The Queen James Bible: The next stage of "interpretive ambiguity"

Round and round and round it goes.
     Where it'll stop, who really knows?
          Or cares?

The strictures of gender-neutrality placed on the translation of the NIV 2011 superimpose a feminist worldview on the entire text of the Bible. But this is old news. The next controversial phase of attacks on God's Word is to superimpose a homosexual worldview on the Bible. How long will it be before confessional Lutherans join this movement? From the Product Description on Amazon:

A Gay Bible
The Queen James Bible is based on The King James Bible, edited to prevent homophobic misinterpretation.

Homosexuality in The Bible
Homosexuality was first mentioned in the Bible in 1946, in the Revised Standard Version. There is no mention of or reference to homosexuality in any Bible prior to this - only interpretations have been made. Anti-LGBT Bible interpretations commonly cite only eight verses in the Bible that they interpret to mean homosexuality is a sin; Eight verses in a book of thousands!

The Queen James Bible seeks to resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality: We edited those eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.

Who is Queen James?
The King James Bible is the most popular Bible of all time, and arguably the most important English language document of all time. It is the brainchild and namesake of King James I, who wanted an English language Bible that all could own and read. The KJV, as it is called, has been in print for over 400 years and has brought more people to Christ than any other Bible translation. Commonly known to biographers but often surprising to most Christians, King James I was a well-known bisexual. Though he did marry a woman, his many gay relationships were so well-known that amongst some of his friends and court, he was known as "Queen James." It is in his great debt and honor that we name The Queen James Bible so...

[bold emphasis is mine]

Are confessional Lutherans ready for this? It only changes eight verses. How could that be so bad? Some confessional Lutherans are more than ready, I'm sure, but my guess is, most are not. Give it time, though. That's the way change takes place. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, but little by little until new ideas take hold and become normative. Give it a couple decades or so for a more emancipated social consciousness to work its way into the leadership and schools of confessional Lutherans. Maybe then they'll be ready for a Bible such as "The Queen James Bible." For now, I am sure that the ELCA is ready to endorse it as a translation which can be used with "a high degree of confidence," and that should be good enough to encourage the beginning and continuation of changes elsewhere.

Cultural Change and the Church
As Koehler pointed out to us in defending the Historical Disciplines (see the Introduction to my Conference paper, Why is this Happening to Us?), the only way to tell that change has occurred and is impacting the Church is to examine the past:

The truth must remain unchanged but the method must vary in order always to remain the spontaneous expression of the truth. Today we are confronted by new situations... They can be covered with one term, the intrusion of worldly ways into the church... It won’t do to go into isolation and pretend that problems do not exist... But neither is anything accomplished by making compromises and bringing the world into the church... What counts is that we actually stay with the truth in doctrine and conduct and actually shut our church against worldliness. What is the remedy?... In our case it is the historical studies that indicate that a change is taking place, and it is highly important that we do not remain inactive and let it dominate us so that our church may not be harmed by it.

[Koehler, J.P. (1997). The Importance of the Historical Disciplines for the American Lutheran Church of the Present. In C. Jahn (Ed.), Wauwatosa Theology, Vol. 3 (I. Habeck, Trans., 1975). Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House. (Original work published in German, 1904). pp. 436 - 437]

But once harmful change has taken root, it's too late. It's probably too late to reverse many harmful changes hindsight has been revealing to us, especially since the resolution is to bring "clarity" to confusion, while the harmful changes we see often have their root in a love for the power and independence that "ambiguity" brings to the individual.

As I stated in my last post, How does one interpret language in a post-Modern Age? What about the language of the Bible?, it used to be that among confessional Lutherans, "all doctrine was taken from direct positive statements of Scripture, only," – a grammatical definition – but now, "all doctrine is taken only from "clear statements" of Scripture" – a relative definition. It may seem like this sort of thing happens by accident. And maybe it does. But the strategic use of "ambiguity" is also a weapon, used by man to wage war against the clarity of the Scriptures. In fact, I concluded a previous post entitled, When the Third Use of the Law pre-dominates..., which characterized the decline of sound doctrine in the ELCA as a decline in the perceived "clarity" of the Scriptures, with the phrase, "Pursuing freedom from Scripture's clear teachings, by arguing for their ambiguity, results only in tyranny," and used that phrase as the title of two successive posts:

“Pursuing freedom from Scripture's clear teachings, by arguing for their ambiguity, results only in tyranny” – Part One
“Pursuing freedom from Scripture's clear teachings, by arguing for their ambiguity, results only in tyranny” – Part Two

These posts briefly examine the debate between Erasmus and Luther in their works on Human Will (Freedom of the Will and Bondage of the Will respectively), and focus on Erasmus' appeal to "the ambiguity of the Scriptures – to maintain the freedom and authority of man over against Scripture," characterizing such appeals as essentially the same sin of Satan himself – the sin of pride and of desiring equality with God (Ge. 3:1-19). Deliberately making wholesale changes to God's Word, even deliberately changing His Word in only eight places, to satisfy what seems to be laudable values of contemporary social consciousness, only vaunts ambiguity in Scripture in order to employ the freedom of man's arbitrative rights and obligations. Indeed, it often succeeds at inventing such ambiguity in the face of Scripture's clarity, in order that ambiguity can be claimed and strategically used to put man, and what man wants, in the place of God and what He says. This is a childish game played by man from a heart of sinful pride and a desirous love for freedom from Authority. And as the ELCA has amply demonstrated, ambiguity empowers this love, mightily.

Shall confessional Lutherans follow them?

Having Accumulated One-Half Million, We Continue On

This past Wednesday, exactly two years and six months since our inception, Memorial Day weekend, 2010, our humble little blog ticked past one-half million page-reads. That may not seem like much compared to other blogs, but given the type of content we offer, and the relatively small audience who might take an interest in it, we are pleased to have passed this milestone in only two and a half years. So, we thought that we would close out this Church Year, reflecting on the past thirty months.

In the past thirty months, Intrepid Lutherans has published over 355 articles, the majority of which are substantive essays covering a wide range of topics from Christian doctrine and practice, to history, philosophy, education and the arts, from the technical and ideological aspects of Bible translation to politics and culture, from apologetics to devotions and homilies, altogether having attracted over 2660 comments from readers who comment under their own name, discussing and debating the various points and issues raised within them.

The “Categories” section at the bottom of the right-hand column indicates the most frequent categories treated in these articles.. As of the writing of this post, the top ten most frequently covered categories are as follows:

Church Growth (45 posts)
Evangelism (41 posts)
Outreach (34 posts)
Law and Gospel (33 posts)
Justification (32 posts)
Bible Translation (30 posts)
Confessional Lutheranism (28 posts)
Worship (27 posts)
Lutheran Practice (23 posts)
Apologetics (22 posts)

Our content has attracted a regular readership from all over the world, most of whom link to us directly (evidently from a bookmark) or from RSS or Facebook. Others find their way to us from links on other blogs, whether links to Intrepid Lutherans appear on their blogrolls or are contained within their own discussion of the content found in our posts. A great many of our readers find their way to us via search engines, as they specifically seek out the content we offer. Fifty percent of the page-reads our blog has attracted represents the number of unique visitors, over twenty percent of whom have visited over 200 times.

As one can imagine, our daily page-read count has fluctuated over the past thirty months, but on average has steadily increased. Today, we attract an average of approximately 900 page-reads per day, with Monday through Wednesday easily topping 1200 page-reads, while traffic tapers off through Sunday. Over 75% of these page-reads come from return visitors.

As a result of our expanding readership, Intrepid Lutherans incorporated in 2011 as a non-profit tax-exempt religious and educational organization, in order that we could more easily manage donations that we wished to solicit to help finance conferences and other events. Many generous contributors responded, and continue to do so.

Thus, in June of 2012, we held the first Annual Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity. It was held on June 1-2, 2012, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Oshkosh, WI, and attracted over seventy attendees. In that short time, five fantastic papers were delivered, as follows:

Gender Neutral Translating – by Rev. Robert Koester
Why is this Happening to Us? How the culture wars become religious wars among us – by Mr. Douglas Lindee
In Bondage to Expectations – by Rev. Luke Boehringer
The Beauty of the Western Rite – by Rev. Michael Berg
Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans? – by Rev. Paul Rydecki

We can only say, Church and Continuity was an enormous success, especially given that it was our first Conference – and we simply could not have pulled it off without the generous support of our donors, to whom we offer special thanks. As a result of this success, a second Conference is certainly in the works, which our readers can expect to hear about shortly after the turn of the New Year.

Of course, it will be asked, What has attracted our readership? What had attracted interest in attending our Conference in 2012? The answer: our content – substantive and compelling, and sometimes controversial. Over the past thirty months the following twenty posts have been the most popular:

	Page Title	Page Views	Date	Author	Comments	Observations
1.	Dear Pastors Jeske and Ski: You are clearly in the wrong	4830	02/15/11	Intrepid Lutherans	13	Juicy controversy – everybody was interested, relatively few had the courage to comment.
2.	Fraternal Dialogue on the Topic of "Objective Justification"	3681	09/26/11	Mr. Douglas Lindee	54	Rev. Webber (ELS) recommended “Fraternal Dialogue” on the topic, so we opened it with a position and a series of questions to debate, and attempted to keep the ensuing “dialogue” civil and centered on Scripture and the Confessions.
3.	The NNIV, the WELS Translation Evaluation Committee, and the Perspicuity of the Scriptures	3549	07/28/11	Mr. Douglas Lindee	71	The catch-phrase, “There is no perfect translation,” ultimately devolves into a denial of Scripture's clarity and an affirmation of the Roman position that the literate Christian still needs a “Priest” to explain it to him. The sufficiency and authority of Scripture being one of the planks of the Protestant Reformation, this will never happen among Protestant Christians. Not directly. Translators now take on this role in the Protestant world, under the translation ideology of Dynamic Equivalency.
4.	Change or Die – Update	3194	02/24/11	Intrepid Lutherans	13	The “juicy controversy” continues, as does both interest in the controversy and reluctance to become involved.
5.	Why I No Longer Attend My [WELS] Church	3148	02/06/11	Intrepid Lutherans	26	Cross-post from Mr. Ric Techlin's blog, Light from Light, publicly revealing difficulties he was having in his congregation, namely, the refusal of his congregation to address his concerns regarding error in doctrine and practice that was being promoted in his congregation. A handful of local pastors volunteered to work with Mr. Techlin, his congregation and district to resolve these difficulties...
6.	The WEB: A viable English Bible translation?	2746	09/19/11	Rev. Paul Rydecki	94	Discussion over an unsuitable version of the Bible degenerates into a melee over Universalism, and this version's mistranslation of certain sections which support it.
7.	Emmaus Conference – Recap	2607	05/10/11	Rev. Paul Rydecki	17	Were some people excitedly thinking that perhaps this event represented the reunion of Missouri and Wisconsin?
8.	Suspended from the WELS – Why?	2527	10/09/12	Rev. Paul Rydecki	0	More “juicy controversy...”
9.	The whole flock won't survive 'jumping the shark'	2448	02/02/12	Mr. Brian Heyer	42	Thoughtless and ridiculous last-ditch efforts to “save the congregation” by abusing the term evangelism are transparently pathetic acts of desperation, make the congregation a laughing stock in the community and bring shame upon the name of Christ. The methods of the Church Growth Movement are not methods, they are antics, and kill the church by trivializing Scriptures' teachings. Shame on Lutheran congregations who do such things!
10.	NNIV – the new standard for WELS?	2325	07/15/11	Mr. Douglas Lindee	62	Yup, it sure looks that way...
11.	Thoughts on Gender-Neutral Language in the NIV 2011	2310	09/15/11	Intrepid Lutherans	9	Intrepid Lutherans aren't the only ones in WELS concerned that whitewashing gender differences in the Bible, by way of imposing a feminist ideology of translation over the entire text, will lead not only to doctrinal error, but to a culture of thought among supposedly “conservative” Christians that is at war against the Nature of God itself and incompatible with His message to Man.
12.	The Silence Is Broken: An Appleton Update	2269	05/08/11	Rev. Paul Lidtke	17	An update on Mr. Techlin's difficulties, from one of the pastors personally involved in his defense. After formally objecting to what he was concerned were unscriptural practices and teachings in his congregation – and asking to be corrected where he might be in error – Mr. Techlin was simply removed from fellowship: no discussion with him over the issues he raised was entertained, no brotherly attempt was made to work with him through these issues, no example of Christian humility was displayed by his “brothers” which might have suggested they were themselves open to correction. Instead, without Mr. Techlin's or his family's knowledge, the congregation scheduled a meeting, and without even offering him the opportunity to defend himself, voted to remove him and members of his family from fellowship. To his surprise, he received a “Certified Letter” in the mail informing him of the congregation's action against him. Not so much as a phone call from a “concerned brother” or even from his pastor. Just certified mail. Furthermore, this letter made no mention of any doctrinal error to which he obstinately clung, regarding which the congregation collectively determined “further admonition would be of no avail.” To this day, Mr. Techlin has no idea what his error may have been, as no admonition has ever been attempted, certainly none by a “genuine brother” who was himself open to correction. Moreover, this congregation's action was openly defended by their Bishop, and formally approved by a committee he personally appointed to review Mr. Techlin's appeal, which found that “[his] congregation had Scriptural reasons for removing [him] from membership and, in doing so, acted in the spirit of Christian love.” Mr. Techlin's is not the only recent example of similar processes used to remove “undesirables” from WELS, but his is very well-documented and betrays what seems to not only be acceptable practice but one which Christian congregations are apparently not above employing.
13.	"Walking Together Sunday" - The Sermon	2255	09/25/10	Rev. Paul Rydecki	58	Walking together under Law, cooperating in evangelistic efforts because we are commanded to do so. From a commenter on this post: “The unfortunate thing about the 'Walking Together Sunday' sermon, and the entire event, is that Evangelism is the only emphasis. Yet, our 'walking together' is predicated on our standing together. Despite this, there was no emphasis given to our full agreement in all matters of doctrine and practice, nor any mention of our Confessions or Confessional Unity. No explanation or celebration of our 'togetherness' as fundamental to our walking in this togetherness. The clear and sole emphasis was the command of Evangelism followed by an appeal for money. This is entirely the wrong emphasis, in my opinion, leading to the wrong notion that our working rather than our confessing is the essence of our togetherness.”
14.	Issues with the NIV 2011: "The saints" are no more	2197	08/15/11	Rev. Paul Rydecki	12	Another example of Biblical and Ecclesiastical language being stripped from the Christian lexicon by liberal feminist and sectarian translators...
15.	What Part of the Word "Wrong" Don't We All Seem to Understand These Days?!	2180	12/10/10	Rev. Steven Spencer	47	Is someone who, or something which, is wrong, merely suffering from a misunderstanding? A fantastic series of thoughtful comments follows from this post.
16.	Ambivalent	2176	06/27/12	Rev. Steven Spencer	47	Does no one care about the threat of doctrinal error and sectarian practice? One might pardon the laity for not being informed, but what do we make of the silence and inaction of Lutheran clergy?
17.	Law and Gospel: What do they teach? – Part 1	2164	10/26/10	Mr. Douglas Lindee	79	The message of Law and Gospel teaches the saving message of Justification, a message which is central to all of Lutheran doctrine and practice, “affirming that, through faith, men obtain remission of sins, and through faith in Christ are justified (AC:IV:1-3).” Thus, Christ is the object of faith: “In order for Justification to be taught correctly, in order for man to make Christ the sole object of his faith... the Law must be stripped from [the Gospel] entirely. That isn’t to say that the Law is not to be taught. On the contrary, in order to understand Justification properly, it is necessary that the message of the Law precede it. In other words, Justification cannot be preached properly unless Law is distinguished and kept separate from the Gospel, and the Gospel has no application unless it follows the message of the Law.”
18.	Differences between Reformed and Lutheran Doctrines	2142	04/13/11	Mr. Douglas Lindee	4	The majority of hits on this post are from Reformed and Evangelical sources, as it has been passed around and discussed in a number of different forums.
19.	The NIV 2011 and the Importance of Translation Ideology	2049	08/02/11	Mr. Douglas Lindee	25	Functional Arminianism is at the root of observing “The Great Commission” so slavishly as to labour under it as “The Great Law.” As a result, the adoption of translation ideologies like Dynamic Equivalency, which are derived directly from dangerously anti-Truth and thus also anti-Christian post-Modern philosophies, are observed as equally imperative.
20.	C.F.W. Walther: Filching from sectarian worship resources equals "soul murder"	2017	03/23/11	Mr. Douglas Lindee	26	Practice and doctrine are not independent of one another. This post saw wide circulation and commentary on the internet, and opened the eyes of many people to the connection doctrine has with practice. They are not independent. They impact each other.

So,what shall our readers expect from us in the next two-and-a-half years? We'll start with this: we don't plan on quitting, that's for sure. And we'll proceed with this: we plan to continue speaking and writing from the convictions of Christian conscience, fully trusting that God will use it to the benefit of His Bride, the Church.

Church and Continuity Conference Review: Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans? – by Rev. Paul Rydecki

I closed out the Saturday presentations with a paper entitled, “Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans?”*, a reference to the Book of Concord, which was first printed in Dresden, Germany, in 1580. The paper highlighted the problem that develops when Lutherans become tied to the human institution of a synod rather than to the confession of Concord. I asserted that we should be loyal to a synod through the Book of Concord, rather than being loyal to the Book of Concord through a synod. The Bible is the True North. The Lutheran Confessions are our compass that responds to the North— our response to the truth revealed in the Scriptures. A synod is a voluntary arrangement of people walking in an agreed-upon direction. I rather directly suggested in my paper that, while all of us in the WELS claim to be walking fully in the direction of the Book of Concord, our actual confessional subscription is broader than that, ranging from those who consider the Confessions to be totally irrelevant, to those who subscribe to them insofar as they believe them to be relevant, to those who subscribe to them unconditionally and insist that all who claim to walk together in a synod do the same. Finally, I offer several suggestions outlining what our doctrine and practice would look like “if we want to be Dresden Lutherans,” because that’s what I intend to be. Who’s with me? And who isn’t? Let’s walk together honestly, or not at all.

* Current online version contains a revision on page 10.








Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity ~ June 1-2, 2012
Bethlehem Lutheran Church ~ Oshkosh, WI
Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans?
by Rev. Paul Rydecki*

Church and Continuity Conference Review: The Beauty of the Western Rite – by Rev. Michael Berg

The third presentation on Saturday was given by Rev. Michael Berg: “The Beauty of the Western Rite, Part 1.” More than a simple explanation of the parts of the historic Divine Service, the first section of Rev. Berg’s paper explores the sacramental nature of Lutheran worship and how various worship forms are a response to the fundamental question, “Who is present?” in worship. Like Rev. Boehringer, Rev. Berg also emphasizes the bound will of man, the theology of the cross and Christian vocation, and suggests that an evangelical and catholic Lutheranism that remains true to its theology holds out exactly what a postmodern world needs.

In "The Beauty of the Western Rite, Part 2," Rev. Berg tells a short story called, "Any Given Sunday," in which he illustrates in a very down-to-earth way how the Divine Service confronts real-life sinners in the midst of their troubles, struggles, joys and sorrows and brings the Word of God to them right where they need it.  This section also includes an explanation of the benefits of offering Holy Communion every Sunday.


Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity ~ June 1-2, 2012
Bethlehem Lutheran Church ~ Oshkosh, WI
The Beauty of the Western Rite, Part 1
The Beauty of the Western Rite, Part 2
by Rev. Michael Berg.

Church and Continuity Conference Review: In Bondage to Expectations – by Rev. Luke Boehringer

Saturday's second presentation was given by Rev. Luke Boehringer and was entitled, “In Bondage to Expectations: Why Results Pull Us Away from the Cross.” Rev. Boehringer focused heavily on the fatal flaws of the Church Growth Movement. He demonstrated how the Church Growth philosophy and methods are diametrically opposed to the Lutheran emphases of the bound will, the theology of the cross and the doctrine of vocation.


Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity ~ June 1-2, 2012
Bethlehem Lutheran Church ~ Oshkosh, WI
In Bondage to Expectations
Why Results Pull Us Away from the Cross
by Rev. Luke Boehringer.

"Church and Continuity" Conference Review: Why is this Happening to Us? How the culture wars become religious wars among us – by Mr. Douglas Lindee

Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity ~ June 1-2, 2012
Bethlehem Lutheran Church ~ Oshkosh, WI
Why is this Happening to Us?
How the culture wars become religious wars among us
by Mr. Douglas L. Lindee, Jr.
On June 2, 2012, I delivered the paper, Why is this Happening to Us? How the culture wars become religious wars among us, to the first annual Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity. The title of the paper is not answered directly in the paper, but indirectly. To the extent that the World, as one of the Christian's great enemies, wages war against Christians, worms its way into the Church and induces compromise, culture wars have always resulted in some sort of religious contention. Being watchful for such compromise means, among other things, having a clear historical perspective as a basis for living out the present. This rationale is explicated in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion, with the body of the essay split into two sections demonstrating the necessity of watchfulness, the first section focusing on the original "Crisis of of Word" – the early composition of the inspired texts, their collection into the Canon of Scripture, their use in the early defense of orthodoxy, and their faithful preservation and transmission to us in contemporary times – and the second section focusing on the history of the times surrounding the Early Church, and how, despite having the Word, cultural pressures resulted in compromise and error which became so deep-rooted that much of it remains unshaken even to this day. That is, a having of the Word did not, and does not, translate to a keeping of it. Keeping the Word by maintaining vigilance against error, is necessarily an historical task employed to detect change in the culture surrounding the Church of today in order to keep the World from invading and changing the Church. From the paper:

History teaches us at least two things... First, that the world or worldliness are the enemies of the Church; second, how, ultimately, the world has exerted its corrupting influence: by pressuring and goading the church into compromise. This paper will endeavor to show, by giving somewhat detailed examples from specific periods of social upheaval in the early history of the West, both that the world had conducted itself as the enemy of Christ and His Church and how its influence wormed its way into the church and induced it to compromise. Such will suggest that the same is occurring today, in our post-Modern era, the period of social upheaval in which we have been placed by God to contend for the faith. Whether this paper succeeds in these primary endeavors, the author will admit to a secondary endeavor: to equip the reader with apologetic facts and sources that will aid him in his own defense of the faith.

The two middle sections of this paper represent a sampling of research and historical facts I have collected since about 2005, perhaps with the lofty goal of an eventual publication that no one will ever read. The content of the essay is not original or unique by any means, as attested by the number of Endnotes (many people have collected these same facts and written on these same topics, though perhaps not with the same use and purpose I have), nor was it written with the clergyman in mind, as I expect that every competent pastor daily lives with such facts in the forefront of his mind. Rather, I wrote and documented as I did for the sake of today's laity, who is largely ignorant of such things, using the topic as a pretense to also "equip [the lay reader] with apologetic facts and sources that will aid him in his own defense of the faith." Finally, it should be noted that the paper linked above is slightly revised from the paper handed out at the Conference. Discussion following my delivery prompted me to add five explanatory endnotes to the main essay and expand a handful of others in both the main essay and in Appendix A, and to add a couple of quotations to the body of Appendix A. Otherwise, the revised body of the essay includes only minor grammatical changes.


Conference of Intrepid Lutherans: Church and Continuity ~ June 1-2, 2012
Bethlehem Lutheran Church ~ Oshkosh, WI
Why is this Happening to Us?
How the culture wars become religious wars among us
by Mr. Douglas L. Lindee, Jr.
The video above was taken as I read the paper at the Conference on June 2, 2012. The sound quality is admittedly wanting, but it is audible. I should explain that near the end I sound a note of slight exasperation... Unfortunately, the previous session had gone ever by about 20 minutes, and with lunch following my presentation, I had a hard-stop. The result was a loss of about 25% of the time I had expected to have for delivering the paper. In fact, at one point in the presentation, I had to pause for a minute to determine on the fly how I was going to redact and summarize the entire second section of my paper. Ach du lieber! Oh well, lessons learned for next time... At least all the content is recorded in print!

The remaining three presentations will be posted through next week – I have it on fairly good authority that the audio of those presentation is much better!

"Church and Continuity" Conference Review: Gender Neutral Translating

The presentations at the 2012 Intrepid Lutherans "Church and Continuity" conference commenced Friday evening with Rev. Robert Koester’s comments on the NIV2011 Bible translation matter.  He offered an abbreviated review of his paper, "Gender Neutral Translating and the Verbal Inspiration of Scripture."

His expanded treatment of the topic was delivered to the January 2012  Metro-Milwaukee Pastor's Conference,  "A Brief Layman's Guide: Understanding the Problems of Gender Neutral Translating."

Rev. Koester also made available last fall an eight page overview of several concerns.

Since even the brief layman's guide is a thoughtful 60 pages, permit me a few paragraphs to highlight only one point of concern out of many offered.  (I hesitate to do so because Rev. Koester's research should not go unread.)  Biblica Inc.'s Committee on Bible Translation (C.B.T.)  was assigned editorial guidelines, and quoting from Koester's paper,

Instructions given the C.B.T. as they set out to do their first gender-neutral translation are public knowledge. Principles C and D of part I, “Basic Principles” reads:

C. Authors of Biblical books, even while writing Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit, unconsciously reflected in many ways, the particular cultures in which they wrote. Hence in the manner in which they articulate the Word of God, they sometimes offend modern sensibilities. At such times, translators can and may use non-offending renderings so as not to hinder the message of the Spirit.

D. The patriarchalism (like other social patterns) of the ancient cultures in which the Biblical books were composed is pervasively reflected in forms of expression that appear, in the modern context, to deny the common human dignity of all hearers and readers. For these forms, alternative modes of expression can and may be used, though care must be taken not to distort the intent of the original text.

Consider again the above section from the Biblica Inc.'s C.B.T.  Is the work produced under such filters a translation or an interpretation?   Should we shrug off with deliberate indifference the intent to adjust Scriptures to avoid offending sensibilities and to avoid 'denying the common human dignity'?

⁵ Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
⁶ Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.  Proverbs 30.

'Church and Continuity' conference concludes

Intrepid Lutherans extends their thanks to all participants for the 2012 "Church and Continuity" conference just concluded.  Special thanks to the guest presenters, Rev. Robert Koester, Rev. Luke Behringer, Rev. Michael Berg, and Mr. Rick Techlin for their papers and comments.  The hospitality of Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Oshkosh) was outstanding. Laity attending from Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan and all corners of Wisconsin return home with much to consider and share.

Video of the proceedings will be rendered and posted next week, along with PDFs of papers.

Intrepid Lutherans Conference Agenda

For those who will be attending the Church and Continuity Conference this Friday and Saturday...

AGENDA

Friday, June 1st

5 PM – Board of Director's Meeting for Intrepid Lutherans, Inc.

6 PM – Intrepid Lutherans Dinner with after dinner speaker, Rev. Robert Koester

8 PM – Gemütlichkeit

Saturday, June 2nd

9 AM – Matins

9:30 – Welcome, Announcements, & Introduction, Chairman Rev. Paul Rydecki

9:40 – Presentation: "What Has Brought Us Here?" Historical overview of the past 30 years in WELS and current issues, moderator – Rev. Steven Spencer; panel – Mr. Brian Heyer, Mr. Rick Techlin, and other laymen from the area, with discussion

10:15 – Presentation: "Why Is This Happening to Us?" How the culture wars have become religious wars among us, Mr. Douglas Lindee, followed by discussion

11:30 – Lunch provided on site

12:00 – Presentation: "The Consequences of Church Growth Theology" What it is, where it is, and why it is dangerous, Rev. Luke Boehringer, followed by discussion

1:15 – Presentation: "The Beauty of the Western Rite" How the complete Divine Liturgy fulfills the spiritual needs of our Pastors and people, Rev. Michael Berg; followed by discussion

3:00 – BREAK

3:15 – Presentation:"Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans?" What it means to be tied to the Book of Concord rather than to a church body, school, family, or ministerium, Rev. Paul Rydecki, followed by discussion

4:15 – Open Forum

4:45 – Preliminary planning for next conference

5:00 – Vespers

It's time to register for Church and Continuity 2012!

Our first Intrepid Lutherans conference begins one week from tomorrow. Over 50 people have registered so far, and it's not too late to join them, but time is running out!

As a reminder, the conference begins on the evening of June 1st with dinner, followed by a highly relevant and scholarly presentation by Rev. Bob Koester on the issues surrounding the NIV 2011 translation of the Bible. The 12 districts of the WELS will be voting in the June district conventions whether to adopt the NIV 2011 now, or whether to put off the decision another year so that the NIV 2011 can be adopted then. At least, that's what some would like to see happen. As our readers know, we at Intrepid Lutherans are strongly opposed to the NIV 2011. Rev. Koester's presentation will demonstrate why.

Saturday, June 2nd, will be a full day of presentations, outlined in our conference brochure.

The deadline for registration is Tuesday, May 29th. Will we take last minute registrations after that date? Yes! Would we prefer to receive them before that date? Yes!

Go to our conference page and register now!

Promotional Materials are Finally Here!

Fully one month ago, in the post Dear Pastor: What are our congregation's policies for promoting non-denominational ministries?, we at Intrepid Lutherans hinted that we would be making our own promotional materials available for download so that readers can post them on the bulletin boards of their own congregations. Of course, we suggested at that time that those materials would be available in a week... We'll spare the details, but admit that we were a little optimistic about that. Regardless, they are now here!

Click here to download promotional materials for the
2012 Intrepid Lutherans Conference: Church and Continuity
This package of materials contains two posters, one suitable for immediate display, and the second more suitable for the middle of May; a trifold brochure with agenda, presenter biographies, and registration instructions; and a brief note from Intrepid Lutherans thanking you for downloading and making these materials available, along with suggestions for posting them in your congregation.

Intrepid Lutherans Conference Agenda

Greetings Readers!

Some have inquired about a more detailed run-down of the presentations at our up-coming conference in Oshkosh, such as the order of presentations, time, and length.

You will find the complete Agenda below.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the conference. If you haven't done so yet, please do register as soon as you can. Thank you and God bless!

Intrepid Editors

Intrepid Lutherans

Church & Continuity Conference
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Oshkosh, WI
June 1st & 2nd, 2012

AGENDA

Friday, June 1st
5 PM – Board of Director's Meeting for Intrepid Lutherans, Inc.
6 PM – Intrepid Lutherans Dinner with after-dinner speaker, Rev. Robert Koester
8 PM – Gemütlichkeit

Saturday, June 2nd
9 AM – Opening Matins service

9:30 – Welcome, Announcements, & Introduction, Chairman Rev. Paul Rydecki

9:40 – Presentation: "What Has Brought Us Here?" Historical overview of the past 30 years in WELS and current issues, moderator – Rev. Steven Spencer; panel – Mr. Brian Heyer, Mr. Rick Techlin, and other laymen from the area, with discussion

10:15 – Presentation: "Why Is This Happening to Us?" How the culture wars have become religious wars among us, Mr. Douglas Lindee, followed by discussion

11:30 – Lunch provided on site

12:00 – Presentation: "The Consequences of Church Growth Theology" What it is, where it is, and why it is dangerous, Rev. Luke Boehringer, followed by discussion

1:15 – Presentation: "The Beauty of the Western Rite" How the complete Divine Liturgy fulfills the spiritual needs of our Pastors and people, Rev. Michael Berg; discussion

3:00 – BREAK

3:15 – Presentation:"Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans?" What it means to be tied to the Book of Concord rather than to a church body, school, family, or ministerium, Rev. Paul Rydecki, followed by discussion

4:15 – Open Forum

4:45 – Preliminary planning for next conference

5:00 – Closing Vesper Service

Registration fee - $25/person; $15 for "signers"

Announcing the 2012 Intrepid Lutherans Conference: "Church and Continuity"

Greetings Dear Reader!

It has been two years in coming, but we are finally announcing the very first annual Intrepid Lutherans conference.

2012 Intrepid Lutherans Conference:

“Church and Continuity”

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Oshkosh, WI
June 1st and 2nd
Registration cost: $25

On Friday evening, June 1st, we’ll be hosting a dinner, with Rev. Robert Koester (WELS) giving an after-dinner presentation entitled, “Adelphos: Discerning Bible Translations.” The cost for the dinner is included in the registration fee.

Then all day Saturday, June 2nd, we will gather for worship and presentations. These are the themes and the speakers we have lined up for Saturday:

• “What Has Brought Us Here?” Historical overview of the past 30 years in WELS and current issues, moderator – Rev. Steven Spencer (WELS); panel – Mr. Brian Heyer, Mr. Rick Techlin, and other area WELS laymen.
• “Why Is This Happening to Us?” How the culture wars have become religious wars among us, Mr. Douglas Lindee (WELS).
• “The Consequences of Church Growth Theology” What it is, where it is, and why it is dangerous, Rev. Luke Boehringer (WELS).
• “The Beauty of the Western Rite” How the complete Divine Liturgy fulfills the spiritual needs of our Pastors and people, Rev. Michael Berg (WELS).
• “Do We Want to Be Dresden Lutherans?” What it means to be tied to the Book of Concord rather than just to church body, school, family, or ministerium, Rev. Paul Rydecki (WELS).

The cost of the entire conference, including Friday dinner, Saturday continental breakfast and lunch, is $25 per person.

Any and all are welcome!

We're counting on our readers to help us advertize the conference in your congregations and districts. We hope you're as excited about it as we are!

Click here to register!
Promotional posters and brochures will be forthcoming. Stay tuned for more information!

Your Intrepid brothers,
Mr. Brian Heyer
Rev. Paul Lidtke
Mr. Douglas Lindee
Rev. Paul Rydecki
Rev. Steve Spencer