Month: February 2022

The keepers of the Walther shrine have hidden the syphilis story, but the rest is well known.

One of the UOJ lapdogs claimed I was writing about a secret LCMS history, smirking as if I were making up details or digging up legends known only to a few. The material below is from Zion on the Mississippi, Walter O. Forster, 1953. The book is older than the UOJ Enthusiasts Paul McCain, Jay Webber, Preus Inc, and Jumpin’ Jack Kilcrease (who jumps synods and confessions with the greatest of ease). Concordia Publishing House printed the book, which was a doctoral dissertation that employed the resources of the Concordia Hagiography Institute, where McCain had a sinecure.

My copy was owned given to Arthur Stellhorn Welch, whose mother wrote this in 1984:
“This is the authoritative soruce of the history of the Saxon Pilrims who came to America for religious as well as other freedoms. My father’s parents, Stellhorn and Buenger, are of this company. I see in your nature and life that cultural and genetic strain.” (Emphasis in original)

Zion has been required reading for seniors. Vehse has another account. Now the Stephan records are available in the book above, whose title I modified somewhat.

As I wrote before, Stephan was investigated many times for his obvious immoral behavior with young women. Louise Guenther was the main mistress, but there were others investigated by the police and church officials. The groupies were jealous of each other and vied for Stephan’s attention. Two of the lawyers were participants in the court action just before the Saxon departure, which led to Stephan’s house arrest. His long-suffering wife gave detailed testimony about Stephan’s infidelities, which his lawyers knew about, although they were happy to go to America with him. Vehse and Marbach were brothers-in-law.

Note that Suelflow solemnly recorded Walther blaming Mrs. Stephan for the bishop’s adultery!

All the historians know that C.F.W. Walther’s future mother-in-law was jailed for her part in kidnapping and hiding the niece and nephew of Ferdinand and his brother. According to the Stephan book, police issued warrants for the arrest of Walther, who left his port early, like Jonah, on a fast ship West, regardless of the fare.

Download it here.

Landing in New Orleans, Walther swore allegiance to Bishop-for-Life Stephan, known adulterer. A few months later, Stephan was suddenly revealed to be an adulterer and a false teacher, for calling himself bishop. Actually, the pastors elected him bishop, so that made them false teachers as well.  As for the lying, let me get started.

Stephan and his group were being dissed in America and Europe for their lawlessness. That is no secret – Zion, p. 345. Stephan’s pastors defended their effort and their bishop – in print.

Money was loosely handled, but the laity had control of that, even though they obeyed the directives of Stephan. The bishop showed the signs of third stage syphilis, with many strange delusions and impractical, improvident plans. The unemployed pastors also paid themselves out of the common fund. Ferdinand’s brother did not even account for the huge sum, $400, he requested and received. Zion, p. 364.

“The Bishop always had a number of women staying with him at his St. Louis residence.” Zion, p. 355. The women included – “Louise Voelker, Louise Guenther, Mrs. Schneider, Pauline Weidlich, and the youthful Marie Schubert, niece of the Walthers.” (ibid) He resumed the evening strolls with women, the practice in Germany that attracted police attention. It is no secret that he left his wife behind in Dresden, to fend for herself, and abandoned all his children except his healthy son, who came over and established his own LCMS dynasty.

The clergy were loyal to the hierarchical order, even after the removal of Stephan. Zion, p. 357.

Walther was happy to carry out Stephan’s abusive orders. Zion, p. 358.

The Saxons were offered a good deal on land, right in St. Louis, (p. 376) but Stephan wanted to be in the wilderness, so they bought in Perry County. They were running out of money. Zion, p. 373. Stephan the Bohemian had no problem with human slavery. They could have purchased better land for less in Illinois or in another territory. Perry County had spas good for additional syphilis treatment and the advantage of obscurity, away from prying eyes and urban newspapers.

The stories of Stephan’s “stupid vanity and gross incompetence” suggests syphilitic dementia rather than the effects of the bishop’s title. Zion, p. 387.

On April 24, 1839, five of the pastors (Loeber, Keyl, Oertel, Buerger, Walther) replied to an attack by the St. Louis newspaper, Zion, p. 388. They defended their enterprise and their bishop, but the paper said they were all under a cloud, both in Europe and America. The five pastors reversed themselves a few days later – in print!

The Rogate Sunday sermon (May 5, 1839) and confession story is recorded on p. 392 of Zion. Loerber (a great friend of Walther) preached a sermon. Two women confessed adultery, and Loerber told Walther. But they already knew, and Forster does not seem to believe the story he repeated about the shocking discovery.

“In Germany they did not want to believe ill of Stephan because of their high regard for him and their close association with him. Hence they closed their eyes to all evidence and their ears to all ‘slander’ against him and pronounced him an innocent martyr.” Zion, p. 394

The facts are known to those who investigated them. Stephan became more contagious (third stage syphilis) and shared his disease with his mistresses. The community suddenly became aware that the overlooked adultery had bequeathed a slow, shameful death sentence on their young women, thanks to their bishop. His children and wife were already suffering from syphilis, abandoned in Dresden.

On May 15, Walther and a layman traveled from St. Louis to Perry County. Zion, p. 403. Forgetting Matthew 18, Walther did not confront Stephan but instead defrauded him of the land given by the Saxons (80 acres).  That behavior shows the common understanding in the group, that Stephan had his female groupies and no one really saw anything. After years of ignoring all the girlfriends and the bishop’s wife being left behind in Dresden, Walther could not act suddenly outraged over adultery.

Part II


Something else was brewing. The only explanation is an outbreak of syphilis. To defend themselves against the charge of Loerber and Walther revealing a confidential confession (the cover story), Missourians have said, “But everyone already knew.” That shows the cover story to be a lie – and not a well crafted lie at that.

Above on May 15, Walther and a layman traveled to Perry County, but not to confront Bishop Stephan. Walther needed to organize the Perry County residents, since the St. Louis Saxons were already united. Recall that Stephan was with his groupies in St. Louis before he moved down to Perry County. The entire Saxon group was in the public spotlight because their sordid reputations followed them. The kidnapping, immoral behavior, and money issues were reported in Germany and in America, although the apologists make it sound like persecution, remaining vague about why two newspapers were so antagonistic about this Holy Spirit anointed immigration.

In Perry County, Walther openly defied Bishop Stephan. The New York group came to Perry County at that time. Zion, p. 408. That included three of the Buengers, “who had been separated from the rest of the family by the performance of the Walther brothers in the incident involving the Schubert children.” Zion, p. 404f. Incident? Incident? I wonder if Forster was a little more direct and found his prose edited by the LCMS public relations experts.

The Saxons consisted of three groups at this point: the St. Louis residents, the Perry County pioneers, and the newly arrived New York contingent. The New Yorkers were still loyal and obedient to Stephan. So were the Perry County residents, although they chafed at Stephan’s spending and spirochete-fueled delusions.

Walther stayed with the Buengers in Perry County and got them on his side. They were already Waltherians via the kidnapping. J. F. Buenger was one of Walther’s closest friends. Zion, p. 408.

“Walther, of course, immediately instructed J. F. Buenger on the state of affairs but did so in the sleeping quarters of a group of about twenty-five to thirty men, and the fact that it was done in Latin did not prevent others, such as Ernst Buenger, from understanding it. This episode is typical of Walther’s methods on his mission. He did not make the mistake of immediately mounting a stump and denouncing Stephan, but gave his information to hand-picked individuals, always with the caution that they were to keep it to themselves for the time-being.” Zion, p. 409.

By May 19th the “entire colony was seething.” Zion, p. 409. Stephan took note, telling Ernst Buenger, “Beware of that Ferd. Walther, that fellow is a fox.” p. 409.

That Sunday, May 19th, Pentecost, Walther had everyone listen to him preach, although they had been directed to hear Stephan at a different location. Walther said after his sermon:
“Many of you will have been surprised this morning that I preached in spite of the invitation and against the orders of the man who until now has been beloved and respected by us all, but terrible things have happened, which I shall now communicate to you.” Everyone believed Walther, so all three groups were united against Stephan. No one went to Stephan in obedience to Matthew 18. Walther began with “tell it to the church,” but not until he had most of the people on his side by his crafty spread of the story. Zion, p. 410.

Walther went back to St. Louis to bring those residents to Perry County for the climax of his excellent adventure.

The tacky Walther shrine has been refurbished.

Walther did a superb job in organizing the mob against Stephan and serving as spin-doctor about his own history.

Part III 
In Pursuit of Religious Freedom describes the arrival of the St. Louis mob and the many criminal acts against their leader:

1. Invading his home.
2. Threatening his life.
3. Strip-searching him for money.
4. Stealing all his money, a large sum of gold.
5. Taking away his books and personal possessions.
6. Making him leave his house and sleep outside.
7. Kidnapping him at gunpoint and forcing him to live in Illinois.

Not one act against Stephan was justified by his adultery. But everything is understandable in light of the spread of syphilis. Daughters and families were humiliated. The Saxon group was shown to be a degenerate cult carrying the most dreaded plague of the time. No real cure was available. A young woman with syphilis would give it to her husband and to her future children. Severe rashes would give away the disease until it went into latency, only to emerge again later with final, deadly results.

The clergy were all in trouble for their published support of Stephan, just before the expulsion. They were just as quick to accuse the bishop in print was they were to defend him in print. Both actions were only a few days apart. This reversal did not come from a dramatic confession or two, but from a much darker source and their justified fears of facing a mob in St. Louis.

I went over the Forster account in Zion to find who was organizing and leading the mob action against Stephan. No other name appears in leadership. Walther acted on behalf of the St. Louis Saxons, coming down to Perry County to steal the bishop’s 80 acres and organize the colony. He used the Buenger family to convert the newly arrived New York group to his side. Then he returned to St. Louis to bring those people down to Perry County in the dramatic purge, robbery, and expulsion.

Walther never wanted an early history of the Missouri Synod written down, because he was so much a part of the story. (Suelflow) O. H. Walther married one Buenger daughter and died, so Ottomar Fuerbringer married the widow. C. F. W. Walther married another Buenger daughter and took over his brother’s congregation in St. Louis when O. H. died.

Ludwig Fuerbringer was the son of Ottomar, so he was a double-Buenger (mother and aunt) and the nephew of C.F.W. Ludwig also skipped over the early years of the Saxon adventure in his two little books about the Missouri Synod. I find much to admire in Ludwig’s life, ministry, and teaching. His books prove the saying that always comes to mind when dealing with historical accounts, “The unspoken word is the most important.”

This Walther statue is at the Purple Palace, the LCMS Vatican. The original is at the Concordia Hagiography Institute. Another copy is inside the Walther shrine. Three idols are erected to the same kidnapper and thief in the same city. CFW is the ruling norm of the Olde Synodical Conference.

Some history from Pastor Hastings is posted here.

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Hastings, Reverend Kevin R. was called to Eternal Life on October 10, 2018 at the age of 60 years. Preceded in death by his parents, Ralph and Mabel; siblings, Kathy and Allen; and nieces, Tammy and Jennifer. Survived by his sister, Jennifer, nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews, other relatives, and friends. Funeral service will be on Friday, October 19, 2018 at Molthen-Bell Funeral Home at 11:00 AM. Visitation at the funeral home on Friday from 9:00AM-11:00AM. Interment at Arlington Park Cemetery.

The theft of St. John is told here. Lots of photos. Hastings knew too much about WELS. The sect protects some, squashes others. How many throw away a priceless building and congregation, then grab it back again?

Long ago, WELS kicked the congregation and pastor out of its infallible sect, but recently –  stole the property and endowment with the help of Jeske employees. This happened to prevent new members from getting involved and broadcasting services, just the opposite of the claims in this article. SP Mark Schroeder did nothing to stop the theft.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Urban spelunking: St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

St John’s is one of Milwaukee’s finest examples of high Victorian Gothic ecclesiastical architecture. Designed by architect Herman Paul Schnetzky, it was completed in 1890. The East tower, with 3 bronze bells weighing 6 tons, is 197′ tall while the west tower is 127′ tall. Unique theatre style lighting featuring 800 individual light fixtures was installed in 1909 and is seldom seen in churches. The church seats 1,100.

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

WELS Documented – St. John

Urban spelunking: St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
On Milwaukee
http://onmilwaukee.com/visitors/articles/spelunkingstjohns.html 

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 804 W. Vliet St., is a bit like Milwaukee’s own Mont Saint-Michel. Its imposing Gothic spires sprout from a high point in the city, soaring above everything around it.

But, geographically, it also feels a bit cut off, like the French religious site at high tide, with the expressway to the west, the freeway-like McKinley Boulevard to the south. You can see it from everywhere, but it’s not immediately clear how to reach it.

Trust me, it’s worth the minor effort of getting there.

These days there are no services held at the church – designed by Herman Schnetzky and his then-draftsman and foreman Eugene Liebert and erected in 1889-90 – where there are just two trustees and a congregation whose members can be counted on one hand.

Designed by Herman Schnetzky

It’s a major shift for St. John’s, founded in 1848 and housed originally in a frame church on 4th and Highland that was rented – and later purchased – from Trinity Episcopal. Over the next two decades the church had to be enlarged at least three times. By the 1880s the congregation boasted, according to an unsigned church history, “well over” 2,500 members.

In spring 1889, the congregation hired Schnetzky to design a church, a school and a 14-room cream city brick parsonage. (A stuccoed bungalow caretaker’s residence was added to the property in 1914 and still stands and serves its original purpose.)

The cornerstone for the church was laid that same year and on July 28 of the following year, the cream city brick Victorian Gothic church, which could seat 1,200, was dedicated.

The church is imposing. Supposedly inspired by St. Peter’s Church in Leipzig, the building boasts a pair of towers, one taller than the other, with long, sleek steeples that rise toward the heavens. The west tower is 127 feet high and the east tower, which houses three bells that still function, climbs an impressive 197 feet.

Both towers boast the elegant turrets that often distinguish Schnetzky and Liebert churches.

Inside, there is a gorgeous carved wooden Gothic altar – donated by local lumberman, and church member, Johann Schroeder – and matching pulpit and sounding board. There is a solid marble baptismal font and an unusual solid brass lectern with an eagle that was reportedly purchased from Tiffany’s, though another source says it was imported from Germany.

Hand-carved wood altar and pulpit

While the interior of the church was once heavily decorated with painted motifs, much of that was whitewashed over in 1962. Even without the stencilwork, the sanctuary is lovely, especially in the morning when sunlight floods in through the stained glass windows in the east facade, generating a kaleidoscopic rainbow.

In 1890, a writer for a national Lutheran publication called St. John’s the most beautiful Lutheran church he’d seen. It was also among the largest Lutheran churches built “in the west” in the 19th century.

In 1909, the congregation undertook the unusual step of adding rows of light bulbs to the arches of the sanctuary, creating strips of what look like theater lighting.

Up in the U-shaped balcony, there’s an Herculean organ that was donated by parishioners the Kieckhefers, who also donated the large stained glass windows in the east and west transepts.

There is stained glass throughout the building, on both sides of the sanctuary, above the entrance, in the vaulted narthex (which also houses a stupendous electric fuse cabinet that must be seen), in the towers … everywhere. My tour guides – trustees Paul Demcak and Tim Kitzman – say that the church opened with all that glass in place. Clearly, St. John’s was a wealthy – and therefore influential congregation.

But that’s changed now. In 1950, the neighborhood around the church was condemned, bulldozed and replaced by the Hillside Terrace public housing project. In 1985, the church ended German-language services. By 1988, there were roughly 80 members at St. John’s and within just two years another 10 percent of the congregation was gone.

The parsonage sat empty from 1958 until Demcak moved in a few years ago.

Parsonage

“It’s a good vantage point to see the church and worry about its future and dream about it also,” says Demcak.

These days, because services have been suspended, the church doors are almost always locked.

“We could start up immediately but with so few members we want to appropriately use our resources,” Demcak says as we chat in a parlor in the parsonage. “We didn’t think the resources were being used appropriately to just go on the way we were without refocusing on a mission that would work today. We were just kind of going on and on each month, inwardly focused. We want to have outreach, we want to be vital again.”

The problem, the trustees say, is that church leadership in the past never really embraced its changing neighborhood, my guides say. As the original German immigrants and the generation that followed died off and/or moved away, no one replaced them in the pews.

This is not a recent issue, either, adds Demcak.

“The church has been seriously hemorrhaging membership off of its books since the 1960s,” he says. “So you’re talking 50 years – a very long decline.”

At one point the church school welcomed neighborhood children at no cost. But, the church itself didn’t appear to take a similar approach. When the school closed, it was turned over to a mission group that occupied it until 1961, when it could no longer afford to maintain it and by the mid-1960s it had been demolished.

Amazingly, in its 166-year history, St. John’s – which is a Milwaukee city landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 – has had just seven pastors. Two of those pastors account for 90 years of the church’s history, from 1868 to 1958. In more recent years, politics divided the congregation and church leadership (you can dig up the nitty gritty online if you want to know more).

German immigrant church

“That’s a turn-off for us,” says Demcak. “We’re all too aware of that, we’ve seen it too much and that’s so much about what was going on here in the past and to me that’s not the focus if you really consider yourself Christian, Lutheran or whatever. That should not be the focus on your mission. The focus should be people.”

So, that’s where St. John’s stands at the moment. Thanks to an endowment fund, Demcak and Kitzman have been able to keep the church complex in good repair. But that money will not last forever, says Demcak, who vows that St. John’s surviving trustees are looking toward the future.

“We want to turn this around,” Demcak says. “We’re a few blocks from things that are very exciting the way they’re happening. We have a footbridge that goes across McKinley, which comes out right on the Pabst property. You have two residential units operating (there), you have three more on the drawing board, you have the Brewhouse hotel. You’re going to have real residences there, including upscale (and) mixed income. Our church is right on the edge of that. We’re the gateway to Downtown.

“Let’s move on to the 21st century. In many ways the church had continued in a 19th century tradition.”

That’s the challenge, then: connecting the rich history embodied by an impressive and imposing Milwaukee landmark with a changed and again changing neighborhood.

“We are (working on a plan), exploring how we can build bridges to some of the congregations around here, possibly some of the ministries that are already going on in those congregations, exploring how we might do that in some sort of cooperative manner with our former synod,” Demcak says.

“I would hope that in the future we can have a presence here that shows we are not afraid to rub elbows and be here and get to know our neighbors. This is a very historically important church but we don’t want to be a museum.”

Further Reading:
Milwaukee Sentinel; July 6th, 1991 – Future of Church in God’s Hands
Wisconsin Historical Society Property Records

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Irrelevant kitty graphic.

Tim Glende:


He has even gone so far as posting a comedic video clip of Hitler discussing UOJ. Jackson’s buddies seem to revel in it all.

—

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/)
has left a new comment on your post “Hitler
Loses the UOJ War“:

I heard Hitler’s secret bunker is under the
Walther mausoleum. There’s an access point in the tunnels of Concordia Seminary,
and under the Purple Palace.

—

Brett Meyer
has left a new comment on your post “Hitler
Loses the UOJ War“:

Priceless. My Ichawidow and I are crying we’re
laughing so hard. The best part is that it’s spot on.

Posted by Brett Meyer to Ichabod, The Glory Has
Departed at March 31, 2012 9:11 AM


—


LPC has left a
new comment on your post “Hitler
Loses the UOJ War“:

I hope you guys can hear me from here. This is
the best laugh for this week.

Very much ROFL.

LPC


—


Adolph
Hoenecke has left a new comment on your post “Hitler
Loses the UOJ War“:

Well, we know the WELS pastors won’t know what’s
really being said. I believe German is now an elective. Who wants to read that
Luther guy anyway?

—

Someone:

These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Christians have a weapon far more powerful than the combined crafts and assaults of the apostates: the Word of God. Conservatives should not aspire to take over the reigns of power. We end up accomplishing only what we concentrate upon (and often not even that).

When the Cloaca Maxima of Hell, Fuller Seminary, got ministers, members, and mission boards to think about numbers, all the energy and focus turned on “How do we increase our numbers each year?” Gone was any thought of being faithful to the Word of God and the Confessions. In a few years, Biblical and Confessional thinking became the enemy.

Nevertheless, the great power of the Word is revealed in the demonic hatred of the apostates toward any semblance of fidelity to the Scriptures. The wrath and vindictiveness of these people can be stunning. They are not nice people, as they pretend. They cry out “Slander!” when questioned about their false doctrine and run the crudest slander machines on the planet, making the secular politicians look tame.

Believers only have the Word and the Confessions. Satan cannot tolerate ordinary, weak, fallible humans having a weapon that will always defeat him, so he rages without mercy. He will tear apart pastor’s families, divide friends, ruin people financially. All this is cloaked with sanctity, but there is no doubt about the malice behind it. That is why so many are afraid of synodical apostates. Pure poison is beneath the buttered words.

Therefore, believers will always seem to be in a weak and losing position. Faithful pastors will get the two-point calls to Forgotten Lutheran and Misbegotten Lutheran, in Buffalo Chip, Oklahoma. People will sneer at their misfortune, as they should. As Luther said, “What the world loves, God despises; what God loves, the world despises.”

A faithful layman or pastor will fulfill the dream of Archimedes: “Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.” The lever for the faithful pastor or layman is the Word of God. Archimedes’ hyperbole is reality with the efficacy of the Word.

The Invocation of the Holy Trinity is calling upon the power of God. The Absolution is the Promise of God fulfilled. The Creed, the liturgical service, and genuine hymns all support the proclamation of the Gospel, justification by faith alone. The Votum is a prayer by Paul and by the pastor for all the worshipers in the Lutheran service. The Aaronic benediction is not a sign-off, a time for grabbing the coat, purse, and kids, but the blessing of God Himself: the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Each time we hear those words we should think of the Trinity implicitly taught already in Numbers 6–The Lord, The Lord, The Lord.

Who can predict what one baptism will accomplish when accompanied by the nurture of the family (and even without it)? One believer marries another or converts the spouse. In a few years, that one baptism has turned into 100 family members as people gather for the funeral of a matriarch or patriarch. Some family members drift away from the Gospel, but others are converted by marriage or association. No one will write this up in Time, Newsweek, or the National Enquirer: Baptism in Steam Corners, Ohio lays foundation for 100 Christians.

Lutherans have forgotten the cross. The cross consists of those experiences directly related to being faithful to the Word. Cancer is not bearing the cross. Heart disease is not bearing the cross. Nor is homework, as one seminary student suggested.
When the synodical pope kicks congregations and pastors out for questioning his ambiguous political statements, that is bearing the cross. When the district popes remove pastors for questioning Church Growth doctrine and support known false teachers, that is bearing the cross.

The Wisconsin Synod ministerium has an informal communication system (much like a prison) called the Grapevine. The pastors are deathly afraid of the Grapevine. The apostates feed excuses for their fellow-apostates into the Grapevine and pitch slander against the faithful in the same way. For example, the former seminary president was called senile by the Grapevine, because he opposed the NWC-DMLC Anschluss. While he was dying of a stroke, a highly respected pastor was called brain-damaged for writing against Church Growth. He published his article before the stroke, but the Grapevine does not care about facts.

We should be afraid of God, not the Grapevine.

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2 KJV

Benefits of Being a Faithful Pastor, Ascending Order
1. Frequents moves. The adulterous (whether spiritually or carnally, often both) cannot abide the Word of God. They keep pastors moving.
2. New friends. The political pastors will not associate with anyone tainted by dissent from apostasy.
3. Lasting friends. Those who love orthodox Lutheran doctrine are united across synodical lines.
4. Renewed friends. Some people turn away when the painful truths are made known, but return to say, “It’s worse than anything you ever said or wrote.”
5. Knowledge that God’s will is accomplished through His Word alone and never apart from His Word.
6. Seeing God at work in the Means of Grace, pastoral visitation, and teaching.

There is an abundant supply of evil people in the visible church. As Rauschenbusch said, religion is powerful. When united with good, it is a powerful good. When united with evil, it is a powerful evil.

However, God is just. Time wounds all heels.

The temptation is great to compromise for a better position, a chance to leave the cares and concerns of a congregation. The warped and twisted nature of our world is revealed in that pastors long to leave the Means of Grace to sit around at synodical meetings dealing with everything except the Means of Grace – and for higher pay and benefits. The rich, black suits and oreo collars! The new model cars! Housing allowance! Trips around the world on the synod’s budget! Hobnobbing with the nabobs of Wikiletics! Name-dropping: Maxwell, Sweet, McNeal, Warren–at a seminary reunion!

Unfortunately, ministers are not encouraged to think of their work as worthwhile. Even if no one else thinks so, each minister should realize the power of God’s Word and the wisdom of the Confessions.

Reading small histories has always been a hobby. Booklets tell about one small group of Lutherans, a group of missionaries, a district, a synod that emerged from various trends and merged into a new one. My dissertation was about the Augustana Synod, which lasted 100 years. The puzzle is figuring out who those leaders were. Many mother churches are gone, due to demographic and doctrinal trends. I wonder, “What remains?” Those who liked to strut about because of their power are forgotten by everyone. The Word of God remains forever. When those leaders were faithful, the Gospel bore fruit one hundred-fold. The faithful of those years embarrass the mods of today. The faithful are forgotten but God’s work and will remain. The faithful win by losing.

How the WELS Apostates Won Big with Leonard Sweet, Kent Hunter, and Waldo Werning

I put together material about the infamous Leonard Sweet, Kent Hunter, Waldo Werning conference promoted and canceled by WELS Church and Change. The WELS conservatives celebrated their brave stand and the results in 2005. I started to take notice of Leonard Sweet because several WELS contacts let me know about the proposed event in advance.

Step by step, this is how the apostates won by losing. Take note, Hot Air Merchants of the Right. You may learn something from the Left.

First the apostates proposed the most obnoxious speakers they could find. Sweet is so fatuous, Left-wing, and ridiculous that a mildly Lutheran minister should have fits over the Methodist guru. Kent Hunter is a Lutheran version of the same model – the Church Doctor, as he calls himself. If Hunter has been helping his own LCMS, here is some news – the patient died under your care. His elder brother in promoting WELS/LCMS/ELS Church Growth is Waldo Werning.

By the way, the Church Growth Movement–favored so much by Werning and Hunter–is moving into New Age mysticism, through Leonard Sweet and his pal Rick Warren. Just study Leonard Sweet’s website for proof. Or his vita for a Robert Schuller conference: “LEONARD SWEET, Ph.D. Morristown, NJ – Leonard is author and founder of Wikiletics, a futurist, a semiotician, and a preacher who communicates the gospel to a postmodern world.” (He forgot to list – Hippy Gasbag.) More content can be found on the Sweet website.

Second, the WELS apostates played the role of victim when the furor forced them to cancel the 2005 Church and Change conference. The Leonard Sweet-hearts sent their letters to Charis/Church and Change, and their names were omitted from the published letters. Critics sent their letters, which were also published – with the names included. How convenient. The Sweet-hearts could remain a closely knit and secretive group while their opponents were revealed. The whole withdrawal process was done not in the spirit of godly contrition. Instead, the leaders were resently, self-pitying, and accusatory.

Third, the conservatives suffered from a collective case of premature celebration. They won! Charis (the journal) was crushed. Church and Change was no more. The deceivers at WELS headquarters really pulled the wool over the critics’ eyes. While the critics were high-fiving across the country, the apostates were making Church and Change an official part of the WELS.net website, not just part of Wisconsin Lutheran College/Charis.

The conservatives forgot that Wayne Mueller was voted out of office, waited for the new VP to refuse to serve, and then voted back into office. He turned that defeat into victory and even saw his defeat omitted from the magazine’s account of the convention. The canceled conference was a minor setback.

Fourth, when the 2007 conference was set up on the WELS.net website, no one objected. The conservatives–who tire easily and often–did not put up a fuss. There may be some hope. The Church and Change jumpword is gone from the WELS website. Church and Change has the same website as before, but the lack of an official link is telling.

Conclusion. The apostates have won in all the denominations by being persistent. They retreat two steps and then move three steps forward a bit later. They lose the vote on the third day of the convention and reverse the vote on the fourth day, when everyone is packing up the suitcases and heading for the airport. The apostates have won by avoiding the doctrinal battles in favor of the political fights. That is where their Father Below always wins. As I heard so many times, “He is not a false teacher. He is a nice guy.” One WELS circuit pastor defended a Fuller Seminary graduate by saying, “I drank a lot of beer with him in school.” I never determined how beer consumption made someone a sound teacher.

This is fun, getting rid of conservatives!

Leaving A Church Behind

Congregation Prepares For A New Beginning

December 31, 2007

WATERTOWN — – It was the last Sunday service at Christ Church. Unable to go “further in a church that continued in a false gospel,” the entire congregation, including the rector and church leaders, will sever ties with the national Episcopal Church and reform under a new name: New Hope Anglican Church.

One of the “Connecticut six,” the half-dozen churches in the state diocese that disagree with national leadership on departure of scripture, including the appointment of a gay bishop, the congregation will trade its historic building on the town green for a free community room at the Thomaston Savings Bank around the corner.

The Sunday service will be held at the bank, starting Jan. 6, until they find or build another house of worship.

“We need to celebrate today, but we need to recognize there is a dying,” the Rev. Allyn Benedict said in his final homily at the church. Reading off an overhead projector, church members sang hymns enthusiastically, clapping and raising hands in acknowledging their faith. They hugged one another, wishing peace.

The church was founded under the Church of England in 1764. In 2003, Benedict and several other Connecticut rectors clashed with Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith, who supported the naming of V. Gene Robinson as New Hampshire’s bishop. Robinson is gay. Benedict and Christ Church leaders also feel the national church is rejecting scriptural authority and traditions of the church.

In cutting affiliation with the national leaders, the congregation has agreed to give up its church buildings and property, estimated to be worth $7 million, and its name, “Christ Church Parish.” The congregation also ended its participation with the other Connecticut churches in a protracted legal battle against national leadership over church real estate, deciding that “it’s not worth living under this oppression just for the property,” said Paul LePine, the senior warden. Four of the “Connecticut six” have also ended their connection to the national church, LePine said.

“It’s a tragedy when relationships fail,” LePine said. “There’s a relief of being free of that dysfunctional relationship we’ve been in for many years.”

LePine’s daughter, Rachel, 15, commented that while leaving is the right thing to do, “it is sad.”

“That’s kind of why we named it New Hope,” she said.

“We’re just moving on to where we’re supposed to be,” said Chris Varian, who was married at the church and has been a member for three years. “It’s a transition. It’s a lot of history and a lot of memories. It’s bittersweet.”

Contact Katie Melone at kmelone@courant.com.

Wisdom from Above

Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

The Wise Men or Magi have always been a problem for liberals. They are so closely woven into the birth of Christ that one must eliminate all the miraculous elements of Christ being born if this one item is omitted or explained away.

There are several requirements for the Wise Men to be true historical figures.
1. Some culture had to view the stars, planets, and comets so that their view of the sky suggested a change in the future.
2. Something had to happen in the sky to lead the Wise Men to Jesus.
3. There had to be interaction between the Wise Men and Herod.

Rationalists want to prove that all of God’s actions are substantiated by human reason. We can now point to several candidates for the Star of Bethlehem. There are two sources for this. One is the evidence left behind by Asian star-gazers, who recorded celestial events with great diligence. Unfortunately, their vocabulary was rather imprecise. We know of several “guest-stars” appearing at the time of Christ’s birth, but we do not know if the Chinese and Koreans were referring to planets, planetary conjunctions, comets, or supernovas. But they saw something remarkable and recorded it. The second source is the sky itself. The years before Christ can be reproduced in planetiariums.

We also know that the ancients were as religious as we are secular. Where our society looks strictly at non-religious causes, the ancients always looked at divine intervention.

No one can prove that the Wise Men met with Herod. Most of history is lost forever. We might be blessed by that fact. Even recent history is hotly debated. In reading about the Battle of Leyte Gulf in WWII, I noticed that scholars were not sure of why Halsey chased the decoy fleet heading north (abandoning his position guarding the area of the landings) or why Kurita abandoned a battle he should have won for the Japanese. We have access to many living witnesses, but still the debate continues.

When Kepler identified the Star of Bethlehem as real, his fellow scientists disregarded him as being a mystic, too religious. His calculations were easily reproduced, but rational proof does not make a believer out of a scoffer. In fact, Kepler hardened people against the Star of Bethlehem by being correct. We can see that effect in all topics involving the Gospel.

The real issue is why the Star of Bethlehem happened. God made sure that the Jews and non-Jews knew of the Savior’s birth. The angels sent the shepherds to the manger, where they worshiped the baby Jesus. The Star of Bethlehem sent the Magi to Herod, who was given a chance to repent. Instead, he sought to murder the Savior and slaughtered the new-born babies to make sure.

Herod was very religious. He knew that his reign as a non-Jew meant the Messiah was coming. We can imagine how secure he felt when the Magi added to his fears by identifying the Star of Bethlehem with the Savior.

Everyone expected a powerful king. For a king like Herod, that meant unemployment for him. Jesus’ power would come from His everlasting reign and the constant growth of His Kingdom, as Isaiah 7 and 9 predicted.

During Christmas and Easter I think of Jewish Christians I know. The Old Testament leads people to Christ. One doctor said to Mrs. Ichabod, “Merry Christmas. I mean it. I am a believer.” He was thrilled to receive Jesus, Priceless Treasure. That is how the Gospel works. I do not know how he was converted from Judaism to Christianity, but he felt compelled to communicate that to my wife. And a book about the Christian faith was a gift he really wanted.

The Gospel is so powerful that it creates its own opportunities. No one has to force them. Some people are made to feel guilty that they are not out on the streets knocking on doors. One victim of this thinking said, “If I don’t witness to my faith, God won’t let me grow.” I quickly assured her that God is not mean, petty, and vindictive: He is not at all like a Mission Board chairman.

The power of the Gospel is visible at Christmas, when people are especially aware of God becoming flesh, dwelling among us, full of truth and grace. People are more generous. Strangers are especially friendly and helpful. Christmas reminds people of God at work among us through Jesus the Savior, just as Easter reminds us of the Savior’s triumph over death.

Jesus is the wisdom from above. Faith in Him means receiving all His benefits daily through the Holy Spirit at work in the Word. Daily forgiveness is the Gospel message. God has blessed us by giving us certainty in this forgiveness. We know that we are forgiven and inherit eternal life because the Instruments of Grace (Means of Grace, Word and Sacrament) give what God promises.

Not Feelings
That is very important to realize and emphasize. We are not forgiven because we feel forgiven, feel exhilerated, feel anything. In fact, we can be suffering the worst emotional stress and turmoil and yet know this forgiveness is ours because it is based on the bedrock of Christ, not the quicksand of our emotions.

Prayer Is Not an Instrument of Grace
We are not forgiven because we pray for forgiveness. Prayer is the fruit of salvation, not the cause of salvation. If we make prayer the Instrument of Grace, then how much is enough? Those who pray long and hard for assurance often find people who say, “Oh no, you are not really praying. You have to pray in tongues, like the Apostles. Then you will be an Apostle.” From there they move to dancing in the Spirit, being slain in the Spirit, sacred laughter, and miraculous golden dental work. (No joking.) And they raise the dead (but on another continent).

Not from Membership
We are not forgiven because we belong to the right organization. Sadly, people are taught put their trust in a man-made organization, to worship it a infallible, and to assume the leaders make all their decisions with perfect divine guidance. I am not just talking about the Wisconsin Synod. The Church of Rome is just as bad, perhaps worse.

We are not forgiven because we are perfect. All the forms of Pietism emphasize works and outward performance of religious duties (but indifference about doctrine). Teaching perfection will always create Pharisees who see themselves as without sin or people in despair. Not surprising, the Mormons pretend to be perfect and suffer from the highest emotional stress, measured in many different ways.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Waldo Werning was also invited to the 2005 Church and Change conference, as well as Kent Hunter.

As I said to several WELS and CLC pastors, “I think the Indians have us surrounded, Tonto.” Each one said, eventually, “What do you mean US?”

In searching for a photo of Werning, who must be 90 years old, I found this information from a district of the ELCA. Three of the authors are Fuller Seminary Church Growth gurus of the worst sort. I imagine the unknowns on the list are clones.

Ministry Evaluations

Regular evaluations serve the purpose of keeping congregations on course with their missional objectives. The following resources and sample evaluations can provide a beginning for your congregation to fine tune its ministries to be in line with its missional objectives. They can also assist congregations with established evaluation patterns to keep their processes moving and growing as contexts change and new missional opportunities present themselves.

Avery, William O., Revitalizing Congregations, Alban, 2002
Easum, Wiliam, Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Abingdon, 1997
*Barna George, Habits of Highly Effective Churches, Regal, 1999
Branson, Mark Lou, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations, Alban, 2004
Cahallan, Kathleen A., Projects That Matter: Successful Planning and Evaluation for Religious Organizations, Alban, 2003
Ferguson, Dave, The Big Idea, Zondervan, 2007
Foss, Michael, Power Surge, Fortress, 2000
Foss, Michael, A Servant’s Christian Leadership Manual For Tomorrow, Fortress, 2002
Goodwin, Steven, Catching the Next Wave: Leadership Strategies for Turn-Around Congregations, Augsburg, 1999
Herrington, Jim, Leading Congregational Change, Josey-Bass, 2000
*Kallestad, Walt, Turn Your Church Inside Out, Augsburg, 2001
Mann, Alice, Raising the Roof: The Pastoral-to-Program Size Transition, Alban, 2002
Mann, Alice, Can Our Church Live? Redeveloping Churches in Decline, Alban, 1999
Minatrea, Milfred, Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches, Josey-Bass, 2004
Nessan, Craig L., Beyond Maintenance to Mission: A Theology of the Congregation, Fortress, 1999
Oswald, Roy M., Discerning Your Congregation’s Future; A Strategic and Spiritual Approach, Alban, 1996
Poling-Goldene, David, Discovering Hope; Building Vitality in Rural Congregations, Augsburg, 2001
Schwartz, Christian A., Color Your World with Natural Church Development, ChurchSmart, 2005
Senge, Peter M., The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, Currency-Doubleday,1990
Sitze, Bob, Not Trying Too Hard: New Basics for Sustainable Congregations, Alban, 2001
*Werning, Waldo, 12 Pillars of a Healthy Church, ChurchSmart, m2001
Wood, Gene, Leading Turnaround Churches, ChurchSmart, 2001

Walt Kallestad is the pioneer of Entertainment Evangelism in ELCA. He earned a D.Min. at Fuller Seminary, just like WELS’ Larry Olson. Kallestad’s church is Community of Joy in Phoenix. I went there with Mrs. Ichabod. We were appalled.

Werning, like Valleskey and Bivens, has affirmed and denied his study at Fuller Seminary. I assume he went there but did not inhale. His books are derived, if not outright copied, from Fuller Seminary. He recently got an award from his pals at the beehive. WELS is still using his materials.

Barna’s book title is derived from Covey’s. How original. Barna is the official mascot of Fuller Seminary. He loves them. They quote him. The Lutheran synods (ELCA-WELS-LCMS) quote him as if he just came down from Mt. Sinai.

I added an asterisk to the people clearly identified with Fuller Seminary and the Church Growth Movement. Does anyone wonder why ELCA pastors are joining the Eastern Orthodox and the Church of Rome?

***

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post “Enough To Make Me Eastern Orthodox, If I Were ELCA…”:

Occasionally, readers here at Ichabod ask you to substantiate a claim that you make. Yes, WELS is still using Waldo Werning’s material. I can back that statement up as my WELS congregation recently used “Your Service and Giving – It’s All About God and You!” in our latest stewardship drive. The leaders used the guide “Ambassador Briefing”. Both can be found at http://www.healthychurch.com/bookdesc.htm#GROUP
This is Werning’s website to obtain the discipling materials.
Where’s Waldo? – In a WELS Ambassador Briefing.

***

GJ – Occasionally? Daily the same person ignores a mountain of evidence and says the same thing. Funny, he is always anonymous while the pleasant communications are always signed.

START OF VERBATIM QUOTATION FROM CHRISTIAN CONCERNS

Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic

by Leonard Sweet

Quotes from the book

Quantum Spirituality is available as a free download from Leonard Sweet’s web site, here: http://www.leonardsweet.com/Quantum/index.asp

Leonard Sweet is scheduled as the keynote speaker for the (sort of WELS) Church & Change 2005 conference to be held in November.

As the book is described at Leonardsweet.com:

Already called “a spirituality classic,” Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic is the book that launched what today is called “postmodern publishing” as well as Len’s ministry to postmodern culture. A book written in a circle, the reader is invited to begin anywhere, stop anytime, and end wherever. This was Len’s “coming out” book as a postmodern disciple after his 1987 knockdown, drag-out Damascus Road encounter with God, who (as he describes it) “knocked me off my high academic horse and said, ‘Sweet, are you going to get a mission for the world you wish you had or the world that’s actually out there.’

The author of this web page will have comments written in red. The black, in general, are quotes from the book, Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic. The page numbers are listed with Sweet’s page numbers first and the pdf file page numbers in parenthesis. Extra commentary from other web sites appears in purple. I will keep my own commentary to a minimum, as I believe the book speaks for itself, if you can wade through its rhetoric. I encourage you to download the book and read it for yourself. It is somewhat challenging, as the author sometimes intentionally hides what he’s really saying. And, in between the few clear statements are words, words, words.

He begins by saying that he wants to start a “New Light Movement” as a Christian alternative to the New Age movement. The book tries to use modern physics (quantum physics) to show that the mystics had it right all along.

NOTE: This page doesn’t read well in Netscape, for some reason. If that is your normal browser, try using Microsoft Explorer instead.

New Light Movement

P 1 (1) The Christian mind is failing to comprehend the times, our times. The New Light apologetic chronicled in this book is devoted to enfranchising and energizing Christians to connect their faith with the indigenous historical place in which God has chosen them to live. It aims to jolt Christians into a sense of their own time, out of their fashionable out-of-itness. For the God who exists beyond time is the God who lives, moves, and has being in this time.

P 7 (5) The nascence of this hermeneutical consciousness, or what Max L. Stackhouse would call a “metaphysical-moral vision,”24 I am calling the New Light apologetic. It is already present in bits and pieces, here and there in this discipline and that discipline, in this denomination and that denomination, in this thinker and that thinker. The NewLight apologetic represents a Christian alternative to the largely Old Light “New Age”movement.

P 7 (5) The emergence of this New Light apologetic is a harbinger and hope that anew, age-old world is aborning in the church, even that the church may now be on the edge of another awakening. Amidst all the cliffhanging circumstances and conditions of the church, the Spirit is at work. All around there is evidence that the church is learning to dance to a new rhythm, to adapt the metaphor of Harvard Business School professor/economist Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The New Light movement is characterized by bizarre, sometimes anxious alliances of a ragbag assortment of preachers, theologians, pastors, professors, artists, scientists, business leaders, and scholars. What ties their creative piracy together is a radical faith commit ment that is willing to dance to a new rhythm.

P 117 (84) The danger of evaporating the individual self in the “wholeness” of the group is one of the key differences between the New Age movement and the New Light movement. Please take note of this sentence. The difference is not that one is true Christianity based on a crucified savior who died and rose again and that one is New Age. No, the difference is that the individual is not lost in the group!!!!! Understand what he’s saying here. He is saying, as he said on page 7 (5), that his brand of spirituality is “Christianized” New Age! Both reject individualism. But New Age posits in its place a cosmic Oneness. Fritjof Capra celebrates the time when “all individuality dissolves into universal and differentiated oneness.” Hence the New Age madness of “You are god.” Not so New Lights. The Christian tradition has invested heavily in the process of individual identity formation. It never sacrifices the individual for the community. Indeed, individuals often have access to deeper truths than the established authorities and larger communities. But this access is combined with, not opposed to, membership in the community. Community deepens and harmonizes the individuality of each member. Mathematician/philosopher Alfred North Whitehead pointed this out in his illustration of the cathedral of Chartres, whose sculptured figures on the cathedral porch retain their individuality while adding beauty to the whole.

p. 123 (88) Communities have souls, not just individuals. The modern era downplayed a biblical doctrine of salvation that had this communal dimension. In contrast, the New Light movement is concerned about the salvation of ensouled communities as well as individual souls, and the salvation of community souls relating synergistically to one another.

P 124 (89) Second, New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with all of creation. New Light communities extend the sense of connectionalism to creation and see themselves as members of an ecological community encompassing the whole of creation. “This is my body” is not an anthropocentric metaphor. Theologian/feminist critic Sallie McFague has argued persuasively for seeing Earth, in a very real sense, as much as a part of the body of Christ as humans. This book takes much of its “theology” from quantum physics, which theorizes that at the subatomic level, particles somehow are everywhere all at once. They are so small that they lose their locality. They seem to somehow be in “communication” with every other particle in the universe. Because these particles make up everything, and seem to be completely connected to each other in some way, they’ve earned the nickname “god particles.” Sweet feels that modern science validates the idea that God is IN everything. God is IN the rock. God is IN the tree – a very weak distinction from typical pantheism, which says God IS the rock. God IS the tree.

Cosmic Christ

P 124 (89) Second, New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with all of creation. New Light communities extend the sense of connectionalism to creation and see themselves as members of an ecological community encompassing the whole of creation. “This is my body” is not an anthropocentric metaphor. Theologian/feminist critic Sallie McFague has argued persuasively for seeing Earth, in a very real sense, as much as a part of the body of Christ as humans.65 We are all earthlings. Indeed, in the biblical view of creation human earthlings do not stand at the apex of God’s handiwork. Above us are the angels. The medieval great chain of being preserved this emphasis by placing humans at the midpoint, not at the peak. The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ.66

(p 195) The footnote: 66. Sec Matthew Fox, The Cosmic Christ: The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988).

Here, he gives credit for this idea to Matthew Fox’s book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. Here is a review of that book at Amazon.com:

Uniting mysticism and spiritual development with ethical and exemplary witness, the “creation spirituality” articulated by Matthew Fox presents an inspiring vision of an alternative Christianity for the postmodern world. Freeing himself from the chains of stale Christian dogma while protesting the cold emptiness of agnostic modernism, Fox fashions a theology and spirituality that combines mysticism with a “first world” liberation theology. Fox is a panentheist, experiencing the Divine in all of nature and humanity. The Cosmic Christ is that incarnation of God in the universe and especially in Mother Earth. He develops a relevant, postmodern interpretation of the Paschal Mystery, imaging Mother Earth as Christ crucified, resurrected, and come again. Fox’s union of mysticism, science, and art, and the four spiritual paths he outlined in “Original Blessing” open up individual and communal possibilities for a spirituality that is inwardly personal and contemplative, yet outwardly driven by justice and compassion. If you want to reconnect to a progressive Christianity, this book ties together ethics, myth, and theology like no other.

More on Fox’s beliefs, here: http://www.faithnet.org.uk/Theology/cosmicchrist.htm

Fox believes we need to embrace a new cosmology; one that is built on the foundations of modern science but one which also includes a mystical awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. This new ‘cosmology’ will be expressed largely through art (creativity). (This is also what Leonard Sweet suggests)

Fox believes we are out of touch with the planet (we have forgotten our ‘original blessing’ of ‘healthy soil, living forests, singing birds, clean waters and healthy DNA in our reproductive systems’ (Fox p.17)), and ourselves. The symptoms of this can be seen in the following ways:

MOTHER EARTH IS DYING (As discussed above)
THE MYSTICAL BRAIN IS DYING (We currently value ‘left-brain’ activity (analytic and verbal reasoning) more than ‘right-brain’ activites (synthetic, sensual and mystical tasks). Both left and right brain activities need to embraced (and valued), in all aspects of society.)
CREATIVITY IS DYING (Human imagination and creativity need to be reawakened. Imagination is an important part of finding solutions to our current problems (‘The left-brain cannot go it alone!’ (Fox p.21).)
WISDOM IS DYING (We need to listen to all the earth’s wisdom. We must move away from a ‘parts-mentality’ (E.g. We only study sociology or psychology or science or art or maths or religion). Ignoring the ‘mystical brain’ means, ‘No attempt at integration, or the understanding of the whole that is wisdom, is made (Fox p.22).)
THE YOUTH ARE DYING (Young people have often been ignored when decisions have been needed to be made in society but they have an important part to play in the world. The child in society and in ourselves needs to be acknowledged and embraced as an important part of the whole. Adultism is currently killing the planet; the young are bored, disillusioned and despair at their future.)
NATIVE PEOPLES, THEIR RELIGIONS AND CULTURES ARE DYING (Colonial exploitation and Christian missionary activity have gradually destroyed the cultures of those who celebrated the earth and lived in harmony with it (‘They have been robbed of their own cosmology by a white society and religion that felt it had outgrown cosmology’ (Fox p.26). Much wisdom has been lost in the process.)
MOTHER CHURCH IS DYING (Christian fundamentalism (patriarchy) has killed the ‘mother’ in us all by devaluing the body (the earth) and the mystical traditions within the Church (‘It is dying on top of its own treasure of mystics and prophets, of good news and wisdom stories’ (Fox p.28)). Much of what constitutes religion has become authoritarian (a slave to creeds) and unwilling to allow the mystic within us all to take it beyond fundamentalism and matricide.)
MOTHER LOVE (COMPASSION) IS DYING (We need to be compassionate as God is compassionate.The Church needs to be ‘born again’ into the spirit of the Cosmic Christ (‘… an awakening of passion with God and in all God’s creation and children, especially the suffering ones… a shared interdependence , an intuition of and sense of awe for the wondrous fact that we all live and swim in one primordial womb’ (Fox p.32). Mystical experience (notably silence/reflection) is vital for achieving this.)
OUR MOTHER EARTH IS DYING BUT NOT DEAD (Things are bad but our ‘mother’ is not dead – yet. Whether things get better depends on our ability to change)
The solution to these problems is ‘mysticism’ (the ability to reflect on the wider aspects of life (and not simply a withdrawal into solitude!)). Fox calls mysticism a ‘resurrection story for our time’. Just as Jesus died and rose again so we can begin a ‘new life’ with each other and the world (and through this give ‘life’ to a dying world). Just as the earth is our ‘mother’ (she gave ‘birth’ to us), so we are the womb of God, the place where the Cosmic Christ can be ‘born’ in the world. Fox believes mysticism has been largely ignored in the Christian Church because the emphasis has generally been on ‘left brain’ activity (dogma/creeds), rather than the more experiential facets of understanding, and relating to God, the world and each other. As such, the Christian faith has lost much of its life and vitality. Fox also believes Christians have forgotten (or ignored) the mystical aspects of Jesus’ message in that he taught God’s Kingdom on earth now and developed in people compassion, awe, affirmation of the world as a whole, employed his right brain, was self-critical, developed heart knowledge, was a feminist, was a panentheist (God in all; all in God), used birthing images, used silence, experienced darkness/nothingness and was a ‘child at play’.

These are Matthew Fox’s beliefs. Please note how very, VERY, New Age this is. This is what Sweet is endorsing!!

Creation Spirituality

P 124 (89) In an ecological model of the church, the earth is not separate from us; indeed, we are in symbiotic relationship with the earth. Creation spirituality is of tremendous help here in weaning us from this homocentric warp.67

(p195) The footnote shown above: 67. Books on creation spirituality include Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality Presented in Four Parts, Twenty-six Themes, and Two Questions (Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Company, 1983); Fox, Creation Spiuiutality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990); Ron Miller and Jim Kenney, Fireball and the Lotus: Emerging Spirituality from Ancient Roots, Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear and Company, 1987). See also other volumes in the Creation Spirituality Series published by Bear and Company issues of Creation. A Magazine of Earthly Spirituality for an Evolving Planet published by Friends of Creation Spirituality and other resources available from Friends of Creation Spirituality, P.O. Box 19216, Oakland, CA 94619.

This is Matthew Fox, again – with the idea of the coming Cosmic Christ. He advocates the idea of panentheism, which Sweet picks up on and endorses (see below). Do you understand the implications of his endorsement of Creation Spirituality?

P 124 (89) So woven together are the destinies of heaven and earth that it is impossible for us to sin against one part of the body without doing damage to the whole body. No one suffers alone, as Pythagoras perceived when he said that if there is but one suffering soul in the universe, all other souls will be affected with suffering until that one suffering soul is restored to health. An ecological model of community is something on which even sociobiologists can agree with Christians. Edward 0. Wilson argues that we humans require life around us, that we cannot do without the living world any more than we can do without food or sleep, because our ancestors who survived were the ones who harmonized with what was around them. With nothing around us, we die.

Quantum spirituality bonds us to all creation as well as to other members of the human family. New Light pastors are what Arthur Peacocke calls “priests of creation”–earth ministers who can relate the realm of nature to God, who can help nurture a brother-sister relationship with the living organism called Planet Earth. This entails a radical doctrine of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation. (This is completely New Age!!!)

See the following sources for more understanding of Creation Spirituality:

Matthew Fox’s CreationSpirituality.com

What is Creation Spirituality? from here: http://theoblogical.org/dlature/itseminary/creaspir/whatis1.html

Ten Principles of Creation Spirituality from here: http://www.tumc.org/csprinciples.html

1. The universe is a blessing, that is, something God created and we experience as “very good.” (not cursed – no sin of Adam)

2. Humans need to relate to the universe as a whole as we are a microcosm of that macrocosm.

3. Everyone is a mystic, born full of wonder and capable of recovering it at any age and of not taking the awe and wonder of existence for granted.

4. Everyone is a prophet, a ‘mystic in action’ who is called to interfere with what interrupts authentic life. We are called to the margins of the status quo to interrupt systems that marginalize other humans, creatures and our Father, the Earth.

5. Everyone is an artist. Art as meditation is a primary form of prayer for releasing our images and empowering the community and each of us. Art finds its fulfillment in ritual, the community’s art.

6. Everyone and everything expresses divinity. All humans are all children of God; therefore, we have Divine blood in our veins and the Divine breath in our lungs; and the basic work of God is Compassion.

7. Divinity is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much Godhead [mystery] as God [history], as much beyond all beings as in all beings.

8. We experience the Divine in all things and all things are in the Divine. This mystical experience supplants the experience of the Divine as separate and unattainable.

9. Humans have to dig and work at finding the deep self, the true self, the spirit self. This is the spiritual journey. It is not so much about “adding on” as it is “letting go.” If we do not undergo the spiritual journey, we live superficially out of fear or greed or addiction or someone else’s expectations of us.

10. The spiritual journey is an ever-expanding spiral encompassing four paths.

Via Positiva: Befriending Creation – wonder, delight, revelry Via Negativa: Befriending Darkness – emptiness, sinking, suffering Via Creativa: Befriending Our Sacredness – creating, awakening, birthing Via Transformativa: Befriending New Creation – coming home, doing, justice

Endorsement of Creation Spirituality is present in the United Methodist Church (Leonard Sweet is a leader in the United Methodist Church), as in Trinity United Methodist Church’s Statement Regarding Creation Spirituality here: http://www.tumc.org/creation.html

Trinity’s clergy support Creation Spirituality, a movement that draws on ancient spiritual traditions and contemporary science to awaken authentic mysticism, revitalize Christianity and Western culture, and promote social and ecological justice. Creation Spirituality teaches that God permeates all things and that humanity is created blessed, not tainted by original sin.

Panentheism (As in Creation Spirituality, above)

P 124 (89) The OxfordDictionary of the Christian Church (1974) identifies the difference between pantheism and panentheism: Pantheism is “the belief or theory that God and the universe are identical”; panentheism is “the belief that the Being of God includes and penetrates the whole universe, so that every part of it exists in Him, but. . . that His Being is more than, and is not exhausted by, the Universe.” New Light spirituality does more than settle for the created order, as many forms of New Age pantheism do. But a spirituality that is not in some way entheistic (whether pan- or trans-), that does not extend to the spirit-matter of thecosmos, is not Christian. A quantum spirituality can in no way define God out of existence. (He denies pantheism – everything is God – in favor of a slightly different idea that we are all IN God. This term – panantheism – is what Matthew Fox uses. You saw above the endorsement of Fox’s ideas. I strongly encourage you to download Sweet’s book and read this for yourself)

Panentheism is further explained here: http://www.websyte.com/alan/pan.htm

This universal arrangement is not pantheism (all is God), but panentheism, a term devised by Karl C. F. Krause (1781-1832) to describe his thought. It is best known for its use by Charles Hartshorne and recently by Matthew Fox. Panentheism says that all is in God, somewhat as if God were the ocean and we were fish. If one considers what is in God’s body to be part of God, then we can say that God is all there is and then some. The universe is God’s body, (remember above, where he was arguing that the earth is Christ’s body) but God’s awareness or personality is greater than the sum of all the parts of the universe. All the parts have some degree of freedom in co-creating with God. At the start of its momentary career as a subject, an experience is God–as the divine initial aim. As the experience carries on its choosing process, it is a freely aiming reality that is not strictly God, since it departs from God’s purpose to some degree. Yet everything is within God.

Panentheism gives all that one could want: an all-encompassing, growing, perfect God, everywhere present and containing everywhere within himself; and the reality of oneself and others, freely deciding within God, responding to God’s overtures in the process of co-creation. Theism denies that the world (including us) shares in God’s being. Panentheism recognizes that everything shares God’s being (or becoming) but that God’s being operates from innumerable relatively freely-choosing centers or perspectives of existence. God and the world, which is God’s body, are interdependent.

Or from this Christianity Today article: What you need to know about New Age beliefs:

New Age spirituality says: God is either in all things or he is all things.
Christianity says: “For by him all things were created … all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16-17). We worship the Creator, not what he’s created (Rom. 1:25).
Be wary of: Panentheism, which says “God is in the tree,” or pantheism, which says “God is the tree,” as opposed to theism (Christianity), which says “God created the tree and holds it together by his power.”

New Age spirituality says: We’re on a continual journey to “know all” by achieving cosmic consciousness (also referred to as Nirvana, “going clear,” Christ-consciousness, individual divinity, or fulfilling the dharma).

Christ Consciousness

Please note that “Christ Consciousness” is a New Age term and has been used for many years. If Sweet meant something orthodox by this, he should have explained himself fully. Instead, he endorses the men who have blatantly used this term to refer to a Gnostic “Christ.”

P. 48 (38)New Lights offer up themselves as the cosmions of a mind-of-Christ consciousness. As a cosmion incarnating the cells of a new body, New Lights will function as transitional vessels through which transforming energy can renew the divine image in the world, moving postmoderns from one state of embodiment to another.86

(p179) Footnote: 86. I am grateful to David Spangler for his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership.

David Spangler is a prominant New Ager. Here is one of his quotes from here:

David Spangler, for instance, has stated: Christ is the same force as Lucifer… Lucifer prepares man for the experience of Christhood. (He is) the great initiator…. Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into a New Age … each of us in some way is brought to that point which I term the Luciferic Initiation … for it is an invitation into the New Age. (David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ p.44-45)

And, David Spangler according to Britannica Online

New Age movement : Birth of the movement

In 1970 American theosophist David Spangler moved to the Findhorn Foundation, where he developed the fundamental idea of the New Age movement. He believed that the release of new waves of spiritual energy, signaled by certain astrological changes (e.g., the movement of the Earth into a new cycle known as the Age of Aquarius), had initiated the coming of the New Age.

Sweet also quotes & endorses Spangler here:

P 232 (143) Only when the paranormal and spiritual combine in ways that foster ethical and philosophical development “of the highest order,” as metaphysician/author David Spangler puts it, will the differences be illuminated between “psychism and mysticism, information and insight, knowledge and wisdom, and sell-development and service.”42

(p 212) Footnote: 42. Private correspondence between the author and David Spangler.

P 63 (47) Metanoia can mean, literally, “after thought.” What metanoia does is turn our minds after the mind of God, transform our consciousness so that it is connected to the divine consciousness, tune us into a logos logic. In other words, metanoia enables a metanoized self to think God’s afterthoughts. Metanoia bestows on the believer a Logos-Christ consciousness, a logos logic that is based not on dialectic and struggle, but on harmony and wholeness.

P 70 (53) Faith is the synergy of the most powerful united fields in the universe–reason and emotion, mind and body, cognition and action, theory and practice, object and subject, spirit and matter, spiritual and physical senses –working together to form Christ consciousness experiences. Faith makes a metanoized mulch of all dichotomized selves and heals all discursive dualisms (one of the worst of which was “sacred” and “profane”), all disastrous separations that threaten our existence.

P. 71 (53) Quantum spirituality is more than a structure of the intellect; it is more than a structure of emotion; it is more than a structure of human being. It is most importantly a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience.

P 74 (55) A stranger approached a little boy flying a kite so high it was out of sight. “What are you doing?” the stranger asked. “I’m flying a kite,” the boy replied. “How do you know there is a kite?” “I can feel the pull of it” was the reply. How do we know there is a living Christ in a postmodern world? We can sense the pull of the Christ consciousness. We can experience the depths, the energy, the ecstasy of life. We can see his face in the faces of those we touch, as Jacob was the first to notice: “To see your face is like seeing the face of God” (Gen. 33:10 RSV). Postmoderns feel in order to think. Partly for this reason postmodern theological understandings need to be built on aesthetic categories, the most basic of which is beauty. Thirteenth-century scholastic philosopher/theologian/saint Thomas Aquinas defined beauty as a triangle of three interlocking, interacting components: radiance, harmony, and wholeness.

P 77 ( 58) New Light believers are a people possessed, bursting with energy that comes from a sensual experience of God’s presence–and absence. New Light believers are a possessed people: Possessed by a higher power, possessed by a Christ consciousness that is a heartfelt knowledge of God’s love and forgiveness; possessed by a “sober intoxication” (in the early words of Jewish philosopher/community leader Philo of Alexandria), even a “divine intoxication” (in the words of New England poet Emily Dickinson).

P 123 (88) The church is fundamentally one being, one person, a communion whose cells are connected to one another within the information network called the Christ consciousness. No congregation or denomination can go it alone in being the body of Christ. No congregation or denomination is accountable only to itself. To be “in connection” and “in-formation” is to be related to other Christians and the shared culture of all Christians and to grow a set of organic relationships and coalitions around a common love for God and a common desire to do what Jesus did and go where Jesus went.

P 148 (105) The power of small groups is in their ability to develop the discipline to get people “in-phase” with the Christ consciousness and connected with one another.

P 278 (237) The New Age movement tells postmodern culture that all people have within them what it takes to get them through life- their mind power, their higher consciousness, their “getting in touch with themselves” is going to do it for them. “Wrong!”, to quote country-western singer/guitarist/composer Waylon Jennings. It is Christ’s power, the Christ consciousness, our getting in touch with who Christ is, that is going to do it for us.

What, exactly, does Sweet mean by Christ Consciousness? Could he mean something completely orthodox? Given the number of times he quotes and endorses Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (see below), it seems very unlikely – especially given his endorsement of Fox’s Cosmic Christ, which is along the same lines. Matthew Fox also argued for the Christ Consciousness. You can find a number of interesting articles here.

What is Christ Consciousness?: “THE HERMETIC MYSTERY OF CHRIST”

In the context of hermetic and metaphysical philosophy, what do we mean by the words Cosmic Christ? In addition to this and mystically, what does the essence of Christ represent? We have to understand that the essence and nature of the Cosmic Christ is universal and beyond the scope of any kind of investigation because in itself it is not and never will be a personality, something that can be objectively proven due to the fact that it has never been an individualized Energy. How could it be? The Essence of the Cosmic Christ is simply the REGENERATIVE and RECONCILING aspect of the force of pure Being and the Soul Essence within each one of us. Hence in itself, it represents the unfolding energy of wholeness in human nature. In other words, Christ Energy is a divine Energy that brings and blends together the essence of Soul and Spirit within each one of us (to use a symbolic image, we could say that Christ Energy brings together and “marries” the Permanent and Spiritual Witnesses within each individual.

Edgar Cayce On The Christ Consciousness

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (known as the father of the modern New Age movement)

P 25 (20)Every age proclaims itself in one way or another at the “turning point in history,” a turnpike of accelerated change on which everyone is undergoing a “crisis in meaning” or a “crisis in consciousness.” We can all get a little too pleased with our knowledge, with our place in history, with our living, as Eve is supposed to have said to Adam as they left Eden, “in a time of great transition.” Paleontologist/geologist/philosopher/Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, however, argues that there are times when humanity is actually perched on some chronological fulcrum: “But there are moments when this impression of transformation becomes accentuated and is thus particularly justified.”

P 60 (46) Great souls have depth, and begin in depth. As early as 500 B.C., the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, the first to use Logos as a term for the underlying coherence of the cosmos, brought together spirit and the depth dimension in his concept of “the deep”: “You could not discover the limits of the soul [psychel] even if you traveled every road so deep is its measure [logos].” Quantum spirituality does more than join together as one two words in all their complexity and nuance: energymatter, mindbody, spiritmatter (as Teilhard de Chardin called it). It also argues that the deep matters of faith begin in the realization of what Albert Einstein called “the law of the equivalence of mass and energy.”

P 106 (76) God makes things make themselves. Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice/philosopher/geologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

P 113 (81) Christian identity is multidimensional. Embodiment works both ways, including both individuation and aggregation, personity (as it were) built out of community, a yoking and splitting that Teilhard de Chardin called not only compatible but inseparable. In the words of biblical scholar Robin Scroggs, “The individual is not complete apart from the community; the community suffers loss if an individual leaves or does not participate.”41 (Robin Scroggs is a very liberal theologian, as are nearly all the theologians that Sweet quotes)

p 226 (139) One is ready for threshold experiences when there appear on one’s list things that are truly breathtakingly wonder-full, such the wonder of who you are (Augustine said, “Man himself is a greater wonder than any wonder done through his instrumentality”), human consciousness (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin accorded the awe-inspiring phenomenon of consciousness the deepest religious significance), a tree (World War I casualty/poet Joyce Kilmer’s first pick), the big voice of a little cricket, West Virginia, unselfishness, and God’s continuing love.

P 259 (162) Something can be all new, yet nothing of the old be lost. The Christian tradition of old-new thoughts mandates a strict diet of “re-” words, preferring instead the prefix “in-” á la “inscendence” (Thomas Berry’s version of “transcendence”) and “involution” (a substitute for revolution first encountered in Teilhard de Chardin’s diary dated 12 November 1919). The Third Testament is thus no simple extrapolation of the First and Second Testaments into the future, but a divine inbreaking into the historical moment through which Alpha beginnings and Omega endings (see below) converge. The Third Testament is everything new about the old, old story. Or in Teilhard’s more mystical phrasings, a “descendent divine involution” combining with the “ascendent cosmic evolution.” Please note that Sweet is endorsing Teilhard de Chardin’s cosmic evolution theory!! See below.

“Quantum Spirituality” by Leonard Sweet is basically a re-working of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s philosophy. It’s more obscure than Teilhard, but if you dig into the way that Sweet uses the language, it’s basically the same thing. He is combining modern Science with Christian terminology to explain his idea of God being in everything. As he said, his “New Light apologetic” was a Christian alternative to the New Age Movement. Also, as you see above, he seems to be endorsing the idea of a coming evolutionary “Omega Point.”

Teilhard de Chardin’s Evolutionary Philosophy from here: http://www.kheper.net/topics/Teilhard/Teilhard-evolution.htm

According to Teilhard, Consciousness and Matter are aspects of the same reality, and are called the “Within” and the “Without” respectively. Evolution is the steady increase in the “Within” or degree of consciousness and complexity, through a number of successive stages: the various grades of inanimate matter; life or the “Biosphere”; man or thought or mind, the “Noosphere” (Teilhard’s cosmology reflects the Christian anthropocentric bias in having man as the first species capable of self-reflective thought); and finally the uniting of all humans in a single Divine Christ-consciousness.

Teilhard thus follows the evolutionist understanding of an evolutionary progression from inanimate matter through primitive life and invertebrates to fish, amphibia, reptiles, mammals, and finally man; always an increase in consciousness. With man a threshhold is crossed – self-conscious thought, or mind, appears. But even humans do not represent the end-point of evolution, for this process will continue until all humans are united in a single Divine Christ-consciousness, the “Omega Point”

TEILHARD, DARWIN, AND THE COSMIC CHRIST from here: http://www.trosch.org/for/teilhard-keene99l.htm

Teilhard (1881-1955) taught that humanity is evolving into another form, and that “all that arises; converges”. Humanity, he said, is converging toward an Omega point, at which collective consciousness will find a new unity. According to Teilhard, Christ is the force behind a collective “Christ consciousness” of Man, which will culminate in the emergence of a “Cosmic Christ” – the true parousia.

Teilhard de Chardin and the Omega Point: An excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica from here:

http://www.seanparnell.com/Hyperion%20Cantos/Web%20Pages/Teilhard%20de%20Chardin%20and%20The%20Omega%20Point.htm

Teilhard’s attempts to combine Christian thought with modern science and traditional philosophy aroused widespread interest and controversy when his writings were published in the 1950s. Teilhard aimed at a metaphysic of evolution, holding that it was a process converging toward a final unity that he called the Omega point.

View of the Bible

p. 257 (161) The Word of God is not to be exclusively identified with the words of the Bible.

259 (162) The message of Jesus is so profound that the world is still deciphering it thousands of years later. God’s purposes are veiled and understood only “in the fullness of time.” Truth often unfolds as slowly as a symphony. A note struck early on might be picked up much later and developed fully even later than that. The music of truth may take centuries to play itself out. Not all of God’s communications are released overnight. Indeed, many of them may be in the process of being created as we go along.

Pagan/New Age Ideas

P141 (101) In the modern era worship was demystified and denatured. Postmoderns are driven by desire to explore and celebrate an ever-deepening intimacy with the Great Mystery that is the universe. Liturgies of the earth–fire, land, wind, and water–can restore the biological and physical rhythms of the planet to our computer-programmed consciousness. Outdoor earth rituals can also provide worshipers with experiences of connectedness to all earthlings: What the Sioux Indians call the creeping people, the standing people, the flying people, and the swimming people. All earthlings must be incorporated into the body of Christ in more ways than just through the “blessing of the animals.” We must find ritual ways to make earthlings’ presence felt, their participation solicited, their voices heard, if the ideal of ecological worship is to be realized.

P. 300 (254)

7. Stand in front of a picture of a family member who has died. Recall joyful memories of them and laugh. With the breath you took for that laugh, your loved one literally became a part of you. In every breath there are more than a million atoms breathed personally at one time or another by every breathing earthling that has ever lived.

8. Hold your Bible and breathe meditatively. (This is nothing less than Transcendental Meditation – the type of meditation designed to get you to an “altered state” where you become aware of the one-ness of everything) The breathtaking, nay, breathgiving truth of aliveness is more than Methuselean in its span: Part of your body right now was once actually, literally part of the body of Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Esther, David, Abigail, Moses, Ruth, Matthew, Mary, Li ke, Martha, John, Priscilla, Paul… and Jesus.

9. Keep breathing quietly while holding your Bible. You have within you not just the powers of goodness resident in the great spiritual leaders like Moses, Jesus, Muhammed, Lao Tzu. You also have within you the forces of evil and destruction. The youthful comrade and confidant of Joan of Arc was Gilles de Rais, a marshall of France and one of the wealthiest men in Europe, who was condemned to the stake in 1440 for the crimes of witchcraft, heresy, sodomy, and the sexual abuse and murder of over 140 children. Resident in each breath you take is the body of angels like Joan of Arc and devils like Gilles de Rais, Genghis Khan, Judas Iscariot, Herod, Hitler, Stalin and all the other destructive spirits throughout history.

10. Gather a group together for a Navajo breathing ceremony. Stand in a circle, everyone facing the center of the circle. If there are any present in special need of prayer, ask them to “center” the circle. Place your hands in the center of the backs of those standing on either side of you and observe silence. Get in touch with one anothers’ breathing patterns. Now breathe together as a circle, bending the knees slightly as you inhale, straightening up as you exhale. Keep doing this until the circle becomes one breath.

P 125 (90) Third, New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with ancestors and ancestral memories. One of the most significant things that can be said about New Lights is that they know their ancestors–not in the name of individual fulfillment, as in so much New Age raijing and raping of others’ religious traditions (while at the same time reaping little benefit from its own) but for the sake of communal identity and integrity. In the same way earth is now receiving light from that Big-Bang moment when the stars first clapped together, so the church must allow in light from its first ancestors, who have now become as numerous as the stars. In the doctrine that Jesus “descended to the dead,” the early Christians extended the gospel’s boundless compassion even to those who had already died. The greatest Eastern Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century, Georges Florovsky calls this the church’s “ecumenicity in time,” which needs to exist alongside its “ecumenicity in space.” Unfortunately, relations with the dead are no longer normative features of the church’s existence. In earlier days we were able to make concrete connections in time though doctrines like purgatory, or the solemn reminder of the churchyard cemetery, or, in rarer cases, the coffins of prominent parishioners and lionized preachers buried under the sanctuary floor. The closest moderns came to extending connectionalism in time was on ETC Sundays (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas) or memorial dedications, when bulletins listed who gave Easter lilies, Thanksgiving baskets, Christmas poinsettias, or memorial contributions–all of which inserted into sacred space an economic criteria for remembrance.

View of Other Religions

P 114 (82) All religions have something to do with the whole, the totality. Parts have no existence apart from wholes. In the modern era religions largely succumbed to the Enlightenment’s fragmented, fetishistic love for the part. This is the essence of sin: Mistaking the part for the whole, or separating the part from the whole. Sin is falling into the trap of synecdoche–taking a part for the whole (pars pro toto) or the whole for the part (totum pro parte), the sin of individualism and the sin of collectivism.

P 130 (93) Modern nuclear families “stew in their own juice,” as process theologian/Anglican priest Norman Pittenger puts it; so too do modern nuclear congregations. We must enlarge the family circle if our churches are to become nuclear-free zones. Just as physicists cannot understand truth by one model alone–that is, either the wave nature of light or the particle nature of light–so one model may not suffice to understand God completely. In fact, Bohr’s Complimentarily Principle, which he used the yin/yang imbalances to symbolize, says that both features can’t be brought into existence at the same time even though both are true. One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna. (!!!!!)

P 130 (93) Fourth, New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with other faiths. To be in-formation means to know each other’s songs almost as well as one knows them oneself, and to enlarge the community to include those whose conceptions of God differ from ours in form. To be in connection means to be able to sing, not only selected stanzas, but all the verses.

P 131 (93) A globalization of evangelism “in connection” with others, and a globally “in-formed” gospel, (What, exactly, is a globally in-formed gospel?) is capable of talking across the fence with Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim–people from other so called “new” religious traditions (“new” only to us)–without assumption of superiority and power. One Caribbean theologian has called this the “decolonization of theology.”~ It will take a decolonized theology for Christians to appreciate the genuineness of others’ faiths, and to see and celebrate what is good, beautiful, and true in their beliefs without any illusions that down deep we all are believers in the same thing.

P 131 (94) The interfaith embodiment of a quantum spirituality is based not on the Enlightenment search for what the world religions hold in common but on the multitudinousness and uniqueness of each particular vision of truth.

P 236 (146)A surprisingly central feature of all the world’s religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed’s light-filled cave, Moses’ burning bush, Paul’s blinding light, Fox’s “inner light,” Krishna’s Lord of Light, Böhme’s light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus’ fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini’s fire erupting from their fontanelles, and so on.53 Light is the common thread that ties together near-death experiences as they occur in various cultures.

Understanding of the True Gospel?

P 79 (59) It takes more than one “conversion experience” in life to keep up “passion-at-a-distance,” to maintain a faith that effervesces from the depths of being and endures to the end. Multiple conversions and deep-flow experiences can arise from the curious, the consequential and the otherwise uncommon moments of life. This has no more, or no less, to do with salvation than the heart has to do with pumping lifeblood into the organism. Mega- and micro-flow experiences are what keep the fire of ecstasy alive, the pot boiling, the heart hot, the rapture alive. Of course, the subtlest form of “works righteousness” is the notion that we are “saved” by our religious experience. God has not redeemed us by doing something in us. God has redeemed us by doing something for us in the person of Jesus Christ. Grace is not a subjective event but an objective reality. Nevertheless, that objective reality takes on multidimensional life and power, polymathic vitality and victory, only when it is mediated, registered, claimed, and connected.

p. 80 (61) God did not send us a statement. God sent us a story. God did not send us love. God sent us God’s only Son who loved. God did not send us a principle. God sent us a person who embodied those principles. Jesus did not say, “Follow the way.” Jesus said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). The gospel is not the excitement of an idea (though it may begin that way). The gospel is the flow experience of a living person. The kingdom of God is not a place or a principle (which is what many physicists mean by “God”). The “kindom” of God is a person (Jesus Christ), and the “kindom” of God is a people (the Christbody community). We must have more than a principle within, regardless of what John Wesley’s brother Charles’s 1749 hymn says (“I Want a Principle Within”). We must have a person within. We must have a divine consciousness within. (We could agree with this if he meant the Holy Spirit – but given his other ideas, I’m not sure that’s what he means)

P 114 (82) All religions have something to do with the whole, the totality. Parts have no existence apart from wholes. In the modern era religions largely succumbed to the Enlightenment’s fragmented, fetishistic love for the part. This is the essence of sin: Mistaking the part for the whole, or separating the part from the whole. Sin is falling into the trap of synecdoche–taking a part for the whole (pars pro toto) or the whole for the part (totum pro parte), the sin of individualism and the sin of collectivism.

P 117 (84) The discovery of truth moved in the modern era toward the privacy of individual illumination and away from community, tradition, and authority. America’s romance with “individual salvation,” which maximized self-interest and dismembered spirituality, began with the Puritan heresy making the individual self, not the communal individual or the social self, the sole interpreter of God’s word. Through his epistemology and ethics Immanuel Kant did more than almost any modern figure to enthrone the autonomous individual at the center of the universe.

P 123 (88) Communities have souls, not just individuals. The modern era downplayed a biblical doctrine of salvation that had this communal dimension. In contrast, the New Light movement is concerned about the salvation of ensouled communities as well as individual souls, and the salvation of community souls relating synergistically to one another.

These notes are not an attempt to be exhaustive, but just to give you the flavor of the book. Besides what I’ve mentioned, the book also goes into odd environmentalism, where Sweet attempts to prove that the First Commandment is not “You shall have no other gods before me” but “Care for the earth.” He tries to show that Jesus is the four elements, Earth, Wind, Fire and Water, well known in paganism. There are several quotes from Thomas Merton, the Catholic mystic who became a Zen Buddhist and believed that any spiritual experience was a good one. There are also extensive footnotes, many of which read like a Who’s Who of liberal theology and New Age spiritualism.

I believe it is obvious that Leonard Sweet has endorsed a New Age spirituality in this book. It seems that is what he means when he says the church is learning to “dance to a new rhythm.” I find no indication of any understanding of true salvation in this book. While Christian terminology is used, on close examination, it doesn’t seem to mean the same thing as we would mean.

I don’t believe that I have pulled any quote out of context (like leaving out where he refutes what was quoted), but I encourage you to read the book for yourself and make your own judgment.. As I mentioned, the author uses many, many words, and much of the book is confusing. It is not my intent to slander him. Instead, I just hoped to weed through the extraneous and let him show us his beliefs in those places where he is more clear.

While there is certainly “postmodern” thinking in the world, I believe it is evidence that we are nearing the very end of the age. In my opinion, perhaps the best way to reach postmoderns is with warning of approaching judgment, not by attempting to reach them through “EPIC” worship (What Sweet advocates in his other books. Explained here). Sweet and other postmodern writers say that your spiritual journey is more important than the destination, and of course, that’s certainly true for anyone immersed in mysticism, but the Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and judgment:

John 16:7-8 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

If the Holy Spirit is active in someone’s life, he should become concerned with the consequences of his sin. Perhaps the message for these days is simply this: Jesus is coming soon! Are you ready?

END VERBATIM QUOTATION FROM WEBSITE

***

GJ – Sweet was going to be the featured speaker for Church and Change in 2005. Here is what WELS AnswerMan said about that:

The Church and Change conference is put on by leaders of a number of WELS congregations, but it is not sponsored by WELS. Church and Change people have, however, reported to our Conference of Presidents in regard to their activities and WELS does send one of its administrators to attend the conference. The Conference of Presidents has in the past urged discretion on the part of all WELS affiliated organizations who use speakers from outside our doctrinal fellowship. We do not have a web link to connect you to information on the speaker.

GJ – Note that WELS never does anything wrong. The leaders should just “show discretion.” The conference was canceled and conservatives rejoiced. Church and Change was finished. Or was it? A WELS pastor and a WELS layman told me that Church and Change no longer existed. And yet, I found the link on the WELS.net website, which was used to register people for the latest conference. Someone has read Sherlock Holmes, “Church and Change was hidden in plain sight. Elementary, my dear Watson.”

GJ – More information: In searching for WELS and Sweet, I found these comments on some kind of Internet chat. This seems to be the person who blew the whistle on on WELS, Prophecy Fellowship:

LLeeApril 21st, 2005, 12:53 PM
Thanks so much for the prayers!!!! Wow, I’m in awe of God’s timing. He had you praying right when I needed it! Yesterday I finally got brave and posted the link to my paper on the Yahoo group. (I didn’t use my name) Most of the leaders of my synod belong to this group. It started an instant firestorm. Some people were outraged, and others immediately started defending their right to invite whomever they want.

What a mess it all is. Thank you sooooo much for your prayers! (As I’ve been attempting to write this, I’ve been continuing to get e-mails. I’ve been responding privately – not to the entire group). Ack.

Edited because I can’t spell!

***

Church and Change compiled letters against the Sweet invitation and published them. As Mao said, “Let the flowers bloom, so their heads can be cut off.” Here is the link:

Charis

The same folks also copied the positive letters from Sweet-hearts and posted them. Note the difference. The supporters are anonymous while the critics are named. How fair and balanced is Dr. John Bauer, PhD. There is one critical letter in this link, and the pastor is named. See for yourself:

Church and Change, Part Deux.

***

Here is a WELS blog supporting Sweet, the Moose Report:

Doctrine of Fellowship Misapplied?
Church Door Symposium Cancelled!

Due to the brotherly concerns expressed by numerous clergy and Synod officials around the issue of church fellowship, the 3rd Annual Church Door Symposium has been cancelled. Although the Executive Director and the members of the CHARIS Board of Directors disagree with the judgments that hosting non-WELS speakers represents a violation of Scripture and WELS doctrine, concern for maintaining harmony in the church, coupled with concern for the continued success and vitality of CHARIS and Wisconsin Lutheran College, override any reasons for taking a stand on this issue at this time.

Here is the link I have quoted.

***

GJ – I see a familiar name associated with the Moose Report.

brucefoster has left a new comment on your post “STS Union Service Getting More Interesting”:

Do you have additional information on Archbishop Weakland? Calling him a pedophile seems a stretch. The only reported fornication was with a 27 year old man. Mortal sin yes, Pedophile no.

***

GJ – Here is one link about Weakland. The author is a conservative, pro-life Roman Catholic. I doubt he would invite Weakland to speak anywhere.

Here is a second, even more hostile response to Weakland. And I quote:

Along with Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, Archbishop Weakland has led the push for a far more distinctively “American Church”, as independent as possible from Rome. Associated with this ‘push’ have been Weakland’s highly controversial policies and views on abortion, homosexuality, AIDS education, sex education, clerical pedophilia and feminism. Presumably these developments would make the American Church more American. That it would also be less Catholic is equally clear. Whether it would be Catholic at all remains an open question. That is what makes Archbishop Weakland’s invitation to Australia – even to a liturgical convention – more puzzling. That the invitation will be construed as an act of support for him and of his less than solidarity with the Holy See can hardly be questioned.

From the same source:

Less than a month later, Milwaukee’s diocesan paper, the Catholic Herald reported the Archbishop’s views on clerical pedophilia (May 26, 1988): “Not all adolescent victims are so innocent. Some can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite streetwise. We frequently try such adolescents for crimes as adults at that age.” The prosecutor of the Fr Pecore case, Milwaukee’s Assistant District Attorney, criticised the Archbishop for perpetuating the “victim-must-share-the-blame syndrome.”

In spring 1989 Weakland called on all archdiocesan schools to teach students how to use condoms as part of an AIDS education program. Despite the U.S. Bishops’ statement that “teaching on chastity, not condoms” was the appropriate response to AIDS, the Archbishop retained the condom policy. He also approved a graphic sex education program “Valuing your Sexuality” which teaches 6th-9th grade students, for example, that “There is no right and no wrong” when it comes to contraception, abortion or sex before marriage. All of Milwaukee’s Catholic schools are required to provide AIDS and sex education on the above lines to retain diocesan accreditation.

In a published interview in the Milwaukee Sentinel (May 21, 1990) headlined “Weakland: Pro-choice could be OK”, the Archbishop replied to a question on whether a person could be a good Catholic and hold a pro-choice view about abortion: “Yes. There are possibilities there. One could reconcile their stance with a Church position. I think that is a possibility.”

Weakland is known for saying that children had sex with adults because the children wanted that activity. That could only come from a profoundly disturbed man – just the guy to speak at a public forum sponsored by Wisconsin Lutheran College (WELS). Of course, WELS went into damage control right away. They claimed it was not a public function, even though it was a public forum, a series of lectures which included other Roman Catholic priests. Also, WLC is not a WELS college when WELS wants to disavow anything (like Charis or Church and Change).

I once held the publicity brochure from WLC in my hand. It was not a “private luncheon for a few,” as they tried to claim. If it had been, the apostasy was the same, as everyone realizes.

Exactly how this developed is difficult to tell. One does not just bump into an Archbishop at the YMCA and invite him over for a carefully orchestrated public forum. Considerable effort went into this shameful debacle. It not only compromised the Lutheran position on the Antichrist, but also managed to include the worst of all Roman Catholic prelates (except perhaps the San Franscisco apostate).

The ELS was silent, as always. The ELS only disciplines those who disagree with WELS.

I have a question for those who act shocked and doubtful every time I post some well known information – Would you want Weakland speaking at your congregation? More importantly – Would you want those WELS leaders who invited him and lied about the event to speak at your church? Would you like the ELS leaders who stifled themselves to serve you Holy Communion while clearly and openly despising sound doctrine?

jeremy has left a new comment on your post “STS Union Service Getting More Interesting”:

Please substantiate your claim that there have been women leading worship at Trinity Chapel at Bethany Lutheran College. As a recent graduate of the college, I find this hard to believe, unless it’s practice has changed in the past few months.

***

GJ – I am glad to repeat what is public knowledge. Professor Kuster organized a chapel service at Bethany around 1996 where women were the lectors. There was a fuss about it, so Bethany said, “If the seminary objects, we won’t do it again.” Notice the patronizing tone. The WELS/ELS approach about their depredations is to say, “For those who are weak in faith, we will abstain for their sakes.” Very thoughtful.

The practice stopped after Kuster’s experiment. But that was just the first attempt. More will come in the future, perhaps more from WELS. See below.

WELS? According to my source, who works in the prison system, once as a guard over WELS DP Ed Werner–A WELS DP in state prison? Yes–James P. Tiefel organized a chapel service at Mequon with young women as lectors. The former prison guard was a student there and an eye-witness. But wait, there is more.

James P. Tiefel arranged the pan-denominational worship conference at Carthage College (ELCA) where women taught men. Same difference. Then there is the Church and Change hive meetings, where ministry teams (men and women) teach. The ELS has not been known to object to this, to Church and Change, or anything else of substance.

Now there are women giving communion. I do not know the whole story, which is just more of the same anyway. The WELS approach is that it is not wise, not that it is wrong. The ELS is a little antsy about it.

Watch what Team Kelm is doing in WELS and you will see the future of the Wisconsin Sect and the Little Sect on the Prairie.

The story below is “The Mail” from John Mooy, of Interlochen, Michigan, about his father mailman Nat Mooy (1905-1985).

World Net Daily ^ | 10/13/2006 | John MooY

Posted on 12/25/2007 6:34:12 PM PST by clilly54

The original server has been overwhelmed, so I’m using the Fark mirror to post. Watch out, the comments can get a little on the wild side, as most of the members are younger. Still worth posting.

‘It was your dad that answered all those letters that the kids wrote to Santa every year’

Background: Tim Russert’s Wisdom of Our Fathers has hundreds of stories men and women tell about their fathers, including the one below. It’s a remarkable book–to learn more, see my co-authored column America’s Father Hunger (World Net Daily, 10/13/06).

The story below is “The Mail” from John Mooy, of Interlochen, Michigan, about his father mailman Nat Mooy (1905-1985).

“As a young boy, I sometimes traveled the country roads with my dad. He was a rural mail carrier in southwestern Michigan, and on Saturdays he would often ask me to go on the route with him. I loved it. Driving through the countryside was always an adventure. There were animals to see, people to visit, and freshly-baked chocolate-chip cookies if you knew where to stop, and Dad did. We made more stops than usual when I was on the route because I always got carsick, but stopping for me never seemed to bother Dad.

“In the spring, Dad delivered boxes full of baby chicks. Their continuous peeping could drive you crazy, but Dad loved it. When the peeping became too loud to bear, you could quiet them down by trilling your tongue and making the sounds of a hawk. When I was a boy it was fun to stick your fingers through one of the holes in the side of the cardboard boxes and let the baby birds peck on your finger. Such bravery!

“On Dad’s final day of work on a beautiful summer day, it took him well into the evening to complete his rounds because at least one member of each family was waiting at their mailbox to thank him for his friendship and his years of service. ‘Two hundred and nineteen mailboxes on my route,’ he used to say, ‘and a story at every one.’ One lady had no mailbox, so Dad took the mail in to her every day because she was nearly blind. Once inside, he read her mail and helped her pay her bills. And every Thursday he read her the local newspaper.

“Mailboxes were sometimes used for things other than mail. One note left in a mailbox read, ‘Nat, take these eggs to Marian; She’s baking a cake and doesn’t have any eggs, and don’t stop to talk to Archie!’ Mailboxes might be buried in the snow, or broken, or lying on the ground, but the mail was always delivered. On cold days Dad might find one of his customers waiting for him by the mailbox with a cup of hot chocolate. A young girl wrote letters but had no stamps, so she left a few buttons on the envelope in the mailbox; Dad paid for the stamps. One busy merchant used to leave large amounts of cash in his mailbox in a paper bag for Dad to take to the bank. On one occasion, the amount came to $32,000. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true.

“A dozen years ago, when I traveled back to my hometown on the sad occasion of Dad’s death, the mailboxes along the way reminded me of some of his stories. I thought I knew them all, but that wasn’t quite the case.

“As I drove through Marcellus, I noticed to aluminum lamp poles, one on each side of the street, reflecting the light of the late-afternoon summer sun. When my dad was around, those poles supported wooden boxes that were roughly four feet off the ground. One box was painted green, and the other was red, and each had a slot at the top with white lettering: SANTA CLAUS, NORTH POLE. For years children had dropped letters to Santa through those slots.

“I made a left turn at the corner and drove past the post office and across the railroad tracks to our house. Mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table when I heard footsteps on our porch. There, at the door, stood Frank Townsend, who had been Dad’s postmaster and great friend for many years. So of course we all sat down at the table and began to tell stories.

“At one point Frank looked at me across the table with tears in his eyes. ‘What are we going to do about the letters this Christmas?’ he asked.

“The letters?”

“I guess you never knew.”

“Knew what?”

“‘Remember, when you were a kid and you used to put your letters to Santa in green and red boxes on Main Street? It was your dad that answered all those letters that the kids wrote every year.’

“I just sat there with tears in my eyes. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine Dad sitting at the old oak table in our basement reading those letters and answering each one. I have since spoken with several of the people who received Christmas letters during their childhood, and they told me how amazed they were that Santa had know so much about their homes and families.

“For me, just knowing that story about my father was the gift of a lifetime.”

MLC money-making project.

MLC board OKs senior housing for New Ulm – NUJournal.com | News, Sports, Jobs – The Journal, New Ulm, MN:

‘via Blog this’

—

Brett Meyer
has left a new comment on your post “MLC
board OKs senior housing for New Ulm – NUJourn…“:

You will soon be
going out penniless and unwillingly. Unfortunately the Lutheran Synodical
leaders have swindled the laity into giving Thrivent their money in exchange for
doubling the bake sale proceeds. They also gave generously to Lutheran World
Relief (LWR) which is an NGO of the United Nations. Both have used your
financial support to advance the New Age agenda through ELCA and the United
Nations. Not only has this allowed the incessant slaughter of the unborn
children of ELCA called workers, it has exported this same slaughter around the
world of men, women and children. You see, Thrivent’s direct support, amoung
other things, for the New Age United Religions Initiative is the direct support
for worshipping the earth as God and Mother and condemning humanity as it’s
worst plague which must be eliminated to sustainable levels while establishing a
global governement and religion (headed by the Antichrist) required to enforce
such satanic doctrines. This is why the value of your dollar has collapsed to
it’s current point, represented so perfectly by the current value of gold. Thus
the retirement age of 20-25% of Boomers is 80yrs and realistically – never. Now
would be a good time to humourously say BAZINGOO! but it is far to terrible to
joke about. MLC is just buying time – of which there is very little left. In
view of the events depicted in Matt. Chapter 24 Christians pray that Christ
would return soon, knowing fully what that entails and ought to know just how
much the so-called Lutheran Synods are doing in opposition to Christ and His
Church.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2011/12/14/is-80-the-new-retirement-age-many-americans-think-so/

http://www.green-agenda.com/index.html  

—

California wrote:

Reading about WELS’ venture into Senior Housing linked to Early Childhood 
Learning, is an idea lifted right out of the womb to tomb Big Brother agenda
being put in place by government across the nation.   For half a century, WELS
has always been playing “catch-up” with the latest socialist utopian scheme to
come along, and even the terminology reminded me of one California County’s
Early Learning Master Plan (2010) which I have in my hand as I write.  It is
just one of other clones across the nation for government schools and
communities.   In that plan, even the carefully crafted terminogy is explained
as  follows:  “By the way: we titled the effort an ‘early learning plan’
advisedly.   We wanted to convey the message that early learning is not an
‘extra’ or preamble to ‘real school, but rather a vital component of the BIRTH
TO ADULT LEARNING CONTINUUM”.  (emphasis added by me)

The terminology is
subtley changed from Early Childhood Education or Preschool, to ” Early
Learning” in order to accommodate the idea of institutional oversight from birth
to old age.   Elsewhere in the same document, prenatal home visits are
programmed into the scheme.

According to the November 2011 publication
from MLC in which the planned Early childhood Learning Center and the New Senior
Housing Facility are reported  to be linked together for a continuum of
generations  with “classrooms for infants and toddlers and well as 3, 4, and 5
year-olds”.

No mention at least in the MLC publication of prenatal visits to
prospective homes of families by WELS overseers, but can that be far behind as
WELS agenda is gravitating to institutionalizing functions for which God
provided families?.  

WELS is obviously following models being put in place by
government at Federal, State and local levels, with schools to become the
centers for the socialist community utopia.  WELS and other church related 
entities should instead be encouraging parents to rsist the paradigm,
and “parent” their own young children at home in family context, not lending
their infants and toddlers to instutional instruction, observation, and
assessing, then planning and programming for housing of surrogate grandparents
in the “grand” scheme of instituionaling all of society.  

Granted  that
participants will be willing or nudged to be participants since the power of the
sword is not yet employed to enforce participation,  but it will be interesting
to know whether government funding is a factor especially  re: the “Senior
Housing” Project.  The Plan fits the Agenda 21 Model regardless of where the
funding comes from, but then should anyone be surprised? Way back in the 1970s
, this observor complained about DMLC recommending that WELS teachers obtain
social studies lessons and material from the UN.

—

California on the Dunning-Kruger Effect:

In a comment re: “Post Dunning-Kruger Effect in the OldenSynodical Conference”, rlschultz says,   “So much of CG nonsense creates
the illusion of participatory democracy.  As has been pointed out elsewhere here
at Ichabod, this is usually done to draw out the dissenters and find the
yes-men”.

rlshcultz is exactly right in
the observation about the system being designed to draw out the dissenters and
find the yes-men.   However, it is not to “create the ILLUSION of participatory
democracy”, for it IS THE ESSENCE OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY.  “Participatory
Democracy” is one of those clever euphemisms created by the antagonists of
democratic representative governance. The terms are often confused,
but couldn’t be more different.

The term, “Participatory Democracy” was
coined in the document, “The Port Huron Manifesto” attributed
largely to leftist activist, Tom Hayden and published by Students for Democratic
Society in 1962 during days of student revolutions.   The text of the Port Huron
Manifesto is still posted on internetaccessible with a simple google search. Those who are old enough to remember
the national turmoil during the 1960’s will recognize the name of Students for
Democratic society (SDS), a leftist student
revolutionary movement.

It came to my attention during my research and
battles with the government schools system’s planned, programmed, “unfreezing of
the system”.

In researching the system we discovered PPBS, Planning Programming, Budgeting System, which
was a new form of governance being superimposed on our representative form of
governance in education as well as most other governmental agencies starting
with the Department of Defense.  That’s all documentable.   It was that research and involvement
in secular arena which sharpened my antenna as a member of a WELS congregation, when I happened to have access
and see a memo from  Norman Berg to pastors, in which he used the term:
“Participatory Democracy”.   I thought then that surely the origin and real
meaning of the term must not have been known or understood. In retrospect, maybe
or maybe not.   

My research resulted in activism, some writing and a speech in 
1972 re: PPBS in schools.  In the speech I quoted a book, MANAGEMENT OF
EDUCATION, by Shelly Umans who said it well:  
“If people are involved, then whole new strategies must be developed to ‘engineer’ people into accepting change. Projects
that do not take into account the need to involve the people affected are not
likely to succeed……In discussing strategies for affecting
change, we are talking about broad plans, the over all plans for gaining
acceptance.  How will the person out there be convinced that he wants to adopt
the change?”

 “They call it people technology in the same book.  So
involving the potential adopter in the development of innovation is the strategy
for overcoming resistance both within the academic community and the general
public.”

Another name for this process is Participatory Democracy,a term by
the way, which was coined by SDS in their Port Huron Manifesto, to identify the
process for citizen participation in destruction of their own political
institutions. Participatory Democracy is not to be confused with
participation in representative government.”  Speech titled PPBS
(1972)

Participatory Democracy is designed to let everyone think they are
having a voice in an already predetermined objective, but it is designed to
identify resistance in order to either circumvent it or ultimately isolate or
eliminate absolute resistance which can’t be presented in the
controlled
resulting “consensus”.   

When I discovered  in the 70’s
that WELS had adopted PPBS as its modus operandi in the late 60’s, I knew the die was
cast..

Efforts to explain the toxicity of PPBS and the systems driven term:
Participatory Democracy fell on deaf or ears of those who couldn’t conceive of
Synod leaders allowing anything like I described or on ears already committed to
the Process.

Participatory Democracy is such a nice sounding term, but
one which is a clever deception in itself, whose meaning is well understood by
the perpetrators of destruction of  institutions.

Their transforming ministry had no effect on Katy Perry’s crude lyrics and behavior.

TODAY Entertainment – Russell Brand, Katy Perry are divorcing:

Rumors have been swirling for some time, but now it’s official. Comedian and actor Russell Brand has filed for divorce from singer Katy Perry. He cites “irreconcilable differences” in the petition, filed in Los Angeles.

‘via Blog this’

—

WELS church
lady has left a new comment on your post “TODAY
Entertainment – Russell Brand, Katy Perry ar…“:

Forward In Christ
A Lutheran Voice, January 2012:

I was reading the Changes In Ministry
section for the pastor list, and discoverd that Pastor Philip A Koelpin has
accepted a call to St. Peter, Appleton. One would have to be dead or in a coma
to not know about the apostasy of Tim Glende. May the Lord guide Pastor Koelpin!
Perhaps he can shepherd Brother Glende in the true path. Please refer to the
older posts concerning Pastor Christian in the Light From Light blog.

A
message for Pastor Koelpin: Are you aware that Pastor Glende fired his own
circuit pastor? Accepting a call takes many days of prayer and family
discussions.

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/martinchemnitzpress

“Guys, you are a riot. What was the part about not agreeing with ELCA? Homosexual college video and man-boy files at the Love Shack? Bueller, Bueller, anyone?”

Emmaus Conference:

February 9-10, 2012
Lecturer: President, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, St. Louis, Missouri 
Assistant Pastor, Village Lutheran Church, Ladue, Missouri.

‘via Blog this’

***

GJ – What a snorer for a conference title! “Let’s talk about us instead of justification by faith.”

This is a good goal for the new edition of Luther versus the UOJ Pietists – having it ready for the conference. Watch them invent reasons why the book cannot be distributed free, as it was last year.

—

Brett Meyer
has left a new comment on your post “Emmaus
Conference – Lutheran Trifecta. Olde Synodi…“:

Currently the LCMS
is not a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Although they do
participate in meetings of the National Council of Churches. The LCMS CTCR
documents state,


“D. Other Christian Groups
Although the LCMS is not a
member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) or the National Council of
Churches (NCC), the Commission makes an effort to keep abreast of the latest
developments within these groups. At the request of the President and the CTCR,
the Executive Director of the CTCR participates in meetings of the NCC
Faith and Order Commission and, whenever possible, attends meetings of the
National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Christian Churches Together
(CCT).

Through the CTCR and the President’s office, the Synod takes part in
various ecumenical discussions and dialogs. In past years the Synod has
participated in discussions with Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, the
Orthodox, Baptists, the Reformed, and Evangelicals. The LCMS is a participant in
Round XI of the USA Lutheran/Roman Catholic Dialogue under the theme of “The
Hope of Eternal Life.” In the Fall of 2010, the LCMS began a series of
theological discussions with the Anglican Church in North America. The goal of
these dialogs is for our churches to gain a greater understanding of and
appreciation for one another and to affirm each other insofar as we are
able.”

Clearly the LCMS doesn’t need to be a member in order to
participate, work with or coordinate efforts with these groups. LCMS’ heavy
involvement and financial support for the ELCA and Lutheran World Relief (LWR)
is evidence enough that they have no issue with financiing the brutal murder of
unborn babies, children, women and men around the globe.

***

GJ – The LCMS would be considered backwards if they did not participate actively, so they try to shine up to the unionists while playing it safe about “being a member.”

Likewise, WELS has been working with Lutheran World Relief for decades, a fact kept hidden from the members and pastors.

This is a drawing of Walther before he died. I am surprised a halo has not been drawn in.

I started the mystery-apologetics book, but that will be a hobby this year. In short, a novel is more difficult to write than most people imagine.

I just finished my high school reunion book. That was fun and fulfilling. Four media stars are from my high school, plus one opera star, one rocket scientist, and some other interesting characters. You like Tolkien? The wife of my classmate is in New Zealand helping with the latest Peter Jackson project – The Hobbit.

My main project in January is the re-write of the Justification book. I will post the two new sections here while adding them to the book.

As I told 29A, the Walther mythology really needs to be examined closely. The newest Missouri Synod President actively participates in it. So does Perry County – Walther-Land – not too far from where we live.

Recently I learned that telling the truth about Walther is “slander.” Legally, the truth is not slander. That method works well in the Old Synodical Conference, whose leaders gladly slander anyone who gets near to telling the truth. The complete story is much worse than anyone imagines.

Jack Preus did a lot to get Chemnitz published in English and wrote a biography of the Concordist.

Robert Preus was respected by all conservative Protestants, but hated by liberal Lutherans.

‘via Blog this’

AC V has left a new comment on your post “Where Does Anti-Confessionalism End?Universalism a…”:

Let’s see now, that was a service and sermon about John Parlow, Mike Westendorf, Herod, Mary, Joseph, and YOU/ME, but….Jesus? Not so much.

Also, how hypocritical to preach against a secular Christmas, but then worship and preach in a secular setting: Pre-December on the calendar, but full Christmas decorations in front of the hidden altar (which is there to receive the offering plates apparently because Parlow made special mention that the ushers couldn’t get to the altar because it was backstage behind the props), and Scriptural texts that are appointed for the church year calendar festival of Epiphany which always falls on January 6, the 12th day of Christmas. Remember that song?

And on and on and on….

Make no mistake about it, WELS readers, that way of “doing church” is being encouraged in WELS and along with it a (further) departure from Confessional Lutheranism.

—-

Referencing:

rlschultz has
left a new comment on your post “Dunning-Kruger
Effect in the Olde Synodical Confer…“:

“The almost universal
attitude among the clergy is – ‘I graduated from x seminary, so I have nothing
left to learn.'”

A critical analysis of this statement would reveal that this
is really nothing to brag about. Being a perpetual student should instill a
sense of humility. Here at Ichabod, I appreciate the fact that comments from
laity are almost always posted and are often used to create a new post. For one
of my hobbies, I write an e-mail newsletter with a very small circulation. In
every issue, I solicit comments and feedback. When I get them, usually the first
thought that crosses my mind is – “I did not know that”.

The naive and
unsuspecting are usually the first victims of expertitis. Perhaps, there is a
connection between this and a faulty view of the doctrine of public ministry and
the Office of the Keys.

So much of the CG nonsense creates the illusion of
participatory democracy. As has been pointed out elsewhere here at Ichabod, this
is usually done to draw out the dissenters and find the yes-men.

***

GJ – I like featuring the thoughtful comments, like the one above, and the negative ones. But I fear that the Shrinker finally realized they were doing their cause harm by coming out in the open. They have nothing to lose by staying in their pestiferous lairs and plotting additional assaults on the sly.

The fake blogger, also known as WELS Pastor Tim Glende, has ceased posting again. I am grateful that he has posted something about WELS sexual predators, his top post, with six manufactured comments. Eventually the rest of the synod will find out that hundreds or even thousands of felonious images were stored and used at the yet-unsold synod headquarters.

I learn the doctrinal quotes better by using them and even better by combining them with graphics. The more I quote orthodox Lutherans, the more hateful the “conservative” Lutherans leaders are. The more hateful they are, the more I value the lessons of Luther and the Book of Concord.

In sales, the takeaway close is effective. “You really cannot afford this car, sir. It is way above your budget.” The answer, “I can too afford it. No problem.”

When the WELS and Missouri leaders tell me that the Book of Concord is boring and irrelevant, I am sold on it. When I listen to them talk about evangelism or the basics of the faith I realize how little they know about Luther’s doctrine, the spiritual wisdom of the Bible. They must know better. They studied under Fuller graduates (who lie about studying at Fuller, unless they are with allies).

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori have the same agenda.

I read the Lamentations of the Episcopal Church at Virtue Online, my looking glass into the future of the Lutheran Church.

Bishop Kate is busy suing her own congregations, to steal their property and drive away all traditional priests and bishops. Note her bio:

• She was an oceanographer, born in 1954.
• Ordained in 1994.
• Elected bishop in Nevada in 2000.
• Elected Presiding Bishop in 2006.

Bishop Mark has a similar background, with more parish experience.

• Born in 1946, his father a pastor of the ELC (Norwegian side of The ALC).
• Educated at the Devil’s Playground (Union) and Luther Seminary.
• Ordained in 1974.
• Served three congregations, elected St. Paul bishop in 1995.
• Elected ELCA Presiding Bishop in 2001. Re-elected in 2007.

Both of them won national office through the power of the homosexual network in their denominations. Both bishops rewarded their followers by approving the ordination of homosexuals, a practice which had already been accepted for decades. Both are admired by mainline leaders for the way they are driving out all opposition.

Once the confessions are abandoned, anything is possible, and the radical extremes are quickly embraced. The liturgy and readings can keep faith alive during such crises, but church leaders are working hard to eliminate both in the name of being relevant and transforming lives. They also want to be sensitive and selectively diverse in a rainbow coalition of the Left, favoring the red and lavender shades.

Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect on the Prairie supposedly prefer adulterous millionaires to the Lavender Mafia, although that is hard to believe with a homosexual serving as Director of Communications for WELS for five years.

When I was imprisoned at Mequon in 1987, I heard about a Steve Witte, whose congregation in the Appleton area had 5,000 members thanks to cell groups. He was quoted as saying, “I don’t care what they study, as long as they have cell groups.” Witte was a founder of Church and Change, along with Aderman, John Johnson, and some others, including Mark Jeske the Orange. (Watch him on Time of Grace – he is using Snooki’s bronzer, making him look like a tall Oompa Loompa.)

Parlow: “Ski, you are not going to publish this photo, are you?” Drive 08 Babtist Worship Conference

Appleton was anti-confessional 25 years ago. Now John Parlow is abusing the same parish. Here is an sample from Parlow:

Women rabbis and women bishops – just don’t seem right somehow.

Evangelism Resources:

The Local Evangelism Resources Group (LERG) aims to help make parishes aware of initiatives and resources which will assist their outreach efforts.

Back to Church Sunday
This national initiative is helping churches to develop a culture of invitation and has helped hundreds of people in our Diocese to reconnect with their parish church.

London 2012 Olympics
The Diocese is encouraging churches to make the most of the excitement surrounding the 2012 Olympics to connect with people locally.

Experience Easter
Invite children from your local school into church to experience the Easter story.

Mission Teams
Revitalise your church and reach out to your neighbours with a Mission Weekend. A Mission Team from the Diocese can be a support and an inspiration.

Biblefresh
Inspired by the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible, we would like to encourage churches to make the message of the bible heard and experienced.

Enquirers’ Courses
Many churches use short courses to help enquirers work through the questions which need to be addressed before they are ready to believe in Jesus and join a church.

Discipleship Courses
Growth to maturity in faith can be helped if people take part in a discipleship course.

Links & Resources
There are many organisations who provide courses and resources for evangelism and outreach.

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Evangelistic events focus of GPS 2012:

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Following the inaugural success of GPS (God’s Plan for Sharing) 2010 two years ago, GPS 2012 will focus on attractional evangelism events enabling Southern Baptists to share the Gospel across North America in the days leading up to next Easter and beyond.

In 2010, thousands of Southern Baptists trooped door-to-door in American neighborhoods, placing door-hangers, Gospel tracts and invitations to attend church on front doors. Attractional evangelism in 2012 will include block parties, wild game dinners, sports clinics, antique car shows, golf tournaments and other events, according to Thomas Hammond, the North American Mission Board’s evangelism team leader for the biennial GPS initiative.

Hammond said training for such events—to be selected by local churches—started this fall across the country. For the majority of the 42 state conventions, the GPS “window” of evangelistic events will run during the three-week period leading up to Easter Sunday, which falls on Apr. 8 in 2012.

“It’s vital that churches participate in GPS 2012 at a high level,” said Hammond. “If the local churches get behind it, we’ll have a much greater level of success. Just a billboard here or there isn’t enough. Churches must support it and follow up.”

With a theme of “Hope: Find It Here,” GPS 2012 will utilize more Internet social media – like Facebook and Google Ads – along with “drive-time” radio spots and less TV advertising, although some TV ads will continue to run in dozens of markets across the United States. A half-dozen 30-second TV spots in English and Spanish have already been produced.

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6 Easter Outreach Ideas | Evangelism.net:

Easter is a unique time for evangelism because many people are more open to going to church and talking about the meaning behind Easter. To give you some ideas for how you can use this time evangelistically, our staff has thought of 12 ways you can reach out to your friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

Prepare and deliver gift Easter Baskets for the children in your neighborhood. Hand deliver them and include a book that tells the Easter Story like “An Easter Gift for Me” by Crystal Bowman. If you have a lot of children in your neighborhood, check your local dollar store. They usually stock baskets, decorations, candy, and other goodies at reasonable prices.

Invite a neighbor or coworker to Easter services at your church followed by Easter brunch at your house or at a restaurant. Studies prove that people are more likely to go to church on Easter than any other time of the year. You can relax and let your pastor preach the gospel, with follow-up conversations at brunch.

Consider organizing an Easter outreach for kids at your church. The first station could be for a photo station with live animals if you have access to rabbits or lambs. Another station could be a craft table where the children make a simple craft. Another station could be a stage in a room where the resurrection story is told by someone playing one of the disciples or women who visited the tomb. Another station could be a room with an egg hunt every 10 minutes for 5-8 kids at a time. The final station could be a giveaway of a book telling the true reason for Easter or a New Testament along with information about your church.

Easter Bunny—Do you have some neighbors or friends with kids? Dress up as the Easter bunny and bring some candy, or an Easter Basket over. It will show that you enjoy having fun with them, and make them more inclined to talk about important spiritual issues or join you for other activities such as a church Easter Play. Need a question to break the ice? Try, “Did your family have any religious traditions during holidays when you were growing up?” It is almost always fun to share and listen to each other’s family traditions.

Sunrise Service or Breakfast—There is something glorious about seeing the sunrise in the morning, particularly on Easter Sunday! Consider going to a location close by where you don’t normally hold services, such as the lake or the park. This tends to work especially well for churches with older members, although sometimes younger people enjoy it as well too.

Resurrection Eggs—consider purchasing plastic Resurrection Eggs (link:  http://www.shopfamilylife.com/res-eggs-2011.html) created by Family Life as a memorable way to retell the Easter story to your friends, at Christian schools, or perhaps in Sunday School classes at church.

Join us on Wednesday for the other six ideas, and in the meantime tell us any ideas you have for outreach this Easter!

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The Easter bunny sends a profound message to the unchurched: We do not trust the Word of God, just gimmicks.

Easter Planning for Churches – 4 ways to prepare:

“Overall, 31% of active churchgoers said they would definitely invite someone they know who does not usually attend a church to accompany them to a church service on Easter weekend this year.” Barna Group

What the numbers might mean for Easter Sunday.

Let’s say this statistic would hold true for your congregation.

If you had 100 members, and 30 of them made personal invitations.

We know that not all invitations will be accepted.

But if half of them accepted and brought their families, you will have 15-60 visitors in your congregation on Easter.

That’s huge potential!

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This is a good time to review as Joel Hochmuth suggested.

I remember the day in Greek class when I learned that “hierarchy” means “the rule of priests.” History records many examples of the corruption, greed, and depravity of the priestly class. WELS is now vying with the Borgia popes for record-setting violations of all the commandments. I have more information coming through, but that has to wait.

WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie have a lot in common. In each franchise, decisions are made on the basis of friendships, classmates, and DNA. The Scriptures never enter the discussion until the conclusions are drawn.

Today I had four interesting contacts about what is happening in the Olde Synodical Conference. That is all I can say.

Mrs. Ichabod, “How about a hint?”

No hints. But the contacts show how the apostate leadership is unraveling. The shun him button is not working effectively.

SP Mark Schroeder, like the rest, came into the position by never offending anyone. I do not recall Schroeder, Harrison, or Pope John the Malefactor ever speaking against false doctrine. Compare that to the public positions of Jack and Robert Preus, or the days when WELS had big conferences about the apostasy of the Missouri Synod. Those people would be called fanatics, unbalanced, and crazy today.

Schroeder is a product of the system and owes the system. His best opportunity to show leadership is to oppose the New NIV, but he is silent. His timidity speaks volumes. Either he favors the New NIV or he is too chicken to oppose it. Either version suggests he should be not a leader of anything.

Mrs. Ichabod asked if Schroeder should step down. The problem is, there is no one to provide any positive leadership. The only leadership is on the Shrinker-Emergent side, where Mark Jeske the Orange runs the whole show from behind his curtain.

These people are not impressed with Schroeder’s response to the Hochmuth crimes. They are WELS members. The Wisconsin sect seems content to lose a few people at a time until they are pure Emergent Babto-Methodist.

I could say the problem is CGM, or Emergent Church, or the New NIV, but those cancers are not the cause. They are just symptoms. The cause is lack of faith in the Word of God. Starting with Walther and his dominance of the Olde Synodical Conference, faith in the Word of God has been trained out of the clergy and members.

Walther, the American Pope, kicked out Bishop Stephan, committing and supporting many crimes in the process: land fraud, grand theft, armed invasion, physical threats, and armed kidnapping. Walther took over the cult and maintained the same level of control that Stephan demanded.

But Walther, trained in rationalism and Pietism, was in no position to establish Lutheran orthodoxy. He established his own quirky ideas and false doctrine with dubious theses, which were delivered and accepted the way Mormonism was revealed to the gullible masses. Even today, something is true just because Walther wrote it, even when he contradicted himself in the same paragraph. To question Walther is slander, although the synodical Lutherans have no trouble dissing Martin Luther himself. The Reformer is good for statues-preps-colleges, not for doctrine.

Watch the ELS, LCMS, and WELS continue to use the process learned from ELCA and the secular change agents. Full participation is welcome, as long as dissenters are removed and everyone drinks the purple Kool-aid. They let the flowers bloom, as Mao said, so the heads can be cut off.

Faithful laity, pastors, and teachers remain, but the Synodical Conference is doomed by its own lack of faith.

The Olde Synodical Conference teaches the Huber fallacy, excommunicating those who teach justification by faith.

Paul Wendland, NNIV Salesman, is a member of the Moo herd, bovine in IQ, ovine in courage.

Wikipedia:

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to recognize their mistakes.[1] The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority.


Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, “the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others” (p. 1127).[2] The effect is about paradoxical defects in cognitive ability, both in oneself and as one compares oneself to others…


Although the Dunning–Kruger effect was put forward in 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger have quoted Charles Darwin (“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”)[3] and Bertrand Russell (“One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision”)[4] as authors who have recognised the phenomenon.

UOJ is the path to Rome or Pasadena: either route is the path to perdition.

***

GJ – Indeed. Chesterton noted the same thing –

“Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth: this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert-himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt – the Divine Reason… The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping: not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy


LI gave me a name for this syndrome, which is difficult to miss in the Olde Synodical Conference. As James Tiefel said about the odious Christian Worship in the making, “I have the title, so I will do what I want.”  I heard Tiefel make fun of The Lutheran Hymnal in his worship class. Tiefel and Iver Johnson moved forward with a hack job worse than the remake of The Jazz Singer:  the booze and broads edition of the hymnal.A sober analysis would say that TLH is vastly superior to Tiefel’s Church Growth, feminist, Pietist parody.

The almost universal attitude among the clergy is – “I graduated from x seminary, so I have nothing left to learn.” That could be Ft. Wayne versus all the others, St. Louis versus all the others, Mequon versus all the others, or the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie versus all others.

Most of them have a favorite professor who stands between them and the Word of God, so they stick to the instructor’s talking points. The same clergy are scornful of laity who have studied the Word of God decades longer, without an intervening filter. A genuine Lutheran will concede that the Holy Spirit teaches through the Word, but the incompetents wave their diplomas around: the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Lutheran Church during the Reformation expected a high level of training for men to be professors or bishops. A doctorate was common. The current Synodical Conference leaders think their worthless MDiv degrees qualify them as experts on everything, even though they could not get a job teaching at a community college with that seminary diploma. They wangle their positions through politics, but imagine the office is their
weapon, not a challenge to devote a lifetime to scholarship.

The Dunning-Kruger effect explains why the LCMS, WELS, and ELS have abandoned Lutheran doctrine for Fuller or Rome, never acknowledging the five-decade slide into doctrinal torpor. They cannot even admit  what they have done, spending millions on subsidies to CG projects and tuition, millions more on conferences to bring more false doctrine into their parishes.

—

Brett Meyer
has left a new comment on your post “Dunning-Kruger
Effect in the Olde Synodical Confer…“:

Even the self titled
conservatives in the (W)ELS have declared Siegbert W. Becker
infallible.

Elevating doctrinal ignorance to an art form he said, “But
universal and objective justification is one doctrine whose place in the
victorious Christian life is clear. Wherever men teach that faith comes first as
a condition that must be fulfilled or a work that must be done or even as a fact
that must be recognized before forgiven [sic Becker – forgiveness ] is bestowed or becomes real, men will be
trained to look into their own hearts for assurance rather than to the words and
promises of God. If my sins are forgiven only if I first have faith then I
have no solid foundation on which to rest my hope for eternal life. I must then
know that I have faith before I can know that my sins are forgiven. But there
are times when a Christian does not know that he has faith. And many people who
think they have faith do not have it, and many that think they are not believers
are believing children of God. In regard to our own faith we may be in error
or filled with doubt. But there is nothing uncertain in the truth that is
proclaimed in the Gospel. Your sin is taken away, wiped out, forgiven,
cancelled, swallowed up in the empty grave in Joseph’s garden. To that we must
cling. To that we can cling. On that we can build a solid hope that will not
make us ashamed.
In times of temptation when I am no longer aware of my
faith, when my heart tells me that I am an unbeliever, I have no place to turn
for assurance if faith must come before forgiveness. But if forgiveness comes
first, if it is always there, if it is true whether I believe it or not, I do
not need to know whether I have faith or not before I can cling to God’s
promise. I know that my sins are forgiven whether I feel forgiven or
unforgiven. I know that my iniquity is pardoned whether I believe it or not. And
when I know that, then I know also that I am a believer.” Page
13
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF 

***

GJ – No wonder the WELS clergy and laity listened to Paul Calvin Kelm with rapture and awe. They had already been hynotized by Sig Becker, who did not understand faith, forgiveness, or the Means of Grace.

Johann Salomo Semler, Pioneer of Lutheran Rationalism

From Wikipedia:

He was born at Saalfeld in Electoral Saxony, the son of a poor clergyman. He grew up in pietistic surroundings, which powerfully influenced him his life through, though he never became a Pietist. In his seventeenth year he entered the University of Halle, where he became the disciple, afterwards the assistant, and finally the literary executor of the orthodox rationalistic professor SJ Baumgarten. He also wrote Latin poems. In 1749 he accepted the position of editor, with the title of professor, of the Coburg official Gazette. But in 1751 he was invited to Altdorf as professor of philology and history, and in 1752 he became a professor of theology in Halle.

Pietism was identified with Biblical study, but the mothership, Halle University, turned into a school of rationalism in one generation. Why?

Pietism is just another form of Enthusiasm. Lacking a foundation in the Means of Grace, Pietism seeks certainty in experience, love, and good works. The attitude of doctrinal indifference eventually unites everyone on the basis of a common disbelief.

That is why ELCA can be in fellowship with the Moravian Pietists, the gay Episcopalians, the Methodists, WELS, and Missouri Synod.

That also explains why WELS can be in fellowship with Groeschel, Driscoll, Sweet, and Rick Warren, and Andy Stanley. Their defense – “We practice safe sects.”

Add UOJ and opposition to sound doctrine.

• Living in Fellowship.
• Growing in Christ.
• Activating our family of faith in unity by Christ’s example of sharing, caring and praying.

I ran across this mission statement, above,  from a Moravian congregation in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

The wording reminded me of many similar expressions from WELS, LCMS, and ELS congregations:

1. Inoffensive.
2. Vague.
3. Non-confessional.

Non-confessional is really anti-confessional, because the need to avoid all doctrinal discussions is the path to total indifference and apostasy.

Elisabeth’s Barrenness and Ours – Mark Steyn – National Review Online:

We now live in Elisabeth’s world — not just because technology has caught up with the Deity and enabled women in their 50s and 60s to become mothers, but in a more basic sense. The problem with the advanced West is not that it’s broke but that it’s old and barren. Which explains why it’s broke. Take Greece, which has now become the most convenient shorthand for sovereign insolvency — “America’s heading for the same fate as Greece if we don’t change course,” etc. So Greece has a spending problem, a revenue problem, something along those lines, right? At a superficial level, yes. But the underlying issue is more primal: It has one of the lowest fertility rates on the planet. In Greece, 100 grandparents have 42 grandchildren — i.e., the family tree is upside down. In a social-democratic state where workers in “hazardous” professions (such as, er, hairdressing) retire at 50, there aren’t enough young people around to pay for your three-decade retirement. And there are unlikely ever to be again.

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***

GJ – The graphics below were done by someone else – forget the name – and the point has been made here many times. All the futuristic plans have been  based on more people making more money to pay for the inflated plans.

That wild thinking fits the school situation, government (unfunded) pensions, and the global economy.

The Left trained people to think of babies as costly burdens, so we slaughter them with abortion and the human pesticide pill, then let criminals across the border to rob, rape, and steal, as long as they do our house-cleaning for $5 an hour.

 Wikipedia says:

 The Wexford Carol (Irish: Carúl Loch Garman, Carúl Inis Córthaidh) is a traditional religious Irish Christmas carol originating from County Wexford, and specifically, Enniscorthy (whence its other name), and dating to the 12th century.[1][unreliable source?] The subject of the song is that of the nativity of Jesus Christ.
“The Wexford Carol” is one of the oldest extant Christmas carols in the European tradition. Traditions abound concerning the song. For many years, it was felt that only men should sing it.[citation needed] It was only at the current revival of all things Irish that this attitude changed. Many popular female artists, such as Loreena McKennitt, recorded the “Wexford Carol” during the 1990s.
The song achieved a new popularity because of the work of William Grattan Flood (1859 – 1928), who was organist and musical director at St. Aidan’s Cathedral in Enniscorthy. He transcribed the carol from a local singer, and had it published in the Oxford Book of Carols, putting Enniscorthy into most carol books around the world.
The song is sometimes known by its first verse, “Good people all this Christmas time.”

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son
With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born
The night before that happy tide
The noble Virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town
But mark right well what came to pass
From every door repelled, alas
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble ox’s stall
Near Bethlehem did shepherds keep
Their flocks of lambs and feeding sheep
To whom God’s angel did appear
Which put the shepherds in great fear
Arise and go, the angels said
To Bethlehem, be not afraid
For there you’ll find, this happy morn
A princely babe, sweet Jesus, born
With thankful heart and joyful mind
The shepherds went the babe to find
And as God’s angel had foretold
They did our Saviour Christ behold
Within a manger he was laid
And by his side a virgin maid
Attending on the Lord of Life
Who came on earth to end all strife
There were three wise men from afar
Directed by a glorious star
And on they wandered night and day
Until they came where Jesus lay
And when they came unto that place
Where our beloved Messiah lay
They humbly cast them at his feet
With gifts of gold and incense sweet.

—

Joe Krohn’s pick –

LutherRocks
has left a new comment on your post “The
Wexford Carol“:

Thanks for posting. Another one of my favorites.
Interesting setting.

Here is my favorite setting (partial to brass):
http://youtu.be/PyZPqloAq_o

It starts at 1:13

Courthouse News Service:

Financial Toll of Fatal Crash Keeps Growing
By JOE HARRIS

     BELLEVILLE, Ill. (CN) – The price tag for state taxpayers for a former state trooper’s reckless fatal crash in November 2007 continues to grow.

     The Illinois Court of Claims awarded $700,000 to Kelly and Christine Marler, of Fayetteville. The Marlers’ was the third vehicle involved in a fiery accident caused by former state trooper Matt Mitchell’s losing control of his squad car while driving 120 mph, talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone and sending and receiving emails just 2.5 seconds before impact.

     Teenage sisters, Jessica Uhl, 18, and Kelli Uhl, 13, were the first ones hit by Mitchell and were pronounced dead at the scene. The Uhl family was awarded $8 million on Jan. 20 by the Illinois Court of Claims, the largest award ever granted by the court. Mitchell’s car drove through the Uhls’ car and then crashed into the Marlers’ SUV. Mitchell pleaded guilty to reckless homicide.

     Mitchell, 33, filed a workers compensation claim for his injuries, which was denied. The outcry against Mitchell caused state lawmakers to pass a law prohibiting workers compensation claims by employees injured while committing a crime.

     Mitchell’s total financial toll on the state actually started before 2007 and is more than $10 million. He was involved a no-injury accident in 2002 and another accident in 2003 that led to a $1.7 million judgment against the state, the Associated Press reported.

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Brett Meyer said…

Luther Rocks: Rocketown:

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—

http://sfhd.chez.com/ecrits/stigma.htm

Quote: In fact, the preoccupation with the effect on birth rate came from
an actual depopulation of France at the end of the 19th century and from the
bordering nations, especially Germany, victorious of the Prussian French war in
1870. Affecting the physical integrity, syphilis deprived the nation of the
future soldiers indispensable for the revengful projects. Xenophobic
considerations completed the military preoccupations. Considering the decrease
of population supposed to be a consequence of syphilis, the most active people
in the struggle against syphilis pointed out the constrasting increase of
foreign workers, indispensable to replace the missing French people and regarded  as ennemies of the nation.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/syphilis.html

Luke
2:21-40

Norma Boeckler

Luther’s Sermon for NEW YEAR’S DAY. Luke 2:21

This sermon appears in the Erl. Ed. 10, 319; W. 11, 391; St. L. 11, 284.

TEXT:

Luke 2:21. And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, his name was called Jesus, which was so called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

CONTENTS:

THE CIRCUMCISION, AND CHOOSING THE NAME, AS WAS THE CUSTOM AT CIRCUMCISION.

* A judgment on “Distributing the New Year”, as was done from the pulpit. 1.

I. OF THE CIRCUMCISION.

1. How to rescue circumcision from the offense reason takes at it. a. The offense reason takes at circumsion. b. The rescue. 3-4.

2. The reason for circumcision a. The first reason, which is temporal. b. The second reason, which is spiritual. 6-9.

* Of natural depravity. 8-9.

3. Why God confined circumcision only to the male.

4. Why the rite had to be performed just on the eighth day. a. The first reason. 11-13. b. The second reason. c. The third reason.

5. Why the rite was not given also to the fathers, who lived before Abraham.

6. Why the rite was abolished in Christ.

7. Whether the rite is so abolished in the New Testament, that it is a sin to be circumcised.

* What is the nature of holy Baptism. 19.

II. OF CHOOSING THE NAME AS WAS THE CUSTOM AT ACIRCUMCISION.

1. Why Christ did not receive his name from the circumcision. 20ff.

* How and by what means Christ became lord over death and the law. 21-23.

* How and by what means believers become lords over death, law and sin. 24-26.

2. The spiritual meaning of the naming of the child.

1. It is the custom “to distribute the New Year” from the pulpit on this day, as if there were not enough other useful and salutary matter to preach, and it were necessary to present such useless fables in place of the Word of God, and to make a sport and disgrace of so serious an office. The Gospel requires us to preach on the circumcision and the name of Jesus; and this we will do!

I. OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS.

2. First let us ask the wise woman, Dame Jezebel, natural reason: Is it not a foolish, ridiculous, useless command, when God demands circumcision?

Could he find no member of the body but this? If Abraham had here followed reason, he would not have believed that it was God who demanded this of him. For in our eyes it is such a foolish thing that there can scarcely be anything more absurd. The Jews had to endure great infamy and disgrace on account of it, were despised by everybody and treated as an abomination. Moreover, there is no use in it. What benefit is it, if the body is mutilated? Man is made no better by it, for everything depends upon the soul.

3. But such are all of God’s commandments and works, and such they are to be. In our eyes they appear most foolish, most contemptible, and most useless, in order that haughty Reason, who deems herself clever and wise, may be put to shame and blinded, and may surrender her self-conceit and submit to God, give him honor, and believe that whatever he appoints, is most useful, most honorable, and most wise, although she does not see it and thinks quite differently. If God had given a sign which would have been suitable to her and useful, wise, and honorable in her estimation, she would have remained in her old skin, would not have surrendered her haughtiness, would have continued in her custom of seeking and loving only honor, gain, and wisdom on earth, and so would have become ever more deeply rooted in worldly, temporal things. But now that he presents to her foolish, useless, and contemptible things, he tears her away from the seeking after gain, honor, and wisdom, and teaches her to regard only the invisible, divine wisdom, honor, and gain, and for its sake willingly to suffer the lack of temporal honor, gain, and wisdom, and to be a fool, poor, unprofitable, and despised for God’s sake. Therefore God was not concerned about the circumcision, but about the humiliation of proud nature and reason.

4. So we also have baptism in the New Testament, in order that we should be buried in the water, and believe that we are thereby cleansed from sins and saved; also, that Christ’s body is in the bread of the altar; also, that we worship the crucified man as Lord and God. All this is immeasurably far above, and contrary to, reason. So the works and words of God are all contrary to reason, and this, in turn, is also contrary to God and recoils at the sign that is spoken against. Before men it was a very foolish speech, when Noah built the ark and said, the world would be flooded. So Lot must needs have been a fool, when he said, Sodom and Gomorrah would perish. Moses and Aaron were fools before King Pharaoh. In short, God’s Word and his preachers must be fools, as St. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 1:21. In all this God seeks nothing but this humility, that man bring his reason into captivity and be subject to divine truth. Abraham and his seed received the foolish rite of circumcision, in order that by it they should give glory to God and suffer him alone to be wise.

5. Now circumcision was an external mark, by which God’s people were known in distinction from other nations; just as we see that every prince gives his people and army his standard and watchword, by which they are known among themselves and by which foreigners can tell, to what lord they belong. Thus God has never left his people without such a sign or watchword, by which it can outwardly be known in the world where his people are to be found. Jews are known by circumcision: that was their divine mark. Our mark is baptism and the body of Christ. Therefore the ancient fathers called these signs, characters, symbola, tesseras, that is, watchwords or standards, what we now call sacraments, that is, sacred signs. For where there is baptism, there certainly are Christians, be they where they will in the world. It matters not if they are not under the pope, as he claims; for he would like to make of himself a sacrament and a Christian watchword.

6. Let this be enough concerning the temporal reason for circumcision. We will now also look at the spiritual reason and its significance. First, why did he not command to circumcise a finger, hand, foot, ear, or eye, or some other member? Why did he select just that which in human life serves for no work or employment and which was created by God for natural birth and multiplication? If evil was to be cut off, then certainly the hand or the tongue, of all members, ought to have been circumcised: for by the tongue and hands all wickedness is perpetrated among men.

7. It is said that it was done for the reason, that evil lust manifests itself most in this member of the body; wherefore also Adam and Eve felt the disobedience of their flesh there, and sought a covering for their nakedness.

That is all true; but in addition to that it also signifies, as we are wont to say, that God does not condemn or save the person on account of his works, but his works on account of the person. Accordingly, our fault lies not in our works, but in our nature. The person, nature, and entire existence are corrupt in us because of Adam’s fall. Therefore no work can be good in us, until our nature and personal life are changed and renewed.

The tree is not good, therefore its fruits are bad.

8. Thus God has here taught every one, that nobody can become righteous by works or laws, and that all works and labors to become righteous and be saved are in vain, as long as the nature and person are not renewed.

You see now that, had he commanded to circumcise the hand or the tongue, this would have been a sign that the fault to be changed lay in the words or works; that he was favorable to the nature and person, and hated only the words and works. But now, in selecting that member which has no work except that the nature and personal existense arise thereby, he gives clearly to understand that the fault lies in the entire state of the nature, that its birth and its origin are corrupt and sin. This is original sin, or the sin of the nature, or the sin of the person, the truly chief sin. If this did not exist, there would neither be any actual sin. This sin is not done, like all other sins; but it exists, lives, and does all sins, and is the essential sin, that sins not for an hour or a season; but wherever and as long as the person exists.

9. God looks at this sin of the nature alone. This can be eradicated by no law, by no punishment, even if there were a thousand hells: but the grace of God alone, which makes the nature pure and new, must purge it away. The law only manifests it and teaches how to recognize it, but does not save from it; the law restrains only the hand or member, it cannot restrain the person and nature from being sinful; for in birth the nature has already anticipated the law, and has become sin before the law could forbid it. Just as little as it lies in one’s human power to be born and to receive natural existence, so little does it lie in his power to be without sin or to escape from it. He who has created us, he alone must take it away. Therefore he first gives the law, by which man recognizes this sin and thirsts for grace: then he also gives the Gospel and saves him.

10. In the second place, why does he command to circumcise males only, when nature and birth involve the woman also? The prophet also complains more of the mother than of the father, when he says, Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” It was surely done on account of Christ and his mother, because he was to come, and because it was possible that a natural man and person could be born of a woman without sin and natural intercourse. But in all conception from a man, the man sins as well as the woman, and sin on either side cannot be avoided. Therefore Christ willed not to be conceived of a man, in order that his mother also might not be under the necessity of sinning and of conceiving him in sin. Therefore he made use of her womanly flesh and body for natural birth, but not for natural conception, and was conceived and born a true man without sin. Since, therefore, it is possible that a pure, innocent birth, nature, and person may be derived from a woman; but from a man only a sinful birth, nature, and person; therefore circumcision was imposed upon males only, in order to signify that all birth from man is sinful and condemned, requiring circumcision and change: but that a birth derived only from a woman without a man, is innocent and uncondemned, requiring no circumcision or change. And here one may apply what John writes, in John 1:12-18: “To them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”—with the understanding that “the will of man” refers to birth from man. If it were possible now that more women could bear without men, these births would be altogether pure and holy; but this has been reserved for this one mother alone.

11. In the third place, why was it necessary to perform it on the eighth day?

Here again the sin of nature is indicated. For the poor babe has no actual sin of its own; nevertheless it must be circumcised and assume the sign of purification from sin. If he had commanded to circumcise after eight years, one might say it was done for sins committed and for the avoidance of future sins. But by commanding to circumcise on the eighth day he excludes both ideas, that it is done for sins committed and for the sake of future sins; without doubt, because a greater than any actual sin is born and ingrained in human nature.

12. But here it might be objected that Abraham and his servants and household were circumcised when they were grown and old, Genesis 17:23: therefore circumcision might signify actual committed sins. The answer is: Scripture anticipates and abolishes the idea that Abraham was justified by circumcision, for he was already justified of his sins when he received circumcision; for it is written in Genesis 15:6 that he was made righteous by his faith before his circumcision, when he was eighty years old or a little more, and circumcision he received when he was ninety-nine years old; so that circumcision was instituted almost twenty years after his justification. From this St. Paul, in Romans 4:11, concludes, against the Jews, that not circumcision, but faith without circumcision justifies, as Abraham’s example cogently shows. Therefore circumcision is not a putting off of sin, but a sign of such putting off, which is accomplished by faith alone, as was the case with Abraham. Therefore it demands, as in Abraham so in all men, faith, which removes the sin of nature and makes the person righteous and accepted.

13. If now Abraham’s faith had not been described before his circumcision, it would have been a certain sign of original sin in him, as it is in the case of children, whose faith is not described beforehand. The Scriptures have ordered it so, that Abraham first believed and afterwards was circumcised, and others were first circumcised and afterwards believed, in order that both truths might stand: first, that circumcision is only a sign of justification and nobody is justified by it; secondly, that faith justifies alone without the cooperation of circumcision, and therefore faith and its sign are clearly distinguished, to the discomfiture of the righteousness that trusts in works.

14. Perhaps the eighth day was also appointed for bodily reasons, in order that the babe might first grow stronger, lest it might appear that it had died from the circumcision, if it were circumcised directly after birth and had died from weakness.

15. But the spiritual significance is of greater importance. Seven days signify the time of this world until the last day, because this present time is measured by the week or seven days described in Genesis 1. The eighth day is the last day after the present time, when weeks, months, and years will cease, and there will be only an eternal day. On that day circumcision shall be fulfilled, when not only the soul, but also the body, shall be redeemed from sin, death and all impurity, and shall shine as the sun.

Meanwhile the soul is circumcised from sin and an evil conscience by faith.

16. So we see that the Scriptures in all places urge to faith, but only to faith in Christ. Therefore circumcision was not given by the law of Moses, nor to the fathers before Abraham, but to Abraham, to whom Christ, his seed, was promised for a blessing, so that the bodily circumcision might everywhere be in accord with the spiritual circumcision.

17. Why then has it ceased, if that same faith in Christ, to which it points, still remains? The answer is, God has always, from the beginning of the world to the end, maintained one faith in Christ; but he has not given only one sign of it. If all the signs which refer to faith remained, who could keep them? But since faith is inward and invisible, God has foreshadowed it to men by many external signs, in order that they might be incited to believe as by many examples, and has permitted each to continue for its time. How many signs did Moses alone do in Egypt and in the wilderness, which have all passed away and lasted during their time, and still were all signs of faith? So when God promised to Abraham the blessings in his seed and gave to him a sign of it, namely circumcision, it could not exist by virtue of that promise longer than the fulfillment of the promise. But when Christ, the blessed seed, came, the promise was finished and fulfilled; it was no longer to be expected. Therefore the sign also necessarily was finished and fulfilled; why should it continue any longer, when the promise on which it depended was finished? But that which it signified, faith, remains always, whether the promise with its sign passes away or remains.

18. Yet circumcision has not been abolished in such a way that it is sin to be circumcised, as St. Jerome and many others contend; but it has become free. If anybody wishes, he may circumcise himself, or not circumcise himself, as long as he does not act from the opinion, that it is necessary and commanded, or that the promise of God to Abraham is unfulfilled and still to be expected. For faith can endure none of these opinions. Therefore it does not depend upon the work, but upon the imagination and opinion of the one doing the work. If anybody circumcise himself with the same opinion with which he cuts his hair, beard, or skin, in love and service to another, he would not commit sin; for he would do it bound not by the law and by necessity of justification, nor against the fulfilled promise of God, but from free volition and his own choice, because the promise is fulfilled and the sign attached to it is finished.

19. Moreover, God never has had the custom of establishing a sign again, when once it has come to an end, but he has always instituted other new signs. So after the fulfillment of his promise, after the coming of Christ, he instituted for Abraham’s seed another new sign, namely, baptism. This indeed is the last sign to be instituted before the last day, because he instituted it in person. Nevertheless the same faith in Christ, which was in Abraham, abides always; for it knows neither day nor night, nor any outward transformation. This baptism has the same significance as circumcision, as is to be shown at the proper time.

II. THE NAMING OF JESUS, AS WAS THE CUSTOM AT CIRCUMCISION.

20. Finally, it was the custom to give the child its name in circumcision, as we see here and in the instance of John the Baptist, to whom his name was also given in his circumcision. However, just as Christ was not obliged to be circumcised and this sign was empty in this case, so also his name had been given to him before by the angel, so that he did not obtain it by circumcision. This was done and is written, to the end that he should be altogether free from the law and from sin above all other men, and only serve us by submitting to the law and becoming like unto us in order to redeem us from it, as St. Paul said in the last Epistle: “He was born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law,” Galatians 4:4-5.

21. For when death fell upon him and slew him, and yet had no right or cause against him, and he willingly and innocently submitted and suffered himself to be slain: death became liable to him, did him wrong and sinned against him, and completely exposed itself, so that Christ has an honest claim upon it. Now the wrong which death became guilty of toward him, is so great that death can never pay nor atone for it. Therefore it must be subject to Christ and in his power forever: and so death is overcome and killed in Christ. Now Christ did not do this for himself, but for us, and has bestowed upon us this victory over death in baptism. Therefore all who believe in Christ must also be lords over death, and death must be their subject, nay, their criminal, whom they are to judge and execute; even as they do when they die and at the last day. For by the gift of Christ death has also become guilty to all those, who have received this gift from Christ.

Behold, this is the sweet and joyous redemption from death through Christ; these are the spiritual victories of Joshua over the heathen of Canaan, notably the five kings, upon whose necks the princes of Israel put their feet by his command, Joshua 10.

22. So also circumcision did Christ wrong, for he was not subject to it.

Therefore it is justly subject to him and he has power over it, has conquered it, and has granted to us, that it must cease and has lost its right over those who believe in Christ. He has released us from circumcision only by submitting to it innocently and by bestowing his right against it upon us.

23. Behold, this is putting Christ under the law, in order that he might redeem those who were under it. Galatians 4:5. Moreover, he has subjected himself to all other laws, to none of which he was bound, being Lord and God over all. Therefore they have all fallen into his power, have done him wrong, and must now justly be subject to him.

24. Now all this he has also given to us. Therefore if we believe in Christ, and the law would endeavor to punish us as sinners, and death would insist upon it, and try to drive the wretched conscience to hell; and if you then hold up to them in turn their sin and wrong, which they have done to Christ, your Lord: do you not suppose that they also shall be put to shame and be more afraid of you than you of them? Death shall feel its guilt and flee in disgrace; the law shall be compelled to give up its terror and smile friendly upon Christ. In this way sin must be banished by sin. The sins, which they have committed against Christ and now also against you on account of your faith, are greater than those which you have committed against them. In this case God, the just Judge, will not suffer that a great thief should hang a little one; on the contrary, if the great one is to be free, much more must the little one go free. Of this St. Paul says, Corinthians 15:55-57: “O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ; for death is swallowed up in victory.” Behold, is not this a precious redemption from the law through him, who innocently subjected himself to the law?

25. Praise God, what an exceedingly rich and mighty thing faith is! It indeed makes of man a god, to whom nothing is impossible, as Christ says, Mark 9:28: “If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth,” Therefore it is also said in Psalm 82:6: “Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.”

26. His name is rightly called on this day Jesus, that is interpreted, Savior: for Savior we call one who saves, redeems, brings salvation and is of help to everybody; this one the Hebrew language calls Jesus. So the angel Gabriel spoke to Joseph in sleep, Matthew 1:21: ‘She shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.” Here the angel himself explains why he is called Savior, Jesus, namely, because he is help and salvation to his people. We have now heard how this comes to pass through faith, to which he gives all his right and possession, that he has over sin, death, and the law. He makes it righteous, free and blessed.

27. Now as circumcision signifies our faith, as we have heard: so the naming of children signifies that by faith we have a name and are known before God. For God knows none of those who do not believe, as is said in Psalm 1:6: “For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the wicked shall perish.” And in Matthew 25:12: “Verily, I say unto you, I know you not.” What then is our name? Doubtless as Christ gives us all that is his, so he also gives his name to us; therefore we are all called Christian from him, all God’ children from him, all Jesuses from him, all Savior from him, and whatever is his name, that also is ours; as St. Paul writes, Romans 8:24: “In hope were ye saved,” for ye are Jesuses or Saviors. Behold, there is therefore no measure to the dignity and honor of a Christian! These are the super abundant riches of his goodness, which he pours out upon us, so that our heart may be free, joyous, peaceable, and unterrified; and willingly and cheerfully keep the law. Amen.