We are in the final death spiral of civilization, but I am not going to make any calendar predictions. Chemnitz wrote, "We are in the last days of an insane, old world," and yet God continued to hold back the forces that will bring matters to an end.
Unless evil plans and wicked actions are fought against, they gain ground. In the past, that seemed imperceptible, although the signs were clear.
People tend to look at Revelation or Mark 13 as key passages, and they all do fit together, but the most pointed is 2 Thessalonians 2.
2 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
The final battle is always approaching, and people have been ready in the past, but now the majority are in a drugged, peaceful sleep.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [the Great Apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
The Great Apostasy is an important sign of the end. Atheists and heretics are not apostates. To be an apostate, one must be a sincere, believing Christian, as most church leaders probably were in their youth. But now they are opponents of the Gospel and radical in establishing their power and luxurious wealth.
This is not simply the degeneration of one denomination, but of all confessions. Pope Francis is a good example. Backed by the Curia, that eternal glob of power in the Vatican, he is supporting the destruction of Roman Catholic teaching. I am no fan of Romanism, but nothing is quite as dangerous as a powerful global institution eviscerated by a Maxist to serve Marxist interests - not to mention the other signs of decline from Romans 1, chiefly the rights and benefits of sodomy.
Pope Francis has the advantage of formal, declared infallibility, but here in the United States, we have mini-popes and little Antichrists who much of the same thing, also in the name of denominational rigor while mocking their origins and their leaders from the past.
When I reviewed The Rite of Sodomy by Randy Engels, and compared the obvious parallels to WELS, Christian News and WELS blew up in attacking me.
This is long-cherished method of the Left to make the truth sound like murdering Bambi's mother. Herman Otten piously apologized to WELS for printing such a lamentable review. Randy Engels refused to answer my emails! And yet, no one apologized a bit later, when the FBI raided WELS headquarters and seized computers, because Joel Hochmuth, chief propagandist for the sect, kept (and probably used) homosexual child porn graphics and videos not far from the office of the Synod President. Here is another link.
WELS has become even more enamored of cross-dressing, a strange custom when leaders Mark Schroeder and Joel Hochmuth denounced ELCA for their moral laxity in the areas of ordination and marriage.
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
- Pope Francis cannot be criticized - he is infallible.
- SP Mark Schroeder cannot be criticized - he is infallible.
- Matt the Heretic Impaler cannot be criticized - he is infallible.
- Pope John the Malefactor cannot be criticized - he is infallible.
The alleged conservative Lutherans self-righteously--winking at each other--criticize the other conservative Lutherans, but they are united in working with ELCA, studying at Fuller Seminary, and teaching universal forgiveness and salvation. And yet, these leaders are worshiped as gods and set themselves up as beyond all criticism, as if a plea for sound doctrine is a personal attack on the majesty of their office.
St. Paul warned the Thessalonians of these matters when he was preaching to them, so this is an admonition from the earliest days. The Apostolic Church was divided and had to meet at Jerusalem for a council about establishing sound doctrine in unity. Imagine any sect doing that today! That would be as astonishing as an Article V Constitutional Convention, established in our own Constitution but bound to be quashed by the establishment.
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
Given our propensity for self-destruction, the end might have come much sooner, except God prevented that from happening. God protects us from ourselves so that millions more can hear the Gospel, repent of their unfaith, and believe in the Savior.
This iniquity began in the Apostolic Age and has been at work ever since. Even Roman Catholics agree that the Lutheran Reformation kept the Christian Church from becoming a complete mockery in its time, weighed down by moral turpitude, corruption, and false doctrine built around papal power.
Rome has cleverly taken its weakness about Biblical doctrine and revised its rites, to make converting more appealing to those with a few qualms left. The iniquity is not lessened but increased by the deception.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
The great Antichrist will be revealed in the Second Coming of Christ, destroyed by the Word - the Spirit of His Mouth - and that brightness of His glory will end the darkness of the Antichrist's manufactured power.
 |
| Nothing is so priceless as listening to this character lisping his way through the syrupy movie. |
The characteristics of the papacy are also described as the working of Satan, with deceiving miracles, wonders, and powers. The old films about Romanism, such as Vincent Price in The Song of Bernadette, are excellent examples of this highly polished Dreck. If Price as the astonished skeptic is amusing in this treacle, then listen to the saint stories of WELS, Missouri, the ELS, and the CLC (sic). I recall an known incestuous rapist being praised as "the first one to realize how WELS was falling away" in Minnesota. There is the shield of sainthood so easily bestowed on criminals.
I was often told of a Missouri pastor who visited a WELS gathering, astonished at the perfection of their sect, saying, "Hold on to what you have. Missouri has lost its way." I have never heard a Missouri pastor express admiration for WELS - except for Otten - but the story is told endlessly.
The 500th Anniversary Debacle - Now Taking Shape
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Have we even been more inundated in sanctimonious pleas for using all means--except the Means of grace--for reaching the lost (who are already forgiven and saved, according to LCMS, WELS, the Little Sect, and the CLC sic)?
ELCA and state church Lutherans will celebrate 2017 as reunion with Rome. They have already accepted justification by works, made more palatable by some references to justification by faith, a more obnoxious and toxic mixture.
 |
| Three synods boycotted this miserable farce, including their seminary professors and synod presidents. |
The so-called conservatives have already declared at their petite summit, the Emmanus Conference, that the Reformation was all about justification without faith. I noted with grave concern that the LCMS, WELS, and ELS did not send their professors or synod president to market this twaddle. Instead, they anointed the dimmest of dimwits - Jay Webber, Jon Buchholz, and some spare LCMS district president.
No one wanted his seminary professorship marred by the unspeakable idiocies that must be promoted to prove that Luther and St. Paul really taught against justification by faith. Who can question Rambach? Most do not know the Halle Pietist was a hymn-writer, not a Book of Concord editor.
"Let's have those seminary professor wannabees Webber and Buchholz speak. If they can pull this off, wonderful. If they get exposed as incompetent UOJ nags, we can cut them loose and plea for patience. In time the laity and clergy will return to their relaxants and forget about it."
The delusion of being correct is God's punishment against WELS, the Little Sect on the Prairie, the Missouri Synod, and the splinters and shards of the Synodical Conference. Only ELDONA has spoken for justification by faith and against UOJ, following the lead of the global Church of the Augsburg Confession. (We have nodes everywhere, but that is another story.)
Lutherans should be in a state of stark terror, like people trapped in an elevator, watching the cables fray and part, the last one slowly giving way. But no - they continue as before, just as they did in the days of Noah, when the Flood was preached and the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
Matthew 24:37-39King James Version (KJV)
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Abortion - The Great American Genocide - Funded by Lutheran Synods
The LCMS has no trouble taking $50 to 60 million dollars a year from Thrivent, a pro-abortion, pan-sexual insurance business that uses all Lutherans as its base and doles out money to the United Nations, ELCA, and other thieves and parasites.
WELS and ELS get fewer dollars but the same fleas from lyin' down with this insurance dawg. Oddly enough, most insurance companies do NOT identify with such causes.
Thrivent supports Planned Parenthood, which buys unborn baby body parts, a felony.