The Nihil Rule

"In other words, people do not like to offend anybody . They flatter and speak to gain favor, money, prospects, or friendship [Proverbs 26:28]. As a result, a poor man and his cause must be oppressed, denounced as wrong, and suffer punishment. It is a common disaster in the world that in courts of justice godly men seldom preside. To be a judge required above all things a godly man, and not only a godly man, but aslo a wise, modest, indeed, a brave and bold man. Likewise, to be a witness requires a fearlessness and especially godly man. For a person who is to judge all matters rightly and carry them through with his decision will often offend good friends, relatives, neighbors, and the rich and powerful, who may greatly serve or inure him." - Luther's explanation of the 8th commandment in his Large Catechism

  (Text from AnglicansOnline.org ) Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He h...

( source )   If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.   If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a sol...

Pastor Johann Cauuwe has done us a great service by putting Dr. Siegbert Becker's Revelation lecture series online . This lecture series took place in the early 1980's, and he authored the book Revelation: The Distant Triumph Song , Dr. Becker wrote a paper on the book of Revelation which, on the very last page, lays out his seven-fold division of the book he describes in his lectures, including the seven visions which he noted can be difficult to discern in modern translations. During Lecture 2 around the 28-minute mark, while discussing the letter to the book of Ephesus in Revelation 2, Dr. Becker muses on the breakup of the synodical conference, saying that the WELS rightly left the synodical conference and that some pastors had to make the difficult decision to move from Missouri to Wisconsin. "But I wonder whether the Lord wouldn't also say about the Wisconsin synod, 'thou hast left thy first love' Are we as earnest and devoted to the Gospel as we aught t...

  LCMS President Matthew Harrison was the keynote speaker at the Southern District LCMS convention . The comments above occurred at roughly the one hour and forty-three minute mark, discussing relations with the WELS. Two big takeaways from this brief clip: 1. "The LCMS is never going to give up women's suffrage, nor should we": LCMS, Inc. has bought into the lies of the feminist movement. LCMS, Inc. is apostate. That doesn't mean there aren't individual LCMS churches that have better practices on the books or wish to operate in a more faithful manner - but the managerial overlords have spoken. 2. "They [WELS] are trying to find ways in which forms of government don't require much voting or any voting at all... structures that give women clear input." President Harrison is referring to consensus governance models which reduce the male-lead council and elders to a bare skeleton and instead form Ministry Action Teams and reduce or eliminate congregati...

  MLC's  InFocus Magazine , page 22 (and 10) ... Life imitates parody: check out  Ｐｈｉｌｉｐ　Ｄｅｒｒｉｄａ 's "Gospeling in the Current Year" artwork on X, including:

... a guest post... you, too, can submit a guest post to layman@nihilrule.com ... I just read your "Merge for Mission" article, a week after watching the WELS Connection for February 2025, which featured the WELS 100 in 10 initiative ( https://wels100in10.net/ ). I told my wife at the time that it seemed odd to me that they would take young guys right out of the seminary to do these church plants. Why not look at guys who have already been in a parish for a few years and gotten some measure of experience under their belts on the day-to-day stuff, rather than throwing a raw seminary graduate into both trying to pick up that experience and simultaneously undertake the mission thing? Is it because they think inexperienced men will be more pliable with regard to perceived mission needs? Is it because they think there will be fewer consequences for men who don't yet have families -- or that such a perception will make family men proportionately less likely to take such calls u...

You may have noticed that the blog was offline for about a week. Last Monday I received - at my personal email address - a lengthy email by someone from the Synod office culminating in a request for me to delete the blog. I affirmed, and did not deny, I am the author. But as to deleting the blog, this I believe is beyond my control at this point. Let me explain.  When I started this blog about 3 years ago, I was looking for an outlet to write. I am a very mathematical mind, and writing has never been a strong suit. I started a blog on a whim. I picked a domain name based on Peter's dissertation  on the nihil rule I was reading at the time, and the avatar of the preeminent Wisconsin Synod theologian and started writing stuff. I had no intent to be 'that' guy. I did not anticipate the turn that would take place after the Lutheran Leadership conference. A few posts asking question and poking at things and I had several people emailing me and group chats were formed along with...

(please don't make me explain: this is a meme.  If it didn't make you giggle you weren't the target audience. Move along!)