I wrote before that J. P. Meyer's Ministers of Christ leads someone effortlessly into Decision Theology, because Meyer's own language is thoroughly unLutheran and anti-Scriptural in places. He does not make some points about Corinthians, especially about adulterating the Gospel. But note what happens with his precious UOJ:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "More on Justification Book":
In the Feedback section of FIC, A Lutheran Voice, someone spoke of "decision theology" concerning the series on the Holy Spirit.(referring to the NOV. edition) I will quote the feedback that was put in the January 2010 edition:
"I'm compelled to respond to the most recent article in Pastor Degner's series on the Holy Spirit. "Earlier in life I was involved in a variety of "evangelical/fundamental" churches. "Decision theology" was big in their presentation of the gospel. I can recall many Sunday school sessions in which I strived very hard to convince my student to "accept Jesus in to their hearts"-i.e., to accept God's offer of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ. How often I used variations of Pastor Degners's analogy of the rich man trying to give each person in town a million dallars[Nov.]. "Just accept it!" I pleaded. But then God arranged circumstances that brought me into ELS/WELS churches. What a great epiphany occurred when I fully realized and understood that we are totally incapable of accepting salvation; that it is wholly the work of the Holy Spirit as he effectd our new birth by way of his gift of faith in Christ Jesus!"
Here is the response by "one" of the editors:
"Your point about decisions to accept God's gift is well taken. With Luther we confess that we cannot come to Jesus or believe in him by our own power. That is the work of the Holy Spirit by the power of the gospel. Yet Paul invited the jailer simply to "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." The gospel does come with an invitation that we cannot accept but by the work of the Holy Spirit.-ed."
If GJ and Brett remember, that is taken from the same article that I quoted a few months ago. So we were not the only folks who noticed these things (a few words from that article/universal justification....forgiven and not forgiven)
In Christ,
from WELS church lady
3 comments:
Norman Tiegen is comparing The Lutheran Study Bible (CPH) to Lutheran Study Bible (Augsburg-Fortress). Here's my comparison after seeing both:
1) The Augsburg one is $28 at B&N on sale, while on sale the CPH one is $40. However, after adding Media Mail, it comes up to $44, and that's the NORMAL price at Amazon.com for the CPH bible. So it's almost like a non-sale, except more of your money goes to CPH if you buy from CPH.
2) The Augsburg one is thick, but not as many pages as the CPH one.
3) The CPH one has many more notes than the Augsburg one. In fact, almost every verse has a note, but the Augsburg one only has a note on every fourth verse, I'd guesstimate.
4) The Augsburg one has its notes on the outside margins (opposite the gutter), while the CPH one has a split page with text up top, and notes on the bottom, similar to the NIV Study Bible format. This allows for more notes per page in the CPH one.
5) The CPH bible has more notes that reference the Book of Concord. In fact, the Augsburg one may have none that reference the BoC, however, I didn't read many pages of the Augsburg one, so I'm not sure about that.
6) I have good eyesight, but I found the Augsburg one hard to read due to the fine font type they used for both the text and notes. The CPH one has bolder, darker print. The headers in the Augsburg one are in light blue almost iridescent font that stands out, but yet light blue ink is hard to read since you can't make out the letters/words as well.
7) The Augsburg one has pages so thin, you can see the print on the other side of the page. The CPH one's pages are opaque. I specifically looked for that because someone told the Ichablog a while back that the CPH one had onion skin pages, but in fact, it was the Augsburg one with onion pages, not the CPH one even though the CPH one is thicker. (The CPH one says its paper is certified as coming from managed forests, by the way. I guess UOJers at CPH wouldn't want the reader to ever feel guilty when reading the Bible!)
8) I sent the Augsburg one back to B&N using Media Mail for a refund. No one could tell me for sure whether the address stickers with barcodes at the bottom of the B&N packing slip were the kind that you could just hand to the postman without buying postage, so I paid for Media Mail just in case. Hope it makes it back in the alloted 2 weeks, or else B&N just discards it.
Norman's Study Bible Review
http://normanteigen.blogspot.com/2010/01/lutheran-study-bible-continuing_11.html
What a sad situation that the person compelled to respond to the FIC article unknowingly finds themselves in. The ELS and WELS teach the same theology of "Just believe it" found in the decision theology camp they just left. Throw in the million dollar give away which the Scripturally barren use and it's like taking two steps back. It's laughable that the have to use an analogy, which they all admit limps, in order to explain their man made doctrine which deals with the cetral article of Christian faith.
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