Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: General Council Publication Board, 1911, p. 685.
Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Very Important - Matters of Indifference - Adiapho...":
so-called matters of indifference may NOT be used during a doctrinal crisis
No Confessional doctrine, no crisis. Know Confessional doctrine, know the crisis.
After many years in the (W)ELS my in-laws now tell me that the Lutheran Confessions were written by sinful men who could have easily made mistakes in the Book of Concord. My reference then to the BOC is questionable at best. They say, look at these pastors who you disagree with, they have over 8 years of college and seminary training, who are you to question or disagree with them. There are twelve different opinions of what the Bible says, how can you say you know and confess the right one?
According to the current (W)ELS belief system God is no longer the authority, the BOC is just another book, Scripture is muddy and gray, the clergy are the authority and their judgment is what sets the norm for doctrine and practice.
It's a pathetic and painful sight.
The Lord's will be done.
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GJ - If the pastors who went through seven years of training (plus a vicarage year) are so highly educated, then what does that say about someone who has studied that much and more, earning three additional academic degrees? The Olde Syn Conference discounts such an argument because my education is not repeat-after-me training. Worse - I never attended Fuller Seminary, although I visited a CG seminar and went observed Willow Creek and Saddleback, on purpose. I have identified their Lutheran leaders' statements, which are in complete harmony with the Enthusiasts.
The most pernicious argument is this one:
There are twelve different opinions of what the Bible says, how can you say you know and confess the right one?
Mormons use that logic, and so do the Roman Catholics. Both claim that there must be a defining authority. Mormons pretend it is the Book of Mormon, but it is really their weird priesthood (very WELS-like). The Roman Catholic Church finds clarity in the pope's infallible pronouncements (not unlike the ELS).
The bolded statement in red is contrary to the Word of God itself. The Scriptures are the Book of the Holy Spirit, the only revealed will of God. Does God speak with such confusion and lack of clarity that no one can determine what He is saying in His Word? The WELS low-archy would like people to think so. Jay Webber has said as much, claiming that UOJ has to be carefully presented so that the unwashed can grasp it. This repeat-after-me training, which works so well with seals, will always lead people astray.
The Word of God is so clear that anyone can understand and believe in the Christian faith from studying the Scriptures in translation, although bad ones like the NIV, ESV, and RSV distort the clear doctrines on purpose (just as the original RSV from the National Council of Churches changed the Virgin Birth of Isaiah 7:14).
To claim that the barely educated WELS clergy know doctrine better than the laity is a slander against all laity. The laity are not blinded by years of hazing, but want to study and learn for themselves why apostasy is on the throne, truth on the scaffold. The clergy worry about future calls and being undermined in their current ones.
The statement merely shows that the Syn Conference clergy have trained conforming members to be opposed to the Lutheran Confessions. Pietism hates the Book of Concord but loves Fuller, NorthPoint, and Willow Creek.
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"Shall we permit this to be done! in the name of Christian unity! and by a latitudinarianism that is our own heritage, which rises ever anew from the embers of the past to find such veiled support and strength in the citadel of Zion that Confessionalism is told to whisper low in Jerusalem lest she be heard on the streets of Gath."
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 941.
"Is the Lord's Supper the place to display my toleration, my Christian sympathy, or my fellowship with another Christian, when that is the very point in which most of all we differ; and in which the difference means for me everything--means for me, the reception of the Savior's atonement? Is this the point to be selected for the display of Christian union, when in fact it is the very point in which Christian union does not exist?"
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 905f.
"The modern radical spirit which would sweep away the Formula of Concord as a Confession of the Church, will not, in the end, be curbed, until it has swept away the Augsburg Confession, and the ancient Confessions of the Church--yea, not until it has crossed the borders of Scripture itself, and swept out of the Word whatsoever is not in accord with its own critical mode of thinking. The far-sighted rationalist theologian and Dresden court preacher, Ammon, grasped the logic of a mere spirit of progress, when he said: 'Experience teaches us that those who reject a Creed, will speedily reject the Scriptures themselves.'"
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: General Council Publication Board, 1911, p. 685. Trinity
"The real question is not what do you subscribe, but what do you believe and publicly teach, and what are you transmitting to those who come after? If it is the complete Lutheran faith and practice, the name and number of the standards is less important. If it is not, the burden of proof rests upon you to show that your more incomplete standard does not indicate an incomplete Lutheran faith."
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: 1911, p. 890.
[Selnecker, who wrote "Ach bleib bei uns" (TLH #292) was bitterly attacked and severely persecuted by the Reformed, deposed when Augustus died, reduced to poverty, and not allowed to remain in Leipzig as a private citizen.]
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church, Philadelphia: General Council Publication Board, 1911, p. 310ff.
