Dr. Lito Cruz on Predestination. Chemnitz Delivers the Conclusion

This is one of the most eloquent statements in the Book of Concord.

I have studied some bits of predestination when I was a Charismaniac and turned Calvinist. I came with the conclusion that if I were to be a Calvinist, the only logical position is to be SupraLapsarian. Praise God I got delivered from Calvinism.

At any rate, today I reason that surely I must grant that if God knows everything, then surely God knew that I would believe when he presents the Gospel to me. I said, surely that must be granted. This is not being an Arminian, it stands to reason that if God foreknew, he knew everything beforehand including my standing up and sitting down, that includes my faith. The authors seems to argue for a neither Arminian nor Calvinistic understanding of predestination - hence, a Lutheran view.

The question is this -   did God predestine us based on the foreknowledge of that faith? I have no Biblical data for this yet and I am of course very happy to learn. However, I now must grant the point that God knew my faith, nevertheless. Yet Calvinist do not put any weight to this. That is why when taken to final conclusion, you cannot distinguish God from Allah under those terms.

Calvinistic universalism goes like this - since God is Sovereign and since he wants all to be saved, his Sovereignty is never thwarted and so all will be saved.

When I read the articulation of Missouri based on the book Errors of Missouri, I have no doubts that Walther and Co have fallen into the Calvinist paradigm. Which is why I chuckle why they are allergic to Calvinists when in fact Calvinists would be happy at their articulation of predestination!!!

Glende's scholarship has nothing to offer, he simply says "ooh, Schmidt and Stellenhorn etc  believe in intuitu fidei". He assumes by default it is wrong and he does not deal with the arguments of the authors. He offers no counter arguments and no counter data. The argument used is band wagon. What he can do is to get the best argument from anti-Missouris  and shoot it down from Scripture but we do not see that in his posts. The teacher in me can not help but mark his posts down. 

***

GJ - Calvinism easily passes into Universalism, as Lito observed. Karl Barth, the main theologian for Fuller Seminary, advocated Universalism in his Dogmatics. Actually, Barth's hawt mistress did most the writing.

UOJ is cowardly Universalism. If the Little Three keep promoting it, they will produce Universalists and atheists for the next generation. They already have. I know several key WELS Shrinkers who either open, loud atheists or pan-religionists.

The UOJ Advocates are Shrinkers, and the Shrinkers slaver over UOJ - Valleskey, Glende, Bivens, et al.

AC V on Luther's Romans Commentary. Do You Believe Your Sect or Your Lying Eyes?

More input


AC V has left a new comment on your post "AC V - Grabbing St. Paul by the Shoulders, Teachin...":

Luther's commentary on Romans 3 (Nota bene: no "all" clarification of Paul's "intended meaning"):

"That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law; faith it is that brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ. The Spirit, in turn, renders the heart glad and free, as the law demands. Then good works proceed from faith itself. That is what Paul means in chapter 3 when, after he has thrown out the works of the law, he sounds as though the wants to abolish the law by faith. No, he says, we uphold the law through faith, i.e. we fulfill it through faith."

AC V has left a new comment on your post "AC V - Grabbing St. Paul by the Shoulders, Teachin...":

I would like to add Luther's commentary on Romans 5, key to understanding that vv. 18-19 esp. do not teach UOJ:

"Next St. Paul makes a digression, a pleasant little side-trip, and relates where both sin and justice, death and life come from. He opposes these two: Adam and Christ. What he wants to say is that Christ, a second Adam, had to come in order to make us heirs of his justice through a new spiritual birth in faith, just as the old Adam made us heirs of sin through the old fleshy birth.

St. Paul proves, by this reasoning, that a person cannot help himself by his works to get from sin to justice any more than he can prevent his own physical birth. St. Paul also proves that the divine law, which should have been well-suited, if anything was, for helping people to obtain justice, not only was no help at all when it did come, but it even increased sin. Evil human nature, consequently, becomes more hostile to it; the more the law forbids it to indulge its own desires, the more it wants to. Thus the law makes Christ all the more necessary and demands more grace to help human nature."

The Basics of the Christian Faith. Misleading for Future Sausage Factory Graduates

Best Bible Translation
First of all, people need an accurate Bible translation. For years, WELS Leftists have bewitched people with the union NIV. The same apostates now want to force the New NIV on everyone, a translation simply loaded with political and anti-Christian views (such as Adam as a myth and feminazi language).

The KJV has direct lineage from Luther. Tyndale was burned at the stake for producing the first all-English translation from the original languages, a prodigious feat. Luther's Bible is called the uncle of the English Bible. Luther's influence upon Tyndale is traced in this website.

Without a good Bible, people are led into the wilderness of Enthusiasm, because the bad translations are inaccurate, political, and anti-Sacramental. They also eliminate many verses from the New Testament, based on theories less substantial than the Area 51 landings.

The Little Three have completely failed in Biblical leadership, for promoting substandard, erroneous, and misleading translations, abandoning the Nephew of Luther's Bible, the KJV.

The Little Three could easily use the KJV 21 or another modern version of the KJV. I still prefer the KJV and can easily explain unusual wordings like "our conversation is in heaven."

The Efficacy of the Word
The Scriptures reveal the efficacy of the Word. Isaiah 55:8-11 clearly teaches that God's Word always contains the divine power and purpose of the Holy Spirit. This constant association of the Holy Spirit and the Word gives us certainty about God's will and actions.

KJV Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to
the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Doubting Efficacy Is Anti-Biblical, Anti-Lutheran
Doubting the efficacy of the Word is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, showing an antagonism toward the Scriptures and Lutheran doctrine. Luther consistently taught the efficacy of the Word because he was a faithful exegete throughout his ministry.

KJV 1 Corinthians 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

The explosion of methods, programs, plans, surveys, statistics, and entertainment can be linked to a lack of trust in God's Word. For that reason, clergy plan instead of preaching. They rely on pre-digested materials instead of teaching on the basis of their own study of the Word. They do not take the Gospel to their own shut-in members, let alone the unbelievers and spiritually inert.

The Gospel
The entire Bible, says Luther, is a sermon about Jesus. The Gospel not only includes Christ dying for the sins of the world, but all promises and blessings from God.

The primary preaching of the Law is to show people this sin - that they do not utterly trust in Christ for their forgiveness.

KJV John 16:8 And when He [the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on Me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see Me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

KJV John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Thus the Gospel plants and sustains faith in the hearts of those who hear it. God creates and sustains this faith through His Gospel and declares us forgiven - justification by faith.

The Visible Word
Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are the Gospel in visible form, always efficacious. For that reason we should always uphold the blessing of infant baptism and teach against those Baptists and Pentecostals who denounce it as heresy.

Likewise, Holy Communion must be closed and offered frequently to demonstrate the significance of the Word in saving and condemning.

Pastoral Work in the Word
The pastor has no other calling than to preach his own sermons, based on his own study. He should offer the Sacraments without hesitation or shame, and to take Word out on visits to shut-ins, the hospitalized, the grieving, and the spiritually indolent.

Luther and the Book of Concord
Ankle-biters like to go over minor conflicts from the last century, so they can spend a few more months pounding an issue rather than teaching the Gospel. If they spent time with the sermons of Luther and the Book of Concord, they would have something to teach.

The study of Luther's doctrine has been in complete collapse for decades, with all the synod leaders (Big Four) spending their time with the Enthusiasts at Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, Mars Hill, Trinity Divinity, Granger, North Point, Sweet, and worse.

If a pastor or pastoral candidate understands the efficacy of the Word, he will make that the foundation of all he does, excluding:

1. Most living authors.
   
2. Synodical position papers, essays, and other trivia.
   
3. Sermonic books.

Given the Biblical teaching of the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace, there can be no forgiveness apart from that faith created by the Gospel.

One Reader, Known Only as 29A, Responds to the Glende Gang:No UOJ in WELS Gausewitz Catechism

What in the world is wrong with these guys?

Why attack his deceased daughters or wife and then say that he has brain cancer.

Guys you need to stick with the debate about faith based on the Word and our Lutheran confessions.

This election controversy of the late 1800's has nothing to do with what Greg Jackson is posting about your idiotic UOJ.

By the way guys I am WELS and I was confirmed in WELS with the Gausewitz catechism and NO where in that catechism is there a mention about objective or subjective justification.

29a

Please post this on ichabod

Bored Offers a Trenchant Analysis of the Issues. Mrs. Ichabod and I Enjoyed Every Word of It

bored has left a new comment on your post "Timmy Learns To Spell. WELS Church Lady Smacks Him...":

The birth of In too eetoo feed ace and UOJ came from too many little people asking too many big questions. The simple fact that Justification comes to man by Faith, and that Faith comes to man by the means of Grace is quite easy to glean from nearly any section of the new testament.

I'm starting to think that UOJ and others, (or even trying to understand/discuss election) are ways that theologians seek to make complex thought necessary for salvation at the expense of simple belief. As intelligent as most theologians were, I guess that most were unsatisfied with leaving the conversation with belief. I'll bet every heresy came from over-thinking, as people try to make Scripture congruent with logic.

But ya know, I don't find that with Luther. I haven't sampled a wide variety of theologians, but of the ones I have read, Luther is by far the most readable by the widest audience. He is the opposite of shallow, but you find no thought puzzles and no mind-bending rhetoric that you find in others, even in his students.

Why? Because God used him to unencumber the Word. Luther was used to remind the world of the Gospel's simplicity. The UOJers fight against JBFA with the same spirit as the Romans fought Luther. To them it is blasphemous to dismantle their clever little puzzle--their logic powered canon.

***

GJ - This is all so true. I also give Chemnitz and Melanchthon very high scores in being readable and relevant. Chemnitz also had Luther's sense of humor. However, no one can touch Luther in plain writing with a powerful impact.

I have had many years among academic theologians, some of them on the far extreme of intelligence and study. Nevertheless, they play the same top dog games Bored eviscerates with such skill. They play around with narrow topics that few can discuss with them, sometimes stepping in it themselves.

Stan Hauerwas is the best known theologian today. In class, looking at me, he said, "Lutherans are not very good on sanctification."

I added, "Or sanctimony."

Timmy Learns To Spell. Someone Faked A Church Lady Post.Do We Follow the Reformer or the Kidnapper?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Essence of the Election Controversy

Dr. Gregory L. Jackson on his blog, Ichabod the Glory Has Departed, has thrown his lot in with Schmid, Allwardt, Schmidt and Stellhorn when it comes to the 19th Century election controversy in the Synodical Conference. Jackson can spout all he wants about justification by faith, but when he sides with the intuitu fidei crowd, he negates everything the Confessions say about faith. The “in view of faith” group that left the Synodical Conference and pulled the Ohio Synod away and caused the Norwegians to depart for a time essentially denied sola gratia—by grace alone.

There are two ways to view our election or predestination in Christ and its relationship to faith:

1. The intuitu fidei group taught that God chose his elect when he could look ahead into the future and see who would have faith. This teaching would tell us that our faith in time is the cause of our election in eternity. The essential reason for our salvation is then found within ourselves, and not in Christ and his atoning work. This is the synergism Lenski was guilty of, since he was a follower of the Ohio Synod train of thought.

2. The Synodical Conference, with its theologians Walther, Hoenecke, Stoeckhardt, Pieper and others, taught on the basis of Holy Scripture that our election in Christ in eternity is the cause of our faith. Let’s put that another way: Our faith in time is the result of our election in eternity. Sola Gratia!

The spiritual descendants of those who taught intuitu fidei are now found in the ELCA. We don’t believe it is a coincidence.

Dr. Jackson, do you believe that our faith here in time is the cause of our election in eternity, or the result?

---

This was faked and not from the WELS Church Lady
But if election doesn't come in view of faith, then there isn't any justification by faith. I think I know what you're saying. You're a UOJ storm trooper and you want salvation to come apart from faith by election. Dr. Jackson has well informed us all about these tricks. It's Calvinism and Pietism. And I'm not falling for it. I believe in the Bible and what Martin Luther taught.


Fake Signature

***

GJ - I posted information about intuitu fidei because people like to look up background material. Linking articles is not the same as promoting a dogma. For example, I have linked lots of UOJ essays. Am I promoting UOJ? Jungkuntz? Valleskey? Tim accused me of promoting Deutschlander for linking his professor's Theology of the Cross book. Perhaps he was still feeling guilty for skipping the Deutschlander presentation in Atlanta so he could worship with Andy Stanley and the Babtists at Drive.

Tim is doing everyone a favor by showing the uncritical thinking of WELS clergy, especially the Changers. As various ELS members have noted, they see heresies all over the place, but never under their own noses. (Deputy Doug - take note.)

Glende seems to be confusing justification by faith with intuitu fidei, which is lodged in a Pietistic group now, as one of my sources pointed out (A. Nonny Moose, aka Anonymoose). The concept has never fizzed on me, never been a controversy, a conflict, an issue, or anything else.

I feel sorry for the members (and ex-members) of St. Peter, Freedom and The CORE. The clergy-persons do not comprehend Lutheran doctrine. They are cowardly bullies who cannot even spell their accusations correctly. When their ignorance is exposed and quoted, they feel insulted.

False accusations are insulting. Tim, you really need to talk with a synod lawyer about what you are publishing. You, your parish, your district, and your synod are liable for what you post. Not having your name on the blog is not the same as being truly anonymous. Google Blogger has all your information.

Tim, you seem to be irrationally angry. You have pictured laity eating cat feces from a toilet and you named them. They disagree with you and that is the result? Are there no limits? Have you no shame?

I can live with your weirdness, because I provoke you on purpose. That is the point of polemical writing. But the people you attack, including your own member, are mild and soft-spoken. There is no excuse for what you have done. That brings shame to all pastors, to all Lutherans.

I have to ask Deputy Doug Englebrecht and SP Schroeder - why is nothing done?

The Dog Returns To His Vomit -Tim Glende Gang at Work

KJV 2 Peter 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb,
The dog is turned to his own vomit again;
and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.


Anonymous said...
The problem with Jackson is several fold. First, he's probably mentally ill and should have sought therapy after the death of his daughters. On this level my heart goes out to him and his wife. Secondly, his intellectually capacities have failed because of brain cancer. This is probably the reason why none of his statements about uoj make a bit of sense. Intellectually, he's probably suffered significant decline- which again is not his fault and I feel very bad for. Thirdly, he's about as close to a cult leader as you can get in Lutheranism. He enjoys the power he has over his flock. His flock are very gullible for several reasons. First, lacking much theological education (Brett Meyer isn't even apparently away  (sic) that different Lutheran Confessional documents list different numbers of sacraments!) Jackson seems impressive to them. If you do have a theological education (even from the sausage factory like myself!), then he comes off as having a half knowledge of a lot of things. I love it when he talks about modern theology (Tillich, Barth, Bonhoeffer, etc.). He just makes things up out of thin air- like that Bonhoeffer was secretly a Nazi. Secondly, because of their intellectual limitations and their correct instinct that something is wrong in the Lutheran house, Jackson seems to have the answer. Jackson's answer is that everything can be explained by his bogus argument about UOJ. He draws out the supposed implications of the doctrine (which he misunderstands and which he works into propositions which no one actually teaches) and then gives them an explanatory model that explains everything they think is wrong from the Church-Growth movement to whatever other make-believe problems that Jackson comes up with. Because they think Jackson is smart, they then feel smart by agreeing with him. Much of what he says is counter-intuitive and illogical, but it makes them feel like they're in the know (kind of like the ancient Gnostics) and everyone else is a blind fool. When people try to say to them things like "Oh, I see, you misunderstand UOJ, it's not universalism-though I see how you can make that mistake" they never offer any real counter arguments. They just cut-and-paste Bible and confessional quotation  (sic)  (which often times have nothing to do with argument) and then start insulting you. Then Jackson comes in and tellings (sic) them what a good job they did refuting the argument and they feel good about themselves- because it he's smart, then you're smart! That's why I think arguing with them is a bad idea. It just reinforces their Gnostic conceit that they're in the know and that they're smarter than you. So I'd just leave them alone. If I were you, I'd just shut down this blog. It just makes things worse.

June 21, 2011 5:22 AM

***

GJ - According to Glende's genius friend, I have brain cancer. I should tell my physician, who would interested to know how an illiterate parson can practice medicine anonymously over the Net.

Naturally they have to attack me through my sainted daughters, pictured above. I thought Paul Kuske wore that out 20 years ago.

Confidential to Appleton - real men do not pose with pop tarts and post the photos on their Facebook pages.

The bees are buzzing because the laity--even the clergy--are catching on to the Appleton Dumbed-Down Gang.

Church and Change started there, with Witte, Parlow, and others, with WELS offering money. Y'all let it grow and now it runs the entire sect.

The Synod President is powerless to do anything, he claims. All he can do is keep promoting them into positions of greater influence. The hand of doctrinal discipline is heavy indeed.

Nothing Funnier Than WELS Clergy Showing Off Their Doctrinal Knowledge

Tim Glende and his buddy took turns showing off how little they know about Latin, English, and Christian doctrine.

These buddies display the pathetic lack of knowledge in their sect, from the top down, while trying to show off. Both work anonymously, to maximize denial. But Tim takes a private email and says, "Hey world, I know who the WELS Church Lady is." Antinomians are like that - legalists for everyone else, no rules for their little band of warlocks.

They can refute any argument by linking their Spirit-anointed WELS Essay Files. Oh, ah. I have never heard anyone else quote them, so the essays must be special. Of course, I have laboriously reproduced the timeless twaddle of UOJ, straight from that same set of essays.

My ready-to-go database, the legendary Megatron, named after my car battery, has always provided quotations for comparison. For instance, Fuller doctrine versus WELS doctrine - oops, same thing, same words, same definitions, same Enthusiasm. Better - WELS doctrine versus the Book of Concord and classic theologians.

Now Megatron 4G is providing those good and bad quotations in graphical form, and the quotations are getting around faster than a false story in WELS.

Glende's bragging reminds me Roger Zehms (WELS divorced ex-pastor) and Paul Kuske (district VP voted out of office, sponsor for Floyd Luther Stolzenburg) discussing doctrine. Zehms said, "Some confuse the exinination of Christ with His humiliation." Both Shrinkers looked at me and smirked as I scowled. The first word is a Latin term for humiliation. They are the same term exactly. They might as well have smirked while saying, "Some confuse water with H20."

They should have said, "Some confuse the Incarnation with the state of humiliation." That topic is treated in Schaller's Christology, a worthwhile summary of Lutheran orthodoxy.

I like to bring up WELS doctrinal pratfalls and their butchery of the English language because they want to flog the laity with their superior education. If an unaccredited MDiv from a parochial seminary is worth so much, how much more impressive is another eight years of education from Yale and Notre Dame? Tim's uncle went to Yale, but the Appleton dumbed-down gang denounces me for going to Yale.

Simply citing a seminary degree and some study of Greek is proof that Glende does not understand Biblical theology. He is not a Roman Catholic priest who is infallible by virtue of agreeing with the Synodical Pope. The Scriptures judge all books, all doctrine, all teachers. "Let not many be teachers." It is far worse to be an ordained false teacher than to be a shunned, ridiculed, excommunicated layman.

Rev. Dr. Gerhardius-Flacius said...

I see the last comment really got his goat. He put up another childish response that dodged the question of whether or not he holds the orthodox Lutheran doctrine of predestination. That and he used a Transformers graphic. I'm very impressed. Using children's cartoons from the 80s, instead of actual theological arguments makes me take him all the more seriously. Perhaps he can put up more pictures of Tim Glende with Katy Perry also. Wow, what an indictment! He took a picture with Katy Perry. Also, he took a picture with the Black Eyed Peas! He must be heretical, because he takes pictures with pop stars! Good reasoning! Yes, and thanks for reminding us again that you went to Nortre Dame and Yale. Because when you then go and complain that other people in the WELS have "unionistic degrees" it doesn't sound massively hypocritical or anything. But then Jackson turns around and claims that the WELS educational system is bad. So getting degrees from elsewhere is bad, but getting degrees from WELS is also bad? So where is a person supposed to get a theological degree? Perhaps we can just listen to his infallible voice like his benighted flock!

June 22, 2011 8:51 AM

LutherRocks said...

Why don't you guys actually show some back bone and sign your name to something? If you believe you are speaking the truth and that you are standing on the pure Word of God, what is there to hide? Joe Krohn

Artful Dodger - On the Felonious Founder of Faithless Forgiveness

I don't justify the Walther kidnapping but ...  I knew about it from the time I was at the seminary (1970s).  So there was no attempt to hide that fact then (I think it came up in Zion on the Mississippi.  I also was aware of Stephan's previously being accused of womanizing.  Of course, the assumption was of his innocence.

I agree though that Stephan was running a small cult.  This is probably the real reason they were wondering about the reality of their calls and church after Stephan left.

I believe the children wanted to leave with the Saxons so the "kidnapping" was more of assisting runaways than what we would call kidnapping - not that that justifies it.
A.D.

***

GJ - That would make a good defense - "The kids wanted to go to America, so my brother and I took them from our father's parsonage while he was deathly ill. Sure, we had to hide the children, because the police were trying to get them back. I wanted to be like Jonah, so I hopped the first ship out of town. God vindicated me by sinking the one I would have been on."

As one sales manager said, "Any excuse will do."

Southern Babtists Turn Down the NNIV That Mequon Adores

Southern Baptists ‘cannot commend’ new NIV Bible translation

By Bob Allen
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
digg PHOENIX (ABP) – The Southern Baptist Convention went on record June 15 saying it “cannot commend” the 2011 New International Version Bible translation and its use of gender-neutral language. “This is as big as it gets,” said Tim Overton of Halteman Village Baptist Church in Muncie, Ind., who brought his resolution to the floor after a resolutions committee declined to include it in their report. “This is the word of God. The best-selling Bible translation in the United States is now gender neutral.” Overton said the NIV retains 75 percent of gender-neutral language included in a Today’s New International Version translation denounced by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2002. Russell Moore, a member of the resolutions committee and professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the committee didn’t feel the same sense of urgency about the new NIV because the translation process was more transparent and there are other translations available that weren’t around in 2002. “As Southern Baptists, I don’t think we have the luxury of not speaking to this important issue,” Overton said. “People are buying this translation unaware of what’s happening. We are the anchor of the evangelical world.” The resolution expressed “profound disappointment” with NIV publishers Biblica and Zondervan Publishing House for their “inaccurate translation of God’s inspired Scripture.” It asked LifeWay Christian Resources, the SBC publishing house, to refuse to sell the translation in its stores and encouraged pastors to make their congregations aware of concerns about the new NIV.  “We cannot commend the 2011 NIV to Southern Baptists or the larger Christian community,” the resolution concluded.