Intrepid Lutherans Blog

Adolph Hoenecke was one of two Wisconsin Synod members who turned the denomination away from its Pietistic and unionistic origins,
toward a confessional stance.
Pietism re-asserted itself through Church and Change.

Some WELS pastors and laity have started a blog--Intrepid Lutherans. I knew about it starting, because it is my job to keep track of such things.

I heard that some people worried I was part of the blog. They would not want someone who has sold two different books through NPH to be in bloggership with the clergy of WELS! Stetzer, yes. Groeschel, yes. Stanley, yes. Werning, of course. Sweet, definitely.

The participants, whoever they may be, are working on their own. I was happy to see people signing on, instead of maintaining secret status where they deny having anything to do with it. Church and Change is full of clergy and laity who, like Peter before the fire, deny their affiliation times three.

I like my independent status, allowing me to discuss confidentially what is sent to me by various sources.

When J. P. Meyer Wrote the Truth, WELS Ignored Him

KJV 2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness (panourgia), nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

"The type of minister to which we referred above as using entertainment in order to lure the people is employing panourgia, and is therefore guilty of committing secret things of disgrace. The Gospel is the word of Truth. To resort to ruses in proclaiming it, even though with the best of intentions, is heaping shame on the Truth. Not only are the truth and lures incompatible in their nature, but to use lures in connection with the Gospel ministry treats the Truth, the eternal Truth of God, as though it were inefficient, not attractive enough in itself." John P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, pp. 62. 2 Corinthians 4:2.

"Paul...is speaking about methods of preaching the Gospel. He means to say that you can introduce methods into your Gospel work which on the surface do not appear as shameful, but which in reality disgrace the Gospel. He is harking back to 2:17, where he spoke about kapeleuein, about 'selling' the Gospel. To use a coarse illustration: Some ministers in their eagerness to bring the Gospel to the people, resort to entertainment to attract the crowds, in order to get an opportunity to preach to them. If you would tell such ministers that they are ashamed of the Gospel and that by their methods they disgrace it, because they manifest a lack of trust in its efficacy, they would resent the charge. Are they not doing all in order to promote the Gospel? The disgrace their methods bring upon it does not appear on the surface; that is why Paul speaks of secret things of shame." John P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, pp. 62f. 2 Corinthians 4:1-6; 2:17.
KJV 2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt (kapelueein) the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

"Because such is Paul's ministry, he cannot, on the one hand, stoop to trickery or an adulteration of the Word, to practice the hidden things of shame; nor can he, on the other hand, ever grow weary of administering so wholesome and glorious an office." John P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, A Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, p. 65. 2 Corinthians 4:2.

KJV 2 Corinthians 4:1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you. 13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; 14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

***

GJ - These insights from J. P. Meyer are ignored by WELS Church and Change. If I wanted to admonish fellow pastors, I would use their own expert against them. More importantly, the Word of God condemns them for adopting an entertainment style of church, following Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts, who mastered the medium and made themselves fortunes by selling the Gospel.

Worst of all, the WELS Church and Change clowns cannot even make up their own entertaining messages. They copy them verbatim from their idols in the Babtist and Pentecostal sects.

WELS Church Lady defends J. P. Meyer. I have to say, he is very good in some spots, but horrid about justification by faith.

UOJ Treats Faith as a Work

J. P. Meyer wrote three of the Kokomo Theses in his Ministers of Christ.

The UOJ Stormtrooopers love to toss this stinkbomb into any discussion about justification by faith:

"You are making faith a work."

Little do they realize that their favorite UOJ salesmen do, in fact, make faith a work.

"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 about it or not, whether he believes it or not, has received the status of a saint. What will be his reaction when he is informed about this turn of events? Will he accept, or will he decline?" J. P. Meyer, Ministers of Christ, A Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1963, p. 103f. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.

J. P. Meyer is the key to understanding how WELS became so enamored of Babtist Church Growth leaders. In seminary, they read Babtist authors, drooling on the pages. In congregations, they lead adult studies of Babtist works. In their continuing education they run off to hear the same Babtist leaders -- live! -- that their seminary professors love so dearly.

The formula above is almost identical to a Babtist decision for Christ.
1. Tell them the Gospel.
2. Ask them to make a decision for Christ. Will they accept Him or not?

The UOJ salesmen rail against faith, but they end up with saying, "But you gotta believe." Sports fans, friends and neighbors, gotta means must, and "must" means the Law. That turns faith into a work of man. Forgiveness is already true but it is not really true until you perform this one act - you gotta believe it is true. That is the doctrine of the Syn Conference, reason enough to follow the Babtists and Pentecostals to perdition.

The first plagiarist president of the Missouri Synod, C. F. W. Walther,
copied UOJ from George Christian Knapp, a Halle Pietist.

C. F. W. Walther pulled the wool over the sheepish eyes of the Syn Conference, the same way. In a sermon so beloved by the Little Sect that they reprinted it lovingly in one of their best-selling books -- over 37 sold! -- the ELS quoted the entire sermon.

J-564
"For God has already forgiven you your sins 1800 years ago when He in Christ absolved all men by raising Him after He first had gone into bitter death for them. Only one thing remains on your part so that you also possess the gift. This one thing is—faith. And this brings me to the second part of today's Easter message, in which I now would show you that every man who wants to be saved must accept by faith the general absolution, pronounced 1800 years ago, as an absolution spoken individually to him."
C. F. W. Walther, The Word of His Grace, Sermon Selections, "Christ's Resurrection—The World's Absolution" Lake Mills: Graphic Publishing Company, 1978, p. 233. Mark 16:1-8.

Pastors, you wrote in your notes from dog class - "best theol. in Am." Can you say that after reading such Calvino-Babtist drivel?

There are Calvinist Babtists and Free Will Babtists. They start with the Enthusiasm of Calvin, the Holy Spirit separated from the Word of God. Some fall on the double-predestination side while others land on the Arminian side. (Memory note - The Kardashians are Armenians. Think of something to distinguish one from the other. No, not that.)

How did Lutherans listen to Walther without laughing out loud? They were living in the last days of Pietism, remembering how Pietism once devoted itself to Biblical study, prayer, relief efforts, and missionary goals. Pietism began as a unionistic endeavor in a unionistic culture. By Walther's time, Halle was rationalistic and Knapp was old-fashioned, the one dinosaur on the faculty who still believed. Therefore, Knapp's double-justification had the aura of the Good Old Days, and his book was a pan-denominational best-seller, still in print today.

Sound Doctrine
Christ has indeed accomplished everything for our sakes. He has died for the sins of the world. He has redeemed the world. But nothing in the Word of God says that we are declared forgiven without the Word, without the Means of Grace, without faith.

The preaching and teaching of the Gospel distributes the treasure of the Gospel and plants faith in the hearts of those who hear the Word. Thus faith is God's work which receives what God offers so freely. Therefore, we are justified by faith, apart from the works of the Law.

J-545
"These treasures are offered us by the Holy Ghost in the promise of the holy Gospel; and faith alone is the only means by which we lay hold upon, accept, and apply, and appropriate them to ourselves. This faith is a gift of God, by which we truly learn to know Christ, our Redeemer, in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him, that for the sake of His obedience alone we have the forgiveness of sins by grace, are regarded as godly and righteous by God the Father, and are eternally saved."
Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #10. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 919. Tappert, p. 541. Heiser, p. 250.

J-546
"Accordingly, the word justify here means to declare righteous and free from sins, and to absolve one from eternal punishment for the sake of Christ's righteousness, which is imputed by God to faith, Philippians 3:9. For this use and understanding of this word is common in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Proverbs 17:15: He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Isaiah 5:23: Woe unto them which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Romans 8:33: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, that is, absolves from sins and acquits."
Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #17. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 921. Philippians 3:9; Proverbs 17:15; Isaiah 5:23; Romans 8:33. Tappert, p. 541f. Heiser, p. 251.

J-547
"For when man is justified through faith [which the Holy Ghost alone works], this is truly a regeneration, because from a child of wrath he becomes a child of God, and thus is transferred from death to life, as it is written; When we were dead in sins, He hath quickened us together with Christ, Ephesians 2:5. Likewise: The just shall live by faith, Romans 1:17; Habakkuk 2:4."
Formula of Concord, Thorough Declaration, III. #20. Of the Righteousness of Faith before God. Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 921. Tappert, p. 542. Heiser, p. 251.