The Ruling Norm
A distinction about creeds is useful. The Scriptures are called the ruling norm,
norma normans, but the Confessions are called
norma normata, the ruled norm. Therefore, nothing trumps the Word of God, not even the precious WELS essay files. No, not even the 1932 Brief Statement, which was the coffin lid for the LCMS.
The claims about being "a confessional synod" and "having a
quia subscription to the Book of Concord" are bogus. The Little Three are not confessional but an incoherent group of dogmas and traditions. If they had a
quia subscription to the Book of Concord, the Changers and Shrinkers would be laughed out of the assembly - instead of being honored, promoted, and raised to the levels of professor and administrator. UOJ would not be taught, and ELCA would shunned with the force and venom normally reserved for faithful Lutherans.
Historical Dodges, Intellectual Laziness
Two common traits of the Little Three are closely associated: the historical dodge and intellectual laziness.
The historical dodge is used to avoid the real issues by naming a Syn Conference conflict and identifying an opponent with the wrong position. For example, Church and Ministry is used as an excuse to keep the Little Three apart when they are actually united by fellowship with ELCA, Thrivent, and papalism. They will find their differences slight when the financial collapse gets worse.
WELS is full of contradictions on that score alone. Because of hyper-congregationalism, whatever the Changers do is their own business and the SPindoktor is powerless. However, due to their papalism, the District Popes can threaten any pastor (except a Changer) with instant expulsion. The same papal powers are enjoyed by Changer pastors, but not by the rest of the clergy. But people will say, because they are mentally indolent, "Do you agree with Missouri or WELS on Church and Ministry?"
I would be inclined to ask, "Do you even agree with yourself?" - speaking to one pastor at a time.
Glende, Lenski, Intuitu Fidei, Ohio
Tim Glende is an prime example of the dangers of in-breeding, where the worst characteristic come out and dominate. He is an example of educational inbreeding, not biological inbreeding.
The people in higher education find it dangerous to grant graduate degrees and ask all their recent graduates to stay and teach future graduates. Denominations do that very thing, so we call their education
parochial, which is synonymous with bigotry, self-righteousness, and mental stupor. Some Sausage Factory students call Mequon a
graduate school.
One former WELS member was completely frustrated with the products of Mequon. He was an aerospace engineer who worked on top secret projects for the military, but WELS pastors talked down to him about science. When he asked questions about the proposed WELS hymnal, he was excommunicated with his entire family.
Tim Glende simply repeats what others in WELS repeat, whether they are professors, pastors, or synod officials:
- Lenski is bad, because he pokes holes in their Kokomo dogma. In fact, if they ever read Lenski, they could find passages that seem harmonious with their peculiar ideas.
- Justification by faith is the intuitu fidei heresy, a really cool term to use, because most laity are baffled by it.
- Justification by faith is the Ohio position, when they broke with the infallible Missouri Synod.
These excuses keep them all from studying the Word or the Confessions.
Intuitu fidei is often explained as "saved in view of faith." Apparently, the original formulation was "saved in view of the merits of Christ, apprehended by faith." That was supposedly stated by Gerhard but truncated in a catechism (
Pontoppidan's) that no one uses now. The Ohio Conference split from Walther's franchise may have come from the personality cult of the Missourians versus a difference in approach by the others. There is an out of print book on this, with a delicious title -
The Errors of Missouri. I once owned it and need to buy it again. The book gives the Ohio perspective. Polemics are fun, especially when they are published in that era, so many obscure and forgotten statements can be studied.
Some of you never heard of Pontoppidan until today. That is how it works. Now you can glare at pastors and say, "Do you mean to say you agree with Pontoppidan?"
Valleskey called me a legalist, behind my back, in a conversation with Guy Purdue. But Valleskey flattered me in his odious Church Growth essay (see Romans 16:18) and lied to my face about going to Fuller Seminary. His buddy Frosty Bivens admitted going to Fuller, but later denied it three times at Mequon. That is the UOJ talking - double-justification leading to double-talk and two-faced leadership. If people can be lied into the Kingdom of God, WELS has reason to boast.
These historical skirmishes are not especially edifying, because few people know all the details. Note well that they are Syn Conference oddities, studied or yakked about because the Syn Conference was the ultimate in Lutheran orthodoxy, they imagine.
If legalism is opposition to the Church Growth Movement from Fuller Seminary, then Valleskey was not only a deceiver but also a false prophet, elected to the seminary presidency to promote the Shrinker agenda. He did well. The seminary spent millions on its buildings and shrank faster than woolens in a dryer. Church Growth grew, but nothing else. Mequon has even considered selling its deluxe property. The ideas are in the synod's secret file, labeled bazingo.
I agree with Gerhard's original statement, if I have that right. I have not found UOJ in Gerhard, and I have read some of his best work. He labored with Chemnitz, so I think the Second Martin would have head-slapped him for departing from the Faith.
I never read Pontoppidan, and I doubt anyone else has. I wonder about people who have such a love for universal forgiveness (without the Means of Grace) combined with a great loathing for the word faith. As one layman said, "They denounce decision theology and end up repeating the dogma of decision theology: here is UOJ, now make a decision." They are more Evangelical than Jesus, forgiving everyone (except UOJ opponents). They are more Babtist than the Babtists.
If we start with Walther as the gold standard, then everyone else is a heretic. He joined the cult of a known adulterer, Stephan. Walther was so messed up emotionally that he was starving himself to death, trying to find forgiveness. Stephan, a product of Halle, saved his life, Walther admitted.
Walther escaped Germany as a felon, for kidnapping two children. He did not have custody of the children, but stole them away. The police were looking for him, to arrest him. He hid out on another ship. The police looked for Walther on the wrong ship, so he got away. The ship he was destined to sail on sank, so that story has always been that God spared his life in a miraculous way.
Like the others, Walther pledged obedience to their bishop-for-life, but suddenly discovered Stephan's open adultery once in the Promised Land (not too far from where I live), Perry County, Missouri. Walther trashed Stephan, exiled him, stole property from him, and took over the cult. Later, Missouri used a similar approach with Loehe, who started the synod and invited the Perry County cult to join. Loehe is used as a curse word among the Bronze Age Missourians (Otten, etc).
This is a good time to practice the glare. "Do you agree with Loehe?" Scowl while waiting for an answer. That will make you orthodox in certain select circles.
Glende trots out the Ohio Conference business, as if he actually studied it, repeating the talking points used to shore up Kokomo Justification. I could say, "He is just a product of his poor education," but that is not true. Anyone can study the Word and the Book of Concord. Anyone can buy the set of Luther's
Sermons and find the best exegesis as a guide. I have read thousands of pages of Luther out loud to Mrs. Ichabod, including the entire Galatians commentary. We found that experience edifying and enlightening.
I find it odd that people who never talk to me will say, "He agrees with the Ohio Conference." I do not know enough about that fight to say, so I am astonished that they can read the vacant space in my mind, the one marked - to be studied later.
I begin with the Scriptures and the Confessions, plus Chemnitz and Chytraeus.
"The real question is not what do you subscribe, but what do you believe and publicly teach, and what are you transmitting to those who come after? If it is the complete Lutheran faith and practice, the name and number of the standards is less important. If it is not, the burden of proof rests upon you to show that your more incomplete standard does not indicate an incomplete Lutheran faith."
Theodore E. Schmauk and C. Theodore Benze,
The Confessional Principle and the Confessions, as Embodying the Evangelical Confession of the Christian Church,
Philadelphia: 1911, p. 890.
Something similar can be found in the 1932 Brief Statement, but I wanted to post a quotation that would shock and appall the Appleton Dumpling Gang. Glende and his FB friend, Don Patterson, have already excommunicated more people than Walther did in his entire ministry. Their motto must be, "Sin more, that grace may abound."
They are more Evangelical than Jesus, until someone asks questions.
