We had a plover in the gravel parking lot in Columbus. The nest was difficult to see. If anyone approached, the mother limped away with a phony broken wing. The idea is to lead all predators away from the nest, so they forget about the eggs or nestlings.
False teachers use the same method. They cannot say what they believe and reject, if they even know, so they limp away with a new analogy, a new topic.
For example, for decades the UOJ Stormtroopers have argued two justifications, which they name Objective Justification and Subjective Justification.
Suddenly, they limp away with - "there is only one justification. Those are two sides of the same coin."
Justification is a coin? Which chapter in the Bible reveals this coin?
When faced with the ludicrous claims of UOJ, quoted below, they wave a broken wing and chirp, "This is true - in Christ. That is true - from God's perspective." People chase that so no one is pinned down on the fundamental absurdities of the argument.
None of these revelations can be found in the Scriptures, and they are not in the Confessions.
The experts cited are from within a narrow band of history, all from Pietism, which is a stalking horse for Unitarianism and Universalism. Their secondary experts are people who endlessly quote the same Syn Conference writers. E. Preuss is cited as if he were the Fourth Member of the Trinity, but they do not admit he joined the Roman Catholic Church, moving from one Enthusiasm to another.
Sometimes they lie and assign their precious UOJ to Calov or Gerhard. There are even moments when they lift the hopes of many with cries of "Oh! Oh! Oh! I found it in the Book of Concord." Their discoveries are passages about the Atonement.
Christians must clearly confess the truth and reject falsehood just as clearly.
WELS and the Little Sect Reject the Book of Concord
The Wisconsin sect and its bedmate, the ELS, have both rejected the Book of Concord. And they brag about it.
Like the Mormons, they have added books to the Bible. WELS has their Wauwatosa set and Our Great Heritage. Those who want to know the real WELS have to read OGH. The ELS must agree with those weighty volumes, because no protests have been heard.
Our Great Heritage limits the greatness to Wisconsin and the neighborhoods of Milwaukee.
The crucial article is:
"Are We Bound Only to What the Confessions Teach?" by Arnold Koelpin.
Our Great Heritage Volume I p. 434,
Reprinted from NWL Vol. 60, 1973, p. 353.
The answer to the question is "No!" This is manifested in the Pietistic antagonism of WELS toward learning and teaching the Confessions. The typical WELS pastor knows nothing about them, regards them with disdain, and cannot teach them.
Therefore, both sects claim to have a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, as if they follow the Confessions because (quia - Latin for because) they are a proper interpretation of Scripture. But that is thrown out the window by the article and its normative value. The bad version of this is quatenus (insofar as), which is supposedly the ELCA version. WELS, LCMS, and ELS work with ELCA all the time, so that is also rather simple to compute.
The ELS and WELS have also proven their lack of confessional integrity by allowing Church Growth (morphing into Emergent Church) for the last 30+ years. The Insipid Lutherans are united by their utter lack of protest against CG for their entire careers and their continued silence.
The broken wing is used consistently in the LCMS as well. Sometimes they circle around such profound questions as "What did Walther really mean by this sentence?" or, they fuss about how to perform, mark, or celebrate a particular part of the worship service. How much incense is too much - and is that possible? How many Marian rites can we observe while sinuflecting toward Rome? Which districts will reward my DMin from Fuller Seminary?
