The Trouble with Angels - 1966 Farewell to Vatican I

 Pope Francis, the Jesuit, honored an abortion advocate.

Tonight we watched a movie, The Trouble with Angels, 1966, with Haley Mills and Rosalind Russel. Haley was 20 and did not look like a Catholic schoolgirl, but the movie a light fantasy with some laughs. It also signaled the last of those traditional, private Catholic high schools. Vatican II began in 1962, so the film was a farewell to the Catholicism of the past.

Vatican II emptied the seminaries which trained priests, closed most of the Catholic high schools, and shut down many new facilities built just before Vatican II. A Catholic bishop told me how remarkable it was that so many orders expanded and built in time to shrivel from Vatican II - start loaning their excess capacity to Lutherans and other mainline groups.

The Notre Dame Moreau seminary for Holy Cross Fathers was down to 80 students for a three year course of study. One priest told the mixed class that people from all over used to come to the campus on Sunday and watch the armies of priests, brothers, and nuns march along the lake. The complete name of the university is Our Lady of the Lake, Notre Dame du Lac.

The "reforms" were anything but that, since the Documents of Vatican II preserved everything from before. Instead, rationalism took over so the Roman Catholics could be as Unitarian-Universalist as the mainline Protestant denominations. 

Vatican II as reform was as honest, sincere, and Spirit-anointed as a DMin at Fuller Seminary.

The Catholic leaders, apostates even from Catholicism, were able to rebrand their dogma - forget the Documents - and invite an era of total Left-wing activism

The Protestants coveted the smells, bells, and pink copes of Catholicism, and already beat them at German rationalistic doctrine.

So we should not be shocked that the Protestant collapse came at roughly the same time as the Church of Rome's meltdown. 

 Would he keep you from attending Luther Seminary - ALC, now ELCA?
This is the Luther Seminary Chapel.

Matt the Fatt Is Liquidating the Missouri Synod - Already on the List, Concordia College in Portland, Oregon

 "Next we'll sell Concordia College in Portland."

I was looking for information about seminaries and found the ALPB Online discussion (2017) about the ELCA seminaries losing 80% of total student enrollment in relatively few years. ELCA seminary names have continued, but they are all a shadow of what they were 20 years ago.

The LCMS is following the same pattern in colleges and seminaries. Missouri sold the China property for a bundle, closed the Selma college, and shuttered Portland's LCMS college. They sold their NYC Concordia  College to Iona College, run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order.

Harrison - "I cannot but reflect with thanksgiving, even today, on the myriad blessings God has produced through this school. We thank God, too, for the heroic effort of the CCNY Board of Regents, CCNY President Rev. Dr. John Nunes, the LCMS Atlantic District and District President Rev. Derek Lecakes, and the faculty and staff of CCNY to find a way forward."

The LMCS extension fund has bought the Portland college for a mere $3 million. The college owed the synod $36 million. The college got involved with HotChalk, a company partially owned by Noodle. The Portland college was using HotChalk/Noodle, apparently in a scheme where the online component recruited students who would keep the LCMS college solvent. 

I would hate to be the chief accountant at HotChalk/Noodle trying to explain the numbers to giggling reporters. Or - a student with a diploma printed by HotChalk with a footnote - "A Subsidiary of Noodle."

"Doctor" Harrison's sales pitch has probably gone from "I will resuscitate this synod" to "I inherited this mess." Potential replacements for Harrison are probably already at the point of wondering how much more will sold at a sheriff's auction and argued in various courtrooms. 

 "Honey, I shrunk the synod!"

The Abuse of the Word and Concept - Grace

 

Long ago I heard a tape from the LCA Word and Witness program. They were quite bothered that individual Evangelical leaders made more money through TV than the entire denomination. The LCA forgot that the mainline denominations gave up using the media for almost no cost and let the others take over.

The man narrating in his most disgusted tone of voice said, "The TV ministers have no concept of GRACE!" He clearly meant - and the LCA/ALC/ELCA approved this message - "The TV ministers emphasize FAITH!"

Pitting grace against faith shows the utter ignorance and apostasy of the mainline denominations, which include ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic). The fatal trap for them - the skandalon - is in Romans 4:

KJV Romans 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

To be fair, we should look at that is the opposite of grace - 

KJV Romans 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

Verse 4 shows that works are not counted as grace but debt. That should be clear with all the virtue signaling done by denominations -

1. "We built more buildings."
2. "We started (or restarted) missions."
3. "We took the OJ Gospel to the world." (GJ - Why? The world is already forgiven and saved.)

Mischief-maker that I am, verse 3 was left in to show just one of the instances where Romans 4 teaches Justification by Faith.

WELS-LCMS-ELS people consider justification and the atonement the same, which they have to say, because they replace the Means of Grace with Jesus Christ dying on the cross. They are pretty mixed up, but they make the death of Christ the universal absolution and also make His resurrection (twisting 1 Timothy 3:16) the world's absolution (Rambach, Webber).

Information on Luther's Translation of 2 Corinthians 5:19

 

Dear Pastor Jackson,

Do you have any information on Luther's translation of 2 Cor. 5:19 to offset what seems to be clear representation of UOJ?

“Denn Gott war in Christo und versöhnte die Welt mit ihm selber und rechnete ihnen ihre Sünden nicht zu und hat unter uns aufgerichtet das Wort von der Versöhnung.”

“For God was in Christ and reconciled the world with himself, and did not count their sins on them, and established among us the word of reconciliation.”

Added by GJ:

KJV To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

ως οτι θεος ην εν χριστω κοσμον καταλλασσων εαυτω μη λογιζομενος αυτοις τα παραπτωματα αυτων και θεμενος εν ημιν τον λογον της καταλλαγης (Stephanus)

***

GJ - This reader is very polite, and I am glad to respond to Objective Justification claims.

First of all, why is Justification by Faith the Chief Article of Christianity and not Objective Justification - a deception claimed by Mark Zarling and Frosty Bivens?

How did that escape Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz?

--

Next - why does OJ come from Calvinism - Huber? and from Pietism - Rambach, Stephan, and Walther/Pieper? The OJ/SJ terms were first used by a Calvinist translator of the Pietist Knapp.

--

Also, context matters, even though context is ignored by the OJ army. Paul was writing a letter to believers, reminding them of their continuing forgiveness of sin. He was not making a claim that the entire world, back to Adam, was absolved of sin - regardless of the Gospel Word or faith.

--

Error always grows worse. Pieper blended  the Means of Grace, Justification by Faith, the efficacy of the Word, and OJ/SJ in his dogmatics. Now the typical WELS/LCMS advocate raves against Justification by Faith.

--

Finally, WELS and Missouri originally taught Justification by Faith, even though Walther and Pieper promoted OJ. Both synods now despise Luther and Lenski and foam at the mouth for the NIV.

++

Look at the influence of Pietism and the Easter absolution of the world. A short history of this distortion and false proclamation follows:

1.     Samuel Huber (1547-1624) was a former Calvinist who joined the faculty of Wittenberg University, but turned against the Biblical doctrine of the Reformation to claim this should be said to someone who has no knowledge of Christ:

“You have the grace of God, you have the righteousness of Christ, you have salvation.” Concilia Theologica Witenbergensia, 1664, p. 654.[1]

2.     J. J. Rambach (1693-1795) was a well-known, prominent figure in Halle, at the height of Pietism. He wrote:

“In His Person, all mankind was justified and absolved from all sin and curse.” Tom Hardt, Robert Preus Festschrift, “Easter and Absolution.”

3.     The Pietistic, rationalistic theology of Halle’s Georg Christian Knapp (1753-1825) became a major doctrinal book in German and also in English, the translation found in every American theological library in the 19^th century. It remains in print. The Calvinist translator, explained Knapp’s theology this way, and those italicized justification terms became normative within the Synodical Conference:

“This is very conveniently expressed by the terms objective and subjective justification. Objective justification is the act of God, by which he proffers pardon to all through Christ; subjective, is the act of man, by which he accepts the pardon freely offered in the Gospel. The former is universal, the latter not.” (Italics in the original)

Lectures on Christian Theology, by Georg Christian Knapp, Professor of Theology in the University of Halle. Translated by Leonard Woods, Jr., D.D., President of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, later at Andover Seminary, which later became Andover-Newton, which merged into Yale Divinity School in 2018.[2]

4.     Schleiermacher’s Christian Dogmatics - “According to Schleiermacher, the decree of redemption already means that human beings are agreeable to God in his Son; an individual act of justification in time is not first needed in each individual person. It is only necessary that each individual person become aware that in God’s decree of redemption in Christ he is already justified and made agreeable to God.”

Hoenecke, Dogmatics, III, p. 339.

5.     C.F.W. Walther - "For God has already forgiven you your sins 1800 years ago when He in Christ absolved all men by raising Him after He first had gone into bitter death for them. Only one thing remains on your part so that you also possess the gift. This one thing is--faith. And this brings me to the second part of today's Easter message, in which I now would show you that every man who wants to be saved must accept by faith the general absolution, pronounced 1800 years ago, as an absolution spoken individually to him."

The Word of His Grace, Sermon Selections, "Christ's Resurrection--The World's Absolution" Lake Mills: Graphic Publishing Company, 1978 p. 233. Brosamen, p. 138. Mark 16:1-8.  

6.     Barth and Kirschbaum’s Church Dogmatics, IV, 1, p. 638

“There is not one for whose sin and death he did not die, whose sin and death he did not remove and obliterate on the cross...There is not one who is not adequately and perfectly and finally justified in Him. There is not one whose sin is not forgiven sin in Him, whose death is not a death which has been put to death in Him...There is not one for whom he has not done everything in His death and received everything in His resurrection from the dead.” Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV, 1, 638

7.     Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics, II, Concordia Publishing House, 1951, p. 321.

"Now, then, if the Father raised Christ from the dead, He, by this glorious resurrection act, declared that the sins of the whole world are fully expiated, or atoned for, and that all mankind is now regarded as righteous before His divine tribunal. This gracious reconciliation and justification is clearly taught in Romans 4:25: 'Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.' The term dikaiosis here means the act of divine justification executed through God's act of raising Christ from the dead, and it is for this reason called the objective justification of all mankind. This truth Dr. Walther stressed anew in America. He taught that the resurrection of Christ from the dead is the actual absolution pronounced upon all sinners. (Evangelienpostille, p. 160ff.)…

8.     LCA Professor Carl Braaten, who felt ELCA was too radical for him –

“We cannot hold a universalism of the unitarian kind. People are not too good to be damned. There is no necessity for God to save everybody nor to reject anyone. God is not bound by anything outside of himself. He is not bound to give the devil his due. If we take into account God's love, he would have all to be saved. If we reckon with his freedom, he has the power to save whomsoever he pleases. This does not lead to a dogmatic universalism. But it does mean that we leave open the possibility that within the power of God's freedom and love, all people may indeed be saved in the end. This follows as a possibility from the fact that God is free from all external factors in making up his mind.”

Justification, The Article by Which the Church Stands or Falls, Fortress Press, 2001.

9.     The LCMS new two-volume dogmatics set, $90.

“To understand the role of faith in the justification of the sinner, one must first recall the significance of objective justification or universal reconciliation, namely, the divine proclamation that God has accepted the sacrifice of his Son for the sins of the whole world, that his wrath has been appeased, that he is reconciled to the whole world, and that as a result he has issued a full pardon for all humanity. Since this pardon is unconditional, it is clear that faith cannot be a cause of one's justification.” Confessing the Gospel, volume 1, p. 573.

10. The LCMS 428 page Small Catechism[3]

“By ‘objective’ or ‘universal’ justification one means that God has declared the whole world to be righteous for Christ’s sake and that righteousness has thus been procured for all people. It is objective because this was God’s unilateral act prior to and in no way dependent upon man’s response to it, and universal because all human beings are embraced by this verdict. God has acquired the forgiveness of sins for all people by declaring that the world for Christ’s sake has been forgiven. The acquiring of forgiveness is the pronouncement of forgiveness.”

11. J. P. Meyer, a president of Mequon (WELS), wrote even more extreme statements, three of which became part of the Kokomo Statements - such as:

I. "Objectively speaking, without any reference to an individual sinner's attitude toward Christ's sacrifice, purely on the basis of God's verdict, every sinner, whether he knows about it or not, whether he believes it or not, has received the status of a saint. What will be his reaction when he is informed about this turn of events? Will he accept, or will he decline?"  J. P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, A Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, p. 103f. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.  

II. "Before Christ's intervention took place God regarded him as a guilt-laden, condemned culprit. After Christ's intervention and through Christ's intervention He regards him as a guilt-free saint." J. P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, A Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, p. 107. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

III. "This applies to the whole world, to every individual sinner, whether he was living in the days of Christ, or had died centuries before His coming, or had not yet been born, perhaps has not been born to this day. It applies to the world as such, regardless of whether a particular sinner ever comes to faith or not."

J. P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, A Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, p. 109. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

12. David Valleskey, “In Christ God has effected a universal justification a universal reconciliation, a universal ransom, a universal atonement. Different terms, but all conveying the same message: God in Christ has declared the whole world to be not guilty. We Believe, Therefore We Speak, Northwestern Publishing House, 1995, p. 71.[4]

At this, the beginning of the End Times, the LCMS has defined Justification as world absolution without faith, both in its new dogmatics and its prolix Small Catechism. Yet, no one is blushing. Praising Luther and Dr. Walter A. Maier in one breath, they promote Rambach and Knapp in another.

---

[1] This is roughly what Rev. Wayne Mueller said to the Columbus WELS Youth Rally, showing them how easy evangelism is. Pastor Paul Rydecki (formerly WELS) has translated Hunnius, who with P. Leyser, refuted Huber’s early form of Objective Justification, which explains its Calvinist DNA from Huber. Calvinism also entered the Lutheran Church through the unionistic style of Spener and the Pietism that grew from his efforts.

[2] It is said, which is worthy of a dissertation, that the Objective and Subjective Justification terms were adopted in Germany and influenced Walther, who approved them. At first Knapp’s actual words seem to be Biblical, but he clearly speaks of universal justification, which combines the universal nature of the Atonement with Justification by Faith.

[3] Leaders Guide for the Small Catechism, reproduced here - http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2018/06/lcms-has-been-hatching-denial-of.html

[4] Valleskey has expressed fully the common error of Objective Justification – merging the Atonement with Justification by Faith, thus rejecting the Scriptural foundation of Luther’s Reformation, instead - embracing rationalistic Pietism and its bedmate, religious unionism.

Still Arriving - The Bible Book. I Have Started Work on the Second Edition

Still arriving at homes - first edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

Most people can edit better from the print copy, so that will serve to improve the next edition.

The topic has so much history and variety that this second edition will give me a chance to fill in parts that I omitted, neglected, or rendered obscure and confusing. This will also improve the value of the limited first edition.

I never bought first editions but I noticed they were almost always plain Janes, inexpensive printings and covers. However, I held a Tom Sawyer worth $40,000 and heard about a Princess Bride for $160,000 (in a safe).

The NIVs, RSVs, and ESVs being sold today are a swindle, no matter what the sale pitches say.

Ideas for the Second Edition - The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn For Those Who Love the Word of God

The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God

• Yes, a second, improved edition is already planned for The Bible Book. That will include: more information, 
• possible maps, 
• error correction, 
• maybe indexing too. 

Distilled from Various Books about Ultra-Rich Founders

John D. Rockefeller

Every so often I read a book about ultra-rich founders of vast fortunes. Rockefeller, Warren Buffet, and Sam Walton have something in common - they kept track of the smallest transactions and kept their eyes on the numbers.

Rockefeller quibbled over how many chicken legs they ate at a restaurant. He thought he was being overcharged. Buffet wondered at a child what could be done with all the traffic going by his house. He owns or owned GEICO insurance, which he bought when it was insolvent. Sam Walton called in an accountant and accused him of trying to "ruin this company." The computer printing sheets did not allow for fractions of a penny - not wide enough. "You find the solution!" A Walmart executive asked his secretary to buy more pencils. She asked what happened to the last box.

No, I do not admire any of the super-rich founders. They were pirates, but they paid attention to overhead. All the income in the world means nothing when the overhead is growing faster than a Fuller fad.

That overhead issue is the sinkhole being experienced in the denominations. Their wealth has become their chains. Have you noticed how much they love new buildings? LCMS-WELS-ELS. Large, luxurious office buildings are the most important. After that, deluxe seminaries ot impress the future students and their parents. College campus are always on the list for big projects that become white elephants. No one dare criticize buildings for "our future heritage."

Enrollments are down and many students need to take online classes so they can work enough to pare down the cost of synod education. This has turned college and seminary buildings into Stonehenges of education. "Pa, why do they have a huge library? We have all that on a hard drive and a Google search." Ft. Wayne squandered gazillions on a library face lift. Mequon built a chapel equal to Tiefel's massive ego. Ditto Martin Luther College - the chapel money they stole and had to pay back. The ELS has a Marvin Schwan campus, copper top chapel, and headquarters with a disappearing membership base. The WELS Love Shack is as luxurious as the LCMS Purple Palace, but Missouri has little Purple Palaces for each district. 

Martin Luther College, WELS, was far ahead of the rest of the Lutherans.
They foster a truly transforming educational experience.

The Pan Lutheran Association of Nonbelievers knows all about the bottom dropping out of membership and income. They have worked hard to drain off the equity of their members estates and fund their follies. Then it stops.

Amazon Delivered My Books - After Our Guests Departed

I actually had two Amazon boxes to bring in - The Bible Book and one with the right address and the wrong person's name, with stuff I did not order but he probably did.

The Northern Great Plains Choir Is Back Home

We have known Pastor Jim Shrader and his wife Chris for decades. We knew they were musically gifted back in Columbus, Ohio. We actually met Glen Kotten on our trip to Sioux Falls. We did not know he was a singer too (apart from the song he posted). That was great having them singing for the service, dealing with our distant computer pipe organ.

To test our patience, Sassy chose to walk in and settle down for attention. She was happy to be ushered out and join Mrs. Ichabod in the overflow section. She is getting a great deal of help through Medicare.

I finally saw The Bible Book, though Amazon continues to taunt me by telling me and showing me which copies are arriving everywhere.

 Those who bend the knee to CFW Walther take shelter in his election theses, confident that the contradictions will back up their Objective Justification. CFW's warmed over Calvinism cannot grasp what the Formula of Concord says. Martin Chemnitz wrote this part of the Formula himself, to guard against false teachers like Walther and Pieper. The Second Martin (as Chemnitz has been called) was trained by Luther and Melanchthon, so our century of apostasy has been shockingly silent about Chemnitz.

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2021.

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2021

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

https://video.ibm.com/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10 AM Central Daylight Time

The melodies are linked in the hymn name. 

The lyrics are linked in the hymn number.

• The melody site is linked here.
• TLH Lyrics site is linked here.

The Hymn # 452                      The Son of God  
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual 
The Gospel 
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #528:10-15  If GodHimself Be For Me

Believing and Confessing

The Communion Hymn # 308       Invited Lord  
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn # 651                    Be Still My Soul 

Prayers and Announcements

• Christina Jackson is doing well and getting plenty of help. Kermit Way and Maria Ellenberger Way have excellent doctors addressing their medical concerns.
• Pray for those hurting from the severe problems caused by the management of Covid.
• Pastor James Shrader and his wife Chris are here from Sioux Falls, SD, and Glen Kotten, our church's attorney, is here from Sleepy Eye, People's Republic of Minnesota. We have had wonderful, memorable times with them.
• The Bible Book is arriving everywhere except 1104 Letha Drive, but our company brought a copy. Write if you need more.

KJV Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

KJV Luke 6:36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. 39 And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? 40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. 41 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 42 Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

Fourth Sunday After Trinity

Lord God, heavenly Father, who art merciful, and through Christ didst promise us, that Thou wilt neither judge nor condemn us, but graciously forgive us all our sins, and abundantly provide for all our wants of body and soul: We pray Thee, that by Thy Holy Spirit Thou wilt establish in our hearts a confident faith in Thy mercy, and teach us also to be merciful to our neighbor, that we may not judge or condemn others, but willingly forgive all men, and, Judging only ourselves, lead blessed lives in Thy fear, through Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.


Believing and Confessing

Background for the Sermon on the Augsburg Confession, June 25th Anniversary

Someone got me involved in looking at catechisms  - about whether a catechism is exclusively Roman Catholic. Some are familiar with the old Baltimore Catechism (Roman Catholic) and the newer one. A glimpse at the Internet will show that many different denominations have a catechism, because that was once the heart of a spiritual care in the home and at church.

Luther's Small Catechism and his universally ignored Large Catechism are both in the Book of Concord, a unique collection of confessions, also called symbols. They are what the Evangelicals of the time (now called Lutherans) agreed upon what we believe from the Bible and what we reject because the Word of God rejects it. That comes down to what do we believe and confess, not just one - but both.

John 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

I remember how quaint we thought this passage was in Greek class - so simple, such child-like expressions. The other Gospels were not so simple to read, not even Mark, but perhaps there was a reason John was fashioned by the Holy Spirit as the most readable and profound - both, not one or the other. Hebrews is profound but difficult to read.

Doubtless it was God's intention to have the Fourth Gospel be the uniting and explaining Gospel, filled with Jesus' teaching because we already knew the outline of His work from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

John is the Gospel of Faith in Christ, which is why the apostates hate it with special venom. But this does not mean it is only about faith - but believing and confessing. The two go together. If someone believes the truth but is afraid to speak the truth, something is wrong. 

John the Baptist was the last prophet and the first apostle. He was sent from God, so as the first apostle (the word meaning sent) he bridged the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Everyone's skin should get goosebumps when they hear these words - 

22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?

23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

John knew he was announcing the Messiah's work about to begin - and they knew it too - from quoting Isaiah. And that meant he was facing death when he confessed the truth about Jesus. They did not hate John for himself, but for his message. John exemplified the righteousness of faith, and they taught the righteousness of works.

John the Baptist was executed for his continuing preaching of the truth. That brings us to the Augsburg Confession - called the Augustana in Latin. 

We often hear of Luther at the Diet of Worms, 1517, confessing the truth taught by the Scriptures, how he was kidnapped to protect him from those who wanted to murder him for opposing the Church.

As someone said, there are only two kinds of church bodies. One considers itself the authority over all matters, regardless of the Scriptures. The considers the Bible the only authority, the Book that judges all books. 

The Imperial Diet at Augsburg meant that the Holy Roman Emperor was there to hear the side of the Evangelicals, which meant the declaration of Luther as a heretic, so he could be burned at the stake. 

Luther was kept away from the potential roast, but the Lutheran leaders and laity risked their own lives, property, and honor by confessing the truth of the Scriptures. They were very close to being crushed and exterminated - as the Waldensians and many others were - but the Moslem army was at the gates of Vienna. The Emperor needed their help to protect his empire. 

The professors thought they alone should sign the Augsburg Confession, but the laity insisted on writing down their names too and they participated in the discussions. 

We have a monster bigger than the Emperor bearing down on us. No matter what people say about the military might of other countries, the greatest threat is our apostasy, hedonism, and silliness. Everything has been dumbed down so that the capacity to learn is crippled by trivial distractions. As Martin Chemnitz wrote, "These are the last days of an insane, old world.

The witness of the Augsburg Confession

Most basic was declaring we are governed by the Scriptures rather than an institution. The entire Christian world, Roman and Eastern Orthodox, had an institutional heritage, history, books, and laws dating back a thousand years and more. The Roman Catholic Church was the remnant of the Roman Empire, with many of the same characteristics.

The pope was the new emperor. He controlled land himself and considered the Western world under his control. The papal army could attack and subdue those who opposed the pope or work with allies to get the job done.

Christian doctrine is not derived from institutions and man-made authority, but from the Scriptures themselves. Laying aside all the previous works, the Lutheran minority chose the teaching of the Bible to the claims of an "infallible" institution and pope. We can almost imagine the scope of this change. People can easily pile up documents, entire libraries, where they can say, "We are right, according to this ancient, blessed saint."

When we look at the first statement in the Augsburg Confession, we can see that rejection of the Holy Trinity is foundational all of our problems today. As Lenski has written, the Bible is a statement of fact from God. We do not have the luxury of quibbling over minor and major points, as if some famous person can give us truth that the Bible does not contain. The teaching of the Trinity is a litmus test for many. This is a mystery revealed by the Holy Spirit, understood by faith. 

This Biblical teaching is foundational, because we find it from Genesis 1 on, This doctrine is violated in two ways. One is by making the Virgin Mary part of the godhead. The other is by judging the Scriptures with our human reason, which reduces the Holy Trinity to Unitarianism and then atheism.

Rejecting Purgatory and all the nonsense associated with it, the tiny faction Lutherans chose to close down the fool's goldmine and replace it with the treasures of Justification by Faith. This struck at the treasury and financial power of the Vatican, which alone could free people of their sins - if only partially. The Vatican today remains an international business, where every convent and parish has to support itself and send money to the Pope.

The Lutherans said, "We choose the Biblical message over your approval, your support, and your lies." Nothing is more dangerous than to take money away from the most powerful man in the world, the pope. Persecution, burning at the stake, exile, and torture was their pay in the next century, but at the moment, the Moslem army was outside the City of Vienna. 

The German Lutherans were needed for the battles, so they were largely left alone. Had the Emperor been free of this menace, the Lutherans would have been wiped out by the Emperor. He even had the chance to dig up Lutheran (who died in 1546), but he said, "Our war is with the living (Lutherans) not with the dead."

If we see Justification by Faith as destroying the money power of the papacy, the Reformation makes a lot more sense.

 Could this be why the modernist Lutherans (ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC) ignore and abuse the work of Melanchthon and the Augsburg Confession?

One woman was asked about a beautiful Lutheran church building in Pennsylvania, where Muhlenberg did so much work. She said, "They are alright, but they worship every stone in the building." The quip was great, except she said it to a member of that church.

This is a daring witness, probably not known to most people. It is a complete reversal of what was expected at the time. Everyone was supposed to be in awe of the relics, the fables, the giant buildings, the priests and the Servant of the Servants of God - the Pope.

People cannot place all their trust in the physical and material and have much room for the Scriptures. My experience with the top students at Notre Dame was this - they knew all about every detail of worship back to 400 A.D. but were hopeless about the Scriptures. This has now been repeated in the "conservative" Lutherans - aping the ELCA. Even a tiny sect with a little pope (ELDONA) can do this, ordering each one what he must do and think.

John 1:33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.

Here we have the Father sending the Spirit upon the Son, and John the Baptist witnessing to Jesus. Luther called John the Baptist the bravest of all prophets, because he was supposed to tell everyone that this ordinary looking man was the Messiah promised to them from the expulsion from Eden.

The unified truth of the Scriptures are beyond dispute, except among those with hardened hearts. The Augsburg Confessions teaches us with powerful, plain and simple lessons about the Word of God.

 The "conservative" Lutherans are lost and bumping into each other, wondering why everything has gone wrong. Panic is their reward for not teaching the truth.