The Book of Concord Series. "Send in the Clowns. Where Are the Clowns? Don't Worry, They're Here!"

The passage of time can make us more aware of trends or oblivious to them. Synodical cheerleaders remind me of the book title - Wishful Drinking, by the late Carrie Fisher, the princess who died too young.

I was baptized as a baby at Plymouth Congregational Church, Moline. The parish became United Church of Christ perhaps, before closing. My parents moved us to First Christian Church, Moline, also called Disciples of Christ. That church no longer exists. I left the Church Growthism at First Christian to join Salem Lutheran Church, formerly Augustana Synod, then LCA, and now ELCA.

At the age of 16 I was suddenly exposed to liturgical services, classical hymns, and sermons. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the clown acts of the Disciples of Christ parish a feature in the Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Synod, and other places of ill repute.

No matter what they claimed from the Book of Concord, the LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) leaders became completely unfaithful. There are three basic options in all of Christendom:

1. The real Bible (KJV) teaches the efficacy of the Word from Genesis 1:1 to the end of time. So does Luther and the Book of Concord. That includes Justification by Faith and the Means of Grace.
2. The Zwingli-Calvinists teach the magisterial use of reason and Objective Justification. The leaven of rationalism reduces them to the style of the Unitarian-Universalist cult over time. Baptists and Pentecostals are more in line with this group, because infant baptism horrifies them as proof of Roman Catholicism. 
3. The Church of Rome teaches the sacred nature of Holy Mother Herself, from the infallible Pope down to the trafficking business of Mother Theresa. Claiming age and grandeur, they draw important people into the incense purified bosom of Holy Mother, bowing and scraping to be counted as worthy slaves. The Eastern Orthodox are closely related but not as dogmatic. These two groups borrowed the pageantry and entertainment values of the occult. The Vatican is deliberately Satanic in its architectural design.

Misdirection of the I's - Magic

Everything works well if nobody asks the real questions. If the new Lutheran asks about this Augsburg Confession thing or the NIV, the clever pastor will emphasize soccer camp and the puppets. OK, the puppet fad was short-lived. There is always a new fad to follow, because it worked so well in an affluent suburb.