Friday, November 27, 2020

Voelz Unleashes the Eighth Commandment on Hale and Montgomery.
Edited for Clarity


The November 30, 2020 issue of Christian News has a front-page, above the fold response from James Voelz. Professor Voelz' Gospel of Mark commentary follows the thinking of modernists in ending the Gospel at Mark 16:8. Ha! Voelz' provost at the seminary, Kloha, had the same opinion.

Voelz is deeply offended that Hale and Montgomery would disagree with him, the man who was a student at Concordia Seminary during the Seminex repudiation of the Scriptures. Therefore, he has accused them of slander, violating the Eighth Commandment.




 "He served as an adjunct faculty member of Kenrick Seminary, the Roman Catholic diocesan seminary in St. Louis, from 2009 to 2014."


--
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae: Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis, post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens: O pia: O dulcis Virgo Maria. Translation: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley, of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus; O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary. website: www.kenrick.edu/convivium Kenrick-Glennon Seminary 5200 Glennon Dr. Saint Louis, MO 63119 http://kenrick.edu/


Instead of offering a concise defense of his position, Voelz waved the bloody shirt (a term from the Civil War soldiers - from the North - who always talked about their service). We are supposed to agree that Voelz did not fall prey to Seminex, Seminary President John Tietjen, and others like Richard Jungkuntz, Objective Justification advocate and Seminex hero.

But the commentary is the best argument against his case. Rejecting the ending of Mark has always been considered a mark of rationalistic apostasy. Let us have a look at the cover.

Why is another person writing the ending of Mark? 
The cover itself is evidence of the Seminex victory.



Voelz:
"Second, contra Luther’s explanation to the 8th Commandment, you have consistently put the worst—not the best—construction on everything being considered."

Voelz stopped reading Luther before and without the Large Catechism? Perhaps he needs to go back to school. Published false doctrine is not immune to criticism and it is not a violation of the Eighth Commandment.

In fact, Paul says there must be divisions, to separate the good from the bad.




Voelz, CPH, and the LCMS clearly deny the traditional ending of Mark's Gospel. So, instead of Voelz being a martyr and saint of the Olde Synodical Conference, he is really an apologist for the apostates.

I will deal with the ending of Mark (as I did before in Thy Strong Word) in Attempted Murder: Broken Biblical Foundations and Corrupt Translations.

If Voelz and I added up our earned degrees, we would still be short of Montgomery's!



The current controversy is something Pastor Otten pursued.



Rejecting the end of Mark has been the hallmark of Biblical apostates ever since Wescott and Hort issued their own Greek New Testament, 1881. 

The apostates have owned this peculiar and broken New Testament ever since. Their la-dee-dah attitude toward the text is abundantly testified in their awkward, wooden, and bizarre translations, including the WELS copy-and-paste EHV (nicknamed by an engineer - Extra High Voltage) paraphrase.

Almost all Bibles on sale agree with Voelz, because they agree with the radical butchering of the Greek New Testament text started by Wescott/Hort and continued by Nestle/Aland.

Mockery of the text (lower criticism) was the foundation  has ever since been the foundation and excuse for the Historical-Critical Method (higher criticism) of the Scriptures.

Testing John Johnson, an earlier president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, I asked him - "What do you think of Switzerland's Karl Barth?" He responded like Ellie to Elvis' music, almost gurgling in appreciation, until he saw me taking it in. Then he changed the subject.

First of all, Concordia in St. Louis and Ft. Wayne are held captive by the rationalistic Calvinism of their hero CFW Walther.

The irony is that no one is allowed to criticize Church Growth and Fuller Seminary in the LCMS - and - that studying at Fuller is the best way to get ahead in the LCMS.

Another irony of Missouri is - the aspiring Synod President must court Christian News to win the office, but no one else has permission to be friends with CN. That changed with the death of Pastor Herman Otten.