All Translations Are Equally Blessed, But One Is More Blessed Than the Rest. SP Mark Schroeder Leadership

Let's see - Brug is on the left, Wendland on the right.
Who is in the middle?

AFP: Australian tycoon to sue Murdoch, NNIV Publisher, claims wife 'Chinese spy'

Lizard-hands Rupert Murdoch owns your precious NNIV, WELS.
The Babtists will not even sell it in their stores,
but WELS is hotter than George asphalt for this parody of God's Word.

AFP: Australian tycoon to sue Murdoch NNIV Publisher, claims wife 'Chinese spy':

Australian tycoon to sue Murdoch, claims wife 'Chinese spy'

(AFP) – 13 hours ago  

SYDNEY — Flamboyant Australian billionaire Clive Palmer on Thursday said he plans to sue Rupert Murdoch over unflattering allegations and claimed the media mogul's estranged wife is a Chinese spy.

Palmer, best known for building a replica of the Titanic and who is running for election in Australia on Saturday, seethed over a comment piece questioning his wealth and whether he was indeed a university professor and a mining magnate, as he claims.

Murdoch's flagship The Australian ran the story on its front page under the headline "Why we need to worry about the real Mr Palmer", alleging he was "a man with a history of peddling fantasies that often morph into a unique version of 'reality'".

According to the latest polls, the Palmer United Party is on track to win a Senate seat in his home state of Queensland and the daily said it would allow him to "exert his unsubtle influence in Canberra".

"Contrary to the flim-flam and spin, Clive Frederick Palmer is not a professor, not an adviser to the G20, not a mining magnate, not a legal guru and not an advocate for freedom of speech. He's probably not a billionaire," the newspaper said.

The broadsheet is backing conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott to win the election and said it had spent months examining Palmer's track record.

Palmer, who says he has made his money in mining and is also a real estate developer and tourism resort operator, was a long-time supporter of Abbott's Liberal-National coalition. He tore up his membership last year after a bitter, public dispute and set up his own party.

He accused Australian-born Murdoch, now a US citizen, of telling his reporters what to write and said he needed to be brought to account.

"Murdoch will be sued by me today and will be brought to Australia to answer these questions in the Supreme Court," he told the Seven Network.

"It's time this fellow was brought to account, this foreigner who tries to dictate what we do."

'via Blog this'

Classic Ichabod - The DNA of Your NIV. Lesbian Atheist Activist Mollencott Was Advisor for the Original NIV

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Yes, WELS, There Is a Virginia,
And She Helped Translate Your Yummy New Bible.
Criticizing This Debacle Will Destroy Baby Blue Eye's Faith

 

 

Kate Bornstein's Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws

Yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia.

Virginia Ramey Mollenkott celebrated her 75th birthday a few days ago. You may or may not know Virginia, but the odds are if you're reading this blog, your life has been touched by her work.
In 1978, Virginia Mollenkott co-authored (with Letha Dawson Scanzoni) the book Is         the Homosexual My Neighbor? A Postive Christisan Response. God alone knows how many queer lives she saved with that book, which is still on the shelves, revised and re-isued, after 19 years. Yow!
I first ran into this handsome butch spiritual lesbian about ten years ago when we met at the now defunct A Different Light LGBT bookstore in New York City. Virginia has written 13 books, but my favorite remains Omnigender: A Trans-Religious Approach, in which she debunks the myth of religious "truth" of two and two only genders, and she does this religion by religion. It's amazing work.


---

PrevGalleryNext

 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Ph.D.

Web Site:  www.virginiamollenkott.com

Collection:  Mollenkott, Virginia Ramey Papers

Oral History:  Virginia Mollenkott

In the mid-1970's, while still closeted personally, Mollenkott began to advocate at church conferences in behalf of lesbian and gay Christians. In l978, with Letha Dawson Scanzoni, she published Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, which became the spearhead volume of Harper San Francisco's collection of LGBT texts. The book, which won an Integrity award for "extraordinary support of the gay Christian movement," was revised and vastly expanded in 1994.

Mollenkott served as Stylistic Consultant for the New International Version of the Bible, and as a member of the National Council of Churches' Inclusive Language Lectionary Committee, coming out to the NCC convention in support of the Metropolitan Community Church's application for membership. She has guest lectured at hundreds of universities, church conferences and seminaries, and testified on behalf of the New Jersey anti-discrimination law, receiving a l992 Achievement Award from the NJ Lesbian and Gay Coalition. In 1999, SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment) presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work of combating heterosexism in religion.

Mollenkott has served as Board Member for various GLBT-friendly organizations, including Evangelicals Concerned, The Center for Sexuality and Religion, and Kirkridge Retreat Center, where for many years has led several GLBT events annually. She is a founding member of the GLBT-inclusive Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus.

Among her twelve books, the most explicitly lesbian is Sensuous Spirituality: Out From Fundamentalism, although lesbians have also enjoyed The Divine Feminine: Biblical Imagery of God as Female. Her most recent and most radical work, Omnigender: A TransReligious Approach, won the 2002 Lambda Literary Award in the bisexual/transgender category.

(This biographical statement provided by Virginia Mollenkott.)



---

Honoring Virginia Ramey Mollenkott

Remarks I wrote and delivered in New York City at the Union Theological Seminary on Friday, September 19th, 2008—on the occasion of the publication of the new edition of her book, Sensuous Spirituality, and the acceptance of Virginia Ramey Mollenkott's archives at The Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion & Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California.
******************************
One of the major blocks to going through with my gender change was my fear of God's wrath. It makes sense—I'm a Jew, and we believe that God can be mighty wrathful when He wants to be—no matter that wrath is a deadly sin.
I left religion behind me, and embraced atheism as a spiritual path.

Many transgender people do that: when our religious leaders tell us how angry God is going to be with us for messing with our God-given genders, we turn away from God. And we eventually reach a point of unbearable loneliness and inconsolable grief, with no God to comfort us. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is the first person to address our spiritual conundrum. She is the first person to return us to God's comfort and wisdom.

Over the recent history of the movement for transgender freedom—the 1990's and the late 1980's—trannies fell into one of two camps: either we were academics, who taught the neither/nor beliefs of postmodern theory, or we were political activists who fought for transgender civil liberties. For nearly a decade, Virginia Mollenkott has stood alone as a spiritual leader, a beacon to every transgender person who came across her work.

In her ground-breaking book, Omnigender, a trans-religious approach, Virginia teaches that the origin of trans oppression found in Deuteronomy comes down to the old Jewish love of binaries, and their abhorrence of incompatibility.

Men do one thing, women do another. They can't be mixed up. According to old Jewish ways of thinking, when you add femaleness to maleness, you pollute maleness and confuse the accepted bipolar gender system. That’s a double bind: first, it implies that femaleness is polluting, and second, it plays on the fact that Jews despise confusion. It’s why we’re always think-think-thinking!

Virginia's answer to the paranoia of Deuteronomy is this, from Omnigender:

“Any sincerely religious person who believes that women and men are equally created in God's image should think twice before invoking biblical prohibitions against cross-dressing and same-sex love. Because these prohibitions are associated with the attitude that femaleness is a pollutant, they have no place within a democratic and fair-minded society, let alone in a contemporary church, synagogue, or mosque.”

Virginia taught us that God—like gender—has many faces, and that none of His true faces are wrathful or transphobic. By painstakingly tracing the roots of trans prohibition in religions, Virginia has built us a bridge that connects postmodern theory and political activism with spirituality. That's never been done before.

Today, touring around to colleges and universities, I'm seeing more and more young trans students who are majoring in Religious Studies. Each and very one of them I spoke told me that Virginia Mollenkott was a major inspiration for their wish to make spirituality and religion a more integral and accessible part of the transgender experience.



Why might Dr. Mollenkott be so successful at reaching out to trannies? Well, one reason Virginia's work is so popular amongst trannies is that Virginia makes it okay to be religious and sexy at the same time. I mean, just look at this sexy, handsome woman (who just happens to be one of the finest flirts I know!)Thanks to Virginia Mollenkott, religion hasn't been this sexy or this much fun since the days of temple prostitutes!

In closing—before coming to this gathering this evening, I posted on Twitter that I was writing my talking points on Virginia's impact on the trans world. Within minutes of my post, I received this response from Natasha:
"Thank you for introducing me to Virginia Mollenkott. Ya gotta love anyone who can get the theocrats panties in a twist!"

She’s right. We do love you, Virginia Mollenkott. We do love you.

---
http://inmylifetime.typepad.com/bkhipsher/2008/06/a-place-at-the.html



My friend Virginia Ramey Mollenkott was speaking as was Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Moderator and spiritual leader of Metropolitan Community Church, my ministry home. I was privileged to spend some time with my friend and mentor Virginia and her partner. And I was able to enjoy Nancy and her assistant Connie's company as well.  Great lectures, wonderful music including a concert by folk singer Carrie Newcomer, a closing worship service that really grounded me in a way that was very helpful.


I've been slow to join EEWC (EEWC Website) and slower to attend their conferences and read their GREAT newsletter Christian Feminism Today.  So learn from my mistakes whether you're male or female identified and join this great organization.  These people, women and men, have something special going on. You won't find me missing from one of their conferences again!

---

Wikipedia Article. More at the link.


Virginia Ramey Mollenkott spent her 44 year professional career teaching college level English literature and language, but developed specializations in feminist theology and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendertheology during the second half of that career.

She was born in Philadelphia's Temple University Hospital on January 28, 1932; married Frederick H. Mollenkott on June 17, 1954; had a son, Paul F. Mollenkott, on July 3, 1958; and was divorced in July of 1973. She earned her B.A. from fundamentalist Bob Jones University in 1953; her M.A. at Temple University in 1955; her Ph.D. at New York University in 1964; and received an honorary Doctorate in Ministries from Samaritan College in 1989. She chaired the English Department at Shelton College, Ringwood, New Jersey, from 1955-1963 and at Nyack College, Nyack, New York, from 1963-1967. She then taught at William Paterson Universityin Wayne, New Jersey from 1967 to 1997, chairing the English Department from 1972-1976 and since 1997 holding the position of Professor of English Emeritus.

Dr. Mollenkott served as an assistant editor of Seventeenth Century News from 1965-1975; as a stylistic consultant for the New International Version of the Bible for the American Bible Society from 1970-1978; as a member of the translation committee for An Inclusive Language Lectionary for the National Council of Churches from 1980-1988; on the Board of Pacem in Terris, Warwick, New York, from 1980-1990; on the Board of the Upper Room AIDS Ministry, Harlem, New York, from 1989-1994; on the Board of Kirkridge Retreat and Conference Center, Bangor, PA, from 1980-1991; on the Advisory Board of the Program on Gender and Society at the Rochester (New York) Divinity School from 1993-1996; as a manuscript evaluator for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion from 1994 to the present; as a contributing editor to The Witness from 1994 to 2000; and as a contributing editor to The Other Side from 2003-2007. She has delivered hundreds of guest lectures on feminist and LGBT theologies at churches, conferences, universities and seminaries throughout the United States.

Mollenkott's books include Adamant and Stone Chips, 1967; In Search of Balance, 1969; Women, Men and the Bible, 1977 (revised and updated in 1988; Korean translation in 1981); Speech, Silence Action, 1980; Is the Homosexual My Neighbor: A Positive Christian Response, 1978 (with Letha Dawson Scanzoni; revised and updated in 1994; won the Integrity Award, 1979); The Divine Feminine: Biblical Imagery of God as Female, 1983 (published in German, 1985; in French, 1990; and in Italian, 1993); Views from the Intersection, 1984 (with Catherine Barry); Godding; Human Responsibility and the Bible, 1987; Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism, 1982 (revised and expanded, 2008); Omnigender: A Trans-Religious Approach, 2001 (revised and updated, 2007; won the Lambda Literary Award, 2002; and the Ben Franklin Award, 2002); andTransgender Journeys, 2003 (with Vanessa Sheridan).

Dr. Mollenkott also edited a book of spiritual poems, Adam Among the Television Trees, 1971; and a volume of inter-religious dialogue, Women of Faith in Dialogue, 1987. Since 1997 she has served on the editorial board of Studies in Theology and Sexuality, based in the United Kingdom.

In 1992 Dr. Mollenkott received the New Jersey Lesbian and Gay Achievement Award, and in 1999 was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment).
She has been a lifetime member of the Modern Language Association, where she served on the Executive Committee of Religion and Literature from 1976-1980; and a lifetime member of the Milton Society of America, serving on the executive committee from 1974-1976. She has published dozens of articles in scholarly and literary journals as well as church-related publications, and is an active founding member of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus, better known as Christian Feminism Today.

A Democrat and trans-religious Christian, Dr. Mollenkott lives with her domestic partner Judith Suzannah Tilton at Cedar Crest Retirement Village; together they co-grandmother Virginia's three granddaughters. Dr. Mollenkott's archives are available at The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies at the Pacific School of Religion.

---

Welcome to Virginia's Official Website

 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott is the author or co-author of 13 books, including several on women and religion. She is a winner of the Lambda Literary Award and has published numerous essays on literary topics.

• Important Links

  EEWC - Christian Feminism Today
  LGBT Religious Archives Network
  Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in Religion and Ministry TransFaith On-Line
  Christian Lesbians OUT
  WATER

 ---

Sodomy and the NIV 


The following readings compare the KJB and the NIV in several areas where sodomy or homosexual behavior is mentioned. Going over these, it is easy to see that sodomy was never considered as a viable concept in the NIV and homosexuality was presented from Dr. Mollenkott's viewpoint. The comments of Dr. Mollenkott are from her book, Is The Homosexual My Neighbor? (abbreviated as ITHMN)

Upload a gay video to YouTube -
what a great promotional idea for Martin Luther College, WELS.

Genesis 19:5 - The sin of Sodom

KJB - And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, where are the men which came into thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
NIV - They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out so that we can have sex with them."
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 57 - "... the Sodom story seems to be focusing on two specific evils: (1) violent gang rape and (2) inhospitality to the stranger."

Leviticus 18:22 - Sodomy

KJB - Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.
NIV - Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman: that is detestable.
(Author's note: There is quite a degree of difference between the meaning of the words, abomination and detestable.) 

Leviticus 20:13 - Sodomy

KJB - If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death: their blood shall be upon them.
NIV - If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them has done what is detestable. They must be put to death: their blood will be on their own heads.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Pages 110 through 121 - "Dr. Mollenkott argues that this is part of the ceremonial laws, and as such, are to be disregarded by the Christian. She places this act on the same level as wearing clothes of two different materials."

Deuteronomy 23:17 - Sodomite

KJB - There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
NIV - No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.

Judges 19:22 - Sodomy

KJB - Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.
NIV - While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him."
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 57 - "Violence - forcing sexual activity upon another - is the real point to this story."

I Kings 14:24 - Sodomites

KJB - And there were sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
NIV - There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

I Kings 15:12 - Sodomites

KJB - And he took away the sodomites out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
NIV - He expelled all the shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of the idols his fathers had made.

I Kings 22:46 - Sodomites

KJB - And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.
NIV - He rid the land of the rest of the shrine prostitutes who remained there even after the reign of his father Asa.

II Kings 23:7 - Sodomites

KJB - And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
NIV - He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the Lord and where women did weaving for Asherah.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 59 & 60 - "Most scholars agree that in the fertility religions of Israel's neighbors, male cult prostitutes were employed for homosexual acts. The people who loved and served the God of Israel were strictly forbidden to have anything to do with such idolatry, and the Jewish men were commanded to never serve as temple prostitutes."
(Author's note: Clearly a male could be a shrine prostitute and not be a homosexual, but according to the dictionary a Sodomite is a homosexual.) 

Matthew 11:24 - Judgment upon Sodom

KJB - But I say unto you, That it shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for thee.
NIV - But I tell you it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

Luke 10:12 - Judgment upon Sodom

KJB - But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.
NIV - I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for you.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 59-"Jesus refers to Sodom, not in the context of sexual acts, but in the contents of inhospitality." And on Page 71, she expands this thought with the idea of a life long homosexual orientation or 'condition' is never mentioned in the Bible."

Romans 1:26 & 27 - Homosexuality

KJB - For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And like wise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in lust one toward another; man with men working that which is unseemingly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
NIV - Because of this, God gave him over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 62 - "The key thought here seems to be lust, 'unnaturalness,' and, in verse 28, a desire to avoid the acknowledgment of God. But although the censure fits idolatrous people with whom Paul was concerned here, it does not seem to fit the case of a sincere homosexual Christian. Such a person loves Jesus Christ and wants above all to acknowledge God in all of life, yet for some unknown reason feels drawn to someone of the same sex, for the sake of love rather than lust. Is it fair to describe that person as lustful or desirous of forgetting God's existence?"

I Corinthians 6:9 - Rejection of homosexual behavior

KJB - Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.
NIV - Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders.
A note here to point out that this is the only place in the NIV where the word "homosexual" occurs. It is not clear from the context if this means heterosexuals who abuse homosexuals or homosexuals who abuse each other. See Dr. Mollenkott's explanation in the 1st Timothy comments following.

I Timothy 1:9 & 10

KJB - Knowing this, that the law is not made for righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers. For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for manstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
NIV - We also know that law is not made for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murders, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 67 - "Interpretations of these passages depends on two Greek words used in I Cor. 6:9 which have presented a problem for translators in the King James Version, they translated 'effeminate' and 'abusers of themselves with mankind.' In the Revised Standard Version of 1952, they were combined and rendered simply 'homosexuals,' which implied that all persons whose erotic interests were oriented to the same sex were by the very fact excluded from membership in the kingdom of God. But the original intent seems to have been to single out specific kinds of same-sex practices which were deplorable."

Jude 7 - Strange flesh

KJB - Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
NIV - In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
Mollenkott, ITHMN, Page 59 - "The unnatural lust" thus could, in the context, and in view of the apocryphal texts to which Jude made allusion, refer to a desire for sexual contact between human and heavenly beings.î

It would not be fair to say that all the people involved in producing the NIV favored homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle, but it is fair to say that those who were responsible for the final wordings were at least sympathetic to Dr. Mollenkott's cause. One only has to look at the treatment of sodomy in the NIV to reach this conclusion.

While many believe practicing homosexuals can be Christian, there are many others who have a different conviction about what the Bible says about sodomy. For this group, it is hardly acceptable to call Sodomites temple prostitutes, or to think of same-sex relationships as natural. These same people would take a viewpoint that God hates the sin of homosexuality and will bring judgment on those who live this kind of lifestyle.

The information presented here is not all-inclusive, but is intended to sound an alarm. If the NIV is your Bible of choice, it would be prudent to look closely in other areas as well, for there are many other subjects handled just as loosely as sodomy. Don't take anyone's word for what God says; Check it out! After all, He'll hold you alone responsible. 

KJV Questions

Unknown has left a new comment on your post "Study the Issues for Your Shelves, Starting with t...":

Do you have any objections to the NKJV or any modern English translation based on the same texts?

Dave P.

***

GJ - The hysterical promotion of bad paraphrases is the hallmark of the Synodical Conference today. The precious ESV marketed by the Missouri Synod and its dim-witted publishing house is better named The Calvinist RSV.

Please suppress all laughter the next time a Missouri pastor calls justification by faith Calvinism. His beloved ESV is Calvinistic, edited by a Calvinist, but spawned in the disease-ridden womb of the National Council of Churches. The NCC owns the RSV.

The leaders of the LCMS play for both teams, as they say in a different context. One team is Rome. The other is Fuller. Both camps adore dynamic equivalency and despise Luther's English Bible, the KJV.

The best solution for having modern translations is to use something from the KJV family. The "old" KJV we use is actually a modest revision and updating of the 1611 version.

Since the Lutherans are too lazy to produce an updated KJV, using versions of the KJV is a second choice. The New KJV is popular. I know of a KJV II, a Modern KJV, and a KJV 21st Century. I own the last one as a reference and use the KJV for all my quotations.

The various KJVs imagine they have the license to make continuous changes to their language, a practice I find annoying. I know the New KJV has done that. 

They also suffer from denominational filters, in various degrees, such as getting rid of communion with the body and blood of Christ, baptism does now save you, and that mantra of Fuller Seminary - manufacture disciples (Great Commission). Each one is so dynamic that it corrupts the original meaning. Means of Grace - exit stage right. No curtain calls.

So, for people who went to public school or WELS schools, the a modern style KJV is the best for their vocabularies, but reading the KJV, especially out loud, will improve their understanding and vocabulary immensely.

The New Testament Text
The NT Greek text is good for a book, and many have written about that topic. The Bible Society types are grifters, too, just like the dynamic equivalency translators.

The modern translations follow Wescott/Hort scam of changing the original text to match what they think at the moment.

---

St. Luke, by El Greco

---

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Study the Issues for Your Shelves, Starting with t...":

Ichabod -

I have little doubt that WELS will adopt the dumb-downed new NIV version to accomodate its decreasing synodical membership. WELS synodical officials believe in the principle of appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org 

St. Matthew, by El Greco

---
California added:

You said it well, when you said, "The various KJV's imagine they have the license to make continuous changes to their language, I know the NKJV has done that".

Dave P. asked, "Do you have any objection to NKJV or any modern English translations based on the same texts?"   The question assumes that  the publishers of the likes of NKJV actually have carried out their claims of following the same manuscript evidence as the KJV, but in reality they make exceptions and deviate in bits and pieces.   (Matthew 28:19)   Bible publishing these days is monetarily competitive business, almost as much so as women's fashions and the latest tech toy.  Publishers whose bottom lines depend on numbers of units sold, must keep churning out something new and different to remain in business.   

One means of doing that  to compete with other bible publishers is to periodically come out with the entirely new and innovative .  That appeals to the itching eyes and ears of those who have already abandoned the KJV long ago.

Another useful approach  is to keep the more recent  "runaways from KJV"  (a generation or so)  in their publishing house camp, by publishing revisions of their best sellers, and revisions of revisions to come.   That is the second market to retain. 

But what market has yet to be corralled?  The refuseniks, the resistors, those who haven't taken the bait, and cling to the time tested, reliable KJV.

They won't jump from KJV to NIV and certainly not a NNIV, but if they can be enticed to take that first step away from the KJV, the marketers have achieved two things.  Tapping a market which hasn't responded to the New of everything, but more importantly, they will have succeeded in getting the last holdouts to make that step.   

A next step will be easier and the next and the next......until KJV is all but extinguished.  They can continue to plagiarize the KJV title while the gradual weaning of the last of them away from KJV and family of manuscript evidence Luther and KJV translators used is accomplished.   The Devil will rejoice.

That having been accomplished, who can trust any so-called version, with even what I call the "bridge" bibles (from KJV to the great unknown) versions sure to come in even more rapid succession.    For as you  correctly observed, "The various KJV's imagine they have the license to make continuous changes to their language......".  Why bother with taking the "bridge" when one can simply "leap" directly to NNIIV and any of the other current New Translations and the ones which are sure to follow in short order.   Save the publishers all that trouble to court the KJV holdouts by publishing NKJV and "cousins".  

Bottom line in more ways than one....doesn't anyone wonder why no publisher has published a revision of the KJV which only does some updating of obscure words and nothing more?  

Comments from 29A and Brett Meyer

In a recent communication, 29A pointed out that the avalanche of Biblical translations is having the effect of destroying Biblical doctrine.

I thought that was an astute observation. WELS will adopt and sell the New NIV precisely for that reason. UOJ does not stand up to the plain Word of God, in Greek or English, so the NNIV paraphrase serves a useful purpose in providing the dogma that the mainline denominations want.

Biblical inerrancy is not much of a stance when defending the NNIV, joining with the most Leftist denominations of the National Council of Churches.

Missouri is no better, since their beloved ESV is more accurately called the Calvinist edition of the RSV, which is owned by the...National Council of Churches.

That follows the modern political trickery of providing a safe alternative in the same orbit as the one that must be shunned. Thus RomneyCare versus ObamaCare, Global Warming McCain versus Global Warming Obama; Yale Skull and Bones Bush versus Yale Skull and Bones Kerry.

http://www.intrepidlutherans.com/2012/12/how-does-one-interpret-language-in-post.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IntrepidLutherans+%28Intrepid+Lutherans%29

As reported several times before, the NNIV philosophy comes from an apostate. One advisor was a lesbian, etc.

---

Typical UOJ fanatic.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Step Up for a Liter of WELS Kool-Aid":

We see this today in those who openly reject universal forgiveness in Christ. Such people may think they are evangelical and confessional and genuinely Lutheran, but in every case I have seen, they confuse law and gospel in the most wretched way, and most sadly, they deny the fullness, the freedom and the completeness of the gospel. They are unwilling to say in an unqualified and unconditional way, "God has forgiven your sins in Christ! God canceled your debt in Christ!" They speak of the necessity of repentance and the righteousness of faith and the importance of faith and the confessional doctrine of justification by faith—and we deny none of these things!— but finally their aberrant spirit is revealed when it becomes obvious that their “gospel” is qualified and conditional and loaded with “ifs.” They offer potential forgiveness as an unfulfilled promise until the conditions of repentance and faith are met. It is a wrong, legal focus that is more about the individual than it is about the object. Confusion of law and gospel and a preponderance of law expose the sinister, diabolical agenda that robs God of glory and deprives sinners of certain comfort in Christ.
Page 30
http://azcadistrict.com/sites/default/files/papers/Buchholz_2012-10.pdf

This UOJ quote is from (W)ELS DP Pastor Jon Buchholz’ most recent defense of Universal Justification and his excommunication of Pastor Paul Rydecki for teaching Justification by Faith Alone. It is similar to the false statement quoted by (W)ELS Evergreen Lutheran High School in defense of their attack on Justification by Faith Alone written in the WELS Our Great Heritage, “And yet many Lutherans still labor under the delusion that God does not forgive us unless we believe. Instead of seeing faith as nothing more than the spiritual hand with which we make the forgiveness of God our own, they see it as a reason why God forgives us. They believe that Christ has indeed provided forgiveness for all men, that God is willing to forgive them, but before he really forgives he first of all demands that we should be sorry for our sins and that we should have faith. Just have faith they say, and then God will forgive you. All the right words are there. The only thing wrong is that the words are in the wrong order. God does not forgive us IF we have faith. He has forgiven us long ago when he raised his Son from the dead." (p. 59)
"If forgiveness were dependent on faith in the sense that God does not forgive until we believe, we would always have to be sure that we are believers before we would be sure that we are forgiven." (p.60)
Vol. 3

Buchholz is defending the shame of the (W)ELS perversion of the chief and central article of Christ’s doctrine – Justification. If UOJ teaches contrary to Scripture in just one point it is a false doctrine. In fact, it fails in all points and has been clearly shown to be a false gospel, a new and false way of righteousness before God, which perverts the work of Christ, the declarations of God the Father, the righteousness of the Holy Spirit’s faith and the Means of Grace.

Compare the UOJ statements above to Christ’s clear Scripture in John 3:18, “He that believeth on him his not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” And John 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Buchholz, Webber, Schroeder and the rest are leading the Lutheran Synods away from Scripture and the faithful Lutheran Confessions and into the New Age religion by teaching Universal Objective Justification and that there are multiple realities with God. Little surprise then that they are working with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to sponsor and support the United Religions Initiative (URI) which is a NGO of the United Nations and the religious arm of the New World Order.

Barnyard Humor - Gangnam Mequon Style

WELS NNIV Translators

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS NNIV Diaprax: Bible translation study release...":

(W)ELS, buckle-up buttercup, the synod has you on a carnival ride.

Who translated the 2011 NIV?

Methodist Moo, Non-denom Barker, Scum Of The Earth Church Blomberg, Baptist Brown, Trans-denom Fee, Anglican France, Baptist Instone-Brewer...

The translators of the 2011 NIV can be found here: http://www.niv-cbt.org/translators/

WELS NNIV Diaprax: Bible translation study released | Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS)

WELS Forward in Christ.

Bible translation study released | Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS):

The Translation Evaluation Committee (TEC) has released the unedited, unevaluated results of a side-by-side review of three possible Bible translations WELS could use for its publications. More than 100 pastors participated in this review of the New International Version 2011 (NIV 2011), the English Standard Version (ESV), and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) from April to October.

“We will be coming with our read on it, but what we first wanted to do was get it out there—raw and uncooked—so that everyone would have a chance to let the evaluation speak for itself,” says Rev. Paul Wendland, TEC chairman.

The TEC, which had already compared differing passages between the NIV 1984 and the NIV 2011 and presented its preliminary findings at the 2011 convention, organized this study in an effort to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each translation as well as to involve more people in the process.

For the study, the Bible was divided into 34 different sections, and three different pastors reviewed each section from each translation. These reviewers came from three distinct groups: synod leaders, pastors from each district who attended a 2012 translation workshop, and pastors who have been in the ministry for less than 12 years. Reviewers read and evaluated their section and rated the quality of the English style as well as the translational acceptability of each translation. They also were asked to list their section’s five greatest strengths and weaknesses by citing specific passages for each translation.

“Everyone knew that we were asking a lot and yet look at what they did . . . there’s enough for 20 term papers,” says Wendland. “They all gave themselves to it—whatever their perspective—to the fullest degree. And they all did a lot of really hard work in trying to help the synod come to a decision.”

Participants appreciated the opportunity to be involved. “I have grown personally, professionally, and certainly spiritually by this exercise,” writes one of the younger pastors. “And so, for this opportunity to compare the translations and get into the Greek outside of sermon preparation, I sincerely thank you.”

The next step for the TEC is to evaluate the review and prepare its final report for the 2013 synod convention, which will be discussing which translation WELS should use in its publications. “I think this data will be extremely helpful as we think through the various options that are open for us,” says Wendland. “And as we go forward, no matter what version we use, these studies will be extremely helpful in equipping pastors and laypeople about problem passages.”

Wendland says that it’s not surprising that this new translation is causing some debate in Christian churches in general. “Not all people are going to agree,” he says. “I think in our midst what it probably indicates more than anything else is the love that God’s people have for the Word and their desire to have a text of the Bible that clearly communicates God’s sacred truth.”

He also says the committee is open to any reaction about this study. “I would simply encourage everyone to study the results, to listen—especially to brothers and sisters who may not see things exactly the same way you do—and to give them your love and respect if not your acquiescence. Finally trust that the Word of God is going to be retained among us because of his promise that the grass withers and that the flowers may fall, but the Word of God is going to remain forever [Isaiah 40:8], not because of our doing and striving.”

Read the results of the study at www.wels.net/translation.

'via Blog this'

***

GJ - All propaganda to advance a bad cause sounds alike. This article reminds me of the publication from the ALC and LCA in their magazines, to prepare the ALC for getting rid of Biblical inerrancy.

The ALC had an interesting position on this. The old ALC merger of 1930 (Buffalo, Iowa, Ohio) watered down inerrancy to satisfy Reu and the Iowa fence-straddlers. Lenski objected, so they silenced him, even though he had been their New Testament professor and a district president.

Reu later became more conservative, a transition never forgiven by the Iowa liberals or anyone else in the ALC-LCA constellation.

For the 1960 merger of the old ALC and Norwegian Synod, inerrancy was affirmed in the constitution but expelled in an appendix, to please both sides. Error loves ambiguities. The raging liberals could be told, "We got rid of that." The inerrancy people could be soothed with, "We affirmed inerrancy."

All the Lutheran groups were waging war against the historical position of the Christian Church, Biblical inerrancy, from 1930 on.

Therefore, when The ALC and the LCA were preparing to merge with the Seminex UOJ gay faction, they began publishing more anti-inerrancy material to exorcise that demon from their doctrinal position.

The Lutheran magazine (LCA) and The Lutheran Standard (ALC) ran the same article. The ALC version showed a motorcycle doing a wheelie. The title was something like, "The Word of God: Pure Power." The LCA title was considerably weaker, but the content was the same in both.

The gushing and emoting in the WELS article would make a romance novel writer blush. It is so icky-mushy-fake that Lutherans might pause and remember the look of rage on Wendland's face as person after person--even a DP--rose to attack his precious New NIV.

---

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "WELS NNIV Diaprax: Bible translation study release...":

92% of reviewers rated the NIV2011 the best of the three translations. [GJ - Limited choice.]

Comments by those who reviewed the translations:

1)”One cannot properly evaluate the translation of any given book (in my case, Genesis) when that book must be viewed in isolation from the rest of Scripture. Being directed to do so severely limits and skews any evaluation given…. Weren’t we correctly taught that one of the “bedrock” principles of Bible interpretation is that “Scripture must interpret Scripture”? How, then, can we properly study (or evaluate) Bible passages or books of the Bible in isolation?”

2)”While reviewing Genesis was my “sole responsibility” (and while I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this effort) the TEC is unnecessarily (and I believe unwisely) depriving itself of the insights and concerns I and others feel compelled to express regarding various “deal breakers” in other books.”

3) “Limiting the reviewer to only the five “best” and five “weakest” passages per translation can and most likely will skew the review. Someone could incorrectly conclude that the reviewer has a “balanced” (good vs bad) view that, in fact, does not exist regarding a particular translation…. A thorough-going, honest review should be able to take the total weight of strengths and weaknesses into account, and the reviewer should be allowed to express the full results of his work. Yet we are directed not to do so. Again, I ask, “Why?””

4) “A significant “deal breaker” criterion for me is the “Decision page” that is found in every HCSB I have…. Unfortunately, NO REVIEWER of any of the Bible’s 66 books is allowed to comment on that significant deficiency in light of the restrictive evaluation criteria we have been given.”
http://www.wels.net/sites/wels/files/Reviewers%20Comments%20Translation%20Criteria.pdf

All 2012 Translation Evaluation reports: 
http://www.wels.net/about-wels/synod-reports/bible-translation/report-102/2012-translation-evaluation-report-102

Southern Baptist Loyalties and WELS Follies

St. John in Milwaukee was kicked out, because of a DP's spite.

A Southern Baptist missionary was defending his denomination when I broached the subject of apostasy. I knew about their battle for the Bible, years ago, but I was not in position to talk about their
leadership.

Most of us know they had a convention resolution to reject the New NIV, which included NOT displaying it in their bookstores. Often new paraphrase is sold as a curiosity before everyone finds it tiresome and silly. That was the first time I heard of an effort getting the leprosy label from the start.

It's over.

No wonder WELS loves it. Three out of three hand-picked study groups gave their slobbering approval. SP Mark Schroeder is helpless to do anything about it. Spinmeisters grieve over his heavy burden of office.

That may be the crucial difference - and the reason why the hierarchies will fail completely in the next generation.

The Boomers were channeled into ultra-organized structures. In Moline we had clubs with four officers, church groups with four officers, state and national groups with four officers. The yearbook shows our 1966 class activities at a very large high school - 3,000 Boomers. A glance showed who the most active were, who got scholarships for that, and who would turn hippy soon after.

No one could question the purchase or the money spent there.
Now it is a prison. I don't write satire - I just record it.

Hierarchy literally means "the rule of the priests." Any organization with a top-heavy structure will generate leaders who must constantly prove their power and infallibility. WELS, Missouri, ELCA, and the Little Sect on the Prairie are all the same. Long ago, I got an email from the CLC (sic) that said I was "showing contempt for synodical resolutions." Showing contempt? - I was doing my best to hide it.

Herman Otten had to apologize on the front page of his independent tabloid, because WELS was offended about my honest discussion of their homosexual problems. Soon after, Joel Hochmuth was arrested and The Love Shack was investigated by the FBI for those problems. Grotesque evil has a way of revealing itself, even when the hierarchy is hell-bent on covering it up.

I have been watching a very large business for three years, attending all but one of their monthly meetings. One thing they emphasize is managers listening to workers and to shoppers. The bigshots visit stores all over the world. They also feel compelled to listen to customers and to their subordinates.

That listening has been key to their turn-around. They are definitely a hierarchy too, but a hierarchy that is held accountable for return on investment. Church hierarchies do not listen to anyone - they command. They demand apologies and retractions. They only want agreement or hat-in-hand trembling subordination of the brain cells.

A church hierarchy looks for subordinates who gladly obey whatever the boss commands. WELS tries out people by putting them on various boards and executive committees. If the initiates agree to having their spines removed, they continue to serve and eventually become senior bosses. Any display of independent thinking is met with, "You are not a team player" and "Who told you?" It is far more pleasant to whack moles than to be mole whacked.

---

rlschultz said...

After working most of my adult life for General Motors, the similarities between it and the Olde Synodical Conference are scary. I often wondered how long GM could carry so much dead weight from the middle to the top of its management. I lived long enough to get an answer. I was also puzzled as to why anyone would want to move from the shop floor into supervision. At the bottom of management, independent thinking was always squelched. The Olde Syndocial Conference was once the largest Lutheran body in this country. GM was once the largest auto maker. Both have collapsed from their own weight.

---

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Southern Baptist Loyalties and WELS Follies":

Ichabod -

You perfectly described synodical church hierarchy. You stated:

>>>>>> ...... Church hierarchies do not listen to anyone - they command. They demand apologies and retractions. They only want agreement or hat-in-hand trembling subordination of the brain cells.

A church hierarchy looks for subordinates who gladly obey whatever the boss commands. WELS tries out people by putting them on various boards and executive committees. If the initiates agree to having their spines removed, they continue to serve and eventually become senior bosses. Any display of independent thinking is met with, "You are not a team player" and "Who told you?" It is far more pleasant to whack moles than to be mole whacked....... <<<<<<<<<< [Your words]

Such is the sorry case of those who think they are at "the top." They have since abandoned the principle of Christ that whoever would be first, must be servant of all. Dictatorial cruelty toward parish pastors and their perspective congregations is nothing more than wanton carnal behavior. As sanctimonious as it is always made to be; it is nothing more than busybody bully behavior; thus, under the Lord's curses.

Various denominational and synodical head cheese church people are a stench in the Lord's nostrils. They think they are doing God a service; when, in reality they hinder the Holy Spirit's purposes. They will be judge with severity; so much so, that if some of them should attain to glory; they will squeak in by the skin of their teeth. Shame on these of whom the Scripture speaks:

Psalm 14:4 - "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD."

Jeremiah 23:1 - "Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD."

Jeremiah 23:2 - Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD."

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org