Thursday, January 18, 2024

The Roll of Honor and the Synodical Big Picture

 


I unraveled The Roll of Honor yesterday to awaken the innocent about how badly the Synodicals behave in their jobs: LCMS-ELCA-WELS-ELS-CLC-ELDONA. 

Many members already know because they have left the synods in the thousands, leaving the officials with their titles, salaries, crumbling properties, secrets, and dictatorial malignancies. Following are the basics for this debacle.

The Failed But Malignant KJV Revision, 1881

The foundational error was the rejection of the Apostolic Text (New Testament) and the Hebrew Old Testament. That started in earnest with the apostates creating the 1881 Revision of the King James Bible, which continued to fester even though that liberal American-British project was a complete failure. 


From KJV Revision to the Revised Standard Version - 1952

Many scholars among the Presbyterians and the Lutherans were caught up in that Revision, to some extent, . Lenski, who was loathed and silenced by his own synod, offered a complete set of New Testament commentaries, still used today. However, he was also caught up in the text corruptions developed from using Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, known as frauds but protected and praised by the radicals. He was one of many. (He often cited the KJV Revision in his commentaries.) After all, by the time National Council of Churches' Bible came out - the Revised Standard Version - the Virgin Birth had become "behold, a young woman will conceive" - not much of a miracle direct from God.

The RSV opened the way for denominations to gradually and dishonestly drop the KJV. The Wisconsin Synod's seminary graduates began the corrupting influence of the NIV, making fun of the KJV as they spread their mocking enlightenment around the congregations, as vicars and as young pastors. How did they learn that? - from their infallible college and seminary professors. Likewise, the spirit of Seminex rose early in the LCMS while the "conservative" ALC played the same game of watering down the Scriptures, changing passages, and erasing them, notably the Empty Tomb and resurrection in Mark 16.

I know of WELS pastors who were outright fired for using the KJV instead of the notoriously bad NIV

Slipping Away from Greek and Running from Hebrew

Today the synod students listed above hardly study Greek and avoid Hebrew. Summer Greek has become the winter of their discontent, a joke. That means the students have almost no grasp of the Scriptures, and almost never use the Apostolic (Traditional) Greek text, which is far less costly that the Union Bible Society version. (I know, United, but it includes all denominations and religions.)

The synods are really all the same now, and they know it. One clue is that they all use a rainbow of translations and remain indifferent to the pablum they are feeding their members. They use the ESV from the National Council of Churches license! ELCA uses all kinds of "translations" in their printed liturgy material, meaning, "Everyone knows. Anything goes." 

Another clue is that the synods are injected with Fuller Seminary nonsense and imagine the alternative is Romanism. I have watched the LCMS District President fancy themselves in fancy robes as Bishops! Miters are on the way, starting from the bottom (ELDONA) up.

This has all happened because people let the rot begin and wanted more of the same. Believers will regroup in time and find the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace, not Pasadena and Rome.






Eat For Life - By Dr. Joel Fuhrman



I re-discovered Eat for Life when looking over my library. This book and Super-Immunity are excellent books for learning about food nutrition. Yesterday I wrote about all the bad foods we eat, loaded with fat, salt, sugar, sugars, and fake sugar. 

One of the best ways to start eliminating those damaging foods is to study their package labels and to learn about the good foods - greens, beans, fruit, nuts, and seeds. The best nutrition summaries of these foods is to Google "the nutritional value of..." I knew next to nothing about the good, unprocessed foods found in the produce department and a wee bit of them in the freezers. Our "largest WM in Arkansas" has one entire bank of freezers for ice cream, its crafts and assaults, but only one half of a bank for greens, raw vegetables, and frozen fruit. Yes, the rest of the nutritional freezer bank is filled with packaged, enhanced (salty, spicy, seasoned) frozen goods, much more expensive. Seasoned frozen blah-blah can cost many times more than its simply frozen counterpart. Check it out. Schocking!

The main leafy greens are kale, turnip greens, spinach, and collards. They have almost no calories.
Kale -

A single cup, or 21 grams (g), of raw kale contains (1Trusted Source):

  • Calories: 7
  • Carbs: 1 g
  • Fiber: 1 g
  • Vitamin K: 68% of the Daily Value (DV)
  • Vitamin C: 22% of the DV
  • Manganese: 8% of the DV
  • Vitamin A: 6% of the DV
  • Riboflavin: 5% of the DV
  • Calcium: 4% of the DV

Spinach is an excellent source of many vitamins and minerals, including (3):

  • Vitamin A. Spinach is high in carotenoids, which your body can turn into vitamin A.
  • Vitamin C. This vitamin is a powerful antioxidant that promotes skin health and immune function.
  • Vitamin K1. This vitamin is essential for blood clotting. Notably, one spinach leaf contains over half of your daily needs.
  • Folic acid. Also known as folate or vitamin B9, this compound is vital for pregnant women and essential for normal cellular function and tissue growth.
  • Iron. Spinach is an excellent source of this essential mineral. Iron helps create hemoglobin, which brings oxygen to your body’s tissues.
  • Calcium. This mineral is essential for bone health and a crucial signaling molecule for your nervous system, heart, and muscles.

Spinach also contains several other vitamins and minerals, including potassium, magnesium, and vitamins B6, B9, and E.

Spinach contains several important plant compounds, including (4Trusted Source5Trusted Source6Trusted Source7Trusted Source89Trusted Source10Trusted Source):

  • Lutein. This compound is linked to improved eye health.
  • Kaempferol. This antioxidant may decrease your risk of cancer and chronic diseases.
  • Nitrates. Spinach contains high amounts of nitrates, which may promote heart health.
  • Quercetin. This antioxidant may ward off infection and inflammation. Spinach is one of the richest dietary sources of quercetin.
  • Zeaxanthin. Like lutein, zeaxanthin can also improve eye health.
The same type of nutritional value comes from frozen, unprocessed broccoli, carrots, green beans, peas, lima beans, onions-green-and-red peppers sliced, sliced onions alone, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts. 

The combination of greens and vegetables is satisfying, very nutritious and inexpensive, lacking in added salt.

I found super high salt content in my (former) favorite bread, in some canned beans but not others, in shockingly packaged pizza, snacks, and pre-cooked meals like Marie Calendars. I left one in the fridge with 650 mg of salt in one serving. I have found a can of beans with over 1,000 mg of salt, but the Cicero peas only 120 mg. I am keeping the 1,000 mg beans to use as snow melt.

If we are not satisfied with the super-salty processed meats, we can use ketchup and mustard to enhance their salinity with their contribution of salt. 



Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Epiphany 3 - "Therefore we here conclude and declare that in baptism the children themselves believe and have their own faith, which God effects in them through the sponsors, when in the faith of the Christian church they intercede for them and bring them to baptism."

 


Complete Sermon -> Third Sunday after Epiphany. The Leper and Healing the Centurion's Servant


Therefore we here conclude and declare that in baptism the children themselves believe and have their own faith, which God effects in them through the sponsors, when in the faith of the Christian church they intercede for them and bring them to baptism. And this is what we call the power of alien faith: not that anybody can be saved by it, but that through it as an intercession and aid he can obtain from God himself his own faith, by which he is saved. It may be compared to my natural life and death. If I am to live, I myself must be born, and nobody can be born for me to enable me to live; but mother and midwife can by their life aid me in birth and enable me to live. In the same way I myself must suffer death, if I am to die; but one can help to bring about my death, if he frightens me, or falls upon me, or chokes, crushes or suffocates me. In like manner, nobody can go to hell for me; but he can seduce me by false doctrine and life, so that I go thither by my own error, into which his error has led me. So nobody can go to heaven for me: but he can assist me, can preach, teach, govern, pray and obtain faith from God, through which I can go to heaven. This centurion was not healed of the palsy of his servant; but yet he brought it about that his servant was restored to health.

32. So here we also say, that children are not baptized in the faith of the sponsors or of the church; but the faith of sponsors and of the church prays and gains faith for them, in which they are baptized and believe for themselves. For this we have strong and firm Scripture proof, Matthew 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-16. When some brought little children to the Lord Jesus that he should touch them, and the disciples forbade them, he rebuked the disciples, and embraced the children, and laid his hands upon them and blessed them, and said: “To such belongeth the kingdom of God” etc. These passages nobody will take from us, nor refute with good proof. For here is written: Christ will permit no one to forbid that little children should be brought to him; nay, he bid them to be brought to him, and blesses them and gives to them the kingdom of heaven. Let us give due heed to this Scripture.

33. This is undoubtedly written of natural children. The interpretation of Christ’s words, as if he had meant only spiritual children, who are small in humility, will not stand. For they were small children as to their bodies, which Luke calls infants. His blessing is placed upon these, and of these he says that the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Will we say they were without faith of their own? Then the passages quoted above are untrue: “He that disbelieveth shall be condemned.” Then Christ also speaks falsely or feigns, when he says the kingdom of heaven is theirs, and is not really speaking of the true kingdom of heaven. Interpret these words of Christ as you please, we have it that children are to be brought to Christ and not to be forbidden to be brought: and when they are brought to Christ, he here compels us to believe that he blesses them and gives to them the kingdom of heaven, as he does with these children. And it is in no way proper for us to act and believe otherwise as long as the words stand: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.” Not less is it proper for us to believe that when they are brought to him he embraces them, blesses them, and bestows upon them heaven, as long as the text stands that he blessed the children which were brought to him and gave heaven to them. Who can ignore this text? Who will be so bold as not to suffer little children to come to baptism, or not to believe that Christ blesses them when they come ?

34. He is just as present in baptism now as he was then: this we Christians know for certain. Therefore we dare not forbid baptism to children. Nor dare we doubt that he blesses all who come thither, as he did those children. So then there is nothing left here but the piety and faith of those who brought the little children to him. By bringing them, they effect and aid that the little children are blessed and obtain the kingdom of heaven; which cannot be the case unless they themselves have their own faith, as has been said. So we also say here, that children are brought to baptism by the faith and work of others; but when they get there and the pastor or baptizer deals with them in Christ’s stead, he blesses them and grants to them the faith and the kingdom of heaven: for the word and deed of the pastor are the word and work of Christ himself.

35. With this agrees also what St. John says in his first Epistle,1 John 2:13: “I write unto you, fathers; I write unto you, young men; I have written unto you, little children.” He is not satisfied to write to the young men; he also writes to the children, and writes that they may know the Father. From this it follows that the apostles baptized children also, and held that they believe and know the Father, just as if they had attained to reason and could read. Although somebody might here interpret the word “children” as adults, as Christ designates his disciples sometimes: yet it is certain that here they are meant who are younger than the young men; so that it is evident he is speaking of young people who are under fifteen or eighteen years of age, and excludes nobody down to the first year: for these all are called children.

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Some People Are Asking about Nutrition, So I Am Continuing the Posts

 

People have pointed out that long ago, bakers and customers were not obese, which is so common today.

My scary blood panel showed perfect cholesterol but diabetic blood sugar. That shocked me into looking for nutritional answers. I knew that insulin made diabetes worse and the more radical treatments were even more dangerous. Below are some things I learned, because I know too many people who dangerously overweight, as I was.

One approach is to study the nutrition materials and begin removing the useless fattening and sugar-salt foods. That is not easily done because we crave what we are used to eating. Besides, we are seduced with claims of wonder-foods when they are really a fast track to fatness and its consequences. 

Steadfast denial, in stages, can drop weight consistently. That would include:

  1. Satanic - Ice cream in all its forms, the varieties of desserts left around the house, and all sodas, juices, and coffee/tea with sugar and "cream."
  2. Nibbling food - chips, Fritos, popcorn, salted and sugared peanuts and nuts, sugar based candies, gum, and chocolates.
  3. Impulse fatteners enhanced with salt - pizzas, everything from fast food emporiums, restaurant food in general, frozen food than only needs a microwave.
I will leave those examples of what can easily be removed in steps, because the two-week diets lead people right to donut shop to celebrate. Extreme diets are dangerous and only good for the ones designing the fanatic demands in their slick ads, gathering the loot, and saying "But you didn't do it right."

Next will be breaking the cycle with good food from God's Creation instead of the bakery and candy store.

A classmate photoshopped my donut shop calendar photo.


The Ever Expanding Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry - From Alec Satin.
The History of Protestantism

 

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Epiphany 3 - "Now learn from this how foolish and void of understanding we are in regard to God’s works and wonders, when we despise the plain Christian man and think that only the “men with pointed mitres” and the learned know and understand God’s truth; whereas Christ here exalts this heathen with his faith above all his disciples."

 



Complete Sermon -> Third Sunday after Epiphany. The Leper and Healing the Centurion's Servant


13. However, the saying of Christ: “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,” has been discussed with solicitude, lest it should imply that Christ did not speak truly or that the Mother of God and the apostles were inferior to this centurion. Although I might say here that Christ is speaking of the people of Israel, among whom he had preached and to whom he had come, and that therefore his mother and disciples were excluded, because they traveled with him and came with him to the people of Israel in his preaching, nevertheless I will abide by the words of the Lord and take them as they stand; and for the following reasons. First, it is contrary to no article of belief that this faith of the centurion was without a parallel among the apostles or in the Mother of God. But whenever no article of faith openly contradicts the words of Christ, they are to be taken literally, and are not to be adapted and bent by our interpretation, neither for the sake of any saint, or angel, nor of God himself. For his Word is the truth itself above all saints and angels.

14. Secondly, such interpretation and adaptation spring from a carnal mind and intention, namely to estimate the saints of God not according to God’s grace, but according to their person, worth and greatness; which is contrary to God, who estimates quite differently, according to his gifts alone. For he never granted to John the Baptist to perform miracles, John 10:41, as many inferior saints did. In short, he frequently does through inferior saints what he does not do through great saints. He concealed himself from his mother, when he was twelve years old, and suffered her to be in ignorance and error, Luke 2:43. On Easter Sunday he showed himself to Mary Magdalene, before he showed himself to his mother and the apostles, John 20:14. He spoke to the Samaritan woman, John 4:7, and to the woman taken in adultery, more kindly than he ever spoke to his own mother. John 8:10. And when Peter fell and denied him, the murderer on the cross stood firm in his faith.

15. By these and similar wonders he shows that he will not have his Spirit in his saints limited by us, and that we are not to judge according to the person. He wills to bestow his gifts freely, according to his pleasure and not according to our opinion, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:11.

Indeed even of himself he says in John 14:12: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” The purpose of all this is to prevent men from being presumptuous toward others and from elevating one saint above another and creating divisions. All are to be equal in the grace of God, however unequal they are in his gifts. It is his will to do through St. Stephen what he does not do through St. Peter, and through St. Peter what he does not do through his mother; so that it may be he alone who does all in all without distinction of person according to his will.

16. In this sense also is it to be understood that at the time of his preaching he found not such faith either in his mother or in the apostles, whether or not he found then or afterward greater faith in his mother and the apostles, or in many others. For it may easily be possible that at the time of his conception and birth he granted great faith to his mother, and afterwards never or seldom like great faith. At times he may have permitted it to decline, as he did when for three days she had lost him, Luke 2:48. He deals thus with all his saints; and if he did not, the saints would doubtless fall into presumption and make idols of themselves or we would make idols of them, and look more upon their worthiness and persons than upon God’s grace.

17. Now learn from this how foolish and void of understanding we are in regard to God’s works and wonders, when we despise the plain Christian man and think that only the “men with pointed mitres” and the learned know and understand God’s truth; whereas Christ here exalts this heathen with his faith above all his disciples. This is because we hold to persons and dignities, and not to God’s Word and grace. Therefore with persons and dignities we also plunge into every error, and then say, the Christian church and the councils have declared so; they cannot err, because they have the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile Christ is with those despised ones and gives dignitaries and councils over to the devil. Therefore note well, how Christ exalts this heathen. He surpasses Annas, Caiaphas and all the priests, scholars and saints, all of whom ought by right to be the pupils of this heathen, not to say that they ought never to be above him in their opinions and judgments. God sometimes grants to a great saint no faith and to a small saint great faith, in order that one may always esteem another better than himself. Romans 12:10.

III. THE DISCUSSION OF THE DOCTRINE OF PERSONAL FAITH AND THE FAITH OF OTHERS; ALSO, OF FAITH AND THE BAPTISM OF CHILDREN. “Lord, I am not worthy.”

18. Herein is the great faith of this heathen, that he knows salvation does not depend upon the bodily presence of Christ, for this does not avail, but upon the Word and faith. But the apostles did not yet know this, neither perhaps did his mother, but they clung to his bodily presence and were not willing to let it go, John 16:6. They did not cling to his Word alone. But this heathen is so fully satisfied with his Word, that he does not even desire his presence nor does he deem himself worthy of it. Moreover, he proves his strong faith by a comparison and says: I am a man and can do what I wish with mine own by a word; should not you be able to do what you wish by a word, because I am sure, and you also prove, that health and sickness, death and life are subject to you as my servants are to me?

Therefore also his servant was healed in that hour by the power of his faith.

19. Now since the occasion is offered and this Gospel requires it, we must say a little about alien faith and its power. For many are interested in this subject, especially on account of the little children, who are baptized and are saved not by their own, but by the faith of others; just as this servant was healed not by his own faith, but by the faith of his master. We have never yet treated of this matter; therefore we must treat of it now in order to anticipate, as much as in us lies, future danger and error.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Charlie Sue Had Three Playtimes in the Snow Today

 

Charlie Sue loves the backyard, not only the space for racing and chasing balls, but also visiting her dog friends along the South, West, and North fences. 

I went out with her twice to have some fun. She also had a third romp much later.

She loves to race full speed toward me and change course instantly. She also runs on her back legs for a short distance, no doubt to find prey. She loved the snow fell asleep after each adventure.

All the dogs stayed inside.

Roll of Honor - Kick-Offs - No Particular Order




Hale, Calvin, and Knapp - Phil removed me from the link to Christian News, saving me five minutes every time a new issue comes off their antique printing press in New Haven. CN boasts they had a book about Walter Maier, even though the business rejects Biblical inerrancy (Bogus Beck Bible) and the statement by Maier on the Otten book cover about Justification by Faith.



Confessional Lutheran FB ___ (fill in the blank, there are many) 

Everyone in a Lutheran sect is Confessional. Everyone! I told the host, a graduate of ELCA's Southern Seminary, "That explains everything." I was kicked off.

George Borgwardt kicked me off his FB forum, and then kicked my wife off, even though he taught that everyone is already forgiven. Everyone!

Matt the Fatt removed me from his FB as soon as he was elected.
 Former LCMS President Jerry Kieschnick has remained my FB friend.



The WELS Intrepids were gathered by Pastor Steve Spencer, who asked me to name people for the group. They did not want me listed, but they borrowed my materials and were shocked to find out I was correct. That shed light on Justification by Faith. Steve was the first Intrepid to run away. Soon the rest were gone, but the website is still up. ELS Pastor Jay Webber popped in, at the time, to promote his Objective Justification fallacies but got shut down by a layman.

LutherQuest
LQ invited me to say hello on their blog, following their invitation with a barrage of caustic and vituperative comments. Two of my friends joined to offer some counter-battery artillery. One of my comments about who was posting with a pseudonym elicited a threat to kick me off if I did not apologize for guessing the coward's name correctly! This strange coven of Objective Justification partisans once published a series of Paul McCain's plagiarized Roman Catholic saint articles. Who pointed out the plagiarism and suggested they stop? Ichabod. They are now republishing McCain, perhaps as a modern CFW Walther.  
LCMS slobbers over this nonsense, always avoiding the fact that Edward Preuss joined the Roman Catholic Church after seeing a red sunset. 


The Ovaltines


I admit to making up a name for the very senior pastors on the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau's Online Public Forum. Readers taunt me into repeating the words, almost as long as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. I can picture the Ovaltines at their desks, sipping their elixir, avoiding significant news or facts or doctrinal issues. The same small gang dominates. They consist of LCMS Seminex retirees, ELCA, and Roman Catholic wannabees. They love to tag themselves S.T.S. - Society of the Holy Trinity - to make sure everyone knows they are very high church, smells and belles. Not long ago their most prolific poster, an ELCA pastor with 10,000 posts, was convicted and sent to prison. No one mentioned it. 

ELCA Pastor Tibbets, STS, former ALPB Online Forum contributor


The CLC (sic
Donkey basketball is CLC school fun - bring your own mop bucket.



The Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic)

Believe it or not - someone in Nicolet decided that a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper was the greatest possible sin, an abomination. Father and son went around stirring up trouble. Various clergy weirdos participated, including the CLC's president and the Circuit Counselor. 

We started an independent congregation, with land and a chapel in New Ulm - Bethany Lutheran Church. We moved to Phoenix, discovering online education, and then Arkansas. I borrowed motel bandwidth to teach online on the trip to Arkansas.

I am thankful to God for the synodicals and their dysfunctional buddies who made independence possible. All of them were devoted to the Church Growth Movement. They had a hatred for the Reformation - Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz - Justification by Faith, and basic honesty. I learned even more from them when I explored the errors of Lutheran sectarian pride. 

Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure - Plus CLP

Herman Otten suggested that I send my manuscript to the WELS publishing house, so I did - and they accepted it. Soon after I gave a presentation at a WELS circuit on the Means of Grace. Pastors Roger Kovaciny, Wally Oelhafen, and Fred Adrian shouted their opposition, truly a sight to see. I thought, "That will be my last chapter in Liberalism!" NPH delayed the book for about a year, apparently because the Fuller Seminary faction wanted it stopped altogether. However, the book was printed and the same kind of raving was set up for the church council meeting. One member of the council grilled the other members and made them retract their madness. The book sold like hotcakes.

I wrote Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant and had a similar experience. NPH accepted the book, scheduled it for printing (the final step), and then said, "We will not print this until you change your attitude." That was rather vague - Stop being Lutheran? Start worshiping Fuller Seminary? Repudiate the Reformation? Otten suggested a local printer and CLP came out. NPH promoted it (?!) to all their customers, and it sold very well. Along the way I got Otten involved in selling NPH books and he sold off all their musty unsellable books, plus mine.

The skirmish got me into independent printing. If anyone wonders why the LCMS-ELS-WELS-CLC are so weak, anti-Lutheran, and crumbling, just consider the appalling leadership of their Church Growth zombies and vampires, who hate the Gospel of Faith in Jesus Christ. 

Christina was always encouraging about the books and enjoyed the blog battles immensely. She forced me to add up the books, small and large, 31. Many Lutheran friends have also urged more publishing, blogging, and videoing.