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This isn't the time for circling the wagons, it's the time to get out of the swamp. Look for the living, moving, fresh and clean water which is the stream of life from the Rock of Christ. Standing under its refreshing torrent one is bathed, quenched and refreshed unto eternity. This is the only "watering" which makes the seeds grow, which give girth and steadfastness to young trees, which keep the older trees firmly rooted. If that isn't what the sheep are drinking, then it's time to move on, to follow the river which flows from the High Altar of God. If that isn't what you are being seeped and marinated in, then it's time for the tree to find the place where the water is pure and true.

"Beware of false prophets" says your God. He doesn't say watch out for scary men with fangs and black capes. He calls them false prophets. In the Old Testament the prophet was that "office" which the Lord created to speak on His behalf, to preach, teach and write His words. That office continues today in the New Testament church with the "office" of the Holy Ministry: The Pastor. From Christ's called "under-shepherds" the church is also provided necessary auxiliary helpers: teachers, theological professors, and in our own unique American setting synodical helpers. The synod, the district, the circuit, is to assist the local parish pastor in doing what the church is to do: feed the sheep. The true church, the legitimate sheep-pen, will be that place where the Gospel is preached in its purity and the sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution. [A.C. art. VII] When the men who have been tasked with helping the Pastor turn out to be incompetent, malicious, ignorant, un-Lutheran, or worse, should they still be permitted to participate in the flocks' future. When those given the responsibility by human decision, not Scriptural mandate [remember there is nothing Biblical about synods or "district officials"] seek to poison the young trees in the church's nursery, or wildly begin to prune branches, should they be allowed to continue? Or what about when they dismiss with indifference the natural growth cycles of the tree, the normal fruit and harvest patterns and seek to graft in alien species? Or when they evilly dismiss the called and appointed gardener?

Men who pray together with pagans and tell you they are "witnessing" are false and adulterous prophets and should be avoided as the Apostle Paul instructs. Men who approve such treason to the God of Truth, or who give feigned absolution to this type of repeated heresy, are false prophets who should be ex-communicated.

"You shall know them by their fruits." There are over 200 "prophets" among you who deny the Book of Concords' teachings on the "Means of Grace." These RIM charismatics are false teachers who should have been publicly so branded. And how do you feel about "breaking bread" with the untold numbers of "prophets" who advocate women's ordination, who ignore our Symbols on the doctrine of the Call, and who treat the Divine Service with the respect of a Beach Boys concert? They are false prophets, and they control the pastures you are now feeding in; they are the foresters and gardeners in the forest in which you seek to grow and survive.

False prophets are those who presume, assume, and assure that they are speaking the words of Jesus. They are not. They are using things He said to speak the words and will of Satan---that's why Christ calls them "false" False doesn't just mean "close," "sort of okay," "b --". False means the polar opposite of true. The Lord is Truth; the infernal and damned serpent is False. They come to you in "sheep's clothing." Well of course they do. No predator seeks to frighten its prey, its mid-day meal. False prophets are docile, winsome, comfortable, articulate, down-home, and caring. They say what your "old Adams" want to hear. They wear sheep's clothing that is cut from a different fabric than the church has hitherto used-- the cloth of the world. They are covered with the cloaks of "President, Mission-exec, Commission on Constitutional Matters, Circuit Counselor. It all sounds like a seedy, and puerile episode of "the Practice" rather than the Church Catholic. They are False Prophets.

False prophets would be no danger to the flock, to the trees in the garden, if the flock and orchard were already in heaven. But you're not. The exodus continues, the Babylonian captivity still exists on the edges, Lent goes on.

Every one of you must daily drown the ugly, sinfully-stubborn little goat within you that seeks to foul the pure water of Jesus' doctrine, that seeks to nibble away at the bark of correct teaching on the supple saplings. Goats are always hungry and care not that what they eat may be harmful, even deadly. They look for "tasty" morsels... mere manna is never satisfying. Wild dogs don't like fences. "Independent" free-thinking "Christians" don't like Church custom and etiquette even when salutary to doctrine. Wild donkeys, the prophet reminds us, lift up their noses sniffing the air for reasons of carnal lust, constantly "in heat" to the worlds' allure. The Lord has rescued you to be His sheep. Be not asses. Be gentle like doves, but don't be ignorant to the false prophets who would bind you in man-made institutions that aren't even as old as most village churches in the homeland: Germany.

A false prophet can't deceive forever. A tree is known by its fruits. Look to what they say, yes. But also look to what they don't say. Look to what it all means, in context, through the lens of the Symbols. Ask questions, demand answers. Act on your faith, your vows, your confessions.

A deluded "goat-Christian" is also known by its fruit. No matter how many times it says "Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus," look to the pasture it chooses to stay in. Does the tree remain in the petrified forest of syncretism, unionism, feminism, church-growth Pentecostalism, and self-centered protestant error, or does it seek to follow the voice of its shepherd to true groves of Crucifix shade, baptismal washing, and Eucharistic feeding?

"The day is surety drawing near when God's Son, the Anointed, shall with great majesty appear as Judge of all appointed." [TLH 611 ]

I as a pastor will be judged by my fruits. Did I have true faith in the true Christ, in the truest manifestation of His One, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church which I could find?

All Christians will be also so judged: lambs or goats. A tree is known by its fruit.