The Grift Continues, So Does the Reformation!

Here we are, October 31 Anno Domini 2023, 506 years since the posting of the 95 Theses - and the grift of the prostitution of the Word of God goes on. As P.T. Barnum is apocryphally quoted: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” It is up to us Christians - and perhaps especially even more up to us so-called Lutherans - to call Bubulum Stercus on these grifters, and to point people to where true grace is to be found: the Word.

For “we apprehend God in no other way nisi per Verbum [except by the Word]” (Ap 4:67).

On this very Reformation Day, I opened an envelope from a fake church: “St. Matthew’s” in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Like many other con artists, these hucksters portray the Christian faith as a get rich quick scheme, complete with a magic “prayer rug” (and it isn’t even a rug, it’s a piece of paper) that has supposedly been blessed and anointed and endowed with a prophecy of quick riches. And like most grifters - including those in every denomination pushing the Theology of Glory and the Church Growth Movement, this shady organization boasts about their building “seating 1600 worshipers with five church [sic] services each Sunday.”

Yes, we have such boorish and gross boasters among us as well.

The only saving grace is that the mailing came with an appeal for money and a Business Reply Mail envelope. So I will be sending them something of eternal value - and they will pay for the postage. They are getting a Small Catechism absolutely free of charge from me, along with my prayer that they see the light, repent, and come to faith in the Lord who saves us by grace, through faith, by His sacrificial death upon the cross, proclaimed in His Word, declared to us in Holy Absolution, lavishly poured out upon us at Holy Baptism, and given to us to eat and drink in the Holy Supper - all according to the Holy Scriptures.

While Lutherans often focus upon events of five centuries ago, as well as what continues to go on in terms of indulgences and works righteousness in Rome, let us not forget the same grift being perpetrated in “churches” that ostensibly trace their descent from the Reformation.

They are not like us. They are manifestations of antichrist in their perversion of the Word.

As Luther states in Thesis 62: “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”