Comments on: No Middle Ground: You are Either in Satan’s Kingdom or Christ’s

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:49:25 +0000

Kudos to you, Pastor Beecroft, from a Presbyterian, for standing for the Gospel, wherever you are called. We Presbyterians need to hear the Good News too! Thank you for your faithfulness to our Lord.

By: Randy Hoffman

Randy Hoffman — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:50:33 +0000

I believe Pastor Beecroft hit a home run and any Lutheran Pastor should not shy away from Presenting …in a Reverent form, the Beauty of God’s Law and Gospel that is so lost among
the Postmodernism crowd of Contemporary Christianity. How do other Christians ever find out what Historical Lutheranism is if it is never laid bare ?

By: Rev Allen Yount (CRSM)

Rev Allen Yount (CRSM) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:04:31 +0000

I was nearly cheering out loud as I read this message, especially at the point where Pr Beecroft got “real Lutheran.”

Kudos to you, Pr Beecroft.

Rev.Allen Yount
–Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt theologum–

By: Mason Beecroft

Mason Beecroft — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:44:11 +0000

If anyone would like to contact me, then please feel free to send me an email or, if desired, contact my supervisor. I am not ashamed of what I preached, and will defend the circumstances until it is clearly demonstrated that “pulpit/altar” fellowship was violated.
+Mason

By: Matt Jamison

Matt Jamison — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:44:23 +0000

I remember as a boy hearing Dr. Hoffman preach in public, at the State Fair in fact. It was such a clear, bold and loud proclamation of the Gospel that I’m unlikely to ever forget it. His are big boots to fill and Pr. Beecroft seems to have stepped up nicely to the challenge.

Any Lutheran who would oppose such a clear proclamation of law and Gospel is no Lutheran at all.

By: ptmccain

ptmccain — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:35:09 +0000

I support your decision, Pastor Beecroft. As you told me this afternoon, until this year these series had always been called “lectures,” for they are sponsored community lectures. This year they decided to call them “worship services.” But regardless, you made the right decision to accept an invitation, unqualified, and unhindered, to come and preach the Gospel purely and rightly. While it is easier simply,to apply some kind of “pulpit fellowship” rubric to this situation, I believe it is plainly wrong-headed simply to lump every single situation into one category and then demand that every situation be judged by a an application of pre-conceived “rules.” This was never the way our fathers in the faith operated. Walther himself accepted invitations while traveling in Europe to preach in congregations with which we were not in “pulpit fellowship.” The hardening of the arteries in the Synodical conference understanding of fellowship is unfortunate. Huddling together in our tiny little groups and yelling “unclean” at everyone else, or anyone who would to speak to others when invited, is not the point of the proper understanding of what is, and what is not church fellowship. I invited Pastor Beecroft to offer a comment here and I support him. I will not entertain additional comments on this point. People spoiling for an argument, can find one somewhere else.

By: Mason Beecroft

Mason Beecroft — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:50:56 +0000

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Wiseman Series has been conducted at First Presbyterian Church in Tulsa for decades. Last year, Dr. Jim Miller, an evangelical Presbyterian who graduated from Aberdeen with a Phd in NT and a man I consider to be a friend, invited me to speak. I was also confused at first, but was informed that Dr. Oswald Hoffman had spoke there numerous times. I checked with my circuit counselor and my DP. They both thought it was more than appropriate. I did not vest and I was not constrained in anything I said. In fact, Dr. Miller never asked for my talk. Might it be considered a sermon? Certainly. I hope and pray I preached Christ and Him crucified on both accounts, and was faithful to the Gospel we have received. Was there any confusion about altar/pulpit fellowship? I doubt it was to any person who was there. I am happy to respond to any criticisms and take full responsibility for my words and my conduct.

By: ptmccain

ptmccain — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:50:09 +0000

Richard, please note this was Pastor Mason Beecroft’s presentation, not mine. I could not have said it better myself though, I doubt I would have said it half as well.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:43:03 +0000

Wish I had you for a pastor, Rev. McCain. Keep on preaching the Good News!

By: ptmccain

ptmccain — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:59:59 +0000

Given the “logic” of your position, St. Paul had no business ever appearing in a synagogue or on Mars Hill. It is a shame the Lutheran doctrine of fellowship has been so twisted and distorted by certain branches of American Lutheranism that all they ever offer to anyone asking about Lutheranism is: “We can’t speak to you or among you.”

Absurd and pitiful.

Professor Kurt Marquart always said, “If you are asked to preach as a guest, accept the invitation and speak the Gospel with such absolutely clarity that they will either thank you for your message, or never ask you back again.”

This was precisely what Pastor Beecroft did and I commend him for his clear, forthright, bold confession and witness.