I'm sorry... but don't you believe? (The Lutheran Difference), Part 2

This post continues from Part 1, a short multi-part series providing comments concerning prominent writers and theologians for Concordia Publishing House and the LC-MS.
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Rev. Edward Engelbrecht

I'm sorry you feel constrained by non-Lutheran scholarly sources to use life-like illustrations in your book The Story Bible - 99 Stories of God's Love... as you said in the Preface, page 6:

Appearance matters greatly to children.  Researchers have found that children judge whether persons and events in visuals are real by how they appear (Maureen Crago, Prelude to Literacy [Southern Illinois University, 1983], 167; Inez Ramsey, "An Investigation of Children's Verbal Responses to Selected Art Styles," Journal of Education Research [1989]: 83: 47,51).  If a person or event appears unreal in a picture—such as a cartoon—children are likely to conclude that the person or event is unreal.

Maybe it would have been OK to use cartoonish illustrations in your book if these scholarly researchers had not made their discovery?  —  Could it be your own synod is guilty of the cartoonish notions of the Bible? – Is evolution really a myth?  Is the Earth really the primary planet in the Universe?  Is it really true that only the Earth contains life forms?  Is it really true that the Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle", gives us no real idea of God when compared to God's Word, the Bible?  Hmmm... how can parents teach their children God's Word when there is no serious defense in your publishings against these prominent anti-biblical teachings in our modern society?... when your synod allows false teachers of evolution to run rampant within your synod?  Are you still trying to figure out how to approach these "ticklish" matters as you stare up into the sky in the picture of you on The Wittenberg Trail?

––> Don't you believe that the Bible is true in all its teachings?

Rev. Charles P. Schaum

I'm sorry you feel constrained to mention that you "have preached from [C.F.W.] Walther’s pulpit, have used the same chalice that he did".  I'm sorry that you feel you must call C.F.W. Walther by the familiar name "Ferdinand", a name rarely used, if ever, in almost all publishings on him.  Are you not sure that you "have offered the same saving Gospel that he did", that you must call him by a familiar name?  Since you rarely, if ever, use the terms "Objective Justification" and "Universal Justification" in your writings, ...

––> don't you believe what Walther taught on these?

Rev. William M. Cwirla

I'm sorry you "don't understand falling from faith", especially the Lutheran faith of Steve Jobs in your blog on Steve Jobs' death...  You  apparently admitted this in your blog on Jobs' life which indicated that he fell away from his early LC-MS Lutheran faith ("dabbled in Buddhism and was a vegetarian").  I fell away too.  Could it be that Jobs, like me, fell away in part because of uncertainty on the true Doctrine of Justification as taught in the LC-MS?  Could it be that perhaps all those famous people in the "Lutheran Song" that you mention also became "nominal Christians" because they too had not heard what the true Gospel actually is, what the proper distinction between Law and Gospel is, in their "Lutheran" church... Could it be that this uncertainty in our modern world is largely due to the fall of the LC-MS on this very doctrine... and the resultant unionism?

Rev. Dr. Korey Maas

I'm sorry you (the "Oxford don") felt compelled to leave teaching at a Lutheran university to teach at a non-Lutheran one (one started by Free Will Baptists), ostensibly a "liberal arts" college.  I'm sorry you felt compelled to get your PhD degree from Oxford University after writing The Lutheran Difference: Law and Gospel... Did Oxford assist you in making the proper distinction between Law and Gospel?  Did Oxford teach you that there is a justification before faith as C.F.W. Walther taught? ... an Objective Justification, a Universal Justification?   Did Oxford teach you that there is no Church, no Ministry, no "Church History", no proper teaching on "The Holy Spirit" or "Sanctification" without the right Doctrine of Justification?  Did Oxford teach you that only the Lutheran Church gives all glory to God in its teaching – irrefutable proof that it alone is the true visible church of God on earth?  Does Hillsdale College allow you to teach this?  No?  Then how is it that you alone are the author of the most chapters (3) in The Lutheran Difference?  How is it that you can speak of the Lutheran difference?  I'm sorry, but ...

––> Don't you believe there is a difference?

Rev. Dr. Benjamin T. Mayes

I'm sorry you.....  Oh, I've already covered you in an earlier blog. (I may add to this commentary at a later date). 

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I could go on and on about being sorry for today's new breed of LC-MS writers, writers for "today's" Lutherans... those writers who purport to speak about "The Lutheran Difference" but leave a true Lutheran in confusion and... doubt?  There are other writers published by today's CPH that I could speak about.  Concordia Publishing House casts about the whole world to find writers by offering fame and fortune... but this is tiring for my faith.  ... Oh, there is one more writer I must comment on...

Dr. Lawrence Rast Jr. – I'm sorry... but... oh, this will be longer for I have a lot to be sorry about for you and so it will take a separate later blog post of its own.

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Should not all these writers and theologians, this "new breed", be approaching their subject with the same heart as the child's father who cried out to our Lord with tears in Mark 9:24 –

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

 Isn't the testimony of this father of the child the same as the Psalmist when he says about his faith:

Psalms 51:11 – Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Let no one think that I, BackToLuther, consider these comments as just riding on my "hobby horse", rather it is a matter of spiritual life and death.