Thursday, July 16, 2009
John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress
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| And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken... 1 Samuel 4:21 |
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was once the most read book in the English language, after the King James Bible. Bunyan's most read book, after the Bible, was Luther's Commentary on Galatians. I wonder how many Church Growth gurus have read either one.
Bunyan was famous for cursing before his conversion. He did not belong to the Church of England, so he was imprisoned for about 12 years for teaching as a Dissenter. He was released under a new edict of toleration but arrested again. They gave him a little jail cell, special built, where he wrote most of Pilgrim's Progress. In all he wrote 60 books, some of which perished forever because copies were gradually destroyed from being passed along and studied.
Pilgrim's Progress has been turned into an animation, which makes it a great introduction for children.
My copy of Pilgrim's Progress is from the Limited Edition Club, which means - superb paper, color prints tipped in, large print and margins. The book is a pleasure to read for its beauty, but the content surpasses that.
Allegories are difficult to write and often even more difficult to read. Moby Dick and Lord of the Rings have been called allegories.
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Friday, July 31, 2009
Free Advice Needed for WELS
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Luther, Lord's Prayer, and OJ":
Dear Pr. Jackson,
Please offer to help WELS leaders sort out their theological mess. Start with a letter/email to the Prez.
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GJ - I appreciate the suggestion. I imagine it will be read by some and discussed by many.
Otten made a serious mistake in brokering the news for various synods. He helped manage the campaigns for Jack Preus, Ralph Bohlmann, and Al Barry. A typical day, based on my visits there, had him on the phone frequently with various synodical power brokers. That made him an unacknowledged leader of various synods, because he was almost as involved in WELS/ELS as Missouri, and dabbled in the misbegotten CLC too.
The UOJ Stormtroopers did not want me discussing their precious heresy in public, so I was banned inCN. The tabloid is so last-century now, weeks later than most people get their news from the Net.
My approach will continue to be - publish whatever is rotten in the state of Denmark and discuss Lutheran doctrine. The Word is effective, as shown by the latest efforts to silence me by attacking my sainted daughters. Once exposed by their own Dreck, they called their opponents "nasty," refused to publish their comments, and stopped. They reminded me of Gibbon's description of one army - "They fought without discipline and ran without shame."
UOJ is the ugly head of Enthusiasm, while Romanism is the alluring answer to Enthusiasm...from Enthusiasm. Both must be addressed and defeated by Lutherans.
By naming the key doctrines of the Book of Concord--God's own methods--WELS has stepped into a new discussion that divide the sheep from the goats, or more optimistically, the sheep from the wolves.
Many Lutherans are new-born babes in discussing the Means of Grace and the efficacy of the Word. They have been fed religious Pop-tarts, candy corn, and soda crackers. The new diet will be challenging but exciting. They will meet opposition everywhere. Chytraeus wrote that one of the surest signs of orthodox is that opposition.
Reading Pilgrim's Progress again, I ran into a funny but accurate description of how things go. Apollyon (Satan's servant) assailed Christian to come back to the City of Destruction and abandon his trip to the Celestial City. "Your master stays where He is and never helps His servants when they are in trouble. But my master enters the world and helps his servants, by deceit and fraud." Of course, that is Satanic temptation, to imagine the first part true when it is not. But the second part is definitely true in every single denomination.