The purpose of writing this blog is witness. This is my effort to spur myself and others on to faithful witness in the Missouri Synod and to the people in our nation who have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. So I want to write specifically about how we may do that and point out the areas where faithful witness in the Missouri Synod has been deficient.
My LCMS pastor said, "I'm not familiar with that" when I asked him how the Magdeburg Confession applies today when it comes to ungodly government commands.
Yeah, a lot of pastors are not familiar with it because it was only translated into English a few years ago. We were taught about the Augsburg Interim in seminary but I don't recall learning anything about the Magdeburg Confession. You should give him a copy and ask to discuss it with him
Very good article. I would offer to the conversation the following. You state “should the church be caught flat footed again it is without excuse…” I summit it was without excuse before COVID. We’ve had God’s Law/Word plainly before us for centuries and have chosen to ignore it. Meanwhile the proverbial water was going from warm to boil. And it continues. And now we find ourselves asking “why am I in the basket and where are we going?” The akedia continues because we got here over centuries of neglect but want the ship’s course corrected overnight and we want it corrected via the civil government in one election…oh…and we want that one “political savior” to do all the work for us and everyone would be satisfied if things just got back to some imaginary 1980’s version of America. Not going to happen. Weak vision because of a weak church. You are spot on right regarding abortion and the church complying. However, again, I would say this was an easy step because the church, by enlarge, set the conditions internally. Slowly, careers became more important than family voila the “pill.” The church, at first albeit weakly, resisted “birth control.” But eventually it was fully embraced and our women were/are barren through chemicals and our men just let it happen while playing. So, the beginning solution is internal first then, or simultaneously, external. Repent of the open pagan practices in which we engage within the church…pragmatism, “family planning,” forsaking the Lord’s Day, etc…the list is long. Then maybe…maybe…there will be a course correction.
In all of this discussion, the the Lutheran Church is prominent. Where and when did Jesus say....."I will build my Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc. etc. Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it"? You see, unless we are truly "all one body in Christ", as Jesus commanded, we cannot possibly agree on anything and all pious rhetoric is of no material consequence. We cannot even understand the scriptures alike, so how could we possibly understand anything else alike?
Great post, but please STOP using tyrannical government language! There was not a period of ‘COVID’ for crying out loud! How is that not completely obvious by now?? “Covid” is a myth. To this day, there is no such thing as a diagnostic test for the fictitious virus. No diagnostic test means the myth cannot even be proven to exist much less be tested for. The correct phrases for that time period are: 1. During the lockdowns; 2. During the BASELESS governmental and medical tyranny; or 3. The era of the greatest crime against humanity. Please stop using their mythological language.
My general tactic is to argue that the destruction and loss of life came from the words used in assault rather than "the virus," even if it exists. The one issue I find when trying to lead with "viruses aren't real" is that while the matter itself is one of a misuse of words and much lying, it has a rhetorical cost, as you're making a pre-argument in order to substantiate the main argument that "SARS-CoV-2" isn't real. There is some groundwork that I am not interested in defending. I prefer to retain the use of the term "COVID" as a marker for the operation that it was. There was indeed a period of "COVID." It was the set of rhetoric and policies and swords executed on the world, to various ends, and perpetuated by people of varying levels of knowledge. When someone got sick as a result of this, that was "COVID," whether or not it was caused by a discrete entity called "SARS-CoV-2." Nonetheless, some particular environmental and circumstantial phenomenon induced or exacerbated some of that sickness and other novel behavior and belief.
It is incomplete to merely say, "during the lockdowns" or "during evil government tyranny and criminality." These are true, but "COVID" captures the whole program and everything that was occurring. Like I said, some things came from the self-aware malefactors and designers, while others came from those "among us" who were deceived, seduced, coerced, etc., into acting "against us."
If you say "during evil government time," you need to explain the nature of the evil. A narrative about a virus will always be attendant to that nature, irrespective of the nature of that specific narrative! And again, highlighting only the government's role in the program distracts from the psychological and spiritual effects it had on our own people and the way in which we ourselves participated.
My main thesis then, and reason for replying at length, is to say that you can discuss and expose the evil program itself, as well as our own complicities in the evil program, without absolutely resorting to a discussion on the existence of viruses or of a particular one called "SARS-CoV-2".
I've said elsewhere that you could have MORE death and disruption from a "real" virus (or other disaster) and still have an absence of the psychological attacks of "COVID" and the spiritual effects we are now here to note.
Great article. Cows are "she" though, city-slicker.
I admit that I grew up in the suburbs. I appreciate the correction and changed it so I wouldn't offend ranchers
My LCMS pastor said, "I'm not familiar with that" when I asked him how the Magdeburg Confession applies today when it comes to ungodly government commands.
Yeah, a lot of pastors are not familiar with it because it was only translated into English a few years ago. We were taught about the Augsburg Interim in seminary but I don't recall learning anything about the Magdeburg Confession. You should give him a copy and ask to discuss it with him
Very good article. I would offer to the conversation the following. You state “should the church be caught flat footed again it is without excuse…” I summit it was without excuse before COVID. We’ve had God’s Law/Word plainly before us for centuries and have chosen to ignore it. Meanwhile the proverbial water was going from warm to boil. And it continues. And now we find ourselves asking “why am I in the basket and where are we going?” The akedia continues because we got here over centuries of neglect but want the ship’s course corrected overnight and we want it corrected via the civil government in one election…oh…and we want that one “political savior” to do all the work for us and everyone would be satisfied if things just got back to some imaginary 1980’s version of America. Not going to happen. Weak vision because of a weak church. You are spot on right regarding abortion and the church complying. However, again, I would say this was an easy step because the church, by enlarge, set the conditions internally. Slowly, careers became more important than family voila the “pill.” The church, at first albeit weakly, resisted “birth control.” But eventually it was fully embraced and our women were/are barren through chemicals and our men just let it happen while playing. So, the beginning solution is internal first then, or simultaneously, external. Repent of the open pagan practices in which we engage within the church…pragmatism, “family planning,” forsaking the Lord’s Day, etc…the list is long. Then maybe…maybe…there will be a course correction.
In all of this discussion, the the Lutheran Church is prominent. Where and when did Jesus say....."I will build my Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc. etc. Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it"? You see, unless we are truly "all one body in Christ", as Jesus commanded, we cannot possibly agree on anything and all pious rhetoric is of no material consequence. We cannot even understand the scriptures alike, so how could we possibly understand anything else alike?
Do Lutherans obey the pope?
no
Great post, but please STOP using tyrannical government language! There was not a period of ‘COVID’ for crying out loud! How is that not completely obvious by now?? “Covid” is a myth. To this day, there is no such thing as a diagnostic test for the fictitious virus. No diagnostic test means the myth cannot even be proven to exist much less be tested for. The correct phrases for that time period are: 1. During the lockdowns; 2. During the BASELESS governmental and medical tyranny; or 3. The era of the greatest crime against humanity. Please stop using their mythological language.
see also Kary Mullis
My general tactic is to argue that the destruction and loss of life came from the words used in assault rather than "the virus," even if it exists. The one issue I find when trying to lead with "viruses aren't real" is that while the matter itself is one of a misuse of words and much lying, it has a rhetorical cost, as you're making a pre-argument in order to substantiate the main argument that "SARS-CoV-2" isn't real. There is some groundwork that I am not interested in defending. I prefer to retain the use of the term "COVID" as a marker for the operation that it was. There was indeed a period of "COVID." It was the set of rhetoric and policies and swords executed on the world, to various ends, and perpetuated by people of varying levels of knowledge. When someone got sick as a result of this, that was "COVID," whether or not it was caused by a discrete entity called "SARS-CoV-2." Nonetheless, some particular environmental and circumstantial phenomenon induced or exacerbated some of that sickness and other novel behavior and belief.
It is incomplete to merely say, "during the lockdowns" or "during evil government tyranny and criminality." These are true, but "COVID" captures the whole program and everything that was occurring. Like I said, some things came from the self-aware malefactors and designers, while others came from those "among us" who were deceived, seduced, coerced, etc., into acting "against us."
If you say "during evil government time," you need to explain the nature of the evil. A narrative about a virus will always be attendant to that nature, irrespective of the nature of that specific narrative! And again, highlighting only the government's role in the program distracts from the psychological and spiritual effects it had on our own people and the way in which we ourselves participated.
My main thesis then, and reason for replying at length, is to say that you can discuss and expose the evil program itself, as well as our own complicities in the evil program, without absolutely resorting to a discussion on the existence of viruses or of a particular one called "SARS-CoV-2".
I've said elsewhere that you could have MORE death and disruption from a "real" virus (or other disaster) and still have an absence of the psychological attacks of "COVID" and the spiritual effects we are now here to note.