The Orthodox Lutheran Catacombs
"Contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3).
Life in the 21st Century catacombs
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Welcome to a website chronicling life in the 21st Century equivalent of the catacombs of Rome. Life for independent, orthodox, confessional Lutherans isn't easy these days. We live in a widely-scattered diaspora. There aren't many of us at all. While we are more orthodox than the Eastern Orthodox, more catholic than the Roman Catholics, more evangelical than the Evangelicals -- we sure don't get much press. Unless it's hostile. Oh, yes, there is always plenty of that.
We live on this earth by the grace of God. And no one is more aware of this than we. Most of us worship in homes, hotel conference rooms or makeshift, informal churches. Many of us must travel hundreds of miles to attend a Divine Service. None of this would be possible without God's favor being poured upon us. For this, we are grateful. We are humble beggars before God.
The 20 June 2006 Nerac Client Newsletter reports:
Nerac Helps McCrone Associates Support Gospel of Judas' Authenticity
Collaborating with Nerac's research team, McCrone Associates has produced a substantial discovery that suggests pomegranate ink is consistent with the ink used to write the Gospel of Judas.
When National Geographic needed one of the world's leading microscopy research organizations to help verify the authenticity of the Gospel of Judas documents they turned to McCrone Associates.
And when McCrone Associates needed help researching this high- profile case, they turned to Nerac.
McCrone Associates, one of today's top microscopy consulting firms, recently collaborated with Nerac, a leading technology research and analysis firm, to produce a substantial discovery that suggests pomegranate ink is consistent with the ink used to write the Gospel of Judas more then 1,700 years ago. "We consider Nerac and Mike part of the research team here at McCrone Associates," explained Joe Barabe, Senior Research Microscopist, McCrone Associates.
"Mike's open-minded approach to research as well as his knowledge and expertise helped us establish a solid direction and point of vital to identifying the type of ink used in the Gospel of Judas documents."
McCrone Associates will publish a paper detailing their findings in the July issue of Microscopy Today. In their report, McCrone suggested that pomegranate ink is indeed one of the possible inks used to write the Gospel of Judas document, and more importantly, that the ink is consistent with 3rd century Egypt.
"We are quite thrilled to have made such a vital contribution and impact on McCrone Associates' research efforts that lead to the pomegranate ink discovery," said Kevin Bouley, President and CEO, Nerac. "McCrone's trust in Nerac for such a confidential, high- profile case is an honor and truly a research victory that both companies are proud to be a part of."
There is evidence that yet another third-century apocryphal document exists, and is not a modern forgery. There is no more evidence that this document is divinely inspired than there is for the inspiration of any of the other plethora of gnostic and other heretical texts from the period. The hysteria seen over this text is proceeding more from anti-Christian bias in the media than it is from genuine academic research. The so-called Gospel of Thomas, the Protevangelion of Mary, etc., receive no such attention, simply because they are "old news."
As the apostolic fathers before us did, let us turn our attention away from these heretical texts and back onto the divinely-inspired Holy Scriptures, "which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15).
The Rev. Dr. Gregory Jackson notes that:
The May 2006 issue of ELS' Lutheran Sentinel includes the following report: "The ELS Doctrine Committee met with the CICR of WELS on Sept 16, 2005 and discussed the role of women in the church regarding: 1) women serving as pastors to women, 2) women serving as lectors in the divine service, and 3) women communing women. The Board reports consensus on the first two points with further study needed on point three." (Page 10)
Besides the obvious question of "What was agreed upon?" I must also ask: Are the WELS and ELS seriously considering the establishment of congregations for women only? If not, then, isn't this just a hypothetical exercise? And a terrific waste of time?
I doubt that either of these severely cash-starved denominations would finance the hefty travel and lodging costs necessary to hold a joint summit for a purely hypothetical discussion.
What sort of church are they planning? Could they seriously be planning a WELS or ELS church For Women Only? What would they do with a man who desired to join? Or simply attend?
Since the WELS and (many in the) ELS cling to a bizarre and novel doctrine of the ministry, whereby all sorts of ministry forms can be created ... perhaps they look to create a new office of women's pastorette within a larger congregation consisiting of both men and women. I can imagine this office of women's pastorette being rationalized because it would be similar to a youth minister -- a targeted ministry for a targeted group within a larger congregation.
Of course, this is purely conjecture. But what else could they be planning? I'm open to suggestion.
MosaicGlobe support has rapidly corrected the problem and I have now downloaded a .pdf of my latest conference paper. I am also working on a list of recommended reading materials for orthodox Lutheran theological studies. It is quite a task, and when finished the list will be quite long ... and these are just the recommended ones.
This is a fresh venture. I plan to use this site to make public various documents, photographs, news items, etc. (Unfortunately I am currently experiencing error messages when attempting to download files.) The site will be updated at irregular intervals.