J Post - Nothing Is Lost Or Erased in the Digital Age

One hilarious theme in the last few years concerned Hillary wiping her server ("like with a cloth?") and we heard - "using BleachBit" to erase it forever. Not only that, many good cell phones were pounded to bits "to erase all information."

The NSA pulls everything out of the air and off digital devices, storing the data. The emails were never lost. The cell phone material still exists. The NSA always had it.

I tell people "I just phone 1-800-NSA-HELP to retrieve my forgotten passwords."

However, another part of prosecution is introducing information according to legal standards. One enormous help is the legal standing of Weiner's laptop. When the emails and videos from the Insurance folder are introduced into evidence, many more connections will be made.

Backups of servers are made all the time, as a matter of policy. Some are copied at other locations.

The NSA can pull digital photos off smartphones. I could go on. It is a new age. If honest people pursue the truth, America can be restored, but not without God's help.

Beating the Heat in a Drought - Islands of Flowers

Double Delight

Some roses have spectacular blooms but are not as vigorous in their growth. I can think of various small plants with large blooms - Veterans Honor, Double Delight, Fragrant Cloud.

Also, when plants are getting started, the watering they get may give the weeds a better start than the plant. I am using the following to create zones where a plant can do well, rise above weeds, and hold more water in the soil.

Pulling grassy weeds will often not work well, because they want to pull the new plant up with them. Gabe Brown has taught me not to fear the weeds but use their root growth to some extent.

1. Anything growing can be used against itself, so I snip grassy visitors and leafy weeds with scissors  - or rose shears - sometimes with small battery operated clippers. The cut greens make a layer of mulch, high nitrogen fertilizer.
2. I place newspaper or cardboard on top of the plant material mulch. Newspaper can be torn to pieces to add to the shading effect, which discourages weed growth. Some small cardboard boxes (crackers, etc) open up perfectly to create an opaque area around the plant, giving it room to grow. This cardboard or newspaper layer blocks sun to hold down weed growth and keep moisture in the soil. Plants do not like hot feet any more than we like walking barefoot on the sidewalk to the mailbox. 
3. Newspaper and cardboard can be weighed down by wood mulch. I use cyprus rather than dyed wood. Wood mulch does not need dye. I am generous with wood mulch because it does not cost much and looks attractive. Wood slowly decomposes into the soil and boosts the hard-working soil fungi.
4. My first choice for extra watering is stored rainwater, the second being stored tapwater. Today I took stored rainwater and boosted nine young Crepe Myrtle bushes. Yes, in the not noonday sun. Why? Because if I felt miserable, they felt just as bad. I used the sprinklers on some areas that seemed burning in the heat and relatively dry.

If a plant is well established and healthy, a cool shower on a hot day is be good for it. Water droplets do not burn - they cool. 

 Whimpy Crepe Myrtle - when we moved to the cul-de-sac.

I am likely to give extra compost and mulch to those established plants, because their growth demands more food. Eventually their soil foundation is rich in organic matter, abounding in fungi and soil creatures, trapping nutrition and moisture for the best and healthiest growth.

 The same CM, a few years later.
Wait til this year's blooms are all out.

As I mentioned before, I took the whimpy Crepe Myrtle and doted on it, knowing the plant would bloom in the dry season without my help. I wanted more than ordinary blooms. I wanted the Fourth of July. Every time I had some extra mushroom compost, grass clippings, or wood mulch, the Crepe Myrtle got it.

Pruning is another way to boost growth, so I pruned it all the time, shaping and improving its look.

The Crepe Myrtle became the centerpiece for the cul-de-sac, an explosion of pink blooms that never seemed to quit, pruned away and blooming again.

Each autumn, I pile all the leaves (especially the wet slimy ones from the street) under the CM. The leaves are slowly decomposed during the winter, speeding up by spring, when I add a thin layer of wood mulch so the Calladiums can come through. Now we have them putting up their bright red and green leaves under the CM, a colorful counterpoint.

These ideas all stem from Creation principles, which are already at work, whether we observe them or not. I start with the foundation, the soil and what makes it fertile. Secondly, I avoid man-made toxins which hinder rather than helping the garden. Finally, I try to do extra tasks for plants, insects, birds, and toads, to get the team working faster, better, and more productively. That is roughly .00001% of the garden. God does the rest.

Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Sassy Sue Sits for a Formal Portrait at J. C. Penney's. Her Staff Gets Bonus Photos

Sassy Sue is half German Shepherd, half Cattle Dog - intelligent, gentle. loving, and an expert in managing her staff.

Sassy has always been a bit shy around the camera, but we wanted a special portrait of her. Penney's did a great job last year, so we took her to the same studio. As always, awkward poses led to good results, and the photographer was very good.

Sassy was in a goofy mood and wanted tummy rubs to go along with her poses. She barked going in and barked even more while waiting for the selection of poses. She was clearly done with her job for the morning. Everyone loved her as they walked by the tiny office, and some wanted to pet her before and after. Sassy promotes a lot of affection. Ranger Bob insisted on a formal photo and wanted a print. He loves the photos, which were downloaded about an hour after we were done.

One studio posed Chris with plastic flowers, so I brought fresh roses from our garden.

The photographer had us sitting on the floor with Sassy, on our stomachs with her, and trying to make her a lap dog. We had a great time and got some extra photos. Our 49th anniversary is in November.

J Post on Current Developments

 MI - Ministerial Intelligence.

Today should be filled with news about the Inspector General's redacted report. People should call their political representatives and ask that the complete un-redacted report be released. Phone calls are tabulated - they count. So so emails, tweets, and letters.

House of Representatives

The Senate


Many current issues relate to the same set of problems. When we listen to Fox News, I marvel at how they ignore what is happening. However, when we turn to CNN, those newsies remind me of the WELS Appleton Gang - a collection of the inept, always outraged about the truth.

When I gave the last chapter of Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure at a WELS pastors' conference, three men had raging tantrums - Kovaciny, Oelhafen, and Adrian. That was when I decided the paper was the final chapter. NPH published it and and the Shrinkers did their best to get rid of me. The point here is - people rage against the truth, so CNN's behavior has a lot more behind it than Korea or some other topics. Their paradise is threatened and is coming down. We should help that happen.

One topic is world-wide and not recommended for reading. But it has come up repeatedly and unites many of the worst characters involved. Google - Keith Raniere (trafficking cult), Allison Mack (TV star and participant in Raniere cult Nxium), Catherine Oxenberg and her daughter India, same cult. Seagram's Whiskey was once controlled by the Bronfman family, which works with the Rothschilds. The Bronfman sisters spent $150 million supporting Raniere and Nxium. This one topic alone connects England (Jimmy Saville and the royal family), Pope Francis and Argentina/Chile. Additional names to search - or avoid searching - on this topic are Hillary Clinton, Haiti, and Laura Silsby.

The more we are informed, the more difficult it is to fool us.

Dr. J Solves the Creation over Billions of Years Problem

In the 19th century, the Evangelicals and Lutherans faced the issue of Creation versus Evolution with boldness. The LCMS faculty at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has caught up with them - only a century or two later.

This scientific age creates a problem for churches - we cannot expect people to go along with Creation in six 24-hour days. Thus a solution developed in the 19th century - one so good that it is still being used today. A day could be any length of time, so God could have created over a vast space of time. When the going gets tough, reconsider and compromise.

Demi-Semi-Hemi-Creation Works out This Way

1. "Let us create the earthworm to mix, fertilize, and aerate soil." 
2. Millions of years later, "Let us create bacteria to digest the food in the earthworm gut."
3. The earthworms are all dead, because they were able to swallow soil and leafy material, but they could not digest their own food by themselves.
4. The created bacteria are dead, because they had no place to do their work and multiply.

I could go on with many more examples. No, this does not prove Creation, because Creation is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word. Like the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ, Creation is a mystery revealed, not a debating point.

However, the field-workers who raise roses, hostas, berries, and Joe Pye realize something. Creation by the Word explains why multiple layers of plant and animal life work and thrive together in many ways at once.

They were created and engineered together, with far more complexity than we can imagine. The "simple" plant cell is more like a complex miniature factory, with many different engines working to move water, obtain food, grow, differentiate, and reproduce. 

If that were not enough, the timing of the natural world is exquisitely precise. 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Earl of Oxford, As You Like it.

Our Crepe Myrtle mother ship leafed out late this spring, so the cardinals did not build their love nest in it. Instead, robins came, built, and raised their young, which were on the ground testing their wings the other day.

Now I am wondering if the Japanese beetles aka June bugs are making their appearance at night.

We have enough problems staging a play or passing a bill in the legislature. A wedding is a series of panic attacks, but God's Creation is managed around us, with few thinking about how endless complexities and dependencies are all organized together.

1. If a thoughtless gardener makes a mistake, and plants or animals are harmed,
2. If he gets a 10 horsepower tiller for Father's Day and uses it to wreck the soil,
3. If by chance, a finger gets in the way of the rose shears, and blood drips onto the garden,
4. Creation will eventually heal the damage.

If so much can take place without our anxious thoughts, how much more does the Creator mend, heal, and guide us.

Pruning Roses, Weeds, and My Finger

I got my Hidden Lily roots for a song, after the season last year. Now they are coming up in bloom.

Everything is growing in abundance: flowers and grass and weeds. Today, I enjoyed the chance to work on individual plants, pruning away the grassy weeds and dead wood, building up the mulch.

 Joe Pye is hardy, colorful, and the ultimate butterfly plant.

 Cat Mint

The rose collars make it simple to weed-eat some areas, then throw down newspapers and wood mulch. Joe Pye and Shasta Daisies are so vigorous, they almost make their own mulch by growing fast and dominating the space. Roses and hostas need the grassy weeds suppressed close to the plant, especially since squirrels love to plant nut trees with each rose.

I pruned into my left index finger, which did not hurt at all, but started to fertilize the rose plant. Finding a bandage inside elicited suggestions about being more careful.

 I am olde school - I grow my Hummingbird feeders:
Trumpet Vine and Hostas.

The big bloomers of the week are:

• Hidden Lily Wild Ginger
• The Mother of All Crepe Myrtles
• Bergamot
• Trumpet Vines, front and back yards (Hummingbird delight)
• Easy Does It roses
• Pokeweed
• Butterfly Weed (front and back)
• Elderberries and Blackberries

 Horse Mint is best marketed as Bee Balm,
and it is great for bees and Hummingbirds.

One can easily determine the popular plants by the ones already sold out at The Growers Exchange:

1. Common Milkweed
2. Bee Balm (Bergamot, above)
3. Borage (Bee Bread)
4. Cat Mint
5. Garlic Chives
6. Fox Glove
7. Fever Few
8. Mountain Mint
9. Mullein - a roadside weed in Michigan
10. Tansy
11. Valerian

 Mountain Mint

Greek Lesson - Romans 4:1-11

 The Faith of Jesus

Parsing Link

Romans Lenski - Download and save public domain PDF.

ΠΡΟΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΟΥΣ 4 1550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

4 τι ουν ερουμεν αβρααμ τον πατερα ημων ευρηκεναι κατα σαρκα

ουν therefore connects this chapter to the previous argument. Read Ro 3 over again, especially the last 3 verses. κατα is used, like the Gospel κατα John.

2 ει γαρ αβρααμ εξ εργων εδικαιωθη εχει καυχημα αλλ ου προς τον θεον

θη - passive signal. Note how close this is to John 8 - children of Abraham by flesh (blood) or by faith. No contradictions in the Bible. προς - toward not κατα

3 τι γαρ η γραφη λεγει - επιστευσεν δε αβρααμ τω θεω, και ελογισθη αυτω εις δικαιοσυνην

Paul's argument in 3:22 rests upon righteousness (justification) by faith of Jesus Christ - δικαιοσυνη δε θεου δια πιστεως ιησου χριστου - righteousness of God through (agency) faith of Jesus Christ, Jesus-Christ-faith. Anarthrous, without the article glues words together, use hyphen or show this unity. We drop articles too - The governor of Arkansas, or Governor of Arkansas Huckabee.

και ελογισθη - passive, is counted, is reckoned, is imputed.

4 τω δε εργαζομενω ο μισθος ου λογιζεται κατα χαριν - αλλα κατα το οφειλημα

Dative - to the one working. κατα but κατα... Law Gospel contrast with working and payment for the work

5 τω δε μη εργαζομενω, πιστευοντι δε επι τον δικαιουντα τον ασεβη, λογιζεται η πιστις αυτου εις δικαιοσυνην

δε - connecting words are post-positive, the second word each time while we favor making them the first. Read as Greek, not as American.

πιστευοντι - clearly believing is righteousness. No room here for unbelieving counted as righteousness, the dogma of Universalists and mainline liberal apostates.

6 καθαπερ και δαβιδ λεγει - τον μακαρισμον του ανθρωπου [ω ο θεος λογιζεται δικαιοσυνην χωρις εργων]

An argument requires proof, authority, evidence, sometimes called a warrant. 

[ω ο θεος λογιζεται δικαιοσυνην χωρις εργων] - relative pronoun clause

7 μακαριοι ων αφεθησαν αι ανομιαι και ων επεκαλυφθησαν αι αμαρτιαι

apo-kalypto (uncover, revelation) epi-kalypto (put the cover one, favorite of Luther, covering neighbor's sins, because God covers ours: anti-gossip)

8 μακαριος ανηρ ω ου μη λογισηται κυριος αμαρτιαν

Beatitudes about forgiveness, righteousness, counting - based upon believing. Believing is Makarios. No one has translated the word better than blessed. Happy? - oh please. Schuller called them the Be-Happy-Attitudes. Ouch.

9 ο μακαρισμος ουν ουτος επι την περιτομην η και επι την ακροβυστιαν? λεγομεν γαρ οτι ελογισθη τω αβρααμ η πιστις εις δικαιοσυνην

We see how important Father Abraham is - he was counted righteous for believing in the coming Savior - before circumcision. γαρ - major break post-positive, explains what is before that, or concludes the argument.

10 πως ουν ελογισθη εν περιτομη οντι η εν ακροβυστια? ουκ εν περιτομη αλλ εν ακροβυστια

Notice how simple the argument is, easy grammar and vocabulary.

11 και σημειον ελαβεν περιτομης σφραγιδα της δικαιοσυνης της πιστεως της εν τη ακροβυστια [εις το ειναι αυτον πατερα παντων των πιστευοντων] δι ακροβυστιας εις το λογισθηναι και αυτοις την δικαιοσυνην

εις το ειναι αυτον πατερα παντων των πιστευοντων. Articular infinitive can be translated many ways, the article plus the infinitive using the genitive. Two articular infinitives in one verse - emphasis, connection, easy memory. Emphais not on circumcision but on believing.

Next Week

12 και πατερα περιτομης τοις ουκ εκ περιτομης μονον αλλα και τοις στοιχουσιν τοις ιχνεσιν της εν τη ακροβυστια πιστεως του πατρος ημων αβρααμ

13 ου γαρ δια νομου η επαγγελια τω αβρααμ η τω σπερματι αυτου το κληρονομον αυτον ειναι του κοσμου αλλα δια δικαιοσυνης πιστεως

14 ει γαρ οι εκ νομου κληρονομοι κεκενωται η πιστις και κατηργηται η επαγγελια

15 ο γαρ νομος οργην κατεργαζεται ου γαρ ουκ εστιν νομος ουδε παραβασις

16 δια τουτο εκ πιστεως ινα κατα χαριν εις το ειναι βεβαιαν την επαγγελιαν παντι τω σπερματι ου τω εκ του νομου μονον αλλα και τω εκ πιστεως αβρααμ ος εστιν πατηρ παντων ημων

17 καθως γεγραπται οτι πατερα πολλων εθνων τεθεικα σε κατεναντι ου επιστευσεν θεου του ζωοποιουντος τους νεκρους και καλουντος τα μη οντα ως οντα

18 ος παρ ελπιδα επ ελπιδι επιστευσεν εις το γενεσθαι αυτον πατερα πολλων εθνων κατα το ειρημενον ουτως εσται το σπερμα σου

19 και μη ασθενησας τη πιστει ου κατενοησεν το εαυτου σωμα ηδη νενεκρωμενον εκατονταετης που υπαρχων και την νεκρωσιν της μητρας σαρρας

20 εις δε την επαγγελιαν του θεου ου διεκριθη τη απιστια αλλ ενεδυναμωθη τη πιστει δους δοξαν τω θεω

21 και πληροφορηθεις οτι ο επηγγελται δυνατος εστιν και ποιησαι

22 διο και ελογισθη αυτω εις δικαιοσυνην

23 ουκ εγραφη δε δι αυτον μονον οτι ελογισθη αυτω

24 αλλα και δι ημας οις μελλει λογιζεσθαι τοις πιστευουσιν επι τον εγειραντα ιησουν τον κυριον ημων εκ νεκρων

25 ος παρεδοθη δια τα παραπτωματα ημων και ηγερθη δια την δικαιωσιν ημων

WELS Abuse Will Not Be Solved Until the Sect Has Vanished - According to a Former Circuit Pastor

 The long-term influence of JP Meyer doomed a lazy and self-satisfied WELS to build and deploy a culture of ruthless bullying. They are legalistic to a fault, but also Antinomian, imaging there is no law - at least not for the right people. All this depends on their utter rejection of Justification by Faith, promotion of UOJ, and intellectural torpor.

A Circuit Pastor in WELS said, "The only cure for WELS is to tear it apart." He has done his best by enabling the worst offenders at key points, where he might have shown a little courage, a little faith in God.

The problem starts with the culture of bullying and hazing in their schools, which they brag about, regardless of the evidence about academics. Grades are given according to family ties. The children of officials get top grades no matter what. The merit system is based on the family name, which makes many of them incredibly lazy and unaware of their illiterate state. One top scientist could not get over how WELS pastors would lecture him on science because they had one course in science.

 Churches That Abuse

But it goes far beyond that. Each class likes to haze and bully the class below it. That gives the class an artificial feeling of unity. Nothing is too violent, too gross, or too foolish to foist upon the younger students. If they complain, they are never forgiven. If they tell their parents or school officials, Hell will be visited upon them.

Most important, there is only WELS. No other group is even worth being mentioned. LCMS? - curl your mouth into a snarl. ELS? - they "cherish their fellowship with the ELS" but loathe the shrimpy version of WELS. The ELS president is expected to obey his masters in WELS - and he does.

WELS pastors love to deceive people - it is a real sport for them. They lie and laugh about how they fooled everyone. They "study so hard in seminary" and the laity feel sorry for them. When I was at Mequon, the library only saw John Brug and me there, plus the underworked staff. The real training for deception is their beloved GA or HB secret initiation and hazing rite.

The idea is to fool the new students into being scared to death at the end, which is based on days of lying to them. They are told to wade in raw sewage (the pond), which SP Mark Schroeder remembers so fondly. They take off all their sewery clothes outside, in view of the female kitchen staff, but that is OK. It is GA/HB. They laugh about the violence, like breaking someone's leg or knocking a tooth out.

They finish GA/HB with a drinking party. WELS college and sem training means a lot of drinking. Many are alcoholics at graduation, and yes, they know they have a problem. Imagine alcoholic leaders clamping down on alcoholism. I can name a few of them. If someone drives his car up a utility pole, and he is married into the right family, he gets a call as a missionary. That family is mentioned with hushed tones, so it means pre-absolution.

So many WELS clergy and teachers get away with unScriptural behavior that they assume they can treat people like dogs. Many laity have told me their stories, and they remain afraid of the clergy bullies and their own families.

The object of their cold disdain finds out that this invisible sign has been built to follow everywhere.

Oh, that works so well. The WELS family networks make sure that - once the shun sign is published - the black sheep is ousted more thoroughly than a Hutterite, Orthodox Jew, or Vikings fan in Green Bay.

If a WELS pastor is a bully (prep-college-GA training) or lecherous or a drunk, pity the woman or female staffer who objects to a supervisor. WELS has a beautiful system that works to enhace false doctrine, obnoxious and immoral behavior -

1. "Eighth Commandment! - You have slandered this innocent lamb of God."
2. "Matthew 18! - You did not sit down with this person, hold his hand, and gently tell him his sins".
3. "Write a letter!" This can be a deposition worthy of St. Paul or Seneca the Elder, but some phrase will be picked up and repeated constantly that shows the writer deserves the depths of Hell.

 Open a can of Eighth Commandment on the dissenter.
That one looks a bit worn, don't it?

All sincere efforts to address vocational failure or false doctrine are met with same phalanx response we see in Roman Catholicism. A woman is always at fault - just keep that in mind. Speak only to a lawyer and bring a carefully written account to that meeting with the attorney. The WELS Gestapo will act against the woman and make her life miserable. They will pit husband against wife, too, and say, "See they could not get along, so they blamed Holy Mother WELS."

But there is a necklace for the victims who are women. Yes, it is invisible, but everyone can see it, and the wearer can feel it. Rejoice and leave the buggers behind.

The District Presidents use their lackeys (the Circuit Pastors) and the Mission Board members to meddle in congregations. Like the ELS or LCMS, if they want to get rid of someone to make way for a buddy, they disturb the congregation and blame the pastor. And this is the bonus - they can use the same power to rescue their buddy from the law, the media, and discipline. DP Engelbrecht and SP Mark Schroeder interceded for Ski in Appleton, and DP Patterson and future DP Zank got Ski an illegal insta-call. Did Mark Jeske's Church and Change millionaires have anything to do with this miraculous rescue? My lips are sealed.

I have told anyone shunned or kicked out of WELS, "Be glad. They did you a favor. Look at the ones they keep in and reward. You do not want to be associated with them."

If you have a WELS pastor as a friend, you do not need any enemies. That account is full and overflowing. They will gladly betray a layman while pretending to help. They are a sad, sick bunch with no character. There are a few exceptions to my blanket condemnation, but I will not even hint at their names.

Just to show how the WELS Gestapo works - I gather information and perspective from a lot of people. I wished someone a happy birthday on FB because he had been kind to me, many years ago. Other than that, we have no contact and no conversations. But a pastor from WELS got on that page and said, "Are you leaking to Jackson?"

When Jon-Boy Buchholz was pretending to be friendly with me, he got on a WELS pastor's FB page and said, "Why are you friends with Jackson?" as if it were a felony. I only mention it to show how a DP can be outwardly friendly while being a hostile, vindictive, petty snake-in-the-grass (apologies to reptiles everywhere).

I need a punchline. Here is it - Mark Schroeder and Jon-Boy Buchholz were elected as Reformers. Get it? Reformers?

Paul Oh Wendland - Forgotten But Not Gone

2018/06/05/in Together

Rev. Paul O. Wendland, president at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis., has announced that he will fade from the position of president into a purely false-teaching role at the end of the 2018–19 school year.

“I am grateful to the Lord Jesus and my DNA for the privilege of serving as president of Mordor, aka Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary for the past 15 years, and I look forward, if God wills, to go on serving by teaching false-doctrine full time. I pray the next year will allow for an orderly transition,” says Wendland, defensively.

This obvious Photoshop was prophetic. See below.

WELS is the only Lutheran educational system that trains males to dress for success from prep school to college to seminary to the parish. They are so far ahead of ELCA.
Church and Change Your Gender - Wayne Mueller's son.

Wendland has served on the seminary faculty since 2001 and was called to serve as president in 2004. He has served congregations in Mwembezhi, Zambia; Hopkins, Michigan; and Salt Lake City, Utah. From 1994 to 2001 he taught false doctrine at Northwestern College, Watertown, Wis., and Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn.

“A grateful synod gives thanks to the Lord for Paul Wendland’s resignation as president,” says Rev. Paul Prange, administrator for WELS Ministerial Education. “Please join me in praying for God’s blessing as seminary students continue to recover from his insight and discouragement as a full-time professor for many years to come.”

A plea for nominations to fill the seminary president position will be sent out soon. The seminary is shrinking faster than cheap socks in a hot wash. A call to be an assistant to Ski would be a promotion at this point.

In Other Similar WELS News

John Seifert is retiring as President of the shrunken Michigan District.

Time of Grace -

Pastor Mike Novotny

The Curious Case of Bob Ballinger’s Side Hustle [UPDATED] – Matt Campbell's Blue Hog Report

 Bob Ballinger - read the entire article.

Oren Paris pled guilty, then pled the 5th when asked where he worked.

The Curious Case of Bob Ballinger’s Side Hustle [UPDATED] – Matt Campbell's Blue Hog Report:



"So for a quick recap:

Ballinger did not prepare the loan documents.
Ballinger could not issue a title insurance policy.
Ballinger could not issue a CPL, and therefore could not handle disbursement of funds from escrow.
WDBD?

What. Did. Bob. Do?

Well, we know for certain that he prepared the deed, which typically costs $50-$100, and he notarized the signatures on both the deed and mortgage, a service no title company ever charges separately for. It is possible that Ballinger did the title search, from which a licensed title insurance agent could prepare a commitment and issue a title insurance policy, but most title companies prefer to do their own work, especially on large transactions.

So…how did the lender (and Ecclesia College) get a title policy?"



'via Blog this'

The Faith of Jesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1-4:11 (The Biblical Resource Series): Richard B. Hays: 9780802849571: Amazon.com: Books

Hauerwas moved to Duke from Notre Dame. I took his ethics class, and he was on my dissertation committee. My sister-in-law was his son's babysitter.

Wiki:
Hays is considered one of the world's leading New Testament scholars,^[1][2] with Stanley Hauerwas writing "There are few people I would rather read for the actual exposition of the New Testament than Richard Hays."^[3] Hays' work focuses on New Testament theology and ethics, the Pauline epistles, and early Christian interpretation of the Old Testament.

 Richard B. Hays: Yale College, Yale Divinity, PhD Emory,
first teaching job - Yale Divinity.

The Faith of Jesus Christ: The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1-4:11 (The Biblical Resource Series): Richard B. Hays: 9780802849571: Amazon.com: Books:

From Amazon:
"Widely praised as a major contribution to Pauline studies, Richard Hays's Faith of Jesus Christ is now available in an expanded second edition complete with a new preface by the author and a substantial dialogue about the book with James D. G. Dunn. In this important study Hays argues against the mainstream that any attempt to account for the nature and method of Paul's theological language must first reckon with the centrality of narrative elements in his thought. Through an in-depth investigation of Galatians 3:1-4:11, Hays shows that the framework of Paul's thought is neither a system of doctrines nor his personal religious experience' both of which are the most common approaches to Paul's writing 'but the "sacred story" of Jesus Christ. Above all, Paul's thought is guided by his concern to draw out the implications of the gospel story, particularly how the "faith of Jesus Christ" reflects the mission of the church."

Reader:
"Just a side comment related to the issue of the "faith in Christ" vs. "faith (or faithfulness) of Christ" debate prompted by this important book by Dr. Hays.

The New King James Version, and most modern English translations, translate the phrase as "faith in Christ." The NET (New English Translation) Bible is a notable exception. However, the 1611 King James version translates the phrase, for example in Galatians 2:16 and Romans 3:22, as well as related constructions in Gal 2:20, Gal 3:22, Eph 3:12, Phil 3:9 and Col 2:12, as "faith of Christ."

So the earlier standard of English Protestant translations, the KJV, translated the phrase as "faith of Christ," which was changed in most of the more modern English translations. In addition, the Douay-Rheims Bible, the early Catholic translation of the Bible into English (the NT was published in 1582) also has Gal 2:16, and similar passages, as "faith of Christ."

So why the change from the translations in the two early standards of English bible translation, the Protestant KJV and the Catholic Douay-Rheims, and the "faith of Christ" to "faith in Christ" in most modern English translations? Just a question."



'via Blog this'

 Nils A. Dahl built a tremendous faculty in NT scholarship at Yale. They are all retired and gone now.

I stumbled upon The Faith of Jesus after I studied the phrase on my own and after I published The Faith of Jesus: Against the Faithless Lutherans.

A reader asked for more information on this phrase, which prompted me to find out more about Hays. The author dealt with Dahl's work, which made Hays an A+ scholar in my eyes.

I cannot think of anyone else active in Biblical studies that I respect. No, I am not scanning all the new books - I have no interest in them.

Dahl and Malherbe have retired and died. Robert Wilson is still teaching at Yale. They emphasized the content of the Word of God, although we also learned the celebrity theories and why they were weak, contradictory, or just plain imaginary.

 Robert Wilson taught me Genesis in Hebrew. His knowledge of ancient languages was stunning, but that was always a strength for Yale. I passed on his city unto God translation to Little Ichabod, who used it to great effect at NWC.

Wilson shot down JEDP - the Documentary Hypothesis - in a simple exchange with a student. "If the facts of the text do not match the theory, what do we say?"

Malherbe started 1 and 2 Thessalonians in Greek with - "What do we know? His answer - Paul wrote it!"

Dahl asked, "What do we know for certain?" Everyone hemmed and muttered meek answers. He said with great animation, "The text! We have the text. That is our certainty."

 He was discovered by Dahl and brought to Yale. Mrs. Ichabod attended his class for me and took notes in Greek.
Sadly, he died suddenly in 2012.

 Linn Tonstad is tenured at Yale. 
The quota system works well in driving out and denying tenure to dedicated scholars. Tis far better to be a far Left quota pick, all the better to make future standards stricter.

 Keep the diversity selective, so we can exclude the able, the literate, the heterosexual.