It appears that Pope Francis is cut from the same cloth. He is self-serving, his mouth is way ahead of his head, you have to wince at his words more often than not, he seems less ideological than reactive, and nobody know what might come out of his mouth. In the end, his inconsistency and lack of discipline make him the worst kind of leader. But he is the Pope Rome has to live with. Sadly, it is impossible for any other Christian to completely distance himself from the impact of Pope Francis. Even a Lutheran like me and a Lutheran like some of those who comment on this blog cannot avoid the collateral damage a Pope like Francis incurs.
I believe that Trump owes America better than what he is giving us. I know that Christianity deserves more careful leaders. We have enough enemies outside. We cannot afford to have those who lead us inflicting as much damage as they are. Politics or church, we face daunting challenges and great problems. From our leaders we expect nothing less than faithful stewardship. Grand ideas and great courage would be great but at the core we need those who will conserve and care for what has been entrusted to them and those who can deliver faithfully it to those who would come after them.
Leaving the political aspect aside, I wonder if we do not expect too much from our leaders. We want a savior when what we need is steward. We want someone to work miracles when what we need is someone to work hard. We want someone with all the answers when what we need is one who knows the difference between truth and falsehood. We want a great manager when what we need is a prophet who will speak forth the Word of God. We want someone who can read the times like tea leaves in the bottom of a cup when what we need is someone who can read the Word of God and address us with that Word. We want a great orator when what we need is voice who speaks Jesus to us -- simply, boldly, and faithfully.
Lutherans do not have popes. Some even insist that we don't have bishops. Whatever you call them, we need leaders who are, simply speaking, men of the Word. We need men who can discern truth from error, who can preach and teach Christ, and who will help us to be who we are as Lutherans in order that we might be better Lutherans. I expect that this is what Rome had hoped for as well. When you find it, stick with the one who exemplifies this faithfulness.
32 comments:
"Lutherans do not have popes. Some even insist that we don't have bishops."
Lutheran pastors are bishops. But contrary to any equivocal meaning, or the longings of the English District or closet-Romanists, LCMS Synod and District presidents, by the nature of their corporate offices, are NOT the episcopal bishops of pastors.
The CCM has repeatedly ruled against a DP's title of "Bishop" over the past two decades, going back to the 2000 CCM Opinion 00-2202, which referred back to the 1981 Synodical Resolution 3-19.
Given Satan's daughter was not elected as President in 2016, the ongoing traitorous insanity of a squad (coven) of racist, anti-Christian, US-hating House Demonicrats, the cowardly behavior of Congressional RINOcrats, the continuing influx of criminal invaders at our southern border, the four-decade-long abortion genocide, the US deficit currently headed toward Alpha Centauri, and the lying propaganda of a fifth-column leftist media, the shocking (to snowflakes and others) tweets of President Trump are hardly anything to get upset about.
In fact, in addition to his tweets unhinging Demonicrats and the media, President Trump needs to continue to fulfill his contract with the American voter, to stop the invasion, and to get his AG to actually earn his pay and prosecute leftist criminals and traitors in our country, including not a few who squat on judicial benches.
As for the current Antichrist, his behavior again confirms what the Lutheran Confessions have stated about previous Antichrists.
Mr. Strickert says:
As for the current Antichrist, his behavior again confirms what the Lutheran Confessions have stated about previous Antichrists.
Anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Son of God made man and who is God Incarnate (at least in public, we dare not presume to know what a man thinks) cannot be labeled Antichrist. The Antichrist will deny Christ's divinity, humanity and Lordship. This Pope has not denied Christ as such. Besides and as Christ said, "If satan casts out satan, how can his kingdom stand?"
This particular post was an excellent one and I agree with the good pastor in everything he said. Kind of brings to mind: James (Epistle of Straw by Luther's standards) 3:6-12.
Your use of cutesy names: Demonicrat, Lufauxeran, Romanist, etc are just plain childish. Grow up!
Rather than your interpretation, Daniel, I'll stick with the Lutheran Confession's description of the pope as the Antichrist.
And I will continue to refer to the murder-by-abortion Demonicrats, the less-than-Lutheran Lufauxrans, and the Church-of-Rome / other-Tiber-wading Romanists because those are valid descriptions.
Wow, for a Christian you sure are joyless.
Wow, Daniel, your accusation of being joyless sure is wrong.
Mr. Strickert said:
Rather than your interpretation, Daniel, I'll stick with the Lutheran Confession's description of the pope as the Antichrist.
Interesting you would rather stick to an extra-biblical source to back up your errors. Not very "bible only" just sayin...
Btw, that is not my interpretation, those were Christ;s words. And further,
Also biblical:
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:22)
Mr. Strickert also said:
Wow, Daniel, your accusation of being joyless sure is wrong.
LOL
Since you are not Lutheran, Daniel, your opinion is not surprising. Your comment 45 minutes later is evidence you didn't even bother to note that sufficient Scripture references are provided in the Lutheran Confessions' discussion of the Antichrist.
Others ,especially Lutherans, interested in the topic can read "Antichrist in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions: The Relevance of Reformation Exegesis of 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 for the Church Today," by Charles A. Gieschen, (Concordia Theological Quarterly, 81:3, 2017, pp. 263-279).
Mr. Strickert,
I have a copy of the Book of Concord, Augsberg Confession, etc and do note that they have ample scripture quotations in digital form on my computer which, when time permits, I read. Funny thing is, those scripture quotations are expounded upon in a way that was/is oreign to the test or time and history 1500 years before Luther came along. So, they are novel and the personal opinions of the revolutionaries that started the Protestant Revolution.
Of course Lutherans reject your non-Lutheran opinion of the Lutheran Confessions and their Scriptural support for identifying the pope as the Antichrist.
Well of course Catholics reject your insult to Christ and the Holy Spirit in your heretical view that the pope is the antichrist:
You are Peter and upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail.
All sins against the Son of Man shall be forgiven except those against the Holy Spirit neither in this age or the age to come.
Although the Fathers of the Church speculated on the Antichrist in various ways, they would never have agreed. They showed the temple to be the Jewish temple, rebuilt by Antichrist in Jerusalem. Rather than the bishop of Rome, the early Fathers identified the Antichrist as a government official—a king coming to power in the ruins of the Roman Empire. He would probably be Jewish, possibly from the tribe of Dan. And most importantly, rather than claiming like the pope to be the vicar or emissary of Jesus Christ, he would claim that Jesus was not the Christ but that he was instead. He would then seduce many of the Jewish people by attempting to fulfill the political.aspirations they held for the Messiah. The quotes that follow illustrate both the different ideas they had about the Antichrist and how different their conception was from the anti-papal idea that arose in later centuries
Polycarp of Smyrna
“Everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist [1 John 4:2-3, 2 John 7]; whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross is of the devil; and whoever perverts the sayings of the Lord for his own desires, and says that there is neither resurrection nor judgment, such a one is the firstborn of Satan” (Letter to the Philadelphians 7:1 [A.D. 135]).
Irenaeus
“[B]y means of the events which shall occur in the time of the Antichrist it is shown that he, being an apostate and a robber, is anxious to be adored as God, and that although a mere slave, he wishes to be proclaimed as king. For he, being endued with all the power of the devil, shall not come as a righteous king nor as a legitimate king in subjection to God, but as an impious, unjust, and lawless one . . . setting aside idols to persuade [men] that he himself is God, raising himself up as the only idol. . . . Moreover [Paul] has also pointed out this which I have shown in many ways: that the temple in Jerusalem was made by the direction of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own person, distinctly called it the temple of God [2 Thess. 2:4] . . . in which the enemy shall sit, endeavoring to show himself as Christ” (Against Heresies 5:25:1-2 [A.D. 189]).
“But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months and will sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire” (ibid., 5:30:4).
Hippolytus
“Now as our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also God, was prophesied of under the figure of a lion, on account of his royalty and glory, in the same way have the scriptures also beforehand spoken of Antichrist as a lion, on account of his tyranny and violence. For the deceiver seeks to liken himself in all things to the Son of God. Christ is a lion, so Antichrist is also a lion. Christ is a king, so Antichrist is also a king. The Savior was manifested as a lamb, so he too in like manner will appear as a lamb without; within he is a wolf. The Savior came into the world in the circumcision [i.e., the Jewish race], and he will come in the same manner. . . . The Savior raised up and showed his holy flesh like a temple, and he will raise a temple of stone in Jerusalem” (The Antichrist 6 [A.D. 200]).
“[W]e find it written regarding Antichrist . . . ‘Dan is a lion’s whelp, and he shall leap from Bashan’ [Deut. 33:22]. But that no one may err by supposing that this is said of the Savior, let him attend carefully to the matter. Dan, he says, is a lion’s whelp. And in naming the tribe of Dan, he declared clearly the tribe from which Antichrist is destined to spring. For as Christ springs from the tribe of Judah, so Antichrist is to spring from the tribe of Dan. And that the case stands thus, we see also from the words of Jacob: ‘Let Dan be a serpent, lying upon the ground, biting the horse’s heel’ [Gen. 49:17]. What then is meant by the serpent but Antichrist, that deceiver who is mentioned in Genesis [Gen. 3:1], who deceived Eve and supplanted Adam? . . . [I]t is in reality out of the tribe of Dan, then, that tyrant and king, that dread judge, that son of the devil, is destined to spring and arise” (ibid., 14).
“Above all, moreover, he will love the nation of the Jews. And with all these [Jews] he will work signs and terrible wonders, false wonders and not true, in order to deceive his impious equals. . . . And after that he will build the temple in Jerusalem and will restore it again speedily and give it over to the Jews” (Discourse on the End of the World 23-25 [A.D. 217]).
So you see, Mr. Strickert, this nonsense about the pope being antichrist was just a way or concoction to justify the protestant revolution and finds no justification in the writings of the Church Fathers and such for 1500 prior to Luther's revolt.
Daniel, your comments have provided nothing but a demonstration of your support for the Antichrist seated in Rome. The Scriptural doctrine exposited in the Lutheran Confessions still stands.
Furthermore, the antiChristian antics of the current Antichrist only confirm the antiChristian antics of past Antichrists.
Mr. Strickert,
Your heart is hardened against Christ and his church.
I would say that I would judge it unwise if I were to comment regularly on a Roman Catholic discussion forum and regularly point out Rome's errors. If orthodox Lutherans and Roman Catholics converse certain points of disagreement should be taken for granted.
Daniel on July 17, 2019 at 10:10 AM,
That is what your buddy, the Antichrist, said about Martin Luther and all those in the Evangelical Lutheran Church (the True Visible Church of God on Earth).
Your accusation is false and comes from the father of lies.
Richard?
Whatever.....
Btw, those theses are delusional hogwash; out of touch with history and reality
Contrary to the Pastoral Meanderings accusation that President Trump's most ardent supporters were cringing, his tweets regarding anti-American “'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen" (aka the Squad) have gotten cringless support from the MAGA crowd.
For example, in talking about "The Squad," Republican Senator John Kennedy (LA) stated:
"They are entitled to their opinion. They are Americans. But I'm entitled to my opinion, and I just think they are left-wing cranks and they are the reason that there are directions on a shampoo bottle."
You are the son of a Lutheran minister no?
Your beliefs, when scrutinized in the light of 1500 years are merely opinions. Ours are facts supported by that same history.
Daniel G. has tolled the Dude Law:
https://youtu.be/pWdd6_ZxX8c
Here's some more information contrary to the Pastoral Meanderings accusation that President Trump's most ardent supporters were cringing after Trump criticized several radical leftist congresswomen for their anti-American statements.
The Rasmussen poll showed President Trump with a 46 percent approval on Friday before he sent his Sunday tweet. On Wednesday, after the fifth-column media uproar and the coven-of-leftists' response, the approval rating jumped to 50 percent. A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump’s approval rating among Republicans jumped five points to 72%, compared to last week.
In his initial tweets on Sunday Trump never mentioned any name or skin color of a group of congresswomen and their anti-American statements, but between then and 11AM on Tuesday, when the tally was reported, CNN and MSNBC have applied the word "racist" more than 1,100 times in reference to President Trump.
However, CNN and MSNBC are not known to be among President Trump's "most ardent supporters."
If anyone reading this blog does not realize this already, Carl Vehse (fake news name), is in fact Richard Strickert of Austin, Texas. He is a member of a tiny congregation, dying at the vine. He is obsessed with twisting and perverting LCMS history and doctrine. He has no formal theological training and is incapable, apparently, of reading and understanding Lutheran history and theology.
As for his constant harping on bishops.
The Lutheran Confessions are perfectly clear that the office of bishop is Biblical and Lutheran and acceptable. Not the Romanist model, of course. Martin Luther himself consecrated the first Lutheran Bishop, Nicholas Amsdorf. The Scandinavian Lutheran churches retained bishops.
In Germany the more common practice was for a "Superintendent" to be appointed to "oversee" a given "consistory" in a city or other geographical area. Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard are but two of these men,
Strickert is such a dolt he does not, or will not, realize that the word "superintendent" is the Latin form of ... "episkopos" and the preeminent dogmatician of Lutheran Orthodoxy, John Gerhard, in his Dogmatics says very plainly that this office is, of course, the "bishop" which is spoken of in the New Testament. And CFW Walther makes a point of saying in the book that Vehse worships as nearly Biblical, Church and Ministry, says his book is to be examined in light of Gerhard's work for futher elucidation. He hates that and ignores and that out of pure evil contines to ignore historical context.
Strickert is crippled by a deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance and he can never see his way clear to these realities.
The Lutheran Church can and has operated under many forms of church governance: episcopacy, consistories, LCMS polity. There is absolutely no divinely mandated form of church governance. And as for "voters' assemblies" they are an innovation and the likes of Strickert can't wrap his pea-brained intellect around all this.
So, just copy and paste this anytime he copies/pastes his bullcrap commentary on this blog.
As other have noted, he is an old retired man who has nothing better to do with his time than post his detritus on blog sites (the ones that still let him post).
Vehse's only response to posts like this to resort to childish poopy humor and ad hominem.
Previously I wrote: "Lutheran pastors are bishops. But contrary to any equivocal meaning, or the longings of the English District or closet-Romanists, LCMS Synod and District presidents, by the nature of their corporate offices, are NOT the episcopal bishops of pastors."
Based on an LCMS resolution and supporting CCM opinions, that statement still stands.
Vehse, you keep accusing people who prefer an episcopal polity as being "Romanists." This is a sin against the 8th commandment. I hope you repent and offer an apology.
Anonymous on July 19, 2019 at 10:06 AM, it is you who makes false statement. Repent and apologize.
While Romanists by definition hold to an episcopal polity, I've not made the accusation that all people who prefer an episcopal polity are Romanists. Some are Stephanites or Loeheists. Others seem psychologically attached to the notion of an episcopal polity or foolishly think an episcopal polity would be better for the Missouri Synod.
Carl, you are a liar, bald-faced and unrepentant. You keep throwing around the word "Romanist" anytime there is a discussion of bishops in the Lutheran Church. You know. We all know it. You are suffering from a form of mental incapacity, obviously, is the kindest way to explain your sinful behavior on this forum and elsewhere.
I have to agree with the remarks about Richard Strickert. He is a very disturbed old man who needs help. Sad, pathetic and obviously mentally ill. Disgusting individual who has a little bit of knowledge, a whole lot of arrogance and is a disgrace to himself and his congregation.
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