Former LCMS, seminary President Ralph Bohlmann dies | LCMS News & Information

Former LCMS, seminary President Ralph Bohlmann dies | LCMS News & Information: "

 (L-R) Rev. Dr. Sam Nafzger, Rev. Dr. Ralph Bohlmann, LCMS President Rev. Dr . Matthew C. Harrison, and Rev. Jon D. Vieker, senior assistant to Harrison, meet together in Harrison's office at the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod International Center on Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, in Kirkwood, Mo. LCMS Communications/Erik M. Lunsford

Former LCMS, seminary President Ralph Bohlmann dies

July 25, 2016 in REPORTER, TOP STORY 0
The Rev. Dr. Ralph Bohlmann, who served four terms (1981-92) as president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and was named as the church body’s first president emeritus, died July 24 in St. Louis. He was 84.


Bohlmann
A memorial service is planned for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27, in The Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, with a reception to follow. Visitation will be from noon to 2 p.m. that day in the chapel.


 At the request of Bohlmann’s family, clergy in attendance will not vest or process at the service.

Bohlmann was president of Concordia Seminary from 1975 to 1981. He joined the seminary faculty as a professor of systematic theology in 1960, and continued to teach there until his election as LCMS president."


'via Blog this'

ELCA (Seminex) Pastor Bruce Foster Unhitched His Hellish Bigotry in 2011

Foster retires.

Bruce Foster, Pastor 

Dear Dr (by virtue of a degree issued by a school run by the underlings of the anti-Christ) Jackson

You like to remind people how my (sic) hits your web site gets. The traffic is dramatic. What exactly it means, however, is up to interpretation. One group who follows your posts are people who support your ideas. A small group of names come up again and again on comments, Bruce Church, Brett Meyer etc. I have no idea if these are real names or people who use fake names. They are, I am sure, real people because their styles are unique and I don't think anyone would go to the trouble of making up commenters.

Others, however, I suspect are people like myself who stumbled on to your web site and have become addicted to your style and thought processes. Any one who blogs as much as you do reveals a great deal about yourself on the site. One thing I am sure, however, is that your desire to present the actual facts in matters takes a back seat to presenting your own world view. If the facts don't match your world view, ignore or change the facts. An example. You wrote


"ELCA and the Episcopal Church began living together in sin a few years ago. They did not form a legal, legitimate merger, but invented a way in which Episcopalian polity could be forced upon Lutherans. One example was the sudden necessity to have an Anglican bishop present at all confirmations and ordinations. Why not at Holy Communion too? "

[GJ - Objections from pastors and laity leaving ELCA because of CCM.]


The best response to this is "Weird." I am not sure which alternative universe you live in, but you do not live in mine. In my universe CCM had two requirements. First, that all ELCA bishops in the future have at their consecrations at least three bishops who themselves were ordained into the historic episcopate. Second, that a bishop be present at all ordinations. This second requirements has an exception for those ministerial candidates who object to this requirement (not many do, but some have). And that's it. Now I didn't support CCM. I spoke against it. Indeed I publicly in the presence of Bishop Anderson said that the historic episcopate was one of the most butt stupid idea ever developed in the church. But I attacked CCM for what was actually there.

Where you get the idea that an Anglican bishop has to be present at "all confirmations and ordinations" I haven't a clue. Trust me, in the years since CCM I have had confirmations every year without any bishop there. And the comment "Why not at Holy Communion too?" is just bizarre.

Bizarre. Maybe that's the answer. You were just making stuff up for the fun of it. Satire or parody. Just like when I challenged you about how you knew Bill Lazareth went to hell your response was that you were joking.

And yet this makes for entertaining reading. What will Dr. Jackson make up next? It's all too sad really. You have a great work ethic. You are in many ways very bright. Too bad you don't take things seriously.


Bruce Foster (please don't belittle me for not having a degree from the anti-Christ's best school)

***

GJ - Every few months, ELCA Pastor Bruce Foster sends an email like this. It makes my day. He was the ELCA pastor who gave up the WELSians pastors Lindemann and Jenswold by quoting them. They were quite nasty anonymously. Foster is a bit hostile, but he signs his stuff instead of hiding in the foliage of the WELS Grapevine. I just call him Bananas Foster.

He used to be LCMS, so I am glad there is a place for apostate Missourians to go. Anyone trained in UOJ will fit right into ELCA, so the transition from LCMS to Seminex to ELCA is an easy one. Neuhaus took one more jump - to the Church of Rome.

I wish I had the creativity to make up everything. Of course, if Foster had a serious objection to the facts I presented about the Anglican-ELCA morganatic marriage, he could send a serious post. ELCA is not so fascinating that I keep track of every detail. ELCA's CCM was so terrible for many that they began leaving the sect, one large congregation at a time. That became the base for the LCMC, which grew to something like 700 congregations after ELCA bowed to the Lavender Mafia in 2009.

Foster is correct. The more he writes, the more he reveals about himself. He is still fretting over the posthumous status of Bill Lazareth, sainted bishop and theologian of ELCA. I think that is all settled by now. As Bones often said in Star Trek, "He's dead, Jim."

Foster misses the point about education. Tim Glende and other WELS bullies claim they are right by virtue of their excruciatingly difficult education. They actually studied Greek! The WELS pastors do not not admit how few of them are even adequate in Greek. Glende is not on that list. Even if he were, the argument is completely bogus. Here is the argument encapsulated: "You, a lawyer and layman, cannot possibly be correct. I can plagiarize Groeschel's sermons all I want, because I studied Greek and you did not."

As 29A knows, I have been almost everywhere and often have first-hand knowledge of the theological leaders I discuss. For example, I heard Lazareth speak in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Some other recent leaders in ELCA that I have met are: Chilstrom, Marshal, Crumley, David Preus, Franklin D. Fry, Neuhaus, and several seminary presidents, including the new one at Wartburg, Stan Olson.

If merely graduating from an unaccredited seminary is enough to dazzle the typical WELS/ELS layman, how much more should theology degrees from Yale and Notre Dame?

The Lutherans have not been able to put together a university yet, and Valpo does not count. Foster should know that seminary "doctorates" are a joke, whether they are DMins or some other concoction.

The only Catholic-run part of Notre Dame was its seminary. We used their building on the lake once or twice, but the PhD program was independent of priestly training and had almost no connection with them. Some future priests attended our classes, but we were never in theirs. Foster should know by now that Notre Dame is managed by an independent board.

I am not sure what fuels his endless sarcasm. I suppose it is the closest he can get to humor. Foster sounds just like the WELS pastors who go ballistic because I point out their beloved CGM is nothing but false doctrine. They have deep, serious arguments like, "We can go to Fuller because you went to Notre Dame."

No one is allowed to criticize ELCA or WELS. Both are thin-skinned Holy Mother Synod operations, and their clergy are equally irritable. I enjoy getting under the skin of false teachers, Pastor Foster, and that is the point of this blog.

---

Why was the Lavender Mafia so happy about Liz Eaton's election?
Mark Hanson was already on their side.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "ELCA Pastor Bruce Foster Needs Some Attention":

Perhaps ELCA Pastor Bruce Foster should remember that although Pastor Jackson studied at the Antichrist's university, he was and remains faithful to Christ and the Lutheran Confessions. Pastor Foster though is in direct denominational fellowship with the Antichrist as was confirmed by the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and is neither faithful to Christ or the Lutheran Confessions.

Ichabodians should note that the Antichrist's hope for global spiritual ecumenism (quoted below) is the same ecumenism that is being promoted and established by the (W)ELS - diaprax (dialogue) being the tool to help build that unity.

Holy Father meets with Lutheran delegation, encourages prayer and dialogue
Vatican City, Feb 10, 2010 / 11:05 am (CNA).- After today’s general audience, the Holy Father met with a delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) in which he expressed hope for the “continuing Lutheran-Catholic dialogue.”

The Lutheran delegation was led by the ELCA’s Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, who is also President of the Lutheran World Foundation, the global Lutheran partner to the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.

The Holy Father addressed the delegation in English, saying that he hoped “the continuing Lutheran-Catholic dialogue both in the United States of America and at the international level will help to build upon the agreements reached so far.”

One such agreement is a joint declaration on the Doctrine of Justification signed by the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation on October 31, 1999. It was the product of nearly 35 years of Lutheran-Catholic dialogue in the United States and abroad.

The Pope the noted that an important additional task “will be to harvest the results of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue that so promisingly started after the Vatican Council II.” In order to continue “what has been achieved together since that time, he encouraged Lutherans and Catholics toward “ardent prayer” and “conversion to Christ, the source of grace and truth” in order to build a “spiritual ecumenism.”

“May the Lord help us to treasure what has been accomplished so far, to guard it with care, and to foster its development," the Pope prayed.

The Holy Father concluded by echoing his predecessor, John Paul II’s words while addressing a similar Lutheran delegation in 1985: “Let us rejoice that an encounter such as this can take place. Let us resolve to be open to the Lord so that He can use this meeting for His purposes, to bring about the unity that He desires. Thank you for the efforts you are making for full unity in faith and charity.”

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/holy_father_meets_with_lutheran_delegation_encourages_prayer_and_dialogue/

"Brett, our guy is not going to budge on this one.
Yes, I am wearing a Presbyterian pulpit costume -
it sure beats a rose chasuble."

***

GJ - How delicious it must be for Foster--to join in fellowship with Rome and all denominations of the Left, creating union congregations--and denounce me for studying at Notre Dame, for writing against Roman heresies, for questioning his apostasy from the LCMS.

Southern Pruning - Called Crepe Murder. No Wonder the Cardinals Nest in the Crepe Myrtle Bush

This is our Crepe Myrtle in full bloom,
a straggly and neglected plant when we moved in almost four years ago.

This kind of pruning is called Crepe Murder,
sometimes an entire row is topped off this way.

Saturday's paper included a column on the Southern habit of Crepe Murder, the practice of removing all the branches from the plant. This is so established as a custom in the South that pictures and articles denouncing it are numerous on the Net.

Google is my guide, because most gardening books are photo extravaganzas with little information, apart from the trite advice. When I inherited a dispirited Crepe Myrtle, I looked over what we could do for it. My first impulse was to feed it with manure and mulched, and water it every so often. The famous Cactus Park in Phoenix waters their plants, so I figure a drought tolerant bush could use some extra help.

One large Southern garden advocates no pruning, no watering, no extra anything, but that strikes me as the other extreme.

Two years ago I pruned all the flowers early to create a re-bloom, and that worked great. All the other bushes were done when ours burst into bloom again. I let the flowers turn to seed for the winter birds.

Last summer we pruned too late and did not get the re-bloom desired.

We get gigantic blooms from extra watering
and year-around mulch, plus moderate pruning.

The newspaper article made me stop in mid-pruning. Cardinals love the seeds formed by the blooms. No wonder I have Cardinals nesting there.

I needed to shape the plant, since it overlaps the mailbox and the sidewalk. Pedestrians should not need to duck under undisciplined plants, and the mailman does not need to reach the box through flowers and hovering bees.

I will leave the entire top in bloom to create a fine set of seeds for the birds. Moderate pruning will shape the plant and encourage roots, branches, and blooms.

Mulch Feeds the Plant
Long ago, as a beginner, I joined the crowd in raking leaves from under the bushes, little realizing how much food I was taking from the plants.

In Springdale I started adding mulch or manure to the base of the plant every time I had a new supply. Each time the food disappeared into the soil. When I piled up leaves under the plant - for the winter - they also disappeared by spring. Once we had huge blobs of grass and clay from under the mower blades. I piled them under the plant and saw them disappear, as soil creatures turned nitrogen rich grass into usable nitrogen for the roots.

The newly pruned blooms go onto the mulch, adding a festive pink decoration for a few hours, and a few seeds for the ground feeding birds. The layered mulch is a food bonanza for all of God's workmen, from the spiders eating the insects to the birds harvesting bugs from the mulch.

I dasn't water the flowering part of the bush now, as I did in years past. The nestlings need to remain dry and secure. Instead, I soak the mulch, which decomposes better with moisture added and holds the water in for the benefit of the plant. None of the actors think about what they are accomplishing together - they just continue their lives and their agendas, the divine. management system already in place.

In the early spring, the entire mulched area took on a new look. I noticed that a mole made his feeding tunnel go under the bush in a perfect circle - following the area of greatest bug, larvae, and earthworm concentrations. Do I mutter against the tough little diggers? No -

• Moles stir and mix the soil.
• They  eat the pests when the pests are still grubs, like the hated Japanese beetles.
• They eat the earthworms they find, but rich soil will refill the supply immediately.

The real feel is 100 or higher today. Would you dig in heavy clay soil today or let the moles and earthworms tunnel as part of their daily feeding schedule? Rains are coming, and the rainfall will be more effective for having the soil opened up and mixed in advance.

The soil creatures do not turn the soil upside-down and inside-out, as rototillers and plows do - they gently aerate and mix, as they were created and engineered to do.

The Sower and the Living Seed of the Word - by Norma Boeckler.

So Much Like the Divine Work of the Word of God

All of this gardening parallels the Holy Spirit's work through the Word of God. We get to enjoy a part in what God does - simply by 

1. sharing His Word, 
2. broadcasting His Word, 
3. teaching His Word, or
4. encouraging those whose primary work involves the Word.

The Word belongs to God alone, which is intimately connected to His Creation. If we cannot see His work in Nature, then we can see it in how He works through the Means of Grace. 

Like most gardeners, I would like to plant asparagus crowns one year and harvest them the next. I would love to have full-grown sunflowers a few days after planting the seeds, which the squirrels consider their stored food. My eyes are on some white Calladiums, waiting for them to unfurl and contrast their snowy leaves with the red Calladiums near them.

The Word grows in the same way, never as fast as we want, but slowly as God wills.