Friday, July 22, 2011
A Little Less Talk and a Little More Action
Revelation 3:15-17 (NIV '84)"15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."
Intrepid Lutherans are patting themselves on the back today for 'rocking SS Good Ship WELS '. The vessel may have done a bit of a tippy tippy, but that is only because a few folks may have changed positions aboard deck; albeit becoming visible; hardly 'rockaboatus'.
I do applaud their efforts, but at the same time take issue regarding the bullet point of "our central teaching, "Justification by Faith Alone"." and the sloppy teachings that emanate from a sloppy confession. Hardly. Take a look in the WELS essay files. So many writings back up "This We Believe"; WELS statement of faith. Many of the listed bullet points would go away if WELS truly confessed Justification by Faith Alone; a true rendering of the Gospel. And as far as the Intrepids go, they are enablers. Whenever the discussion got too intense and a 'get off the fence' moment was presented with scriptural backing, the situation was diffused. Pity.
Here is just one example of muddying the waters just enough so no one gets in trouble; Pastor Spencer's Easter 2011 sermon (an excerpt):
"Christ is the savior of the world, that is, He has covered the sins of all people of all time, yes, even those who reject Him. No one goes to hell because of their sins. Those that go to hell do so because of their unbelief. This is why He commanded that His Gospel be preached to everyone everywhere until the end of time. There is no reason for anyone to be damned. All sins have been paid for. All can be saved."
Although Pastor Spencer rallied quite nicely in the above quote, his middle statement that 'no one goes to hell because of their sins, but because of their unbelief' is a logical fallacy and opens the door for sloppy Justification teachings. Actually they do go to hell because of their sins and the greatest of these is the unforgivable sin; the rejection of the Holy Ghost. (See Mark 3:28-30; Matt. 12: 30-32; Luke 12:8-10; Heb. 6:4-8; Heb. 10:26-29)
These sloppy teachings manifest themselves at Holy Word Austin with Pastor Patterson teaching that all sins were forgiven before the Holy Ghost ever enacted faith. We took issue with this and were summarily excommunicated...for the same confession they are stating in their bullet point and which Pastor Rydecki opined here.
One of their own does not confess the official WELS confession that all are justified, righteous and forgiven regardless of faith and I have his email saying so. Here are a couple excerpts:
"So to say that God justifies the ungodly does not mean that he has justified all people. The tense of the very (sic - verb) also speaks to that. Those who teach the extreme of UOJ want to say that God already justified all people. Past tense. This is a misunderstanding. Christ already died for all people. Christ already redeemed all people. Yes, true. Christ has offered a pure offering to the Father that has satisfied his wrath against sin. Yes, also that. Forgiveness has already been acquired by Christ for the world. Yes, but that forgiveness is in Christ and should not be spoken of with respect to those who are not in Christ. Christ is the Savior of the world in the same way that the bronze serpent was the Savior of the whole Israelites community. All who looked up at it were saved from the snake bites. All who look to Christ in faith are saved (forgiven, justified, etc.)."
And:
"The Ohio Synod viewed faith as man's part in the equation. God has met us halfway in Christ. Now man's part is to believe it, and in order for man to do that, the Holy Spirit helps him a lot through the Means of Grace, but still, man must act on those Spirit-given powers in order to believe. That's wrong. Our faith is 100% the work of God in man, not man's work at all. As Luther said in Bondage of the Will, "No one can possibly believe this. But the elect do." This is all God's work.
We ought not speak of people as being already justified before they are born. The Confessions equate Justification with Regeneration. Period. And the Scriptures do the same. Justification/The forgiveness of sins are Third Article doctrines, not Second Article doctrines. The confusion is this, that when some people say "God has justified the world," they mean, "Christ died for the sins of the world." But our sloppy use of the word "justify" has caused all sorts of problems. The latter is "redemption," not "justification." Some go so far as to say that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to all people. This directly contradicts the passage you quoted above that says that "to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited (imputed) as righteousness.""
I also understand from a WELS layperson that one of theirs also has the ear of the Synod President. All the more for a call to action.
May the Lord's will be done always and at the upcoming convention.
Kyrie Eleison!
***
GJ - I am trying to understand the WELS Intrepid love affair with the late Walter Martin. I have watched Martin on TV, and he is good at hunting cows with a bazooka. Given the apostasy in all Evangelical groups, even by their own standards, his work did not meet with much success.
The best conservative Baptist apologist is not even close to the truths of the Bible, especially about faith itself.
A Baptist denies that a baby can have faith, that baptism is efficacious through the Word. In fact, all Baptists denounce infant baptism as Roman Catholic heresy. Similar objections are raised about Holy Communion.
So Walter Martin is a good Baptist while Ed Stetzer is a bad Baptist. If that is a confessional Lutheran stance, I fail to see the discernment.
I believe WELS pastors are attracted to the Baptists, like lint to Velcro, because UOJ has no Gospel in it.
Can any reader imagine the Intrepids quoting one of 6,000+ posts on this blog? Or linking it?
But the Intrepids get sensitive about Mark and Avoid Jeske having two synods, even while simultaneously linking all kinds of LCMS sources, including Matt Harrison's PR team on Issues Etc.
