Justified-without-Faith: Circling the Wagons

Buchholz, Webber, and the entire circus of UOJ clowns
cannot set aside the Confessions, which concisely explain the Gospel,
nor can they claim the Fathers as their Rambach, Huber, and JP Meyer.

The Emmaus Conference serves as a good example of frightened church executives circling the wagons. Their precious UOJ is being picked away, individual by individual, because they cannot force their falsehoods on people who can read, Tweet, blog, and Facebook.

The LCMS, ELS, and WELS forced UOJ upon their lazy and indolent seminary students, but the laity are not being paid and promoted to endorse falsehood, crypto-Universalism - and fellowship with ELCA, Planned Parenthood, Sodom and Gomorrah.

They try to look casual, these UOJ Stormtroopers,
but they are scared out of their minds.

I am glad Webber pushed himself forward to give the lectures. He reminds me of Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, another LCMS trainee, always forcing himself on everyone and calling himself invited to teach what he was slavering to get across.

Webber's treatment of the history of Objective Justification (justification-without-faith) is a confused mixture of evasions, lies, distortions, and ignorance. I should have the more complete version of the real history posted tonight.

As someone said about Jewish mysticism, "It is garbage. But the history of garbage is scholarship."

Objective Justification has a history - not as old as they pretend - but a definite history with battles, villains, and heroes along the way. Webber writes the way I would if I had to deal with the history of knitting or needlework. The difference is - I would decline the chance to share my lack of knowledge.

The truth defends itself, as we will see. The Stormtroopers call up all manner of support for their perverted dogma - which is perfectly harmonious with ELCA's.

All their invented support is quite the opposite. Their cited experts are against UOJ, including Augustine, Luther, St. Paul, Ambrose, Calov, Gerhard, and Robert Preus.

The funny part is this - when Webber finds someone saying exactly what he wants - the man is a Pietist (like Rambach) only the man is dubbed "an orthodox Lutheran theologian." See how easy it is?

That is like saying, "Carl Sagan, an orthodox Christian, says there is no God."

UOJists Patronize Me as They Peddle Their Wares

Master the jargon, master the synod.
Or learn the truth, have faith, forgiveness, and the blessings of the Gospel.

I was writing to a friendly blogger about personal attacks, how they make me laugh out loud. It took Mrs. Ichabod some time to get used to those tactics. Now she realizes the apostates are proving that they have no arguments to make.

One pastor had no problems with a minister verbally abusing his staff, making lewd suggestions, and displaying x-rated porn to them, but he was deeply offended by my publishing an already-published photo. As most people realize, something broadcast to the world on the Internet is not the same as a private confidence.

What I find most disturbing are those messages where a long-time friend begins a UOJ rant, assuming that justification by faith is NOT the Gospel and justification-without-faith is the real Gospel. Of course, moments like that reveal how deep the deception is. That argument comes from a very kindly, considerate, long-term friend.

Years ago, he took the trouble to let me know Robert Preus was in town. We arranged to meet Preus and say hello for a few minutes. I heard about the latest outrage wrought by the McCain-Barry administration. McCain had bragged to me about kneecapping Preus. I was not surprised. We saw Preus one more time at the Bethany lectures.

So this Lutheran pastor began grilling me about how I could possibly offer comfort to the dying with justification by faith, although he avoided those terms. I originally set him off by saying UOJ was the grand deception in the LCMS-ELS-WELS.

He looked up to the late Robert Preus, so I offered a key quotation that eviscerated UOJ - from Justification and Rome. Answer - "He must have changed his position." I have heard this before, "I stand by this man's authority." But when the other pastor studied and saw the error of UOJ, the steadfastness in his scholarship diminished - so it was just a lame excuse to stick with old errors.

The problem is not only the Walther-Pieper-JP Meyer club that taught justification without faith, opposing (but ignoring) dissent from within their own ranks, but those who stopped learning in seminary or learned to adjust their sails to the winds of Enthusiasm.

So I often feel I am writing for the blind and speaking to the deaf, but the truth will defend itself and separate the wormy, corrupted dogma from sound Biblical teaching. I appreciate the encouragement that comes in from various places.

Weeds, Bunnies, and Another Beer Party for the Slugs

This is our week of sunshine while the north suffers from severe storms. Our helper brought his son over to pull baby tree weeds. Sometimes the ice cream truck comes by just as they are finishing a job. If the truck does not appear, I yell, "Where the ice cream when we need it?"

Just before the weeding, I was watering the Father's Day roses that we got for $5 each. New roses need almost daily watering for several weeks, I heard the oddest squealing. Two little bunnies came out of the mulch because I was getting them wet. Sassy was amused, so she followed one around until it hopped under the car. Once she found a pet duck at someone's house. Her canine instinct is to check out the scent from the back, so I saw Sassy use the same method on the bunny as she did on the duck, which meant the animals felt pushed along by that curious nose. Chickens got the same treatment at another house, but Sassy has never harmed any creature.

Roses
The roses are doing well. Mrs. Wright got the roses from the altar. She watches the service each Sunday. Mrs. Gardener got another vase. The chiro got a third vase. Nevertheless, we have about 100 red KnockOut blooms and many hybrid teas blooming.

I still feel the twinge of the amateur when I cut roses - this is still such a small plant. But rose bushes thrive from pruning and grow even more. If blooms are spent and start going to seed, hormones tell the plant to shift away from blooming. Pruning also stimulates the roots and exposes dead wood to cut away.

I have some blackspot, but that is the price of having roses with Persian DNA. They are prone to blackspot. I prune more heavily to remove the darkened leaves and canes, but that is not a big worry.

Roses need nourishment from a good root system. Once they are established, they really produce wiht a combination of rain, sunshine, mulch, and earthworms.

At first I had heavy aphid damage and some chewing insect on the lightest roses - John Paul II and Peace. They looked pathetic, shriveled, eaten. I did nothing except encourage beneficial insects every way I could. Now most of the roses are damage free, and the heavily attacked ones are blooming with perfection.

Yesterday I bent over one rose and found a teeny tiny flower fly (hover fly) hovering around the blooms. It looked like a wee little bee, but it was fixin' to lay some eggs and have its babies destroy more aphids.

Note how clever plants are. When they are damaged, they send up chemical signals that attract beneficial insects to feed on the pests causing the damage. If there is no damage, the beneficials lay no eggs.

This incredibly complex system reminds me of the hawk-rabbit relationship. We were taught - wrongly - that hawks and other predators control the rabbit population. But the opposite is true. When rabbits flourish, so do the predators at the top of the food chain. When the rabbit population crashes, as it does from time to time, the predators go away - lacking a foodstamp program.

Long before I knew the details, I counted on beneficials to control the pests. Therefore I have almost never sprayed. Now that we know more, how foolish it looks to kill aphids which are busy attracting free pest controls - flower flies, ichneumon wasps, spiders, and ladybeetles.

Thank you hover flies, flower flies,
all beneficials.
Pope John Paul II rose blesses you
and gives you a plenary indulgence.

Beer Party, II
I hosted another beer party for slugs in the back yard - three bowls, one bottle of Bud.

By the way, the formula for Bud Lite is Bud plus water. That's it. The top chemist told me and later denied it. I said, "But you told me yourself." He conceded that he did.

One reader offered last night, hearing about the party, that slugs and beer would both be gone by morning. I checked on it late at night. Very large slugs were crawling in. I counted 10.

The last time I saw about 30 gather and die. Then the pan lost most of the dead slugs and beer, next all the rest of the slugs and beer.

This time the beer and slug reduction happened in one night. This morning, a trace of beer and a couple of dead slugs were left. Skunks? Raccoons? I am not sure.

The first backyard slug party drew them in from all directions. The mulch was covered with slow-moving slugs moving toward the beer. It looked like registration day for Lutherans at Fuller Seminary.

Slugs can go anywhere because they have no spine. Think about that - so fitting for synodical plutocrats too.

Blogger Recommends Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed.

Jesus and the Moneychangers – or – How much do you love the truth?

Alec Satin 23 Jun 2015

 Weeds in the church

 blog-roll, Greg Jackson, truthtellers, WELS

Have you ever wondered why the only time in the whole Bible Jesus is shown to be angry was when he threw the moneychangers from the temple? And what does this have to do with us – and the church – right now?

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. -Matthew 21.12-13

Sheep ready to be shorn

In the Jerusalem of Jesus’ time, just imagine how many turtle-doves and livestock were sacrificed each day. How much more convenient to buy what you need when you get to the temple? What in the world could have gotten Jesus so upset?

Religious people are credulous ¹. They’re easily convinced and tend to go along with what they’re told without checking anything out. This is especially true in the area of religious truth. They don’t suspect – nor do they want to believe – that there are people who love to take advantage of them. Ah, but wolves are found in the church. And they’re nice to look at.

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light…13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. 15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. -Luke 16.8,14-15

How much do you love the truth?

I’m going to assume that you’re not like what is truth Pilate ², but understand that truth exists and can be known. There’s something they don’t tell you about truth. It’s holy. Holiness means set apart. And that’s what truth does to a person. The world at large hates truth. The more truth you wholeheartedly seek – and find – the more separated you become.

No normal person wants to be separate from other people. Human beings are social creatures. God made us this way. One of the first things He said is, It is not good that the man should be alone. ³ But this social tendency has been corrupted by the fall. So step-by-step communities become cliques and cliques become mobs and the first thing to fall is truth. Anyone who tries to tell the truth is punished. If this doesn’t work, the truth-teller is shunned, maligned or worse.

The littlest ones

Ask yourself this: If you had a child who was abused by your pastor or priest, would you:

• Tell your child it was their own fault (This is the approach of Bill Gothard, the religious authority of the Duggars)
• Say nothing, but keep your child from being alone with the man
• Get the man removed before he can do damage to others

How many Protestants – Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians – right now know about pedophilia or sex abuse done by pastors or church authorities – and are keeping that information to themselves?

And whosoever shall offend one of [these] little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. -Jesus, Mark 9.42

If you are keeping information back that could result in a little boy or girl – or anyone – to be abused, then Jesus is talking about you. It doesn’t matter if you think you are forgiven. I’ll ask you again, how much do you love the truth?

Jesus and the Moneychangers in the 21st Century temple

What would you call a man who tries to tell people about pastors and denominational leaders who betray their members for power or the almighty buck? Would you call this man who’s trying to warn the sheep, “devil-possessed”? Here’s how Jesus might well weigh in on such a scurrilous accusation:

And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? -Matthew 12.26

One of the modern day truthtellers

Christians who seek to call out wrongdoing in the Church sometimes call themselves watchmen on the wall. Other times they use the term discernment ministries. One who has patiently sought to uncover harmful and destructive practices in the modern American church is Lutheran Pastor Gregory Jackson. His website is Ichabod the Glory has departed.

Even if you’re not Lutheran, but reformed, evangelical or Catholic, you’ll find much of value at his blog. Bookmark it, read it, and act upon the information. If you find errors, let him know. He’s an honest man, and a Christian. From what I’ve seen, his detractors bring little tangible proof against what he says. Rather they focus on ugly, un-Christian, ad hominem attacks ⁴.

Here are a few of Pastor Jackson’s posts:

• Three Million Page-Views Since Ichabod Started
• The Age of Management by Lying, by Silence, by Theft and Deception
• Convict Horst Gutsche (ELCiC Pastor) Working with CLC Pastor David Koenig – German Conference – Europeans Very Upset
• Saved from the Polluted WELS Blog – Among the Hidden: The fear of speaking out against the WELS

His website also offers a number of significant Lutheran eBooks in PDF format for free download. You can access these on the left side column under the title: Martin Chemnitz Press PDFs – Free to Download and Share.

Please respect and support the truth, wherever it may be found. Lord, please help us to love You, your Truth, and your truthtellers. Amen.

Image credit.

---

1. Credulous: Apt to believe on slight evidence; easily imposed upon; unsuspecting. -Websters, 1913. 
2. See John 18.38. 
3. See Genesis 2.18. 
4. The phrase now chiefly describes an argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case. -American Heritage Dictionary 

© 2015, Alec Satin. All rights reserved. Excerpts and links may be used if full and clear credit is given with specific direction to the original content.