Kurtzahn, The Pancake Pope of the CLC (sic), Unloads on Lenski

Found on e-Bay. If you stare at this IHOP stack of pancakes long enough, an image of Steve Kurtzahn appears. Some call it a miracle, but others want their money back.

Steven Kurtzahn, WELS/CLC/WELS

Pooled Ignorance from LutherQuest (sic)

Dick Rockenbach (Drock)
Senior Member
Username: Drock

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 - 6:57 am: 
http://www.logos.com/products/details/3910
do any of you folks have this? Like it?
What weaknesses does Lenski have?


Pr Rolf David Preus (Rolf)
Senior Member
Username: Rolf

Post Number: 4141
Registered: 5-2001

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 - 7:29 am: 
Lenksi denies objective justification and teaches election in view of faith.


Rev. Stephen Kurtzahn (Hville79)
Intermediate Member
Username: Hville79

Post Number: 320
Registered: 6-2008

Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 - 12:05 pm:
I would recommend Lenski, having used him from seminary days, but with the caveats Pastor Preus mentions. Those who have followed Lenski in totality have really gotten themselves messed up in these two areas--just look at what's his name over at Ichabod.

Lenski has some very good insights into the Greek that I have utilized often in my sermon work. But what I find interesting is how he will often disagree with Synodical Conference exegetes. In working through a text in the Gospels, for example, I find that he will often take an approach just the opposite of Ylvisaker or Kretzmann (who really mirrors Stoeckhardt). He doesn't mention the SC guys by name, but he explains their exegesis clearly--and then disagrees with it. There are times when I do go with Lenski because he makes more sense with the Greek. But there have also been times I've thought he's way off.

Overall, if you're looking to purchase Lenski, I think it would be a good investment that you will use for years to come.


***


GJ - I do not know which guy is funnier - Rolf cannot comprehend the book he supposedly edited - Justification and Rome.


Kurtzahn was so bad in the CLC that David Menton did not want to be in the same room with him. Ask Kurtzahn about the sin of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, or whether incest is a sin. The first one is a crucial theological matter. The second is an adiaphoron.

Kurtzahn is a good example of someone who flips for career advantage. Here is an earlier letter, from Kurtzahn.1, before he become Kurtzahn.2 and Kurtzahn.3.

[GJ - Pastor Steve Kurtzahn wrote this letter April 30, 1996, when he was a circuit pastor in the CLC (sic). The letter is written to CLC Pastor Paul Tiefel, who shares the same grandfather and nickname (Teufel) as Mequon Professor James P. Tiefel. Paul Tiefel did not enjoy my CN  review of Valleskey's disastrous Church Growth textbook.]


St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC)
2100 Sixteenth Street South West
Austin, Minniesota 55912
507-433-8191

April 30, 1996

Pastor Paul Tiefel
2015 N. Hastings Way
Eau Claire, WI 54703

This is in response to your April 27th letter.

First, let me say that when you phoned me you wanted to know what problems I had with Valleskey's book. You also mentioned on the phone that you felt Greg Jackson broke the Eighth Commandment.

It is because of the accusation you made on the phone against Greg that I spent so mujch space in my letter speaking of the review. You were the one who brought it up on the phone with me. Now you want to discuss it "only with Jackson's approval?" Let me repeat myself, Paul : I see no instance how or where Greg did such a thing as break the Eighth Commandment. [emphasis in original]

It is very disturbing that you and [David ] Koenig speak to false teachers in other church bodies like Valleskey, [James] Tiefel and Harstad (sp?) concerning the truthfulness of what Greg Jackson writes. Since when do you think they will agree with Greg? He has laid bare in the past few years the fact that many in the WELS and the ELS were Church-Growth oriented. Do you honestly think they would corroborate Greg's statements after that?

Allow me to make an analogy. Think back to the formative days of the CLC. What if you or Dave were on the floor of the WELS conventions back in the 1950's when it disregarded Romans 16:17, 18. Would you have gone to O. J. Naumann or Carl Lawrenz to see if Edmund Reim or Egbert Schoaller or C. M. Gullerrud were telling the truth concerning the error of the WELS/ELS? What do you think the response would have been if you had asked them, "Is Reim (or Schaller or Gullerud) telling the truth?"

When it comes to my pointing out the false doctrine of David Valleskey, Paul, it needs to be said that a false teacher can be recognized not just by blatant and clear statements of falsehood, like you are searching for when it comes to his book. But a false teacher can also be recognized when does NOT say something that he should, or when he says something in a confusing manner, or even when his writings exude a false spirit. For example, a person can be classified as a legalist and still say all the right words. But you know he's a legalist by the way he says these them or by what he does not say. Going back to the 1930's and 40's, particularly with the "Statement of the 44," many recognized that something was going terribly wrong in the Missouri Synod, but no one could really put a finger on the problem until after the fact. There are many things in the "Statement" that you and I could also p;robably have agreed with, but looking back upon that history we recognize now that there was an underlying liberal agenda being carried out in the LC-MS. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Getting back to Valleskey's book:

1. Unless I missed it somewhere, does Valleskey repudiate the Church Growth Movement taught by Fuller Theological Seminary by name? If he does, show me the page number.

2. On pages 199 through 204 Valleskey deals with the so-called "Seeker Service." He goes into a tremendous amount of detail about how Seeker Services are done. He raises many good questions that Lutherans should ask themselves before they become involved in such Seeker Services. But if Seeker Services are dangerous by trivializing and by even ignoring the Means of Grace, why does he leave the door cracked open by saying on page 204, "Althought it must be said that congregations may in Christian freedom utilize at least certain features of this outreach method..."

3. On page 201 Valleskey states, "The gospel is proclaimed at the Seeker Service, but not as a means by which the Spirit miraculously draws people into the church..." From what I have read from many different sources in the past and from what I have seen on television documentiaries, the Gospel of Holy Scripture is NOT proclaimed at many, if not most, of these Seeker Services. So why does Valleskey say, "The gospel is proclaimed..."?

4. On page 174, Valleskey quotes Joseph Aldrich approvingly. Where in the quote is there mention of the Means of Grace? The quote sounds very Reformed ot me ("He desire to build into you and me the beauty of his own character, and then put us on display...").

5. On pages 237 and 238 Valleskey speaks of the role of women in evangelism. I felt very uncomfortable with the two paragraphs because he is making a distinction between evangelism calling "in the name of and on behalf of the congregation" (p. 27, fifith line from the bottom) and "the ministry of the gospel conducted in the name of and on behalf of the congregation" (p. 238, fifth line from the top). Why would he make such an artificial distinction? Why would he also make the contrast in the statement "They go out, not as one with authority over the man, but as ones with a message to share"? Why would a man with his seeming intellectual prowess resort to such confusing language? WHAT IS HIS UNDERLYING MOTIVE? Are these paragraphs laying the groundwork for some new revelations to come out of the WELS in the future in connection with the role of women in the church? These are very legitimate questions we should all be asking!

When I read Chapter Five, beginning on page 213, I thought I was back working at the brokerage firm in Milwaukee, sitting at the feet of motivational speakers who were using Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. These concepts of planning, mission statements, etc. the Church Growth people at Fuller lifted right out of the business world and have applied to the church. All sorts of companies have mission statements today. I've seen them in the lobbies of hospitals and in many other public places. But the Church has its "mission statement" in Matthew 28:18-20. There is no need for a new one!

On pages 217 ff. Valleskey speaks of the value of a mission statement. He shows what happens "without a clear sense of mission" and he shows what can happen "with a clear sense of mission." Paul, take a very close look at Valleskey's points. [emphasis in original] All of this is being stated on the basis of A MISSION STATEMENT rather than on the basis of THE MEANS OF GRACE, THE GOSPEL IN WORD AND SACRAMENTS.

On page 221, Valleskey speaks of "congregational self-study." At the end of that first paragraph under step two he speaks of "a community profile." We used to refer to such activity as the canvass, so we could find out what neighborhood families are unchurched so we could share the simple Word with them. The Church Growth people speak of such "community profiles" so they can fill the "felt needs" of an area. From the way Valleskey is writing it woudl eappear that he is again going the Church Growth route. If he's not, why doesn't he make himself clear?

Valleskey speaks a lot about goals, action plans, policies and procedures, etc. Note the comment in the middle of page 225, "It is good for a congregation, and likewise its boards and committees, to ask and answer the question, 'Where would we like to be, under God, five years from now?' and then begin to take specific steps to achieve that goal.'"

The reason the CG people like such statements is that many times their goal is an increase in church membership. It is true, Valleskey warns about this on page 224, "A part of the goal, however, cannot be that as a result of this concerted effort, X number of people will be brought to faith and fellowship hurch." But then why does he spend so much time talking about it? Why do we need action plans, goals, etc. to figure out where we would like to be five years from now? The answer from every confessional Lutheran congregation should be: Five years from now we pray that we will continue proclaiming the Word of God in its truth and purity and administering the Sacraments as Christ instituted them. Period. [emphasis in original] Valleskey is lifting all of this stuff from the CG literature and interspercing comments such as the one on page 224 to salve the consciences of those who are still concerned about being faithful to the Word.

On page 230 in his example of developing policies and procedures, objective 1 is described as "To develop and maintain an evangelism awareness in our congregation." NOtice how this objective is to be implemented: articles (what should be in them?), greeter teams, adopt-a-goal, maintain tract rack (whould kind of tracts?), promote an evangelism Sunday, etc. All of these man-made methods are listed, but where in the world is there any mention of the faithful proclaimation of Law and Gospel? That is how true Scriptural evangelism awareness is developed and maintained.

Greg has already spoke of the differences in exegesis on Matthew 28 in his review, and how Valleskey is inconsistent in that regard.

There are other examples I could probably offer, but the above should suffice.

Paul, there are good things in Valleskey's book. I also learned when I read it. There are some good common sense suggestions in the second part of the book. But as you can see from the above references, ever so slyly, like a wolf in sheep's clothing, Valleskey is promoting the Church Growth Movement. [emphasis in original] I will argue that with anyone. God forbid, but my guess would be the next such book out of WELS will be even more CG oriented and even more blatant in its CG statements.

I hope this will finally put to rest the discord, mistrust and animosity this book has caused among brethren.

In His service,

Steve

Stephen C. F. Kurtzahn

cc: [CLC President] Dan Fleischer, [current world missionary] Dave Koenig


***

GJ - Does anyone wonder why I put (sic) after the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) ?

Under Construction

The Church From Old Scratch websty is under construction.

Public service announcement from Ichabod World Headquarters.

Pigs cannot fly very far.

They Do Sound Like Parlow, Ski, Jeske, Valleskey, Huebner, and Kelm

Dom Perignon Patterson caught a big one.
Gurgle helped him reel it in.

Guilty As Charged: Quotes from the Eco-Fraudsters
various ecocriminals

Posted on Thursday, November 26, 2009 1:32:27 PM by reasonisfaith

"No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits.... Climate change [provides] the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world." Christine Stewart, Canadian Minister of the Environment in a quote from the Calgary Herald

"Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing -- in terms of economic policy and environmental policy." Tim Wirth , while U.S. Senator, Colorado. After a short stint as United Nations Under-Secretary for Global Affairs. Served as President, U.N. Foundation, created by Ted Turner and his $1 billion "gift"

"On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but - which means that we must include all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we'd like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change. To do that we need to get some broadbased support, to capture the public's imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This 'double ethical bind' we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both." Steven Schneider, Climatologist, Stanford University. Quoted in Discover, pp. 45-48, Oct. 1989; see also (Dixy Lee Ray in 'Trashing the Planet', 1990) and (American Physical Society, APS News August/September 1996).

“A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.” Paul Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, “Population, Resources, Environment” (W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, 1970, 323) This quote has also been attributed to John Holdren, Erlich's co-author, who now works with Obama in the White House.

“People are the cause of all the problems; we have too many of them; we need to get rid of some of them, and this (ban of DDT) is as good a way as any.” Charles Wurster, Environmental Defense Fund.

“We can and should seize upon the energy crisis as a good excuse and great opportunity for making some very fundamental changes that we should be making anyhow for other reasons.” — Russell Train (EPA Administrator at the time, and soon thereafter became head of the World Wildlife Fund), Science 184 p. 1050, 7 June 1974 "Scientists who want to attract attention to themselves, who want to attract great funding to themselves, have to (find a) way to scare the public ... and this you can achieve only by making things bigger and more dangerous than they really are." Petr Chylek (Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia) Commenting on reports by other researchers that Greenland's glaciers are melting. (Halifax Chronicle-Herald, August 22, 2001)

“The world has a cancer, and that cancer is man”. Alan Gregg, former longtime official of the Rockerfeller Foundation

“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialised civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” Maurice Strong, head of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and Executive Officer for Reform in the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations.

“Man is always and everywhere a blight on the landscape.” John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club

“Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.” Dave Foreman, Earth First! and Sierra Club director (1995-1997)

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi - Recessional Lutherans Will Leave

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi - literally means law of praying, law of believing, law of living. The phrase is often translated as "The way we worship is the the way we believe and the way we live." Often only the first four words in Latin are used, but the last two are especially fitting when applied to the Shrinkers in Lutherdom. They leave behind them - lawsuits, divorce decrees, and ruined congregations. They are stealth exterminators.

Architecture always reflects faith and worship.

1. Roman Catholic churches feature elaborate altars and diminished pulpits, because they feature the abomination of the Mass, a priest's unbloody sacrifice of Christ to reduce one's time in Purgatory.
   
2. Babtist churches feature a wading pool, inside or out, because they are stuck on immersion. Altars are minimal because they have ordinances, but no Sacraments. Non-Lutheran Protestants have baptismal fonts.
   
3. Pentecostals replace altars and pulpits with stages, to feature their amateur bands and singing artists. Others have followed this trend, which has degenerated to entertaining and snacking people at movie theaters.
   
4. Confessional Lutherans balance the altar and font with the pulpit, to emphasize Word and Sacrament. One does not overwhelm the other.

The WELS Shrinkers, following their peers in ELCA and Missouri, began by ditching the name Lutheran. I saw this circus being acted out in Columbus, with Stolzenburg, Kuske, and Zehms in charge. Laity saw it as dishonest at the very least. The Ohio Conference and Michigan District had a chance to fight this in the open, as I did. They chose to clam up and list "Pilgrim Community Church" on the roster so someone could ask about it on the floor of the district meeting. Kuske's answer was, "That shouldn't be there." That was it. The Doctrinal Pussycat Robert Mueller and VP Kuske also got CrossRoads started, same agenda. Pilgrim foundered on the rock of indifference, while CrossRoads finally turned honest and became Evangelical Covenant.


In their ignorance, Pilgrim and CrossRoads both stumbled onto well known denominational trademarks, in the name of avoiding the denominational stigmata. Under the toxic tutelage of Kelm, Valleskey, Bivens, Mark Jeske, James Huebner, and Wayne Mueller, WELS abandoned the name Lutheran with alacrity and without remorse: the hymnal, magazine, Lutherans for Life, and congregational names. They kept saying, as Kuske did, "We can leave out the name Lutheran," but no one wanted to ask why they itched to do so. The faux-answer was, "So we can grow faster."


The real answer was Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi. They did not trust in the efficacy of the Word and Sacraments, so they saw name Lutheran as a barrier to becoming generic Protestants. These jokers have advertised their lack of faith, through their Sunday services, for decades. They consciously avoid the liturgy and hymnals while featuring entertainment and half-baked musical performances. Sound systems get them excited. Holy Communion is avoided entirely. Ski/Glende's The CORE, Jeff Gunn's CrossWalk are typical.


WLC Board Member Gunn gives cogent reasons for attending his sect: food, casual dress, friendliness, and relevance. Not content to compete with the club scene, they covet the restaurant and bagel business as well.


What do these Shriners read and where do they go for spiritual edification? They love CG books and recommend them to gullible members. Valleskey suggested a string of CG textbooks in The Northwestern Lutheran and still became The Sausage Factory president. Kelm, Jim Huebner, and Olson made careers out of promoting Reformed doctrine. In the foulness of time, Mark Jeske appeared, with an excellent chance to make an unknown name well known through TV. He did the opposite. No one can tell he is Lutheran or WELS (or Missouri) from his edu-tainment shows. His cronies are the worst of the anti-Lutheran clergy in WELS. Ski's monthly need for Schwaermer conferences (with Glende and Bishop Katie in tow) are testimony to Jeske's influence. Ditto Patterson and his fondness for Exponential.


The Jeske-Parlow-Kelm style of worship will lead them out of WELS, perhaps to Missouri, but ultimately to a non-Lutheran sect. Parlow and Kelm are already ministerial members of Willow Creek Community Church (no discipline from DP Engelbrecht). I predict that Willow Creek will be the ultimate destination for many. Jerry Kieschnick could create a non-geographical district for WELS exiles. They would be allowed to eat tiger meat and continue secret GA hazing routines.


Marc Schroeder (LCMS, not the SP) had an assistant when they were both still WELS. The assistant gave a sermon where he said people had to make a decision for Christ. Soon the assistant was in the LCMS, followed by Marc. The assistant then joined the Babtists. Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. The men who slavishly copy Reformed sermons and Sneaker Services will not remain nominal Lutherans because they are anti-Lutheran in thought, word, and deed. They were able to move WELS into their orbit by leading Mischke and Gurgle around, but everyone finally woke up when they found the accounts empty (lex vivendi). Church and Change was more effective when they operated secretly.


What do the Chicaneries stand for? Read about their conference materials, the leaders they adore, the books they read, the conferences they attend, the fellow Shrinkers they promote, the grants and subsidies they grab.


The Shrinkers have picked a bad time to strand themselves. Dubai's financial meltdown has spooked money markets and made people wonder, "If an oil-soaked kingdom is in trouble, where will the rest of the countries go?" The Shrinkers do not depend on their own success but the prosperity of others. This is old stuff for Lutheran church historians. The 19th century anti-confessional Lutheran churches (with their own anti-confessional synods) became United Church of Christ congregations, if they survived at all.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi - Recessiona...":

It must be "nice" to be an independent Lutheran Pastor- then you never have to be challenged by what your colleagues say or do, you can just throw brick bats at everyone else who is not as enlightened as oneself. (Actually, it seems pretty lacking in courage)

***

GJ - It is even better to indulge in anonymous name-calling.

Fuller Fraud Resembles Global Warming Statistics

I joined WELS and all I got was this crummy sweatshirt.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Man-Made Global Warming Proven":

Hi Dr. Jackson,

Did you notice the similarity between ClimateGate and Church GrowthGate? Turns out the climatologists were massaging the numbers, and adding in false data, while the Church Growth-ologists touted bigger, better attended mall-like churches. Yet, over time they finally had to admit that they hardly converted anyone to Christianity, and once the ready supply of sheep to sheep-steal from the long-established alphabet soup of denominations became a trickle, their growth stagnated and in many cases reversed. Hence, the church growthers are rightly called church shrinkers.

I have noticed.

Here is the latest from Australia, and their version of the fraudulent Cap and Trade Double Energy Costs Tax. American Spectator has this.

For those who have missed the scientific scandal of all time - the global warming scientists have been exposed in England and New Zealand for faking data while blackballing any scientist with legitimate complaints about their methods and "facts." I knew that man-made global warming was invented to generate millions for "research" and billions for "carbon credits." Wowee - those carbon credits are just like those YoVille gifts people buy with real money on Facebook. Yes, people are paying for pixels with YoVille, so they should love buying carbon credits for a non-existing problem.

Back to the main theme - the Church Shrinkers have been running their Ponzi scheme for decades. The worse they do, the more they want to claim for themselves. St. Paul in German Village (Columbus, Ohio) had a variety of Shrinkers: Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, Roger Zehms, Bob Schumann, and Mike Nitz. Schumann envisioned 8,000 communicants and a world-famous parking valet ministry. (If you think any of my posts are humorous, just imagine the how much material I have to work with. I could do three blogs on Columbus alone.)

Mrs. Ichabod, upon hearing about this Schumann vision thing, asked at the time, "What if Marc Schroeder (now LCMS) has the same plan? Where will they get all these communicants?" Schumann is a Jungkuntz relative, and I trace the whole CG gang in WELS to Jungkuntz teaching at Northwestern College. Zehms, choking up, called Jungkuntz the best teacher he ever had. Zehms is now a member at St. Marcus, Milwaukee.

Where was I? What did CG do for St. Paul in German Village? It should be its own denomination by now, but the congregation did not prosper under the tutelage of so many gurus.

The comparisons are so obvious. The globaloney experts worked overtime to silence anyone who doubted their man-made global warming scare tactics.

WELS, Missouri, the Little Sect on the Prairie, ELCA, and the CLC (sic) have all pursued training in CG while idolizing the Fuller apostates. These thugs have worked together secretly, knowing each other's identity, yet denying their study at Fuller, their support of cheesey Reformed doctrine, and their looting of synod funds for their own destructive projects.

Do they work together to suppress dissent from their Church Shrinkerage? I have given many examples in the past. The clergy are afraid of their wrath. Like the ongoing GA hazing at Mequon, the denials work because so many participate in lying.

Calling me a liar, Valleskey and Bivens have denied going to Fuller Seminary and yet both have admitted it. Waldo Werning admitted his Fuller study to me, denied it later, and flew into a rage when I pointed out that I wrote down his admission on that day in my Day-Timer. I made it a habit to take notes when Shrinkers talked because they consistently denied ever saying what I wrote down. Later, Werning was proud to get a blue ribbon or Happy Meal or some other award from Fuller for selling their product so vigorously. That suggests he did go there.

Rich Krause defended Larry Olson (DMin, Fuller), without mentioning that he (as circuit pastor and conference chairman!) was doing an unionistic DMin with Larry Oh! as his supervisor. Rich and Larry call themselves "Dr." now - for the equivalent of a very weak STM degree.

All the synods have promoted and defended those men who have done their best to destroy Lutheran doctrine. Just as the scientists are against honest science, these Shrinkers are against their own doctrine. Fuller has trained men and women to subvert and undermine the confessions of all denominations - not just Lutherans. They are united by their disbelief in the Word - and proud of it. Our Staph Infection (Larry Oh!) bragged that more Lutherans went to Fuller than to synodical schools.

The Shrinkers also have their fake statistics. They highlight a few congregations where someone has succeeded in being non-Lutheran, vaguely Christian, and very entertaining - yielding a bumper crop of transfers from other congregations. Long ago, Reuel Schulz' man, C. Ponzi Wagner, admitted that "CG principles do not work." Has that fact--from their top defrauder--affected their ardor? Not at all.

I found a graphic in the WELS Perish Services presentation. The figures were for a "turnaround church," before and after. Very impressive - and faked. It showed what could happen. What a joke. When someone else was using WELS statistics, he got a call from Gurgle himself, asking where the information came from. (Implied accusation - you working with Name Him Not.) He answered, "From the WELS statistical report." Astonishing that all these statistics experts never stopped to analyze their own.

Several computers ago, I devised actual Excel graphs showing how WELS had started shrinking under CG, with The Love Shack staff growing each year. WELS supplied the statistics from their annual "Book of Sins." The Shrinkers strangled the schools, promoting their expensive programs and hiring additional buddies to lobby for more programs and hire more parasites at 2929. The trend lines were obvious - membership steadily downward, staff hires steadily upward, schools gradually defunded. And yet the conventions kept voting for these anti-Lutheran clowns.

Gurgle left office, suddenly, when the money gaps became too obvious to be explained or blamed away.

The Global Warming fanatics are already pushing their talking points. Ed Begley went Werning on Fox, yelling "peer reviews" and shouting down the interviewer. There is no known serious reaction to the scandal so far. Blogs will help get the word past the watchful dragons of the mainstream media.

The Shrinkers are so deceptive that they deny CG exists, yet they have their own private club in WELS to promote CG - Church and Change, started with WELS money, with offshoots to promote more of the same. The Shrinkers are not volunteers working in their spare time. No, they are on the synod dole - mission counselors and parish assistants and seminary professors.

Church and Change has its own listserve, which I repost every so often - to their howls of dismay. They do not need their own magazine, because the submissive WELS members pay for FIC to be used as the Xerox room of Church and Change. The regular contributors to FIC are the founders and leaders of Church and Change:

1. Kissin' Jim Aderman
   
2. Fuller Bivens
   
3. Dom Perignon Patterson
   
4. Peter Pan-denominational
   
5. Paul Calvin Kelm
   
6. Randy Latte Hunter
   
7. James Mattek
   
8. David Figs-from-Thistles Valleskey
   
9. His Grace, Mark Jeske
   
10. Wayne--no CG in WELS--Mueller.

FIC somehow manages to publish gushing articles about the favored CG experiments of the moment. The Sausage Factory has been CG for decades now, with Mary Lou College preparing the students for Reformed doctrine and homoerotic film production. WLC is not exactly a confessional alternative, since Church and Change started at Ecole de Schwan, "Our Valpo". WLC is so confessional (from a Fuller perspective) that they got their new president from a non-WELS congregation, CrossWalk in Phoenix, plus two board members. Has anyone heard of a tiny, failing non-WELS congregation getting three people in leadership roles at the same college? They were even trying to get Jeff Gunn a gig at WLC, but that was nixed. Church and Change used to brag that Gunn's anti-Lutheran entertainment center was "blessed," so they featured him at their conferences. The only way people get at the truth is by sending information to Ichabod and seeing it published for commentary. Chicanery commentary is obscene, abusive, crude, insulting, and especially motivating for me. The canons of decency prevent me from publishing most of it, but the daily volume proves regularly albeit joyless reading of the facts. Science is supposed to rely on pure research and the facts, but that has been subverted by a well organized group of greedy, self-serving people. The same can be said for Lutherans. Everyone wanted to be handed a neat formula they could repeat while feeling good about themselves:

1. The pastor and congregation must want to grow.
   
2. God wants His church to grow. God needs massive amounts of money to make this happen. He is depending on you.
   
3. Numerical growth is good, by whatever means necessary--short of sin, and actual work, of course.
   
4. Cell groups are absolutely necessary for growth.
   
5. Pipe organs are bad, bad, and pit orchestras are good, good.
   
6. The liturgy is bad, bad, but bad dancing and lame drama are good, good.
   
7. Hymns hurt growth, but peppy songs help growth.
   
8. Creeds and sermons are bad - so are church buildings.
   
9. Movie theaters are way cool. Offer treats before and during, for belly-servers.
   
10. Ministers should dress like they are going to change the oil in their cars afterwards.
    

These strange new insights, recycled endlessly, have devastated the institutions they propose to save. Why is no one shocked, or laughing, or marching to headquarters with burning torches and waving pitchforks?

Jim Aderman asked, "Have you ever kissed a frog?"

Absurdity is no barrier to publishing in FIC.

Aderman helped found the Chicaneries and gets paid to promote CG in FIC. Neat.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fuller Fraud Resembles Global Warming Statistics":

WELS really sowed the seeds of confusion when it conflated CG with exhortations to amend one’s own behavior to serve the needs of WELS. The dissonance with the Word of God alone was enough to drive away followers.

***

GJ - The exhortations may have laid claim to helping Holy Mother Synod, but they betrayed a real hatred for Lutheran doctrine and worship. I will dedicate a new post to that reality.

Thanks for Our Military, Past and Present

During this Thanksgiving season I want to express our family's gratitude for our military people. By that I mean current and past military, plus their extended families. Everyone in the family serves our country when someone is in uniform.

Our soldiers are the best and bravest, and they are known for their kindness throughout the world. In Germany, at the end of WWII, people said, "Get as close to the Americans as possible. You want to be captured by them, not the others."

Man-Made Global Warming Proven

James Delingpole

James Delingpole is a writer, journalist and broadcaster who is right about everything. He is the author of numerous fantastically entertaining books including Welcome To Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future And It Doesn't Work, How To Be Right, and the Coward series of WWII adventure novels. His website is www.jamesdelingpole.com

 

Climategate: the scandal spreads, the plot thickens, the shame deepens…

Wow! The scandal just gets juicier and juicier. Now it seems that the Kiwis may have been at it too – tinkering with raw data to make “Global Warming” look scarier than it really is. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That; Ian Wishart)

The alleged villains this time are the climate scientists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NiWA) – New Zealand’s answer to Britain’s Climate Research Unit. And to judge by this news alert by the Climate Science Coalition of NZ, both institutions share a similarly laissez-faire attitude to scientific accuracy.
Compare and contrast these two graphs and you’ll see .

This is the graph from NiWA’s website, showing mean annual temperature over New Zealand from 1853. Note the dotted straight line showing the upward trend. Worrying, isn’t it? Almost enough to make you fall in love your flickery, yellowy new eco-light bulbs, recycle your kids and commit yourself to a binding agreement at Copenhagen.

Now have a look at this analysis of the raw data taken from exactly the same temperature stations.

Can you see the difference? I can – and I know as little about science as Al Gore. But lets allow the experts at Climate Science Coalition of NZ to explain:

Straight away you can see there’s no slope—either up or down. The temperatures are remarkably constant way back to the 1850s. Of course, the temperature still varies from year to year, but the trend stays level—statistically insignificant at 0.06°C per century since 1850.

Putting these two graphs side by side, you can see huge differences. What is going on?

Why does NIWA’s graph show strong warming, but graphing their own raw data looks completely different? Their graph shows warming, but the actual temperature readings show none whatsoever!

Have the readings in the official NIWA graph been adjusted?

It is relatively easy to find out. We compared raw data for each station (from NIWA’s web site) with the adjusted official data, which we obtained from one of Dr Salinger’s colleagues.

Requests for this information from Dr Salinger himself over the years, by different scientists, have long gone unanswered, but now we might discover the truth.

Proof of man-made warming

What did we find? First, the station histories are unremarkable. There are no reasons for any large corrections. But we were astonished to find that strong adjustments have indeed been made.

About half the adjustments actually created a warming trend where none existed; the other half greatly exaggerated existing warming. All the adjustments increased or even created a warming trend, with only one (Dunedin) going the other way and slightly reducing the original trend.

The shocking truth is that the oldest readings have been cranked way down and later readings artificially lifted to give a false impression of warming, as documented below. There is nothing in the station histories to warrant these adjustments and to date Dr Salinger and NIWA have not revealed why they did this.

One station, Hokitika, had its early temperatures reduced by a huge 1.3°C, creating strong warming from a mild cooling, yet there’s no apparent reason for it.

We have discovered that the warming in New Zealand over the past 156 years was indeed man-made, but it had nothing to do with emissions of CO2—it was created by man-made adjustments of the temperature. It’s a disgrace.

NIWA claim their official graph reveals a rising trend of 0.92ºC per century, which means (they claim) we warmed more than the rest of the globe, for according to the IPCC, global warming over the 20th century was only about 0.6°C.

NIWA has since issued a press release, denying it has manipulated any data. And claiming:

Warming over New Zealand through the past is unequivocal.

However, at his excellent site the Briefing Room Ian Wishart – author of Air Con: The Seriously Inconvenient Truth About Global Warming – points out the striking similarities with the CRU scandal.

Manipulation of raw data is at the heart of recent claims of corrupt scientific practice in climate science, with CRU’s Phil Jones recently claiming old temperature records collected by his organization were “destroyed” or “lost”, meaning researchers can now only access manipulated data.

Thanksgiving Week at The CORE

Tuesday - Christmas Parade viewing. Popcorn provided, I hope.

Wednesday - Thanksgiving service at the St. Peter campus in Freedom.

Thursday - Thanksgiving service at the St. Peter campus in Freedom.

I want to put the best construction on this White Elephant, but why is this glorious, do-anything-short-of-sin-to-reach-everyone mission NOT having a Thanksgiving service? Is it because, shorn of its cheerleaders from local WELS churches, The CORE would flop when competing mano-a-mano?

Thanksgiving Eve Service

Thanksgiving, 2009

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 6 PM Central

The Hymn # 558 All Praise to Thee 4.44
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 100 p. 144
The First Lection 1 Timothy 2:1-8
The Second Lection Luke 17:11-19
The Sermon Hymn # 574 Come Ye Thankful 4.9

Giving God Thanks

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer p. 44
The Collect for Peace p. 45
The Benediction p. 45
The Hymn #361 O Jesus King 4.1

KJV 1 Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. 8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

KJV Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? 18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Giving God Thanks

1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Last Thanksgiving, few would have imagined that this country could go into this much of a decline, in every sense of the word. The suffering is almost universal, in spite of the happy-face efforts to say it is almost over.

That should make us reflect on our country’s origins, because the freedom and Christianity of our nation came from persecution and hardship.

The Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower did not simply buy tickets and set sail, with the King of England waving goodbye at the dock. They had to sneak out of the country to have religious freedom. They left the women and children behind at the dock because of pursuit, then came back to get them. They suffered hardship in Holland before they finally left for America, a 67-day journey filled with storms, rogue waves, and utter misery. One man was washed overboard but grabbed a rope in time, and was finally hauled onto the deck. Later, while the ship was anchored, William Bradford’s wife fell overboard and drowned. Half the Pilgrims died in the first four months in Boston.

That was the hardship part. Persecution motivated them. England slowly moved toward the Protestant faith, starting with Henry VIII and his second wife, Ann Boleyn. Henry did not like dissent and burned Dr. Robert Barnes at the stake. His older daughter, Bloody Mary, murdered as many Protestants as possible, scattering many around Europe. His younger daughter Elizabeth, Ann Boleyn’s only surviving child, was a Protestant who tolerated the Catholics. Under King James I and the Stuarts (William I, II, etc), Catholicism was secretly promoted. North America was the last safe haven for Protestants, and sporadic persecution kept sending them across the Atlantic for the sake of freedom.

Few of us have known the hardship of one ocean voyage like that of the Mayflower and those ships that followed later. As Bradford said, when they landed, they had no one to greet them or help them. The Indians did cooperate, which kept them from starvation. There is a new kind of persecution at work today, based more on apathy and apostasy than old-fashioned burning at the stake and imprisonment. Apostates will not physically send others into exile, but they accomplish the same through nefarious means.

Paul’s apostolic work continued in the face of constant persecution, ending in prison and death. The Roman Empire considered the Christian faith another version of that troublesome tribe of Jews. The identification was not exactly wrong. Rome gladly went to war with many different nations, but they destroyed Jerusalem over religion. Other rebels had religious motivation, but the Jewish state and religion were almost identical, and that led to their city being surrounded, circumvallated (a wall around their wall), and leveled.

Rome saw Jewish rebels when they viewed Christian leaders, and they were not wrong. Paul and the apostles were all Jews. What would they say? “We are not Jewish Jews, but Christian Jews”?

Paul had the difficulty of dealing with the Roman Empire, which saw him as another troublesome Jew, while Jews fomented riots behind his back and Judaizers undercut his Gospel ministry. Add to that the hardships of travel (shipwrecks) and being whipped and jailed.

Yet Paul was thankful. His confession of faith:


1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

God’s will is not double-predestination, as the Calvinists teach. They claim, using a proposition central to John Calvin’s work, that God predestined a minority to salvation and a majority to damnation. (Some say before the Fall of Man, while others argue After the Fall, making them either infra or supra-lapsarians.) Understanding the rationalism of the Calvinists is important for comprehending the rationalistic leaps of UOJ people. Pietism took over Calvistic doctrine and copied Reformed cell groups among the Lutherans, one of the first but not the only time that Lutherans thought they could save themselves with false doctrine.

That predestination of the minority is not in harmony with this verse:

God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
God’s gracious will is to have all people saved and know the truth of His Word.

Walther quoted Luther on this and closed his Law and Gospel with Luther’s emphasis upon orthodoxy always bearing fruit, never doubting the fruit of the true Word of God when preached and taught.

Walther also said:

"When a theologian is asked to yield and make concessions in order that peace may at last be established in the Church, but refuses to do so even in a single point of doctrine, such an action looks to human reason like intolerable stubbornness, yea, like downright malice. That is the reason why such theologians are loved and praised by few men during their lifetime. Most men rather revile them as disturbers of the peace, yea, as destroyers of the kingdom of God. They are regarded as men worthy of contempt. But in the end it becomes manifest that this very determined, inexorable tenacity in clinging to the pure teaching of the divine Word by no means tears down the Church; on the contrary, it is just this which, in the midst of greatest dissension, builds up the Church and ultimately brings about genuine peace. Therefore, woe to the Church which has no men of this stripe, men who stand as watchmen on the walls of Zion, sound the alarm whenever a foe threatens to rush the walls, and rally to the banner of Jesus Christ for a holy war!"
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, p. 28.

Walther also wrote about the teaching office:

"True, the estate of teachers has, in general, been little respected, especially in ages gone by; and as far as the teachers of the Word of God are concerned, they are, of all men, most despised and even hated by the world. Nevertheless their estate and office is the most glorious of all, for the following reasons:--
1. The work of their office centers about man's spiritual welfare, his immortal soul.
2. They employ the salutary means and instrument in their work, namely, the Word of the living God.
3. They aim at the salutary and glorious end, namely, to make man truly happy in the present life and to lead him to the life of eternal bliss.
4. They are most wholesomely engaged in an occupation which entirely satisfies their spirits and advances their own selves in the way of salvation.
5. Their labor yields the most precious result, namely, the salvation of man.
6. Their labors have the most glorious promise of the cooperation of the Lord, so that they are never entirely futile and in vain.
7. Their labors have the promise of a gracious reward, which consists in a glory in the world to come that is unutterably great, exceeding abundantly above all they ever could have asked and prayed for in this life."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 285.
Paul’s confession of faith goes on to say:

5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

This is a one-sentence confession, concise and plain.

The Two Natures of Christ are taught – the man Christ Jesus is a person of the Godhead. The Christian faith teaches the Three-ness of the One God, and the Unity of the Three Persons, a mystery revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in the Word. This mystery cannot be proven or deduced by logic – it is revealed by God.

God’s gracious nature extends to all men, moving us to pray for all men, including leaders with no religion at all. God’s will that all be saved has moved people to face incredible hardships for their missionary work – not like today, where they live like royalty and have native servants do everything for them.

God’s gracious nature is also revealed in the God-Man Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of the world. This is a universal Gospel which we broadcast to all people. How God wills to be effective in the Word is His sphere of activity, not ours. He reveals the power of the living Word to us and lets us scatter the Gospel seed everywhere.

How can anyone measure this? One blog encourages another. One layman encourages another. But where does it stop? No one knows.

I often think of the pivotal biography, actually dual biographies of Cardinal Manning and Cardinal Newman, both in England, found in Eminent Victorians.
Manning played his cards well and ended as one of the most prominent men in the British Empire. He is forgotten today. His cardinal’s hat was already gathering dust a century ago. What did he leave behind except fleeting fame and toxic doctrine?
Private kingdom builders seldom think about the Gospel itself. It is a rabbit’s foot for them, a lucky charm to use when appropriate, sending as fending off pertinent questions about doctrine.

The apostles were thankful they had the message of salvation for the entire world. It is a message that transcends culture and withstands the attacks of time and error.

"The preaching of this message may be likened to a stone thrown into the water, producing ripples which circle outward from it, the waves rolling always on and on, one driving the other, till they come to the shore. Although the center becomes quiet, the waves do not rest, but move forward. So it is with the preaching of the Word. It was begun by the apostles, and it constantly goes forward, is pushed on farther and farther by the preachers, driven hither and thither into the world, yet always being made known to those who never heard it before, although it be arrested in the midst of its course and is condemned as heresy."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 202. Ascension Day Mark 16:14-20.

Perez Hilton Reader Is Thankful

NKJ Romans 1:27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to adebased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

1. To what cultural aspersions do we owe the phenomenon of remaking the remakes of music videos? The Fire Island Pines boys, who created the Miley Cyrus send-up "Party In The F.I.P," receive their own homage with "Party In The MLC" from a bunch of dormmates at a "homecoming summit." QueerTV.
   
   
2. Some (str8?) students at Midland Lutheran College in Nebraska were so enamored with the Fire Island gays' tribute to Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA", they made their own. Must be some of those liberal Lutherans. Regator.
   
   
3. This is our dorm video for Summit dorm at MLC, Homecoming 2009. Thanks to the fellas of FIP for the inspiration. Digg.com
   
   NKJ James 1:20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
   
   ---
   
   
   
   
   
   Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Wisconsin Lutheran College Paper Defends "Party in...":
   
   
   "Pastor,"
   What did all 7 of these boys say when you tried to personally contact them when you were concerned about their sin? Did you email them at their school accounts? Get their cell phone numbers? I think MLC makes dorm numbers available, that's probably the road you chose...?
   Certainly you tried to privately discuss how this video offended you before you gossiped and slandered their name publicly, right?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many things. I'm thankful that I have 2 pastors who would never say aloud, let alone mock publicly, people's sins.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   I'm thankful that I know many young men who are studying to be pastors and who would never think to do a such a thing either. And I'm thankful that these men have forgiven you and moved on.
   
   Lastly, I can't help but see the resemblence (sic) between your angry, hateful blog and that of famous, gay, hateful blogger, Perez Hilton.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Come to think of it, I'm offended sir. Very offended, you're just as hateful and spiteful as he is. Well, by all means, be a good Christian (because clearly you're the only one around) and take this site down. 
   
   ***
   
   GJ - I fail to grasp the comparison. I do not read this Hilton dude. His pink and/or blue hair gave his Fire Island proclivities away. The anonymous WELS student above seems to be a regular at the Hilton blog.
   
   ---
   
   Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perez Hilton Reader Is Thankful":
   
   I'm thankful that we have Dr. Jackson to admonish and expose the modern day crypto-calvinists and secret Arminians who infest Lutherdom today, including MLC, WLC, and WLS.
   
   ***
   
   GJ - The students at Mequon, New Ulm, and WLC should glance at Luther's Large Catechism in the Book of Concord, The Ten Commandments, The Eighth Commandment. I will quote it for their edification.
   
   284] All this has been said regarding secret sins. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it. Book of Concord
   
   The Party in the MLC video was posted for everyone to see, so the claims of privacy cannot be raised. The video stayed on You Tube for days, even though the student producers could read the outcry for themselves. Their claims of ignorance fell flat in light of their desire to parody Party in the FIP.
   
   Did WLC's The Thword ask me about this before they published their front-page excuses? Not at all. The cries and lamentations of the self-proclaimed victims are a bit exaggerated. They and their friends keep raising the issue by showing their lack of repentance.
   
   The following section on the Eighth Commandment fits the comment above and many other anonymous posts I receive every day. Some call me a few choice names and say I am not loving. Some are simply obscene and abusive. Others are patronizing and full of Scripture, yet unsigned. Call me thankful for having friends who sign their messages and do not engage in private whispering campaigns. Here is some more Luther for the Luther-an students who never read him:
   
   281] But if we gossip about another in all corners, and stir the filth, no one will be reformed, and afterwards when we are to stand up and bear witness, we deny having said so. 282] Therefore it would serve such tongues right if their itch for slander were severely punished, as a warning to others. 283] If you were acting for your neighbor's reformation or from love of the truth, you would not sneak about secretly nor shun the day and the light.
   ---
   
   Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perez Hilton Reader Is Thankful":
   
   "Certainly you tried to privately discuss how this video offended you before you gossiped and slandered their name publicly, right?"
   
   As I recall, the students put their names in the video for the whole world to see and acknowledge their stupidity. Gossip and slander were unnecessary. They did it to themselves.
   
   The writer's tone certainly seems to be that of a cocky MLC student.
   
   ***
   
   GJ - How did he begin his message? - with pastor in quotation marks. In other words, he anonymously questioned whether I am a legitimate pastor and accused me of slander. Moreover, the slander consists of posting the video, which was already available world-wide. If the video were so innocent, why is it slander to post something they wanted everyone to see? The MLC athletes were proud that the Fire Island gays loved their knock-off of the original.
   
   MLC students took a gay video and made it even gayer in their version. The MLC version looked very professional, with good editing, so why was it necessary to have a Michael Jackson move in it? Apparently they wanted everyone to see one of their pals holding his own in a video. Gross, infantile, foolish - the right words escape me.
   
   I do not know whether this person is MLC or WLC. The schools want to double-team me, and that is fine. Have they stopped to ask these vidiots about their crime? It is a crime to steal music and broadcast it. They used the Miley Cyrus song without permission. That is theft, pure and simple. Crying "Fowl!" only reminds readers of who the turkeys are.
   
   Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perez Hilton Reader Is Thankful":
   
   DK was trying to insult somebody's grammr by saying, "He's suckled long and deep at the bosom of mother WELS, and like so many other Lutherans--his brain mysteriously replaced with pudding, and his knowledge of Enlgish grammer, and, ussage and speling replaced with football statistics."
   
   There, are--like 6 mistakes, in that sentence. And he, clearly had,--- dictionary.com open to kelm synomins.
   
   ***
   
   GJ - Maybe he was, like, pullin' yer leg.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thanksgiving Eve Service Tonight at 6 PM Central

The Thanksgiving service will be at 6 PM Central tonight, and the file will be saved, God willing and the Ustream server working.

Guest Blogger Cites Brett Meyer Quoting Luther

"Luke, I am your...Secretary of State!"

Extra Nos

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Madam Huldah, faith is justificaton - Luther

A dear friend, Brett Meyer has been sharing with me for sometime now Luther's Sermon on Galatians 4:1-7, found here. It is about time to feature some snippets of this sermon but note that the highlights are mine, for my own thinking and perhaps that of the reader's too.

8. Do you ask: "What then am I to do? How shall I make myself good and acceptable in person to begin with? how secure that justification? The Gospel replies: "Hear Christ and believe in him, utterly despairing of yourself and resting assured you will be changed from a Cain to an Abel and then present your offerings." just as faith is proclaimed without merit or work on your part, it is also bestowed regardless of your works, without any of your merits. It is given of pure grace. Note, faith justifies the individual; faith is justification. Because of faith God remits all sins, and forgives the old Adam and the Cain in our nature, for the sake of Christ his beloved Son, whose name faith represents. More, he bestows his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit changes the individual into a new creature, one with different reason and different will, and inclined to the good. Such a one, wherever he is, performs wholly good works, and all his works are good; as taught in the preceding epistle lesson.


9. Then nothing else is necessary to justification but to hear and believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour. But that is not a work of the natural man; it is a work of grace. He who presumes to attain justification by works, only obstructs the way of the Gospel, of faith, grace, Christ, God and all good. On the other hand, nothing but justification is necessary to render works good. The justified man and none other does good; all he does, being justified, is good, without distinction of works. Therefore, the order of man's salvation, the beginning and the sequel, is first to hear and then believe God's Word as supreme, and then to act. Thus shall man be saved. He who perverts this order and acts accordingly is certainly not of God.


10. Paul prescribes this order where he says (Rom 10, 13-15): "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Christ teaches us to pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest; that is, faithful preachers. When they come they preach the true Word of God. Hearing it, we are enabled to believe, and such faith justifies us and renders us godly; then we call upon God and do only good. Thus are we saved. So then, the believer shall be saved, but he who works without faith shall be damned. Christ says (Mk 16, 16), "He that disbelieveth shall be condemned;" here works avail nothing.


11. Now, observe what people commonly do and say. "Yes,"' they tell you, "I expect to become godly. Yes, we must be godly." But if they are asked what we are to do to accomplish it, they go on to say, "Indeed, we must pray, fast, attend Church, abstain from sin, and so on." One will enter a monastery, another some order. One will become a priest, another will don a hair-garment. One will punish himself in a certain way, and another in another way. They are like Cain and do the works of Cain. Personally they are as at first--without justification. They but assume an external change, an alteration of works, clothing, condition and habits. They are really apes, assuming the habits of saints but remaining unholy. Unmindful of faith, they rush along with their good works toward heaven--as they imagine--torturing themselves.


Relative to them, Christ in the Gospel (Lk 13, 24) says: "Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." And why not? Because they do not recognize the narrow door. It is faith. Faith humbles one, reduces him to nothing, until he must despair of all his good works and cleave only to God's grace; for that he must forsake all else. But the Cain-like saints imagine good works to be the narrow door. Hence they do not humble themselves. Nor do they despair of their good works; no, lading themselves with the cumbersome bundles of their collected deeds, they strive to pass through the door. They will pass as the camel with his great hump passes through the eye of the needle.


12. Mention faith to them and they scoff and laugh, saying: "Are we Turks or heathen that we must first learn what faith is? Is it possible that our multitude of monks, nuns and priests do not know? Who can be ignorant of what believing is when even they who openly sin know its meaning?" As if having finished with faith, they imagine they must henceforth devote themselves to works. As before said, they regard faith of slight importance; for they do not understand that it is our sole justifier. To accept as true the record of Christ--this they call faith. The devils have the same sort of faith, but it does not make them godly. Such belief is not Christian faith; no, it is rather deception.


13. In the preceding epistles we have heard that to be a Christian it is not enough simply to believe the story of Christ true--the Cain-like saints possess such faith--but the Christian must without any hesitancy believe himself one to whom grace and mercy are given, and that he has really secured them through baptism or through the Holy Supper. When he so believes, he is free to say of himself: "I am holy, godly and just. I am a child of God, perfectly assured of salvation. Not because of anything in me, not because of my merits or works, am I saved; it is of the pure mercy of God in Christ, poured out upon me." To such extent will he appreciate God's precious mercy, he cannot doubt that it renders him holy and constitutes him a child of God. But he who doubts, disparages to the utmost his baptism and the Holy Supper, and censures as false God's Word and his grace in the sacraments.


14. The Christian should entertain no fear--he should not doubt--that he is righteous and a child of God through grace. Rather he needs to entertain anxiety as to how he shall endure steadfast to the end. There is where all fear and anxiety are due. For while he assuredly is given to possess full salvation, it may be somewhat doubtful whether or no he will steadfastly retain it. Here we must walk in fear. True faith does not hang upon works nor rely upon itself; it relies only upon God and his grace. Grace cannot forsake the individual so long as reliance continues. But he knows not how long it will continue. Should temptation force him to lose his confidence, grace also will fail. Solomon (Ecc 9, 1) says: "The righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it be love or hatred, man knoweth it not; all is before them." He does not say it is uncertain at present, but in the future,because man knows not whether he will withstand the attacks or temptation.


15. When the Cain-like saints hear the doctrine of faith, they cross themselves, both with hands and feet, and exclaim: "God forbid! How could I call myself holy and righteous? How could I be so egotistical and presumptuous? No, no; I am a poor sinner." You see how they make faith of no value to themselves, and so must regard as heresy all doctrine based upon it. Thus they do away with the whole Gospel. These are they who deny the Christian faith and exterminate it from the world. Paul prophesied concerning them when he said (1 Tim 4, 1): "In later times some shall fall away from the faith." The voice of faith is now silenced all over the world. Indeed, faith is condemned and banished as the worst heresy, and all who teach and endorse it are condemned with it. The Pope, the bishops, charitable institutions, cloisters, high schools, unanimously opposed it for nearly four hundred years, and simply drove the world violently into hell. Their conduct is the real persecution by Antichrist, in the last times.


16. Tell them what the prophet says in Psalm 86, 2: "Preserve my soul; for I am godly"; and Paul's words in Romans 8, 16: "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God;" and they reply: "Yes, but the prophet and the apostle did not mean by these statements to establish a doctrine or leave an example of what others may claim. They were enlightened and their holiness was revealed to them." Similarly, they construe every passage relating to the subject as not doctrinal in design, but exhibiting a remarkable miracle, a special prerogative of certain individuals not to be possessed by every believer. This explanation is a mere invention of their own minds. Themselves unbelievers, tasting not the Spirit, they think no one else should so believe or taste. By such conduct--their own fruits--they may be clearly identified as thorns and thistles; not as Christians, but as enemies and destroyers of Christians, and persecutors of the Christian faith.

***

GJ - Brett has violated the American rule - "Never quote Luther. Make fun of Luther. Ignorantly misrepresent him, but never quote the Reformer verbatim."

To be a Synodical Lutheran - endlessly repeat the statements of the 19th century, as if they are the New Book of Concord. Learn to say "Synod says" and to ask "What does Synod say?" reminding everyone that Holy Mother Synod is indefectible.

I have been admonished for indulging in parody, so I will stop there. Thanks for kelming a great sermon.

I know the students at The Sausage Factory are reading this. So are WLC students. Isn't that great? Getting CN in the mail is an indictment, but anyone can read Ichabod in the dead of the night. Just don't save it in the favorites folder.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Guest Blogger Cites Brett Meyer Quoting Luther":

You are right about everyone at at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary reading your blog, including the faculty. None of them will ever admit it.

Church Lady Question

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Trinity":

Beautiful sermon Pastor GJ! I have a question. "The invitations of the marriage feast were sent out again and again, the humblest gathered to fill the halls. The great, noble, learned, and foolish are too busy, too important, or too hedonistic to accept the gracious invitation."

Is this what some pastors may be expressing when using the "free turkeys at the supermarket" analagy? Both you and Brett called this synergism. Perhaps I am missing someting. I would appreciate some help. Thank you.

In Christ,
from WELS church lady

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GJ - That is a good question. First of all I would say that the original Gospel messages get converted into secular analogies that do not fit. I have heard UOJ defended thus:
1. Everyone is in a prison cell but the door is not locked (universal forgiveness).
2. Money is placed in every single bank account but not always realized.
3. Poultry day is announced at the grocery store - everyone gets a free goose (your example).
4. Someone inherits a vast estate, but it has to be claimed (attributed to Luther).

The comparison I used was from the Scriptures, the invitation to the marriage feast. The invitation is the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel Promises. Christ has indeed died for the sins of the world, an objective truth whether anyone believes it or not. However, the righteousness He has earned is not imputed except through faith.

The free poultry analogy is loaded with traps. First of all, it suggests that we seek Christ or cooperate (synergism). Not so - Christ goes looking for us (Luke 15) and rejoices with His angels over one lost sinner found. The poultry analogy is used to claim everyone is already forgiven, without faith, without the Word, without the Means of Grace.

Jesus has many examples to show how people receive the Gospel invitation but turn away - have to test-drive my oxen, just got married, gotta big funeral. Another set of comparisons is found in Mark 4/Matthew 13 in the Parable of the Sower. The sowing of the Word is universal, but various complications lead to no yield in three circumstances, overwhelming results in another.

Luther emphasized two aspects of Christian doctrine  - the efficacy of the Word and the Means of Grace. Both are missing in UOJ.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Church Lady Question":

Rev. Jackson, does the following properly express what you are saying?

Christ conquered sin, death and the Devil on the cross for all and for all time. This fact is there for all in the Word, and has absolutely nothing to do with any action on the part of man in order to be true.

This conquering of sin, death and the Devil by Christ, comes to you and to me only by Grace, through Faith, which Faith, likewise comes only by The Holy Spirit through the Word.

***

GJ - Yes, that is another way of stating what is expressed by Luther in the treasure analogy. The Atonement is the treasure but it lies in one heap until it is distributed by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Word.

The UOJ Stormtroopers parrot their favorite little sentence in The Brief Statement, which has no basis in the Scriptures or Confessions: "Scripture teaches that God has already declared the whole world to be righteous in Christ, Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Rom. 4:25..."

The UOJ fanatics cannot deal with Robert Preus' basic statements and quotations in Justification and Rome. To do so would be admitting that Missouri - gasp - was fallible, that J. P. Meyer and Sig Becker - double-gasp - erred in their Human Natures.

Are Hottentots Justified, As E. Preuss Claimed in His Famous Book?

Cowardly Lion: Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?
Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman: Courage!
From Quotes

J-578

"So, then, we are reconciled; however, not only we, but also Hindus, and Hottentots and Kafirs, yes, the world. 'Reconciled', says our translation; the Greek original says: 'placed in the right relation to God'. Because before the Fall we, together with the whole creation, were in the right relation to God, therefore Scripture teaches that Christ, through His death, restored all things to the former right relation to God."

F. R. Eduard Preuss, 1834-1904, Die Rechtfertigung der Suender vor Gott. Cited in Rick Nicholas Curia, The Significant History of the Doctrine of Objective or Universal Justification, Alpine, California: California Pastoral Conference, WELS. January 24-25, 1983. p. 24. [GJ - This restoration of all is used by Karl Barth, official theologian for Fuller, to promote Universalism.]

Dr. Robert Preus, Justification and Rome:

"But the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the sinner takes place when the Holy Spirit brings him to faith through Baptism and the Word of the Gospel. Our sins were imputed to Christ at His suffering and death, imputed objectively after He, by His active and passive obedience, fulfilled and procured all righteousness for us. But the imputation of His righteousness to us takes place when we are brought to faith." [procured in italics in text]
Robert D. Preus, Justification and Rome, St. Louis: Concordia Academic Press 1997, p. 72.

Abraham Calov: "Although Christ has acquired for us the remission of sins, justification, and sonship, God just the same does not justify us prior to our faith. Nor do we become God's children in Christ in such a way that justification in the mind of God takes place before we believe." [Apodixis Articulorum Fide, Lueneburg, 1684]
Robert D. Preus, Justification and Rome, St. Louis: Concordia Academic Press 1997, p. 131n.

Lenski

"Nowhere in the Bible is any man constituted or declared righteous ‘without faith, before faith.’”
R. C. H. Lenski, Romans, Augsburg Publishing House: Minneapolis, 1963, p. 382. Romans 5:19-20.


Basic Errors of UOJ

I want to keep this basic. The UOJ fanatics like to tie up people in terminology while ignoring the catastrophic errors in their own thinking. For instance, Dan and Rolph Preus continue to promote a position contrary to what their father repudiated in his final book - and they edited it. (Old writer's joke - An editor is someone whose belt size is bigger than his IQ.)

There is only one justification - not two.
Justification is used in the Scriptures and the Book of Concord only in the context of justification by faith apart from the works of the Law. Sig Becker admitted that in his essay - UOJ, OJ, and General Justification are new terms. In German, as Kurt Marquart observed, "general" means universal.

The first recorded use of General Justification is from Burk, cited in Hoenecke, long after the Reformation and Book of Concord. Note that Hoenecke was trained at the center of Pietism, Halle University, as a student of Tholuck, a Universalist. Burk was the son-in-law of Bengel, a very strange Pietist indeed. The double-justification scheme came from the Pietist Knapp, who preceded Tholuck at Halle University. Knapp's lectures were widely available in English and German, in America and Europe, before Walther (a Pietist) began promoting it.

Hoenecke:

And Ph. D. Burk (Rechtfertigung und Versicherung, p. 41) rightly said:

"The difference between general justification and the more common usage of the term justification can be expressed as follows. The latter takes place precisely upon the appropriation of the former." Adolph Hoenecke, Dogmatik, III, p. 354-5

Burk, Philip David, a Protestant theologian of Germany, was born July 26, 1714, at Neu Ren. He studied at Tubingen, was in 1742 pastor nt Bolheitn, and in 1750 at Hcdelfingen, near Stuttgard. In 1758 he was appointed superintendent at Markt-Groningen, and in 1766 he was called for the same position to Kirchheim, where he died, March 22, 1770. He is the author of fïnowmn in Dundecini Prophetus Minores (Heilbronn, 1753), with a Preface by his father-in-law, the famous J. A. Dengcl: — Gnomon Psalinorum (Stuttgard, 1760): — Knuigelischer Fingerzeig auf den wahren Verstand und heilsamen Gebrauch der geirohnlichen Sonn-Fest-itml Feiertäglichen Kvangflien, etc. (Leipsic and Tübingen, 1760-67, 7 vols.) -.—Die Lehre rnn der Reehljerttyiiiig und decen GeiciJtshfit im Jlerzen und Geirissen des Sünden, etc. (Stuttgard, 1763-65, 7 pts.). Sec Winer, Handbuch der then!. Lit. i, 99; During, Die gelehrten Theologen Deutschlands, i, 208 sq. (Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature by John McClintock)

Abraham defeats all UOJ claims.

Righteousness was imputed to Abraham through faith.

KJV Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

KJV Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised againfor our justification.

He is the Father of Faith in Romans 4, foundational for justification by faith in Romans 5:1-2. How could he be justified before Christ, then declared justified (with the whole world, Hottentots and Hindoos included), and...?

Grace comes only through the Means of Grace Word and Sacrament.

Those who separate the Holy Spirit from the Word are Enthusiasts (Luther, Book of Concord). Nothing is more ridiculous that saying the entire world is forgiven (including everyone in Hell) but not really forgiven until they "accept" this universal forgiveness without the Word, without Means, without the Spirit, without faith. J. P. Meyer, WELS, in Ministers of Christ: "Will he accept or will he decline?"

UOJ utterly destroys Christian doctrine and worship

1. The Office of the Keys is rendered obsolete because everyone is already forgiven. That is why so many UOJ-CG pastors are Antinomian unionists.
   
2. All Law/Gospel distinctions are merged, since everyone is forgiven - Gospel Reductionism (Seminex and ELCA) is UOJ in another uniform.
   
3. Worship is simply a convenient way to get the cell groups together on Sunday, because the real work of the church takes place in conventicles "transforming lives." (See The CORE and all the other clones of Pietism.)

I hope this helps. So ends today's Talking Points Memo.

Why do the wheels keep falling off our UOJ racer?

Famous Lutherans, More Or Less

Keillor is Plymouth Brethren!

The fact-checker and spell-checker were both off.

Still, this video is fun to watch.

Garrison Keillor, not Keiller, was never a Lutheran. He always pretended to be on his radio show. He was raised Plymouth Brethren, a Pietistic sect that was home to Satanist Aleister Crowley.

Critics Pan Adam Lambert's Witty Parody: Adam Raises Cain

Student Advisor, The Sword

Readers probably do not want to see the NY Post article, but here it is.

Adam defended his performance recorded on the video, “If it’s edited, that’s discrimination,” Adam said. “I will be a little disappointed because there is a little bit of discrimination going in this country. There’s a big double standard, female pop artists have been doing things provocative like that for years, and the fact that I’m a male, and I’ll be edited and discriminated against could be a problem.”

Wisconsin Lutheran College's prestigious student newspaper, The Sword, editorialized that critics missed the point of Adam Lambert's cutting edge performance at the American Music Awards. Denouncing humorous critics who cannot understand a a clever parody, The Sword went on to state:

Repression and censorship have made it difficult but not impossible for us to watch our favorite video. Lucky for us, someone put it on a server so we can watch through a "dark tunnel," as they call it. Far from putting people off, it has done wonders for recruitment at two schools. Before we got very few future fashion designers, ballet dancers, gossip columnists, and flower arrangers. Now they are swarming both campuses.

Among we journalists, parody is an essential art form. You take the essence of a performance and make people smile by taking it to a new level. A truly awesome performance will make people laugh, especially when they imagine the shocked frowns of troglodytes blogging in their pajamas. If I was him, I would download more of the same. Parody is art. This here newspaper itself is a parody of student journalism, an art form.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Critics Pan Adam Lambert's Witty Parody: Adam Rais...":

If you didn't have so many double standards, people might actually take you serious (sic - seriously modifies a verb). And those that do are as delusional as you are.

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GJ - The alleged quote is a parody of The Thword. I was just waiting for a humorless, illiterate MLC/WLC supporter to sling some more mud.
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dk has left a new comment on your post "Critics Pan Adam Lambert's Witty Parody: Adam Rais...":

you dun joked me 'teach'!

That was funny.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Critics Pan Adam Lambert's Witty Parody: Adam Rais...":

How can these people expect to be taken seriously as "journalists" when they don't even know the rules of the language they are using (and abusing)?

Reply-These people you are referring is Pastor Jackson since the THWORD did not write this "atricle" (sic!). Your readers are very smart Pastor since they cannot see that this was obviously a parody.

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GJ - My readers are very sharp and they have a sense of humor. My critics do not know the language they are using and abusing. What shocks Hollyweird, though, is defended by two WELS colleges. I have not seen an apology posted at either skul. Maybe I missed it.