Why Do Words and Ideas Anger and Scare the Leaders So Badly?

These three Lutheran leaders agree about one thing -
they reject Luther's doctrine of Justification by Faith, the Chief Article of Christianity,
the Master and Prince, the Judge of all other articles of faith.
They love bad Bible translations.

I have heard from various people that my posts anger and scare leaders.

That puzzles me, because their words and ideas do not anger and scare me. I have many acquaintances who think the opposite of me. One FB friend just quoted UOJ lovingly, and the actual words were really sappy and wrong.

One LCMS pastor is moving from CPH to Ft. Wayne to teach. He edited Luther's Works, so I asked on FB if he taught Luther's Justification by Faith. That offended his friends.

Paul McCain made sure no one linked this blog on the Steadfast Lutherans Matt for President group blog. The various writers also opposed having anyone defend Justification by Faith.

Steadfast (note the irony) Lutherans did their best to avoid mentioning me, although in the end they had to admit that UOJ came from Pietism. Once they began going full throttle on the Chief Article, the founder Steve Spencer bailed out and said IL was not accomplishing anything, Indeed. They jumped off the blog like fleas from a dying dog.

At the Emmaus Conference, which was promoted as a discussion among the LCMS, WELS, and ELS, one layman was ordered not to discuss Justification by Faith with anyone. However, Jar Jar Webber was not prohibited from discussing UOJ at the conference.

I am prohibited by Luther to offer motives for these reactions, even though my motives are constantly impugned by these opponents. I am often shocked by their confidently telling others that I do not know Greek when classical languages was my major in college. My future wife talked me into taking German with her as well. Ja wohl!  Should I send my transcripts?

I enjoyed learning more Greek by writing out my own translations in seminary. Between college, seminary, and Yale - I took beginning French, advanced Latin, advanced Hebrew, plenty of New Testament Greek, if one counts an entire year where most of the classes were either Hebrew exegesis or Greek exegesis.

So I tutored Little Ichabod in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. John Lawrenz coveted our son's Vulgate, so we gave it to him. Our son also learned to be fluent in Spanish and German at MLS.

Most ELCA Lutherans cannot explain the Augustana - the Augsburg Confession.
But the yahoos pictured above can only teach against it,
and their members are no better than ELCA in their prideful ignorance.
This is Augustana College, where I met Mrs. Ichabod - 50 years ago.

I could rehearse their other clear manifestations of fear, anger, and dishonesty.

I went to an inerrancy conference in Chicago decades ago. They gave us free books on the topic, all written by non-Lutherans. I appreciated having them and learned a few things from them, especially from a non-Lutheran perspective.

A tsunami of fear seems to be overtaking Lutherans as they look ahead at their doom and destruction. After all, the endowment-rich seminaries of ELCA are collapsing just in time for WELS and Missouri to import the leaven of the most rapidly dying group. Thrivent will pay them to accomplish these acts of self-destruction.

If the biggest boy on the block is failing, where will the little guys go? If the richest one is broke and firing staff, what will happen to the poor, country cousins?

The Dumbing Down of the Synods and Denominations

Jungkuntz chaired the Seminex board, a portable seminary that became
the official school for the gay Metropolican Community Church sect - 100% gay.
Thus this WELS-LCMS-ALC leader became the chairman of the first
gay Lutheran seminary. That influence continues in ELCA, WELS, Missouri, and the ELS.
Note that Seminex was populated with Concordia, St. Louis faculty,
the ones who walked out and encouraged students to steal the library books.
One Seminex student said to me, "Those were our books!"

Richard Jungkuntz called himself "old school," for the New York Times and mourned the loss of respect for teachers that his father enjoyed. Martin Marty made the same point.

That generation led the Long March through the denominations, appearing to retreat at times - like their hero Mao - but actually regrouping to take over the culture. And they did.

Nothing claimed about the American decline is alien from what the mainline denominations have wrought. They pioneered what the ruling class now certifies as 100% good. The denominations look at the fruit of their labors and make it even worse.

The cause of this calamity among Lutherans is singular: ignorance of Biblical Lutheran doctrine. There is an old principle in sales that also applies to doctrine. If a sales trainer cannot sell, no matter what his words of wisdom suggest, his trainees will not learn to sell. If he has certain hang-ups, such as hating to phone or fearing the close, they will absorb the same quirks and weaknesses.

Applying that to Lutherans, we can see how the seminaries and colleges have been downgrades in service to Holy Mother Synod. I met the Philadelphia (LCA) seminary professor who published an article their Lutheran magazine, showing that homosexuality was against nature and therefore wrong.
That was about 1981. Now Philadelphia and Gettysburg have failed to such an extent, with all lavender faculties, that they now have merged organically while keeping the names. They wanted to fire more professors but had to backtrack a bit.

The Gospel of forgiveness is revealed from the faith of Jesus (Romans, Galatians, Philippians) to the faith of believers who have been converted by the Spirit at work in the Word of God. The Lutheran leaders, who never stop lecturing and writing about their ignorance, cannot teach the basics of Biblical doctrine. They are not stewards of the mysteries of God, but salesmen of the methods of Fuller Seminary.

These leaders do not trust the Word and do not believe in the Gospel as it is revealed in the Bible. Instead, they talk about themselves, their corporations, their need for money, and their great humility. The only things they do not publish are:

• Their crimes, 
• Their apologies for false doctrine, or
• Their actual expenditures of money, from offerings, Thrivent, and foundations.

These leaders - with inadequate training - speak on their own authority. They claim eternal verities without the least bit of Biblical support. Most of the time they are teaching directly against the Scriptures. At other times they are improving and clarifying matters, so the articles of faith can be dispensed with later, thanks to those precious amendments. Thus the resurrection of Jesus expresses the "Easter faith of the disciples," meaning - it never happened.

If you think that cannot happen in your hyper-Pietistic sect, ask yourself how many things have been justified because, "According to research from Fuller Seminary..." One might as well say "the Pope" instead.

When I listen to these people blabbering, or read their pernicious works, I wonder if they could teach the basics of Luther's Small Catechism. They clearly reject the Large Catechism, which any layman can read with edification - and teach to others.

But if the leaders cannot explain correctly how one comes to faith, or what the efficacy of the Word means to all our work, then how can the callow seminarians grasp anything more than the current fads: guitars, cheap keyboards, and statistical models.

The Scriptures

The way the LCMS and WELS tumbled for the original, classic NIV is typical of the growing ignorance. No one had enough knowledge or spine to oppose this move, which worsened with the New NIV. The pattern of ignorance and cowardice continued.

Someone asked me about translations. Oddly enough, the super-pietistic holier-than-me ELDONA group was using the New KJV, which is fairly Babtist in all the key passages. They were not united in that, either, because one pastor likes the Calvinist RSV marketed as the ESV. (Paul McCain does too!) 

In the area where Lutherans should be most careful, they are especially lax. God help the person who disobeys Holy Mother Sects Chief Dogma (the infallibility of the sect itself) but everything else is up for grabs. That is what we should expect in the Age of Apostasy. The most important articles are neglected while matters of indifference are raised to canonical status.

Moreover, ELDONA (aka Jim Heiser, STM) filled with wrath at the mere appearance of my books, including a concise comparison of translations, which indicted their Babtist New KJV.

Those are the same dudes who had no problem with UOJ for over a decade. Real bright bulbs - or just opportunists?

As far as I can see - the only Bibles to use today are the

1. KJV - my favorite, the only one I use,
2. KJV21 - a very slight modernization, or
3. Third Millennium Bible - another slight modernization.

We are not having a debate because all of us in the world-wide Church of the Augsburg Confession appreciate the KJV and feel no reason to look elsewhere. If people wanted to discuss this topic, we would look at all the key passages in the KJV21 and TMB, keeping in mind that the KJV is also slightly modernized.

But let us face the truth - the Lutheran leaders do not care about the teaching of the Scriptures. They cannot preach from it or teach it to to others.

Bishop Shallow Unleashes the Three Types of Governance. Watch the Tape Before They Erase It

I would apologize for using this creepy picture of Heiser,
but he used it himself for his profile.
A bold confession of faith in ELDONA by a founder.

ELDONA Pastor Josh Sullivan published the continuing revelation of Bishop-for-Life Heiser, ELDONA.

ELDONA organized in 2006. "The decision was made..." Sure. Heiser wanted to be a bishop and made sure his friends named him bishop-for-life.

This is what Pastor Martin Stephan arranged when his cult landed in New Orleans. Walther and others signed a document making Stephan bishop-for-life, certifying what was already true. Only those who submitted to Stephan in all matters could be in the leadership.  One pastor had to apologize to Stephan before he met the man.

"For the sake of good order..." is a mantra in ELDONA, which gives Heiser power over every detail. They even joke about it.

For those who were raised in abusive LCMS, WELS, or ELS congregations, this is just fine. Walther worship and pastoral abuse go hand-in-hand. Ft. Wayne specializes in teaching their graduates that they are the greatest. Everyone bow down to the priest, David Scaer would say.

Heiser has a great line about subscribing to the Book of Concord without teaching the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. And yet, he is the best example of ignoring the Chief Article. He did not even know the truth of Justification by Faith when he read Thy Strong Word in 2000. He was offended that anyone "denied Objective Justification" until he found out from TSW what Objective Justification really meant.

Heiser thought David Scaer at Ft. Wayne was a great dogmatics professor. Ha!

 Scaer is another mini-pope following the model of Stephan and Walther.
That is why so many Ft. Wayne graduates come out damaged
by his bad influence.
Examples: Paul McCain, James Heiser, Jar Jar Webber.

And yet Heiser was silent about Objective Justification, welcomed OJ pastors who acknowledged his glorious title, and refused to deal with the issue openly until Paul Rydecki saw the light (after publicly supporting OJ on the Intrepid Lutherans blog). Rydecki became a champion of Justification by Faith and DP Buchholz kicked him out for falling away from the Chief Dogma of WELS (see the idiotic essay by Frosty Bivens, plagiarizing Zarling's  sophomoric "Stand in Awe of Justification" (without faith).

Like most graduates of Concordia Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Heiser managed to get his diploma without knowing basic Biblical, Lutheran doctrine and what the Missouri Synod continues to teach opposing it - also a matter of public knowledge, filling the library at Ft. Wayne, summarized in the Brief Statement of 1932.

I imagine that when Heiser embraced the Rolf Preus Synod and began meeting with them - after he knew better - the Chief Article was reduced to an adiaphoron, a matter of indifference.

Readers will notice on the tape that Heiser used "whoever" correctly and then changed that to "whomever," which is never the subject of a relative pronoun clause. Thus the semi-educated seek to use pretentious English to appear more educated.

Minute and second mark - 8.26 "error...whomever (sic) is promulgating it."

There are so many ways to cover the Chief Article with smog,
or just ignore it.

Although ELDONA pretends to enjoy the purist form of fellowship, the union of opposing doctrines without settling their differences is proof of doctrinal indifference and unionism.

Some would object and say, "But now ELDONA has defended Justification by Faith and the Rolf Synod has scurried back to the ELS. You have slandered Holy Mother Diocese!"

Recent events and the various eructations of ELDONUTs have convinced me that the Chief Dogma of ELDONA is the infallibility and authoritarian rule of Bishop James Heiser, "for the sake of good order."

ELDONA pastors are told how they must conform to the most minute details of Heiser's demands in conducting worship.

As I have noticed before with characters like Jar Jar Webber, the more they pay attention to their Eastern Orthodox/Roman influences from Ft. Wayne, the less they care about sound doctrine, especially the Gospel.

The Episcopal Church USA is additional proof of high church people caring nothing about doctrine, though any form of church government can be subverted by greedy, power-mad, narcissistic leaders.

More could be said about the chit-chat interview. There is no Biblical foundation for the claims, but who needs that when they have the continuing revelation of Heiser? Notice on the tape that "voting" is bad in electing officials, without clearly stating that Heiser is following the examples of

1. DeJaynes, his former bishop, 
2. Martin Stephan, the first Lutheran bishop in America, and 
3. Walther the Pope and Great Prophet of Missouri. 

Bold Confession at one ELDONUT Congregation. "We Believe...the ELDONA Banner"

 Father Hudson is on the right.
For his confession of faith, email Bishop-for-Life Heiser.

What We Believe
At Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, we believe and accept:

***

GJ - This saves a lot of time when Bishop-for-Life Heiser changes his mind, after enjoying a new revelation from the throne of his heart. After all, he ignored the Chief Article for a decade or so, welcomed fellowship with UOJ fanatics like the Rolf Preus Synod and Eric Stefanski.

Then, with Paul Rydecki and a large church building came Justification by Faith.

Erasing a lot of text is a bother, and old pages can be called up with special software. Leaving the page blank and posting the banner is a great time-saver.

Father Stefanski is a crock ever full of himself.

Waiting for your sermon on husband of one wife, Richard.

ELDONA is the most Pietistic sect claiming the Lutheran name.
They have raised shunning to an art form.

Who else was the enforcer for a bishop-for-life in the good, old days?
And coveted the property of others, then grabbed it?
And ruled like a pope?
ELDONUTs are the true Waltherians.