Tuesday, August 28, 2007

UOJ - No Wonder WELS Loves Willow Creek


Sometimes I reject comments so I can feature them rather than have them appear as pop-ups. Here are two useful ones because they link to WELS documents on Universal Objective Justification.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Justification by Faith":

N.B.

http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/XYZ/ZarlingJustification/

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ask Luther about UOJ":

Read this for a clearer understanding of the actual WELS position on universal or objective justification:

http://wlsessays.net/authors/B/BeckmanUniversal/

***

Both essays are shallow, but the Beckman one is worse. They were both inspired by the Kokomo incident, where Pastor Papenfuss (his real name) dumped UOJ on the congregation.

I was at the Hartman farm and spoke to both families excommunicated from WELS for believing in justification by faith. I asked for xeroxes of the letters that were sent to them. I told you before - I have been everywhere.

There has been considerable lying about the Kokomo statements. WELS teaches them more ardently than any other synod, but WELS also tries to distance itself from those statements. Sometimes their finger-puppets in the CLC will echo their deceptions about Kokomo. If you click on the UOJ label or look up the justification chapter of Thy Strong Word, you will find more material than you can ever digest on UOJ.

The essays cited above are typical WELS productions. They pretend to deal with the Scriptures (Wauwatosa style) but really start and end with recent Wisconsin Synod teachers and books, especially Meyer's pathetic Ministers of Christ (no longer published by WELS) and Sig Becker's material.

Although WELS both denies and admits it, the first three Kokomo statements are from Meyer's Ministers of Christ. The fourth Kokomo Statement can be found in earlier conflicts about UOJ, which erupted from the Pietists in the 19th century.

UOJ is nowhere to be found in the Book of Concord or the Scriptures. WELS-LCMS-ELS-CLC can quote UOJ sources - all derived from the Pieper crowd. Their legitimate quotations from Luther, the Book of Concord, Romans, Corinthians, are about the atonement of Christ. He died for the sins of the world.

J. P. Meyer taught forever at Mequon. They were still talking about the "Meyer dog notes" in the 1980's. Seminarians keep their notes and wrote the conference papers from them. No wonder:
1. They cannot debate doctrinal issues.
2. The same false doctrines get recycled endlessly.

The Church of Rome has nothing on WELS in the category of infallibility. No Wisconsin Synod leader has ever been wrong. Any false doctrine (like Manufacturing Disciples) can be established by having a couple of synod hacks write a paper. The Book of Concord? WELS is not bound by it. The Word of God? WELS will advise God on what He should have said.