pastor’s article “a heartfelt goodbye” · 2 concordia lutheran church –may 2019 my leaving...

1 Concordia Lutheran Church –May 2019

Pastor’s Article

“A Heartfelt Goodbye”

As I’m writing what is to be my last article as the pastor of

Concordia, I find it hard to believe that almost fourteen years have

passed since I was installed and ordained here on June 26, 2005. A

few of these changes come to mind. The yard has seen more than a

couple trees being cut down. In the church building we have

purchased new paraments, and the processional cross was

introduced as well. Our confirmation program went from two to

three years so that a year of Bible History could be included.

Far more importantly, the membership has seen some

adjustments over the years. There have been transfers in and out,

as well as baptisms and confirmations on the one hand (entering

the Church Militant) and funerals (leaving the Church Militant for

the Church Triumphant) on the other. Church offices have had

constancy, yet those holding them are not exactly the same as

when I first came. And while God has always provided a capable

musician, I have had the privilege of working with seven organists

over these years.

Yet, while there have been changes, there have been some

things that have not changed at all. The Word of God, His holy

Law and His saving Gospel, has been proclaimed and taught in its

truth and purity in worship, Bible studies, confirmation classes,

Sunday School, and VBS. The precious Sacraments of Baptism

and the Lord’s Supper have been faithfully administered according

to Christ’s institution. And God’s people have heard His Word and

received His Sacraments in faith, being forgiven and blessed, and

so have gone out to be blessings to others in their various

vocations.


My leaving is a major change for the congregation as a whole,

many members individually, and certainly for my family and me. It

is easy to get one’s focus locked on the immediate change and not

be able to see beyond it. Not that we deny the change, nor the

feelings that it brings. That is unhealthy as it goes against our

created human nature which includes emotions to enrich life.

However, in the midst of emotions brought about by change, we

must put our focus on the unchanging love of the Father in Christ

Jesus our Lord crucified and risen for us. We must put our focus on

the tremendous blessings in Christ that the Holy Spirit brings to us

in His unchanging means of grace (Word and Sacrament). We

must put our focus on where our true citizenship lies, the new

Jerusalem, our spiritual fatherland, recognizing that while “change

and decay in all around I see”1 is the norm in this life, this life is

not the last word, it is not the end, but only the beginning of

unending glory for God’s baptized children.

When that unchanging foundation of Christ, the Word, and our

salvation is recognized, when certain future reunions in glory are

remembered in faith, then we can face the changes of this life.

Sure there is sorrow; saying goodbye is always hard. But the

goodbye is not forever, likely not even in this life and certainly not

in eternity.

It has been one of the greatest privileges in my life, second

only to being a husband and father, to be the pastor of Concordia.

It has been a blessing unto me in so many ways, not the least of

which is my own faith being encouraged and strengthened by the

strong, patient, enduring faith and tremendous love of so many

dear brothers and sisters in Christ (so much being directed towards

my family and me). And while space will separate us, our faith in

Christ, which makes us members of one body, one family, the one

holy Christian and apostolic Church, will keep us united in spirit

always, here on earth and forever in the new creation.

1 “Abide with Me” Lutheran Service Book 878:4.


My love, concern, and prayers will always be with you. God

continue to grant His temporal and eternal blessings upon this

congregation as a whole and each one of you its members. May He

guide you through the call process and, by such, send you a new

undershepherd who will bring you the gifts of Christ in Word and

Sacrament, utilize his talents and strengths to benefit you all, and

love you as much as I (and my family) certainly do.

God’s grace, mercy, and peace be with you today and always my

most precious Christian friends!

Pastor Nerud

A LOOK AT THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS As this will be the last article on the Lutheran Confessions for now, I thought it was appropriate to end with two short statements from the Book of Concord. The first is from the Preface to the Christian Book of Concord of 1580. While the

immediate context is concerning the Augsburg Confession of 1530, what is stated here really is true for all of the confessions contained in the Book of Concord as they are all confessing the truths of Holy Scripture. The second is from the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, the last confessional document written and included in the Book of Concord.

The Preface to the Book of Concord2

From Paragraph 16

2 From Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, 2nd Ed., Paul McCain, Ed. CPH,

2006.


Then all may understand that we have resolved to tolerate no other doctrine in our realms, churches, and schools than what was approved at Augsburg in 1530, in a solemn Confession, by the above-mentioned electors, princes, and deputies of the Empire. By God’s help, we will retain this Confession to our last breath, when we shall go forth from this life to the heavenly fatherland, to appear with a joyful, undaunted mind and a pure conscience before the court of our Lord Jesus Christ [2 Corinthians 5:9-10].

The Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration3 ARTICLE XII, 40

In the sight of God and of all Christendom <the entire Church of Christ>, we want to testify to those now living and those who will come after us. This declaration presented here about all the controverted articles mentioned and explained above—and no other—is our faith, doctrine, and confession. By God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we are willing to appear before the judgment seat of Christ with this Confession and give an account of it [1 Peter 4:5]. We will not speak or write anything contrary to this Confession, either publicly or privately. By the strength of God’s grace we intend to abide by it.

May God grant His orthodox visible Church as a whole, and each

of us her true children to keep confessing this, our pure

Confession, for the mission of the Church, that is, the salvation of

many souls, and ultimately, the glory of the Triune God, our

Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

MEMORIAL MOMENT: NIKE

THEOLOGY

Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) turned the

church's attention to the salvation of the

church by the gift of grace around the turn

of the fifth century of our era, when the

doctrines of Pelagius started to have

currency in the public teaching of some Western churchmen. Up to

3 Ibid.


this time, the church was fully committed to the resolution of the

Christological controversies that began in the early fourth century

with the heresy of Arius. Augustine began with the fruit that came

from the resolution of those controversies. He helped to settle the

issues that arose when the question was asked, "What does it mean

to the salvation of sinners that Christ is God and man in one

indivisible person?" The second half of the question had been

decisively answered by the Nicene orthodoxy of the church

catholic. The first half of the question remained for Augustine and

his era and in some ways still remains. We know who Jesus Christ

is when we see what He does to save sinners like us. Luther's

reformation of the sixteenth century cultivated the ground

originally plowed by Augustine more than a millennium before,

clarifying yet further the implications of Christ's grace for sinners.

Pelagius and his followers were committed to the unimpaired

moral power of human nature as created good by a good God.

Things were deceptively simple for the Pelagians. God had created

humans. God gave the law. Those whom God created would have

been created to keep the law. So those humans needed to get to

work in keeping that law. Grace was fundamentally unnecessary

where such high earthly gifts had been conferred by God upon His

creation and His foremost creatures, human beings. This was the

ultimate Nike theology: "Just do it!" long before athletic shoes

were invented. When pressed about the need for grace to complete

nature the Pelagians argued that it was gracious that God had

conferred free will upon humans and given them the created gifts

to make use of it. The Pelagians were adept spin-masters in that

they were trying to co-opt the language of the Bible to cover their

fundamentally pagan views about the moral powers of human

nature and free will.

Their view called into question why God should become incarnate

in Christ. If humans have the power to become right in God's sight

by their obedience, then Christ's life, death, and resurrection are


superfluous. The Pelagians anticipated the deists of the seventeenth

century by making the divine economy of salvation in Christ

unnecessary. The Pelagians have many adherents in the twenty-

first century; as a quick scan of "TV Christianity" makes clear.

Pelagianism empowers humans and eradicates Christ. In this sense

every heresy is at bottom a heresy of the person of Christ. Such

heresy doesn't merely nibble at the extraneous edges of the divine

revelation but it is finally a head shot to the Truth who is Christ.

Nature has not the power to make right in God's sight, because

only Christ has done what is necessary to save us and the Holy

Spirit has conferred the merits of that doing upon us. Once again, it

must be clearly confessed that Christianity is about God's work in

Christ. Rev. Dr. Scott R. Murray, © Scott Murray 2019

GRACE MOMENT: LEFT BEHIND

Husbands and wives sometimes joke

with each other as to who will most

likely die first. It would be nice,

wouldn’t it, if they could both live to

old age and then go to heaven about

the same time? Alas, it doesn’t usually work out that way.

Someone is usually left behind.

Like Anna. “There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of

Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived

with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a

widow until she was eight-four” (Luke 2:36,37). It was her

exquisite joy to be in the temple the day Mary and Joseph brought

the infant Savior for his ceremonial presentation. “Coming up to

them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about

the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of

Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).


Anna could have become a bitter woman with a shriveled soul,

cursing her life, blaming God, and resenting other “happy”

couples. Instead she thanked God for the time she did have with

her husband and then looked for ways to worship and serve. Even

at age 84 her evangelism testimony was powerful.

We would all like to write the script for our own lives. We can’t,

and the more we try to force things the more unhappy we’ll be.

How much better it is to accept the script God gives us and then

see how he can use us. Even when we’re left behind. By Pastor Mark Jeske; © Grace Moments, www.timeofgrace.org

PRAYER REQUESTS

Donna Anderson Jim Bunkholt

Erna DeBlois Laurie Kersten

Luella Lofgren Lucy Schmidt

Rollin Stuve Vivian Vadner

Kathy Wohlman

Charlie & Laurie Kersten May 1st

Byron & Kim Gehrke May 25th

http://www.timeofgrace.org/


Doug Randall May 6 Mark Huber May 19

Emily Schmidt May 10 Leroy Sorensen May 20

Calvin Dillon May 13 Gwen Wohlman May 28

Shelley Bunkholt May 14 Steven Randall May 29

Tyler Schroeder May 15 Linda Schlueter May 29

Nancy Barnes May 16 Julia Hoff May 31 **Reminder if your birthday or anniversary is not listed the secretary might not

have it on file, we are missing a few. Please let Heidi Vinkemeier know if yours

might be one of them, thank you.

Apologetics Article: Peregocetus pacificus, 43-million-year–old

walking whale?

Have they finally found the missing link?4

An international team of paleontologists led by Dr Olivier

Lambert, of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, has

discovered a new alleged ‘walking whale’.a This creature

was Peregocetus pacificus, 4 m (13 ft) long, found in Playa Media

Luna on Peru’s southern coast, and ‘dated’ to middle Eocene, 42.6

million years (Ma).

What was found?

Like many claims of missing links, we should ask: what was the

actual evidence? E.g. the original claims of Pakicetus (‘Whale

from Pakistan’) as an aquatic whale ancestor were based on skull

fragments only. But finding a more complete skeleton showed that

it was a fast-running land mammal (see Not at all like a

4 By Jonathan Sarfati, Published: 25 April 2019;

https://creation.com/peregocetus


whale and Whale evolution fraud). This is one reason why

evolutionary agitprop needs to keep claiming to have ‘found the

missing link’, apparently hoping that we forget that they have said

that before.

But Peregocetus was represented by a fair number of bones, as

shown above. This includes the lower jaw (mandible), shoulder

and hip girdle, a front and rear leg and feet, and much of the spinal

column, especially in the tail (caudal) region.

But it was missing a lot of crucial information as well: the skull for

example, so we have no idea what its ear was like, and this is

crucial for identifying putative whale ancestors. And while its tail

vertebrae showed widening (“expanded transverse processes”), so

it could have helped with propulsion in water, it was more like

“those of beavers and otters”. There was no evidence for tail flukes

as in real whales.

Evolutionary question-begging

The name Peregocetus pacificus means ‘travelling whale [that

reached] the Pacific’ (the name Ambulocetus, meaning ‘walking

whale’, was already taken). Nothing like putting the meaning

‘whale’ into a name to push the idea that it was some sort of whale

ancestor. Never mind that almost no one looking at such a creature

would ever call it a whale.

Where are the normal diagnostic criteria for cetaceans, such as

powerful swimming tail, preferably with horizontal flukes, a blow

hole, obligate aquatic body design, and middle and inner ears in a

cavity outside the skull not inside it as with terrestrial mammals?

(See also Whale evolution?) And it had a well-developed shoulder

and hip girdle attached to its spinal column, with well-developed

legs. Its feet even had hooves, so it could walk on land.

Wrong place and time

It was remarkable, from an evolutionary point of view, that such a

fossil could be found so far away from its closest relatives. That’s

why the genus name emphasized ‘travelling’. But worse for the


evolutionists is the ‘dating’. That is, according to evolutionary

dating, Peregocetus is millions of years younger than creatures that

are clearly more whale-like, such as Rodhocetus allegedly 4

million years older, and Remingtonocetus 5 million years older and

Protocetus 2 million years older (see illustrations below5).

We see the same problem with the other most-touted evolutionary

transition series, dinosaur-to-bird and fish-to-tetrapod. In the

former, the definite flying bird Archaeopteryx and the beaked

flying bird Confuciusornis are ‘dated’ millions of years older than

the ‘feathered dinosaur’ ancestor candidates. In the latter, there are

undoubted tetrapod footprints millions of years older than all the

supposed intermediates, including the much-

touted Tiktaalik (actually, footprints in general are often found in

rocks ‘millions of years’ older than any animal that could have

made them).

Talking about this problem with the proclaimed dino-to-bird series,

its leading evolutionary critic, paleornithologist Dr Alan Feduccia

likes to say, you can’t be older than your grandfather! His

opponents in particular, and evolutionists in general, when

confronted by similar problems, respond that sometimes a

grandfather can outlive his grandson. This is correct, but one of the

major ‘evidences’ of evolution is how the evolutionary order

supposedly matches the fossil sequence. So the mismatch of

claimed order of appearance with claimed phylogeny undermines

the evolutionary explanation.

Furthermore, Peregocetus doesn’t seem to have ‘advanced’

beyond Ambulocetus, supposedly 6 million years older, i.e.

virtual ‘evolutionary stasis’. But in the other direction, it is very

different from the aquatic Dorudon and the

enormous Basilosaurus, which are dated to 4 million years

younger—i.e. a huge amount of change to occur by random

mutation and natural selection. It’s nice that evolution is so

5 Illustrations can be viewed on the online article.

https://creation.com/rodhocetus


flexible in that it can explain such vastly different rates, although

we know of no difference in mutation rates or selective pressures.

Also, there are problems in substituting so many mutations in such

a short time, as evolutionary geneticists have realized (see the

discussions about Haldane’s dilemma and the waiting time

problem.

Conclusion

No, there are no four-legged whales. This should go without

saying, by the normal meanings of words. But sadly not, with the

dogma of land-mammal–to–whale evolution. This new

find, Peregocetus, was certainly four-legged, and could stand and

walk on land, but it was equally certainly not a whale.

Furthermore, it is ‘dated’ as millions of years younger than some

much more ‘whale-like’ creatures, opposite to the claimed

evolutionary sequence. And there is too little time for mutations

and selection to have evolved Peregocetus into something like

a Basilosaurus.

A much better explanation is that God created whales fully formed,

and on day 5—a day before He created land creatures, including

those of the created kind comprising Peregocetus. This is one of

many contradictions in the order of events between Genesis and

long-age ideas.

References and notes a. Lambert, O. and six others, An amphibious whale from the Middle

Eocene of Peru reveals early South Pacific dispersal of quadrupedal

cetaceans, Current Biology, 4 April 2019 |

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.050.

pastor’s article “a heartfelt goodbye” · 2 concordia lutheran church –may 2019 my leaving...

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