Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down - The Fate of the Mainline Denominations - Including ELCA, WELS, LCMS, ELS, CLC (sic), ELDONA

The baby of the family loves to laugh and entertain others.

The Leman Birth Order Book is significant because personalities affect what happens in various institutions. Domineering first-born males tend to get a lot done, but the ultimate effect is not always good. One long-term General Motors worker said that type of leader ruined his company.

In church politics, that has meant leaders - if thwarted by opposition - who would retaliate by punishing anyone who questioned them, especially those who endangered their imagined infallibility.

AKA - the Untouchables.  Make missions flakier than ever before - No problem! Teach Calvinism at the seminary - No problem! Publish debates with the Holy Spirit - No problem! Promote Church Growth disasters - No problem! Copy and paste from Fuller - No problem! Kick the mother church out and steal it back - No problem!

Real leaders want able cohorts who work with integrity. Second-rate leaders need third-rate lackeys who will do anything to remain in their protected jobs (sinecures).

The trouble with the Scriptures as the ruling norm? - the Word displaces the infallibility of the leaders. That is intolerable to them, so citing the Word (unless distorted their way) is a sin.

The Second Reformation - The Deformation

Readers, you have witnessed the Second Reformation - which will be known by a better word - The Deformation.

The Deformation began with the Great Depression. Savvy leaders used the financial crisis (caused by the gubmint and the Fed) to blame the Christian Church. The Christian Church was too passive when it should have been involved in changing and improving society.

The secretive and very influential Brotherhood of the Kingdom, 1892 (Rauschenbusch) leveraged their initial success and began making the old, mainline denominations see social activism as the real mission of the Church. Rochester Seminary made Rauschenbusch a true, rationalistic liberal - and he taught there later. Rauschenbusch rejected all the traditional Christian doctrines, so he is very much honored today as a saint in the Episcopal calendar.

They named their Deformation -  The Social Gospel Movement. As readers will see, it shared many similar elements with the Church Growth Movement of the future (aka The Death Rattle):

• Anti-inerrancy.
• Rejecting the basic Christian articles of faith.
• Advocating universal salvation because of the grace of God. Faith cannot be a contingency, or grace is not universal. Yes, that sounds just like the pinheads in Objective Justification.
• Loving the new, scientific study of the Bible (historical-critical method).
• Undermining the canon by rejecting the traditional text of the Bible and steadily erasing verses and sections of the New Testament.
• The Quest for the Historical Jesus (and they have yet to find Him).
• Spending offering money on government lobbying, passing laws to make America socialist - and it worked.
• Unity comes from sharing the agenda of the group - the rest be damned.

All the accomplishments of the Brotherhood, and its sterile offspring - The Social Gospel Movement - are taken for granted in the big churches today. The agenda is far more Left-wing and kinky, but the foundation is the same.

How Is Church Growth Another Version?

Fuller Seminary was founded to teach a weakened version of inerrancy, which is really the errancy of the Bible. The Scriptures are only correct in doctrine, not in history and geography. If only the Holy Spirit knew as much as those hair-splitting, thimble-rigging fraudsters.

Every denomination and seminary has adopted this Church Growth Movement. What does that say about the quality of the content and the ethics of those leaders? Donald McGavran, a liberal in a Left-wing denomination (Disciples), gave it a clever name. It is a brand, a tattoo, a meme, all rolled into one blob.

One Church Growth idea was to use the congregations to support Planned Parenthood.

Once the Growthers began criticized for being too inward, they began advocating social activism (as if infanticide was not enough). The last gasp of Pietism has always been rationalistic social activism. Look at Oberlin, for whom Oberlin College is named. He gave sermons on getting inoculated and building bridges.

The Deformation's Goals

1. Once women's ordination is added to the Ten Commandments, work toward LBGTQ+ ordination.
2. Refuse to discuss any Bible using the traditional text (King James and modernized editions of the KJV).
3. Work on religious projects with all denominations, the move to all religions.
4. Protect dangerous, drunken incompetents and slime critics.
5. Grab the big bucks for the leaders' salaries and benefits, let the missions and little churches starve.
6. Make everyone forget the faithful leaders of the past.

WELS kicked Gausewitz under the bus so they could teach Objective Justification to all the children, using Luther's Catechism. They read the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward wrong. They should emulate his zeal, not his dishonesty.

Kevin Leman's Birth Order Book - For Pastors

The Birth Order Book - Kevin Leman, PhD

I have had a lot of respect for Kevin Leman, from the beginning of his career. His common sense approach is looking at the birth order of children in relationship to their parents' birth order.

This cannot be summarized in a few sentences, but only indicated. These are tendencies, not rigid rules.

1. Most architects, pilots, and pastors are first born or only children.
2. Many entertainers are the babies of the family.
3. Middle children are a puzzle to the rest, because they tend to be independent people, often diplomatic, sometimes a rebel, who value long-term relationships. 

I asked a group of pastors:

• Who is a first-born or only child? Most of the hands went up.
• Who is a second-born child? A scattering of hands went up.
• Who is the third-born child? One hand went up, mine.

This really comes down to the way parents treat their children, not some magical formula. First-born children get a lot of attention and a lot of new clothing. They often end up caring for the younger ones. They tend to be dominant and successful, perfectionists.

 Becky was an only child, "an adult before she was eight."

 One of the great books of English literature - does anyone read it?

Only-children are even more so. They have two parents who treat them as another adult. Only-children have said to me, "Yes, I was the crown jewel of the family, and very self-centered. I was an adult before I was eight years old." That is also noted in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. They are very successful in what they do.

Of the first 25 or so Apollo astronauts, all of them were first-born or only-children.

Everybody Loves the Baby of the Family

Many times the parents decide they really do not know that much about children, so they decide to enjoy the baby of the family. Everything the baby does is cute, funny, and non-destructive. Older children observe and glare at the total absolution given in advance for the very acts that were once their felonies.

I guessed a social worker was the baby of the family. "We bought you a copy of The Birth Order Book." She did not say, "No, you should not do that - don't spend money on me." She gave herself a hug and grinned, she was so pleased. Super sociable babies of the family are not driven straight A students, but they are so likeable that they do well in relationship type jobs, sales, and entertainment.

Marriage Birth Order - Plus Children

We marry a different birth-order, and we tend to support the child who belongs to our birth order.

Most pastors are first-born, so they see the world as a set of rules, as Adler wrote. Most pastors are pragmatists, a quality making them putty in the hands of sharpies like the Fuller Seminary snake-oil salesmen.

"Oh, you are from a conservative Bible denomination. The studies show that you will grow." [GJ - They collapsed after embracing Fuller nonsense, chiefly because they bedded with these little Antichrists of Calvinism.]

"Do not worry. All our methods are doctrinally neutral." [GJ - I thought they "worked best" with conservative groups!]

"This is how you overcome resistance. It is like slowly boiling a frog in a kettle." [GJ - Neither side was ever near a kettle, a stove, or a frog, but they sold books on this theme.]

"You must rekindle the cell groups from your Pietistic past." [GJ - I thought the methods were [doctrinally neutral."]

"You must get rid of your denomination's name, the liturgy, those old hymns, the pipe organ, the creeds, and those sermons." [GJ - I thought the methods were [doctrinally neutral."]

 "Professor Brug and faculty, we love your work in promoting women's ordination, gender vague language, and our beloved NIV paraphrase of what the Holy Spirit would have said with a degree from Fuller."

Blog Views in the Last 24 Hours Reveal Interest in Previous WELS Scandals

How does one graph stupidity and false doctrine?

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Jun 10, 2016,

95

Spiritual Onslaughts

Aug 18, 2019,

44

WELS New Ulm Pastor Arrested on Prostitution Charg...

Jul 17, 2015,

32

Heine on Martin Luther

Aug 19, 2019,

29

WELS Pastor Resigns after Threatening Gang Rape of...

Apr 1, 2015,

18

Staggering Dishonesty in WELS Biblical Fraud

Aug 15, 2019,

15

Luther's Portrait of False Teachers

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9

Joel Osteen Agrees with the Antichrist

Oct 3, 2013,

8

Part II of the Sears-KMart Post

Jan 11, 2019,

5

Free Public Domain Books by Gregory L. Jackson - P...

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4

Everyone seems to be reading the Jeske cover-up for Dave Wendt, linked here.

 When will these Calvinists repent?

 For posting this, one of these WELS guys threatened me - that he would "seek legal action." He accused me of creating this Photoshop, but it came from one of his WELS buddies. That is slander and libel to spread the story that I would create such a low-quality Photoshop. Who forced them to pose like this? Who actually created the graphic? Did they enjoy "Party in the MLC?" These questions would be asked by a predatory lawyer from Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe.

Heine on Martin Luther

Luther, on the Scriptures, from "Table Talk":

Dr. Luther once said: "Had I known at first, before I began to write, what I now know, that people are so hostile to the Word of God, and determined to oppose it, I should certainly have held my tongue. I should never have been so bold as to attack the Pope and almost all men, and incense them against me. I thought that they sinned through ignorance and human frailty. I did not understand that they purposely kept down the Word of God. But God drew me on in my blindness, just as men blind a horse that he may run the better." 

---

A quote from the introduction to a small book of selections from Luther’s Table Talk.

---

“One more example may be given of German reverence for Luther. Heine was a Jew by birth, and a religious skeptic, and as a critic he often employed his unrivaled mastery of gibes and sarcasms in sneering away German reputations. But of Luther he wrote: —

“Honor to Luther! Everlasting honor to the dear man to whom we owe the recovery of our noblest rights, and through whose labors we live today! It becomes us ill to complain of the narrowness of his views. The dwarf who stands upon the shoulders of the giant may certainly see farther, especially if he puts on spectacles; but he cannot bring to the prospect the lofty emotion and the giant heart of the other. It becomes us the less to judge his faults severely, as his very faults were of more service to us than the virtues of a thousand others. The fine discernment of Erasmus, and the gentleness of Melanchthon, had never done so much for us as the divine brutality of Brother Martin.”

Spiritual Onslaughts

Someone posted this as an example of perfect cuteness.

Something in an online class reminded me of Luther's spiritual onslaughts. He identified Paul's thorn-in-the-flesh as inward torture rather than a physical malady.

Every good, worthwhile, and productive advance of the Gospel is always countered with spiritual onslaughts. They are a roller coaster of emotions as great things happen and hopes are crushed. The onslaughts may land on someone for no outward reason.

Luther wanted to be alone but knew that the company of others was the best medicine, along with music.

When someone was working on an important book decades ago, she felt weighed down all the time, especially when supposed allies attacked her viciously. They were the worst. She expected that from liberals but not from conservative Lutherans.

I reminded her of what Luther said, that Satan does not want a drop of our blood. Instead, the Opposer attacks our emotions, which is where we are weakest. Something can happen and it deflates our willingness to even approach a project. Someone will say, "If I still felt excited about this project, I could finish. There is not enough coffee to make me feel energetic now."

The mutual consolation of the brethren is one of the Means of Grace listed by Luther. I take that to mean how we speak or write to each other with the leaven of the Gospel. A word, a gift, a message, a conversation about trials and griefs - they all contribute to a life in the fullness of grace.

I know how it feels to be flattened by a child's illness, then two at once. Looking back, those years of agony were also filled with laughter, fun, tiny bits of wisdom gained. They are an always-full collection of joyful memories. Anything can provoke a mention or two. That did not put us another world but the real world, where people live with losses, crushing disappointments, and unjust reverses in their lives.

That is why I often cite Luther's quotation below. I combined roses with tornado damage in Joplin.