[2018-01-26: see correction below, beginning in red, to amend this post]
What a joy for me this day, to run across President Matthew Harrison's Jan. 3, 2018 blog (Archived) that not only confirms and confesses the Biblical 6-day Creation teaching, but even more, that he upholds the truth of Holy Scripture as a basis for his faith. Even as he left a little room for equivocation ("in my view"), God knows the tears of joy that filled my eyes. How much different is this joy than my warning blog post of 1 year ago where I had to tell Harrison that his LC-MS was on the wrong path, that the right path was the "old paths", back to the truth of Holy Scripture, just as his predecessor Walther followed, and Franz Delitzsch commended in Walther but faltered on himself.
As I read through the blog post quickly, it was immediately apparent, also by his heartfelt, humble prayer to God at the end, that Harrison is responding to recent publications and responses. I also kept thinking that Harrison read my blog from November last year and in other places and is confirming my plea to the LC-MS. But I must tell him that my prayer is that he did not read my blog, but that others within his LC-MS have woke him up to the reality of deadly, poisonous heterodoxy among the teachers of the LC-MS.
==>> Note to Ken Ham: Your mission to re-establish the truth of the 6-day Creation doctrine among Christians, also your recent mission to establish the clarity of Holy Scripture, is just an echo of what the Lutheran Church has taught from its beginning.
May God bless Harrison's forthright confession of the Truth to His Glory! May God answer Harrison's prayer of "God help us"! I must tell him that God cannot help but answer that prayer! I would suggest that he should amend his ending to add Luther's ending: Amen.
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And so it is that I must answer Harrison's plea to be "kind to those who struggle with the issue". Most certainly Luther was patient with those weak in faith, but to the teachers of the faith who erred, Luther was not "kind" but reproved them. That was his Christian kindness. Unfortunately there is much left to reprove in today's LC-MS.
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2018-01-26: Others are being more discerning than I was on Harrison's recent pronouncement on this teaching of "6-day creation" and saying he avoided better language that would more clearly refute the erring teachers of the LC-MS -- particularly the use of "24-hour days". Given Harrison's past evasions of error, I bow to their judgments --
Specifically Jack Cascione also rightfully points out the "most offensive part of his (Harrison's) statement":
“Because I believe the Gospel, I recognize the words of my shepherd, Jesus, in Holy Scripture.”
Cascione then masterfully exposes the fallacy in this statement:
“The testimony of the Holy Spirit in every word of Scripture is why we believe the Bible, not by extension because I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Tim. 3:16 KJV)”
I can only add to Cascione's statement that his point is solidly backed up by not only C.F.W. Walther, but the 1886 Synodical Conference essay which said:
The New Theologians cry, “No, Christ is the foundation of the Faith, not Scripture!” However, with that, they completely contradict Eph. 2, [Eph. 2:20] “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” … It really does sound nice when they say, “No! Christ is the foundation of the Christian Faith!” But this is nothing more than a superb illusion.
And now surprisingly Norm Fisher has added his voice to those truly confessionally minded. Both of these convincing refutations have been published in the January 15, 2018 issue of Christian News. I would invite readers to remain vigilant on this specific topic.
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