Theological Commonplaces: Exegesis IV. Johann Gerhard: On Christ (CPH, 2009, p.7)
(5) Christ is the Savior of all people [1 Tim.4:10] with regard to merit and acquisition, because He merited salvation for all people without exception with His suffering and death; and He is the Savior only of believers with regard to fruit and application, because they alone are rendered partakers of salvation through faith.
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GJ - Someone found this and passed it along. Look at the date - this is a recent publication of Concordia Publishing House. Of course, their Triglotta and KJV catechism teach justification by faith, too.
Gerhard has a perfect pedigree for teaching about justification. He worked with Chemnitz as a co-author, and Chemnitz was the senior editor of the Book of Concord.
This statement could be aimed against Huber or simply answering the problem of Huber in advance.
P. Lehser refuted Samuel Huber (former Calvinist) and kicked him off the Wittenberg faculty. Lehser was another editor of the Book of Concord and a patriarch of orthodox theologians.
My tentative theory is this. Walther took his odd concept of universal absolution from Pietism, via his syphilitic mentor, Bishop Stephan (who was trained at Halle University).
Walther had no training in Lutheran orthodoxy. His pastoral training was at Berlin, which was rationalistic. Unfortunately, the choices at that time were largely rationalism (good for the career) or Pietism (bad for the career). Walther belonged to Pietistic cells when he contacted Stephan, who was known as a Pietistic leader with a cell group ministry.
Much is made of Walther's study of Luther, but every Protestant leader studied Luther, whether they agree with him or not. Simply reading Luther does not make one a Lutheran. Calvin signed the Augsburg Confession.
I have some formal research to present on this. To summarize - Walther took over a personality cult and put himself in charge of everything. He was extremely jealous of any competition and promoted idol worship of himself. He bitterly divided Lutherans who were no less mixed up about doctrine than his own group.
Walther was the one who approved the double-justification language of Knapp, which emerged from the English translation and found approval in Germany. Reading that article years later, Walther adopted it for Missouri. However, he was already using Easter absolution for his version of Halle justification.
I wonder how the UOJ Stormtroopers can hold their heads up in public when their own publication houses humiliate them with the truth. Paul McCain, Jay Webber, and Rolf Preus should apologize to the Lutheran Church and repent of their false doctrine.
