Bearing the Cross - Opposition from Being Faithful to the Word - Is Good for Everyone

This quotation from Luther needs to be read, studied, and assimilated into our daily thinking. I gave it to Patsy Leppien when she was writing What Is Going On Among the Lutherans? She was quite discouraged about conservative Lutherans attacking her work.

I reminded her that opposition from within is something we can assume will happen - and count it as a blessing, as the last beatitude says.

Lutheran writers are always chirping about "Luther's theology of the cross" but they seldom communicate what he meant. Luther not only taught this faithfully, as required of a Biblical teacher, but also referred to the "blessed holy cross."

Bearing the cross is painful. If that were not so, it would not be the cross, but a minor annoyance, like the flowers not being delivered on time for the service.

But bearing the cross is also good for us, essential for all Christians, and beneficial to everyone.

Currently, the opposite is being practiced. Ideally, if the synod is correct about the entire world being justified and saved - without faith - they would welcome controversy and address it. That is the history of doctrine.

But District Popes like Jon-Boy Buchholz say, "UOJ is settled doctrine, so there will be no more discussion." After all, he wrote an convention essay on the topic, That is the WELS equivalent of canonical status. However, if the doctrine is so settled, why do they need 60 essays on Justification in their precious Holy of Holies, the Essay File (once cardboard box, pre-Internet).

Justification is indeed settled doctrine - settled by the Scriptures. The issue is whether the WELS-ELS-LCMS-ELCA-CLC (sic) leaders teach was the Word of God has settled for all time. Their confession of unfaith is the same, but that should not be confused with sound teaching.

The Bible and the Book of Concord say nothing about man-made institutions. synods, doctrinal boards, and Planned Giving Counselors with divine calls to sell Thrivent annuities. The Bible reveals God's Word and will, the Confessions witness our confession of those truths - or not.

WELS, Missouri, and ELCA make a big fuss at the national level about how little they regard Luther and the Book of Concord. They are like the effete gourmands who do not want another helping of that hideous dish but must remain outwardly polite.

So the synods clamp down and insist on their version of everything, which is mighty confused, and wonder why they are nose-diving in every possible way.

The rule was very clear in the LCA - no pastor objected to anything, and that included members of his family. If that understood was broken, retribution followed.

In spite of the baloney about the process of forming the ELCA, that was only a mask to get done exactly what they wanted. At the end, lawyers were in charge of the meetings where the final legal matters were settled. No dissent was allowed. One leftist pastor's wife was shocked - and I smiled. Sometimes Stalinism comes out in the open.

ELCA has been a catastrophe, as they are starting to realize. But WELS and the LCMS have followed the same model with the same results.

The corrupt trees bear evil fruit in each synod, and that fruit is sterile, except for its ability to reproduce more of the same useless produce.

 By Rembrandt - www.nationalgallery.org.uk : Home : Info, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67423

Here are signs of the cross being rejected in favor of (questionable) synodical glory:

• The synod produces worthless literature, always with an eye toward reflecting the latest fads.
• Leadership means taking control and getting one's way, getting even with anyone who dissents.
• Seminary and college professors are poorly equipped to teach Biblical, Lutheran doctrine.
• The institutions of higher education are denied support by the fatso, alcoholic leaders who live in riotous luxury compared to the average pastor - and think they deserve even more. Thus the schools are already too expensive and offer too little to attend.
• World missions are great for raising money, but the synods do not really support them. In the LCMS, world missionaries raise their own salaries and often find find themselves stranded.
• Because the Word and the Confessions are not honored, everything is settled by power, money, threats, shunning, and the rewarding of Wormtongues who do serve their masters to become masters some day.

 The writing is on the wall.

 

Daniel 5:25 And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

26 This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

27 Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

28 Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

Scromiting - Screaming and Vomiting from Heavy Pot Use. Rare And Mysterious Vomiting Illness Linked To Heavy Marijuana Use | KUNC

Rare And Mysterious Vomiting Illness Linked To Heavy Marijuana Use | KUNC:


"For 17 years, Chalfonte LeNee Queen suffered periodic episodes of violent retching and abdominal pain that would knock her off her feet for days, sometimes leaving her writhing on the floor in pain.

"I've screamed out for death," says Queen, 48, who lives in San Diego. "I've cried out for my mom, who's been dead for 20 years, mentally not realizing she can't come to me.""

 "I need a pottie, not pot!"

'via Blog this'

***

GJ - I wonder why this woman never wondered about her heavy use of marijuana being a cause of her illness. Inhaling smoke, holding it in, and absorbing all those toxins cannot be good for the lungs, digestion, heart, or circulation.

Are we getting all the children off gluten, sugar, and corn syrup - only to calm them down with hash?

There is nothing like having a college student, stoked on energy drinks, shouting that marijuana is perfectly harmless and actually quite beneficial.

My favorite essay of all time was one about legalizing marijuana. Not one sentence made sense, because the young man was high on his supply. I am sure he said to himself, "This is some of my best writing, ever."

And that is why we are collapsing as a nation. The student foretold it, a prophet unawares.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun with Double-Talk, GA-Talk, "We're Number One."

 The double-talk twins will offer different answers,
depending on the situation.

My New Testament professor from long ago died, and they had a lot of good things to say about him. The one they chose to publish described his love of Lutheran hymns, singing them out loud, and yet reading the Bible "critically," showing someone could be a man of faith while questioning the facticity of the Scriptures (his words).

Another quotation used the following nugget to describe his point of view. One Gospel has an angel in the empty tomb. Another has two angels. They contradict each other! There goes the inerrancy of the Bible. The Unitarians eat this up.

But wait. One account describes two angels. The other quotes one angel speaking, never saying "But only one angel was there." The Easter accounts have been examined for centuries. Simon Greenleaf started on them to prove they were conflicted and finished his work a believer. He was the nation's expert on evidence. Or one can consult Lenski on the issues. Or Luther. Or the Scriptures themselves.

I am not an expert on anything, except Internet sleuthing, but I remain appalled at the lack of reading comprehension by the great, wise, and powerful, and the double-talk from the clergy leaders. This professor graduated from Harvard with a doctorate, but he seemed to have majored in post WWII German scepticism. I had a Princeton product who taught the same nonsense. I asked in class, "Why don't we go around the room and say whether we believe the Virgin Birth or not." That was like tossing fireworks into a henhouse, and the question was never answered.

 UOJ's Jungendbund -
once I exposed his Universalism, the statements disappeared from the Higher Things website. 

Not Confined to WELS
The WELS pastors take great pride in their blatant lying. They deceive the laity about how hard they study in seminary, which is a continuation of their college drinking binges. COS anyone?

A WELS pastor will be on your side all the way until it really matters, then turn on you and join the chorus of denunciations. Someone wrote to call it gaslighting, which is close to the mark, but it is even more evil than that.

The primary is the impossibility of reconciling one perspective with the other. That difficulty is pandemic in Lutherdom and the mainlines, because of post-Kantian rationalism.

As I wrote before, almost all theologians today are rationalists, basing their eloquence on Calvin's example. They place themselves above the Scripture and divorce the Holy Spirit from the Word.

 Donkey Basketball in the CLC (sic).
"Resist the beginnings." 

 The CLC evolved from donkey basketball games to mercenary soldiers rented out to shell enemy positions.

Whether ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, or a micro-mini sect, Lutheran pastors and laity have little trust in the Word. The acid corrosion of faith in the Word comes from Calvinism, often via Pietism, which they cannot concede. Name the sect and they are the true blue Lutherans.

If someone says, "Do you realize how ridiculous this is?" - they will shun the person as an evil-doer, a trouble-maker, not a team player. But the destroyers are not the ones doubting the doubts, but leading the way into darkness.

WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie have never admitted how besotted they are with the Church Growth Movement, which is now Missional! Oh, you fooled me by changing the words. Shame on you. Next joke please.

No Lutheran was allowed to question the ideology of Fuller Seminary, but no one was permitted to admit the truth, either. Nor was anyone allowed to point out the obvious, that the ones who promoted numbers were being slain by their own poor numbers.

Silencing critics works poorly when there are only a few willing to speak the truth. That makes the truth more valuable. This little blog, which "has no credibility," (Kincaid Smith) had 11,000 views total on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. St. Stephen's Day is already 2,000 views. That makes for a fairly big lecture hall or cathedral, but it comes from "a room in a rented house" (Paul the Plagiarist McCain). Nearby is the chapel, where the saved worship views have reached 20,000.

I noticed the almost dead Emmaus Conference was going to treat their sect leaders as "Luthers unawares," a claim approaching the nirvana of parody. However, they changed direction. I wonder if they feared another book based on their effluence.

 Walther, Hoenecke, Koren?
Luthers unaware? 

History - United Lutheran Seminary - A Parody of Diversity

Formerly, the associate dean of diversity (not kidding here)
Latini, a Presbyterian minister, is now president of the combined seminaries. Gettysburg started with the Presby-Lutheran unionist S. S. Schmucker. Philadelphia began as a protest against  the Presby-Lutheran unionists and the 19th century Church Growth Movement. All are one again.

 This graphic is prominently displayed on its main page.

History - United Lutheran Seminary:



"A Start in Gettysburg . . .
At the meeting of the Maryland and Virginia Synod at Hagerstown, MD in 1825, a committee was appointed “to report a plan for the immediate organization of a theological seminary.”  Two weeks later the full (Lutheran) General Synod confirmed the action, noting that $10,000 had already been collected for the proposed school to prepare ministers of the Gospel.  And the Synod’s convention went on to elect Samuel Simon Schmucker as the Seminary’s first professor, directing him to draft a constitution and prepare to open the fledgling “school of the prophets.”"



'via Blog this'

 "Diversity, eh? I gave Horst Gutsche a call to Canada,
after he was kicked out of ELCA because of his arrest and conviction. ELCiC has the courage of its convictions, eh?"

***

GJ - Sigh. Where to start? We do not need any more proof that evil fruit comes from corrupt trees. It cannot be otherwise. No one is foolish enough to place a ladder against a nuisance tree and gather its prolific but useless produce. However, in the name of diversity, the mainlines - including WELS-LCMS - do that very thing.

As Luther said, Jesus ended His Sermon on the Mount with a warning against false teachers:

Matthew 7 -

5 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

One result of the Snowbird Conference, sponsored by the predatory insurance companies, was their diversity project including ELCA-WELS-LCMS-ELS. The Lutheran (LCA) wrote all about it, but the WELS journal of deception evaded the truth. I asked Otten to run The Lutheran's article and much fun ensued.

After a few issues of the insurance magazines came out on the ELCA-LCMS-WELS lovefest, the insurance magazines stopped covering the joint ministries, which began long ago and continue to this day. As one WELS DP said, "If we don't spend the money, someone else will." There you have it - The Gospel of Loot.

Decades later, more fake diversity is evident, and Lutheran seminaries are sinking faster than the FBI's credibility. I pity the person steps in the way of the diversity juggernaut. The new in charge are the new Conans, who drive their enemies before them, to enjoy the "crying of the children, and the veeping of the vimin," as Arnold Schwartzeneggar said so memorably.

The various synods are now the UniSynod, one big miserable dysfunctional, united by unbelief, shaking their heads about the obstinacy of the others.

 I thank God we are not like ELCA.

ELCA Parodies Herself - Not from the Onion. Rickey W. Copley-Spivey appointed Director of Development at LSTC

Fresh from his gig at Lettuce Entertain You,
Copley-Spivey will gather the green for the barely
solvent Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

Rickey W. Copley-Spivey appointed Director of Development at LSTC:

"RICKEY W. COPLEY-SPIVEY APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AT LSTC


Rickey W. Copley-Spivey joined the Advancement Office at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) as Director of Development on Dec. 11. Copley-Spivey most recently served as director of business development at Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants.

Prior to his six years with Lettuce Entertain You, he worked as an admissions counselor for Millikin University, Decatur, Ill., and as arts and dance coordinator for Decatur Family YMCA/Macon County YWCA. He was a youth servant companion for the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans and is a member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Chicago.

In his new positon, Copley-Spivey will be responsible for building the annual giving program, driving a cohesive communication strategy for all areas of giving, and cultivating a portfolio of leadership donors as LSTC prepares for its comprehensive fundraising campaign. In developing and implementing gift strategies, Copley-Spivey will work directly with the Advancement leadership team, volunteers and board members in identifying, cultivating and soliciting leadership giving prospects.

“We’re tremendously excited to welcome Rickey, who brings significant marketing and business development experience as well as a passion for the church and its leaders,” said Clyde Andrew Walter, LSTC Campaign Director and Major Gift Officer. “I’m confident Rickey’s work will support LSTC’s goals to significantly increase fundraising and donor engagement in order to strengthen leadership development for the church.”

Copley-Spivey said this position is an answer to the call he has felt for some time to use his skills to raise funds for a nonprofit organization.

“I want to go to work every day and know that I have made a difference. I want my work to support the growth of the church.  I want my work to support social justice.  This position is the perfect intersection of my faith and work life.”

Copley-Spivey has a bachelor of science degree in communication and behavior science from Millikin University and is working toward a master’s degree from Roosevelt University. He currently serves as secretary on the board of directors for the LGBT Chamber of Commerce of Illinois."

 "Brett, I told you. It's getting better."

'via Blog this'

The more we teach diversity,
the more we are the same.
So get on board.