“Jesus now sends the disciples to make disciples of all nations. That does not mean make everyone disciples. Most people who are helped by Jesus and believe in him never become disciples. Jesus includes in salvation people who do not believe in him or even know about him.” (p. 1658; Augsburg Fortress Lutheran Study Bible).
J-572
"The teaching of the Wisconsin Synod [of the old Norwegian Synod] is this, that in and with the universal reconciliation, which has occurred in Christ for the whole world—even Judas; the whole world—even Judas—has been justified and has received the forgiveness of sin. Therefore, according to Luther's clear words ("for where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation"), the whole world (i.e. every person who is a part of the world—even Judas) has become a child of God and an heir of heaven."
Gottfried Fritschel, "Zur Lehre von der Rechtfertigung," Theologische Monatshefte, volume 4, 1871, (1-24), p. 7.[29] Cited in Rick Nicholas Curia, The Significant History of the Doctrine of Objective or Universal Justification, Alpine, California: California Pastoral Conference, WELS. January 24-25, 1983. p. 2.
WELS Kokomo Statements
I. "Objectively speaking, without any reference to an individual sinner's attitude toward Christ's sacrifice, purely on the basis of God's verdict, every sinner, whether he knows it or not, whether he believes it or not, has received the status of saint."
II. "After Christ's intervention and through Christ's intervention God regards all sinners as guilt-free saints."
III. "When God reconciled the world to Himself through Christ, He individually pronounced forgiveness to each individual sinner whether that sinner ever comes to faith or not."
IV. "At the time of the resurrection of Christ, God looked down in hell and declared Judas, the people destroyed in the flood, and all the ungodly, innocent, not guilty, and forgiven of all sin and gave unto them the status of saints."
***
GJ - Since forgiveness is salvation, the Syn Conference has been teaching the same Universalism as ELCA. UOJ took some time to dominate the Syn Conference. Now all the Lutheran leaders teach that same heresy, in slightly different flavors.
No wonder that they all have their mission and evangelism people trained at Fuller and Willow Creek. Fuller was based upon the doctrine of the adulterous Marxist Karl Barth, who also taught universalism. See his Dogmatics, II, 2.
No soi-disant Lutheran group has repudiated UOJ, Church Growth, or Emerging Church.
One ELCA congregation began the process of leaving their sick, old synod once their new study Bible came out, because of the Matthew 28 passage quoted above.
More examples can be found here. The question is - why would any Lutheran group want to work with ELCA in any form or fashion? Working with the falling-apart giant is an implicit endorsement of Holy Mother ELCA's apostasy.
5 comments:
Statement number three is wrong! You are not justified before faith. Pastor GJ, do you still have the statements where the WELS leadership announced that the Kokomo Statements were not official WELS teaching. Why, at a recent WELS pastors conference, did a pstor present an essay defendening the statements?
In Christ,
from ?ELs church lady
Now Revelation 17:5 and the harlots become clear.
"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
Greg, et al - These statements are often defended in WELS because, "they CAN (emphasis mine) be understood correctly." Perhaps, but one pretty much has to turn the English language into a pretzel to accomplish this. I, for one, have never been happy or agreed completely with any of the attempts. They often end up raising more questions than they answer.
I don't know if this is the first example of this problem in the WELS, but it is certainly an important one. The problem? It used to be that it was taught to WELS Pastors that, "You must not only speak so clearly (in meaning) that you are understood, you must also speak so clearly that you cannot be misunderstood." Sadly, and to our great detriment as a church body, that is no longer being taught, and hasn't been for a long time. More's the pity!
Fr. Spence
WELS has always held to a doctrinal confession contained in the Kokomo statements. To claim otherwise is to continue the blatant lies and deception which they are famous for.
These are the Confessional statements of the (W)ELS regarding their central doctrine, UOJ, which is not found in Scripture or the Lutheran Confessions.
WELS AZ/CA District President Pastor Jon Buchholz: "Here is the legal or juridical nature of justification, revealed at Calvary. The change does not take place in the sinner. The change takes place in the relationship or the status between a sinner and God.2 A verdict has been rendered, which declares man free of sin and guilt, righteous in God’s sight, and worthy of eternal life, for Jesus’ sake." And, "Jesus then offered his innocent life as the payment (atonement) for the guilt of sinners. In this great transaction that took place on the cross, God removed the guilt of the world’s sin and replaced it with the righteousness of Christ."
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BuchholzJustification.pdf
WELS Prof. Mark Zarling:
"Perhaps such a distinction is helpful if it assists us in understanding the glorious Gospel: In Jesus, God has declared the entire world righteous and forgiven, regardless of whether or not the world believes it. Such is the jewel described by objective, universal, or general justification." Note at the end of Zarlings paper is the Kokomo Review Committee final report which states, "We do not underestimate the power of the Word. We are unwilling to say that the Holy Spirit, working through the Word, cannot bring about full recognition and acceptance of the Scriptural truth that God has justified all men and declared the sins of all men to be forgiven." Signed by Wayne D. Mueller, Ralph O. Muenkel, Armin J. Panning, Chm.
Ralph E. Scharf, Sec., Theodore H. Zuberbier
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/ZarlingJustification.pdf
WELS Siegbert W. Becker:
"“Universal justification” is a term denoting the doctrine that God has forgiven the sins of all men. Strictly speaking, the term “objective justification” expresses the thought that the sins of a man are forgiven by God whether he believes it or not." And concerning the four Kokomo statements, "Every one of the statements can be understood correctly, even though one must swallow a little hard to accede to the fourth. However, because the statements were used to discredit the truth of universal justification and to cause other laymen to doubt this teaching it is especially necessary to point out that the statements do not contain false doctrine."
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF
Does WELS ordain just any fool? Who drafted the WELS Kokomo Statements? The inconsistency in doctrine is inexcusable. I have lost any faith or trust in WELS as a result.
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