Time To Dump the Big Five Apostates - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)

 

Newly elected Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, 2013.

I will cover the ELCA convention in Phoenix, starting on July 28th, bidding a fond farewell to the most obnoxious  of the five sects, all united by Universal Objective Justification and Thrivent irrevocable annuities.

ELCA has lost about 50% of its membership since the January 1988 merger, hastened by the radicals, a Spindletop of gleeful vulgarity.

Spindletop - Known for its gushing.

 Newly vaccinated Presiding Bishop Eaton.

I am going to post very little on the Big Five Apostates because there is much more to be said elsewhere about the Scriptures, sound doctrine, Luther, and the KJV.

I will also post a series about good nutrition and the God-given benefits of healing rather than fast-fooding.

"Brett, Liz had a wonderful 12 years of expelling traditional Lutherans. Could I be Bishop again?"

 This beautiful graphic was sent to an ELCA bishop, by mistake!

 That is what the layman claimed.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 2 - "But the meaning and substance of this text is, that while the Gospel is preached and published in all the world, few people accept it. And it is here called a supper or an evening meal, because the Gospel shall be the last word or doctrine that will usher in the end of the world. 3. Therefore this supper is nothing else than a rich, expensive meal, which God has provided in Christ through the Gospel, in which he spreads before us great possessions and rich treasures."

 

They risked their lives signing the Augsburg Confession - But the Big Five Apostates today - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - are only good for Thrivent, abortion on demand, and every rainbow distortion belonging to their Father Below.

Luther's Sermons - Luke 14:16-24.
Second Sunday after Trinity

Text. Luke 14:16-24. 16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

III. CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF THE TEACHINGS CONCERNING THE GREAT SUPPER.

1. Here in this Gospel lesson, as everywhere in the Scriptures, we are to be careful that we grasp, as well as we can, the true, simple meaning, as we have often heard, and establish our hearts and consciences in that meaning.

For whoever will contend with satan, dare not waver and sway hither and thither, but must be convinced of his cause and be armed with clear sure written documents, for if the devil gets him on his fork through his unsettled notions, he will then toss him here and there as the wind does the dry leaf.

2. Therefore we must here in this Gospel grasp its true meaning, in which we may be able to stand. It is not to be understood as referring to the holy Sacrament or the bread of the altar, to which the Papists have pulled it as it were by the hair on holy Corpus Christi day, along with many other passages of Scripture, which have not in a single letter any reference or very little to that Sacrament. But the meaning and substance of this text is, that while the Gospel is preached and published in all the world, few people accept it. And it is here called a supper or an evening meal, because the Gospel shall be the last word or doctrine that will usher in the end of the world.

3. Therefore this supper is nothing else than a rich, expensive meal, which God has provided in Christ through the Gospel, in which he spreads before us great possessions and rich treasures.

4. This invitation, however, took place thus, as the text says: The Lord sent out his servant to invite the guests to this costly supper, that is, the Apostles were all sent forth with one and the same word into all the world, to bid and call to this supper with one voice and with one Gospel, or with one message. Thus, when St. Peter arrived at and preached in a place where St. Paul had preached before, it was the same teaching which the one preached as the other, and the hearers also could say: Behold, he preaches just like we heard before from the first one; they agree and are one and the same. In order to show this unity, the Evangelist says: “And he sent forth his servant,” and says not, his servants, as if he spake of many servants. But the message, the servant should execute and with which he should gain recruits, was: “Come; for all things are now ready.”

Collapsing Faster Than A Meringue Pie Left in the Sun

 

2013 began to promote ELCA female bishops.

These recent ELCA bishops claimed the Holy Spirit was locked in their closet.

God picked her up and kissed her.

LOUISVILLE — As registration continues for the popular Stewardship Kaleidoscope Conference, to be held Sept. 22-24 in New Orleans, the planning team welcomes the Rev. Dr. Becca Ehrlich, DMin, to the speaker platform.

Image

The Rev. Dr. Becca Ehrlich

Ehrlich, an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and author of the 2021 book “Christian Minimalism: Simple Steps for Abundant Living,” will give the closing keynote address as well as lead the conference’s final service of worship on Wednesday, Sept. 24. She replaces the Rev. Dr. Katrina Foster, who withdrew from conference leadership following her May 3 election as bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the ELCA.

“We are so excited that Pastor Becca is able to join us for Stewardship Kaleidoscope 2025,” said the Rev. Timothy J. Brown, the ELCA’s Director of Congregational Stewardship and a member of the conference’s all-volunteer planning team. “She is a great preacher who approaches stewardship from a minimalist perspective.”

Themed “Stewardship: The Art of Resiliency,” this year’s conference will be held live at the Sheraton Canal Street in New Orleans. To enable broader participation, a virtual attendee registration option will once again be available.

In addition to attending diverse plenary sessions and worship experiences, on-site conference participants will be able to choose from dozens of workshops, including one taught by Ehrlich. Virtual attendees will be able to attend livestreamed and recorded plenaries and worship, and will also have access to eight workshops, four of which will be available via be livestream.

In addition to Ehrlich, featured keynote speakers and preachers this year include...

Nota bene

The ELCA pastor, above, is replacing the original speaker below, who is now an ELCA bishop. Couldn't they find a Presbyterian speaker?

 Rev. Dr. Katrina Foster, DMin

Her time at Fordham was not without its controversy, however. In 2007, after she disclosed that she had married a woman in a religious ceremony (gay marriage was not legal at the time) and that the two were raising a child together, Pastor Foster, along with other gay and lesbian clergy, faced the possibility of being defrocked by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The country’s largest Lutheran denomination, it then permitted openly gay pastors to serve but prohibited them from being in same-sex relationships. (Eventually, Pastor Foster was allowed to stay in the church; she and her partner are now legally married. The church itself has since closed.)

Female bishops in ELCA went viral, thanks to the scope, energy, enthusiasm, and gifts of Elizabeth Eaton, part-time ELCA bishop.

The Day of Pentecost

 

So thin-skinned he had to ridicule the elderly pastor.

The Day of Pentecost is this Sunday, so many congregations will have members speaking their various languages, all at the same time. That cacophony (evil speech for those who avoided Greek) should be classified as cuteness, because the original event was not a dubious show-and-tell display.

Not far from the Ichabode, a congregation bought a church building and gave it the title of Holy Spirit, in fact, only Holy Spirit - no Trinity.

Although Pentecost was upgraded by the Vatican, and encouraged by the mainline copycats, few denominations make much of Pentecost. Anything miraculous makes parents nervous and eager to explain. "Billy, we don't really mean that, and turn off the Tik-Tok."

I contend, with support from Luther and the KJV, the overwhelming work of the Spirit throughout the Scriptures. The Spirit is there in Genesis 1, teaching us about the Father and the Son. The Unitarians in ELCA and the Church Growth Movement pass on by, since they have the power of Drucker, the insights of Waldo Werning, the depth of Lawrence Otto Olson.

If we pay attention to the ecclesiastical stars, they are the salvation of all the goodness of their campaigns, videos, manuals, and D.Min. certifications. In fact, they are no better than the stuffing found in Amazon boxes and Salvation Army bags.

The Spirit advocates the truth, not the hollowed out fads of yesterday. 

KJV John 16:8 And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on Me;

The wrong questions are... everything except believing in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, the Son of God, Savior, Lamb of God.

Call Me Pentecostal

 

The Pentecostal label may have dwindled or merged - hard to tell. When Christianity Today phoned me about Cho - the Korean felon, years ago, he asked me how I obtained a particular statement. I said to the editor, "I got that from your magazine!" Christina found the reference for me - at the Luther Seminary library. 

Pentecostalism was hot in all the mainlines, which I noticed in Midland, Michigan, including the LCMS congregations to some extent. Those days were the birth pangs of "Church Growth, sometimes expressed as Church Growth." (I heard a WELS DP say that without projectile vomiting.)

I learned the reason for the LCMS being so infatuated with themselves. The lies about Stephan and CFW Walther were a Fort Knox of dishonesty. Even worse, the delusional clergy and laity distorted the Gospel horrendously to gild the statues and statutes of The Great Walther with constant praise. 

Granted - the Lutheran Church in America was tepid at best and Marxist at the upper levels. Each glob of Lutherdom praised itself (ALC versus LCA versus LCMS, etc). 

This turmoil got me to pursue the Biblical issues in relation to the Book of Concord, even when the LCMS Michigan District President asked me about serving one of his Pentecostal congregations. I quoted Luther - "They act as if they swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all." 

?!

Pentecostal

I suggest that people study the Holy Spirit in the KJV, Luther, and such authors as Melanchthon and Chemnitz. I am afraid that 99% of Lutherdom today is empty, whether radical in its gay atheism (not just ELCA) or sweating for a replacement for Church Growth - packaged, putrid, programs.

The Lutheran synods do not know where they are going because they have so many baubles to play with, so little content. As one stupefied WELS leader said, "Isn't it great that we had three pastors and three churches! Now we will have two pastors in one church with more attendance." Yay!!!! What???? 

"Wuz I smart or not?"

He is really onto something, but what it is, I can't tell.

Nostalgia Tour

 

My neighbor from the former dairy farm started me on Clethra. He was proud to see the bushes growing in my backyard. When he saw that I had poison hemlock, he laughed, "Just don't eat it." It was sent away, wrapped up.

This morning I worked over the links on the left column of Ichabod in order to emphasize the positive. Everyone already has access to the denominations, even if they have no access to grace - due to lack of faith in Jesus Christ. Bellowing "grace!" without faith is a carnival cry. 

Most clergy will say, "Not enough people for the upcoming Ascension Day." We have a big solution for a little audience - 1s and zeroes. Almost everything is comprised that way, a bonus of nostalgia. Everyone with the Internet can enjoy the Ascension Day hymns and liturgy, even a sermon. Zoom has its complexities, broadcasting live and storing with YouTube, but even the geezer squad can get it going and solve the problems.

I have nothing new to say about the Big Five Apostates, all bundled in Thrivent Insurance and elderly annuities. Therefore, it is best to spend time about the past, even if the faithful are small in number today.

Yesterday I had the grungy delight of moving a Clethra closer to the bird feeders in the front yard. My new perspective inside let me watch the feeders through the living room window, with Charlie Sue on my lap. Both of us were pleased. She got to watch the birds close up and stuck to me like Velcro.

The task was loosening the extra Clethra around several times, then lying down to cut the roots loose. I had the empty space cleared and that was easy. I poured water from the rain-barrel into the hole and placed the plant for its new adventure, more rainwater added.

KJV Isaiah 55

8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Those verses alone should smash and scatter the Church Growth follies of Luther-dumb, but the peddlers are immune. They occupy the high places and despise those who visit the sick and dying, teach the Catechism, and study the King James Version.

So what good is the Clethra? Catnip for pollinators! Its flowers are so tiny that the smallest insects hide within them. The fragrance attracts the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Smaller birds land within the bush for safety and rest. Best of all, human garden visitors will inhale the Cinnabon aroma, many feet away.

Lacking the concept of Creation, the Father-Son-Spirit in Genesis 1, our modern day growth experts have no idea why their mausoleums are crumbling. Christine and I visited the Purpose Driven Babtist Church by chance and listened to the Rev. clown prince (Rick Warren) make people laugh. We also attended the fabulous Willow Creek Community Adultery Church - Bill Hybels. I wondered where the cross was, absent in the "ahem" worship area. Expensive food followed in the swine court. Not good food, but expensive food.

My friend from Dow Chemical came by our house in Midland, to see the supposed Silver Queen corn I was growing from of a deep area of compost. He doubted my story at the same time we were going back behind the garage. "Silver Queen tends to be short." He stopped and looked up at the stalks. All I did was accumulate the power of God's creatures turning organic matter into a hotel for greedy Silver Queen seeds. 

If people do not comprehend Creation, they will not understand the power of God's Word.

ELCA Warms Up for a Hot Phoenix Assembly

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. ELCA+ installation."

"I am not Joe Biden's hospital chaplain!"

Source? - ALPB Ovaltines 

"By 2011, the ELCA's financial situation had changed significantly. According to reports, national donations decreased from $88 million in 2008 to $40 million in 2011. This decline in revenue was accompanied by a drop in membership, with over 600 congregations leaving the ELCA between August 2009 and January 2011." 

"Now, Brett. I was not going to be the first ELCA Archbishop to copy the Presbyterians. But they threatened me with Liz Eaton, because she learned choir music at Harvard Div. What followed was not my fault!!"

"Porgia, we are going to have a delicious lunch in Phoenix, thanks to Thrivent."

"You lied. You lied! You lied about lunch!"

ELCA Numbers

 

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson - "Now Brett, I did not do all the damage. I set ELCA up to become a 100% gay-lesbian synod, but Elizabeth Eaton really took them to the heights - or rather - the dump, from 2009 to her glorious election."

In 2008, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved a churchwide budget with a current fund income of $81.67 million and a World Hunger income proposal of $19.25 million, totaling approximately $100.92 million.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

By 2011, the ELCA's financial situation had changed significantly. According to reports, national donations decreased from $88 million in 2008 to $40 million in 2011. This decline in revenue was accompanied by a drop in membership, with over 600 congregations leaving the ELCA between August 2009 and January 2011. Source - ALPB Ovaltines

The latest pie-in-the-face is Budde's attack against President Trump, a level of raw stupidity that most clergy would avoid. The canons of polite discourse are far better than the tired, blistering rants of feminist hags. She might have done a bit better, copying the ELCA female bishops who chanted about letting the Female Holy Spirit burst out of the closet.

Because I’m telling you what, the Spirit is up to something …

Bishops: Amen. Yes, she is.

Briner: … if we would just let her out.

Bishops: Let her out. Get out of her way.

Briner: Open the doors and let her out.

Bishops: She’s out! She is loose!

Thus some of the ELCA bishops got into the media and helped drive the nails deeper into their own synods and seminaries.

Listen Up to the Great Slogan from the First Female Archbishop of ELCA.And Good Riddance!

 

According to the ELCA website, early in her tenure, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton set forth her own convictions to guide the members of the ELCA in understanding our unique identity, and these convictions have become a recognized way of articulating who we are:

We are church.

We are Lutheran.

We are church together.

We are church for the sake of the world.

That sums up the tenure of Liz Eaton when she could have resigned.

All the ELCA seminaries are closing, so make sure your compost tumblers are ready to move.

***

And LCMS-WELS-ELS-etc Want To Work with ELCA?

From the ALPB Ovaltines

In 2008, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved a churchwide budget with a current fund income of $81.67 million and a World Hunger income proposal of $19.25 million, totaling approximately $100.92 million.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

By 2011, the ELCA's financial situation had changed significantly. According to reports, national donations decreased from $88 million in 2008 to $40 million in 2011. This decline in revenue was accompanied by a drop in membership, with over 600 congregations leaving the ELCA between August 2009 and January 2011

I had no idea. My impression was giving to churchwide was an slow downward slant, steadily evenly declining through the years. These numbers show another reality. The numbers went over a cliff.

Membership Stats:
2008: The ELCA reported approximately 4,633,887 baptized members.
2011: Membership 4,059,785
2024: 2,793,899 baptized

Funny, no one ever talks about this publicly at synod functions and such.

LCMS Pentecostalism - Diving into Error, Prepping for Fuller Yuk! Seminary

 

Christina and I went to the ELCA seminary in St. Paul to verify this statement in Christianity Today. She also found a WELS quotation which had been denied - as WELS always does. She said, "Now I've got you (deceased) you fat little liar!"

The Church Growth Movement was preceded by Pentecostalism, and the LCMS pastors and laity were hotter than Georgia asphalt for it. I remember Scaer quoting a pastor who was bawling because he would lose 25% of his members if he dared criticize  the Pentecostals in his congregation.

A Missouri DP asked me about accepting a parish where they had a lot of Pentecostals. I quoted Luther, "They act as if they have swallowed the Holy Spirit, feathers and all." The DP laughed out loud but he was like so many others - in the LCA too - afraid to touch the golden egg.

The Pentecostal Pratfall

Behind the movement, the victims failed to grasp the Spirit always connected to the Word, the Word always connected to the Spirit. The older term Enthusiasm was often used as the foundational error of so many strange, new, exciting, money-grabbing efforts. They turned away from the efficacy of the Word to cuddle and promote error. 

The CFW Waltherites turned their cult into a death rattle based on the deity of the Perryville idolaters. The key was shifting the CFW papacy into the next generation - F. Pieper! If one dares to read through Pieper's dogmatics, it is clear that the work is an echo of Walther and Stephan, a blend of Calvinism and gross error.

Pentecostalism had its first blush (a tea term, believe it or not) in the LCA, ALC, WELS, and Missouri. The supposed pro-life Lutherans (LCMS, WELS, and smaller) ignored the contradictions of Donald McGavran and his ardent promotion of abortion in his float-down-from-heaven textbook.

The Big Five Apostates - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) slobbered over Church Growth, which WELS defined as CHURCH! Growth rather than Church GROWTH!

Fuller Seminary, Robert Schuller, Willow Creek, and many other failures proved to be the leverage destroying any semblance of the Means of Grace, replaced by entertainment and rank stupidity, either in or out of a given synod.

Can anyone keep back the gagging reaction to this blarney?

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Easter 4 - Cantate - "Moreover, Christ says further: “He shall guide you into all the truth.” Here we conclude: If what the councils teach be the truth, that one is to wear the tonsure and the cap and live a life of celibacy, then the apostles never came to the truth, since none of them ever entered a cloister, nor kept any of those foolish laws. Thus, Christ must indeed have betrayed us in this, that he said the Holy Spirit should guide us into all the truth, when in reality he wished to teach how we were to become priests ‘and monks and not to eat meat on certain days, and like foolish things. 31. Without doubt it is “truth” before God when one lives an upright and sincere life. But if we now look at our ecclesiasts, pope, bishops, priests and monks, we see nothing but carnival masks, who give themselves the outward appearance of being pious, but in their hearts they are villains. What popes, bishops, and orders have ever led us into this truth, which should spring from within — out of the heart? In everything they are concerned about the outward appearance of things, in order that they may make a display before the eyes of the people."

Cantate. Fourth Sunday After Easter. John 16:5-15. How the Holy Spirit Convicts the World of Sin, Righteousness, Judgment

30. Moreover, Christ says further: “He shall guide you into all the truth.”

Here we conclude: If what the councils teach be the truth, that one is to wear the tonsure and the cap and live a life of celibacy, then the apostles never came to the truth, since none of them ever entered a cloister, nor kept any of those foolish laws. Thus, Christ must indeed have betrayed us in this, that he said the Holy Spirit should guide us into all the truth, when in reality he wished to teach how we were to become priests ‘and monks and not to eat meat on certain days, and like foolish things.

31. Without doubt it is “truth” before God when one lives an upright and sincere life. But if we now look at our ecclesiasts, pope, bishops, priests and monks, we see nothing but carnival masks, who give themselves the outward appearance of being pious, but in their hearts they are villains.

What popes, bishops, and orders have ever led us into this truth, which should spring from within — out of the heart? In everything they are concerned about the outward appearance of things, in order that they may make a display before the eyes of the people.

32. Thus they have perverted this text masterfully in order to strengthen their lies; and yet we are to call them gracious lords! To hear such things is exasperating and it should grieve our hearts that we are to suffer such great outrage — should see how shamefully the people act against the precious Word of God and that they make the Holy Spirit a liar. Should not this single passage be powerful enough against the pope and the councils, even if we had no other in the Scriptures?

33. Thirdly, Christ says: “You cannot bear them now.” Here we ask: My dear, should it have been too hard for the apostles to understand or to obey such laws as abstaining from meat, and the like? They had been accustomed in the law of Moses to observe many such outward ceremonies, and had been educated therein all their life, so that it would have been child’s play for them. Moreover, they understood this better than we do. Is it such a difficult matter — that a monk must wear a black or gray cap, the pope three crowns, a bishop a pointed hat, or the manner of dedicating churches and altars and baptizing bells — are these so difficult as to make it necessary that the Holy Spirit should come from heaven to teach such things? If it is not acting the fool enough that one jests with these noble words, then I do not know how one may be a worse fool.

34. Therefore, beware of these liars and understand the words rightly, thus:

Christ wishes to speak of the inward, actual character, not of outward jugglery. He wishes to make the heart, before the eyes of God, pious and righteous in order that it, in the first place, acknowledge its sin, and in the second place, that it acknowledge him to be the one who forgives sin and suffers himself to be sacrificed upon the cross. This is that “truth” which the apostles were not yet able to hear and understand. But those outward things make no one righteous, lead no one to the truth. They make only hypocrites and a show, by which the people are deceived.

35. Thus, we have the true meaning of this passage, from which we see how fools who seek from it to bolster up their jugglery, place themselves in opposition to it and build upon the sand. There is scarcely a passage that is more strongly opposed to them than this one. We have briefly explained this Gospel lesson in order that we may see how it teaches just that which we have always preached.