Christian News, July 29, 2013
The Twenty-First Formula of Concord the CN editor attempted to get the LCMS’s 2013 convention to support says in a section on Adultery: “The Bible condemns both homosexual orientation and practice as sin. There is no room in heaven for unrepentant adulterers, homosexuals, etc. churches which allow homosexuals and lesbians to serve as pastors are false churches with which faithful Christians should not fellowship. (Romans 1:26, 27); 1 Cor. 6:9; Romans 16:17; Christian News Encyclopedia, 2366-2403, 1002-1636).
“Gay-friendly trend washes over court,” an RNS report in the July 25, 2013 Christian Century includes a photo (above) with this caption: “A Normal Part of Ministry: Mike Wilker, pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C., said half the weddings he performs at his congregation are for couples of the same gender.”
The report in the Christian Century says in part:
“Sometimes a court opinion is more than just a court opinion. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s 26-page decision on June 26 striking down a federal ban on same-sex marriages offers a window into Americans’ rapidly shifting views of same-sex relationships-a shift that increasingly relies on secular views of law and fairness, not traditional moral or religious views.
“At the same time, Justice Antonin Scalia’s biting dissent in United States v. Windsor reflects a set of cultural, religious and social arguments that are losing ground in the court of public opinion and now in the highest court of the land. In the 17 years since Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, many Americans have gained ‘a new perspective, a new insight’ on the meaning of marriage, Kennedy said. As a result, gay marriage is now legal in 12 states and the District of Columbia.
“Kennedy said large swaths of American society had concluded that not allowing gay couples to wed is an ‘unjust exclusion.’ He used a striking string of words to describe DOMA’s impact on gay families: Disparage. Degrade. Demean.
“Allowing gay marriage, he said, is a ‘far-reaching legal acknowledgment of the intimate relationship between two people, a relationship deemed by the State worthy of dignity in the community equal with all other marriages. It reflects both the community’s considered perspective on the historical roots of the institution of marriage and its evolving understanding of the meaning of equality.’
“A decade ago, it would have been near inconceivable to imagine the nation’s highest court referring to the ‘dignity’ of gay marriage. But things have changed-remarkably so. In 2003, at the time of Lawrence v. Texas, the court’s last major gay rights case, support for gay marriage hovered around 32 percent; today, that figure is 51 percent.
“Why the shift? For one, older generations that are the most opposed are giving way to younger Americans who are far more supportive. Gays and lesbians are coming out younger and more often, and openly gay characters anchor popular shows like Glee and Modern Family.
“In 2003, gay marriage didn’t exist and the Episcopal Church was shell-shocked by the election of an openly gay bishop. On June 26, the bells of Washington National Cathedral pealed in celebration of the court decision, and the election May 31 of the first openly gay Lutheran bishop was met with mostly shrugs. A recent Gallup poll found a 19-point swing on the ‘moral acceptability’ of gay and lesbian relations since 2001 -the largest shift on any social issue. As Gallup put it, ‘U.S. acceptance of gay/lesbian relations is the new normal.’”
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
President/Bishop Benke Sides with the Sacerdotalists
By Jack Cascione
Christian News, July 22, 2013
Like other LCMS Sacerdotalists, Atlantic District President David Benke likes the title Bishop (as seen on the internet). We are not surprised that he takes sides with LCMS Sacerdotalists over the recent Reclaim News release “Sacerdotalists Taking over the LCMS.”
Benke writes:
“Jack Cascione is bitter-ish, a former Missouri Synod pastor who took himself and his congregation out of the denomination and is now retired. Although the topic of Bible versions has some importance as a denominational selection, the rest of Cascione's opinions are insubstantial.”
Signed Dave Benke
It is nothing out of the ordinary when members of the LCMS Council of District Presidents distort the truth as Benke does here. “Insubstantial” depends on whose substance is being gored.
First, Cascione did not leave the LCMS, he was removed from the LCMS clergy roster on December 21, 2004 by COP President and Michigan District President Hoesmann in a 3 sentence letter. There were no charges of false doctrine, questionable practice, or allegations of any kind, no phone-calls, no meetings, and no conversation from the regional vice-president or the circuit counselor. There is no paper trail. The only letter from Redeemer Lutheran Church to the Michigan District President stated that Cascione wanted to remain on the LCMS clergy roster.
Second, Cascione’s crime is that he touched the third rail of LCMS politics, “Thou shalt not expose COP real-estate fraud.” In response to the CCM Opinion of May 2004 Redeemer Lutheran Church said it was leaving the LCMS unless it was assured that the COP agreed to follow “proper channels” in congregational constitutions that the district had already approved.
Third, CCM May 2004 exempts the COP from following “proper channels” in congregational constitutions, thus nullifying a congregation’s property rights whenever a member of the COP wishes to circumvent a congregational constitution.
Michigan District President Hoesmann refused to answer the congregation’s question. An LCMS official who makes 6 figures doesn’t have to answer a congregation’s question, even if it means that refusal to answer results in the congregation leaving the Synod. The question was referred to the Council of District Presidents. Months later, President Kieschnick wrote to the congregation in behalf of the COP that there was nothing they could do.
The fish stinks from the head.
These events led this writer to advise the four women the LCMS was suing for their church property in Oakland, California. During the whole processes the Synod denied it was suing anyone. After bankrupting the church, the LCMS lost the suit.
During the process Herman Otten and I were able to feed questions to their attorney when he deposed President Kieschnick in February 2010 in St. Louis. Publishing Kieschnick’s transcripts on the internet and in Christian News were a factor in Kieschnick’s removal from office later that summer.
Benke is aware of all this, yet he writes, that Cascione took himself out the LCMS. This is how the COP sanitizes its malfeasance. Unless of course Benke means questioning COP real-estate fraud is equivalent to a resignation from the LCMS clergy roster.
When sacerdotalists can’t debate the facts, they simply rely on their holy sacramental rite of ordination to manufacture their own truth. When the clergy are the church everything they say is from God.
Some Documentation for CN’s Comments on Cwirla and on Sacerdotalism in LCMS
Christian News, July 15, 2009
From the article CN published by Jack Cascione:
"The Rev. William Cwirla is scheduled to be an essayist at the 2013 Convention. In 2001 Pastor Cwirla testified before Committee 7 that adopting Walther’s 'Church and Ministry' was against the Gospel. He and many other pastors condemned Walther’s book from the Convention floor."
A comment from Cwirla on Facebook on CN's blog:
"This is a complete misrepresentation of my testimony before Committee 7 at the 2001 synodical convention and my remarks on the floor of the convention. At no time did I 'condemn Walther's book' or imply that adopting his book would be 'contrary to the Gospel.' This is patently false and slanderous. I demand an immediate an public retraction of this statement....
"This article and its insinuations are utterly false and reprehensible. "
Later comment from Cwirla on CN's blog:
"I recognize, of course, that Mr. Cascione does not actually refer to me as a 'sacerdotalist' in this article."
Quotes from Cwirla on Facebook cited by Rick Strickert on CN's blog:
"In response to Pres. Harrison's November 6, 2010, 1:57 PM, Facebook comment, 'Just finished the first pass revision of the first half of JT Mueller's translation of Walther's Kirche und Amt. VERY interesting" Rev. William M. Cwirla stated at 2:02 PM, 'I'm not sure a revision can completely repair it.'
"In response to a November 13, 2010, 7:49PM Facebook comment by Pres. Harrison, Rev. Cwirla stated at 8:14 PM:
"'Here's the even more amazing thing: The synod in convention reaffirmed this as doctrine in the LCMS in 2001. Since most of the delegates can't read German, this is the text they adopted. Hehehehehhe. Gotta love it.'
'Even in German, K&A isn't too hot. Sub-confessional in my estimation.'"
Cwirla responded on CN's blog:
"Yup. I wrote all of that. And more."
(Cwirla complains that CN's article was totally wrong and Cwirla demands a retraction and yet he admits he called Walther's book "sub-confessional," etc. There was not really a problem or error in what CN published about Cwirla.)
LCMS pastor Lincoln Winter wrote on his blog:
"The synod’s unofficial newspaper (the one that no one reads, but everyone knows what’s in it) arrived today. As I was throwing it in the circular file (goodness knows *I* never read it), I noticed the headline:
Sacerdotalists Taking Over the LCMS.
"To which I say:
"We’ve been working so hard for such a long time, I’m glad someone is finally recognizing our efforts."
From the article CN published by Jack Cascione:
"In three successive Symposium banquets at Fort Wayne, this writer was the primary subject of derision and humorous ridicule for publicly defending Walther’s 'Church and Ministry.' They were led in song by the current LCMS President and current President of the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne."
Numerous writers did the same thing in 2013 in reaction to CN's article on July 1, 2013 sacerdotalism on Cwirla's Facebook page. They were a horrible witness.
Cwirla commented on CN's blog:
"Obviously, this article is nothing more than a cheap shot against Pres. Harrison. My name is included just because I'm a convention essayist. The tactic is guilt by association."
Yup, Cwirla's right about the fact that Harrison has said nothing in criticism of Cwirla does not speak well of Harrison.
From the article CN published by Jack Cascione:
"The Convention Chaplain Rev. William Weedon, who once considered joining the Greek Orthodox Church, wrote a glowing review of LCMS Sacerdotalist, Rev. Berthold Von Schenk. He also likes the title Father Weedon."
Weedon commented on Cwirla's Facebook page:
"Weedon has publicly stated more than once he preferred pastor not father. Weedon did seriously consider becoming Orthodox, never Greek though, and years ago recognized that he would believe, confess, and die a Lutheran. Weedon does enjoy Von Schenk's autobiography. Weedon has always been blessed by the writings of Walther (a frequent old Lutheran cited on his blog)."
(The Antiochian Orthodox Church, which some LCMS pastors have left the LCMS for, is in full fellowship with the Greek Orthodox Church.)
In a glowing review of Berthold von Schenk's biography posted on Weedon's blog in 2007, Weedon wrote in part, quoting von Schenk.
“According to St. Paul it is the Eucharistic Community, under the direction of the ordained minister of the church, to manifest the total presence of Christ.”
Weedon commented, "Yes!"
von Schenk was a Sacerdotalist and von Schenk's statement approvingly quoted by Weedon was Sacerdotal. Nobody has really denied this.
CN also provided documentation that von Schenk from von Schenk's own writings was a theological liberal who did not support biblical inerrancy and other essential doctrines. von Schenk didn't even agree with Martin Luther in his stand with Zwingli on the Lord's Supper. Ironically, the concept that von Schenk promoted some correct doctrine and practice on the Lord's Supper is widely accepted. The facts do not show that that is the case. Nobody has really denied that von Schenk was a liberal.
On Cwirla's Facebook page, Cwirla likened CN to a fart, unrepentant sinner, etc. Numerous writers on Cwirla's Facebook page floated the idea of suing CN with the purpose of shutting down CN. (There would be no basis for it.) Cwirla has not been similarly critical of the theological liberalism of von Schenk. There are also numerous LCMS voices supporting Roman Catholics (Richard Neuhaus is the most visible example) and Cwirla has not been critical of that (Cwirla himself has favorably eulogized Neuhaus,
http://wmcwirla.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/richard-john-neuhaus-1936-2009/, "Richard John Neuhaus fell asleep in Jesus today. He was among America’s most provocative thinkers, writers, theologians, and pastors." William M. Cwirla). The first executive director (Dan Woodring) of the Higher Things youth organization, which Cwirla is also on the Board of Directors of and has been a leader of, converted to Roman Catholicism. Higher Things has sometimes said and done published some good things, but a major thrust of the group is to constantly warn against Evangelicals and thus it's hardly that surprising that a leader of HT became Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism advocates an openly Sacerdotal view of the ministry. as well as other false teachings, i.e., indulgences (this does not mean that Christians within the Roman Catholic Church who truly believe in Jesus Christ are not saved in spite of errors to be found in the Roman Church).
The online encyclopedia Wikipedia comments, correctly, "Lutherans reject sacerdotalism. They hold that the New Testament presents only one atoning sacrifice, the Body of Christ offered once for all on the cross by Christ himself, who is both the sinless offering and the sinless priest."
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Sacerdotalist Taking Over the LCMS
By Jack Cascione
Christian News, July 1, 2013
“What is a Sacerdotalist?” you ask. Two definitions are as follows:
Merriam Webster: Sacerdotalism - Religious belief emphasizing the powers of priests as essential mediators between God and humankind.
Dictionary.com: Sacerdotal - Relating to a doctrine that ascribes spiritual or supernatural powers to ordained priests.
“Who believes this false doctrine?” - The Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, the ELCA, and many clergy in the LCMS.
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod at its founding rejected this false doctrine and adopted C. F. W. Walther’s book “Church and Ministry” as the official doctrine and practice of the LCMS. Walther’s “Church and Ministry” quotes the Bible, the Lutheran Confessions, Luther and other church fathers in support of congregational polity and voter supremacy.
After a 5-year struggle the 2001 LCMC Convention reaffirmed Walther’s “Church and Ministry” as the official doctrine and practice of the LCMS in Resolution 7-17A. After the untimely death of A. L. Barry, the Convention also elected Gerald Kieschnick as president when Christian News exposed Dr. Dean Wenthe’s refusal to endorse Walther’s “Church and Ministry.”
Kieschnick, a District President, was obsessed with the Church-Growth board-of-directors model of congregational government and was theologically incompetent. The LCMS lost a quarter million members during his presidency. Board-directed polity disenfranchises voters’ assemblies in the name of corporate efficiency versus sacerdotal clergy who disenfranchise voters’ assemblies in the name of God. Regrettably Robert Kuhn and Daniel Preus both refused to allow their names to stand for election in 2001.
Now in 2013 the pendulum has swung all the way back from Church-Growth mentality to Sacerdotal-Episcopal hierarchy.
The Rev. William Cwirla is scheduled to be an essayist at the 2013 Convention. In 2001 Pastor Cwirla testified before Committee 7 that adopting Walther’s “Church and Ministry” was against the Gospel. He and many other pastors condemned Walther’s book from the Convention floor.
The Convention Chaplain Rev. William Weedon, who once considered joining the Greek Orthodox Church, wrote a glowing review of LCMS Sacerdotalist Rev. Berthold Von Schenk’s biography. He also likes the tile “Father Weedon.”
You may ask, “What is this attraction to Sacerdotalism? By the late 1980s many LCMS pastors became painfully aware that women suffrage (adopted in 1969) and voter polity do not mix. LCMS congregational administration was in meltdown. Difficult decisions often brought voters into conflict with each others’ marriages. The clergy divided on two solutions. Many adopted the closed-meeting corporate board-of-directors model for church administration. Others decided that Walther was wrong and ordination is a sacrament for clergy on the order of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They follow early church father Ignatius’s dictum as published in the 2007 Fort Wayne Cornerstone, “Wherever the bishop appears, there let the congregation be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”
Now every time a congregation issues a call, they have to ask themselves “Did we get a CEO or Bishop?” The WELS and ELS have avoided much of the chaos and maintained congregational polity by preserving male suffrage even though the WELS believes Synod is church.
In 2005 LCMS Sacerdotalists rewrote the Lutheran Confessions until the Wisconsin Synod published a scathing expose and CPH was forced to publish 16 pages of corrections as a paste-in addendum. In the fallout Paul McCain was demoted, Harrison gave Mark Sell a position in LCMS World Relief, and others were no longer asked to work for CPH.
Now, LCMS President Matthew Harrison has retranslated Walther’s “Church and Ministry” before the 2013 Convention to say that the Synod is Church. In LCMS doctrine [not WELS], if the Synod is Church, Harrison is the Pastor of the LCMS and is the chief administrator of the Office of the Keys in the LCMS. In other words Harrison has turned the Synod from being an advisory organization to a divine church body.
Now that the 2010 Convention has adopted the District Presidents’ plan to “reorganize” the Synod there isn’t anything the delegates can do to reaffirm congregational polity and voter supremacy. The delegates can’t vote, they can’t speak at the floor committees, and they can’t bring up “controversial” resolutions from the floor. The District Presidents have removed the evils of politics from the LCMS Convention by instituting COP dictatorship. Many Americans may also presumably prefer to remove the politics out of Congress by making the President the supreme leader. Lazy laypeople have said, “Let the COP do it.”
During the drama, politics, and conflict of the 2001 Convention (this is how real men make decisions) Floor Committee 7 Chairman, Montana District President Doctor George Wollenburg, directed the entire adoption process of 7-17A through two stormy 45-minute sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. In the midst of heated debate, Wollenburg held up a copy of “Church and Ministry” over his head and shouted, “This is Synod’s Magna Charta.”
Walther’s “Church and Ministry” was adopted 73.1% to 26.9%.
In 1999, at the Fort Wayne Symposium, this writer, after significant resistance from other pastors, including the current LCMS President, asked the sainted LCMS President, A. L. Barry, with some 700 in attendance, “What is the Synod’s official position on Church and Ministry?” When Barry answered that it was Walther’s “Church and Ministry” no one applauded as they had for his answers to other questions.
A few months later, a survey was sent to both seminary faculties, asking if they supported Walther’s position that the congregational assembly was the final tribunal in the congregation. Only six from Fort Wayne and three from St. Louis agreed. Many from St. Louis would not reply.
In three successive Symposium banquets at Fort Wayne, this writer was the primary subject of derision and humorous ridicule for publicly defending Walther’s “Church and Ministry.” They were led in song by the current LCMS President and current President of the Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne.
In 2008 Harrison apologized for his behavior and said he now supported Walther’s position. We made him the featured speaker at the Walther Conference.
It appears that Harrison has changed his mind again.
What choice does the Convention have? Either the Synod will be bled dry by District President-CEOs or led back to Rome by paternalistic Bishops.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Why I Am A Trinitarian
From Devotions on the Apostles Creed
by Peter Krey
Christian News, June 24, 2013
A Trinitarian is a person who believes: “There is one God, there are three Persons; these three are one God; and of these three Persons none is the first, none is the last, none is the greatest, none is the smallest, but all three Persons are equally eternal and equally great; yet there are not three Gods, but one God.”
This three-one concept of God is wholly unknown and unspoken of outside of true Christianity. It is distinctly Christian, embodied in every Creed of Christendom.
The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed state it thus: “I believe in God the Father...I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son.. I believe in the Holy Ghost.”
The Athanasian Creed has it this way: “We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.”
The Augsburg Confession published in 1530 declares: “There is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God, eternal without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are co-eternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
I am a Trinitarian, then, because I am a Christian. I could not be a Christian without being a Trinitarian. As a Christian I believe that God is a Triune Being. I believe this, not because I have reasoned it out or discovered it for myself, for this mystery of three Persons being one and the same Divine Being without being parts of it, is beyond human comprehension; I believe it because God has so revealed Himself to man in Holy Scripture, and the sacred writings of the Old and the New Testament Scripture are to me God’s eternal truth. No man has ever proved the contrary nor ever will, for “the Scripture cannot be broken”, Jesus says, referring to a single word in one of the psalms. John 10:35.
I am a Trinitarian because the Bible teaches both the Trinity and the Unity of God. The Bible teaches, there is one God. “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God (Gods) is one LORD.” Deut. 6:4. “There is none other God but one.” 1 Cor. 8:4. “There is one God,” or rather, “One is God”. 1 Tim. 2:5. The Bible also teaches the plurality of Persons in God. “And God said, Let us make man in our image.” Gen. 1:26. “The LORD bless thee and keep thee; the LORD make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; the LORD lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”
Num. 6:24: “from the time that it was there am I; and now the LORD God and His Spirit hast sent me.” Is. 48:16. Turning to the New Testament we read Matthew 28:19: “Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” In his last discourse Jesus says, John 15:26: “When the COMFORTER is come, whom I will send unto you from the FATHER, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.” And the apostolic benediction is well known: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” 2 Cor. 13:14.
That the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three distinct Persons is evident also from the narrative of the Baptism of Christ recorded in Matthew 3. The Father proclaims Himself in the voice from heaven: “This is my beloveth Son in Whom I am well pleased.” The Son is visibly present as He stands in the river Jordan. The Holy Ghost descends upon the Son from above in the likeness of a dove.
These three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are, in many passages both of the Old and the New Testament, declared to be equally powerful and equally eternal. All three Persons receive in Scripture in an equal degree that honor and adoration which is due only to the Creator of all things, the Lord of heaven and earth. The entire and absolute equality in rank of the Father and the Son is proclaimed in Is. 9:6, where He is called “The Mighty God.” The omniscience of the Holy Ghost is attested in 1 Cor. 2:10, where it is written in Him: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God.”
I am a Trinitarian because the Bible teaches me that there are three Divine Persons each of Whom is God only one Divine Being. This triuneness of three-oneness of God is an incomprehensible mystery to my mind, for the mystery does not lie in the numerical term one-three, but in the relation of the three Persons to each other, the manner in which they are united into one Godhead. The Trinitarian concept of God, places the Divine Being beyond the reach of the imagination of any creature. It puts God where God belongs, into the realm of infinity where all human understanding ceases to function, where the creature is lost in awe and admiration, where man must worship and adore. The true God must be a God whom I cannot comprehend, whom I can only worship and adore, or He is not the true God. A God whom my mind can measure and of whom I can say: This is God and this is how he lives and functions, I could not truly worship, and therefore, such a God could never be the true God; he could only be a God of my own creative imagination. All pagan idols and false gods are of this caliber. They are but men, or things, or ideas, to whom men ascribe superior powers. But the Triune God of Holy Scripture is, in the awe inspiring mystery of His Being, far above all human calculations, a God before Whom all the inhabitants of the earth must stand in away; a Being altogether and alone worthy of adoration and worship.
I am a Trinitarian also because among all the gods that men worship the Triune God alone completely fills my needs and expectations of God, to be my God, must have created me and given me life and being; He must also, to be truly my God, whom I can love and trust, have redeemed me from sin, death, and hell; He must move and lead on to holiness in life with the final outlook of a perfect and happy immortality; and He must, to be truly my God whom I can worship and adore, do all these things for me purely out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in me. He must be that Being who alone is perfect and who alone can say “I AM.” Such a God is the Triune God of Holy Scripture, whose name is “I AM THAT I AM.”... “I AM the Lord, the Creator... I AM He that blotteth out thy transgressions...Before Abraham was I AM... I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life...I AM the Good Shepherd...I AM the Resurrection and the life... I AM Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last...”
The Triune God is ineffably sublime in the Trinity and Unity of His Essence, in the absoluteness of His existence, in the perfection of His holiness and glory, in the scope of His power and wisdom, and in the breathtaking condescension of his love and grace. He is truly a God who calls forth in me adoration, worship, and unending praise. Therefore I am a Trinitarian, and I join spontaneously in the doxology of millions of my fellow - creatures:
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
by Peter Krey
Christian News, June 24, 2013
A Trinitarian is a person who believes: “There is one God, there are three Persons; these three are one God; and of these three Persons none is the first, none is the last, none is the greatest, none is the smallest, but all three Persons are equally eternal and equally great; yet there are not three Gods, but one God.”
This three-one concept of God is wholly unknown and unspoken of outside of true Christianity. It is distinctly Christian, embodied in every Creed of Christendom.
The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed state it thus: “I believe in God the Father...I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son.. I believe in the Holy Ghost.”
The Athanasian Creed has it this way: “We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.”
The Augsburg Confession published in 1530 declares: “There is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God, eternal without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are co-eternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
I am a Trinitarian, then, because I am a Christian. I could not be a Christian without being a Trinitarian. As a Christian I believe that God is a Triune Being. I believe this, not because I have reasoned it out or discovered it for myself, for this mystery of three Persons being one and the same Divine Being without being parts of it, is beyond human comprehension; I believe it because God has so revealed Himself to man in Holy Scripture, and the sacred writings of the Old and the New Testament Scripture are to me God’s eternal truth. No man has ever proved the contrary nor ever will, for “the Scripture cannot be broken”, Jesus says, referring to a single word in one of the psalms. John 10:35.
I am a Trinitarian because the Bible teaches both the Trinity and the Unity of God. The Bible teaches, there is one God. “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God (Gods) is one LORD.” Deut. 6:4. “There is none other God but one.” 1 Cor. 8:4. “There is one God,” or rather, “One is God”. 1 Tim. 2:5. The Bible also teaches the plurality of Persons in God. “And God said, Let us make man in our image.” Gen. 1:26. “The LORD bless thee and keep thee; the LORD make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; the LORD lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace.”
Num. 6:24: “from the time that it was there am I; and now the LORD God and His Spirit hast sent me.” Is. 48:16. Turning to the New Testament we read Matthew 28:19: “Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” In his last discourse Jesus says, John 15:26: “When the COMFORTER is come, whom I will send unto you from the FATHER, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.” And the apostolic benediction is well known: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” 2 Cor. 13:14.
That the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three distinct Persons is evident also from the narrative of the Baptism of Christ recorded in Matthew 3. The Father proclaims Himself in the voice from heaven: “This is my beloveth Son in Whom I am well pleased.” The Son is visibly present as He stands in the river Jordan. The Holy Ghost descends upon the Son from above in the likeness of a dove.
These three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are, in many passages both of the Old and the New Testament, declared to be equally powerful and equally eternal. All three Persons receive in Scripture in an equal degree that honor and adoration which is due only to the Creator of all things, the Lord of heaven and earth. The entire and absolute equality in rank of the Father and the Son is proclaimed in Is. 9:6, where He is called “The Mighty God.” The omniscience of the Holy Ghost is attested in 1 Cor. 2:10, where it is written in Him: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God.”
I am a Trinitarian because the Bible teaches me that there are three Divine Persons each of Whom is God only one Divine Being. This triuneness of three-oneness of God is an incomprehensible mystery to my mind, for the mystery does not lie in the numerical term one-three, but in the relation of the three Persons to each other, the manner in which they are united into one Godhead. The Trinitarian concept of God, places the Divine Being beyond the reach of the imagination of any creature. It puts God where God belongs, into the realm of infinity where all human understanding ceases to function, where the creature is lost in awe and admiration, where man must worship and adore. The true God must be a God whom I cannot comprehend, whom I can only worship and adore, or He is not the true God. A God whom my mind can measure and of whom I can say: This is God and this is how he lives and functions, I could not truly worship, and therefore, such a God could never be the true God; he could only be a God of my own creative imagination. All pagan idols and false gods are of this caliber. They are but men, or things, or ideas, to whom men ascribe superior powers. But the Triune God of Holy Scripture is, in the awe inspiring mystery of His Being, far above all human calculations, a God before Whom all the inhabitants of the earth must stand in away; a Being altogether and alone worthy of adoration and worship.
I am a Trinitarian also because among all the gods that men worship the Triune God alone completely fills my needs and expectations of God, to be my God, must have created me and given me life and being; He must also, to be truly my God, whom I can love and trust, have redeemed me from sin, death, and hell; He must move and lead on to holiness in life with the final outlook of a perfect and happy immortality; and He must, to be truly my God whom I can worship and adore, do all these things for me purely out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in me. He must be that Being who alone is perfect and who alone can say “I AM.” Such a God is the Triune God of Holy Scripture, whose name is “I AM THAT I AM.”... “I AM the Lord, the Creator... I AM He that blotteth out thy transgressions...Before Abraham was I AM... I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life...I AM the Good Shepherd...I AM the Resurrection and the life... I AM Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last...”
The Triune God is ineffably sublime in the Trinity and Unity of His Essence, in the absoluteness of His existence, in the perfection of His holiness and glory, in the scope of His power and wisdom, and in the breathtaking condescension of his love and grace. He is truly a God who calls forth in me adoration, worship, and unending praise. Therefore I am a Trinitarian, and I join spontaneously in the doxology of millions of my fellow - creatures:
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
ALPB’s Lutheran Forum - CTCR Document Approved Newtown
Christian News, June 26, 2013
“After Newtown,” an article by Rev. Paul Robert Sauer, second vice-president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri synod’s Atlantic District and Associate Editor of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau’s Lutheran Forum, says:
“There is very little positive that can be taken away from the recent uproar in the Missouri Synod over the participation of one of its pastors, Rob Morris, in a community service following the Sandy Hook School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Conservatives are upset that discipline was not meted out in what was for them a clear violation of biblical and constitutional injunctions against unionism and syncretism. Moderates are upset that a pastor would even be asked to apologize for participating in what our own Commission on Theology and Church Relations document deems permissible. The great middle of Missouri was forced to shrug their heads yet again as once more the Synod became known in the wider public only for what it is against and the tremendous dysfunction with which it seems to operate.”
“The level of division and entrenchment on each side, coupled with the dismissive attitude toward synodical resolutions and synodical leadership statements that so many in the Missouri Synod seem to have, indicate how daunting the Koinonia task will be. Beyond the theological divides in Missouri that have yet again been exposed and that invariably become the focus of all the argumentation, the larger unspoken problem obvious to everyone- except those inside Missouri- is a systematic organizational dysfunction that threatens to derail any attempt at reasonable theological discussion, to say nothing of forging genuine 'Koinonia.’”
Morris contacted his ecclesiastical supervisor and was given permission to participate in the Newtown community service on the basis of the Synod-commended 2004 CTCR document on civic events. What has been lost in the discussion of Morris's participation in the community service is that our Synod has spoken on this issue, albeit with a divided voice, and that Morris's participation was within those bounds. Individuals are free to dissent from Synod's position and may have the theological wherewithal to make a case against it, but they certainly lack the ecclesiastical authority to demand that others conform to their own personal views on the issue.
“Sadly, Harrison, with the best motivation at heart in attempting to let charity prevail in the Missouri Synod, overstepped his own authority in asking Morris to apologize for something that Synod documents say he was permitted to do.”
“No matter how well grounded in history and theology they may have been, Harrison’s views were not the position of the Missouri Synod at the time when decisions about Morris’s participation were made. Arguably, there was an additional overstepping of the bounds when Harrison operated outside of the normal ecclesiastical structure by asking Morris to apologize – an ecclesial right which belongs, according to Missouri Synod polity, not to Harrison but to Yeadon, Morris’s district president.”
“At the end of the day, the final arbiter remains the individual, disconnected from the consultation of the wider church. That is the very antithesis of what Harrison hopes to accomplish with Koinonia, and that is why I was grateful at his churchmanship in apologizing for the way the situation was handled.”
“Notes
1. As this article was being written, synodical nominations for president and vice-presidents have just been announced. It is remarkable how few congregations engaged in the nominations process. Although it is outside of the purview of this particular treatment of Missouri’s dysfunction, I can’t help but wonder how much of the ongoing dysfunction has caused congregations to simply ‘check out’ of Synod politics all together.”
(CN editor: “Note “Is Lutheran Forum Really a Lutheran Forum for All Sides,” CN January 5, 2009.” “Hinlicky Judges Heart of CN Editor – Lutheran Forum Refuses to Debate Inerrancy of Bible,” CN May 20, 1991. The ALPB has long promoted women pastors and evolution and has denied the inerrancy of the Bible. ELCA clergyperson Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is the editor of Lutheran Forum. Father Richard Neuhaus had been an editor of Lutheran Forum. Rev. James Loken, a homosexual, was long a columnist for Lutheran Forum. The Lutheran Forum said the editor of CN was “A Jew hater.” It’s predecessor insisted the CN editor was “out for blood.” The ALPB published Lively Stone, the autobiography of Berthold von Schenk in which he denies the basic doctrine of Christianity).
“After Newtown,” an article by Rev. Paul Robert Sauer, second vice-president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri synod’s Atlantic District and Associate Editor of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau’s Lutheran Forum, says:
“There is very little positive that can be taken away from the recent uproar in the Missouri Synod over the participation of one of its pastors, Rob Morris, in a community service following the Sandy Hook School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Conservatives are upset that discipline was not meted out in what was for them a clear violation of biblical and constitutional injunctions against unionism and syncretism. Moderates are upset that a pastor would even be asked to apologize for participating in what our own Commission on Theology and Church Relations document deems permissible. The great middle of Missouri was forced to shrug their heads yet again as once more the Synod became known in the wider public only for what it is against and the tremendous dysfunction with which it seems to operate.”
“The level of division and entrenchment on each side, coupled with the dismissive attitude toward synodical resolutions and synodical leadership statements that so many in the Missouri Synod seem to have, indicate how daunting the Koinonia task will be. Beyond the theological divides in Missouri that have yet again been exposed and that invariably become the focus of all the argumentation, the larger unspoken problem obvious to everyone- except those inside Missouri- is a systematic organizational dysfunction that threatens to derail any attempt at reasonable theological discussion, to say nothing of forging genuine 'Koinonia.’”
Morris contacted his ecclesiastical supervisor and was given permission to participate in the Newtown community service on the basis of the Synod-commended 2004 CTCR document on civic events. What has been lost in the discussion of Morris's participation in the community service is that our Synod has spoken on this issue, albeit with a divided voice, and that Morris's participation was within those bounds. Individuals are free to dissent from Synod's position and may have the theological wherewithal to make a case against it, but they certainly lack the ecclesiastical authority to demand that others conform to their own personal views on the issue.
“Sadly, Harrison, with the best motivation at heart in attempting to let charity prevail in the Missouri Synod, overstepped his own authority in asking Morris to apologize for something that Synod documents say he was permitted to do.”
“No matter how well grounded in history and theology they may have been, Harrison’s views were not the position of the Missouri Synod at the time when decisions about Morris’s participation were made. Arguably, there was an additional overstepping of the bounds when Harrison operated outside of the normal ecclesiastical structure by asking Morris to apologize – an ecclesial right which belongs, according to Missouri Synod polity, not to Harrison but to Yeadon, Morris’s district president.”
“At the end of the day, the final arbiter remains the individual, disconnected from the consultation of the wider church. That is the very antithesis of what Harrison hopes to accomplish with Koinonia, and that is why I was grateful at his churchmanship in apologizing for the way the situation was handled.”
“Notes
1. As this article was being written, synodical nominations for president and vice-presidents have just been announced. It is remarkable how few congregations engaged in the nominations process. Although it is outside of the purview of this particular treatment of Missouri’s dysfunction, I can’t help but wonder how much of the ongoing dysfunction has caused congregations to simply ‘check out’ of Synod politics all together.”
(CN editor: “Note “Is Lutheran Forum Really a Lutheran Forum for All Sides,” CN January 5, 2009.” “Hinlicky Judges Heart of CN Editor – Lutheran Forum Refuses to Debate Inerrancy of Bible,” CN May 20, 1991. The ALPB has long promoted women pastors and evolution and has denied the inerrancy of the Bible. ELCA clergyperson Sarah Hinlicky Wilson is the editor of Lutheran Forum. Father Richard Neuhaus had been an editor of Lutheran Forum. Rev. James Loken, a homosexual, was long a columnist for Lutheran Forum. The Lutheran Forum said the editor of CN was “A Jew hater.” It’s predecessor insisted the CN editor was “out for blood.” The ALPB published Lively Stone, the autobiography of Berthold von Schenk in which he denies the basic doctrine of Christianity).
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Why I Am A Christian
by Peter Krey
Christian News, June 17, 2013
Strange as it may sound, I am not a Christian by my own choice and volition. It is generally believed that becoming a Christian is a matter of one’s own choice.
A person joins a church, any church, and thereby becomes a Christian. But is the matter as simple as that? Can one join the “one, holy, Christian church”, as one joins a social club? Does membership in a church make one a Christian? A person decides with himself to live a better life, or to follow the example of Christ.
Does that volition make him a Christian? The answer is No. No one ever became a Christian by his own free choice and will. To become a Christian involves the believing acceptance of all that the Bible teaches about man and about God. But the Bible teaches that man is a fallen creature wholly unable by himself to turn to God, that is, to trust in God and to love him and do what is morally good in the sight of God. Man, the Bible teaches, is totally self-centered and hostile to God and to his fellowman. The natural state of man’s mind is one of opposition to God; a fact admitted by psychoanalysts today. But St. Paul stated it long ago in these words: “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” Rom. 8:7. Because of this ingrained opposition to God man cannot by his own reasoning or volition turn to God in love and confidence. He can only have an abject fear for God. All non-Christians worship of God flows from fear. Abject fear of the Deity is the basis of all pagan worship. Natural man because of the judgment of conscience either flees from God or defies Him. His whole form of worship, if he has any, is but an endeavor to appease the wrath of an angry God with “good works” or self-imposed punishments and privations.
He can proceed no farther in his approach to God. He cannot under any circumstances overcome his guilt-feelings toward God and make himself believe that God is merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
That God as a holy God and a God of love should Himself make atonement for man’s guilt by bearing the punishment of his sin and thus be free to justify man by grace does not occur to man’s mind. The very idea is so foreign to his thoughts and state of mind, that, when confronted with it, he rejects it as foolishness. 1 Cor. 1:18,23; 2:14. Yet, that exactly is the heart of Christianity “that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” That is the essence of the Christian religion that the Son of God became man to be “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities” and to die for our sins, and that therefore man is justified before God his Maker by faith in Jesus Christ his proxy and Redeemer. This divine truth, revealed to man in Holy Scripture, is a stumbling block to the Jews and the self-righteous and foolishness to the Greek and the worldly wise; and this; that God should die on a shameful tree for my sins is also foolishness to my natural mind. I am innately opposed to it.
That I now believe it is therefore not due to any decision of my own volition or reasoning it is the work of God in me. I am a Christian because God made me one.
It was not my choice. He conquered my hostility and persuaded me. He made me willing and caused me to believe in Jesus Christ my Lord. With Luther I must confess: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” I am a Christian because the Holy Ghost has called me to faith by the Gospel, by the good news that God has forgiven me in Christ. This Gospel is the Word of God the Holy Ghost and therefore has the inherent power to call my heart out of unbelief to faith in Christ my Lord.
I am a Christian because the Holy Ghost has enlightened my mind with His gifts. He has by the Gospel given me the knowledge and assurance that Jesus is my Savior from sin, death, and damnation; and He has filled my heart with the joy and peace that accompanies such knowledge. I am a Christian because the Holy Ghost has renewed my heart. By bringing me to faith through the Gospel He has given me the power to hate and abandon evil and the strength to love and to strive for that which is good and pleasing to God.
I am a Christian because I came in contact with the Gospel, the glad tidings of God’s redeeming love and forgiving grace in Christ Jesus, either in my youth through Holy Baptism or by the instruction of my parents and teachers, or, if later in life, through the Gospel-ministry of the church or the reading of the Bible or Christian literature.
Somewhere along life’s way I came in contact with the Gospel of the grace of God, and somewhere along this line of contact the Holy Ghost caused me to believe by breaking up the darkness of my unbelieving heart with the light of the knowledge that Jesus is my Lord and with the assurance of faith that He is the propitiation for my sins, and not for mine only but also for the sins of the whole world.
I am a Christian, not by my own free will or right reasoning, or good conduct; I am a Christian because God made me one of His dear children through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, my Lord.
As it is written: “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.” 1 Cor. 12:3. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”... “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 2:8,10.
Every believing Christian will confess with the great apostle, “By the grace of God I am what I am” -a Christian.
I was made a Christian
When my name was given,
One of God’s dear children
And an heir of heaven.
In the name of Christian I
will glory now.
Evermore remember My
Baptismal vow.
I must, like a Christian,
Shun all evil ways,
Keep the faith of Jesus,
Serve Him all my days.
Called to be a Christian, I
will praise the Lord,
Seek for His assistance So
to keep my word.
All a Christian’s blessings
I will claim for mine:
Holy work and worship,
Fellowship Divine.
Father, Son, and Spirit,
Give me grace, that I
Still may live a Christian
And a Christian die.
When my name was given,
One of God’s dear children
And an heir of heaven.
In the name of Christian I
will glory now.
Evermore remember My
Baptismal vow.
I must, like a Christian,
Shun all evil ways,
Keep the faith of Jesus,
Serve Him all my days.
Called to be a Christian, I
will praise the Lord,
Seek for His assistance So
to keep my word.
All a Christian’s blessings
I will claim for mine:
Holy work and worship,
Fellowship Divine.
Father, Son, and Spirit,
Give me grace, that I
Still may live a Christian
And a Christian die.
Devotions on the Apostle’s Creed -Why I Am A Christian and Other Writings. By Peter Krey. Published by Lutheran News, Inc. 684 Luther Lane, New Haven, Missouri. 2005. 299 pp. $9.99.
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