The publication of the 1932 Brief Statement turned into an excuse for basing Syn Conference doctrine on Knapp's Pietistic doctrine rather than Gausewitz and Hoenecke, both sainted, or the Missouri Small Catechism in German and English.
"Now, then, if the Father raised Christ from the dead, He, by this glorious resurrection act, declared that the sins of the whole world are fully expiated, or atoned for, and that all mankind is now regarded as righteous before His divine tribunal. This gracious reconciliation and justification is clearly taught in Romans 4:25: 'Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.' The term dikaiosis here means the act of divine justification executed through God's act of raising Christ from the dead, and it is for this reason called the objective justification of all mankind. This truth Dr. Walther stressed anew in America. He taught that the resurrection of Christ from the dead is the actual absolution pronounced upon all sinners. (Evangelienpostille, p. 160ff.)" part one
Francis Pieper,
Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1951, II, p. 321. Romans 4:25
"The resurrection of Christ is, as Holy Writ teaches, the actual absolution of the whole world of sinners. Romans 4:25: 'Who was raised again for our justification.' At that time we were objectively declared free from sin."
Francis Pieper,
Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1951, II, p. 348 Romans 4:25.
The Bronze Age Missourians see the Brief Statement of 1932 as the turning point in LCMS history. After that was published, everything started to go downhill. I believe they are right, but their beloved BS is the reason why.
Missouri has produced statements from time to time. During the Civil War with Seminex, they passed a statement that no one remembers or mentions, except for the apostates who denounce it.
I understand that Sasse was concerned about the 1932 BS supplanting the Book of Concord. He was correct to be worried, because that has happened.
The UOJ fanatics always retreat to their citadel, the 1932 BS.
I will try to be compassionate for a moment. I realize many people have understood Objective Justification as the Atonement or Redemption. Therefore, SJ is justification by faith.
I thought so myself and used OJ/SJ in the first edition of
Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant. That ambiguity allowed the real UOJ advocates to advance their cause as Enthusiasm spread with Unionism.
Oddly, the Bronze Age Missourians (like Herman Otten and William Bischoff) were quite comfortable with Calvinist apologetics. The 1932 BS and the Walther-Pieper circle made them comfortable with Calvinistic thinking, almost immune to thinking about the efficacious Word and the Means of Grace.
Walther himself was quite an amalgamation. He taught Luther and sounded Luther-like in many of his writings, but not consistently so. He blended Pietism with Lutheran doctrine, and that Pietism won out in the most important area - justification by faith.
Missouri and WELS Catechisms
The LCMS catechism still in print (KJV, no author) and the old Syn Conference catechism (Gausewitz) show that justification by faith was taught in the earliest days and continued to be taught for decades.
Frauds like web-pals Cascione and McCain pretend otherwise. Their synod publications prove them wrong. UOJ began in Pietism and rose to dominance as the CG Unionists took over the Syn Conference.
WELS Apostasy
The Wisconsin Sect is quite small and compact. That leverages false doctrine, since any criticism involves a tribe of offended relatives - and they are all related.
Jungkuntz had quite a personality cult going and he married a Kowalke (professor's daughter). He dazzled them in WELS, Missouri, and proto-ELCA. He was one of the top Seminex leaders and he adored UOJ, as much as Cascione and McCain.
A little study of WELS leaders in the last 50 years will show that the Church Growth leaders were also the UOJ advocates. They won the battle for the NIV, for a putrid feminist hymnal, and for on-going Fuller education with Church Growth programs.
Brett Meyer Tipped the Scale, Emmaus
We planned to have someone at the Emmaus conference. Brett Meyer is a friendly guy who is willing to discuss doctrine with anyone. He brought 60 copies of
Luther versus the UOJ Pietists: Justification by Faith. He gave away 50 copies. Additional copies have gone to college students and others, including people in the CLC (
sic).
Joe Krohn and others have raised issues about doctrine and practice with leaders who do not wish to deal with anyone as adults. One person wrote me:
"Where do we get these people as leaders? What ever happened to ministers with a modicum of scholarly training? They all were cloistered since birth in their respective nunnery and like so many children of the 60's and 70’s were enabled by mommy daddy that throwing rocks is ok if it makes you feel better. To argue in a forum takes guts, work and scholarship which none of them have. It's like most of the WELS ministers around my age 57—65. When asked what they did during the Viet Nam war, almost the universal answer was, 'Well mommy and daddy sent me into the ministry to avoid the draft.' When my relatives hear that, we have all that we can do to refrain from choking the little jerks but do not because their mommies and daddies have passed on and they have nobody to cry to (other than mother synod)—and all that is, is nursing on the devil’s breasts."
Built on a Bluff, UOJ Doth Stand
As anyone with a Bible can see, Pieper promoted his UOJ toxin with anti-Biblical exegesis. Romans 4:25 proves that the entire world has been absolved, justified, declared innocent. DP Buchholz would add, saved.
Here is the passage.
KJV Romans 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Romans 4:24 is what they constantly denounce, without quoting it. They love to purr over Walther and Stoeckhardt, but seldom remember that Luther guy, who preached that believing is justification. I could mention John's Gospel, but why pile on with such dunces?
All of Romans 4 describes Abraham as a man of faith, who was justified by faith.
Leaving the chapter at 4:25 (an artificial division), the apostle Paul says:
KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
But the UOJ Stormtroopers continue to quote Romans 4:25 and base their cowardly Universalism on a studied misunderstanding of a decidedly clear passage.
Arguing from anti-exegesis, getting away with it since 1932, has given UOJ permission to do whatever they want with the Word of God.
