Friday, April 15, 2016

Dr. Phil Giessler - From 2008




Phillip B. Giessler, previously a Missouri Synod pastor, previously the Major Domo of the Beck Bible revision boondoggle, previously married twice, is Otten's expert on Creation.

Otten said on the phone, "Phil Giessler was here the other day with his wife."

I said, "His third wife?"

Otten sputtered, "Third?"

I reminded him - "You said he left his first wife for his mistress and his putative son, when his wife made him choose. After he excommunicated himself and left Missouri, he ran out of money. You told me his second wife left him and told him the boy was not his. That would mean the wife he brought in was either a reconciliation or a third wife."

Otten, in a voice of wonder, "You are right!"



The GOP set a new record by having three presidential candidates with three wives: Gingrich (always in the wings), Fred Thompson [correction below], and Mayor JulieAnny (the first transvestite candidate). That is bad enough, but when the clergy are sporting their new wives, why should anyone pay attention to them?

God instituted marriage by His command. One indication of people accepting this as natural law is the world-wide institution of marriage. I got one man to marry the mother of his three children by saying, "If you love the Word of God, you will marry the mother of your children. Otherwise you are telling your daughters that you despise the Word." That truly shocked him. The Word fell on him like a boulder and crushed his pretensions. He asked to be married and to take instructions in the faith.

When someone pretends to teach the Word and violates the Word at the same time, he is leading by example - bad example.

I teach hundreds of college students each year. Most of the women are divorced or never married. The new line is, "We are married five years, together eight." Or, "I am in a new relationship." If I tell them I have been married 39 years in November, they gasp as if I told them I swallowed gravel for breakfast each day.

We should not wonder that things are going downhill fast when Christian News takes no notice of the serial monogamy of its writers. The guard dog has become a lap dog.

***

GJ - Don W. thought Senator Fred Thompson had only one marriage. According to Wikipedia and other sources, his wives include:
1. Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey (when he ws 17). To his credit, he married the mother of his child and worked his way through school.
2. Jeri Kehn, whom he met in a grocery store line.

I thought he had three wives, so the average between Don's figure and mine is correct - two.


More Pastors Should Garden

Cow vetch, a legume, grows naturally in my yard.
Budgies and other birds love the seed and spread it.

Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.


Borage is the cousin to comfrey and
has a similar but smaller growth habit.

Borage is either pink or blue, an edible herb.


More pastors should garden, because then they would would understand all the parables related to the growth of plants and how these stories apply to their work.

I looked up one of my garden weeds and found it was cow vetch, loved by birds. They planted it for me, and some grew up the back fence, creating a beautiful waterfall effect of purple flowers.

The borage flowers above are also called bee bread, because they constantly flower, generate pollen and nectar, drop seed and grow again. All of the sudden, there is a new borage plant growing - the seed growing secretly. Borage is so robust that this happens all summer.

That reminds me of how the living seed of the Word sprouts and grows secretly. That is why I do not believe in trying to persuade people or  to appeal to them. The ministers who do not trust the Word think they have to make it appealing. Synods think they have to grow, without thinking about the only thing that is required of stewards, that they be found faithful.

The CLC (sic) is a sect that lives by, "Why didn't he join us 60 years ago, as he promised?" Meanwhile, Missouri and WELS think extending the Left Foot of Fellowship is their prime directive. Anyone who experiences a hint of that should extend the Right Foot of Exit, because shunning is Pietism at its core. "We are superior and anyone who disagrees must be shunned and expelled as an evil-doer."



We were mulching some of the new roses yesterday. We went through our cardboard and 15 bags of mulch. Our helper kept mentioning the lack of grass. I said, "We are on the cutting edge. Grass is last century, and we are re-inventing rose gardening!"

Before photographs were taken yesterday and should be posted fairly soon.

Bride's Dream rose has the largest bloom and plant.
I got two from Gurney's for $5 each.
It's fun to order blindly for bargains and find
classics that normally sell for $20 each.
Roses only require being:

  • Planted
  • Pruned
  • Watered
  • Mulched, and
  • Earthwormed.
A $20 rose bush grows more than enough flowers to pay for itself in retail value the first summer. One good hybrid rose is worth $5 at a flower shop.  A dozen roses will sell for $60. Many hybrid tea rose bushes will yield a dozen roses the first year, each bloom far better and longer-lasting than flower shop roses.

Many "Conservative" Lutheran Leaders Could Not Get Hired.

Bishop Burnside, like the Episcopalian female bishop,
drove drunk, killed a fine person, and fled the scene.

One insurance agency had a simple rule. When someone wanted to work there and had a DUI, they said, "No thanks." The general agent received a big bonus from the company for hiring, but the general agent figured a DUI signaled a habitual, out of control drunk.

Blood and urine tests are common, even for hiring $9 an hour employees. They reveal whiskey enzymes in the liver (heavy drinking) and various illegal drugs. "Sorry, kid, we can't use you."

Many ecclesiastical pests would no longer be around if the SPs said, "We can't risk you running down some kid's mother or father and that story being in the news. Besides that, you have problems and need help."

Cook was installed as bishop three sheets to the wind - and with a DUI record.
She wiped out this family man, who was biking.
Two young people in my Sturgis congregation
were killed by drunk drivers, devastating their families.

I have worked with alcoholics - it a long, hard road to recovery. I do not think they are being manly men for using up the family income to pummel their livers and endanger lives. The financial and social cost for all that drinking is enormous.

Several readers have emailed to say that WELS is indeed a drunken culture with all the attributes.

  1. One is being super rigid and hyper about any criticism.
  2. Another is the low level of thinking and problem solving. One official was known for his drinking and inability to deal with any practical mission problem. He simply issued edicts.
  3. Finally, what looks like incompetence is really drinking on the job, inability to get work done, and confused thinking under the influence.
One reader said his or her school faculty was completely alcoholic, which led to repentance and leaving whiskey river behind. Ever wonder about all the child abuse stories in WELS, and most are suppressed? Alcoholism excuses or explains a lot.

Why is it suddenly so popular to have a "bar ministry" in WELS? What better way to indulge and cover it with noble words! At one gathering, a pathetic LCA drunk offered to buy everyone drinks if they would stay and drink with him. One old drunken pastor had a younger woman offer to drive him back to his hotel room. An LCA mission boss was so drunk on the phone, calling from headquarters, that he was completely incoherent. 

But drunks cover for drunks. Smash your car up a utility pole while drunk? "We have a foreign mission for you."

I drove around on small town looking for a notorious drunk, to take him to the VA Hospital for needed treatment. His family member was at the wheel. We got the alcoholic in the car and took him to the treatment center. He said, "I'm not a drunk. I'm just nervous."

Two bishops knew, but enabled the drunken bishop Cook,
who Consecrated Under the Influence.



Bishop Katie seems worried that Cook will fall over.

UOJ and Antinomianism - From 2012

The Little Sect on the Prairie is too small for Stormtroopers,
so they have Dark Helmet as their mascot and protector.


bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Brett Meyer Address the Synodical Conference Spin ...":

One can see that UOJ and SJ are just Calvinism sandwiched together with Lutheranism. The OJ is Calvinism and SJ is Lutheranism, except that Calvinism is its own system and is not compatible with the Biblical system of salvation, aka, Lutheranism. Sandwiched together, OJ and SJ amount to gross antinomianism. Calvin counter-balanced justification before faith with the idea of limited atonement and DP so that the antinomianism implicit in justification before faith would be balanced by idea that if you act like an unbeliever, maybe that's because you actually are one. UOJ-type Lutheranism has no such counter-balance to fend out antinomianism since Lutherans believe in unlimited atonement and deny that God reprobates anyone. Therefore, some over-assured Lutherans end up getting in trouble in various sins and with the law, but for most the theoretical antinomianism results in a largely unregenerate and life and many sins of omission (a non-dedicated, non-rigorously religious life) that the UOJer Lutheran doesn't feel any guilt over.

***

GJ - UOJ unifies the Synodical Conference (tm) and its scattered parts.We know Richard Jungkuntz was dedicated to UOJ because his essay is lovingly preserved in the Holy of Holies, the WELS Essay Files, even though they kicked him out of WELS. From there he did his liberal work in the LCMS, a real star of Seminex, as the chairman of the board of the first gay Lutheran seminary. Seminex was the official seminary of the Metropolitan Community Church.

Jungkuntz went on to serve as provost of an ALC college. He was written up favorably in the NY Times.

He argued for women's suffrage, conceding it was the same argumentation for women's ordination.

UOJ was the common thread in all his denominational affiliations. UOJ unites all the mainline Protestant denominations. Their motto is - "Everyone is forgiven and saved by the grace of God." Since they have given up the significance of creeds, hymns, sermons, and liturgy, they are vulnerable to every radical leftist fad.

For instance, the Episcopalians preserve the historic liturgy and creeds, and still hold solemn worship services, but they say, "We also have a contemporary service in our parish for the young people." (David Virtue, Virtue Online) Bad money drives out good, so that concession means the traditionalists will soon give way to the Fuller crowd, as all the rest have.

The Antinomian part is the most enjoyable. Anyone can do anything, as long as Holy Mother Church is not offended. If a man runs off with another woman, he will be restored as a pastor because "Who are you to judge?" That also goes well with communing a wealthy man  living openly with his mistress, which Dale Redlin of the CLC (sic) argued for at a pastors' meeting. The other pastors were appalled, but there were many other things they were happy to overlook.

UOJ has nothing to say about the complete erosion of the family, the treatment of children (from conception on), and the culture of hedonism.

"When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith?"

That question suggest that the End Times will be dominated by a complete lack of faith in the Savior. Not surprisingly, that is the siren song of UOJ - forgiveness without faith.
Richard Jungkuntz, UOJ advocate:
WELS, LCMS, Seminex, ALC:
Chairman of the Board, 
First Gay Lutheran Seminary in America.

---


Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "UOJ and Antinomianism":

The false gospel of Universal Objective Justification was leaned on heavily by departing (W)ELS president Karl R. Gurgel in 2007. The man who knows where the $8Million dollars of Synod money went but has never confessed.

"Then, as if out of nowhere, comes another truth that is not self-evident. A perfect life and an innocent death—not ours but the Savior’s—liberates us from our sentence of death and makes us eternally happy.

This truth can only be perceived and received by faith in God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus. This is the saving truth we’re privileged to proclaim: God’s pardon for sinners, the eternal peace of sins forgiven.


Notice the already existing forgiveness of sins by God to be perceived.

His statements can be read here: http://www.wels.net/news-events/forward-in-christ/july-2007/self-evident-truths?page=0,0

A self evident truth is that in order for Synod Leadership - Synod President, the Council of Presidents, the District Presidents, the Circuit Pastors, the church Pastors, the church councils and elders all have continue to promote the false and utterly unsubstantiated, Anti-Scripture, Anti-Christ and Anti-Lutheran Confessions gospel of Universal Objective Justification or face the enormous mountain of shame and guilt that comes from the whole world realizing they've decieved their members concerning Scriptures Chief and Central doctrine - Justification by Faith alone.

For the sake of their own souls may God grant them Godly contrition and the Holy Spirit's faith to trust alone in Christ and to lead and direct Christ's Church to the one true Christian faith and away from the New Age Antichrist's religion of justification before God without faith in Christ which is essentially belief that they are their own god - creating their own way to righteousness and the forgiveness of sins.


Did WELS Always Teach UOJ? Definitely Not.
From 2011

This hissing cockroach is not as disgusting as false doctrine.



A pastor did a comparison of catechisms today in preparing for a lesson on the Third Article (I believe in....the forgiveness of sins). He has a number of catechisms [Luther's obviously being the one and only] on his shelves. He was interested if there were any shifts in the presentation of material [questions, selection of supporting passages, phraseology) between the WELS "Gausewitz"(Copyright 1956) and the WELS "Kuske" (Copyright 1982, 1989, 1998). In the following K=Kuske, G= Gausewitz. The "#'s" refer to the respective editions. His comments are in [ ].

His reason for doing the comparison is that the Gausewitz version was the catechism used for his own confirmation classes in the early-mid 1970's. However, the Kuske version has been the official one since the early 1980's. That means a majority of the current WELS pastors who still teach catechism would have used the Kuske version. If they are younger WELS pastors, they would themselves have been instructed along its line, maybe never knowing anything at all about the Gausewitz.

Kuske 253. How many people did God declare righteous? God declared all people righteous. (objective justification) [2 Corinthians 5:19 is offered as a proof passage but not Romans 3:28]

Gausewitz 261. To whom does God forgive sins? God forgives sins to me and all believers. [Romans 3:21-28 is cited as a Scripture reference; Romans 3:28; Romans 10:4 is cited as the Scripture passages. He underlined the divergence between the two. This clearly proves a stated shift. Also note how Gausewitz sticks to Luther's phrasing in the answer.]
______

Kuske 255. Why is it important, then, that the Holy Spirit work faith in me? It is important that the Holy Spirit work faith in me so that I do not trust in my own works but only in the righteousness God gives me by grace in Christ. (subjective justification)

Gausewitz 260 Why do we say that the Holy Ghost forgives sins, whereas we are made righteous before God through the redemption of Christ? The Holy Ghost brings the righteousness of Christ to us by the Gospel and gives us the faith to believe it. [Note that "the righteousness of Christ" is linked with "the faith to believe it." The two are not bifurcated and isolated, by default, from each other.]

______

Gausewitz 262. Where are sins forgiven? Sins are forgiven in the Christian Church on earth. (Ministry of the Keys)

[No similar question is asked in the Kuske catechism. In the UOJ scheme, there is salvation outside the Christian Church? Yes, and apart from the Means of Grace entrusted to the Church!]
______

Gausewitz 263. Why do we say, In the Christian Church on earth? We say this because Christ has given the Gospel to His Church on earth; in the Gospel we have the forgiveness of sins.

[No similar question is asked in the Kuske catechism. In the Gospel, then necessarily implies through the Means by which it is conveyed. Massive, airy universal absolutions apart from the Means rob them of the grace God intends to give through them. Therefore, our confidence of salvation would be divorced from the very Means of Grace God intends to use to create and sustain "justifying faith" as the Confessions put it.]

The above quotations are proof of a discernible shift in WELS catechisms.

***

GJ - Many people are doing research about this topic. This is an excellent example of what many of us suspect - that the UOJ position of WELS hardened and began to dominate. Departures like this are difficult to trace, but WELS members and pastors can figure this out.

The Gausewitz catechism was the normal version for a long time. As I recall from an essay by Slide, it had all the correct attributes for a WELS catechism.

When the new Kuske catechism came out, WELS made that the normative version, and WELS pastors tend to be robotic in accepting new improved whatevers, like the 100 proof hymnal from James P. Tiefel.

See if you can find a Gausewitz and do your own comparison with Kuske. Comments are most welcome.

This is why I have never used a catechism except Luther's own. I do not like Talmudic editions with hundreds of questions and answers. Like the original Talmud, they can be used to obscure the Word of God in the name of teaching it.

WELS pastors have shown repeatedly that they do not grasp the meaning of the Eighth Commandment, how it applies to their own behavior, how it does not apply to addressing false doctrine.

I noticed in reading the new book that the Seminex crowd liked crying Eighth Commandment too. WELS leaders like to brag about how superior they are to Missouri, but they have used the same dishonest or ignorant tactics to advance their own false doctrine.