Test of Pastoral Orthodoxy

Your Pastor Is (Probably) Unfaithful; It Is Your Duty to Test Him

Posted on Wed 03 Aug 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

The wife who merely does not commit adultery is not therefore faithful; there is more to being a faithful spouse than mere carnal fidelity. Certainly, a faithful wife is sexually faithful, but she is and does far more — a faithful wife keeps a home, cooks meals, instructs children. True faithfulness is not one dimensional, but all encompassing; a faithful wife is faithful to her husband in all things. The same is true for pastors — a faithful shepherd does far more than merely not openly worshipping false gods. A faithful pastor is faithful to God and to His Word in all things. A faithful pastor will preach and teach God's Word — even the parts that are unpopular or make him uncomfortable; a faithful pastor will defend the flock from wolves; a faithful pastor will not hold or teach false doctrine. Your pastor may not be faithless, but he is almost certainly unfaithful.

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Letter to President Harrison of the LCMS

On Race and Cultural Marxism

Posted on Wed 18 May 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

President Harrison,

I am and I am not a cradle Lutheran; I am in the sense that I had the good fortune to attend a Lutheran (yes, LCMS) school from preschool through eighth grade, and I am not in the sense that my parents were (and, sadly, still are) not Lutheran, and so I did not attend a Lutheran church in my youth. This is to say, then, that, for me, joining the LCMS was a deliberative and an intentional decision. I took my time and I read a great deal when selecting a tradition; I made my decision with one central criterion: fidelity to God’s Word. I found such fidelity in only one tradition — the Lutheran tradition. Consequently, it is with heavy heart that I now observe the beginnings of the sort of compromise that has already claimed so many churches.

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On Sexual Immorality, Temptation, and Marriage

Where God Has Provided the Cure, Only Fools Seek Another

Posted on Mon 28 Mar 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

If I were a drug dealer and I set up shop outside a rehab facility, you would be rightly disgusted with my actions. Naturally, the drug users themselves would bear some responsibility — guilt for sin always rests with the sinner — but you would undoubtedly seek to stop the distribution of drugs and punish those responsible1. If you have neither empathy nor sympathy for the addict, then change the hypothetical to the peddling of some harmful substance to children2. The point is the exploitation of the vulnerable is morally reprehensible. And yet this natural sympathy often stops short of many who truly need it. I did not idly select drug users as my example. It is often those who can be branded as somehow 'deserving' (even if only in part) their fate who are denied sympathy, or aid. Perhaps we need a modern copybook, to include: There but for the grace of God go I.

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The Unbroken Chain

Between Fate and Schicksal

Posted on Tue 15 Feb 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

The Germanic concept of Schicksal and the Anglo concept of fate are not coterminous. To the Anglo mind, long steeped in Liberalism1, fate is something to be hated, feared, reviled, avoided, subverted, or overcome — or at least lamented; to the Germanic mind, fate is as inevitable as death, but this is not necessarily an evil to be lamented, for fate gives structure to the Universe, to our reality and: Ordnung muss sein. Further, the Germanic Schicksal does not have the edge of Nihilism that the Anglo fate cannot escape; our fate does not make us automata; rather, it is our response to our fate — our actions in light of Schicksal — that give true meaning and purpose to our lives. To the Anglo mind, the acceptance of fate is resignation, submission, or even defeat; to the Germanic mind, the acceptance of fate is abidance, longanimity, and wisdom. To the Germanic mind, which conceives of fate as inescapable and immutable, it is nothing short of insane to fight against one's fate. If you find yourself in a strong current, you do not swim against it — a futile and fruitless undertaking; you swim with the current and meet whatever obstacles may come. The man who swims against the current will end up in the same place as the man who swims with the current — except the latter will not arrive exhausted, defeated, and demoralized. In short, the Germanic approach to Schicksal is acceptance — Germanic acceptance2 — of what will and must be, whereas the Anglo approach to fate is one of futile struggle.

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TheBookofConcord.org Will Endure

Of Truth and Redirection

Posted on Tue 08 Feb 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

Alle Schwärmer sind eins — all enthusiasts are one. Some will surely contend this cannot be so. Are the Pentecostal, the Arian, the Baptist, and the outwardly zealous 'convert' truly the same? Yes, for all error is one — for Truth is One. In truth, the saying from Luther — as is so often the case with Luther — simply echoes Scripture:

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On the Year-Zero Revolutionary

Si Vis Bellum, Para Pacem

Posted on Sat 29 Jan 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

You cannot reason with a revolutionary. A rebel may be brought to the table, may be reasoned with, will be willing to negotiate, but a revolutionary has no reason — a revolutionary has goals, and ideas. The idealist will never be content with any state of affairs that is obtainable in reality, and a disillusioned idealist will seek to destroy the reality that — to his mind — has denied him his utopia. The revolutionary is always out for — and truly understands only — blood.

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On the Reality of Human Race

Creation, Selection, Descent, and Truth

Posted on Sat 29 Jan 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

There are some issues so obvious that one would be excused for presuming that they need not be explicitly addressed, but we live in an era when men and women look at their own naked bodies in the mirror and remain uncertain as to which gender they are — and, worse, many encourage them in such delusions. Biological sex — either man or woman — corresponds directly with gender — either male or female; this is part of the structure of reality. Similarly, race is a fundamental part of human nature — an immutable facet of reality. But let us lay the foundation before truly coming to the conclusion.

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Luther and the Third Use of the Law

A Rose by Any Other Name

Posted on Wed 26 Jan 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

There has long been an attempt (by some) in Academia to attempt to create a breach between Luther and the Book of Concord; this attempt employs several tactics, or lines of argument, but the most common is the contention that Luther never employed the Third Use of the Law — a contention that is readily proven false. However, some more crafty academics will argue that Luther never employed the concept of the Third Use of the Law instead of simply arguing that he never employed the Third Use at all; this is more savvy, but the end goal appears (often, anyway) to be the same — the creation of a supposed breach between the Book of Concord and Luther (in this case, through outright sophistry, incidentally). Let us take these two positions in turn:

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It Is Not That the Left Are Hypocrites

It Is That You Are a Moron

Posted on Tue 25 Jan 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

If I were your best friend and I invited you to dinner, and, then, in the middle of the dessert course, produced a crossbow from its concealment under the table and shot you square in the chest, it would be unreasonable to call you a fool for accepting my invitation. On the other hand, if your most inveterate enemy invited you to dinner, and expressed, alongside such invitation, a desire to murder you, you could reasonably be called a fool for accepting the invitation when, during the appetizer course, he produces a knife, clambers over the table, and stabs you square in the face. In the first case, you did not deserve your fate; in the second, you more or less did.

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A Patch of Cloth for Caesar

On Faithlessness, Cowardice, and Complicity

Posted on Mon 24 Jan 2022 by Corey J. Mahler, Esq., J.D., LL.M.

For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God[.]

We are told, ad nauseam, that those in and from the East are more willing to wear masks; further, we are told that this is due to a sort of social responsibility — a focus on the community instead of a focus on the individual (supposedly contra and contrasted with the West). It is true that Easterners are more willing to wear face masks, but this is the only true claim in the lot. Easterners do not wear face masks due to a focus on the community or society; the West is not so individualistic as some would claim; and face masks are most certainly neither a matter of social responsibility nor a matter of loving one’s neighbor or pursuing the greater good.

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