“Ding Dong the Witch is Dead,” the Witch of LCMS Liberalism, or at Least it is on Life Support, by Pr. Rossow

The DayStar Journal, a publication of disgruntled LCMS’ers who reject Scriptural truth,  is putting out a series of articles based on the premise that liberalism is dead in the LCMS, or at most, on life support with nothing but their own flimsy, Gospel reductionism version of hope to get them through the dark days of the Harrison presidency.

Here is the introduction to this series of articles.

The Future of the LCMS

           The spring issue of the DayStar JOURNAL features a symposium on the “Future of the LCMS.”  It is quite evident, as the Synod loses members every year that the church body is aging and shrinking.  With the election of Matthew Harrison as President it is also clear that the Synod will be moving in a more conservative direction.  Women wonder whether to remain in a church body where their voice is not heard and their ministries are not honored. Moderates in the Synod are growing older and fewer.  What are they to do when they find themselves excluded from the decisions on the future of the church body? People brought up to believe that Lutherans were a confessional movement in the church catholic, now grieve as they feel bound in a sectarian church body seeking leadership among social conservatives.

           The symposium looks into the future of the LCMS with both trepidation and hope.  It begins with exploration of what it means to be a remnant with pitiful power but a patient hope.  It then goes on to ask the question about whether for the LCMS the “articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae” (the article whereby the church stands or falls) is the Gospel or is its stand on homosexuality.  Then the symposium looks further into the future with hope and celebrates the ordination of Pastor Stephanie Zimmermann.  After the three part symposium, Dean Lueking, in a major article, revisits the vision of Lutheranism as a confessing movement in the church catholic.  Below is the first article in the symposium.

We will keep you posted with news and commentary on these articles. For now here’s a few thoughts on this provocative introduction.

As I asserted above, the DayStar folks reject Scriptural truth. They do so in favor of their own social and political whims. They have replaced the common sense truth of the words of Scripture with a hermeneutic (approach to understanding language) that wrongly thinks words are signs of the solipsistic reality of the mind and that no two minds can know the same thing objectively. What I mean is this. Because they have given up on the possibility of objective truth, words can only stand for subjective feelings of the individual. This threatens the very reality of the forgiveness of sins. The death of Jesus on the cross means one thing for you and another thing for me according to their hermeneutic. All of life and truth is not much more than art to them and everything is subject to the individual’s view of things. Viewing Scripture and all words for that matter, is much like looking at an abstract painting. Everything is open to interpretation. This is what we fought against and won in the LCMS in the 60’s and 70’s. These DayStar people are bitter clingers. Instead of clinging to their guns they are bitterly clinging to their demonic subjectivism by which the truth of Scripture is lost.

That is why they reject the clear teaching of Scripture that women are not to have authority over men in the church (I Timothy 2:12) and other clear teachings of the perspicuous Word of God. They remain on the same path and use the same rationale the ELCA employed which has brought them to the point of apostasy.

So I say, “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.” Good riddance. I do so, not in some sort of social support of conservativism, nor in some sort of political support of Matthew Harrison, nor in some sort of social-political support of men. I do so because Christ compels me through His blood shed for me. The Gospel compels me to uphold the common sense truth of Scripture. Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Or, as we sang yesterday in the Divine Service, on Good Shepherd Sunday, “I am Jesus little lamb – ever glad at heart I am” (LSB #740). Where words are stripped of the power to carry objective truth, we Christians lose our childlike faith and trust and are the most pitiful of men.

The DayStar crowd by their own admission is pitiful. But don’t accept their invitation in this new series of articles to their self pity party. Instead renew your devotion to the Word of God and pray with me that these liberal LCMS’ers give up their devotion to cultural whims and accept the truth of the Gospel in all its articles.

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