are rare.

“Being here at Trinity Lutheran Seminary has been like landing in the best-feathered nest for someone starting a teaching career,” she said. “Dean Kleinhans wants to bring in professors of color to be part of the diversity of academia so students have exposure to theology taught with a culturally rich, expansive and inclusive view.”

 Recent bishop photo above, the pioneers below.