Collapse of LCMS Colleges the Fruit of Missouri's Surrender to Seminex - Ditto WELS and ELS

 

ELCA, LCMS, and ELDONA agree - "We want to be papal, even popish."

One WELS teacher said, "Foreign students are walking bags of money." Various students from other countries pay for room, board, and books with cash from mom and dad. These students are a great asset to the school, but the schools have taken that for granted, part of the slippage that has become an avalanche of cost and disastrous budgets.

Synod schools are not based on quality but DNA. Only some of the Seminex "heroes" left, eager to join the nascent ELCA. The rest of Seminex burrowed into the woodwork and took over, step by step. The Preus brothers, Jack and Robert, claimed the orthodox won. Yay! But nobody had the spine to deal with the layers of ELCA wannabees - and no one did.

One little example - easily multiplied - was the CPH NIV Commentary. The editor of Psalms denied the many examples of Christ in the Psalms. I recall Herman Otten posting that fact, especially since Luther wrote a commentary on the Psalms which was just the opposite. How does one get around Psalm 2, or Psalm 22? I have had Old Testament gasp at how literal Psalm 22 is. One student said, "That is a verbatim description of the crucifixion!" 

Was anything done about this? No. I met that Psalms NIV-CPH editor at a little gathering of LCMS pastors about that time. He retired. Nobody fussed about him. Otten, oddly enough, always defended anyone who graduated from the St. Louis or Ft. Wayne seminaries, even when some of them bolted for the Elysian fields of ELCA. Herman said to me, "The Seminex professors at LSTC were not the problem!" 

Another example was his support and promotion of an ex-LCMS pastor on the man's third marriage. I said to Herman, "That's three now, and you are putting him on the front page of CN." He tried to remember, so I said. "The first wife left him because he chose the other as the mother of his child. You told me they broke up too, so this is either a third wife or that pastor re-married #1 or #2." He conceded that fact, but it made no difference. 

The Otten-Preus amalgamation worried most about Objective Faithless Justification. The current raging pipsqueak Christian News editor - just kidding, it's worse - can only carry on the task of sanctifying anyone who graduated from one or the other seminary. Jack and Robert Preus are given a pass because they touched the nerve of the LCMS laity, who were far more conservative than the pastors as a whole. Even then, the pastors on Otten's side staged a huge dinner in the early days, to show their support of Otten and the good old days.

The ELCA wannabees realized they could purify LCMS by burials over time, and that worked. Who is left of the ones who fought apostasy? CPH became very ELCA-ish, worse than ever before. The seminaries were so Romanized that Robert Preus wrote Justification and Rome, repudiating OJ with many great citations from the post-Book of Concord theologians. Preus saw it coming, but even the two sons, as editors, did not see or accept Justification by Faith. One cannot win a war going to battle with cardboard swords and newsprint shields.

Back to the Schools of Higher Education

LutherQuest and the ALPB Online Forum Ovaltines are trying to float the colleges a little longer. Matt the Fatt's regime has closed Selma, the NYC college, and the Chinese campus. The HotChalk school - Portland - is teetering with a huge lawsuit. The great brains who thought they could make a fortune from the HotChalk learning platform were dumber than any salesman might hope to meet. 

1. How could anyone say "HotChalk" without laughing? 
2. How could these LCMS genius types overlook the online fad already fading away?
3. If every college in America goes online, how much smaller is the Portland piece of pie?

Matt (without a beard) never stops reaching out to the Left.

Sleeping Beauty Opera and the Creation Around Us Ignored

 

Bee balm

Charlie Sue and I enjoy the ballet, which started in bits. There would be one film about ballet, another one about a single dancer, and even a movie or two about modern dance. Lately we have been watching Russian ballet - Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.

I am in awe when I watch the Kirov performances. Costumes are like flowers in the garden. Each scene displays a great range of colors and designs. The dancing is graceful and athletic beyond belief. Christina and I got on a program where we could swim at a motel's indoor pool and hot-tube for almost nothing. One time a couple from the ballet were there to loosen up. The young lady's eyes were always on her male counterpart. She stood in the hot-tube and raised her leg straight up, pointing her foot to make it perfect...and hard to believe.

The garden is coming to life early. We are having 70 and up to 80 degrees. The early daffodils showed green, developed yellow blooms, and burst into bloom yesterday for the Lenten service. Now at least 50 are in full bloom. No one has any up so far, not a gardening cul-de-sac, so I will distribute the daffodils Friday or Saturday. It is actually good for them to be cut early and give the bulbs more solar energy to grow and multiply. That is why one friend said, "You do not NEED any more flowers." 

The ballet and the flowers are quite similar, only the daffodils work in complete harmony, starting at the very first spoken Words of Creation in Genesis 1, confirmed in John 1, a sermon on Genesis 1. 

No one come close to the majestic order and colors of God's Creation. I love to see the tiny wild strawberries bloom and fruit, filling in blank spots and feeding the birds, who air freight them to new locals. As many know, I created the green fence, cutting the backyard in half, simply with logs. "What are you doing?" I said, "The birds will land on the logs for spotting movement in the grass. They will leave behind their favorite food plants, like wild strawberries. Soon we will have a green fence for free.

Since the fence cuts the backyard almost in half, Charlie Sue races around the oval circle, backyard to front yard, grinning and holding a squeaky toy in her mouth.

Some of these plants are on the way to blooming:

Joe Pye Weed

Butterfly Weed

Dandelions

Various kinds and colors of daffodils

A wide variety of roses

Cannas

Clethra - the Cinnabon shrub

Hyacinths

Lilies

Honeysuckle - "You paid those weeds?!"

Anything known as a butterfly plant, including butterfly weeds.

Chaste tree

How can people question the beauty and perfection of Creation when it is all around us? 

Tom Fisher - On the Bibles

 

Dear Pastor Jackson,

In Psalm 12 God promised to preserve His words among us forever. 

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Psalm 12:6,7

This means God must work throughout the events of history to preserve His words among us forever. He did this especially during the reformation when He chose the TEXTUS RECEPTUS family of Bibles (King James Version, Luther's Bible) and forever rejected the corrupt Vaticanus/Sinaiticus family of Bibles (ESV, NIV, NKJV, Beck's, RSV, NASB, Nestle-Aland, United Bible Society). 

Since God clearly chose the TEXTUS RECEPTUS family of Bibles (King James, Luther's Bible), it necessarily follows that we also must choose and cling to the same Bibles (King James, Luther's Bible). 

Since God forever rejected the corrupt Vaticanus family of Bibles (ESV, NIV, NKJV, Beck's, RSV, NASB, Nestle-Aland , United Bible Society...), it necessarily follows that we also must reject these same corrupt Bibles (ESV, NIV, NKJV, Beck's, RSV, NASB, ...).

God the Holy Ghost guides us into all truth throughout the events of history, especially the reformation which efficaciously continues to this day.

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:..." (John 16:13)

God the Holy Ghost guides us into all truth with precise words of God He inspired the prophets and apostles to write thousands of years ago. These are the Words of God He perfectly preserves among us forever. God promises to do this for us in Psalm 12. For example God preserved the word "Godhead" for us in Colossians 2:9.

"For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Colossians 2:9

God preserved the Greek Word "Theos" (God) for us in 1 Timothy 3:16.

"God (Theos) was manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16

God especially preserved His efficacious Words for us in Mark 16:9-20 in the TEXTUS RECEPTUS family of Bibles (King James Bible, Luther's Bible). 

God most importantly preserved the word "virgin" for us in Isaiah 7:14

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

God intentionally preserved His efficacious words for us in 1 John 5:7,8 in the Bibles (TEXTUS RECEPTUS, King James Bible, Luther's Bible) He chose for us during the reformation.

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one." 1 John 5:7,8

Why am I going on and on about these precise words God preserved for us in the TEXTUS RECEPTUS family of Bibles (King James Bible, Luther's Bible)?? Well, all of these precise efficacious words of God are missing, mutilated, or changed in the corrupt Vaticanus family of Bibles (ESV, NIV, NKJV, RSV, Beck's, NASB, Nestle-Aland, United Bible Society). This is why God rejected ALL of them forever and ever during the reformation. They do NOT have ALL of the precise efficacious Words of God. "Man shall not live by bread alone but by EVERY word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. " (Matthew 4:4) This is a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3.

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doeth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." (Deuteronomy 8: 3). O dear, I just noticed the corrupted Vaticanus/Sinaiticus NIV Bible causes Christ to misquote Deuteronomy 8:3 in Luke 4:4 by omitting "but by every word of God". 

"And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God " Luke 4:4 (TEXTUS RECEPTUS, King James Bible, Luther's Bible)

My prize cow still has a stomach ache, but is recovering slowly. 

In Christ,

Tom Fisher

Daily Luther Sermon Quotes - Lent 2 - "But it must be so; if God is to be righteous in his words that teach you are a sinner, then you may claim the rights of all sinners that God has given them, namely, the forgiveness of sins."

 

Edith's Darling, based on Downton Abbey.

Complete Sermon Here - Reminiscere. Second Sunday in Lent. Matthew 15:21-28. The Faith of the Syrophoenician Woman

11. By this is set forth the condition of our heart in times of temptation; Christ here represents how it feels. It thinks there is nothing but no and yet that is not true. Therefore it must turn from this feeling and lay hold of and retain the deep spiritual yes under and above the no with a firm faith in God’s Word, as this poor woman does, and say God is right in his judgment which he visits upon us; then we have triumphed and caught Christ in his own words. As for example when we feel in our conscience that God rebukes us as sinners and judges us unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, then we experience hell, and we think we are lost forever. Now whoever understands here the actions of this poor woman and catches God in his own judgment, and says: Lord, it is true, I am a sinner and not worthy of thy grace; but still thou hast promised sinners forgiveness, and thou art come not to call the righteous, but, as St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:15, “to save sinners.” Behold, then must God according to his own judgment have mercy upon us.

12. King Manasseh did likewise in his penitence as his prayer proves; he conceded that God was right in his judgment and accused himself as a great sinner and yet he laid hold of the promised forgiveness of sins. David also does likewise in Psalm 51:4 and says: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” For God’s disfavor in every way visits us when we cannot agree with his judgment nor say yea and amen, when he considers and judges us to be sinners. If the condemned could do this, they would that very moment be saved. We say indeed with our mouth that we are sinners; but when God himself says it in our hearts, then we are not sinners, and eagerly wish to be considered pious and free from that judgment. But it must be so; if God is to be righteous in his words that teach you are a sinner, then you may claim the rights of all sinners that God has given them, namely, the forgiveness of sins. Then you eat not only the crumbs under the table as the little dogs do; but you are also a child and have God as your portion according to the pleasure of your will.

13. This is the spiritual meaning of our Gospel and the scriptural explanation of it. For what this poor woman experienced in the bodily affliction of her daughter, whom she miraculously caused to be restored to health again by her faith, that we also experience when we wish to be healed of our sins and of our spiritual diseases, which is truly a wicked devil possessing us; here she must become a dog and we become sinners and brands* of hell, and then we have already recovered from our sickness and are saved. [*GJ - Brands refer to the marks burned onto animals to identify the owner.]

14. Whatever more there is in this Gospel worthy of notice, as that one can obtain grace and help through the faith of another without his own personal faith, as took place here in the daughter of this poor woman, has been sufficiently treated elsewhere. Furthermore that Christ and his disciples along with the woman in this Gospel exhibit to us an example of love, in that no one acts, prays and cares for himself but each for others, is also clear enough and worthy of consideration.