Preview - Christian News - April 11, 2016 Issue. Let Us Knew Before the Calvinists and Babtists. Amen.

Pastor Herman Otten received a free review copy of
Making Disciples: The Error of Modern Pietism,
but he would rather feature Calvinists, Roman Catholics, and Babtists

I used to meet with the LCMS guys in Midland, laity, one in the Missouri Synod lay training program. All he ever talked about was R. C. Sproul.

Pastor Otten's friend, the late Pastor William Bischoff was another Missourian who always cited the Calvinists. One would think the Calvinists rescued the Bible from the liberals, when the opposite was true. The rationalistic spirit of Calvinism is the death of Christian Faith. "Young Calvinist, Old Unitarian" is a motto familiar to anyone who knows church history.

The featured front-page book in this issue is - The Inerrant Word – Biblical, Historical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspectives. Edited by John MacArthur. Foreword by R. C. Sproul. Published by Crossway, 1300 Crescent Street, Wheaton, Illinois 60187. $25.90 at amazon.com. Calvinist, Calvinist, Calvinist, ad inf.

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is the greatest seminary in America, according to Christian News.

A fairly recent graduate Concordia, St. Louis wrote me:

Luther's sermons should be required reading for all "Lutheran" clergy. I have often said that ever since I graduated seminary I've spend my time unlearning that teaching and learning how to be Lutheran instead. The fact that Luther's sermons are not required reading, or even suggested, shows a lot about how far Lutheranism in America has come. So thanks for pointing me to Luther's sermons.

PS - You can even mention that the anonymous comment came from a Concordia Seminary - St. Louis grad, whose first reading assignment in seminary was Rick Warren's "Purpose-Driven Life." (which is 100% true).

Christian News is proof that Universal Objective Justification is the radical wedge that separates nominal Lutherans from Luther's doctrine.

Calvinism Exposed in a Few Sentences
John Calvin, a more erudite disciple of Zwingli, taught the separation the Holy Spirit from the Word. Calvin was an Enthusiast, and Enthusiasm is the foundation for all false doctrine.

Calvin mocked the Sacraments and taught his weird dogma that the Word was only effective (sermons, teaching, etc) when the Holy Spirit decided to drop by and make it effective. He denied the Real Presence and made fun of it, as his followers did.

The Book of Concord condemns Enthusiasm. The Concord and post-Concord theologians like Chemnitz and Gerhard argued against Calvism. But Christian News promotes and supports Calvinism.

How odd that Christian News, the solution for all problems in Lutherdom, would lead with a Calvinist compendium of boring inerrancy essays, each one breathlessly announcing that the loss of inerrancy brought doom upon everyone.

Inerrancy is a given in all traditional denominations, even among Roman Catholics. But  this latest wonder-book is doubtless just as silent about the efficacy of the Word as John Brug's epic dud The Ministry of the Word.

Efficacy of the Word is the litmus test - 

• What the Bible teaches throughout.
• What Luther taught from the beginning.
• What the Book of Concord teaches at all times.
• What Chemnitz, Gerhard, and the orthodox emphasized.

The efficacy of the Bible (efficacy - an actual New Testament word, not an invented term) connects the Spirit to the Word - The Word never without the Spirit, the Spirit never without the Word. That is sound doctrine. (Hoenecke)

Otten's radical spirit, derived from CFW Walther's and Martin Stephan' UOJ, is the dynamite blowing the LCMS apart. Wise leaders and smart pastors know UOJ is a pile of dung. But even though the UOJists hate each other, they are bound together by a common hatred of Luther's doctrine. That is all it takes:

1. Patronizing Luther now and then, with a brief nod, a little joke, and a cutting remark.
2. Ignoring Luther's sermons, his doctrine, and his Book of Concord contributions.
3. Substituting UOJ works while warning students against justification by faith books, essays, quotations.
4. Extolling the genius of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Fuller Clownism.

Pastor Otten does that through Christian News and howls about the results of his 50 years of tabloid journalism.

Are Babtists quoted with approval in this CN issue? Of course, they buy the one-size fits all UOJ of New Haven, Missouri, headquarters of the Preus Family Franchise. Various Preus pastors have their own little club within the LCMS, never realizing that their UOJ is the cause, not the cure for all their woes.

From this issue:

by Don Jasmin Fundamentalist Digest PO Box 689 West Branch, MI 48665 April-May 2016 

As all our F.D. readers know, this writer is an avid independent Baptist preacher. He is not, never has been, and never will be a Lutheran. However, there have been and still are ardent Lutheran adherents, who despite their errant beliefs concerning baptism, unquestioningly accept the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. 

The original Lutherans who came to America in the l 9th century were ALL firm believers in the inspired Scriptures. When he was a young lad and a teen-ager, this preacher used to listen every Sunday in the early 1950’ s to the “Lutheran Hour,” where Walter Maier, the Lutheran Fundamentalist, faithfully exposited the Word of God. 

This writer is not understating the fact when he declares that Maier was a great Gospel preacher. This evangelist had a close “Baptist Bride” friend who readily confessed that Maier was one of his favorite radio Bible expositors in that 1940’s-1950’s eras. Despite their errant beliefs concerning baptism, these early American Lutherans established numerous colleges and universities to propagate their

Who is the problem in the LCMS-WELS-ELS?

• Martin Stephan, STD
• CFW Walther, BA
• Francis Pieper and his devoted followers 
• Richard Jungkuntz, PhD, WELS, Seminex, ALC
• Herman Otten, MDiv
• Paul McCain and Matt Harrison 
• JP Meyer
• David Scaer
• David Valleskey
• Forrest Bivens
• John Moldstad
• Mark Jeske and the Church and Changers
• The not-so Steadfast Lutherans, Matt Harrison sycophants
• And - all the seminaries of the LCMS, WELS, ELS. Not one teaches Luther's doctrine, but they will rake in yuuuuge offerings for Luther's 500th. 

A Pastor Writes about Luther's Sermons, After Requesting the Garden of Roses Graphic. You Won't Believe What He Said at the End. Bonus Graphics Added

Lutheran Pastor:
I want to tell you that you were the one who turned me on to the Lenker 8 volume set of Luther's Sermons. I ordered them used on Amazon years ago after reading Ichabod for some time. I try to read a Luther sermon for my own sermon preparation each week. I never finish any of his sermons though because they are so good that I find myself drifting into all sorts of thoughts, repentance for my own sins, and most of all, renewed confidence in God's mercy in Christ.

Luther's sermons should be required reading for all "Lutheran" clergy. I have often said that ever since I graduated seminary I've spend my time unlearning that teaching and learning how to be Lutheran instead. The fact that Luther's sermons are not required reading, or even suggested, shows a lot about how far Lutheranism in America has come. So thanks for pointing me to Luther's sermons.

PS - You can even mention that the anonymous comment came from a Concordia Seminary - St. Louis grad, whose first reading assignment in seminary was Rick Warren's "Purpose-Driven Life." (which is 100% true).

As I recall, I used the Luther statue from St. Louis.

WELS Tradition of Nastiness - From 2015. SP Schroeder Covers Up the Scandals and Silences Anyone Blogging. Jeske Disciple DP Patterson Pitches In To Help Silence People

I deepened the background on the whiteboard to show Elton Stroh teaching
at Martin Luther College, WELS:
"Some of our traditional programs have become dated and uninviting."

I was thinking about the breezy denials about WELS being nasty and vindictive when anyone speaks up about an issue. These claims are found in comments on the WELS Documented Blog.

"Tut, tut. Not so, not so."

I can think of five pastors that I knew in the Michigan District WELS, with no scandal and no false teaching - all driven out by DP Seifert, who also did his best to get rid of the Intrepid Lutherans listing their names on that virtually suspended blog.

There are many more cases across WELS. Missouri has done the same thing, undercutting and hating pastors out of the ministry. Pope John the Malefactor, ELS, is the WD-40 of the Little Sect's slide into oblivion.

I changed the title to express the real reason for the syphilitic bishop's
fast exit from Dresden, taking his groupies, leaving most of his family behind.

Martin Stephan is their idol and example, because he demanded obedience and apologies - getting his disciples to enforce absolute submission, CFW Walther became the new pope by organizing a riot to rob and kidnap Bishop Stephan, the same man he made bishop in writing a few months before.

Every time a Jon Buchholz, John Seifert, Don Patterson, or Mark Jeske gets his way, another extended family is alienated from the Lutheran Church. The family members may exchange arsenic (WELS) for botulism (LCMS) or salmonella (ELS). They may become atheists or ELCA members. No one can erase the legacy, even if they deny it.

Becoming a WELS pastor means being subjected to group homosexual acts, as reported in various places and also relayed to me. One future LCMS pastor put a Michigan Lutheran Seminary student in the hospital for attacking him "that way." If someone takes all the data and puts it together, the various reports indicate a solid base of sodomy in the WELS clergy, no different from ELCA. The leaders and clergy know it. They talk about it among themselves. They know about the man/boy girlfriends moved around on the pastoral call list to supply the needs.

They know about the Mattress Room at Mequon and who was caught - both men being ordained anyway. And married. LBGTQ - alive and well in WELS.

And the pastors denying all this? They also say GA is "no more, closed down" - but now it is called HB. And so was Church and Change, "shut down, destroyed, tossed to the winds by Gurgle" - while Mark Jeske's C and C meeting was registering pastors for the next conference on the WELS websty!


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Job security - plagiarize a gay video at Martin Luther College
and post it to YouTube, claiming,
"We had no idea we were copying a gay video from Fire Island."
All received calls.

The Undercurrent of Homosexuality

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2014/07/not-exactly-undercurrent-of-wels.html

http://pollutedwels.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-undercurrent-of-homosexuality.html

One anonymous brother recounts his experience with initiation at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary:

During our senior year of MLC, we (the seniors in pastor track) visited the seminary. Getting of the bus we were greeted by "our brothers" as we passed through the arch of seminary students we were all groped. Literally someone had grabbed my goods and at the end of that was a fat man in a speedo who bear hugged us. I complained in a letter. Never heard back. 

I had the same experience, except it was in the parking lot behind the dorm, not under the arch.

At MLC, there was a "tradition" in the mens' (sic) dorms that if it was your birthday, a group of about 15 or 20 guys would dog-pile on top of you, all of them completely naked. There were also naked, drunken parades through the dorm hallways, accompanied by guitars and drums.

The Seminary Chorus had a custom of guys surreptitiously groping each other during performances and concerts. Professor Tiefel once commended one of the members of the choir for his wide smile during a performance. After being told that the smile was a result of being groped throughout the concert, Tiefel just laughed. I quit the choir not long afterwards.

It always seemed to me that the worst offenders in this regard were guys who had been sent away to prep school at the age of fourteen. A psychologist could probably pinpoint the reasons why, but the experience seems to warp many of them in disgusting ways. In any case, just beneath the surface of these traditions and initiation rites in the WELS system is a strong and sinister undercurrent of homosexuality. 

I'm not saying that a large number of WELS pastors are homosexual, but I'm sure there are some who have been led into temptation by these activities. And even for those who haven't, it isn't a healthy thing to make light of sin.

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Shattered Pulpit Blog

AnonymousSeptember 26, 2014 at 11:08 PM

I was abused for many years by my father, a WELS pastor. I was too young at the time to do anything, but be the "good girl" and do whatever was asked of me. Many years later when I did tell my"secrets", the DP, along with others, turned it all around and made it become my wrongdoing. Please do NOT give into them. You are the victim and the WELS is doing everything it can to turn it around and placing the blame on you. I pray that you talk to those who believe you and your safe pastor and reconsider your plan to stop writing your blog! You have opened the eyes of many people: people who DO believe you. The hierarchy of the WELS is trying to cover up anything which reflects negatively on them. You have many people praying for you. God is on your side and He will continue to be there for you. I will continue to keep you in my prayers. May God be with you and give you strength to accept His help!

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Note how the pastors retaliated against the victim, with the help of the DP.

Jane's Story: WELS Sexual Harassment

Written by "Jane"

When I accepted the Executive Assistant position at a contemporary WELS church, there were many things I expected, but sexual harassment was not one of them. In addition to the harassment, I witnessed my supervisor and "spiritual leader" demean other women (including members of the church), drink on the job, plagiarize sermons and act in the very manner you would not expect from a "called servant of The Lord".

I almost immediately observed the pastor's casualness, lack of boundaries, and what I perceived as downright laziness at times. His standards and expectations for my position as the assistant seemed to exceed his own standards as the pastor. 

Shortly after starting my position, I received a text message sometime after midnight from my supervisor telling me I should have sex with my husband. We never requested counseling or advice in this realm so his inappropriateness was rather strange at best to us. We strived to take words and actions in the best possible way. I was subjected to many routine "lapses in judgement" by my spiritual leader. Including an incident of him showing me a video that depicted nude male genitals while alone in his office.Is there ever a correct context for a supervisor to show anything like this to his married employee? (I will discuss this more at another time).

As he pushed the boundaries and inappropriateness, my conscience began to nag at me. Through even the darkest days, I allowed myself to believe that these behaviors were normal. Yet I began to feel torn between my loyalty to the church and the moral issues at hand.

I spent many nights awake and hovered over my bible in tears. There was something very wrong about what was going on at that church. I've seen it all first hand and, yet, felt obligated to keep it all a secret. It was the kind of secret that absolutely tormented me, but I thought I was doing the right thing at the time (just another lie we are led to believe as victims).

After months of utter frustration the hostile work environment began to take a toll on me and my husband. I prayerfully considered if perhaps this was an unhealthy situation for me to be in. So I gave my notice and was told to tell members of the congregation that I "wasn't a good fit" when I left my position. It was unbearable to work with a man that continued to ignore, scream, belittle, degrade and humiliate me. I left this job feeling worthless and far less confident than when I started (which was previously at a Fortune 100 company).

I suffered in silence while working at that church. I fell into a deep darkness from all that I experienced and witnessed there and its leadership. Shortly after I left the position my depression began to spiral. We maintained membership at this "relevant" church because of the relationships that we had formed with other Christians and did not want to neglect our spiritual life. The final straw was when an assault rifle was used as a sermon prop.

We decided it was best to seek the counsel of a trusted pastor since the leadership at this church either outright condoned or failed to supervise its employees and their behavior. We were convicted to resolve all this in a Christ centered way. Our hope was to see positive changes and healing for all. 

How many times does a synod president attend a
congregational meeting to cut a deal with the district president?
Mark Schroeder did, and Ski got another call.

My husband and I have continued to fight an endless battle for justice in the synod and to see that this doesn't happen to someone else. We've patiently been in contact with top synod leaders. We've encountered roadblocks, never ending circles and have witnessed inconsistencies throughout the disciplinary processes within the synod. By the Grace of God, we've encountered wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ to share in our burden. Unfortunately, we've also encountered timid leaders and those hesitant to publicly speak for the truth. People seem to selectively choose which commandments and passages to throw at you while ignoring others.

The journey has been incredibly lonely and frustrating since we were asked to remain silent and be patient. We are exhausted and completely astonished that after everything was brought into the light this man continues to be a pastor and counsel members. We will continue to persevere with others until positive changes are made in this synod so that all victims of abuse are protected rather than the perpetrators.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, (‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ESV)

Jeff Schone went from being an awful pastor
to being an awful administrative bully at Martin Luther College:
zero tolerance for confessional students, who are driven out.

---

WELS Teacher Arrested - Why Not Issue a Call to Don Patterson's District?

Traeder, Taylor D Schofield, WI St Matthew Lutheran School Grades 6-8, Athletic Director,
Principal Apprentice

Mark Jeske - From Two Years Ago - Loves Your Tax Money. WELS Clergy Often Leave Their Homes in the Congregation's Name To Escape Taxes

The Wizard of Ooze wants your tax dollars in vouchers
to buy himself another school.
Does he pay taxes on his so-called parsonage in the white suburbs?

Ironically, this practice is clearly contrary to the official WELS doctrine contained in "This We Believe," which states in its article VIII:

"8. We reject any attempt on the part of the church to seek the financial assistance of the state in carrying out its saving purpose."

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014

St. Marcus Makes an Aggressive Push for MPS Building

Voucher school plans to enroll an additional 850 students in Lindsay Heights

By Lisa Kaiser

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The Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) board will be taking up a fast-tracked offer by St. Marcus Lutheran School to purchase the shuttered Lee Elementary School in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood.

St. Marcus has been building its case for the school in well-attended community outreach meetings in which parents of St. Marcus stressed the need for another site for “strongly Christian” education underwritten by state taxpayers.

According to St. Marcus School Superintendent Henry Tyson, the school would like to renovate and reopen Lee this fall with roughly 200 K3 through first graders. Eventually, it wants to expand on that site and enroll 750-850 students through the eighth grade.

But first St. Marcus needs the approval of both the MPS board, the Milwaukee Common Council and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

St. Marcus hopes to gain the Common Council’s approval at its June 24 meeting. For that to happen, the MPS’s Accountability, Finance and Personnel Committee would have to approve it on Tuesday, as the Shepherd goes to press. The full MPS board would need to sign off on it June 19 before sending it over to the city’s Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee, which would have to call a special meeting before the Common Council’s June 24 vote, according to Sara Roemer, assistant director of development and communications for St. Marcus.

A Change in Sale Process

St. Marcus’s fast-tracked bid for Lee Elementary comes amid controversy over how MPS disposes of its unused buildings and the state support for religious schools in its voucher program.

Republicans and some members of the Common Council have been pushing MPS to sell off its unused or underused buildings to avoid the ongoing maintenance costs. Legislation authored by state Sen. Alberta Darling and suburban Republicans last fall would have forced MPS to sell its underused buildings to an “education operator,” defined as a charter or private school operator or an entity that wants to set up a charter school. After being blasted by Common Council members for rigging the real estate market in favor of loosely regulated charter or voucher schools, the bill passed the full Assembly and one Senate committee but didn’t make it to the Senate floor.

At roughly the same time, St. Marcus was trying to purchase the vacant Malcolm X Academy. The MPS board decided to redevelop it as a mixed-use community center instead.

MPS leaders gave St. Marcus three more options: Lee Elementary, Garfield Elementary or Edison Middle School. Tyson refused all of them, claiming that they were too small, outdated or far away from the school’s main campus. Now, St. Marcus is having a change of heart and is aggressively pushing for Lee Elementary, which was closed in 2009.

The process for a potential sale of an MPS facility also seems to be up in the air.

Earlier this year, the St. Lucas Lutheran School in Bay View had indicated an interest in purchasing the vacant Dover Street School; St. Lucas already uses some of the other school’s property as a playground and parking area.

St. Lucas didn’t make a formal offer on the Dover Street School, but the MPS board voted to turn the facility into affordable housing marketed to teachers. The local alderman, Tony Zielinski, pushed the developers to scale back their proposal and the Common Council asked for more involvement in the sale of MPS facilities.

The city is developing a memorandum of agreement with MPS for MPS’s disposition of its unused properties but as of Tuesday, the draft agreement wasn’t on any committee agenda. 

Skeptical About Test Scores

On another front, St. Marcus is making claims about its student performance, saying that the school is outperforming MPS students in all areas by a “wide margin,” according to the St. Marcus website.

Count MPS Board Director Larry Miller, vice chair of MPS’s Accountability, Finance and Personnel Committee, as skeptical about St. Marcus’s claims about its “high-performing school.” 

Miller said that those claims are overblown and compare St. Marcus’s elementary school students to all of MPS’s, including its high school students.

The difference between St. Marcus’s state test scores and MPS’s aren’t significant, Miller said, although at 20%, MPS’s special needs student population is more than double the 9% of special needs students St. Marcus says it educates.

Miller also noted that MPS seventh graders are performing better than St. Marcus’s in both math and reading. According to fall 2013 data from the state Department of Public Instruction, just 17% of St. Marcus’s seventh grade students and 15% of its eighth grade students are proficient in reading. That compares to 17.4% of MPS seventh graders and 17% of MPS’s eighth grade students who are proficient or advanced in reading.

Miller scoffed at St. Marcus’s attempt to promote itself as a high-performing school.

“At the eighth grade, in our 116 elementary and middle schools, we are testing higher than they are,” Miller said.

He’s also analyzing the demographics of the area to determine whether MPS should reopen Lee to serve the neighborhood’s kids.

“I want it to be a public school,” Miller said.

‘Strongly Christian’ Education

A religious education seemed to be St. Marcus’s biggest asset, according to testimony given by supporters at a June 11 community meeting, organized by the neighborhood’s new alderman, Russell Stamper II, and attended by the city’s Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux; state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis), a voucher supporter; MPS Board members Michael Bonds, Larry Miller and Annie Woodward; and Alderman Nik Kovac. (Stamper didn’t respond to the Shepherd’s request to comment for this article.)

Both St. Marcus and St. Lucas participate in the taxpayer-funded voucher program and are members of the conservative Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). This is the extreme wing of the Lutheran Church, which asserts that the Roman Catholic pope is the Antichrist, condemns homosexuality as a sin, teaches the belief in evolution and the age of the earth as 6,000 years old and prohibits women from voting in church meetings.

St. Marcus employee Kerry Guzman, whose child attends the school, urged Milwaukee leaders to sell Lee because 200 students are waiting for a “Christ-centered education.”

“As a Christian educator, I’m really excited because we have the chance to empower the children at St. Marcus with the love and the respect to show others in the community the love that Christ first showed us,” Guzman told the audience.

But MPS backers questioned whether the city should sell an MPS asset to allow a religious voucher school to expand, which they say ultimately penalizes taxpayers and leaves MPS with a higher percentage of special needs students, who require more resources to educate.

“What we’re seeing in Milwaukee is the development of a two-tier school system, a school system that has a large number of students with special needs, students who are difficult to educate, and a private school system that doesn’t have to adhere to certain state and federal anti-discrimination laws,” said Bob Peterson, the head of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA). “That’s not fair. That’s not what we need for this community.”

All the Beneficial Creatures Work Together

This is more of a summary of the chapter I am writing in Creation Gardening - about how all the beneficial creatures work together.

I am reading Darwin's Black Box again while working on the gardening book. The author, Behe, argues for the engineering evidenced in the smallest parts of the natural world. When looking at the design of microbes, plant cells, insects, spiders, and birds, the facts alone are staggering.

One example is the balance between bacteria and the much larger protozoa in the soil. The protozoa make the bacteria thrive by eating them. Otherwise, bacteria growing on their own would soon equal the bio-mass of the entire world. But - not to worry - protozoa eat bacteria,  and so do earthworms. This constant feasting puts usable nitrogen in the soil and holds it there, while billions of creatures prey upon one another and swap chemicals.

Root hairs hold out carbon for the soil fungi, exchanging the plant's carbon credits for what the plant needs from the fungi. Meanwhile, the fungi are threaded through the soil harvesting those minerals and moving them between plants. One fungus may connect three plants at once.

Human beings are as organized as a herd of stray cats, but these microbes do exactly what they should and accomplish their tasks with exceptional precision. If we bury a diseased, dead animal in the ground, the soil purifies it, as Walt Whitman noted in a poem. Bacteria attack the soft parts. Fungi attack the difficult to digest parts. The disease organism is destroyed, and all chemicals are recycled at various speeds.

Flower Flies look like bees.
They figured that out to protect themselves?
"Ralph, put on your yellow and black suit. It's safer."

Microbe Engineering
The engineering and complexity of microbes should make anyone pause and thank God for all His benefits. Computer experts constantly address the problems of their vast networks, some within the company or school, others connecting the World Wide Web. They build and study complex software that manages these networks, because devices left on their own will fail, create problems, and even send bad messages that bring down the entire network. Software is re-designed all the time, but the microbes continue their labors without upgrades. They are already perfect.

Insect Engineering
I let mites, springtails, fungus, bacteria, and earthworms turn my autumn leaves into food for the soil. Only on that list is an insect - springtails. The very nature of the leaf cover in the wild garden and over the roses means that I will have that many more insects and spiders patrolling my yard this year.

Insects are great for pollination and for feeding birds during the nesting seasons. The bugs burst into life the moment birds need them for their hatching babies. Without thinking or worrying, the parents harvest the bugs and feed them to their young.  Meanwhile, the insects prey upon each other with the same ferocity. The famous beneficial bugs, like ladybugs and preying mantids, dine on their own kind as well.

Spiders build webs, as everyone knows, but another class - the cursorial spiders - go out hunting for prey and do not use a web. One is inclined to ask God, "Haven't you done enough with the vast array of web spiders? Must we come to grips with another group that we never even thought about in the past?"

Pests Are Food for Pest-Eaters
When left alone, nothing gets out of control, because pests are food for pest-eaters. In effect, the pests control the pest-eaters, not the reverse. We learned this when studying rabbits. One book pointed out that the number of rabbits will determine the population of hawks and raptors. If the rabbit population crashes from disease, as it does from time to time, the hawks and owls will go elsewhere for food and diminish in population.

Nothing is more foolish than killing the food of the pest-eaters in order to get rid of the pests. Left along, God's creatures will control the pests by eating them. And the population will not be all spiders or all preying mantids or all toads, because all of Creation remains in balance when deprived of man-made poisons. Spraying the yard for pests will kill most of the beneficial insects, letting the pests come back unopposed. Repeated spraying, which seems necessary with the rebound of pests, will make this even worse.

Close up of peacock feathers.
I rest my case.

Hawks Arrived Here for Birds and Rabbits
Hawks rest in our maple and scream out their warning cries. I feed the birds with toxin-free gardening, suet, and seeds. Our helper laughs about the jumpin' jivin' wild garden, where the insect life is livelier than a Pentecostal convention. Because birds are well fed and have ample water for bathing, hawks visit to cull the population for food. Doubtless they find plenty of rabbits and rodents, too.

Therefore, while the birds are controlling the bugs, who also control each other, the hawks are improving the gene pool of the birds and mammals. Yet all live and thrive together. Below, snakes eat toads, and toads eat thousands of pests each summer. When I began watering more and leaving pans out for bird baths, toads multiplied and took up their stations beside logs and near faucets.

Creation Psalms
The Creating Psalms - 8, 19, 29, 65, 104, 139 - spell out these relationships, while the evolutionists carefully explain how this all came from random development over billions of years.

Psalm 104King James Version (KJV)

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.

9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.

11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.

12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.

13 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

16 The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;

17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.

19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.

20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.

23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.

24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.

29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

31 The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.

32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.