Rolf Preus Is Battling St. Paul's Justification by Faith And Dr. Lito Cruz

 

This intended for those who have never understood or taught Justification by Faith, the Chief Article of Christianity.

It all began when Jake Zabel the lieutenant of Magnus fired a post in CLF as if lamenting the fact they are branded as a micro-synod.

Here is what Rolf Preus said

Management by Lying - How the Big Five Survive

 

Joint meeting of ELCA, WELS, and LCMS Managers:
They do not lead - they manage.

When people still read Christian News, they saw a photo of three synod presidents together, conferring at Snowbird, a deluxe resort. They brought along their Wormtongues to deny this ever happened. ELCA bragged about it, with a photo of the three. WELS did their normal shuffle-left, shuffle-right routine. LCMS, haughty and absurd, pretended to be the Big Cheese - WELS and ELCA were blessed to be with Missouri! Nobody does it better (bragging, lying, accusing).

I confess - I insisted on Herman Otten printing the photo of the three synod presidents together. WELS went the extra mile, lying to its members. I recall one District Manager being sent around to deny it happened. 

The problem the managers are facing is simple - lying will not get them anywhere now. They have been building bigger barns with their dedication toward taking away the estates of elderly people - Irrevocable Charitable Trusts - sold by Thrivent, a company that had to merge to stay afloat. How delicious is that?

Once the Charitable Trust is sold to the elderly, it is locked up in the synod vault and protected from nasty heirs who did not know that was happening - ingrates! More than likely, giving it to the church was somehow changed into giving it to the Synod. The "Giving Counselors" - more honestly known as the Taking Counselors - get a commission. The Taking Counselors are insurance salesmen who must take a state-wide test before they can sell anything being promoted.

When a District Pope got his hands on a factory, whose funds were to be shared with the widow, he somehow found a way to destroy the entire, profitable business. The widow sued the synod and won, and the Wormtongues told people, "We have to be more careful about the gifts we choose to accept." That District Pope was voted into office as the Synod Pope.

That was just a review of some things going on, just a teaspoon of facts.

The big reality is the national collapse happening right now. College buildings are not fungible assets - they are stationary and eating up cash, unlike the synodical doctrines du jour, and not easily turned into money.

Something could be done in each case, but no manager wants to do anything:

1. Sell the LCMS Purple Palace, now called the White Elephant?
2. Vacate the WELS Love Shack?
3. Rent out the ELS Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie?

ELCA has been hard at work on its seminaries for some time. I knew something was up when the ELCA managers confessed to changing the ownership of the failing schools. They were stingy with details, but it amounted to turning the seminaries into smaller packages, even new locations, so they could sell off the old campus. Right now, beloved Gettysburg is hoping the city can tear down old dorms, make some money, and erect a building useful for the city.

The big old seminaries of ELCA began getting their haircuts - a term used when bonds collapse and the owners have to accept a big loss:

1. Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago - brutalist building sold, now renting from Roman Catholics.
2. Luther Seminary - deep into debt and selling off property.
3. Gettysburg Seminary - praying for old dorms to be demolished for cash.
4. Pacific Seminary - 10 acres sold to Muslims, now renting in a different place.
5. Southern Seminary - affiliated with a college.
6. Trinity Seminary in Columbus - $90 million liability from a criminal lawsuit, a known predator ordained and why the surprise?

The Monstrous Management System vs. The Word of God: WELS - Missouri - ELCA - And Snowbird

 

2011 Snowbird Conference of ELCA, LCMS, and WELS

At the Snowbird Ecumenical Conference, the best ever,

according to Rev. James Schaefer, our council of presidents

and other leaders, 25 in all, were taught how to manage the

church by a woman.  They were taught what St. Paul says about

ministry by a Trinity Seminary professor, an advocate of the

historical-critical method.  They were told by a liberal

Reformed theologian that the radical left mainline

denominations were not becoming "sideline" denominations.

George Barna, Who's Who in Church Growth, also taught our

leaders at Snowbird, but they seem to know Barna's work quite

well already.  When Columbus WELS pastors invited ELCA to

discuss inerrancy, no one from Trinity Seminary showed up.

They understand fellowship.  But our synodical president

posed for photos with Rev. Herb Chilstrom, former Pietist,

who advanced himself by promoting the cause of homosexuality

and pornography-as-sex-offender therapy as bishop of the

LCA's Minnesota Synod.  A Lutheran troubled by false doctrine

in Missouri and ELCA would have to say, reading The Lutheran,

"They are all in it together."  Knowing the ELCA quota

system, I have to conclude that the very large ELCA

contingent included homosexual and lesbian pastors, certainly

a large group of women pastors and women executives.  Did we

not express our approval of this violation of Scripture, not

to mention the blasphemies of Braaten Jenson's Christian

Dogmatics, which is the standard ELCA dogmatics text?  47

Another insurance sponsored ecumenical endeavor, the Joy

radio show, put together by ELCA, LCMS, and WELS, has 3

versions about its development.  The one published in

Christian News, 12-9-91, p. 2) claimed it was the first joint

ministry among the three groups.  The synod office denied in

writing that we were involved at all and claimed that the

ELCA pastor had been corrected.  Another version, from ELCA,

is that John Barber was involved from the beginning and WELS

supported the joint religious program.  As of 1-10-92, no one

had informed the ELCA pastor who wrote the release that WELS

was not part of the program.  I spoke with him and with his

secretary at length.  ELCA sent out various publicity flyers

identifying our participation in a classic case of rank

unionism.  A third version of events came from the synod

office - that John Barber was sharing his great talents with

ELCA and LCMS.  Is that so bad?  The NWL denied WELS was part

of the program itself.  Since I was once part of the LCA's

enormous media program, as a writer and stringer for The

Lutheran, as chairman of the district committee, and as a

participant in a national conference with the LCA media

people, I was amused to learn that ELCA needed our man at

all. (Worthy of note: we are following Missouri and ELCA in

spending bundles of public relations and advertising - and

getting the same results.)

WELS has acquired a well-deserved reputation for rudeness to

outsiders over the years, but I do not think that public

relations and unionistic efforts will change anyone's

attitude toward us.  If we want to be loved and respected by

false teachers, then we must wallow in Enthusiasm with them.

If we want love, a fruit of faith, to flourish among us, then

we must believe, teach, and confess the true Christian faith.

As Lenski wrote, we cannot pick apples where there are no

trees.  Schwaermer trees will only produce large, wormy

apples.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Lent 5 Judica - "But since the Word places before us Christ, it thus places us before him who has triumphed over death, sin and Satan. Therefore he who grasps and retains Christ, has thus also eternal deliverance from death."

 

"Damsel, I say unto thee, arise!" KJV Mark 5:41

Complete Sermon - Lent 5 - Judica. Fifth Sunday in Lent. John 8:46-59. Christ Defends Himself Against His Enemies

8. By these words he spoils it entirely, in that he does not only defend his doctrine as right and good, which they attribute to the devil; but also ascribes such virtue to his teaching that it becomes a powerful emperor over Satan, death and sin, to give and sustain eternal life. Behold here, how divine wisdom and human reason conflict with one another. How can a human being grasp the thought, that a corporeal, an oral word should redeem forever from death? But let blindness run its course; we shall consider this beautiful saying. Christ is speaking here not of the word of the law, but of the Gospel, which is a discourse about Christ, who died for our sins etc. For God did not wish to impart Christ to the world in any other way; he had to embody him in the Word and thus distribute him, and present him to everybody; otherwise Christ would have existed for himself alone and remained unknown to us; he would have thus died for himself.

But since the Word places before us Christ, it thus places us before him who has triumphed over death, sin and Satan. Therefore he who grasps and retains Christ, has thus also eternal deliverance from death. Consequently it is a Word of life, and it is true, that whoever keeps the Word shall never see death.

9. And from this we may well understand what Christ meant by the word “keep;” it does not refer to such keeping as one keeps the law by good works; for this word of Christ must be kept in the heart by faith and not with the fist or by good works, as the Jews in this case understand it; they fearfully rage against Christ, that Abraham and the prophets are dead; they know nothing of what it is “to keep,” “to die” or “to live.” And it is not called “to keep” in vain; for there is a conflict and battle when sin bites, death presses and hell faces us; then we are to be in earnest in holding firmly to the Word and let nothing separate us from it. Thus see now how Christ answers the Jews and praises his own teachings. You say, my Word is of the devil and wish to sink it to the bottom of perdition; on the contrary I say to you that it has divine power in it, and I exalt it higher than the heaven of heavens, and above all creatures.

10. How does it then come to pass that man does not see nor taste death, and yet Abraham and all the prophets are dead, who notwithstanding had the Word of God as the Jews say? Here we must give attention to the words of Christ, who makes the distinction that death is a different thing than to see or taste death. We all must face death and die; but a Christian neither tastes nor sees it, that is, he does not feel it, he is not terrified before it, and he enters death calmly and quietly, as though falling asleep, and yet he does not die. But a godless person feels and experiences death, and is terrified before it forever. Thus to taste death may well be called the power and reign or the bitterness of death, yea, it is the eternal death and hell. The Word of God makes this difference. A Christian has that Word and clings firmly to it in death; therefore he does not see death, but his eyes are filled with the life and the Christ in that Word; therefore he never feels death. But the godless possess not that Word, therefore they see no life, but only death; and they must also feel death; that is then the bitter and eternal death.

11. Now Christ means here that whoever clings to his Word will in the midst of death neither feel nor see death, as he also says in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me though he die, yet shall he live,” that is, he will not experience real death. Here we see now what a glorious estate it is to be a Christian, who is already released from death forever and can never die. For his death or dying seems outwardly indeed like the dying of the godless, but inwardly there is a difference as great as between heaven and earth. For the Christian sleeps in death and in that way enters into life, but the godless departs from life and experiences death forever; thus we may see how some tremble, doubt and despair, and become senseless and raging in the midst of the perils of death. Hence death is also called in the Scriptures a sleep. For just as he who falls asleep does not know how it happens, and he greets the morning when he awakes; so shall we suddenly arise on the last day, and never know how we entered and passed through death.