False Teachers - According to Luther

"Note the master hand wherewith Paul portrays the character of false teachers, showing how they betray their avarice and ambition. First, they permit true teachers to lay the foundation and perform the labor; then they come and desire to do the work over, to reap the honors and the benefits. They bring about that the name and the work of the true teachers receive no regard and credit; what they themselves have brought--that is the thing. They make the poor simple-minded people to stare open-mouthed while they win them with flowery words and seduce them with fair speeches, as mentioned in Romans 16:18. These are the idle drones that consume the honey they will not and cannot make."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 110. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9; Romans 16:18.          

                                 

"And such false teachers have the good fortune that all their folly is tolerated, even though the people realize how these act the fool, and rather rudely at that. They have success with it all, and people bear with them. But no patience is to be exercised toward true teachers! Their words and their works are watched with the intent of entrapping them, as complained of in Psalm 17:9 and elsewhere. When only apparently a mote is found, it is exaggerated to a very great beam. No toleration is granted. There is only judgment, condemnation and scorn. Hence the office of preaching is a grievous one. He who has not for his sole motive the benefit of his neighbor and the glory of God cannot continue therein. The true teacher must labor, and permit others to have the honor and profit of his efforts, while he receives injury and derision for his reward."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 110f. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9. Psalm 17:9.

                                         

"In the second place such teachers are disposed to bring the people into downright bondage and to bind their conscience by forcing laws upon them and teaching works-righteousness. The effect is that fear impels them to do what has been pounded into them, as if they were bondslaves, while their teachers command fear and attention. But the true teachers, they who give us freedom of conscience and create us lords, we soon forget, even despise. The dominion of false teachers is willingly tolerated and patiently endured; indeed, it is given high repute. All those conditions are punishments sent by God upon them who do not receive the Gospel with love and gratitude."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 111. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9. John 5:43.                                              

"In the third place, false teachers flay their disciples to the bone, and cut them out of house and home, but even this is taken and endured. Such, I opine, has been our experience under the Papacy. But true preachers are even denied their bread. Yet this all perfectly squares with justice! For, since men fail to give unto those from whom they receive the Word of God, and permit the latter to serve them at their own expense, it is but fair they should give the more unto preachers of lies, whose instruction redounds to their injury. What is withheld from Christ must be given in tenfold proportion to the devil. They who refuse to give the servant of truth a single thread, must be oppressed by liars."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 111f. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.

"Fourth, false apostles forcibly take more than is given them. They seize whatever and whenever they can, thus enhancing their insatiable avarice. This, too, is excused in them."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 112. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.                                                    

 The night is far spent, and the day is at hand. "By the word 'night' we are to understand all doctrines apart from the Gospel. For there is no other saving doctrine; all else is night and darkness."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 15f. First Sunday in Advent, Romans 13:11-14.

  

"Fifth, these deceitful teachers, not satisfied with having acquired our property, must exalt themselves above us and lord it over us...We bow our knees before them, worship them and kiss their feet. And we suffer it all, yes, with fearful reverence regard it as just and right. And it is just and right, for why did we not honor the Gospel by accepting and preserving it?"
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 112. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.  
                                             

                                           

"Sixth, our false apostles justly reward us by smiting us in the face. That is, they consider us inferior to dogs; they abuse us, and treat us as foot-rags."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VII, p. 112. Second Sunday before Lent. 2 Corinthians 11:19-33; 12:1-9.                                                    

                                               

"But, being deceived by the devil, we forsake the light of day and seek to find truth among philosophers and heathen totally ignorant of such matters. In permitting ourselves to be blinded by human doctrines, we return to the night. Whatsoever is not the Gospel day surely cannot be light. Otherwise Paul, and in fact all Scripture, would not urge that day upon us and pronounce everything else night."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VI, p. 17. First Sunday in Advent, Romans 13:11-14.          

                                      

"But the only thing that was taught and advocated was: Invoke the Virgin Mary and other saints as your mediators and intercessors; fast often and pray much; make pilgrimages, enter cloisters and become monks, or pay for the saying of many masses and like works. And thus we imagined when we did these things we had merited heaven."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 191. Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:34-46.

                                                

"That was the time of blindness when we knew nothing of God's Word, but led ourselves and others into misery by our own idle talk and dreams. And I was one of those who indeed bathed in this sweat or in this bath of anxiety. Therefore let us give heed that we may thoroughly grasp and retain this doctrine, if other fanatics and false spirits wish to attack it, so that we may be fore-armed and learn, while we have the time and the beloved sun again enlightens us, and buy while the market is at our door. For it will come to this when once these lights, which God now gives, have departed, Satan will not take a furlough until he raises up other fanatical spirits to do harm; as he has already commenced to do in many places during our generation. What shall take place after we are gone?"
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 192. Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:34-46.                                            

"Paul calls all false spirits bold and proud. Yes, in their filth with their protectors they are proud and impudent, otherwise they are the most cowardly villains that can be found. When they are to appear and answer for their conduct, they cannot produce a single answer. Among themselves they are bold and venture to catch God in His own Word; but when it comes to the test, they simply despair."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 204. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 9:1-8.                                                  

"Thus Paul rejects the glorying and boasting of the sects over their offices and gifts--they who pretend to be filled with the Spirit and to teach the people correctly, and who make out that Paul and other teachers are of no consequence...More than that, they demand a higher attainment in the Spirit for Gospel ministers, deeming faith, the Sacrament, and the outward office not sufficient."
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicolas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 206. Tenth Sunday after Trinity, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.                                                

"You are either reproaching and cursing Jesus, or praising him and owning him your Lord. If your preaching and teaching fail to point to Christ, something else being offered, and you nevertheless boast of the Spirit, you are already judged: the spirit you boast is not the Holy Spirit, not the true Spirit, but a false one. To it we are not to listen. Rather we are to condemn it to the abyss of hell, as Paul declares, (Galatians 1:8), saying: 'But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any Gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema [damned to Hell].'"
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicolas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 206. Tenth Sunday after Trinity, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Galatians 1:8.                                                

"The same is true of other factions--the Anabaptists and similar sects. What else do they but slander baptism and the Lord's Supper when they pretend that the external [spoken] Word and outward sacraments do not benefit the soul, that the Spirit alone can do that?"
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicolas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 208. Tenth Sunday after Trinity, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11;                                                    

"Flesh and blood are too weak to obtain this glorious confidence; the Holy Spirit is essential. Reason and our own hearts cry out in protest: 'Alas, I am far too evil and unworthy! How could I be proud and presumptuous enough to boast myself the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ?"
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicolas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 210. Tenth Sunday after Trinity, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11;                                                    

"Now, Paul's thought here is that nothing should be taught and practiced in the Church but what is unquestionably God's Word. It will not do to introduce or perform anything whatever upon the strength of man's judgment. Man's achievements, man's reasoning and power, are of no avail save in so far as they come from God."
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicolas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. 229 Twelfth Sunday after Trinity 2 Corinthians 3:4-11.                                                  

"It would indeed be well if Christians generally were to heed this example from the Gospel and use it as a maxim against every doctrine that does not agree with the Word of God."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 24. First Sunday after Epiphany Luke 2:41-52.                                                    

"Therefore the Christians, who are the right and dear guests at this wedding, at all times have this comfort that the others who do not belong thereto, that is both persecutors and false brethren, shall not enjoy the same."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholaus Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, V, p. 250. Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:1-14.                                                    

"From these two convictions--that they do not know Him and that they persecute and slay His advocates--Christ now passes the judgment that the so-called Church is not the Church. He then concludes that with their false doctrines and persecutions they are both liars and murderers of God and of Christ and of all His saints."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 270. Exaudi John 15:26-16:4.                                                  

"For this reason one should not be too credulous when a preacher comes softly like an angel of God, recommends himself very highly, and swears that his sole aim is to save souls, and says: 'Pax vobis!' For those are the very fellows the devil employs to honey people's mouths. Through them he gains an entrance to preach and to teach, in order that he may afterward inflict his injuries, and that though he accomplish nothing more for the present, he may, at least, confound the people's consciences and finally lead them into misery and despair."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 322. Easter Tuesday Luke 24:36-47.                                                

"This title [market house] we should write on all churches in which the Gospel is not preached, for there they mock God, destroy souls, banish the pure Word and establish dens of murder; for he who listens to their words must die."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, IV, p. 328. nth Sunday after Trinity Luke 17:5.                                                    

"It is not enough that we preach correctly, which the hireling can also do; but we must watch over the sheep, that the wolves, false teachers, may not break in, and we must contend for the sheep against the wolves, with the Word of God, even to the sacrifice of our lives. Such are good shepherds, of whom few are found." Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 34. Second Sunday after Easter John 10:11-16.                                                  

"There are other wolves, however, who come to us in sheep's clothing. They are the false prophets, who under the form of pious and religious instruction feed pure poison to the sheep of Christ. Against these Christ warns us, that we may be constantly on our guard, lest with sugar-coated words and flattering religious expressions they mislead us, deceive us, by their cunning, and draw us to themselves, as He says in Matthew 7:15: 'Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.'" Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 35. Second Sunday after Easter John 10:11-16; Matthew 7:15.                                                

"This verse has been explained as having reference to those who climb, by their presumption, into the best church livings through favor and wealth, recommendations or their own power, not obtaining them by regular appointment and authority. And at present the most pious jurists are punishing people for running to Rome after fees and benefices, or after ecclesiastical preferment and offices. This they call simony. The practice is truly deplorable. No one should step into the office and preach from his own presumption and without a commission from those having the authority."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 374. Pentecost Tuesday John 10:1-11.                                                

"Likewise, in the matter of preaching, we must make selection that order may be preserved. But since all who are Christians have authority to preach, what will be the outcome? for women will also want to preach. No so. St. Paul forbids women to put themselves forward as preachers in a congregation of men and says: They should be subject to their husbands."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 375. Pentecost Tuesday 1 Timothy 2:11-12.                                                  

"The world desires such wolf preaching, and is not worthy of anything better since it will not hear nor respect Christ. Hence it is that there are so few true Christians and faithful preachers, always outnumbered by the members of the false church."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 385. Pentecost Tuesday Deuteronomy 29:19.    
                                             

"For nothing can feed or give life to the soul, which is not the doctrine of Christ. Although the hireling does not himself slay and destroy he does not restrain the wolf. Therefore, because you neither point out nor teach this shepherd, you shall not and ought not to be heard, but you shall be shunned as a wolf."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 58f. Second Sunday after Easter John 10:11-16.  
                                               
"And no doctrine is so foolish or disgraceful but that it finds hearers and disciples, as is proven by the experience of the church with so many heresies and divisions. The heathen were reasonable and highly intelligent people, yet we read of them that they worshiped not only cats and storks, but also cabbages and onions, and even a member of the human body. All this comes from the name and delusion that such things are good works and render a service to God. The preacher of such works comes with the reputation and pretense of a shepherd who desires to counsel and direct souls on the way to God."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 59. Second Sunday after Easter John 10:11-16.                                                

"They [the false teachers] fared like a man who looks through a colored glass. Put before such a man whatever color you please, he sees no other color than that of the glass. The fault is not that the right color is not put before him but that his glass is colored differently, as the word of Is. 6:9 puts it: You will see, he says, and yet you will not see it."
What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 644. Isaiah 6:9.                                                    

"Thus too, if our confidence is to begin, and we become strengthened and comforted, we must well learn the voice of our Shepherd, and let all other voices go, who only lead us astray, and chase and drive us hither and thither. We must hear and grasp only that article which presents Christ to us in the most friendly and comforting manner possible. So that we can say with all confidence: My Lord Jesus Christ is truly the only Shepherd, and I, alas, the lost sheep, which has strayed into the wilderness, and I am anxious and fearful, and would gladly be good, and have a gracious God and peace of conscience, but here I am told that He is as anxious for me as I am for Him."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, IV, p. 86. Third Sunday after Trinity, Second Sermon Luke 15:1-10.                                              

"Note further, that it is his ministry to which Paul ascribes the preparation of their heart thereon and the inscription which constitutes them 'living epistles of Christ.' He contrasts this ministry with the blind fancies of those fanatics who seek to receive, and dream of having, the Holy Spirit without the oral word; who, perchance, creep into a corner and grasp the Spirit through dreams, directing the people away from the preached Word and visible ministry. But Paul says that the Spirit, through his preaching, has wrought in the hearts of his Corinthians, to the end that Christ lives and is mighty in them."
Sermons of Martin Luther, ed. John Nicolas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, VIII, p. p. 226. Twelfth Sunday after Trinity 2 Corinthians 3:4-11; Deuteronomy 6:6-9, 11, 18                                              

Stinky Old Bar Sold for $500-850,000! Savoy, Illinois Could Use Some of That Loot. WELS Offering Money Bought the Building

Why not pose with me for a FB photo?

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=blogs04&plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&U=9a8980f0-f726-439c-8c4e-1dc0f788941e&plckPostId=Blog%3a9a8980f0-f726-439c-8c4e-1dc0f788941ePost%3a3cf6aac3-07b0-4680-896f-c0c7cba770ba&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest


Reader question: I have driven past Revolution on Franklin Street a couple times recently and noticed that the “available” sign is down. Did somebody lease finally lease the building and what is going to be in there?

Answer: That vacant building at 222 W. Franklin St., at the corner of Superior Street in Appleton, was purchased in a deal that closed Friday.

The new owner is The Core, a church group that previously held services in the former Big Picture theater and then the OuterEdge Stage in downtown Appleton.

The Core is an outreach ministry of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Freedom.

“We’re not a standalone congregation. We’re a second campus,” said campus pastor Jim Skorzewski, who is known as Pastor Ski. “The Revolution building fell into our lap. It’s been a blessing.”

His congregation tends to be on the young side, mostly under age 35. Worship includes live bands. The Core will continue to hold its Sunday evening worship services at OuterEdge until this building is ready in September.

“We were never looking for a building, but we we’re always looking for a building,” he said. “We didn’t want to be a church that gets a building and then its vision and mission fall to the back burner because everything turns into paying the mortgage. We wanted to put our dollars into beer and snacks flesh and blood, people and relationships.”

WELS members - you gave them a grant and a loan to buy this bar.
Ask Keith Free and Mark Schroeder about their use and abuse of your offering money.
Another WELS congregation is several blocks away.

Online, real estate listings show the asking price was $850,000. Outagamie County records listed its 2011 fair market value at about $523,000.

“We paid closer to fair market value,” said Jeff Ulman, a member of the church’s executive committee. “George Karl worked with us and helped us out extensively.”

George Karl, head coach of the Denver Nuggets and former coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, owned the building.

The purchase was handled through a church extension fund, said Skorzewski.

“We received a wonderful grant and loan from WELS, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Our remodeling was covered by the loan from WELS.”

Church volunteers are already inside working on the renovation. The church draws about 250 people on a typical Sunday.

Revolution was the last nightclub that operated in the Franklin Street building. It was open for about six months, until July 2010. Prior to that, the club had been opened and closed by several operators under the names Tom’s Garage, The Garage and Pulse Nightclub.

Skorzewski said the church would not keep the full liquor license that went with the building. If they chose to host wedding receptions in the building in the future, he said they would apply for a beer and wine license.

This is at least the fourth building in the Fox Cities to be converted from a business into a church in recent years, including structures that previously housed the Vineyard (now Living Faith), SK Flooring (now the Mission Church) and Big Picture (now Christ's Church of the Valley).

Note that in the printed version of this story in The Post-Crescent, the church in the Big Picture was incorrect. It is correct above.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Stinky Old Bar Sold for $500-850,000! Savoy, Illin...":

Multiple choice question:

Which "church" is Lutheran?

- Living Faith
- Mission Church
- The Core
- Christ's Church of the Valley

Answer:... wait for it....wait for it....

Three Years after This Post - The Jelly-Tele-Tubbies Are Prospering

John Parlow, Mark Jeske, Paul Calvin Kelm, and Kudu Don Patterson form the Gang of Four, known as the Jelly-Tele-Tubbies.
One DP said, "Talking to these guys is like trying to nail jelly to the wall."

They have group lovies at Church and Change board meetings, Church and Change conferences, Church and Change pilgrimages to learn from Babtist Stetzer, Babtist Stanley, Methodist Groeschel, Methodist Sweet, and the patriarchs of Church Shrinkage - Kent Hunter and Waldo Werning.

The Jelly-Tele-Tubbies never admit their real doctrinal standards (none) and act offended if anyone questions their Lutheranity. However, they have devoted their careers to erasing all influences of Luther, the Confessions, and the orthodox Christian faith.

In addition, they live from synod, Thrivent, and foundation grants. Pretending to be great successes, they are really liabilities in every sense of the word.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Jelly-Tele-Tubbies Make Their Debut":

Judge not lest ye be judged.

***

GJ - Luther wrote that false teachers are the surest sign of God's wrath. God allows false teachers to smite and flail those believers who were too timid to argue for sound doctrine.

The Wisconsin pastors and Doctrinal Pussycats knew 20 years ago that the Shrinkers ran the synod. The Love Shack only needed to make the DPs cower. The DPs intimidated the parish pastors into silence and cooperation. Like their Missouri counterparts, the WELS DPs were "helpless" to deal with adulterous and false-teaching clergy (often the same thing) - but full of the Spirit and God's righteous wrath whenever some poor bloke dared to question a syllable from The Love Shack.

Slick Brenner predicted this for WELS while the Shrinkers mocked him for being a traditional Lutheran. They called him a "legalist."

The Savior warned believers to judge between sound and Satanic doctrine, to avoid evil. He did not say, "Think not," or "Discern not," or "Study the Word not."

PS - Where are they now, after three years, under the stern discipline of SP Mark Schroeder?

1. John Parlow has received a huge grant from Thrivent and hired Mark (P-Boy) Freier as a consultant!
2. Mark and Avoid Jeske has been upgraded to LCMS-WELS and serves on the board of Thrivent.
3. Paul Calvin Kelm got a job at The Love Shack, was unemployed for several minutes, and received two calls at once, landing at Wisconsin Lutheran College...again. Now he is head of Leadership and runs Church and Change conferences from WLC - like the one this month.
4. Dom Perignon Patterson upgraded his status to District Pope, giving hope to those who hope his alcohol soaked men's and women's retreats will spread quickly through the district and synod, as if that were a new frontier. Ask any DP or Mequon professor.

Patterson replaces a DP who actually spoke against the NNIV  - at the convention!
Does anyone think Patterson opposes the NNIV?
In the background - Deputy Doug was re-elected - to punish his district for tolerating his poor leadership.
Glende's plagiarism has been commended and approved by Deputy Doug.

Free Books for Bloggers - For Reviewing Them. From Kregel

LI - We are a bookish family.

Offer to bloggers from Kregel, who published several of my favorite Luther books - Romans and 1 Peter commentaries.

I will be sending out our first review copy offer tomorrow. (It will be The Gospel According to Isaiah 53.) Until then, I wanted to make sure that you have a few pieces of information about the program so that we're all ready to start reviewing soon.

1. Please read this one-page document on the purpose, process, criteria, and guidelines for Kregel Academic & Ministry reviews.

2. If you have not already, please add my email address to your contacts list (so your email program doesn't think we're spamming you) and adjust your settings to always show you the graphics contained in emails from me, so you can see the covers of the books we're talking about. As everyone knows, judging a book by its cover isn't a reliable plan, but we do try to make the covers communicative of the content and tone of each book!

3. Tell somebody about the program. Perhaps you could email your blogging friends about it and put our banner in your blog's sidebar. We would give you lots of virtual high-fives for this. It's a very small program so far, but the more we grow, the more funding will be available for the program; and thus, more participants = a better program for everyone. (Also, I'm not planning to limit the number of review copies available for any given book.)

4. Let me know, now or in the future, if you have any questions or comments about this program, Kregel Academic books, or Kregel Publications in general. You have my ear.

5. Please check your profile and update it if needed. If we have the wrong address or no address on file for you, we won't be able to send you books when you request them.

LI's first library job - my library.

The Text Says This, But the NNIV Says That

KJV 
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

New NIV
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Apostasy Commentary - Translating the Translators
Your job is to make disciples all over the world. That will give me and my buddies an excuse to travel around on your offering money. If you do not bring in the numbers we want, we will blame you for not making disciples. That old KJV was rotten - it emphasized teaching the Word. We have studied big business. Our marketing model starts with making disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples. Our guru, Kent Hunter, says, "Shepherds don't have sheep. Sheep have sheep." Even a DP can understand that one.

Besides, we all know that WE make the Word effective. Disciples do what God cannot. To clone the cloner, the Word of God is efficacious but it is not effective. That is leadership!

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KJV
Acts 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.


New NIV
Acts 3:20-21
20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.


The Apostasy Commentary - Translating the Translators
The Classic NIV was much better - "21 He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything." The classic version preserves the thought that Christ is trapped in heaven, so He cannot be present in the Lord's Supper. We can always change later to the classic wording. But this goodie remains - "for God to restore everything." This keeps alive the idea of universal absolution and salvation at the end - pure grace.

Fellow demons - I just realized that the original NIV came out in 1984, which is synonymous for making good bad and bad good, for playing with words, for betraying and torturing people until they confess, "I love Big Brother."  And we have them saying, "I love the 1984 NIV"!

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KJV 
Romans 3:20-26
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

New NIV

Romans 3:20-26
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood —to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

The Apostasy Commentary - Translating the Translators
Granted - verse 26 is quite weak and tends to ruin our Universalism, but verse 24 is the masterpiece - adding a second all to the original text. We got all the mainlines on our side with this one, and the denser Lutherans as well. Once this permeates the whole ecumenical scene - and we make millions of dollars - there will not be a single reason left to bicker about the sacraments or closed communion (ugh - nasty) or contemporary worship. All are justified - they just need to know it - to accept God's acceptance. All roads lead to God, so we can smile with benefice at all efforts. To save time and energy, we can copy the ones who do this best.



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KJV 
1 Corinthians 10:16
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

New NIV
1 Corinthians 10:16
16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

The Apostasy Commentary - Translating the Translators
This is perfection in translation, turning a perfectly clear word - communion - into a vague word that anyone can understand his or her or his/her transgender way. The old way - literal - ptui - preserves the Real Presence, which makes open communion and true ecumenism impossible. The Reformed do not like that word communion. We cannot get Lord's Supper into the text, so the best we can do is to take the substance out of a verse divisive of fellowship. We are all one Body we, kum-bye-y'all.

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KJV 
1 Peter 3:21-22
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

New NIV

1 Peter 3:21-22
21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand —with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

The Apostasy Commentary - Translating the Translators
We had to get rid of baptism as a sacrament, and we did long ago. How many Church Growth congregations feature a font and an altar? Two for one. No sacraments - no altar and no font. Big screens and a stage and a band - that is how we make disciples. It all goes together, my fiends.

Water does symbolize, but we want it to read that water ONLY symbolizes. The old KJV reading suggested water and the Word make up baptism and that God actually saves through baptism. That is the problem with literal translating - it is too precise. That cannot be allowed. So we have substituted the human pledge for the divine activity of baptism. One replaces the other. Most people do not care, because we snuck that in 28 years ago. But there can be no back-tracking unless it is necessary for initial acceptance.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Do You Want Your NNIV Before or After Supper?":

Ichabod -

The fence sitting vote that prevailed to delay a selection of poor choices, is really all part of the “over-kill” process. The very reality that the new NIV 11 was included in the other 2 choices mix, gives clear indication that the powers that be in the WELS hierarchy, desire the highly flawed Ruppert Murdoch Bible - gender neutral, universalism warts and all. Now, they are granted a year's time to convince the fence sitters that the new NIV 11 isn't all that bad. Their ploy? The "lesser of the two evils argument. In this case, it’s the lesser of the 3 evils contention.

This whole long drawn out WELS "window dressing" process appears to be nothing but "over-kill." Anyone who has read Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Black Cat," can see where this WELS process is eventually headed. They've already done the nasty by touching the unclean thing. Now, they will complete the extended year long process by eventually eating from this rotten NIV translation apple. Will their NIV 11 apple eating celebration take place next year at this time, - or, will they still yet further (somehow) delay? And, how long can a delay game go on - especially, when lust for an inferior Bible translation is on the WELS hot list?

Pastor emeritus Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org 

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "The Text Says This, But the NNIV Says That":

Drawing an analogy from politics may be a poor practice, but it seems so fitting. Since this is an election year, many folks hold their nose and vote for what they consider to be the lesser of two evils. As one wise man once stated, "the lesser of two evils is the evil of two lessers".

Do You Want Your NNIV Before or After Supper?

Desperate but not serious.

LPC has left a new comment on your post "Paul Wendland's Mytho-Porno Living NIV Paraphrase ...":

It is remarkable that they even placed Holman as an option. That translation is a Southern Baptist translation.

LPC

***

GJ - The NNIV will be a big hit in the mainline denominations of the National Council of Churches. However, those groups do not make a particular translation into an excommunication offense, the way WELS does.

Classic Pinto gas tank fire

WELS emphasized the KJV for a long time, then kicked pastors out of the ministry for daring to criticize the original NIV, now called the Classic NIV. That is like a Classic Pinto, no?

WELS leaders spend a lot of time drooling on Southern Babtist leaders' feet. DP Patterson took a group of WELS workers to Exponential in Orlando, Florida. Stetzer spoke there, and Stetzer was soon hired to teach a Church and Change convention of WELS Shrinkers.

Those who pay attention to Southern Babtists realize that the group rejected the NNIV but favored the Holman, which sprang from the New KJV, more or less, now quite less.

The Holman uses the Anything Goes Aland New Testament text plus dynamic equivalence (Living Bible) paraphrasing, so it is a double winner for all the apostates. Holman began changing from the beginning and will change again soon. So will the NNIV.

The ESV is Calvinist Communist. It uses the Anything Goes Aland for the New Testament and a modified version of dynamic equivalence: demi-semi-dynamic equivalence.

The three modern translations discussed so far have two things in common -

• Constant rapid change in language. As the graphic shows, the NIV has more babies than a welfare daddy.
• Constant change in the New Testament text - based on the whims of liberal academics. They meet and vote on whether a verse or word belongs. 

How odd of God - to accomplish so much for sinful man, and leave behind a confused and contradictory New Testament text! The Latter Day Saints must be right - we need a Book of Mormon to explain everything to us.Lacking that, we have the politicians appointed to the various Bored of Doctrine committees. They eat up almost as much offering money as the professional charity guys.


The traditional New Testament text has its basis in the thousands - yes thousands - of Greek texts preserved by the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) Church. The Eastern Roman Empire became Greek and Christian under Constantine and his successors. This Christian empire lasted 11 centuries. Ponder that a wee bit. The Nicene Creed comes from the early days of Constantine, Equal to the Apostles (his title), and lasted until the beginning of the Reformation. The Greek Christians revered the Word of God and preserved the manuscripts and liturgical texts as well.


As much as WELS and Missouri hate the KJV now, the KJV still exists in its older books, many still in print or at least circulating as used books. Liturgical books are therefore useful as witnesses to much older texts. The Greeks had those too. 


The radicals began by beating up the NT text. They could not get at the Hebrew text easily, because the traditional text has been carefully guarded and copied with great precision by the rabbis. When scholars found a much earlier manuscript of Isaiah (by 800 years or so) at Qumran, the Hebrew wording was the same in Isaiah, except for "holy, holy, holy" being "holy."


The radicals in the NCC did not worry about the text of the Old Testament, because they could translate their way into apostasy heaven. Thus the great miracle of a "Virgin shall conceive" in Isaiah became "a young woman will conceive." 

By Norma Boeckler

That followed (note well - followed) the rationalistic church trend of expelling the Virgin Birth. The Wesleyan hymn had already been changed to "offspring of the Chosen One" instead of "Offspring of the Virgin's womb." Who were the pinheads who did this? The Methodists! The printed music for "Chosen One" is still floating around - appropriate for a Unitarian Christmas service.


Lutherans, especially the SynConference types - do not cluck your tongue at the Methodists. You participate daily in the same nonsense. You do not read Luther. You do not respect the greatest Biblical expositor of the Christian Church. You sit back and let your leaders rave against justification by faith. That is why your synods are dead in the water, just like the Methodists. That is why you will get bad translations foisted on the next generation.


"That is a hill I will not die on" - Soon there is nothing worth a fight, as long as the pension fund beckons. I know several pastors who had nothing to say until they retired. No one could bother them because no one cared.


The ELCA bishops who formed the NALC should serve as an example for all. They led ELCA into the abyss for 20 years, jumped aside at the last minute, and complained, "This is just plain wrong." 

Murdoch's NNIV - Flop or Success in WELS?

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Paul Wendland's Mytho-Porno Living NIV Paraphrase ...":

Ichabod -

So, here we have the reported "preliminary" results:

Total votes cast: 2167

Delay the decision: 1621 (74.8%)

ESV: 148 (6.8%)

HCSB: 38 (1.7%)

NIV 2011: 360 (16.6%)

The "delay the decision" could be interpreted as "let's ride the fence another year."

And, apart from the fence sitters, it appears as if the new NIV 2011 is the popular choice. One more year of delay, will be all certain WELS big Whigs and others, need to line up enough votes for the Ruppert Murdoch Bible.

I think that the TEC'S 4 part biased Bible study comparing the NIV 11 to that of the ESV and HCSB reaped hugh benefits. As I mentioned in a prior comment, its action was used to "desensitize" the WELS membership to the flawed NIV. It's just a matter of time until WELS now accepts an inferior gender neutral Bible translation.

Ichabod - What you've been posting about this, vis-à-vis the WELS hell bent push and inevitability of adopting the new NIV 11, has been spot on. In another year they will have their UOJ - universal objective justification translation.

As one former WELS pastor told me: "All this commotion about the consideration of Bible translations by WELS, is just window dressing."

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

***

GJ - I share your conviction that they will get the NNIV in the long run, but this vote was a humiliation for Wendland and everyone else backing the mytho-porno living NIV paraphrase. I saw the NNIV getting over 50% with the obviously liberal districts voting.

HBW World Bird Photo Contest - winners announced | the Internet Bird Collection

For Father's Day I got a gift certificate to a bird feed store.

HBW World Bird Photo Contest - winners announced | the Internet Bird Collection:

"The winners of HBW World Bird Photo Contest have just been announced. The competition took place from December 7th 2011 to March 26th 2012. It aimed to encourage and disseminate knowledge about birds, while at the same time inspiring creativity in the art of photography. To these ends, the contest’s focus was on photography that is ethical, grounded in the utmost respect for the conservation of birds and their habitats, and without unnecessary digital manipulation.

The contest has been a huge success with more than 12,000 photos submitted by 3,600 photographers, both professional and amateur, from over 128 countries. The images submitted feature more than 3,000 bird species from 154 countries."

'via Blog this'

Paul Wendland's Mytho-Porno Living NIV Paraphrase Not Catching On

http://www.wels.net/news-events/district-conventions-address-bible-translations

Since new information indicated that a translation decision would not need to be made in 2012, the synod presidium prepared a ballot that included four choices: The English Standard Version (ESV), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), and the NIV 2011. The fourth choice was to delay selection of a translation until the synod convention in 2013.

Here are the results of the voting:

Total votes cast: 2167
Delay the decision: 1621 (74.8%)
ESV: 148 (6.8%)
HCSB: 38 (1.7%)
NIV 2011: 360 (16.6%)

This means that the discussions and evaluations of existing translations will continue. A final decision may be made by the 2013 synod convention in New Ulm, Minn. That decision could involve the selection of an existing translation; it could also possibly include the option to produce a new or revised translation by Lutherans.

***

GJ - Now that is one enormous yawn about the ESV and Holman. They might as well have picked the Bulgarian Bible as the Holman. Nobody has heard of the Holman, and the ESV is the Calvinist edition of the RSV, which came from the Commies at the National Council of Churches.

Paul McCain and the Missouri Synod used to sell the NIV and mix it into their products. Now they have the Calvinist ESV as their pride and joy.

Nobody mentions the KJV or anything that rhymes with KJV.

The good news is - they let people vote on which poison to feed to the next generation.

Homework for Trinity 3. Luke 15 - Lost Sheep and Coin

You are the piece of silver in His hand.

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

No separate pamphlet edition of this sermon is known. It is found in the collections of 14, 17 and 5 sermons.

Text. Luke 15:1. 10. Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him to hear him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake unto them this parable, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go alter that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his [riends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto your, that even so there shalt be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons, who need no repentance.

Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost. Even so, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

CONTENTS:

THE CONDUCT TOWARD SINNERS THAT IS CHRISTIAN AND PLEASING TO GOD.
I. THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS CONDUCT.

II. THIS CONDUCT IS NOT FOUND IN THE WORLD,AND ESPECIALLY NOT AMONG THE MONKS.

III. HOW CHRIST SEEKS TO AWAKEN US TO THIS CONDUCT.

IV. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN WORKS CONSIST IN THIS CONDUCT.

V. HOW THIS CONDUCT IS CONFIRMED BY EXAMPLES.

1. By the example of Moses.

2. By the example of Paul.

3. By the example of Samuel.

4. By the example of David.

5. By the example of Christ. 13-15.

VI. ADMONITION THAT WE COMMEND THIS CONDUCT.

VII. THERE IS NO GREATER SIN THAN TO NEGLECT THIS CONDUCT.

VIII. WHAT SHOULD MOVE PEOPLE TO THIS CONDUCT.

The poor consciences that are terrified on account of sin.

1. How these consciences are brought to doubt by the Papists.

2. In what way these poor consciences are to be instructed and comforted. 21-23.

Conclusion .

SUMMARY OF THIS GOSPEL:

1. The nature and characteristic of the Gospel are that sinners, or those who acknowledge themselves to be sinners, believe the Gospel; and the Pharisees, or those who consider themselves to be pious and righteous, murmur against the Gospel.

2. The love of God is praised in that it restores us lost sinners in Christ.

3. Righteousness we have only through Christ. The lost sheep can not of itself find its way home, and the lost piece of money can not find itself; all which is against free will.

By Norma Boeckler

PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP.

1. The words of the Gospel are living and quickening, if we only comprehend them aright. But, in order that we may learn to understand this Gospel better, we will now place before us two classes of men, namely, public sinners and Pharisees, and will make Christ their judge. You have often heard that it is our duty, for love’s sake, to serve our neighbor in all things. If he is poor, we are to serve him with our goods; if he is in disgrace, we are to cover him with the mantle of our honor; if he is a sinner, we are to adorn him with our righteousness and piety. That is what Christ did for us. Philippians 2. He who was so exceedingly rich did, for our sake, empty himself and become poor. He served us with his goods, that we in our poverty might become rich. He was made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

2. Now, the outward works of love are very great, as when we place our goods in the service of another. But the greatest is this, that I surrender my own righteousness and make it serve for the sins of my neighbor. For, outwardly to render service and help by means of one’s goods is love only in its outward aspect; but to render help and service through one’s righteousness, that is something great and pertains to the inward man. This means that I must love the sinner and be his friend, must be hostile to his vices and earnestly rebuke them, yet that I must love him with all my heart so as to cover his sins with my righteousness. I am commanded to rebuke; but Christ tells me, in Matthew 18:15-18, how I am to do this: “If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, then hast thou gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church; and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican. Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

3. In short, such an enemy of my neighbor am I to be that I cannot let him suffer. So dearly must I love him that I shall even run after him, and shall become like the shepherd that seeks the lost sheep, like the woman that seeks the lost piece of silver. On this occasion, therefore, we shall speak concerning such great work of love as is shown when a pious man invests the sinner with his own righteousness, when a pious woman invests the most wanton harlot with her own honor.

4. This is something that neither the world nor reason will do. A work like this cannot be done by honorable and pious men who are actuated only by reason, by men who would prove their piety by turning up their nose at those who are sinners, as here the Pharisees do who murmur and grumble at public sinners.

5. This is what our monks do. They have gone about making faces at all who lie in their sins, and have thought: “Oh, but this is a worldly fellow!

He does not concern us. If, now, he really would be pious, let him put on the monk’s cowl.” Hence it is that reason and such hypocrites cannot refrain from despising those who are not like them. They are puffed up over their own life and conduct, and cannot advance far enough to be merciful to sinners. This much they do not know, that they are to be servants, and that their piety is to be of service to others. Moreover, they become so proud and harsh that they are unable to manifest any love. They think: “This peasant is not worthy to unloose the latchet of my shoes; therefore do not say that I am to show him any affection.” But at this point God intervenes, permitting the proud one to receive a severe fall and shock that he often becomes guilty of such sins as adultery, and at times does things even worse, and must afterwards smite himself, saying: “Keep still, brother, and restrain yourself, you are of precisely the same stuff as yonder peasant.” He thereby acknowledges that we are all chips of the same block.

No ass need deride another as a beast of burden; for we are all of one flesh.

6. This we clearly see in the two sorts of people here presented to us as examples. In the first place, we have the Pharisees and hypocrites who are exceedingly pious people, and were over head and ears in holiness. In the second place, we have the open sinners and publicans, who were over head and ears in sins. These, therefore, were despised by those shining saints, and were not considered worthy of their society. Here, however, Christ intervenes with his judgment and says that those saints are to stoop down and take the sinners upon their shoulders, and are to bear in mind that, with their righteousness and piety, they are help to others out of their sins. But, no’ That they will not do. And this is indeed the way it goes.

7. A truly Christian work is it that we descend and get mixed up in the mire of the sinner as deeply as he sticks there himself, taking his sin upon ourselves and floundering out of it with him, not acting otherwise than as if his sin were our own. We should rebuke and deal with him in earnest; yet we are not to despise but sincerely to love him. If you are proud toward the sinner and despise him, you are utterly damned.

8. These, then, are great and good works in which we should exercise ourselves. But no man pays attention to them. Such works have entirely faded away and become extinct. In the meantime, one resorts, in the name of the devil, to Saint James, another proceeds to build a church, a third provides for the saying of masses, — this one does this, the other does that, and no one thinks of praying for the sinner. It is therefore to be feared that the holiest are in the deepest hell, and that the sinners are mostly in heaven.

But it would be a truly Christian work, if you received sinners, if you entered into your closet and there said, in earnest prayer to the Lord: “Oh, my God! of such a person I hear so and so, he lieth in his sins, he hath fallen. Oh, Lord, help him to rise again,” etc. This is just the way in which to receive and serve the sinner.

9. Moses acted thus when the Israelites worshipped the molten calf. He mingled freely with the people in their’ sins. Yet he punished them severely, and caused three thousand men to be slain from gate to gate.

Exodus 32. After that he went up and bowed down before God, and prayed that he would forgive the people their sin, or blot him out of the Book of Life. Behold, here we have a man who knew that God loved him and had written his name in the book of the blessed; and yet he says: “Lord, I would rather that thou shouldest damn me and save the people.”

10. Paul, too, acted thus. At times he rebuked the Jews severely, calling them dogs and other names. Yet he knelt down and said: “I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake.” Romans 9:3. It is as if he had said: “I would willingly be anathema, if only the mass of the people might be helped.” Such a course as this is much too lofty for reason, and passes beyond its conception. It is thus that we, too, must act, and thus that we must serve our neighbor.

11. Again, we have an incident in the first Book of Samuel. When the people demanded a king, and would not be ruled by God’s Word alone, but lost faith in the Lord, and said that they wanted a temporal king to go out before them and fight their battles, like all the nations, 1 Samuel 8:20.

Then God came and punished them for the sin of having despised him, and spake thus to the prophet Samuel: “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me.” After that the people came to Samuel and besought him to pray for them, saying: “Pray for thy servants unto Jehovah thy God, that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask a king.”

Then Samuel, among other things, said unto them: “Far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear Jehovah, and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you.” 1 Samuel 12:19-24.

12. David also acted thus. When the Lord inflicted the plagues upon Israel he spake unto the Lord and said: “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house.”

13. Such should be your bearing toward sinners; inwardly the heart in service, outwardly the tongue in earnest. God requires this of us; and this is what Christ, our Captain, has manifested in himself, as Paul says to the Philippians 2:4-9: “Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”

14. Christ was filled with all righteousness, and might justly have condemned us all as sinners. But he did not do so. What did he do, then?

He gave himself to be our Servant. His righteousness has served for our sins, his fullness for our feebleness, his life for our death. This we find illustrated, for our example, in the Gospel before us, where he bears himself with such friendliness toward sinners that the Pharisees murmur.

The Lord therefore sets before them the following parables in order to teach how they are to receive sinners and be of service to them, saying: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it, etc. Or what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek diligently until she find it?”

15. Christ is both the shepherd and the woman; for he has lighted the lamp, that is, the Gospel, and he goes about in the desert, that is, the world. He sweeps the house, and seeks the lost sheep and lost piece of silver, when he comes with his Word and proclaims to us, first our sins, and then his grace and mercy. Christ’s declaration, that he is the shepherd and has laid our sins upon his back or shoulders, makes us trust in him fully, and makes publicans and other sinners run after him. These would not have come unto him thus, had they regarded him as a hard and wrathful judge; for they had previously acknowledged themselves to be sinners and in need of his grace.

And so they were drawn to him when they heard his loving doctrine. Here comes the sheep out of the wilderness, and here the lost piece of silver is found.

16. Learn from this, then, that our neighbor is to be sought as a lost sheep, that his shame is to be covered with our honor, that our piety is to be a cover for his sins. But nowadays, when men come together they backbite one another; and thus they would show how zealous they are against sin.

Therefore, ye men, whenever ye come together, do not backbite your neighbors. Make not one face at one person and another at some one else.

Do not cut off one man’s foot and another man’s hand; make no such traffic of living flesh. Likewise, ye women, when you come together, conceal the shame of others, and do not cause wounds which you cannot heal. Should you meet with anything like this in some one’s house, then throw your mantle over shame and wounds, and close the door. A very good reason for doing this is, that you would have others do the same to you. Then, if you have kept the matter secret, bring the parties before you afterwards, and read them a good lecture; and let it remain with you as a secret.

17. Christ, too, acts thus. He keeps silent and covers our sins. He could, indeed, expose us to shame, and could tread us under foot, as our text shows that the Pharisees did. But he does not do so. All will be brought to light, however, at the final judgment. Then everything hidden must be revealed. Then the virgin must place her crown upon the harlot, the pious woman must throw her veil over the adulteress, and everything we have must serve as a garment to cover the sins of others. For every man shall have his sheep, and every woman shall have her piece of silver. All our gifts must be the gifts of others.

18. Hence there is, in God’s judgment, no greater sin on earth than that pious men and women and virgins commit when they despise those who lie in their sin and would appropriate to themselves their natural gifts, puffing themselves up and despising their neighbor.

19. Hence this Gospel is very comforting to sinners. But whilst it is friendly to sinners, it is a source of great fear to Pharisees. Had this Gospel been nothing more than a good counsel, it would not have been so comforting; but now that it has been commanded I can recognize the mind of God in Christ, since he will have it so, and enjoins that we are to cover the sins of others. Yea, what is still more, Christ himself does this, and to this end was he sent; for no man fulfills the law of God as perfectly as he. We are scarcely a spark amid the divine fire and light. He is the fire of which heaven and earth are full.

20. The Gospel is spoken to those only who acknowledge their sins, and their sins they acknowledge when they repent of them. But this Gospel is of no use to the Pharisees, for they do not acknowledge their sins. To those, however, who do acknowledge them, and are about to despair, the Gospel must be brought. But at this point the devil sets up a game, and suggests to the consciences of those who acknowledge their sins and long to be freed from them, that this one should resort to Saint James, that one to Rome, this one should take refuge in prayers, the other in confession.

And then they are told: “Give six pounds of wax, have so ninny masses said, do this, do that, and thus you will be freed from your sins.” Thereby they are led farther and farther from the Gospel, and are brought to the standpoint of works. In this way they must certainly despair at last.

21. Therefore, when you feel your sins gnawing at you, and feel your heart trembling and agitated, place yourself beside the publicans where they are standing. These are the very ones who shall receive the Gospel. Do so joyously, and say: “Oh, God! it is thy word that says there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine righteous persons, who need no repentance, and that all the righteous and angels are to interpose and cover up sins. Now, Oh, God! I have come to this that I feel my sins. I am already judged. I need but the one Shepherd who seeketh me; and I will therefore freely venture on thy Gospel.”

22. It is thus that you come to God. You are already the sheep placed upon his shoulders. You have found the Shepherd. You are the piece of silver in the hand. You are the one over whom is joy in heaven in the presence of all the angels. We are not to worry, if we do not experience or feel this at once. Sin will daily decrease, and its sting will drive you to seek God. You must struggle against this feeling by faith, and say: “Oh, God! I know thou hast said this, and I lean upon thy Word. I am the sheep and the piece of silver; thou the shepherd and the woman.”

23. You might say: Yes, this I will gladly do; but I cannot atone for my sins. I can render no satisfaction for them. Consider then the publicans and sinners. What good have they done? None. They came to God, heard his Word and believed it. Do the same. His are living words. The Gospel is too deep to be fathomed by human words. Conscientious men who tried it readily understand this.

24. The learned and idle may determine the meaning of the ninety-nine in the desert. It is enough for us to learn the main thought of this Gospel.

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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Homework for Trinity 3. Luke 15 - Lost Sheep and C...":

Ichabod -

Modern preaching lacks the substance of repentance. That is sure. Luther points out the significance of repentance. It is part and parcel of the Gospel. For to repent, portends a contrite spirit before God. The Lord cannot cleanse a proud spirit, but only a spirit which is steeped in the desperate desire for God's approval - looking to the Savior for that cleansing approbation. Hence, the need for the righteousness of Christ - not our own machinations. As Luther points out:

"........the lost piece of money can not find itself; all which is against free will."

And, so, we are back to the Scripture teaching of "justification by faith." Unless the Holy Spirit initiates and maintains that faith, the sinner is lost in his own sin. He cannot find himself. Where and when is this Scripture truth proclaimed from "Christian" pulpits? Hardly. Rather, what we have is the forgiveness of sins proclaimed; absolution granted; and, faith, personal belief and the Holy Spirit ignored in the whole process. Rather than proclaiming the Christian's struggle against sin, unfaithful pastors proclaim cheap grace. But, cheap grace is a cheap [worthless] substitute for a faith that truly justifies.

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

Manipulating the Divine Call

WELS/LCMS/ELS Leaders.
ELCA too.
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2009/11/trying-to-fathom-newest-elca-breakoff.html

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "WELS DP Jon Buchholz to Brazil - Blame It on Rio":

The WELS call process is anything but divine. Even before I became informed, it was very easy to see how much human intervention there really was. The call list goes through the DP. He alone is responsible for all names whenever a congregation requests a list of candidates for a call. Can you say conspiracy? I remember when a faithful LES teacher was being harassed by the pastor and principal. As if by sheer coincidence, this teacher then received a call. When members questioned the suspicious nature in the timing of the call, they were immediately chastised for even questioning it. Just recently, a synod minder who was not even there when all of this happened, still vehemently defended the call. He received the filtered version of the facts secondhand from the pastor involved. Those of us who were in the middle of it all were essentially called liars. Decreasing membership numbers in the WELS are an indication that deception is not really working all that well anymore.

***

GJ - The leaders themselves do not believe in the divine call. It is a weapon for them - threats and bribery. The careerism was out in the open in the LCA, but the SynConference covers it with a lot of stained glass words. The clergy constantly vie for better calls, so this is used to keep them docile and cooperative.

There should have been a firestorm of opposition to Church Growth 35 and 25 years ago. The senior leaders you see today went along with it - and the NIV - lest they lose out on an exotic job in Europe or a coveted committee post.

The current dissenters in Missouri and WELS are harmless. They will growl a bit, cash in their bribes, and say, "I will take care of my parish. God will take care of the synod."

This is how it goes. The betrayers will be betrayed.


NIV Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.


David Preus and James Crumley took the ALC and LCA down the road of apostasy.

David sucked up to the Reformed and achieved joint communion with those who denied the Real Presence. That must have taken great diplomatic skill, to surrender to the efficacy of the Word, to conduct joint communion services that honor the Reformed and dishonor the Gospel.

Crumley did everything but curl up on the pope's lap and lick his ring. He even published his correspondence with the pope and sent it at great expense to every LCA pastor. Will Paul McCain follow suit. Let's hope so.

They worked to create the ELCA as an amalgamation of every radical concept, including gay quotas. But they were shocked at the results of their creation. Frankenstein went Medieval on them and their past associates, tossing them out and treating them with scorn.

The betrayers were betrayed. They lived to regret the merger. Crumley and Preus openly regret what they fashioned with their consecrated and consecrating hands.

The same will happen with some of the WELS, ELS, and LCMS leaders today, when their destructive days of compromise and surrender are over. Some - like Gurgle - are too dumb to notice or care. Others will end their days in sorrow and despair, because they will remember what they did to achieve such disastrous results.

God's wrath is revealed in allowing false teachers to punish those who  support them.

Definition of Journalism

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."


George Orwell


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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Definition of Journalism":

Ichabod -

Then, according to this Orwell definition of "journalism," how would you categorize that Blizzard of Sin letter that LCMS president Harrison wrote?

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

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GJ - That was a snow job, as the polar bears would say.

WELS DP Jon Buchholz to Brazil - Blame It on Rio

Confessional? Find this baloney in the Book of Concord.

06/18/12             WISCONSIN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD             10:10 am

                     P A S T O R   C A L L   R E P O R T
                       06/05/2012  through  06/18/2012

Buchholz, Rev Jon D     -   Latin America Admin Committee    -    06/16/2012
         Missionary in Brazil

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GJ - I am guessing here, but I think this was discussed in advance. Jon has been connected with Brazil already. When I visited his church in Tempe, Arizona, at his invitation, we discussed Brazil a bit with a missionary who was there.

Oddly, Sims, the former GA pope, was on the staff. He is now at St. Paul German Village (Columbus, Ohio), the big congregation that the Shrinkers shrank - Stolzenburg, Schumann, and Nitz.

Jon was elected DP as a reformer and buddy of SP Schroeder. Both have followed the same rapid descent. Jon was against CrossWalk (supposedly) and just welcomed Gunn's sheep-stealing operation into WELS. Lately his parish has been promoting Gunn as well. Truth on the scaffold, error on the throne.

Gunn's son is an atheist, so maybe he should evangelize his own family. But it does not matter, because everyone is forgiven and saved in WELS-land.

Jon signed the secret online petition against Mark Jeske, then reversed himself at the convention - a conversion more dramatic than Paul's on the road to Damascus.

Short lesson - all "mission" activity in WELS and Missouri is Fuller trained at best. I do mean 100% in the leadership, oversight committees, and dumb clucks who go out to spread Enthusiasm in the name of Luther, using Marvin Schwan's and Thrivent's money.

ELS Pastor Jay Webber has been the Buchholz peritus (theological expert) for Buchholz. In WELS, the ELS  is looked upon with great contempt, so this relationship is unique. Jay's strength is endlessly repeating himself on the same topic, and pontificating without any study of the issue. The district probably looks forward to the fading of the Webber star, just as Brazil looked forward to the fading of the Richard Starr.

How much did Webber and Kovo do for Ukraine? Shep and Company spent over $15 million of Marvin Schwan indulgence proceeds. The ELS spent money like water - on themselves. Trips around Europe. Fancy schools for more of the same.

Did they mind Lazarus starving at the gate, the dogs licking his sores?

Pietists Cannot Discuss Doctrine

Three distinguishing characteristics of Pietism are:

1. The cell group or conventicle. 
2. Doctrinal indifference, with an emphasis on works-righteousness.
3. Shunning.

The Synodical Conference began in Pietism, as Walther's history shows - not that the LCMS would ever admit the facts. Wisconsin is more honest, because they do not have a mountain of historical felonies to cover up. WELS is catching up. In the 19th century, it was Pietism versus Rationalism, so the "Old Lutherans" were Pietists. The SynConference Old Lutherans called the Muhlenberg Lutherans (ULCA eventually) the Mild Lutherans. In reality, Stephan studied at the same school as the founder of the Muhlenberg tradition - Halle University.

Pietists consider orthodoxy to be legalism, and they despise the Confessions. However, they esteem their own holiness and measure everything according to works.

When arguing doctrine with a Pietist, he will say:

• You have a small church, so you are wrong. 
• You are not in my immaculate synod, so you are wrong. 
• You have criticized our immaculate synod, so you have broken fellowship with us. 
• My grandfather was so-and-so; therefore, I am right.

Obviously, Pietists favor the ad hominem or personal attack. They have nothing left in their modest arsenal. They will say, "You belonged to several synods" unless someone mentions the total synods of Al Barry or Rolf Preus. They will complain, "You went to Notre Dame" without acknowledging their dishonest promotion of the pope. They have no qualms about making up information and using their inventions in their personal attacks.

Notice how they do the work of their Father Below in the synod. They shun anyone who disagrees with their false doctrine and urge others to do the same. If someone fails to participate in the shun-fun, that person is shunned until he is docile and compliant again. Bishop Stephan practiced this dictatorial policy, which makes perfect sense to the Pietists. They are perfect, so one must avoid contact with the impure.

Pietists emphasize a false purity of the person, but not purity of doctrine. An emphasis on doctrine makes them hysterical, and their defense is, "You are unclean. Touch not Lord's anointed!"

Against the Confessions - The Synodical Conference

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Faith":

I once mentioned to a certain WELS pastor that studying something from the Book of Concord would be a good idea. My suggestion was met with an uncomfortable smirk and a shake of the head. Yet, this same pastor hosted a public viewing of "Fireproof Your Marriage" from Sherwood Babtist church. There are so many so-called Lutheran pastors who simply believe that the laity are incapable of understanding anything from the Lutheran Confessions. Or is it that they are afraid that the laity would understand the Confessions and take them to heart?

***

GJ - The SynConference pastors do not know the Book of Concord.

In another similar situation, the WELS pastor said, "The Book of Concord is boring and irrelevant."

The Missouri and WELS pastors like everyone dancing around the footnotes, never getting to the real issues:

1. What did Walther mean by "church"?
2. Some notes on our glorious history.
3. Remember our dogmatics notes? Here they are again.

SP Harrison sold Minnesota South down the river. The first thing I saw on "Steadfast" was post on what a great leader he was.

The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Faith

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-luke-1619-31-first.html

Luther's comment is so appropriate for people today. The growth of unbelief, especially among the clergy, explains the corruption, lawsuits, prison sentences, and deceit. Fruit is not going to grow on a dead tree, and nothing will be fruitful when separated from the True Vine (John 15:1-10).

Lutheran clergy conferences are full of talk about outreach, but they do not visit their own members with the Gospel, do not return emails asking about doctrine, and show no trust in the Means of Grace. For them, evangelism is talking about outreach, going home and watching reruns of the Packers games. They fear discussing doctrine because they know little more than their talking points.

How odd it is, to find clergy posturing about what is wrong with their sister synod, or their sister seminary (Missouri), or those Evangelicals and Pentecostals. The first question should be - are these posturing pastors teaching  justification by faith - the chief article of the Christian Church? If not, they are no better than hired hands, thieves, and wolves. If they teach against justification by faith, they are wolves bent on scattering and devouring the flocks, no matter what their resume says on LinkedIn.

The hardened hearts are on display for everyone to see.

• Look at the pretty shiny buildings at Concordia, Ft. Wayne. Avert your eyes from the felonious tuition charges there. 
• Admire the Marvin Schwan Cathedrals at Concordia, St. Louis and Martin Luther College and Bethany Lutheran College. Do not ask about poor Lazarus at the gate, his first wife and the mother of his children, dying in despair and depression, leaving a note about his cruelty and infidelity. Money buys absolution.
• Gush at the Church Shrinkers promoted by the various synods (WELS, ELCA, LCMS, ELS, CLC - sic). Do not question their doctrine.
• Rebuke everyone and shun them, except those who can benefit your career. They deserve and welcome the most abject admiration and hypocritical praise. A kiss on the bishop's ring, or anything else, is money in the bank.

Jesus did not warn the clergy against false teachers in Mathew 7:15ff. He warned everyone.

Even though the great Wayne Mueller thought it wise to invent new doctrine, or copy it from the Pietists, the great warrior against the Pietists had something else to say.

Loescher called justification by faith "the article on which the Church stands or falls." That is almost always quoted by the UOJ Hive in the context of their justification, which is world absolution without faith.

Every UOJ Enthusiast is a liar, because each one quotes Loescher while teaching the opposite of  Loescher. They usually quote the Book of Concord on justification being the "chief article, the prince..." Blah, blah. They do that to switch over to their hideous dogma, because their favorite dogma is missing from the Bible and the Confessions, so they must start off everyone on one topic before reversing direction. They use the truth to introduce and support the worst kind of error.

We are not talking about whether Holy Communion and Holy Baptism are sacraments, but whether all the   atheists, polytheists, and cannibals are born forgiven - from the beginning of time. If you deny the absolution of the atheists, you are a false teacher and ready to be given the Left Foot of Fellowship by your synod, whether it is ELCA or Missouri or WELS or the Little Sect on the Prairie.

In other words, the ordinary Babtists or Methodists or Presbyterians have a better chance of hearing the basic Gospel than those Lutherans who are under the Satanic teaching of UOJ.

I doubt whether the sloppiest of the Evangelicals and Pentecostals would try to bray, "You are forgiven, whether you believe it or not." But the SynConference leaders have become bolder by the minute (or more scared) as they expand upon their hellish dogma.

Below are the Wayne Muller graphics, followed by the Sodomites absolved graphic. One leads to the other. The mainlines simply dropped "but you gotta believe it" from their arsenal. Teetering on the edge of pure Universalism does not make a UOJ Stormtrooper into a Christian. It simply makes him more dangerous.

This is utterly ridiculous.