A Simple Test for Any Denomination or Abusive Sect

 

This simple test is so basic that very few denominational big-wigs, professors, and felons will be able to pass it.

The test - What does the material focus on?

Here are some common alternatives:

1. Look at how great our latest worship hymnal is! You will want to fill your congregation and Christmas present lists with copies.
2. See our latest building projects and possibly drool over having your name on its cornerstone.
3. Join us in our latest restructuring and planning process. We do not know what the end product will be, but we need you to trust the process.
4. Give the backhand and stink-eye to those who would impede us - and tell us who they are.

That covers the agenda of most denominations and the Church of Rome.

The alternative is found here - from Genesis 1:1 to the end of Revelation - faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, risen from the dead, ascended into Heaven.

If the church body, synod, denomination, or cult does not emphasize this simple alternative, they should disband or at least be as honest as the Unitarians are. Unitarians do not even believe in God and they insist on their unfaith for all who might join.

Jesus - you remember Him from the last fundraiser? - taught about the good tree of faith in Him and the evil tree of non-faith. The good tree can only produce good fruit, and the evil tree can only bear sterile fruit. That is why spectacular failures like Kent Hunter, Robert Schuller, and David Valleskey should be mired in their own publications rather than admired by the miracles that never arrived.

Confidential to misled pastors who actually believed what their Damascus professors taught them - your members and potential members do not need pop psychology, lord-liar-lunatic sales pitches, self-esteem programs, or time management. They can get that from secular hucksters. They need what the Bible teaches - and many already know it well - but they have to keep on in the midst of Matt the Fatts, Mirthless Marks, and Liz Eatonuffs to remain believers. 

 A storm followed the ELCA vote, and more than a million ELCA members left their abusive sect.

 She went to Harvard? Of course, she went to Harvard. And the lupine pups follow her obediently.

After the 2009 ELCA debacle, one million ELCA members departed for good. They did not join the LCMS or WELS or the ELS or SHARONA. The dunderheads running those "conservative" synods - pardon me while I stop laughing, wheezing, and slapping my leg - had nothing more to offer than did ELCA. In fact, they are all in bed with ELCA and lovin' it, thanks to the united, wholesome, effects of DEI Thrivent. 

 Jesus and Thrivent go hand-in-hand, but not exactly as described in the New Testament.

Remembering Tyndale, Luther, and the King James Version

Alexander McClure

“The first decided steps, however, toward giving to the English nation a Bible printed in their own tongue, were the translations of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, made by William Tyndale, and by him printed at Hamburg [Germany], in the year 1524; -- and a translation of the whole of the New Testament, printed by him partly at Cologne, and partly at Worms, in 1525.”

Alexander McClure, The Translators Revived, Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry, p. 6.

***

GJ - I hasten to note what Lutherans realize - Tyndale's work was closely associated with Luther's Biblical translation team, not only geographically but also in time.

Tyndale was in Germany, in part, because he was under a death sentence in England. Just as Luther established the German language with his translation, so Tyndale established the English language with his genius work with the substance of the KJV. Tyndale was already killed for violating the King Henry's orders, but his clear and compelling translations became the heart of the Authorized Version.

PS - The other contributor to the English language was Shakespeare, the pen name of the Earl of Oxford. The translation of Shakespeare into German made that work a major contribution to the German language.

Preface to the King James Version

 

Trinitarian Bible Society

 Preface: 

The Original King James Version

• 22 It is not only an armour, but also a whole armoury of weapons, both offensive and defensive; whereby we may save ourselves and put the enemy to flight.

• 23 It is not an herb, but a tree, or rather a whole paradise of trees of life, which bring forth fruit every month, and the fruit thereof is for meat, and the leaves for medicine.

• 24 It is not a pot of Manna, or a cruse of oil, which were for memory only, or for a meal's meat or two, but as it were a shower of heavenly bread sufficient for a whole host, be it never so great; and as it were a whole cellar full of oil vessels; whereby all our necessities may be provided for and our debts discharged.

• 25 In a word, it is a panary ((bread Pantry)) of wholesome food, against fenowed [mouldy.] traditions; a physician's shop [κοινον ιατρειον. S.Basil. in Psal.primum.] (Saint Basil calleth it) of preservatives against poisoned heresies; a pandect ((a complete body)) of profitable laws against rebellious spirits; a treasury of most costly jewels against beggarly rudiments; finally, a fountain of most pure water springing up unto everlasting life.

• 26 And what marvel? the original thereof being from heaven, not from earth; the author being God, not man; the inditer, the Holy Spirit, not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the penmen, such as were sanctified from the womb, and endued with a principal portion of God's Spirit; the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness; the form, God's word, God's testimony, God's oracles, the word of truth, the word of salvation, etc.; the effects, light of understanding, stableness of persuasion, repentance from dead works, newness of life, holiness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end and reward of the study thereof, fellowship with the Saints, participation of the heavenly nature, fruition of an inheritance immortal, undefiled, and that never shall fade away.

• 27 Happy is the man that delighteth in the Scripture, and thrice happy that meditateth in it day and night.