We are working on our 45th high school reunion. Many of those friends have already died. One classmate from an earlier year died right after his reunion.
Leo had a bad heart and died young. Don died of cancer. Randy died in Viet Nam when an ammo dump exploded. Mickey died of asthma. Bruce, our best friend at Yale, who had two earned doctorates from Yale Medical, died of cancer.
Having two disabled daughters quickly changed my perspective. Both girls had so many crises that no one could deny the inevitable was always close at hand, especially since their weakness increased.
That makes me wonder about pastors and laity who have prominent roles in the Church and use their time on earth to trade their birthright for a small bowl of lentil soup. Being chairman of the camping committee must look good to them. Some clergy long for the bishop's crozier and the perks. Perhaps the camping committee is that important first step.
Bored made the point that pastors may think that the synod's position is orthodoxy. That would be true for those trained not to think but to conform. I doubt whether everyone is so thoroughly brainwashed. Deception eventually becomes complete self-deception, and that leads to atheism.
My opinions and predictions do not matter, and I do not care if people agree with me.
What does matter is the confession of truth we leave behind us when we are gone. The Word of God lasts forever, even when everything else has passed away. How strange that this generation clings to the ephemera of titles, honors, and money while letting go of the revealed truth of God's Word.
When Valleskey gave his absurd and deceitful essay on Church Growth in 1992, the Ohio pastors loved it and paid him for it. Three of us objected at the time, and all three were pushed out of the ministry or decided to leave behind the lying adulterers. Valleskey became the Sausage Factory president after that, so his elevation involved more than the cowardice and doctrinal ignorance of the Ohio Conference, WELS.
That was 18 years ago, but I do not see anyone relishing their great victory. The money they worshiped was taken away from them, and their institutions began to rot under them from the net effect of corruption, error, deceit, and cover-ups.
Eternal life is provided by the eternal Word, not by the schemes and gimmicks of man. Any dummy can become a DP, especially when the job description involves forgetting, not knowing, and mumbling incoherently. "Apt to teach" is the description they deliberately undermine, and they do not tolerate anyone who is.
Some people are starting to treasure the Gospel which the charlatans have been stealing away from them, bit by bit.
