The Nihil Rule

a savage  myth: busted. Preferred pronouns have been in the air. You might have noticed my Evangelical Admonition to Faithful Confession ; Dr. Koontz' podcast about  preferable pronouns  dropped shortly thereafter; followed up by a New Years article by yours truly:  But I speak of Christ and the Church , and then yet another Dr. Koontz episode expanding on the pronoun issue . All tied up into one tidy package by the Men who, indeed Understood the Times . A blessed convergence! God works in mysterious ways.  In my first article I was addressing three specific occurrences of WELS persons (all members of the WELS Committee on Identity, Gender, and Sexuality - a committee not listed on the WELS website, ostensibly for " OPSEC reasons" - but as a buddy of mine opined "they are probably more worried about the WELS backlash than the secular one") promoting the utilization of preferred pronouns as either being not-sin, or dismissing the question of pronou...

  Men who Understood the Times: Do we have a Pronoun Hospitality Problem? The men were kind enough to link  to two  of my Substack articles and discuss the quote from August Pieper: “[T]here is no excuse for those who think it unnecessary to tell unbelievers about their sins right to their face and to condemn their ways with the written law, since the gospel alone is God’s power for salvation, and so it is enough to make these tidings known to the world. This opinion is not based on Scripture, but on their own wisdom. It is born of their fear of men and of the curse of the cross... Wanting to be silent about sin and win the impenitent only with the sweetness of the gospel amounts to denying God’s zeal and holiness and suppressing his threats. It amounts to hypocrisy, practicing spiritual quackery. It means leading the poor people to fleshly security instead of to faith and casting pearls before the swine. Under all circumstances the impenitent need the law, and only next,...

  A favorite of certain   pastors , MLC professors , MLK openly denied the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, and his resurrection. He's a baaaad man .

  Brief#32 Preferable Pronouns

  An Evangelical Admonition to Faithful Confession " when the rich young ruler came to Jesus, Jesus loved him and he told him the one thing that he could not accept to hear. Being told that he had to give up his wealth in order to follow Jesus struck at the root of his sin - you might even say it struck at his  identity . But Jesus loved him, and He brought every facet of himself to the situation. In the same way when we encounter the LGBTQ+, we love them, and we tell them the one thing that they cannot bear to hear. We tell them in love that their lifestyle of sin is not right. It violates God’s law. By doing so we love them in the Biblical sense so that their hearts might be opened to the sweetness of the Gospel to heal and restore."

 The original webmaster of the Motley Magpie website, which I have since repristinated, reached out and provided me the Rubrics Cube graphics which I had assumed were lost to time. God bless you, Aart! (I know I've been quiet, but a storms a'brewin'... )

  Men Who Understood the Times | Substack A new podcast just dropped hosted by Pastor Zarling with guests Pastor Andy Mueller and high school teacher Joshua Nelson. Three men who, indeed, understand the times.  (These names should be familiar - we've reviewed Pastor Zarling's book , Pastor Andy Mueller's presentation on Critical Theory in the light of Scripture , and Joshua Nelson's thoughts on the convention and his presentations at two apologetics conferences . Good men coming together for what promises to be a good podcast series!)

"These enthusiasts [Schwärmer] likewise drag the evangelical freedom and equality in Christ down into earthly political things and show that they have no idea of the spirituality and splendor of the kingdom of Christ." - C.F.W. Walther ... "Today women have rightly progressed in their rights as citizens of the United States in many needed ways ... as you look at the story, God is unraveling slavery! ... we don't have slavery, but we have incarceration, and we incarcerate everybody because we have no other tool to use to deal with problems" ... These are quotes from a sermon preached by now-retired Pastor James Behringer. At the time Rev. Behringer was the Director of WELS Special Ministries, serving as a substitute Pastor this particular Sunday.  Feminism, slavery and prison reform are of course hallmark topics of the Social Justice Warriors. Even just a few years ago, I would lament that books like Jon Harris'  Social Justice Goes to Church  had so much lo...

Read more at The Other Dr. Phil ... FYSA, as I mentioned in closing out 2024 , and further fleshed out in March , I'm moving to long form (and video-form) on the Substack . The Nihil Rule will live on (in infamy! at least in the minds of some) and will receive the occasional update when something breaks the threshold of Woke in the WELS or WELS Whitepill.  Make sure you are following me on substack or via RSS .

In Part One , Rev. David Thompson (ELS,  Center for Apologetics and Worldviews ) presents "Discerning Parents and Teachers - Identifying Deceptive False Worldview Assumptions That Sneak Into the Classroom and Into the Home" In  Part Two ,  Chaplain Don Moldstad, (ELS,  Bethany Lutheran College ) presents "Heaven's Little Embassy - The Importance of Teaching God's Word at Home" In  Part Three , Mr. Joshua Nelson (WELS, Wisconsin Lutheran High School ) teaches high school chemistry, "The Need for Discernment in Social Emotional Learning (SEL)". SEL is something we've talked about quite a bit  over the years. Joshua speaks from years of experience in our synodical education and speaks masterfully to the subject.