Higher Things - Still on YouTube - SuperDumb Ecstatic Speech on Universalism - From 2016

Reverend George Borghardt III

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Reverend George F. Borghardt III, Senior Pastor: graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Classics and then received a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO in 2000. He served for ten years as the Associate/Youth Pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe, TX before accepting the call to serve as Zion’s Senior Pastor in November of 2010.

Pastor Borghardt voluteers his time in various youth organizations, serving as the President aof the national Lutheran youth organization Higher Things and as a board director at Faith Lutheran in Crystal Lake.  He plays second base on Zion's softball team.  He is also a huge sports fan loving his LSU Tigers, the New Orleans Saints, and the New York Mets.

Pastor Borghardt and Amy, his wife, have three children: George, Thomas, and Sophia.

President of Higher Things

This Calov quotation, which I obtained from Robert Preus'
Justification and Rome,
destroys UOJ in a few words.

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What Do Lutherans Believe?

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All that we believe, teach, and confess must faithfully be taken from the Holy Scriptures. We believe that the Holy Scriptures are God's divinely inspired word, without error, that is able to make us wise unto salvation...

Jesus took the burden of our sin upon Himself at the cross enduring our punishment. His love is so great for us that He gives us His perfect righteousness. By virtue of the cross, God declares that our sins are forgiven and we are righteous and welcome in His sight.

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Higher Things and the Forrest Bivens Deception about the Chief Article

The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 4:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:5). All have sinned are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). (Smalcald Articles II.I.1-3).

That right there is the heart of the Lutheran Confession. All have sinned. All have been justified freely without work or merit. Justification--becoming right with God--is something that happens outside myself, apart from myself. It's objective. My redemption is in Christ Jesus, in the blood that He shed.

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GJ - This video is the worst UOJ message I have seen, but I am glad Higher Things and Pastor George Borghardt III are out in the open about their Universalism, instead of hiding it behind ambiguous and misleading language.

The Brief Confession of 1932 uses completely erroneous Scripture citations to back up "God has forgiven the entire world," without connecting the citations to the claims. Here are claims without even a mention of Scripture.

My take is this -  the UOJ Stormtroopers are rattled by the laity who see through their false doctrine and challenge them on every point. The Higher Things websty clearly misrepresents Luther and the Book of Concord about the Chief Article.

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Who Redefined the Chief Article - Cheaply. Dishonestly. Cowardly?

The Primary Doctrine in Its Primary Setting: Objective Justification and Lutheran Worship [Prepared for the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music and the Arts Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, July Wisconsin, July 23, 1996. By Forrest L. Bivens]

The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines; it preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our consciences before God. Without this article the world is utter darkness and death.”1 Luther’s appraisal of the doctrine of justification is also ours. We hold it to be the primary doctrine of Scripture, that is, the central and most important teaching revealed by God for us sinners.2

The truth of justification, above all others, distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. If this teaching were obscured or lost, attempts to show significant differences between the Christian religion and others would ultimately prove to be futile. Also, as revealed and emphasized in the Bible, all other doctrines either prepare for or flow from this chief article of faith. Without this truth, all others would mean little. This doctrine is the source or basis of the benefits and blessings which mankind receives from God. 

[GJ - Oh, Oh, Oh, Frosty - define the Master and Prince, the Lord, the Ruler, the Judge of all kinds of doctrine for us.]

What precisely is this “master and prince, lord, ruler and judge” over other doctrines? Justification is a declaratory act of God, in which he pronounces sinners righteous. As revealed in the Bible, this declaration of God is made totally by grace and on account of Jesus Christ and his substitutionary life and death on behalf of mankind. To phrase it somewhat differently, God has justified acquitted or declared righteous the whole world of sinners. He has forgiven them. They have been reconciled to God; their status in his eyes has been changed from that of sinner to forgiven sinner for the sake of Jesus Christ. Since all this applies to all people, the term universal or general justification is used. In our circles an alternate term, objective justification, is also used. If justification is universal, it must also be objective - sinners are forgiven whether they believe it or not. This is precisely what Scripture teaches in Romans 3:23-24, when it says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Higher Things joins the New NIV in adding the second all to Romans 3. All have sinned - no argument there. But the text does NOT say "all are justified." Even the old NIV, which was packed with problems, failed to add the second "all."

Shame on George and Higher Things for joining ELCA in its Universalism, grace without the Means of Grace, declarations without any Scriptural or Confessional support, Halle Pietism triumphant.

Take down the Luther statues and put up Lord Vader.

New Testament Greek, Summary of the Christian Faith and the Pilgrim's Progress

Paine looks like this.

Beginning Greek: A Functional Approach -Lent, 2020

by Stephen W Paine

This is the Alibris link - cost about $25.

ISBN-13: 9780195010138 - useful for trying Amazon, eBay, and other sellers.

Alec Satin's print books are here.

Jacobs' Summary - Advent, 2019

We will study Henry Eyster Jacobs' doctrinal book, in Advent. The link is - Summary of the Christian Faith.

Starting in January, we will study Pilgrim's Progress.

Alec Satin's print books are here.

From ALPB Online Forum - NALC Seminary President

Rev. Dr. Amy Schifrin

 Rev. Eric Riesen

Ambridge, Pennsylvania: The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) Executive Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, to call the Rev. Dr. Eric Riesen to serve as the next president of the North American Lutheran Seminary (NALS). The NALS is housed at Trinity School for Ministry, an Anglican seminary headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, where Riesen formerly served on the Board of Visitors.

Riesen will follow the Rev. Dr. Amy Schifrin, STS, who led the seminary as its first president. “I am so thankful for having been called to serve as the president of the NALS during these six years. When the NALC began, we did not have a seminary. Now not only do we have a seminary that is orthodox, confessional, and evangelical, we are flourishing in an ecumenical environment, and we have relationships with a variety of undergraduate schools that will create a ‘pipeline’ of students who will one day serve our NALC churches and mission outposts,” said Schifrin. “All of us at the NALS are excited about the upcoming arrival of our new president, Eric Riesen. I’ve known Pastor Riesen as a respected colleague and friend, and I believe he will be able to lead the NALS into a new season of growth.”

Riesen is a graduate of Indiana University, Fort Wayne (B.S.), Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A.), Luther Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and [Calvinist] Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (D.Min.), where his work focused on the dialogue between theology and science. His dissertation, “When Worldviews Collide: The Christian Faith and the New Genetics,” explores moral and theological questions raised by new genetic technologies. In 2016, the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau published his book, The Christian Faith: A Catechism for the Curious, and he has also written for the online edition of First Things.

http://alpb.org/books/the-christian-faith-a-catechism-for-the-curious/

https://thenalc.org/projects/north-american-lutheran-church-calls-new-seminary-president/

Fellowship Principles - A Clever Misdirection of Minds

Nothing is so clear about the LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELDONA tradition as their obsession with "fellowship principles."

Someone highlighted that obsession when he, a stranger, began yammering at me about fellowship principles and exactly what I believed about that topic. This pastor from a former penal colony was the prosecutor and I was guilty until proven otherwise. I suggested he read some of my 17,000 posts or a few of my books, but that only made him more outraged.

I am on so many shun lists that I live in a paradise of non-Calvinists, non-OJists, non-Fulleroids. The people I know enjoy The Lutheran Hymnal, favor the KJV, love Luther, and know more New Testament Greek than the typical pastor. The rest were buying and selling Luther trinkets while our volunteers were publishing 11 volumes of Luther's Sermons, a fact they have never mentioned, in spite of such boastful names as LutherQuest and Christian (formerly) Lutheran News, and Steadfast Lutherans.

Those works-saints do not bother much with the concept of faith. They measure people by what they do and where they belong. In fact, being born in the right state and synod (Wisconsin State plus WELS) and attending the right high school (NW Prep, now Luther) confer automatic leadership status denied others. That means the most blatant false teaching, alcoholic felon can have a noble status far above the rest - for those outward accomplishments that have nothing to do with faith.

Don't let me start on family trees. Oh, you already have. I can feel so many thinking that in advance, that unspoken must be said. Certain people make their fathers, grandfathers, etc the reason why they deserve special treatment, better than being born forgiven - as they already claim - they are elevated long before birth, sharing in the accomplishments - but none of the sins - of the ancestors. If that were so, I could manage a farm with no trouble, because my grandfathers were outstanding in their fields, in agriculture.

The Hidden Hypocrisy Theme

The "conservative" Lutheran leaders know and enjoy their constant work with ELCA through Thrivent and the Siebert Foundation. Where it matters most, because of its deadly consequences, they are one with ELCA in universal absolution without faith, abortion to the point of killing living babies, women's ordination, gay ordination, and gay marriage. I follow graduates of several ELCA seminaries, and they clearly represent the status quo of paganism as they boast of their training and philosophies. "I have organized worship with other faiths," said one ELCA graduate - ironic in hosting services with other religions and calling them what he does not acknowledge himself - the Faith.

Church of the Augsburg Confession

The Church of the Augsburg Confession may be the largest Lutheran group of all - those who actually believe, teach, and confess the Augsburg Confession.

 Read this carefully and note that WELS is happy the New NIV finally says what Paul intended (oh? really?) to write in Romans 3 - that all are justified without faith. And they claim their quia subscription to the Book of Concord, just like the Preus Crime Family, the Jeske Crime Family, and the rest do.