Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Introduction to the WELS Zarling Essay":
A simple exercise in doctrinal discernment. Compare the following Confessional statements. Is there a difference? Now ask your pastor, professor, parents and fellow congregation members why there is a difference between The Lutheran Confessions and the (W)ELS doctrinal teaching on the central doctrine of Christian faith - Justification by Faith Alone.
THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS
"1. That the human race is truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ, who, by His faultless [innocency] obedience, suffering, and death, has merited for us the righteousness which avails before God, and eternal life. 2. That such merit and benefits of Christ shall be presented, offered, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments. 3. That by His Holy Ghost, through the Word, when it is preached, heard, and pondered, He will be efficacious and active in us, convert hearts to true repentance, and preserve them in the true faith. 4. That He will justify all those who in true repentance receive Christ by a true faith, and will receive them into grace, the adoption of sons, and the inheritance of eternal life." Formula of Concord, SD, XI. #15. Of God's Eternal Election. Concordia Triglotta
(W)ELS
"And yet many Lutherans still labor under the delusion that God does not forgive us unless we believe. Instead of seeing faith as nothing more than the spiritual hand with which we make the forgiveness of God our own, they see it as a reason why God forgives us. They believe that Christ has indeed provided forgiveness for all men, that God is willing to forgive them, but before he really forgives he first of all demands that we should be sorry for our sins and that we should have faith. Just have faith they say, and then God will forgive you. All the right words are there. The only thing wrong is that the words are in the wrong order. God does not forgive us IF we have faith. He has forgiven us long ago when he raised his Son from the dead." (p. 59) (W)ELS doctrinal book Our Great Heritage
"When we speak of objective justification, we mean (33) that justification is complete. It does not need to be completed by faith or any other work. It is (34) finished, perfect. God has declared the world righteous for Jesus' sake. This is an objective (35) reality, whether anyone believes it or not. Even if the whole world rejected the message of the (36) gospel, it would still remain an objective reality that God had acquitted the world of sin." Page 5
http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/schleicher-paper.pdf
(68)"But, sadly, Satan worked and continues to (69) work within the Lutheran ranks. Some wanted to make justification an act of God “at the moment of faith” and so (70) they denied and even rejected universal, objective justification." Page 4, The Doctrine of Justification since the Reformation, Pastor Nate Bourman WELS
http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/justification-paper.pdf
"But universal and objective justification is one doctrine whose place in the victorious Christian life is clear. Wherever men teach that faith comes first as a condition that must be fulfilled or a work that must be done or even as a fact that must be recognized before forgiven is bestowed or becomes real, men will be trained to look into their own hearts for assurance rather than to the words and promises of God. If my sins are forgiven only if I first have faith then I have no solid foundation on which to rest my hope for eternal life. I must then know that I have faith before I can know that my sins are forgiven." Page 13, Objective Justification By Dr. Siegbert W. Becker / The Importance of Objective Justification
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF
5 comments:
Ah
Fine job Brett,
Regarding the final quote you posted:
Sig Becker was a sophist. If this were a different sort of blog, I might use a more crass way to describe Becker: he was a bullS**tter.
I get the impression that Becker's main academic goal was to make people think he was smarter than he was. I get the sense that Becker wasn't a devious false teacher, but that he slipped into the false teacher role out of quiet desperation, in hopes that he might hear himself talk more. That is to say, he corrupted what might have been good theology in the task of self-aggrandizement. (To me, anyway, that's what Becker seems to be after.) In any Synod (sect) that is as cocky as the WELS, look for that. Becker is the Father of the modern WELS. What is Latte-Lutheranism, The Bore, St. Marcus, Crosswalk, etc. but self-aggrandizement?
I might be going out on a limb here, but if you allow me to put on my sociologist mask, I'd wager that the best of the WELS have always been self-aware theological neophytes (in a horticultural sense), and they feel that ol' self-conscience sting to the ego. They want to fix things, so they serve popcorn and Fuller.
I realize I'm beyond my pay grade trying to describe what I'm getting at, so I think a perusal of C.S. Lewis's speech "The Inner Ring" is in order. The WELS for a long time has deeply desired to be in the "in crowd", from Becker to Glende. (Brett or anyone, if you can say this better I am all ears.)
http://www.lewissociety.org/innerring.php
Indirectly addressed to Teh ANGREH mlc student(?) loroffpj:
Reading about theology and perusing this blog just makes me wish all the more that MLC freshmen would get a real doctrine class sooner rather than later. Students are both very impressionable but also (as visible ambassadors of Christ) give big impressions. Why must they wait three years to finally read in their doctrine textbook...? :
God desires the salvation of all sinners. Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God justified the whole world. Yet not all people will be saved. The reason for this is contained in Jesus' words: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (Mk 16:16). Through faith, sinners receive the benefit of the redemptive work of Christ (Jn 3:16; Mk 16:16; Ac 16:31; Ro 3:22,28; 4:5). Our dogmaticians have called faith the "receiving instrument" (greek: organon leptikon) in distinction to the gospel, which is the instrument God uses to give faith, the "giving instrument" (Greek: organon dotikon).
Lange, Lyle W. God So Loved the World. (C) 2005 by NPH. Chapter 16: Justification, pg 348.
Even better, and more concise, just take a look in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration III:13.
"For faith does not make people righteous because it is such a good work or such a fine virtue, but because it lays hold of and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy gospel. For this merit must be applied to us and appropriated through faith if we are to become righteous through it."
Read up on everything. Challenge it. Search the scriptures and consult the Lutheran Confessions. You'll be surprised. I was.
I've always considered the naive in the (W)ELS in line with Romans 10:1-4, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to Godfor Isreal is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."
This is really the sum total of the problem with UOJ and the only Scripture needed to refute it if they held the Word above Synod, church and friends. Other's hearts are too hardened and they blindly serve their father below in order to get that district president position or other worldly baubles.
I visited a farm and was told that the mud flaps on John Deere tractors are always too narrow and short, and only block mud coming from the inside half of the tire. Somehow mud flips up on the driver.
bored,
I have to agree with you and the WELS wanting to be with the "in" crowd. The sin is like the people of Israel wanting a king. To paraphrase- We want a king. Everybody else had a king. We want to be like everybody else. God ruling us isn't good enough anymore. Paraphrase WELS- We are a small little church body. We want a big shiny church and the big money just like the reformed. Then we can be a big church body. Let's see how they do it, so we can be like them. Let's use their sermons. Let's use their methods. And maybe we can serve popcorn too! Clinging to His precious Word isn't good enough for us anymore. We want to rely on our programs, consultants and the like.
Scott E. Jungen
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