Still Justified by Faith Alone, Apart from Works of the Law

Sermon preached at Clam Falls Lutheran Church, Clam Falls, WI., Oct. 29, 2023.

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“For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

– Romans 3:28

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Why are we Lutheran? Why not just Christian?

There is no better time to ask that than Reformation Day, or this Sunday before that day, which falls on All Hallow’s Eve, this Tuesday.  

Some time ago now, about one thousand years ago, the church used to be one. One visible body. 

Where were the vast majority of people who said they believed in the content of the Christian creeds? 

The Apostle’s and Nicene and Athanasian Creeds? 

They, basically, could be found in one institution…

One. 

Yes, the church had always had to deal with relatively small break-off groups…

And there was that very dark time in the church in the fourth century with the heretic Arius… before the brave Athanasius took his stand, who stated that, if need be, he would be against the whole world in asserting the full divinity of the Son of God!

But for the most part, the church was one body, catholic, that is universal – being found across the nations. 

Then there was the Eastern schism some 1000 years ago, when the Eastern churches split from Rome, the Western half of the church.

Following this, about 500 years ago, the Protestant Reformation occurred, with Rome expelling Martin Luther and then other Protestants for their perceived rebellion. 

In John 17, as Jesus prayed for His twelve Apostles, or “sent ones”, in the Garden of Gethsemene, he also said this about us, those who would believe in Him because of the Apostle’s mission: 

“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

These words are hard for us as Christians living at this time in history to deal with. 

Was the Reformation necessary? 

If it was a necessity – even one that God deemed necessary – was it a tragic necessity? 

Or, should we, perhaps feeling some blame for causing a rupture in the body, feel some shame for being Lutherans?

All good questions.

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One of the most important figures in the Christian church after the death of the Apostles was the great 4th century church father from Carthage, St. Augustine. 

He is a man that during the tumultuous years of the Reformation in the 16th century everyone wanted on their side.

Regarding his own spiritual awakening, later in life after being raised as a child in the church, he said this:

“I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not bid me to do so.”

In like fashion:

“For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.”

In Luther’s day, some of the top defenders of Rome in the Roman Catholic Church were saying that they were the ones who rightly understood and followed Augustine here. 

You see, even admirable men like Sir Thomas More (see the excellent movie A Man for All Seasons!) said that since the church basically owned the Bible they could decide how it was to be used and interpreted!

Some of Rome’s highest-ranking theologians, like the Court theologian Prieras for example, even claimed the authority of the Gospel existed because of the Pope’s authority. He stated: 

“In its irrefragable and divine judgment the church’s authority is greater than the authority of Scripture…the authority of the Roman Pontiff…is greater than the authority of the Gospel, since because of it we believe in the Gospels.”)” (see Tavard’s Holy Writ on Holy Church)…

This, to say the least, is a far cry from what Augustine meant. 

He, for one – like many others before and after him – also said things like, “Let us… yield ourselves and bow to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, which can neither err nor deceive…”

For him, the authority of the church was embodied in the living tradition, admittedly spearheaded by the Pope, and that was because the Scriptures were also the ultimate wellspring of that authority, the sum and substance of that authority.  

God’s word had created the Church, and the Church, in it’s truly God-given authority, had recognized, and zealously guarded and passed down its primary tradition, the Holy Scriptures.

It was in this sense that it, “the household of God”, was, as even the Apostle Paul put it, the “ground and pillar of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15)…

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I mentioned earlier the word “institution’.

When you hear the word institution, your mind might go to things like schools, companies, the military, and other political, well, institutions…

What does the word “institution” mean? One key definition is “an established organization or corporation of a public character specifically”.

I bring up institutions because in God’s reckoning, the main institutions he establishes are the family, through the institution of marriage, and the church, the marriage of Christ and His bride, all His believers. 

And then, after the fall, we also have the thing we sometimes love to hate, but generally have a love-hate relationship with, the worldly governments that derive their authority from the family, particularly the fathers. 

Men always receive the gift of authority from real earthly institutions, real institutions that have been given jobs, God-given jobs, to do and fulfill. 

So, yes, in spite of all the concerns many of us have about freedom and even our “authenticity” today, we all need authority in our lives, and here, especially today, it is critical to distinguish between authority and power. 

For simply exercising the latter, power, is not necessarily to be an authority or to act with authority… 

Why is this? Because authority and truth always must go hand in hand. 

Authorities can lead and guide – and not merely exercise force – because they, at their best, act in accordance with reality as all must, with the truths and institutions that God has formed and established.

And the church in Luther’s day was failing, to say the least. In his day, the Pope was going so far as to say things like “since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it.” 

Clearly, here was a leader of God’s church who – so taken up with worldly power – was culpably ignorant of not understanding what God really intended for him to do. 

Still, did this alone give anyone in the church the right to start a revolution, to rebel? 

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No. 

And Luther, believe it or not, understood this well, even if today few do. 

At one point, he said, “nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel.” 

Think about King Saul in the Old Testament….

He had not only disobeyed God repeatedly, showing himself to be unworthy of his office, but David himself had been told by God Himself that he would be king! 

Nevertheless, when twice given the opportunity to take Saul’s life, David refused to raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed. 

Here, “there’s an expression of honor, faith, and institutional permanence there that is sorely lacking today.”

I suggest it is a biblical fact like this that caused a fourteenth-century Italian Christian laywoman, Catherine of Sienna, to say the following: 

“Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise up our heads against him, but calmly lie down to rest on his bosom. He who rebels against our Father is condemned to death, for that which we do to him we do to Christ: we honor Christ if we honor the Pope; we dishonor Christ if we dishonor the Pope. I know very well that many defend themselves by boasting: ‘They are so corrupt, and work all manner of evil!’ But God has commanded that, even if the priests, the pastors, and Christ-on-earth were incarnate devils, we be obedient and subject to them, not for their sakes, but for the sake of God, and out of obedience to Him.”

Perhaps our skepticism is really rearing up here, particularly since we are Americans: 

What sheer madness is this? 

How can any person have such a, well, medieval, view of authority?!

Well, was not Jesus Himself a man of these past times as well?

Did not our Lord say that the Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat – that is, the literal, physical seat in the synagogues from which the Scriptures were read – and that His followers therefore should do what they say, even as they should not do as they do?

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Did Luther understand this too? Or did he bring something new? 

He did understand this, and he brought nothing new.

We can therefore never emphasize enough that Luther and the “Lutherans” – Rome’s term of abuse – never intended to leave the Roman Catholic Church but were ejected by them.

It excommunicated the troublesome professor and friar and in effect condemned him to death in this world (and the next).

It was only then – after he had for months been writing the Holy Father kind letters – that he dared, in righteous indignation, to burn the Papal Bull announcing his condemnation.

And then, over and against their Roman Catholic opponents, the claim of these “first evangelicals” who agreed with Luther was not that they were doing anything new, but that their teachings truly were “holy, catholic and apostolic…” 

“The churches among us do not dissent from the catholic church in any article of faith,” they insisted. 

One hundred years later, the 17th century Lutheran John Gerhard (On the Church, p. 139) could say, evidently with a straight face:

“If the confession of true doctrine and the legitimate use of the Sacraments had been left free for us, perhaps we would not have departed from the external fellowship of the Roman church.” 

Why did Luther not simply suffer his fate? 

Recognize the Pope’s authority in the church? 

Do as they said but not as they did?…

Well, of course, a lot of major issues had been going on for several hundred years, and the problems did not start with him. 

In addition to the nonsense about the role the Scriptures played in the church, the Pope had insisted he had full authority over temporal political matters and one had to believe this to be saved.

Priests were forbidden to marry, in direct contradiction to Scripture. In conjunction with secular authorities, the offices of the bishops were often given to the highest bidders. 

People became monks specifically because the Roman church taught and promised it was the surest way to achieve salvation by their increased merit. 

Laypersons were told that they could eliminate thousands of years of painful purging fire for their ancestors by “prayerfully” providing donations to the church. 

The Papacy had recently expanded indulgences to include the claim of granting forgiveness itself… 

Also, men and women were given the body of Christ, but not the blood, which was reserved for the clergy. 

In the Mass itself, the priests spoke of re-sacrificing Christ, and achieving salvation through this and other merits…

But, above all, people were told that they could not be certain that they would even be saved… even make it to purgatory (for note that if you got to purgatory, you’d eventually get to heaven…). 

Right around the same time that Luther nailed the 95 theses to the Church doors in Wittenberg, the theologian Johann Altenstaig (in his Vocabularius theologiae, Hagenau 1517) was saying that the devil led people astray by making them think there was good evidence for their being saved.  

“No one, no matter how righteous he may be”, Altenstaig said, “can know with certainty that he is in the state of grace, except by a revelation”.

In like fashion, one of the most important movers and shakers in the church, Cardinal Cajetan, wrote a few weeks before confronting Luther at Augsburg, wrote that “Clearly almost all come to the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist in reverent fear of the Lord and uncertain of being in grace. In fact theologians praise their continuing uncertainty and ordinarily attribute its opposite to presumption or ignorance” (both quotes from Cajetan Responds, a footnote from p. 269 and p. 66).

Cajetan incidently – like all of Rome’s “court theologians” – also placed the authority of the pope above that of a council, Scripture, and everything in the church… 

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In his fateful meeting with Luther in 1518 Cajetan essentially told him that one could never be sure “one’s contrition was sufficient to effect the forgiveness one hoped to receive” (Hendrix, Scott, Luther and the Papacy, Minneapolis: Fortress, 1981, p. 62), 

Luther never looked back.  

He was not about to give up the teaching about confession and absolution that his spiritual father, John Staupitz, had modeled for him and shared with him – and that Luther said had made him a Chrisitan! 

And then, again, when the Pope backed up Cajetan’s views in condemning Luther in his bull, Exsurge Domine…

…nothing more was needed to convince the Reformer that he was dealing with the Antichrist.

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An online Webster’s dictionary says that: 

“In biology, a fissiparous organism is one that produces new individuals by fission; that is, by dividing into separate parts, each of which becomes a unique organism…”

So when the Roman Catholic professor Edward T. Oakes says:

“When the Western Church fissiparated in the sixteen century, the Reformers took a portion of the essential patrimony of the Church with them, and they thereby left both the Roman Church and themselves the poorer for it.”

…he doesn’t know how right that he is… 

I hope I have made somewhat clear to you this morning just what is at stake here.

All of the things that I mentioned above are things that Luther, in his vocation as a pastor and professor, needed to call out! 

Many before him had pointed out the same things, even if they had not dealt so carefully with the burning issue of faith, works, and the place of confession and absolution as it regarded the believer’s peace with God…

Luther was convicted before God that he had to act as he did.

Why, specifically? 

Because these are things that God had given the church to do: to give genuinely terrified consciences – those who knew God’s law rightly accused and condemned them – peace with God. 

And before we get too uncomfortable here, dealing with the matter of confrontation and the necessary sacrifice it may entail…

…it does us well to remember that the Apostle Paul felt the need to confront the Apostle Peter, clearly the head of the Apostles, and Paul himself in turn found his friend and partner Barnabas, strongly disagreeing with him (although certainly respectfully)… and going his own way.

This is why, in part, that same Apostle writes, not opposing the unity Jesus Christ spoke of but rather upholding it: 

“No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval…” (I Cor. 11:19)

So then, “even if one accepts the office of the Pope as Peter’s chair, there’s still a need for faithful opposition – especially when occupied by a devil.” (Matt Cochran).

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We can pray that Rome, today, will learn. 

Many within that church body, of course, read the Holy Scriptures, and with the rise of an antichrist figure of almost ridiculous proportions, Pope Francis, some are increasingly being driven back to that Core Tradition, the Scriptures, in a big way…

I was listening this past week to a radio show by a popular nun, Mother Miriam. She was reading an open letter from a more conservative bishop in Texas  addressing the current Pope’s recent “Synod on Synodality”.

In the course of her reading it, at one point Mother Miriam encouraged those listening by saying that even if a priest, even if a bishop or even if a pope contradicts the teaching of the church, that laypersons were obliged to not obey it… even while recognizing these men’s authority. 

Mother Miriam is just doing her job just like Martin Luther was just doing his job.

On the other hand, the highest visible authority in Christ’s church, the pope – today and then – is and was not doing his job. 

Welcome Mother Miriam, to the Reformation! 

As Luther’s friend, Philip Melanchton put it, even if the Office of the Papacy were specifically established by God Himsef, the Pope would still need to be disobeyed for the sake of the doctrine of justification…

That is, again, the message that brings us true peace with God: For the sake of His Son Jesus Christ, God forgives the penitent all their sins.

The core reason the church exists. 

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You can bet that when Luther insisted that Christians really could be sure that they were Christians – that is, that faith in Jesus Christ could give them certainty, many in Rome were not happy.

For how would the church’s power and influence continue without the offerings from people trying to earn their peace with God? 

But was he really right? 

Did Luther really have the right interpretation of the Bible, translating our text for this morning, Romans 3:28, with “faith alone”? 

Didn’t James say that we are not justified by faith alone? 

And why do Lutherans think they are the only ones who are right and will go to heaven?

Let’s rightly bury those objections in reverse order:

First, I hope you know no Lutheran teachers or preachers say this or have ever said that only Lutherans are going to heaven. On the contrary, we rejoice wherever the Scriptures are treasured and searched. 

One of the main things that you always need to remember is this: we Lutheran’s emphasize that there are true Christians wherever the word of God is preached in its truth and purity. 

Now, obviously, we don’t think that the teachings of every Christian denomination are in full accordance with the truths found in the Bible. At the same time, insofar as people are truly listening and believing in the words of scripture, they will meet Jesus. 

And Jesus Christ, being the center of the Scriptures, brings the forgiveness, life, and salvation that all people need.

Second, James and Paul can be harmonized. 

The Lutheran Confessions therefore say here:

“[The doctrine of justification by faith and not works] should not be understood as though justification and renewal were separated from one another in such a way that genuine faith sometimes could exist and continue for a time together with evil intention…”

Not only this, but we need to see that James is responding to those who consider faith to be something merely like intellectual assent to certain truths, not something that includes genuine trust. 

After all, James even says such faith is something that even demons can have! 

If you read the book of James carefully, you will also immediately note the kinds of things he really has in mind, being the practical fellow that he is: He is specifically dealing with  the way that men will and must show other men that they are really Christians.

You see, God sees the heart, but men must go by outward deeds…

Hence Jesus says that the sinful woman who washes his feet before the Pharisees is God’s forgiven child for the sake of her faith, for she “loved much” before the eyes of faithless men….

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Finally, the last point. 

Luther did have the right interpretation of the Bible. When he translated Romans 3:28 as “faith alone” he was following in a wholly legitimate enterprise. 

A number of church fathers – even some from 1200 years earlier – had also spoken about “faith alone”.

For Paul, clearly, says that we are justified by faith in many places, without mentioning anything else. And in this passage in particular, Romans 3:28, he says that we are justified apart from works of the law.

So when Martin Luther says in his great hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God” “one little word can fell [Satan]” he nails it, he is exactly right.

The one word is Jesus Christ, who saves us utterly.

The book of Romans says that we are saved by Christ’s blood and that we are saved by faith. It is not an either-or but a both-and.

We are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ because we are saved by the grace of God – that is God’s gracious disposition towards us because of Jesus Christ – through faith. 

You see, you can also say we are saved by faith. But if you ask faith about the “Why?” of salvation, it only points to the blood of Jesus Christ! 

For Christ even saves our faith! Though we desire strong faith, we are not saved by the strength of our faith but the strength of our Savior! 

Jesus Christ is the object of our faith, and in fact the real reason for the Reformation. 

Even today, we need to always hear this message about how Jesus Christ is the one who saves us by his grace and mercy, which faith receives.

Never by our works, that, somehow “fueled by God’s grace” – like some high-octane spiritual gasoline – we  merit salvation.

Hence, when we see that it does not rely on us and our works, we can have true peace with God, as the Scriptures make clear (see in particular Romans 5:1 and I John 5:12-13)

The faithful church – no matter how big or small it is – must preach this message, because this is the message it has been given to preach. This is the message it has preached down throughout the ages…

And so, this is a necessity we rightly celebrate today. 

I leave you with a final quote about the just nature of Luther’s stand:

“Being just simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary. For this reason Luther’s phrase: “faith alone” is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love. So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification St Paul speaks of faith that works through love (cf. Gal 5:14).

The speaker promoting Luther’s use of the phrase “faith alone”? 

The former pope, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI.

Amen

With footnotes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uHYC-GGiTQrP29X2HnygM1Kb-EGFSwAXdPL8tuVaBDw/edit?usp=sharing 

 

The Terror and Comfort in Knowing God is Behind Everything

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Sermon preached at Lutheran Church of the Triune God, Brooklyn Center, MN., Oct. 22, 2023.

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“I am the Lord, and there is no other.

 I form the light and create darkness,

  I bring prosperity and create disaster;

  I, the Lord, do all these things.”

– Isaiah 45:6b-7

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In his classic 1525 work The Bondage of the Will, the 16th-century church reformer Martin Luther contrasted the God of Israel… revealed in the Holy Scriptures… with the writings of the ancients like Homer… who spoke of gods simply not strong and free enough to save: 

“…the Gentiles have asserted an inescapable fate…for their gods” who “cannot foresee future events or are deceived by events…”

…Luther wrote. 

And indeed, what a contrast this is to the God we hear about this morning in our readings, particularly in our Old Testament reading!:

“I am the Lord, and there is no other.

 I form the light and create darkness,

  I bring prosperity and create disaster;

  I, the Lord, do all these things.”

Here, looking at the surrounding context, we can see that the Lord is basically saying: 

“There is nothing that controls me or steers me. I, I alone am the Lord who is the Creator of all things, the foundation of all action, the one that no powers of the world or cosmos can thwart. I have set limits for you, not for Me.”

That goes for today as well!

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What this means, is that God truly is, in a very real sense, behind everything! 

Isaiah 45:15 goes on to assert: “Truly you are God who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!”

God, though He hides, is the All in All. 

Man is not the measure of all things!

You are not the foundation of anything! 

You are not your own creator! 

You did not form reality! 

You are not a self-made man or woman! 

You do not have autonomy and self-sovereignty, and cannot “self-determine” anything! 

You cannot make yourself pleasing to God, or the universe (much less your fellow man who “matter”!) 

Man creates for sure but only God creates the order of creation and its patterns, and more so, does it from absolute nothing!

It is only by God’s powerful word, or voice, that “all things are held together”.

It is only in the One God that any of us live and move and have being, in accordance with His will or not. 

He is the Only One who provides the power, the strength, the energy, to move and to exercise ourselves in this world! 

…to express our desires or will to those around us! 

This is truly what God is getting at here! 

We are creatures, and He is the creator! 

Everything from Him, the One from whom our very being comes, begins and ends with Him, the Alpha and the Omega.

It is good when creatures recognize this, and they can only begin to truly recognize this in its fullness when they see that the God who created them is also the same God who has redeemed them…

…who has come and taken on human flesh and lived as we have lived, and not only this but has lived as God has created us to live, even taking upon Himself all of the sins we have committed since none of us have lived as He created us to live. 

As the Christmas hymn puts it:

Of the Father’s love begotten,

ere the worlds began to be,

He is Alpha and Omega,

He the Source, the Ending He,

of the things that are, that have been,

and that future years shall see

evermore and evermore!

O that birth forever blessed,

when a virgin, full of grace,

by the Holy Ghost conceiving,

bore the Savior of our race;

and the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,

first revealed His sacred face,

evermore and evermore!”

Amen and amen and amen!

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I think that our world is in need of such a word today, is ripe for such a mysterious yet mighty message…

Many, today, do not trust those above them, those who lead them…

What I mean is this: 

Let’s say, hypothetically, there was a government – or some attempt even at a world government… a government of the entire world… that did everything they could not to bear the sword for justice in accordance with God’s natural law, as they are called to do…

…but rather did everything they could to steer and direct world events so that privileges would accrue to them while those they rule were increasingly “taken down a few more notches” and made increasingly dependent.

Made increasingly dependent, you know, the exact opposite of what a good earthly father tries to instill in his child. 

Crazy? 

In an essay from a couple years ago, “A Quickening of the Apocalyptic Pulse?”, the mild-mannered Lutheran seminary professor Dr. John Stephenson stated:

“As I sense that the dramatic developments of the past two years constitute a dramatic intensification of the signs of the Lord’s coming, I would ask whether it is fanciful to suppose that electronically-monitored vaccine passports are at the least a dress rehearsal for the worldwide imposition of the mark of the Beast that has puzzled interpreters ever since the writing of Revelation 13:16ff. While some detect a marked rise of the mercury in the eschatological thermometer, much of visible Christendom appears sunk in apathy, with leading churchmen preferring to encourage ‘“climate” hysteria and other suchlike chic concerns.”

So what if, hypothetically of course, those who “govern” increasingly sought not to bear the sword in justice but to make you increasingly dependent… like in a “Great Reset” or something like that…

Well, ultimately, in the long term, none of that would matter. 

Because the God of Israel, here in America – here in all the world’s nations – here today, continues to steer the ship, continues to be behind everything, and still has His people’s back. 

Remember my brothers and sisters, the author of Hebrews reminds us: 

“For in that [God the Father] put all in subjection under [Jesus Christ], He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him…”

Even though He is hidden, He hides Himself, our Lord, again, is basically saying to us: 

“There is nothing that controls me or steers me. I, I alone am the Lord who is the Creator of all things, the foundation of all action, the one that no powers of the world or cosmos can thwart. I have set limits for you, not for Me.”

And more:

“Yes, foolish idolaters are being used as My tools. They who mean things for harm, I mean them for good…”

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So do not fear the world and the world’s powers, but recognize God, the and give Him your praise, honor, and glory! 

Our God is good, and He knows that we need Him!

For we are not only only creatures, we are fallen creatures… 

We are disintegrating creatures who have put ourselves in the most desperate of situations, sawing off the branch from which we sat.

And I am not even talking about the things we all see happening around us now, I am talking about the very beginning. In Adam, we all are one, one huge rebellious Man.

We never realize, or never realize like we should, the Goodness of our God! 

We never realize that whatever Love, whatever Light, whatever Life…

…we have known in our brief lives – all is His Gift!

That fact is that we always need to know better our God Who Hides… 

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As sinner-saints – those having both an old nature and a new nature – we need God’s hiddenness.

Because we need to be terrified. 

And we need to be comforted. 

A pastor I know once talked about some of God’s more difficult work in the world by saying: 

“Sickness and death often consume us. But there is no use bearing your sickness and mourning [death] unless you can see both the evil and the blessing within it. Suffering and death are not just unfortunate. They are God’s verdict on sin. They are an evil, which God inflicts.”

The Scriptures reveal that God hides Himself in judgment and God hides Himself in mercy. 

And He would have us grow from such knowledge.

He said in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve that if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would surely die, and this has been true in spades. 

Again, our text, somewhat curiously and mysteriously, asserts:

“I [the Lord,] form the light and create darkness,

  I bring prosperity and create disaster”

I came across a very helpful quote from Pastor Andrew Preus here, who connects our passage from Isaiah with the evil of man:

“The word translated [‘disaster’ or] ‘calamity’ is the same word for evil. God creates ‘evil.’ Of course, this is not sin. God is only the source of good. In a seven-fold declaration, he pronounced his creation good – very good. So why would he say here that he creates ‘evil?’ This… reflects God’s way of speaking. He likes to turn phrases. He opposes evil with his ‘evil,’ so to speak. This is his wrath, his fiery anger against all wickedness.  And while it looks like the moral evil, which Adam and his wife came to know, hidden under it is the pure, unadulterated goodness of God. As we have already discussed, he is the God who hides himself. To those who cannot see the good, this wrath of God is evil, and it remains on them. But to those who take refuge in the good, they find redemption under the judgment, blessing under the curse, and mercy under wrath.”

This wrath of God should not surprise us. 

For even natural man, non-believers, the Apostle Paul asserts in Romans, know deep down that since they do evil things they deserve such death. 

On the other hand, God’s mercy, God’s grace, should surprise for it is truly amazing! 

Later on in the book of Romans, Paul eventually gets to this:

“…But now apart from the law[, that is apart from God’s righteous wrath and judgment,] the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…”

When the Bible says that “God works all things for the good for those who love Him” how should we ultimately  understand this?

It means that His word of law and gospel – meaning the message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins (Luke 24:47), is continually – and ever increasingly – glorified and proclaimed among not only us but all the nations, bringing along with it its salvation of souls that have been written in the Book of Life! 

In other words, it finally means that we decrease, and Jesus increases, and the praise and proclamation – and hence gracious presence of Jesus Christ, increases…

…and that this is, in fact, what we find ourselves desiring above all. This proclamation, this worship, this glorification of God who loves and saves His people is our true satisfaction!

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This, to be sure, can all be very difficult to understand.

And some, certainly, might still have some major questions about all this…

So, God is behind everything, huh? 

So are you saying that whatever happens is always in some sense His will? 

What role then, really, is there here for man’s true responsibility or agency here? 

And if God is in some sense the cause of all things, what kind of freedom do any of us really have? 

If God is somehow the cause of all things, doesn’t this mean that He Himself is responsible for the evil we see in this world? 

Well, the only right answer to such questions would be assertions from God:

Man’s will must be in accord with God’s. Your will must be in accord with Him.

Men are freed, free, in Christ – to know the love that guides and then saves, in mercy.

God is never the author of evil, but rebellious Satan, and then rebellious man.

Satan will lie to us about this. 

Like C.S. Lewis’ evil demon Uncle Screwtape, doing all that he can do undermine faith and life, he will whisper things in our ear like this: 

• “Like my favorite great American author, John Updike, realize that whatever is, is right! Cherish your every desire and whatever happens to you, for it is all in God’s plan!”

• “God will use evil for good, so of course He will occasionally plan and mean for you to do evil! Just live confidently and have no regrets!”

• “The wise Christian man G.K. Chesterton said ‘every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.’ So, don’t worry – you can and even will find God in whatever way suits you!”

• “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! ‘Wounds from a “friend” can’t really be trusted!’ God’s law is a mirror for your own sin, not a window through which men should inspect other people’s sins!” 

• “So assert to your self-righteous ‘friends’ who are ‘concerned about your behavior’ that they may use their conscience to guide their own behavior, but they may not use their conscience to guide your behavior!”

• “After all, God wants Christian liberty and freedom not obsessive law-keeping! All human effort to try to follow God’s law is futile and self-righteous! There are simply no laws that you should ever fear or attempt to heed!”

• “Finally my friend, remember that ‘the greatest danger to the Gospel is the Law.’ There is nothing that you can do – ever – to help silence the law’s accusation of your conscience! So don’t even try!”

+++

My friends, Satan is not your friend, but would ultimately mean to accuse you so that you die in unbelief, either cursing Him or despairing that you have committed sins that can’t be forgiven.

These kinds of lies are all horrible, all horribly wrong, but let’s focus on that last one in particular, which is a truly diabolical lie:

“There is nothing that you can do – ever – to help silence the law’s accusation of your conscience! So don’t even try!”

Yes, only the Gospel – Christ’s atoning death for our forgiveness, life, and salvation from sin, death, and the devil – indeed frees the conscience!

Since we will always remain sinners unto death, only Christ’s absolution of us in His Word of forgiveness to us will ultimately set us at peace in the presence of God in the way we need and crave.

And the fact is that there is more!

The Gospel also promises to make us who “missed the mark” and rebelled vs. God a new creation, giving us Christ’s Spirit – who helps us to increasingly live in repentance in the grace of God… 

…and to live in the paths God means for us take… 

So that we too might say, along with the Apostle Paul:

“The aim (telos) of our charge[, our mission,] is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

God calls us to increasingly see ourselves as His in Jesus Christ. 

What this means is that, avoiding the world’s many subtle temptations, we can do the kinds of things that will in fact help us to really counter our doubts and the anxiety and worry we often feel in this world…

Namely, to pray without ceasing, to spend time in our Lord’s word, studying it with bothers and sisters who console us, and to worship!: 

To thank and praise Him even when the feelings aren’t there! 

All of this is in fact an imperfect fulfilling of the Ten Commandments, of living in the way that God created us to live!

None of this means that we will cease to need forgiveness, because we will always need to fight our sin en route to knowing the full joy of Christian maturity…

Satan, truly, is a Master of preaching God’s law without the gospel, leaving you only with accusation.

He is also a master, however, of preaching the gospel without the law, leaving you with a sense of license.

Both of his ways are damned ways. 

+++

Let’s start to wrap things up. 

We know our lives in this mortal plane will sometimes be very difficult… 

When speaking about all the ways that we are tempted in this life, Martin Luther in his Large Catechism did not mince words when he spoke of this “vile world”.

We know that in addition to the sickness and death already mentioned, those in the Bible often experienced other great hardships….

You know the story of Joseph, who suffered great injustice at the hands of his brothers and other men.

You know that God’s people Israel labored under the yoke of the Egyptians for some 400 years.

You know that the man Job, though God allowed him to be tested by Satan, nevertheless said, shall we accept good from God and not evil?

You know how much the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah suffered, facing widespread apostasy from their own people, even the seemingly most religious of them!

God knew that these men could handle these trials – these extraordinary trials that not all of us will face – with Him by His side. 

He came through for them. 

Knowing and loving you perfectly, He will come through for you.

This is a very difficult message, I know – these thoughts about God’s being behind everything. Sometimes we might wonder if it is really God hidden in the world or simply the Devil!

Sometimes we might wonder if God really does face in meaningful ways the evil that corrupts and oppresses our world like He has promised… really and truly bearing it Himself on the cross before He also punishes in this life or slays it utterly on the Last Day. 

Instead, we might wonder if, at the very best, He is like some Scientist, simply balancing all the evil into something like “the best possible outcome”… needing to break some eggs to make his omelletes…”

For we often falter in our belief. 

We, forgetting what God has revealed and promised in Jesus, resort to creating a god of our own making, a god of our old man’s reason and understanding…

…and this means that we will have a twisted picture of Him… because we are in fact all twisted people who naturally do this….

The fact is that we need to have the Hidden God revealed to us in things like the waters of baptism, the bread and the wine of the Supper…

…knowing that He would and does forgive us even now in such a humble and simple and foolish way… because we often falter when it comes to having faith in the hidden God who in fact terrifies us… who comes to us in other, more difficult and trying thoughts, words, and deeds…

+++

So fear not, for He is always with you! 

Never abandoning you!

Though hidden, God is indeed behind everything, in charge, in control… for your good. 

He will always win the battles He enters into, even if it means whittling down His army as He did with Gideon – leaving only 300 men and bringing the most glory to Himself! 

For God has in fact already won the war at the cross of all places, and in fact will come again in glory to visibly win the victory over those who try – and fail – to oppose His will!

And there will be other glimpses of victory leading up to this as well.

We don’t know exactly how He will claim victory in each and every way leading up to this, but this is the hidden way of our God, our God who wins the victory through things like the cross, through water, through simple bread and wine… 

…and through the very words that come forth from His lips.

Words like:

“You, my baptized child, however you might have strayed, belong to Me and My Plan, not Satan and his worldlings who would claim you and their purposes!

Remember and return!

Always remember and return! 

To you it is given to know this mystery, this hidden Jewel, this gracious face of God…   

In the cleansing flood of my Precious Son’s blood…

You.

Are. 

Mine!”

So jealous.

Amen

With footnotes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b1fDsYQXADs1i8GD2Hy96IH3cuIKHDjuQb_PC2oilNk/edit?usp=sharing

 

Way Beyond the Large Cataclysm’s “Speck Problem”: Revisiting the Operation Valkyrie Dumpster Fire

“Houston we have a problem.”

UberYude: “No we don’t, and hold my beer.” 

+++

Amazingly, when you take a break from Twitter, you have time to do other things! Thanks for taking the time to read this post. 

As a Christian nationalist by conviction, I will admit that my experiences with the Operation Valkyrie people have been mostly unpleasant.

First, we have a rather strong and stark disagreement over the contentious matter of the new edition of Luther’s Large Catechism (the Large Cataclysm), as well as the fallout from that affair involving, among others, Ryan Turnipseed.  

One of the nice things about being publicly open as the @OperationValk researcher who assembled the materials for Ryan’s church discipline was, once he outed himself, i was able to publicly document his scuzzy slandering lies in real time. Video below.
(Projection, my ass.) https://t.co/tQRskV8dFw

— (((RedeemedUberYude))) (@RedeemedUberYud) August 24, 2023

Regarding some of the new Large Catechism’s harshest critics, Operation Valkyrie itself – not just UberYude – says of these attacks:

“Not only [are they] loathsome, hateful, proud, and divisive, but [the] attacks on the Large Catechism [here] are based on outright heresies: beliefs that place a believer outside of the fundamental creeds that define Christianity… to say nothing of being outside the Lutheran Confessions.”

On the other hand, I’ve made the following claims and statements about the same:

For those who would dare to do so, listen to this: the livestream Ryan held to discuss his initial thread.

I agree with the reasonable concerns expressed (if not all the rhetoric), particularly by Ryan & @TheAshenLad, &, yes, I'm a good theologian.https://t.co/dyv5yKYNBR https://t.co/BeYCFeMT8E

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) May 19, 2023

If the LCMS, contra Pirate Christian's way, pursues the guilt-by-association route vs laymen like Ryan Turnipseed, they might want to consider they have not only been friendly with Steve "Christ-committed-his-own-personal-sin" Paulson, but held him up as a teacher of the church.

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) June 5, 2023

Regarding his statement about guilt by association, one might think Dr. Pless could remain Dr Paulson's friend without inviting this ELCA theologian (who said Christ committed his own personal sin) to write for the Large Cataclysm.

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) February 4, 2023

This just scratches the surface.

Harrison, Pless, & Kilcrease had a blatant Christological heretic write for a new edition of Luther's Large Catechism.

Turnipseed then had a few controversial guys on a livestream who were all over the problems that kind of negligence created… https://t.co/GkcaQVdsFH

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) July 7, 2023

Radical Lutheranism is #FakeLutheranism. Always has been, always will be.

Its the main culprit at the root of the Large Cataclysm, & LCMS leadership has shown it doesn't care in spades.

Men like John Pless, Jack Kilcrease, and Matthew Harrison must answer to God for this.

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) June 26, 2023

Also, given that I tersely challenged some of the UberYude’s tweets right from the beginning when he began publishing articles with the group – after having read only small parts of his articles and immediately seeing major theological problems – I am guessing the feelings are mutual. Operation Valkyrie people’s experiences with me have also been mostly unpleasant.

That said, I have a little bit more time these days and after the UberYude tweet shown above, I thought it might be good for me to try listening to the Operation Valkyrie podcast he was on, reading his articles with a fine-tooth comb, and getting more specific about some of the theological problems I had noticed when I quickly looked at one of his articles on the site. 

As is probably not surprising to any, I do not have the impression that this kind of feedback is desired on my part (I did decide to reach out privately first to no avail), and so I will keep my comments about the problems relatively brief and relegate any important context from the articles to the extensive footnotes of this post which can be found here (if you want specific quotes and links to the articles, you’ll need to go there).

That said, before listing my concerns, some key thoughts to share.

First, these posts I am critiquing are in turn critiquing the livestream from Ryan Turnipseed based on his infamous Twitter thread that laid into the new edition of Martin Luther’s Large Catechism. I continue to submit that Ryan Turnipseed, whose story continues to gather attention, deserves our respect and thanks. This is something even secular Jewish publications seem to recognize, and LCMS Pastor Larry Beane has also noticed the insight and even wisdom that this very young man possesses. 

That said, the overall intention of this post is not to defend Ryan Turnipseed – even as the careful reader of UberYude’s posts and this one will note that a defense of Mr. Turnipseed is indeed an indirect result of challenging and correcting UberYude’s errors. 

And that is a very good thing, for we owe Ryan Turnipseed our care. The Operation Valkyrie blog started with a bang, as it was actively promoted on one of the world’s top-rated religion podcasts many of us have known and loved, Issues ETC. The question then arises as to why no prominent voices in the LCMS in particular have brought the problems I mention below into the light. My guess is that these posts from UberYude came a few weeks after the announcement was made on Issues ETC, so it is likely that many people did not see his articles. At the same time, UberYude does claim that before making his critique of Ryan Turnipseed’s live stream public he checked his work with four LCMS pastors, so it seems to me just as likely that many of our pastors either agree with, or simply cannot detect, these errors.

So the tragic situation compounds itself. Mr. Turnipseed may be a highly capable young man, but as a relatively new Lutheran convert from the Baptists, ideally Lutheran pastors who are on Twitter would have made it a priority to make sure that there was an excellent theological response versus his harshest critics – instead of letting the bad theology (and the accusations of guilt by association) stand. 

Perhaps I missed something important here. In any case, I am glad that I could finally make time to try to do the matter some justice.

Second, in agreement with one of UberYude’s main points, I too want to emphasize that it is immensely important to teach that Christ was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). I think the old Expositor’s Greek Testament says this exceptionally well, as it unpacks the Hebrews passage:

“The writer wishes to preclude the common fancy that there was some peculiarity in Jesus which made His temptation wholly different from ours, that He was a mailed champion exposed to toy arrows. On the contrary, He has felt in His own consciousness the difficulty of being righteous in this world; has felt pressing upon Himself the reasons and inducements that incline men to choose sin that they may escape suffering and death; in every part of His human constitution has known the pain and conflict with which alone temptation can be overcome; has been so tempted that had He sinned, He would have had a thousandfold better excuse than ever man had. Even though His divinity may have ensured His triumph, His temptation was true and could only be overcome by means that are open to all. The one difference between our temptations and those of Jesus is that His were χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας. Riehm thinks this expression is not exhausted by declaring the fact that in Christ’s case temptation never resulted in sin. It means, he thinks, further, and rather, that temptation never in Christ’s case sprang from any sinful desire in Himself.”

Furthermore, insofar as any temptation to sin arises partly out of a desire for real affection or love we would simply be fools to say that God in Christ is unable or unwilling to sympathize with our weak – and yes, evil – fallen human nature.

That said, one can go too far in what one claims about Christ’s temptations as well.  And unlike Jesus, we regularly will commit sins when tempted, God is just, and all sin damns. We are told in the book of James, for example, that if a person breaks one part of the law they have broken the whole law. And the book of Romans asserts that all, without exception, fall short of the glory of God… (Rom. 3:23). Suppress it though they may, all men know in their bones that the wages for their sins is death (Romans 1:32, 6:23). Furthermore, if a man has not begun, by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s blood (which washes the sin out of even our good works!), to fear, love, and trust in God rightly, he has not begun to do this at all!

Even so, with all this said and proclaimed, where did the idea that all sins are equal (and show real equal evil) come from? Would any claim Martin Luther claimed this somewhere? I grew up in the LCMS and I certainly remember hearing things like this when I was young – and so in fact used to believe it. But again, where did this novel idea come from? It is definitely not in the Bible and I do not see it in Luther. 

Onto the critique.

+++

In brief, UberYude is sadly quite typical in his early 21st century and late 20th century Lutheranism, heavily influenced by the Fake Lutheran “Radical Lutheranism”.

1/ “Paulson’s Lutheran Quarterly Article: Pitting 1517 against 1580”

Fashioning a Luther who agrees with your own idiosyncratic beliefs and pitting him against the Confessions is an old game.

— The Bugenhagen Conference (@BugenhagenCon) September 6, 2023

His articles contain a number of embarrassing as well as insidious errors…

A guest asks: “Is the problem that this essay [about the speck in our neighbor’s eye] is too pastoral?” No.

1. UberYude rejects the historical understanding of Matthew 7:1-5, the passage that says “Judge not” and speaks of the log in one’s own eye and speck in one’s neighbor’s. Even as Martin Luther had much more to say about this passage, part of his foundational understanding of it is nevertheless rooted in the fact that “the way of the world [is] everywhere; the log judges the speck, and the big villain condemns the little one…. They are all full of demons and blindness, while they mourn over other people’s specks…” If not outright rejecting the church’s historical understanding that logs are more serious sins than the motes or specks, today’s LCMS at least increasingly downplays this, and UberYude goes much further, as we will see.

All sin damns.

Before God, no sins are to be considered small.

For even in this world, among our brothers, sins should only be big & bigger.

Take out your bigger log, so you may help with big sins (specks that irritate the eye so!)

For sins get bigger when considered small.

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) August 31, 2023

2. UberYude, contrary to all reason, suggests that those who would insist on temporal punishments for certain sins and not others are being unforgiving and unmerciful. A new “Uganda law that prescribes the death penalty for homosexual acts with minors and homosexual acts knowingly carried out with the risk of HIV infection” comes to mind. In line with the evaluation of the politician Ted Cruz, is such a law not only unforgiving and unmerciful but “an abomination” and “a human rights abuse”?

All sins damn, but not all are equally evil.

So stupid to argue vs. this common sense.

Adultery is worse than shacking up.

Acts of sodomy are worse than acts of adultery.

Acts with a child…

Wait.

"For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret."

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) August 27, 2023

3. He believes that unless the Bible specifically says one sin is more serious than another, this is not something that we can determine from natural law. It is true that it takes special, that is Scriptural revelation, for one to know that rejecting Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior is the greatest sin (Hebrews 10, Luke 12, John 16). That said, should we assume that understanding the critical importance of protecting and taking care of one’s own family is the only thing pagans might excel at such that Christians need to be reminded by their example? (I Timothy 5:8) One would think we should all realize that the pagan world doesn’t need Genesis 9 or Genesis 19 in order to determine that murder is more serious than stealing a sweet or that there is something particularly heinous about the desire of men to rape other men! Nevertheless, the fact that something like heterosexual desire was created by God – and hence the one-flesh union is a created good that results in blessings like children while only evil can be said to result from homosexual acts – does not seem to be of any significance for UberYude. Martin Luther in the Smalcald Articles of the Lutheran Confessions even stated that some manifest sins, like adultery, murder, and blasphemy certainly drove out God’s Holy Spirit in the believer. How much more then acts of sodomy or even pedophilia? Again, the grace of God is applied to all sins equally, in that it is able to bring any sinner, no matter how heinous their sin, into heaven. That, however, does not mean that some sins do not have more severe temporal consequences, personally, socially, naturally, and, ideally, legally.

The grace of God is applied to all sins equally, in that it is able to bring even the most heinous sinner into heaven.

"Today you will be with me in Paradise!"

None of that means that some sins do not have more severe temporal consequences.

"We are getting what we deserve."

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) September 2, 2023

4. Contrary to Luke 12:47, which states that “[the] servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows,” UberYude denies not only levels of hell (perhaps reasonable!) but “worse eternities” (unreasonable). See also Matthew 11:22-24.

5. Contrary to the witness of the Scriptures, St. Augustine, etc., UberYude believes that it is wrong to say that our nature is created by God and hence good, while nevertheless simultaneously infected and corrupted by sin. This is known as the Flacian error, and is also condemned in the Lutheran Confessions that true Lutheran pastors subscribe to, specifically in the 1580 Formula of Concord.

6. Following 2) and 3), even though he shows awareness of the content of Romans 1:27, which is used to illustrate the perversion of man, he, again, nevertheless believes that it is wrong to say that sins against or contrary to our nature are more detrimental, or worse, than sins that are committed according to our fallen nature in general, and that, significantly, the person who asserts such a thing is necessarily being self-righteous. On the contrary, Lutherans like Turnipseed and one of his interviewees, Askleladd, are not wrong to note a general kind of paralysis that occurs here on the part of Lutherans eager to avoid self-righteousness. After all, who are we to judge? And yes, while the Christian’s new man understands the Apostle Paul when he rhetorically asks if we should go on sinning that grace may abound, the old man says “…if you are already an adulterer when looking at a woman with lustful intent, why not go the next step and enjoy yourself a little bit?”

What do you think of this? How should a Christian respond?

Is such thinking common in wider evangelical circles as well? Or is it a particular temptation among Lutherans? pic.twitter.com/mwZSOCjYH6

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) December 13, 2019

7. Following 6), he believes that it is wrong to say that temptations against or contrary to our nature necessarily entail sin, that is, a disordered desire that either creates or simply welcomes and is receptive to such temptations. On the contrary, such modes of sinful desire, concupiscence, can and should in some sense be distinguished from, for example, excessive or adulterous heterosexual desire, heterosexual desire which is by nature good but infected with sin. See 2 and 3 above.

"[Adam and Eve] could not resist [temptation] & neither can you or me.

If the only law was don’t be a pedophile we’d all be pedophiles."

Straight from the Hell Pit.

All must flee this Radical Lutheran infection.

As it corrupts, one begins to believe the law causes sin.

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) June 25, 2023

8. Worse still, following 6), he claims that a desire for, e.g., homosexual activity, prostitution, and even bestiality is not sinful in itself. Of course, the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions make it clear that it is not only the desire for these kinds of practices but also illicit heterosexual activity that is sinful in itself. As the Apology of the Augsburg Confessions in the Lutheran Confessions says, such “concupiscence”, such “inner desires” flowing from the “innate evil” or “hereditary disease” of original sin, are most certainly sins: they are “evil inclinations”, “wicked’, and “worthy of death”. 

9. In fact, UberYude not only states that homosexual activity is not sinful in itself but also that God makes people into homosexuals. The false teaching that things like desires for homosexual activity are penalties or punishment for sin – instead of concupiscence/sin itself – is directly countered by the Apology of the Augsburg Confession: “But [the Roman Catholic theologians who authored the Confutation] contend that concupiscence is a penalty, and not a sin. Luther maintains that it is a sin.”

10. Finally, and most shockingly, on the basis of Hebrews 4:15-16, he claims that “we must routinely look to our cross to find grace in dealing with the sins of others that do NOT tempt us, for they HAVE tempted Christ” and insists that Christ Himself must have not only experienced the temptation to participate in homosexual activity, but equates this temptation with Jesus feeling these [evil] desires or passions. Evidently, this is an essential part of Jesus’ work and to reject this is to do damage to His saving message. 

+++

In the first and only Operation Valkyrie podcast, UberYude says the livestream from Ryan Turnipseed “did nothing wrong apart from slander, bearing false witness, rebellion, racism, promoting divisions, and reviling” later adding “misrepresentation, gossiping, [and] reviling” as well. I firmly disagree with this assessment, and also, contrary to Operation Valkyrie’s assertions, point out once again that Ryan et. al didn’t start the fire. 

Chris, you have this completely backwards.

Ryan didn't start the fire.

The arsonists responsible for the Large Cataclysm Dumpster Fire are those holding power.

And men like Pless, Harrison, and Kilcrease need to be fired. https://t.co/YMvYlz0lAx

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) May 28, 2023

We didn’t start the fire.

Concordia Publishing House actually put forward an edition of the Large Catechism which included an essay from an ELCA theologian who has publicly proclaimed (in his 2011 magnum opus) that Jesus Christ committed his own personal sin. (1)

— Theology Like a Child (@Infanttheology) January 25, 2023

Given the kind of theology on display in UberYude’s Opertaion Valkyrie posts, it is not too difficult to accurately identify the kind of theology that started the fire. Again, I recommend that everybody reading this post actually watch the controversial livestream if they haven’t already.

I also note with some relief that the Operation Valkyrie blog has not posted in almost 4 months and they stopped after their first podcast around that time as well. Is it possible that wiser heads at the operation perhaps had a premonition that they had done more harm than good in not only posting these articles, but even endorsing them from within the articles themselves, even with effusive praise like this?: 

“When an anonymous account, immune to the Mahlerite threats to dox the women and children around him to silence his critique, took on Ryan Turnipseed playing sidekick enabler to Corey Mahler and Treble Woe’s attacks on the church visible, everything fell apart.

It. Was. Glorious.”

They also went so far as to say:

“Operation Valkyrie continues its reposting of Twitter user (((RedeemedUberYude))) as he gives Ryan Turnipseed and the Mahlerites as thorough of an examination as they pretended to give the Large Catechism, but without the demagoguery and a lot less slander.”

On the other hand, maybe they are still rather gung-ho about their efforts (if they are, I hope the LC-MS will not follow, cutting off their nose to spite their face).

Still, given the amount of embarrassing claims and theological errors so obvious on the face of it, I, for my part, was concerned some might think my article added insult to injury, essentially kicking them while they are already down, seemingly spent and out of commission. That was not my intention. I simply thought it was necessary to address a number of the theological errors there because, once again, it is a good example of the kind of Fake Lutheran thinking that has infested large parts of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

Repentance is needed. 

So let us all heed the words of Luther, which while pertinent to all of our lives, especially hold true when it comes to the need for each of us to be concerned to uphold the true doctrine:

“Paul, Rom. 7:14-25, [shows] testifies that he wars with the law in his members, etc.; and that, not by his own powers, but by the gift of the Holy Ghost that follows the remission of sins. This gift daily cleanses and sweeps out the remaining sins, and works so as to render man truly pure and holy.”

FIN