Unravel the Calvinist Thread To Understand the Lutheran-Reformed Congregations and Denominations

Someone brought up the Evangelical and Reformed denomination (very big in St. Louis), which was Germanic. Evangelical meant Geman Lutheran and Reformed meant German Calvinist. Someone observed this long ago that - those groups ("union" after the Prussian Union of those two confessions) - lasted longer with a Lutheran emphasis than they did with Calvinists dominating. Calvinists inevitably become Unitarian (spelled otherwise - Tis I Ruin a Man).

The E and R was Germanic because it was absorbed by the eventual United Church of Christ, which may be one degree more conservative than the Unitarian-Universalist group (not a church). The Niebuhr brothers were E and R. 

There were many union organizations and parishes. The General Synod, forerunner to the LCA, had plenty of union congregations. That often meant a pastor who offered Lutheran communion one Sunday and Reformed Lord's Supper on alternate Sundays, Lutheran catechism to one group of kids, Reformed catechism to the other group of kids. No clucking of tongues, y' hear? The "conservative" Lutherans are just the same today.

Union congregations are well known. St. Paul in German Village, Ohio, was a union congregation in the beginning. The St. Paul pastor who made it more Lutheran was a Henkel brother. Still, he thought the Mason Lodge was great. The Calvinists marched out in anger, but the Masons stayed and were communed by the WELS circuit pastor Keith Roehl. WELS and the ELS were supporters of Masonic members but pretended otherwise.

The big WELS church in New Ulm was union, until a new WELS church said, "I thought we dealt with this." The Calvinists marched out and built their own church, which was bought by the CLC, Faith Lutheran Church - only a block or two away. The marchers sold the Faith location and built a United Church of Christ church downtown.

My parents were members of Plymouth Congregational in Moline but left for the Disciples of Christ congregation nearby, First Christian. The Disciples denomination said they would gather all denominations and split four ways. My sister belonged to one of the extreme "conservative" breakoffs of the now, radical Leftwing Disciples.

Denominations close to Calvinism rapidly become anti-Scriptural and driven by activist political action. The rainbow coalition of today's schools and politics began with the Leftwing denominations and the Calvinist-infused Lutheran synods.

I hope everyone is beginning to smell the pot-roast.

Stephan had to leave his congregation behind, because of his sexual crimes, which continued as he ushered the boot-licking Walther circle across the ocean. Stephan's mistress was in the next cabin and his wife and most children left at home. Ask Jay Webber, Roger Kovaciny, and WELS-ELS how that worked for them and Floyd Luther Stolzenburg.

How Lutheran are the LCMS and WELS? Not very.

Both groups came from the Lutheran-Reformed union called Pietism. Both pretended to dislike Pietism, but they were deep into it and now people can see modern Missouri and hip WELS as very Calvinistic, a nightmare of Lutheran slogans and Calvinist rationalism.

Walther and his gang were Pietists who ate, slept around, and drank Pietism. Martin Stephan, the Third Martin, taught Objective Justification which came from Halle University. The Pietists sent missionaries to America while the state churches wanted people to stay home. Thus, American denominations are largely Pietistic if they started later, in the Midwest, instead of the Pilgrims who came earlier as Calvinists.

Objective Justification is not the teaching of the Bible, Luther, Melanchthon, or Chemnitz - nor the Book of Concord. Although the LCMS and WELS began as union denominations (especially WELS), they fought hard for the orthodox label without fighting at all for Biblical doctrine. Like the Methodists still leaving Holy Mother Headquarters, the Lutherans are leaving their historic synods and creating wacky synodettes.

Walther was a crock from the beginning, a kiss-up for the promiscuous Bishop Stephan until CFW had a chance to steal the gold, land, books, and personal possessions of Stephan. At that point Stephan was felony forced to go to Illinois - at gunpoint. Walther was just as much a criminal as Stephan but made himself The Great Walther.

Walther was only a B.A. and did not have a grasp of the Biblical languages. He insisted on German and Latin at his own seminary.

I believe, because the LCMS was so German, Walther could not make a direct hit on Justification by Faith. He never gave up on Objective Justification, which declared that the entire world was absolved of all sin (first premise). The second premise was that someone had to accept the first premise. This was identical to the dogma of Halle Pietism, taught by Rambach, Stephan, Jon-Boy Buchholz, and Jay Webber. 

The OJ fanatics hate Luther's doctrine, which is Biblical doctrine. WELS SP Mirthless Mark Schroeder has declared that WELS was orthodox from Day One, which is hilariously or tragically wrong. 

The OJ fanatics also loathe the KJV and mock it whenever they inhale. All the modern translations (especially Beck) rely on two fraudulent sources - Vaticanus and Sinaiticus - and they remove the divinity of Christ and faith in Christ to serve their Father Below.

Mirthless Mark and Matt the Fatt Harrison are the Clown Princes of OJ, unionism with ELCA, and many more maladies. The worst is their teaching against the Chief Article, Justification by Faith. 

WELS has a brain-dead conference coming up, full of Fuller and Trinity Divinity types. One declared that OJ is the Chief Article of Christianity. Not only are they false teachers of the worst kind - they are also liars about their false doctrine. For those who are sweaty with fervor for LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC, the Chief Article is Justification by Faith in Christ. 

See how silky their service to Satan is? They use OJ/Chief Article and Justification to pound the table declaring forgiveness without faith. They confuse the Atonement with Justification, which is Walther's own confusion.

In contrast - and they do not see this - Romans teaches that grace only comes through faith in Christ. Look that up in Romans 5. 

Faith and Grace Go Together

KJV Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. [For those who graduated without Greek or faith, the word access can be seen as a meeting point.]

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,

For Those WELS-ELS-LCMS Pastors and Executives Who Imagined Fuller Was Conservative

LCMS and WELS Church Shrinkers bragged that more of their seminary classmates went to Fuller Seminary for "graduate work" than attended their own seminaries. Maybe that was because the Fuller classes were even easier, though they cost more. 

After signing a letter expressing disappointment with the new administration, a pro-life evangelical scholar who voted for President Joe Biden said that while he would vote for Biden again if the 2020 presidential election were held today, he would not make his support public.

 

In 2020, Mouw retired from Fuller and returned to Calvin University, becoming a senior research fellow at the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics.^[3]

In 2007, Mouw, who sees Abraham Kuyper as a personal hero,^[4] was awarded the Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life at Princeton Theological Seminary by the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology.^{[5] (Wikipedia)}

Richard Mouw, president emeritus of Fuller Seminary in California and a member of Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, spoke to The Christian Post Tuesday, days after his group issued a statement in response to the president's support for a coronavirus relief package that did not include a longstanding provision that prevents the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.

"We are very disappointed about the COVID-19 relief package's exclusion of the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding, bipartisan policy," they wrote. "We're even more upset that the Biden administration is supporting this bill."

As a result of Biden's support for the bill, the group contended that they feel "used and betrayed."

Mouw told CP that he and other members of Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden group knew that Biden had been "shifting" his position on the Hyde Amendment when they released a statement in support of Biden's candidacy last October, one month before the 2020 presidential election.

He maintained that conversations they had with campaign officials who now help the administration with faith outreach were reassuring.

"We made ... clear that we would offer support with the understanding that they would urge the White House to have serious conversations with Catholics and evangelicals who are right-to-life people," he recalled. "The problem is that we haven't had those conversations, and leaving the Hyde Amendment out of this particular package, this latest COVID package, is a signal that ... there really ... is no room for that kind of conversation."

Mouw confirmed that an official from the Biden administration reached out to him on Monday.

"We're going to have a meeting later this week," he said.

Mouw and Ronald Sider, another member of Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, will sit down with two members of the White House faith outreach office to address their concerns.

When asked if he would vote for Biden again and issue a statement in support of his candidacy if the 2020 presidential election was still forthcoming and he knew that Biden would support a coronavirus relief bill that excluded Hyde Amendment protections, Mouw responded that he would "vote the same way" while adding, "I would not give my public support."

Mouw indicated that while he disagrees with Biden's position on abortion, there are other areas where he has found common ground with the new administration, specifically on the issues of global warming and immigration.

Acknowledging that he received "a lot of angry messages from right-to-life people," some of whom called him "naive" due to his support for Biden and subsequent feelings of betrayal, Mouw still defended the object of his previous remarks in support of Biden. He said they would be necessary to provide reassurance to the "many younger evangelicals who are not happy about ... the way in which their parents and grandparents have endorsed and defended the Trump administration."

"We ... don't want to lose them to evangelicalism because of what is perceived as a mean-spirited, highly partisan commitment on the part of the older generation of evangelicals who voted 81% ... in the presidential election before this last one for Mr. Trump," he said.

"We thought it was important to hold up the right to life position and at the same time, say it's OK to be concerned about a broader range of issues such as global warming and children at the border separated from their parents and those kinds of questions. And so, we wanted to use our own access through the Biden campaign people to at least get them to stay in conversation with people like us."

In addition to explaining that he was "less optimistic" about the possibility of Biden and the Democratic Party building a "bigger tent" to accommodate pro-lifers, Mouw expressed concern about the president's support for another major legislative initiative: The Equality Act.

According to Mouw, the legislation puts "the rights of Christian institutions to preserve commitments to traditional biblical teaching regarding sexuality without being penalized in terms of federal grants, federal loans for students" in jeopardy.

"A lot of Christian colleges and universities are well over 50% dependent in their tuition income on students getting federal loans," the Fuller Seminary president emeritus added.

Mouw warned that making "the sexuality issue" an eligibility requirement for "receiving students with federal loans" would deal a "huge blow" to faith-based schools.

Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Biden had vowed to push for the Equality Act's passage within his first 100 days in office. Biden indicated that he would work to codify Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, into law.

Biden's documented public support for policies widely opposed by evangelicals has led some conservatives, like former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, to conclude that "'Evangelicals' for Biden are getting exactly what they voted for."

44 Years of Church Growth! - Don't tell Wayne Mueller.

WELS Is All About Worship - Calvinist Worship

Kirk Meyer (Kirk) Member Username: Kirk Post Number: 130 Registered: 2-2002

Posted on Sunday, November 22, 2020 - 7:31 pm:       WELS congregants will utter their third version of the Nicene Creed in 30 years, as the new hymnal will have "truly human." That now fully matches the ELLC text used by some other church bodies, including the ELCA. Source: On the Translation of the Nicene Creed in Christian Worship Some other interesting changes for confessional Lutherans might include: Luther's "We Praise You Jesus at Your Birth" is removed. Many other historic Lutheran hymns are likewise removed. Luther's "In Peace and Joy I Now Depart" bears a new tune CHULA VISTA, with the original relegated to the digital edition. Getty sees more hymns included than Luther or than Gerhardt. The Q&A boasts: "There will be a wide selection of hymns by Keith and Kristyn Getty and some other modern hymn writers like them." The post-communion canticle is merged into the closing hymn, which is optional. The following hymns have been completely retranslated, apparently in an effort to bring them into wider use (but to frustrate those who already sing them from memory): Joyously I'll Praise My Savior (I Will Sing My Maker's Praises) From Depths of Woe, Lord God, I Cry (From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee) Order My Life, Lord, as You Will (Lord, as Thou Wilt, Deal Thou with Me) Your Days and Ways to God Surrender (If Thou But Trust in God to Guide Thee) O Lord, Take Pity Once You’ve Seen (O, Lord, Look Down from Heaven, Behold) Source: CW Tentative Hymn list

Centenniel of Apostasy - Karl Barth's Triumph, Charlotte's Revenge

Charlotte Kirschbaum and Karl Barth worked together and traveled together.

This photo of Charlotte and Karl was taken many years later.

We can safely claim that Calvinist Karl Barth and his mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum were able to undermine Western Christianity with a two-fold attack. He appealed to the professors with his double-talking Dogmatics, and became the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, thanks to faculty studies at Basel, Switzerland. His commentary on Romans in 1919 created a sensation, and he soon became a professor rather than a parish pastor. Thus the Centennial of Apostasy.

Before taking Barth (Kirschbaum) seriously, read this book.

When various people express their awe of Barth, they either do not know or want to know about his Marxist thought or his live-in mistress, Charlotte Kirschbaum. That has been thoroughly discussed by George Hunsinger, head of the Barth Institute (Temple) at Princeton. I met Hunsinger at Yale, worked at the Yale Medical Library with his first wife, and met him again at Notre Dame. 

"As his unique student, critic, researcher, adviser, collaborator, companion, assistant, spokesperson, and confidante, Charlotte von Kirschbaum was indispensable to him. He could not have been what he was, or have done what he did, without her." Hunsinger, review of the S. Seliger book, Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology.

Barth was not trained to be an academic, and he was swamped. The mysterious Charlotte Kirschbaum showed up to be his assistant and his mistress. He tried to divorce his wife Nelly, but she said "Nein! mein Schnutschi-Putschi." He lived with Charlotte during the summer and moved her into his home a bit later.

We know next to nothing about Charlotte, who was willing to work for almost nothing her entire life. She was clearly the researcher and likely the one who wrote the small print in the Dogmatics. She went with him on his trips and shared the same room when he stayed at faculty homes on his trip to America. She represented him at a major Marxist confab.

In Academics

Schleiermacher, educated at Halle University, had a major struggle with the Christian Faith, so his father's urging him to study made him a highly educated sceptic. The result was a theologian who established "faith without belief," the theologians characterized by my friend as "people with a sentimental attachment to Christianity."

Schleiermacher was ideal for those who were really rationalists but chose to remain within the Church by using their God-talk, their faith-words, to express their ideas.

Barth and Kirschbaum built upon this by created a system where the radicals could exploit their double-talk from within the institution, a far more effective position than outside of it.

Barth was the dominant theologian at Notre Dame in the 1980s. Frank Fiorenza, now at Harvard, was the president of the Barth Society at one point. He shared Barth's co-writing tactics with us. As he said, "Most of us in the Barth Society thought Charlotte wrote the fine print and he wrote the large print." For those uninitiated in Barthology, the large print was the outline of each section, written in complete sentences in a larger font. Many people extolled the fine print and the special essays in the volumes. Some of the large print sections or markers were laughable.

My main advisor for the dissertation was John Howard Yoder, who studied under Barth at Basel. This made Yoder a rock star among Mennonites. Hauerwas encouraged Notre Dame to share Yoder with Goshen College, which was not far away. Hauerwas was another advisor.

Various names are mentioned among the famous modern theologians, but Barth's was always on the list, just as much for Catholics as for Protestants. Having a major work, with 12 fat volumes, was a great way to dominate in publishing and influence. 

In Church Growth

Two key figures at Fuller Seminary studied with Barth in Basel. One was the founder's son. The Battle for the Bible and its sequel deal with this. The anti-inerrancy people won, and the credit for this back-sliding was given to Barth's influence.

Fuller is not only the most influential school for Evangelicals, but also the finishing school for LCMS-WELS leaders. Those WELS-LCMS leaders who have studied there would make a glorious Wall of Shame for anyone curious about their decline. David Valleskey and Frosty Bivens are so devious that they brag about their Fuller studies to some and deny it (calling me a liar) to others.

One step removed, C. Peter Wagner earned his doctorate at Princeton, a very liberal Calvinist school, home of the Barth Society (Temple).

For WELS, LCMS, and ELCA, union with Calvinism is a nostalgic trip back to their roots. They make up 99% of registered but confused Lutherans in America. The three denominations began with a heavy dose of unionism with the Calvinists, struggled to pull away, but ran back, just like the abused children who defend their moms in court and deny the broken bones and bruises.

Fuller argues that they can turn up the heat slowly for the frog in the kettle, and it will not jump out - it will stay in until thoroughly cooked. Then why have so many Lutherans jumped out?

Valleskey borrowed "spoiling the Egyptians" from Barna, who borrowed it from Augustine. Notice how fast an analogy goes downhill? I had various Mordor graduates warming, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!" I responded, "Don't wash the baby in sewage."

The Fortune Cookie Theologian

One Sentence Teaches Us All We Need to Know

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

"Like many Fathers who seemed to be sound on the Godhead, Cyril promoted errors in other areas. He stressed the "real presence" in the communion elements, and the saving efficacy of baptism."

J. A. Moorman, Early Manuscripts, Church Fathers, and the Authorized Version, p. 344.

As many know, the Lutherans abandoned the King James Version long ago. WELS even kicked out pastors who questioned the NIV, but LCMS joined them in hugging the NIV like it was the answer to Biblical clarity...and all their problems.

The author is clearly a Calvinist, a Fundamentalist. He writes in favor of the traditional text and the most precise translation (KJV) but cannot abide certain "errors" in Cyril.

That is the beauty of the KJV, which is more accurately called the Tyndale, or - The English Luther Bible. Nothing is squelched because the KJV editors sought accuracy rather than dumbing down, altering, and rephrasing for those offended by the efficacy of the Word and the Sacraments.

That is all the difference between Luther and Calvin. The Geneva prophet pretended to agree with Luther (that is - agree with the Bible). Calvin removed the connection of the Holy Spirit with the Word (always) and made it a matter of God's fickle nature. The sermon might be effective on Sunday or not - depending on where the sovereign Spirit stopped by. 

Notice that Sovereign has a special meaning to Calvinists - the denial of the Spirit/Word connection, though that connection is clearly taught throughout the Bible, especially in Isaiah 55 and John 3.

I hope most people will see the doctrinal implications in these dark days, when most of the denominations fiddle while burning to join Rome.

The liberals and self-described conservatives believe the same thing, that the Spirit does not work through the Word. Therefore, the Bible is nothing more than a platform for their ideas. 

 St. Tony Morgan of Unstuck. He will show you the light.

St. Tony has all his Church Growth certificates and awards. He has the typical Calvinist approach of examining all the facts and figuring out a method for reaching yet another level of excitement.

That is why young Calvinists become old Unitarians. The same is true of denominations. The LCA embraced Bratten-Jenson's idiotic Christian Dogmatics, which was the last gasp of people speaking about God language. The clergy found comfort in planning smells and bells services - without the Word - and heading for Rome where they could take serving the Antichrist seriously.

Christian Dogmatics, in two expensive volumes, denies all the articles of faith found in the Creeds. But at least they are talking about God. Worth $90, you betcha.

By removing the Spirit from the Word, the Calvinist Lutherans have chosen to rely on numbers, marketing, gimmicks, and the latest fads. And they make people pay dearly for it.

Hymns - The Treasures Being Buried

I am sure the fading WELS sect cannot argue with me about their fondness for Calvinism. Their newest hymnal debacle will include 25 pop Calvinist songs from the same, very wealthy couple. They are attached at the hip to to Calvinist clergy hipsters.

The WELS leadership for the last few decades has been dedicated to training their dullest and most conforming clergy and teachers in Calvinism at Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, and those special conferences like Catalyst, Soil, and Andy Stanley's rainbow worship series.

Lutherans have funded the Calvinists faster than the US has financed China, with similar results.

The public domain hymns of The Lutheran Hymnal (and some other sources) are worth using and preserving. I have noticed that the copyright hymns - which I leave alone - are also the most obscure ones. I wonder if that was done to make it tough to steal the last decent work of the Olde Synodical Conference. Now they plot together to destroy Justification by Faith (as if they could). They are better as eliminating their membership and devouring steaks and ale.

Here are some non-profit, tentative plans for The Bethany Lutheran Blog - all honor to TLH, etc etc:

1. Hymn lyrics and graphics will have their own pages, with the melodies linked.
2. Extra pages for honoring the great hymn authors, with their lyrics linked together.
3. Ditto for the great translators like Winkworth, Loy, and Neale.
4. As time allows, each hymn will be tagged for the section it is in, to make it easier to plan worship. That way I can line up pages of links for Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, and some topics too.
5. People have already volunteered to help edit and enhance the blog. Just by checking over a few hymns I found some mistakes in planning and those pesky but sometimes funny typos.

People should ask, "If The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 was so bad, why has no one created a better one in 80 years?"

Why are the synods so anxious to charge annual fees for the dubious effect of computerizing their Seeker Services?

If they are so good at this, why are their membership losses catastrophic?

Why Lutherans Are Leaving Calvinism for Roman Catholic Dungeons

No one should be surprised that Lutherans leave Holy Mother Synod for Catholicism. Edward Preuss, still honored for his confused Objective Justification essay - The Justification of the Sinner - was the first to signal his alarm at the emptiness, the sterility, and dead rationalism of his sect. He left Missouri for Rome. More importantly, he left the Concordia St. Louis faculty for Rome.

One effort made by Matt the Fatt in his initial run for synod president, LCMS, was to keep Father Weedon on the plantation by making him the Court Preacher for the Purple Palace. All was well for the Romanists in the LCMS. Paul the Plagiarist did everything short of moving Bishop Sheen's beatification forward in his copycat (now dead) blog. The LCMS papalists must have grinned with every McCain post taken directly from The Catholic Encyclopedia - TCE is free for those dumb enough to want or need it - and linked for LutherQueasies to read.

The key factor emerged in an essay about Jack Kerouac. The beat  in Beat Generation is short for beatitude, because he always thought in terms of Jesus, devotion, and Roman Catholic prayer. Everything was a quest for holiness, no matter how tortured his life became.

Lutherans in WELS-ELS-LCMS-CLC (sic) have some of the outward tokens of Catholicism but none of transcendent experiences they imagine from over the fence.

• Is it a wonder that David Scaer, the purest in OJ, is more papal than the pope? 
• The services at Ft. Wayne blanketed by incense? 

Their Grand March down the Werning chapel aisle features that special pose priests have to strike - for, during, and after the Mass (source - priest, Notre Dame PhD, professor of worship, member of an order devoted to Mary).

This graphic is from ELDONA. Did pure OJ dogma or Justification by Faith doctrine terrorize Missouri?

Roman Catholicism is a vast collection of manipulated emotions, while the OJ Lutherans are the perfect definition of Calvinism - a sermon surrounded by four white walls. No wonder ELDONA was formed to be a little papal state, where the office is exalted above the Word, where their plagiarized ceremonies are supposed to instill fear in other Lutherans.

Traditional Roman Catholics snicker at converts for imitating them clumsily, like pony riders at a dude ranch. It takes more than clothing and a spittoon to make a cowboy.

Apology Tour

Lutherans anxiously wait for the overdue Apology Tour, where Matt the Fatt, Pope John the Malefactor, and Mirthless Mark travel around their sectarian shambles to apologize for destroying their own synods. (We would like to thank Thrivent for facilitating the madness they created.)

Calvinism has taken over completely, and there is only one direction for that dogma to go - from rationalistic dogma to rationalism to Unitarianism. More than a few know where Unitarianism leads - just look at all the radical trends in our society today, imposed (often by law, always by selective diversity) upon us all.

The Lutheran Librarian has documentary proof - in the 19th century books published - that Means of Grace, Justification by Faith, liturgical and credal Lutheran doctrine was taught and practiced. Synods grew on dimes rather than collapsing on millions. Congregations were established and revived. Spiritual wisdom was shared as treasures to be enjoyed.

I am so alarmed at the loss of good hymns that we sing all the verses of long hymns, usually broken up into to segments. Luther and Gerhardt are so simple and profound that they deserve that attention, and we gain from their hymns. That is our rosary, our incense, our chasuble, mitre, crosier, and cope.

No wonder the Lutherans sects need new Biblical translations paraphrases and more sappy hymnals.

"From Heaven Above to Earth I Come"

by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

1. "From heaven above to earth I come
To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring,
Whereof I now will say and sing:
2. "To you this night is born a child
Of Mary, chosen virgin mild;
This little child, of lowly birth,
Shall be the joy of all the earth.

3. "This is the Christ, our God and Lord,
Who in all need shall aid afford;
He will Himself your Savior be
From all your sins to set you free.

4. "He will on you the gifts bestow
Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair,
You may with us His glory share.

5. "These are the tokens ye shall mark:
The swaddling-clothes and manger dark;
There ye shall find the Infant laid
By whom the heavens and earth were made."

6. Now let us all with gladsome cheer
Go with the shepherds and draw near
To see the precious gift of God,
Who hath His own dear Son bestowed.

7. Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes!
What is it in yon manger lies?
Who is this child, so young and fair?
The blessed Christ-child lieth there.
8. Welcome to earth, Thou noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
Thou com'st to share my misery;
What thanks shall I return to Thee?

9. Ah, Lord, who hast created all,
How weak art Thou, how poor and small,
That Thou dost choose Thine infant bed
Where humble cattle lately fed!

10. Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
It yet were far too poor to be
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.

11. For velvets soft and silken stuff
Thou hast but hay and straw so rough,
Whereon Thou, King, so rich and great,
As 'twere Thy heaven, art throned in state.

12. And thus, dear Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To make this truth quite plain to me,
That all the world's wealth, honor, might,
Are naught and worthless in Thy sight.

13. Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

14. My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song:

15. Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto us His Son hath given!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #85
Text: Luke 2: 1-18
Author: Martin Luther, 1535
Tune: Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1855, alt.
1st published in: "Geistliche Lieder" Leipzig, 1539

 Children learning the Gospel at the Bethany Lutheran Mission in the Philippines.

Perhaps This Explains the Downfall of LCMS-WELS-ETC - The Unrequited Love Affair with Calvinism

Valleskey pleaded for everyone to spoil the Egyptians, to grow figs on thistles. Behold! the fruits of that growth program - they are prickly but sterile.

Why has Lutherdom welcomed the influence of Calvinism, so much like turning away from a home-cooked banquet to eat a Swanson TV Dinner? (Long ago, Bill Clinton bought the Swanson House in Fayetteville, Ark, for his lovely wife. Swanson was the inventor of TV dinners.)

Historically, the Prussian Union forced a merger of Lutherans and Calvinists, with Calvinism winning the doctrinal battle.

LCMS-WELS propagandists would like everyone to believe they formed their sects as a protest against this Calvinist-Lutheran union, but the LCMS-WELsians were just the opposite - rationalistic Pietists glowing from the influence of Halle - their Mecca, their Bethlehem, their spotless Paradise before the Fall.

Anyone can see this influence in each issue of Calvinist News, misnamed Christian News, nee Lutheran News.

Hardly anything reflects Biblical, Lutheran doctrine in CN. As I wrote earlier, using control-f to locate

• Justification by Faith (found in the Bible, unlike Objective Justification), 
• Efficacy of the Word (an entire word-group in the New Testament), or 
• The Means of Grace (a frequent Book of Concord term)

will be almost fruitless.

The Preus Crime Family found it useful to use the Calvinist Battle for the Bible to unite Missourians and see their OJ.

Fundamentalism was not the backwoods, moonshine-inspired, tongue-speaking movement of illiterates, but a series of Calvinist pamphlets sponsored by a wealthy Calvinist.

The project was initially conceived in 1909 by California businessman Lyman Stewart, the founder of Union Oil and a devout Presbyterian and dispensationalist. He and his brother Milton anonymously provided funds for composing, printing, and distributing the publication. The project had three successive editors: A. C. Dixon, Louis Meyer, and Reuben Archer Torrey. The essays were written by sixty-four different authors, representing most of the major Protestant Christian denominations... 

The volumes defended orthodox Protestant beliefs and attacked higher criticism, liberal theology, Roman Catholicism (called Romanism by many Protestants of the time), socialism, modernism, atheism, Christian Science, Mormonism, Millennial Dawn (whose members were sometimes known as Russellites, but which later adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses), spiritualism, and evolutionism. 

Calvinism relies on rationalism to prove its dogmas, which is appealing to Lutherans untrained in the efficacy of the Word. The entire "science proves Creation" business is a racket where the obvious revelation of God is replaced by a "proof" they can see and touch.

Calvinist cat - "Mission accomplished."

Faint Praise for Toxic Mercury

Boys used to play with blobs of mercury, which was fun with old wooden desks, inkwells, and carved initials where a blob could be stored. Unfortunately, as many found out, mercury has a great affinity for silver and gold. Once the mercury touches a gold or silver ring, the toxic metal adheres - no washing it off.

Dentists know that because many fillings are amalgam. The term is an abbreviation for silver-mercury amalgam. The dental scientists add toxic mercury to silver to make the filling more flexible. It is strange how parents warned us not to play with mercury and paid dentists to entomb silver-mercury in our mouths.

Calvinism is just like mercury, adhering to what is good and pure, almost impossible to remove. John Calvin took over the rationalism and Enthusiasm of Zwingli, swaggering with the same pride and lack of Biblical comprehension. Worst of all, Calvin tried to fool everyone about how much he agreed with Luther.

One pesky writer taunted Calvin into admitting how much he disagreed with Luther's Biblical teaching. His name was Westphal, famous for Calvin's tirade - Against Westphal.

Ever since, Calvinists have tried to achieve unity by having Lutherans drop:

1. Baptismal regeneration
2. The efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace
3. The Real Presence, and
4. Justification by Faith.

Perhaps many Calvinists would claim Justification by Faith, but I see little evidence of that. Many Calvinists dwell on covenant to such an extent that they say, "If I am faithful to God and obey Him, He will reward me." That is not true of every Calvinist, and heaven knows the Calvinists are quite different from each other. But that covenant concept is common, and rarely does a Calvinist mention Abraham in connection with Justification by Faith.

Calvinists moved into the German territories and scrapped with Lutherans. The friction led the government to move toward uniting the Lutherans and the Calvinists into one, big, happy Calvinist family. F. Schleiermacher, the unbeliever who studied theology at Halle U. and taught there, moved the government along toward a complete union of the two confessions.

The Calvinist victory shows in the dominance of Objective Justification, Election without Faith, Church Growth, and the NIV/ESV abominations.

Marketing the Gospel? - Calvinism.

Gimmicks during sermons? - Calvinism.

Getting rid of the liturgy and creeds - Calvinism.

I think the ad came from WELS for the 500th, I am not sure. But the wording came from Lutherans and it said this - "No matter what Luther's short-comings were, at least he pointed to Christ."

The wording struck me because it was used by Pieper to show what was wrong with Calvinism. The Calvinists, like Kalnis (now forgotten), said the Word of God is like a statue of Mercury (such irony) that points the way but does not give a person the power to go that direction. Yes, Calvinism thinks the Word is dead, like their cast iron statue of Mercury in the garden. They have to make the Word of God 

• attractive (marketing), 
• relevant (The CORE), and 
• reasonable (Objective Justification).

At the Chicago Inerrancy Conference, as I wrote before, I heard one Calvinist belittle Dr. Robert Preus for not doing those three things (bullets, above) in his doctrinal paper. The individual went on to say he would not accept a paper like that from a student at his seminary. I would have quipped, "I would bet on that, you Enthusiast!"

One must see Calvinism for what it is to realize how it amalgamated itself to the American Lutherans and triumphed with Objective Justification and Church Growth. Those who want to be one with so-called Evangelicals - like David Valleskey and Paul Kelm - are also the people who stuff Church Growth down everyone's throat.

Calvinism Strangles Faith

 Many Lutheran leaders will deny their Calvinism, but they were obsessed with an urge to build and improve Biblical doctrine, just like Calvin.

"Young Calvinist, old Unitarian." - That is a popular saying that describes New England so well. Fifty years ago, the Calvinist congregations had morphed into the United Church of Christ (UCC). Large buildings were almost empty; the ministers denied the articles of faith in the Apostles Creed.

Nor did the Unitarians stay the same over the years. They went far beyond a denial of the Trinity to an antagonistic stance toward religion. How did they fill the void left? They found a purpose in extreme Leftist social justice warrior, more strident than the UCC.

The letters in Unitarianism can be rearranged to spell - "Tis I ruin a man."

The Other Side of Calvinism is a good analysis of their theological pitfalls, but Calvinism is more than a dogma. Calvinism starts with an attitude of building and correction, amalgamating like mercury onto silver or gold. When kids used to play with drops of mercury in school, they found the liquid would attach itself to silver or gold and never come off. A ring could become precious metal with toxic mercury virtually welded on.

In Baptist churches today, Reformed (Calvinist) Baptists take over congregations, change the constitution, hire their own people, and change the doctrine to:

• double predestination, 
• what they call sovereign grace,
• the subordination of faith, and
• adding a heavy dose of human reason, intellectualism.

Calvinism in the Lutheran Church is as natural as dry rot, mildew, and decay, something that happens when Biblical doctrine is neglected, in the name of building and correcting. Our history of united Protestantism by surrendering to Calvinism is shameful, both in Europe (facilitated by Halle's Schleiermacher) and in America (endorsed by Samuel S. Schmucker).

Calvinism denies the efficacy of the Word, so it denies the Sacraments. Calvin mocked the Real Presence in Holy Communion. One is born into the Covenant of Grace - sound familiar, Edward Preuss fans?.

 A Calvinist can turn every color but white, imitating the chameleon. Walther loved this essay.

BY GRACE!

How many times have I heard a pastor say to me, without prompting, "We are saved BY GRACE! through faith"? 

Innocuous? Why pull out the organ stops on BY GRACE? 

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

The statement is not wrong by itself, but it is an odd slant to use a salvation passage to build upon and correct justification. Subtle! The implication is that everyone is already forgiven and saved BY GRACE! and that message becomes valid when someone believes he was already forgiven and saved BY GRACE!

Note also that the misuse of this passage pits grace against faith, contrary to Romans 4, and it is constantly used to correct people, leaving the individual feeling that Justification by Faith is a denial of grace.

 Another dream down the drain, but there is more money and less work in life insurance, and so many good causes to support.

Church Growth

What have we learned about Church Growth after 17,000 posts on this blog? The initial leaders were Robert Schuller, a liberal Calvinist, and Donald McGavran, a liberal Disciples missionary with a PhD in sociology. The Donald came to Fuller after they repudiated their weak, watered-down inerrancy statement and the more conservative faculty left (See the Battle for the Bible).

And yet, the WELS-LCMS-ELCA leaders were

1. enthralled by Fuller, 
2. sent to be trained there, especially world and domestic missionary leaders, and 
3. rewarded for studying there and denying it - numbskulls like Larry Olson, Frosty Bivens, and David Valleskey

The Fuller salesmen declared, "We do not want to change your doctrine." (Ha!) "We only want to build upon and improve what you are already doing. God wants His Church to grow."

The Fuller faculty showed the Lutherans what human reason craves - the exact answers on how to be successful by studying the numbers, the demographics! 

Look at Schuller's example - get rid of the denomination name! But now - he was kicked out of his own congregation and the campus is now a Roman Catholic Cathedral. Garden Grove Community Church no longer exists.

Look at Paul Y. Cho's example - build on cell groups. He was jailed with his son for raiding the church treasury.

Look at the Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona! The pastor had a sudden revelation about the worth of entertainment evangelism. He fired the staff, and saw his chimera collapse and disappear, faster than a meringue pie left on a sunny window sill.

 The NIV and ESV are distinctively Calvinist, so lots more people will join our unionistic sect!

BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE!

Slogans are so handy in taking people away from Biblical truth to man's understanding.

"The church is just like a business. If it isn't growing, it's dying."

"We can market the church the same way retail products are sold."

"Because Jesus died for the sins of the world. the entire world has been declared righteous, forgiven and saved, by God."

LCMS, ELS, WELS, CLC (sic) 

"Evangelism is easy for WELS. Just tell people - you are already forgiven." 

Former WELS SP-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller, Waldo Werning Lecturer, Camp Trinity, New Haven, Missouri