Unraveling the Situation - A Primer for Synodocrats

No Gospel fruits will come from a lack of the Gospel, or more precisely, a lack of faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior.

Claiming "the Gospel" when a non-Gospel is promoted will never produce Gospel fruits. For example, teaching world absolution is not the Gospel of Christ. "Accepting" world absolution, one of those thundering heresies promoted by Walther, is really the death of the Gospel, for three reasons. 

1. Faith is not a decision. 
2. World absolution is not taught by the Bible or any Christian.
3. Pitting faith against grace shows colossal ignorance of both - 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,

The promotion of -

• Objective Justification, aka  
• Universal Objective Justification, aka 
• General Justification, aka 
• Justification of the Sinner (E. Preuss), aka 
• Justification of the World (Sparky Brenner) - 

is destruction of faith in Jesus, the efficacy of the Word, and the Means of Grace.

The cutest gimmicks, the slickest programs, and the coolest praise bands will never make up for the destructive and malignant leadership of WELS-ELS-LCMS-ELCA, especially because these synods have become the product of Fuller Seminary's anti-faith.

ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, and the CLC (sic) are withering up from the lack of faith in Christ being taught, from the lack of grace - which has been sold in exchange for Calvinist entertainment. The leaders are nasty and dictatorial, like their Roman counterparts. Their seminarians are confused, misled, but adamant in the Wokeness. 

Information for the Penitential Month of January

December remains a food month in every respect. Desserts appear at the door - Ranger Bob loves a certain brand of cookies and brings a box or two. More treats arrive by mail - crackers, cheese, and sausage. Frozen food arrives packed in dry ice. On our cul-de-sac neighbors bring various supplemental temptations. But I digress.

January is the penitential month, when gym attendance and new memberships soar for two weeks, sometimes three. The hottest fictional reading is January Diet News.

Some readers said they enjoyed the posts on nutrition, so I am going to start them again, 

I have never warmed up to the cholesterol fad, which strikes me as great for the cardio industry but questionable on the medicine side. The cholesterol drugs block the liver and cause all kinds of mischief. Everyone praises Omega 3 fat - they are rich in that oil.

Walnuts are hailed as the one of the best foods for the heart. They are high in fat, which balances the cholesterol level and very satisfying as a snack. We began getting them in two-pound bags, after being told they were prescribed as daily intake by another person's doctor. We buy them in two-pound bags and store them in a large plastic food keeper.

Walnuts Are Heart Healthy

Eating walnuts as part of a healthy diet may decrease your risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death globally.

Walnuts help maintain healthy cholesterol levels and decrease blood pressure, two of the major risk factors for heart disease.1,2 They are also a rich source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which is the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid. Walnuts contain 2.5 grams of ALA per ounce.

Research has found that omega-3 fatty acids may decrease the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP) in those with high cholesterol.

Salmon and olive oil are also encouraged.

Baked Walnuts

The walnut promoter also suggested baking them. That only takes a short time in a frying pan. Baked walnuts are even more delicious.

My problem was enjoying them on a bed of ice cream. No one makes good nutty ice cream, imagining that specks of them and some flavoring will work magic.  So the combination of baked walnuts on vanilla ice cream was lethally attractive to me for some time.

One half-cup of ice cream is one unit of carbohydrates, and the ice cream habit invites more than that, sometimes much more. Secondly, eating ice cream does not satisfy for long but creates an ice cream craving for later in the day, maybe morning ice cream too. The crooked politician in All the King's Men liked to talk about having peach ice cream for breakfast in the morning at the governor's mansion.

Growing up in a bakery meant access to freezers with ice cream. Living near Wharton Field House meant a short walk to Whitey's Ice Cream and Country Style. 

Besides its ability to grow fat, ice cream has the potential to slow down the body. It is a cruel fact that high blood sugar makes the users lethargic, so the quick charge of a big dessert yields sluggishness that no sugary product will help.

Cheer Up!

The best step for health, according to the Harvard Medical Newsletter, is to go on two walks per day. Sassy insists on a 7 AM walk each day and itches for the second one at 3 PM. She has a great chance of seeing Pat, John, and Sam at 7 AM, Ranger Bob at 3 PM. 

We were lucky to get her in Phoenix, and she learned the morning routine right away. She built up her frame walking and running for the ball at the park. 

So Much in Common - From Pietism to Left-Wing Wokeness

"I think Ichabod is right about this."

I was going to write about the origins of Wokeness, which is a terrible burden today. I can almost guarantee that pouty admonitions will be blurted during any conversation with someone under the age of 30. Twenty years ago, a college student became furious in declaring how the entire world was warming up. The Woke have abandoned that declaration in favor of the flexible "climate change." I have some amusing observations about that, but I will leave that alone.

When I told the dermatologist's cashier that masks were useless, she said, "They are required." After she used my debit card to pay the bill, I asked, "Do you realize how many people have touched that card?"

The political contests move ahead, more bizarre than ever before. The Supreme Court and state legislatures could solve things according to the Constitution, but the Woke have other ideas.

End Game - Rough But Necessary

I thought Trump would really watch over vote fraud in 2018. Instead, the House went Democrat and Paul Ryan disappeared, one nay and one yay!

Doubtless the forms of voter fraud were watched in 2018, so I thought force would be used to guard the polls. Instead, it was the worst fraud ever, as boasted by Joe Biden Hisself.

Charles Austin, the ELCA journalist/pastor on ALPB's Online Forum, says there was no appreciable voter fraud, so that must be true. Ha! He forgot that his own seminary, Maywood, sold its original home to the Cubs, claiming the White Sox stadium was the place where his seminary began. That shows an extraordinary ignorance of baseball in Illinois and gives away his grasp of facts.

I can imagine Biden conceding, but that may not be their plan. Republicans are seething but not burning down their own cities. Most likely things will build toward another organized and funded group of riots. That and the voter fraud should obtain the largest set of convictions, largely through military tribunals, and peace will come.

The time in-between will be rough.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

Ephesians 6:10-13 KJV.

Soggy Winter Creation Garden - Growing

Enchanted Peace - feeding the addiction.

Others are experiencing snow and ice, but our new storm only brought a long, steady rain. Precipitation begins as snow, but we seldom see that form. Once again the autumn leaves are on the garden, which is losing its green color, then brightening to green again when it is warm.

The soggy garden is full of life. The roses, spirea, Joe Pye, and borage are napping until spring, but the autumn bulbs aka hardy bulbs are getting ready for the first signs of  winter retreating. Hardy bulbs love the cold and require it for blooming. The best bulb flowers I grew were in Michigan and the People's Republic of Minnesota. 

God Created the hardy bulbs to bring cheer and food to the early spring, when ordinary plants are just starting to bud. When we placed the bulbs in the soil, they were somewhat dry. Soil moisture started their roots growing and the plant reaching up but stopping near the surface.

Midweek Advent Service Link. The Two Natures in Christ - Divine and Human.

Video link - MidWeek Advent Service, December 2, 2020. 

The Two Natures in Christ.

Amazon Shocked Me Today

Every time you review a book, an angel gets to revive another pipe organ and dedicate it to Bach.

Today I was fiddling with the controls on the Amazon publishing page. The reasons are known to a few people. I was starting to get somewhere when I clicked on their Author Central service to see about a book title or two.

That set off the fireworks. All the books are published, and they include all publishers.

But this threw me - all the book reviews are bundled together, not in any special order. 

The number of reviews shocked me. Mrs. Ichabod said, "You should have looked them up." I did, from time to time, but I never imagined so many gracious and appreciative mini-essays. Thank you everyone!

Book reviews, even very short ones, raise the visibility of a given book. The basic rules are below. I make a point of reviewing the massive output of Alec Satin, the Lutheran Librarian.

First MidWeek Advent Service, 2020. The Two Natures of Christ

The Annunciation, by Norma A. Boeckler

Mid-Week Advent Service, 

December 2, 2020, 7 PM Central

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

https://video.ibm.com/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Mid-Week Advent, Wednesday, 7 PM Central

The Hymn # 240             Father Most Holy     
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody            Psalm   14                           p. 124
The Lection            

Sermon Hymn # 410                      Jesus Lead Thou On

         

God in the Flesh - God Incarnate

 

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer                            p. 44

The Collect for Peace                                           p. 45

The Benediction                                                   p. 45

The Hymn # 558            All Praise to Thee

Isaiah 7:10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Announcements and Prayers

• Luther's Galatians is in print, full color, at Lulu. I will be sending them out at my cost. Thank you Norma Boeckler, Alec Satin, and Janie Sullivan.
• Walther, the American Calvin is next. Then Creation Flowers, then the Bible text and translations.
• In treatment - Christina Jackson, Mary Howell, Rush Limbaugh.
• Doctor's care - Pastor Shrader, Randy Anderson.
• Pastor K and Doc Lito Cruz - dealing with diabetes.
• Our media ministries - Alec Satin, Norma Boeckler, Travis and Lauren Cartee, Pastor Jordan Palangyos.

God in the Flesh - God Incarnate

One Way To Hear the Scriptures

There are only two ways to read and understand the Scriptures. One is to see them as God's direct speaking to man through the Holy Spirit, the Bible being His actual Word, full of power, clarity, mercy, and forgiveness, but also full of wrath for those who reject its truth.

The Alternative Way To Hear Them

The other way to read the Scriptures is to see them as a collection of documents about God (not by God through His Spirit). They are interesting in some respects but not normative since they are ancient and from other cultures. However, they are a good specialty for those academics who lost their faith or never had any. All Biblical scholarship today (with almost no exceptions) is done from a purely rationalistic perspective, even to the point of ignoring the obvious harmony of the Bible and its external and internal proofs. External proofs match the Scriptures with documentation showing the truth of the passage, such as the title of the mayor of a town. Internal proofs are the unity of the books from so many sources and the power of the Word itself.

This alternative view is often the result of those who hold their authority to be greater than that of the Word of God. They may say all the right things about inerrancy, infallibility, and other terms - not just inspired but plenary inspiration - and yet land on the rationalistic side because the authority or tradition comes first. Notice that in the name of science, the Virgin Birth of Christ is denied as a mark of scientific purity, ignoring the context alone and denying the Word in the name of the false god science.

Modern, eloquent but rationalistic theologians will treat the Virgin Birth as symbolic. Once they consign everything to symbols, they can talk or write about them all day.

God Became Man - The Great Miracle

We should never grow weary of thinking about Jesus as both God and man, Two Natures united in One Person. When people distort the Isaiah passages, they are really saying, "Jesus was just a man, a good man, an exceptional teacher, maybe even a revolutionary, or labor organizer, but just a man."

This is a mystery or wonder revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word, not something we can figure out from our rather puny perspective. But that perspective should help us see how great this is, that God would live among us, suffer, and die for us, and rise from the dead.

Their effort to turn the passage into a "young woman will conceive" is foolish. This sign from God is unlike our weak modern version. "My lucky number is 15, so when the Buddhist priest showed me the secret number, I knew it was a sign from God." (Actual quotation, Eastern Religion Class. Tricksters elicit information then used it later to prove divinity. My wife and I heard this done with a medium.)

God is angry with the hypocrite Ahaz for rejecting a miracle from God. In His anger, God directly reveals that His miracle will be a Virgin giving birth to a son. The rationalists have this as a young woman giving birth. (First edition of the RSV, now a footnote, just as bad in many modern versions. NIV - Isaiah 7:14 Or young woman).

Where is the miracle? Those who deny miracles, of course, like this young woman interpretation, which leads them into Unitarianism and Atheism. I have known clergy who followed that path, from Church Growth to aggressive Atheism.

The Star alerted all of Jerusalem and the Wise Men that something divine was at work, and the Wise Men visited. This was the marker, like many such markers today, only far more celestial. The Name of this Son was already in the Hebrew Scriptures, God with Us.

9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom...

Isaiah 9 also predicts the work of the Messiah, using titles to fill in the meaning of this Virgin Birth. They take us back to Genesis, where God promised that Abraham's descendants would be like the stars in the sky. That is impossible in human history, but it is true of the Kingdom established by his line, which led to Christ.

This is a good example of the internal proof of the Scriptures, because the narrative begins at Creation and continues into the Roman Empire, with that tiny Kingdom transformed into millions and spreading across the earth.

1. O Jesus Christ,
Thy manger is
My paradise at which my soul reclineth.
For there, O Lord,
Doth lie the Word
Made flesh for us; herein Thy grace forth shineth.

2. He whom the sea
And wind obey
Doth come to serve the sinner in great meekness.
Thou, God's own Son,
With us art one,
Dost join us and our children in our weakness.

3. Thy light and grace
Our guilt efface,
Thy heavenly riches all our loss retrieving.
Immanuel,
Thy birth doth quell
The power of hell and Satan's bold deceiving.

4. Thou Christian heart,
Whoe'er thou art,
Be of good cheer and let no sorrow move thee!
For God's own Child,
In mercy mild,
Joins thee to Him; - how greatly God must love thee!

5. Remember thou
What glory now
The Lord prepared thee for all earthly sadness.
The angel host
Can never boast
Of greater glory, greater bliss or gladness.

6. The world may hold
Her wealth and gold;
But thou, my heart, keep Christ as thy true Treasure.
To Him hold fast
Until at last
A crown be thine and honor in full measure.

The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #81

This hymn expresses the great truth of the Bible, that the divine and human natures united in Christ mean everything for us. He knows our needs and frailty, because He lived our life and was subjected to every temptation but was without sin (Hebrews 4). His power is unlimited, so that He can pray to the Father for us, as He does when we pray in His Name. Miracles still happen and they take place by God's will, according to His wisdom.

Selling Concordia Publishing House

Mrs. Ichabod and I watched the Paul McCain funeral live-streamed yesterday. 

The Steadfast Lutheran Lobby wanted to claim McCain "brought the Book of Concord back to life for the laity." If so, he should have brought it back to life for the clergy, the professors, the CPs, the DPs, and Synod President Matt the Fat.

Posturing is not the same as believing. His Holiness, who had the convention give him the power to kick out anyone talking about doctrine "apart from his or her appointed office," making him a regular pope. But there were predicted not only the Antichrist but also the little Antichrists.

A Report on the Meetings of ELS, LCMS, and WELS Leaders 2012–2015

https://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=3864

"Last but certainly not least, there was special joy to understand that we all hold to objective justification—that God declared the world righteous through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that we all recognize it to be the urgent mission of the church to take this gospel to the entire world."

https://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-lcms-els-wels-and-elca-agree-on.html

How can someone bring the Lutheran Confessions back to life while being part of the Objective Justification lobby that took over the LCMS and WELS? They repudiate the Chief Article of the Christian Faith and claim their cowardly Calvinism is the "Chief Article."

One layman, who knows Missouri and WELS, observed, "Seminex took over both synods." 

I added, "And Fuller's Church Growth followed the wreckage to finish off the remains."

He said, "Yes."

The current issue of Christian News, aka Calvinist Blues, complains about the CPH John commentary. Does the editor not know that Concordia Publishing House is a warning label?

Recent CPH Debacles 

Matt the Fat turned his awkward eulogy into a commercial for Concordia Publishing House, gushing that it was producing the greatest Lutheran "Confessional" books in the last ten years, more than any other era in history.

How about that Dogma-tanic, the gigantic scrapbook of articles from living and dead LCMS grandees - like Ralph Bohlmann? The Dogma-tanic features once again - Objective Justification from the fetid wombs of Pietism and Calvinism.

Or the Not-So Small Catechism, once again featuring Objective Justification - to mess up the minds of kids who thought they escaped the WELS Kuske catechism.

CPH's Gospel of Mark disowns the ending of Mark. They were deep into the Historical Critical Method long ago. Playing crack-the-whip with Mark is just one more indication of their lost condition.

Lower Criticism (against reliable manuscripts) paved the way for Higher Criticism (treating the Word of God as another book, a hopeless flawed and conflicted book - much like the critics).

You Saw It Here First

I decided tonight's news is a series of head-fakes. When the storm is upon us, it will be like this, as foreseen by the Mickey Mouse Club.

Paul T. McCain Funeral Starts at 1 PM Central - Link Is Here

 

Link for Live Streaming Funeral, Paul T. McCain

Nihil nisi bonum

Sending Out Luther's Galatians Today

 

Today I am ordering the printed Understanding Luther's Galatians for a number of people. The book includes artwork by Norma A. Boeckler and my comments.

A Kindle version was previous published but the print version went to Lulu. Once all the servers connect, the print version will be seen on Amazon too. 

The lowest price for the printed version will be from me.

Enjoy the Biden Cabinet Reports. Laugh Hard, Because It Is Over. My Wife Said, "Over? Over?" I Replied, "Over. Over. Over. Over. Over. Over."

 

I said, "Keep up with the real news." 

I told Ranger Bob, who was lower than a snake's belly today, "You are cordially invited to stop by and say, "You were right all along!"

The truth wins.

White House

 

All Our Lutheran Media Ministries - One Convenient Page

Christian Art

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Norma Boeckler's Christian Art Books

Books 

Alec Satin's Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry - Over 292 Free PDFs

Alec Satin's Printed Books on Amazon - More Than 119 Titles

Pastor Jackson's Printed Books on Amazon and Lulu

Classic Lutheran Books on Facebook - Group Page for Those Who Join

Many Extra Links Are Found Here

Free PDFs, Locations of Luther's Works in Various Languages, Lenski PDFs

Saved worship files and Greek lessons are at the live worship link.

Essential Lutheran Books - List

Dropbox links to free public domain books, Lenski Commentaries, Keil-Delitzsch, Luther's Sermons,plus free books edited and written by Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

Blog Graveyard Expands

"Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the truckload." - Old Journalist Saying

LutherQuest (sic) and Steadfast Lutherans (sic) are on life support now, barely able to publish soporific filler.

This advice may be too late, but I always tell my graduate students, "Copy and paste is not research or writing, and it will one day get you into trouble when people copy your timeless tosh and compare it on Google."

How much synodical wisdom is copied and pasted from Fuller?

I Laughed at This Concept - The Citizen Journalist - Now Coming True

"The article on which the Church... oh, I am too sleepy after coffee with cream and danish."

My adventures in journalism began at Coolidge Junior High, so English class was journalism class, and I helped with the student paper in a small way. Classes with credit came along later when I decided to add enough MA hours to qualify for teaching writing. True, I already had books and articles, plus teaching about 70 classes on how to write. But the suits who run higher education like credit, so I took some classes  until I reached 20 hours.

One expert predicted, around 2006, that that citizen journalists would take over as the big newspaper empires collapsed. I did not think it would happen, even though I published independently to sneak past the watchful Objective Justification dragons. One morbidly obese bureaucrat made sure that even my ads on Logia were banned.

Blogging made it easy to publish the religion page and I had some hopes that more would do the same independently. But nothing is too good to be spoiled by their Father Below. The founder of Intrepid Lutherans was the first to bail out, doubtless pushed by the new Martin Luther, Mirthless Mark Schroeder. The nauseating Steadfast Lutherans began as lapdogs of OJ and Matt the Fat Harrison.

Nevertheless, the collapse of the mainlines will continue with the soi-disant Conservative Lutherans chanting their eulogies to their departing co-conspirators.

Meanwhile, the political blogs have taken off with great energy and resources. I find the big conservative sites rather tame and watered down. Independent writers with their own little blogs are providing what was predicted years ago. Everyone can record, research, and publish.

The reaction of the overfed yet under-read church bureaucrats has not been, "We should fix this!" No, they agree - "We must silence this."

This is how church bureaucrats see themselves.

Video and Text for Advent 1, 2020

 

Video of the Advent 1, 2020 service

          The entire service with hymns, liturgy, and sermon.