The Ovaltines Have the Notes from the 2009 ELCA Convention

 

We cannot predict the future very well, but we can certainly study the past. The Ovaltines - ALPB Online Forum - have preserved their discussions about big events. I thought they skipped the 2009 ELCA vote, but I found it on the list. This is the link to all the discussions about the 2009 ELCA Convention.

One person observed that ELCA had already lost 500,000 members, and I hasten to add, they used the Church Growth ninnies as much as LCMS and WELS. 

How could they lose even more members? That is correct! You are astute. The convention was a done deal before Mark Hanson, the Presiding Bishop, began the event. He was all for a change away from the old ways, men marrying women, having children according to God's Creation. 

The LCA and ALC were already infiltrated with the Left Wing when they birthed the ELCA in 1987. The AELC (Seminex) was even more so, proud of their departure and their seminary board chairman Dick Jungkuntz. 

Jungkuntz went from WELS to the LCMS to Board Chairman of Seminex, providing a nest for a gay seminary, side-by-side with Seminex. Fuller Seminary promoted a similar gay shift in 2013.

The 2009 convention was not a debate, but the tripwire to carry out officially what they had been doing since 1987 and before. Trexler, the editor of The Lutheran magazine, said (paraphrased) "The LCA has been ordaining homosexuals for years." WELS and Missouri are not different - they just keep it to themselves.

Stay tuned to the Ovaltines' conventions. They have plenty to say. One might compare and contrast ELCA with ELCiC in Canada. The Canadian version more Left than ELCA, and they have a long-term lady Presiding Bishop.

Denominations are the only vessel where the ship is wrecked, sinking, and the remnants are chipper.

As the language goes, so goes the doctrine, down down to goblin town.

Tom Fisher's Lambs

 

Bethlehem and Christmas are two lambs born in 20 mph winds and rain.

Oh! How They Trip Over Grace Because They Do Not Have Faith!

 

The Big Five - LCMS-ELS-ELCA-ELCIC-WELS-CLC (sic) imagine that they teach grace, and they love to use the term grace while mangling and torturing its meaning. The vast majority of Big Five congregations will ignore Ascension because they do not not hold mid-week Advent or Lent services. Those that do are more likely to be copying the Roman Catholic cake-walk with a lot of strutting and billowing of incense smoke. The rest say, "We don't have enough people for mid-week anything!" 

First we must define the Big Five concept of grace, using an example from Lutherans now in ELCiC. The previous leader said this about a school for naughty boys that they funded, even though not one of the boys was Lutheran! The speaker emphasized that fact and said - "Not one boy is a Lutheran, so this is an act of pure grace!" The last two words were bellowed with great authority and sanctimony. 

The Big Five live according to their new versions of the Bible, especially the despicable NIV. Everyone is forgiven. Everyone! Everyone! (So sayeth the former leader of the LCMS teen group.) Forgetting the leap of faith, they flatter themselves with the Leap of Grace.

Be patient. I am getting there.

Faith in Jesus Christ gives us access to faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, miracle worker and Teacher, who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave, ascending to Heaven.

KJV Romans 5 1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The gracians, as they might call themselves, are immune to the basics of faith, which they dispose into the category of works. Even there, they do their best to get rid of the true Gospel.

KJV John 6 27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The connection is clear and never broken - faith in Jesus Christ gives us access to grace. Faith comes from the Gospel Word, as early as newborn, because faith comes by hearing. A mother took a photo of her new baby grinning and looking to her right, a big smile for her daddy. Faith comes by hearing, and so the baby was baptized according to the Scriptures. The Baptists want me to say that babies do not have faith, so I ask them how babies have faith in their parents but not in God.

The works of God are - believing in Jesus, whom He has sent.

But the yahoos of modernity still say in horror and alarm - "You are making faith to be a human work!" 

Lutherdom will need a whole new generation or two before they can teach Romans 5:1-2, not to mention Romans 10. They have poisoned the well and yet cry in despair because their promiscuous spending in Church Growth and other idiocies have bankrupted them. 

1. The LCMS Purple Palace will be sold to Roman Catholics at a deep discount.
2. The WELS Love Shack will become an Urban Renewal office.
3. The ELS office will be a fitness center called Renuvia.
4. The CLC and ELCA will merge into the CLC, headquarters in the nearest Masonic Lodge.

GA!

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - The Day of Christ's Ascension - "For the Law, which was of old, and what the prophets preached, was not cried out in all the world before all creatures, but it was preached by the Jews in their synagogues. But the Gospel shall not be thus confined; it shall be preached freely unto all the world."

 

Complete Sermon->Day of Christ’s Ascension Into Heaven. Mark 16:14-20. Christ Commissions his Disciples to Preach the Gospel

Luther's Sermon on the DAY OF CHRIST’S ASCENSION INTO HEAVEN. Mark 16:14-20


Text: Mark 16:14-20. 14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. 20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

1. We are to consider today the article of faith in which we say: “I believe in Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father.” Our Gospel lesson briefly reviews the story of this ascension. But Luke treats the matter at greater length and writes, The Lord gathered all the disciples together, fully forty days after his resurrection, just as he had often shown himself to them, and spoke with them and gave them commandment what they should do, and as they were assembled together and spoke with him out at Bethany, whither he had led them, some asked him, saying: “Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And he said unto them: “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority. But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” And when he had said these things, he blessed them and bade them good night and departed from them and was taken up while they beheld him and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they stood there, gazing after him, gaping at the heavens, behold, there came and stood hard by them two men in white apparel, who said: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.” Hereupon they returned from Bethany, from the mount of Olives, to Jerusalem and assembled in the upper room of the house where they were abiding, and continued with one accord in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus. This is the story of our Lord Jesus Christ’s ascension. Now let us consider the Gospel.

2. In the first place, there are in this Gospel two parts: one where the Lord commands the apostles to preach the Gospel in all the world; the other, treating of his ascension. We shall pass over the beginning of the text, where the Lord reproves their unbelief and hardness of heart, and take up the part where he says: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” Here you have in English what the Gospel really is, to wit: “He that believeth and is baptized, is saved.” In these words all is comprehended; he that has them, has the Gospel.

I. CHRIST’S MISSIONARY COMMISSION TO HIS DISCIPLES TO PREACH THE GOSPEL.

3. We have often said ‘heretofore that the Gospel, properly speaking, is not something written in books, but an oral proclamation, which shall be heard in all the world and shall be cried out freely before all creatures, so that all would have to hear it if they had ears; that is to say, it shall be preached so publicly that to preach it more publicly would be impossible. For the Law, which was of old, and what the prophets preached, was not cried out in all the world before all creatures, but it was preached by the Jews in their synagogues. But the Gospel shall not be thus confined; it shall be preached freely unto all the world.

4. There is no need, therefore, of commenting on the text as some have done, and saying that omnis creatura (every creature) means a man. For there is no indication in these words that the Gospel shall be preached to men alone, but it shall be cried out before the whole creation, so that earth shall not have a nook or corner into which it shall not penetrate before the last day. Such is the counsel of God, wherein he has decreed that even they who cannot read and have not heard Moses and the prophets shall, nevertheless, hear the Gospel.

5. What is the Gospel? It is these words which the Lord speaks: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” We have often said — and I think we ought to thoroughly understand it by this time — that the Gospel cannot suffer us to preach works, however good and great these may be; for it seeks to pluck us down from our presumption and to set and plant us solely upon God’s mercy, that his work and grace alone may be extolled. Therefore, it suffers us not to rely upon our works. For one of these two must perish: if I stand upon God’s grace and mercy, I do not stand upon my merit and works; and, vice versa, if I stand upon any works and merit, I do not stand upon God’s grace. For, “if it is by grace,” says St. Paul, Romans 11:6, “it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.” I cannot say that God owes me a reward, but I must confess that he has given it to me entirely as a free gift.

6. Hence, he that would preach the Gospel must cast aside all works that are calculated to make men just, and suffer nothing to remain but faith, or I must believe that God, without any merit of mine and regardless of all my works, has granted me his grace and eternal life, so that I am constrained to thank him and say: I rejoice, praise and thank God that he has freely and out of pure grace given me this most excellent boon. Likewise that the Gospel is, as Scripture says, nothing more nor less than a declaration of the honor, praise and glory of God. As we read in Psalm 19:1-2: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.” Therefore, we must preach in a way that the glory and praise will be given to God and not to ourselves. Now, there is no greater praise and glory that we can give to God than this, that we confess that he, out of pure grace and mercy, takes away from us sin, death, and hell, and gives his beloved Son for us, and all his treasures to us. Such a confession must give glory and honor and praise to him alone.