- Inquiring minds want to know: Does Holy Communion grant the actual forgiveness of sins or the assurance that sins have been forgiven? If the full treasure of God's forgiveness is fully ours by faith worked by Word and Sacrament, then what need is there for Word and Sacrament? In other words, after conversion do the means of grace work the forgiveness of sins, or the assurance that sins have been forgiven? Give us an illustration on how it works.
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GJ - The Word conveys Christ and His benefits to us, so Holy Communion as the visible Gospel grants forgiveness. I believe the wording about assurance is meant to be a dodge, and it fits well with WELSian UOJness.
I am trying to recall the CW wording, from tippling Tiefel, but I never used the book.
Once the UOJ clergy teach that everyone is already forgiven, Hindu and Eskimo alike, without faith, the rest does not matter. WELS has been so good at pronouncing everything adiaphora that doctrine is also a matter of indifference.
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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Lutheran Leaders, Trained by Fuller Seminary, Doub...":
AC V, the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification goes so far as to confess that it's only the declaration that "your sins are already forgiven" that is capable of creating faith.
Remember that it was DP Buchholz, who will go down in history as the one who exhumed Siegbert W. Beckers bones to ensure that this generation would completely abandoned Justification by Faith, who taught that faith could only be created based on forgiveness already declared and never on the promise of the forgiveness of sins through faith.
Note that it was under the so-called Conservative (W)ELS administration (Buchholz and Schroeder) that the first family since Kokomo have been excommunicated for confessing Justification by Faith Alone and showing that Justification without and before faith is neither taught in Scripture or confessed in the Book of Concord. Certainly a monumental event in the degradation of the (W)ELS.
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GJ - WELS has no sense of irony - excommunicating for doubting their precious UOJ, which claims they were were born forgiven. As Joe Krohn has recorded on his blog, he and his wife were glad to discuss the doctrinal problems with Patterson and the elders. Patterson refused and excommunicated them.
The other excommunication, in Appleton, took place because Rick Techlin followed what WELS leaders insisted upon.
Because WELS is stuck on its priestly infallibility, the chances of resolution are slight.
