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| WELS scholarship is so awesome. Exceptions to this claim are: LCMS German catechism, LCMS KJV catechism (still in print) Gausewitz WELS catechism. |
AC V has left a new comment on your post "Mystery Solved: The Secret Behind Robert Preus' Ju...":
Don't forget to read the footnotes in Hardt's essay, especially footnote #75 where he references R. Söderlund in his article “Läran om den universella rättfärdiggörelsen i teologihistorisk belysning” (“The doctrine of universal justification in the light of the history of theology”) in Svensk Teologisk Kvartalstidskrift, 1979, pp. 114-129.
In his article Söderlund criticizes S. Becker's theology of "Universal Justification":
Absolution and the means of grace are downgraded to means of communication and deprived of their efficacy. Sig Becker. op. cit., p. 55, interprets John 20:23: “they are remitted unto them” as a reference to what has already happened at Calvary, p. 56: “The meaning is this: ‘They have been forgiven completely in the past, and they still are forgiven now. This means that when we preach the message of the Gospel, we do not effect the remission of sins through our sermon.’” (tr. from Swedish). 3) Universal justification is said to be the contents of the sermon to be delivered to the heathen without any previous reference to the Law. This striking similarity to Huber’s pastoral advice to the Wittenberg theologians, quoted above in our article, is found in Becker, op. cit., p. 56 f. (tr. from Swedish): “In America it is very common that Reformed missionaries tell a man whom they try to gain: ‘Are you saved?’ … It is, however, not likely that a Lutheran missionary would ask: ‘Are you saved?’, as the experience of conversion is not so important from his theological point of view. As he believes in universal redemption and in universal justification it is more likely that he changes the order of the words and says: ‘You are saved,’ ‘Your sins are forgiven unto you.’ He can say so to everyone, as he knows that it is true about everyone.” Through the centuries Huber’s missionary sermon: “Habetis gratiam Dei” resounds in the 20th century. Undoubtedly Söderlund’s fears concerning the theology introduced through Becker into Sweden seem reasonably justified.
Perhaps a side-by-side "You are saved" quote by Becker next to the discredited Huber "You have salvation" quote would be appropriate.
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| One cannot toss double-justification schemes back into the Book of Concord era, 1580. Double-justification language was expressed by Knapp/Woods in 1831, endorsed by CFW Walther later. |
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GJ - I would love to have a Huber graphic. There must be one out there.
3 comments:
This could be a WELS church--ice cold
walls to go with ice cold fellowship:
When Heaven Freezes Over
German Village Rebuilds Its Snow Church 100 Years Later
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,797988,00.html
This quote is interesting from the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article VII, The Holy Supper. Notice that what is said here about Luther's teaching on the Holy Supper applies also to Luther's teaching on Justification. Namely, that what Luther and the authors and editors of Book of Concord taught about Justification is full and complete. They thought of every contingency and future attack against Justification by faith alone, which would include the attacks by proponents of UOJ. I've highlighted those parts that would apply to the article on which the church stands or falls, i.e. the article of Justification by faith alone:
28] But inasmuch as this highly illumined man [Dr. Luther, the hero illumined with unparalleled and most excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost] foresaw in the Spirit that after his death some would endeavor to make him suspected of having receded from the above-mentioned doctrine and other Christian articles, he has appended the following protestation to his large Confession:
29] Since I see that as time wears on, sects and errors increase, and that there is no end to the rage and fury of Satan, in order that henceforth during my life or after my death some of them may not, in future, support themselves by me, and falsely quote my writings to strengthen their error as the Sacramentarians and Anabaptists begin to do, I mean by this writing to confess my faith, point by point [concerning all the articles of our religion], before God and all the world, in which I intend to abide until my death, and therein (so help me God!) to depart from this world and to appear before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ. 30] And if after my death any one should say: If Dr. Luther were living now, he would teach and hold this or that article differently, for he did not sufficiently consider it (where have I heard that one before? Deutschlander?), against this I say now as then, and then as now, that, by God's grace, I have most diligently, compared all these articles with the Scriptures time and again [have examined them, not once, but very often, according to the standard of Holy Scripture], and often have gone over them, and would defend them as confidently as I have now defended the Sacrament of the Altar. 31] I am not drunk nor thoughtless; I know what I say; I also am sensible of what it means for me at the coming of the Lord Christ at the final judgment. Therefore I want no one to regard this as a jest or mere idle talk; it is a serious matter to me; for by God's grace I know Satan a good deal; if he can pervert or confuse God's Word, what will he not do with my words or those of another? Tom. 2, Wittenb., German, fol. 243.
41] Now, since Dr. Luther is to be regarded as the most distinguished teacher of the churches which confess the Augsburg Confession, whose entire doctrine as to sum and substance is comprised in the articles of the frequently mentioned Augsburg Confession, and was presented to the Emperor Charles V, the proper meaning and sense of the oft-mentioned Augsburg Confession can and should be derived from no other source more properly and correctly than from the doctrinal and polemical writings of Dr. Luther.
Paul O. Wendland, President of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary appeals for money to support Huberism at the seminary
In a brochure mailed to WELS constituents just in time for the 2011 Christmas season, Wendland asks the question:
"Who would think that a BABY born in a stable would save the world?"
Who would think?
Well, despite a sin-filled world telling us otherwise, we do. And the world scoffs at us. We have been called fools, zealots, extremists, and fanatics for believing that a baby born in a stable could save the world....
Because we know this good news, we want to share it....
That's why what we do as your seminary is so important. We prepare young men to proclaim this life-saving gospel in your congregations, in your mission fields, and to your neighbors. We prepare them to declare, "This is what our God has done" to a world that so desperately needs to hear it....
... please consider a gift in support of Christ's mission here at your seminary....
Sounds like Huberism to me. The message Jesus gave his disciples was one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (cf. Luke 24:47). Nothing like that in Wendland's appeal for money.
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