Northwestern Publishing House has re-issued the infamous J. P. Meyer commentary on Second Corinthians, Ministers of Christ.
I will publish a review soon.
The book has all the weaknesses of lecture notes being published.
I wanted to see how the Panning-improved version read. He was supposed to sand down the rough parts, the controversial passages, but there is little evidence of that.
The book proves that the UOJ Enthusiasts will never comprehend their errors, because Meyer-Panning places UOJ next to justification by faith and sees only UOJ.
Meyer quoted Luther, Gerhard, and Calov--all justification by faith theologians--and pulled UOJ out of them, like a magician who finds coins in ears and scarves in his capacious cloak.
I used to pull coins out of ears, a trick I learned from my mother. (Simply palm a coin and pretend to tug on the ear-lobe. The child sees what he is told he is seeing.) An engineer's son kept each coin and placed it carefully on the table, watching the pile grow. That trick was slowly impoverishing me.
The problem is basic and obvious. The UOJ fanatics turn every Atonement passage and term into justification.
Justification in the New Testament means God's declaration of forgiveness. That is also true of the Book of Concord, Luther, Melanchthon, Chytraeus, Chemnitz, Gerhard, and Calov.
Many advocates of UOJ have conceded this fact - that justification in those instances is exactly what R. C. H. Lenski said - justification by faith. But that does not deter the UOJ Enthusiasts.
Circular Reasoning
Assumptions lead to conclusions, and conclusions can easily create assumptions. Whether we call it circular reasoning, begging the question, or special pleading, using assumptions to prove a conclusion is a logical fallacy.
For example, some clergy were debating which Gospel was written first. I believe the issue cannot be solved and is irrelevant anyway. John is clearly last because the Fourth Gospel assumes knowledge of the others.
To prove his case, one pastor said, "Matthew and Luke had to have a document before them." I kept questioning them. Why assume that document? Yes, there is historical evidence for Matthew being first, but most of history has vanished from war and neglect. Before books became the norm, which happened in modern times, people used their memories to contain entire works of literature.
One possible answer to their problem is this:
- Matthew was first, the Jewish Gospel, modeled after the Five Books of Moses.
- Luke was second, a Gentile Gospel for non-Jews.
- Mark wrote a harmony of the two, with only two brief passages being unique to Mark: the seed growing secretly and the great robeless escape.
- John wrote his unifying Gospel, assuming the reader's knowledge of the previous Gospels, but adding essential material.
- Mark was first, supposedly lacking the Virgin Birth.
- Matthew and Luke used Mark as the outline, adding material from the mysterious and never-found Q document.
- John was written 300 years later! That is a farce, since a scrap of John's Gospel was found dating the actual written version to 100 AD or earlier.
- Walther was the great orthodox Lutheran hero, who saved the Saxon migration from destruction, created the Missouri Synod, led the Synodical Conference, and never even broke wind his entire life.
- Walther was infallible so questioning anything related to him or his life means automatic excommunication.
- The Wauwatosa professors (WELS) were trained by the Walther disciples, so they could not be wrong about anything. In fact, they improved on everything.
- Every Atonement passage in the Bible is really a UOJ passage, but the early writers (like Paul) did not realize it yet, because the issues had not been raised until much later.
- No American Lutheran leader, apart from the Walther circle, could possibly be right about anything, because that individual was not part of the Walther circle.
- The LCMS, WELS, and ELS are always correct in doctrine and practice, no matter what they teach and practice.
- The LCMS, WELS, and ELS dedicate themselves to strict fellowship practices, even while romping with ELCA homosexuals, lesbians, and high-church atheists. They do so to help, improve, and ejucate ELCA.
- The papacy is the very Antichrist, unless Missouri, WELS, or the ELS wants papists to lecture them.
- ELCA is just pathetic, unless Missouri, WELS, or ELS wants to work with them.
- Christian News is disgusting, unless the synod leaders want to flatter Otten into spinning and spiking the news for them.
