Article VII: Of the Church.
Also they teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.
And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Ephesians 4:5-6.
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GJ - Some ELDONAs thought I was a bit severe about their group. They need to read up on the topic of polemics.
I have been impressed in a positive way about their support for justification by faith. Apart from the Church of the Augsburg Confession, located here on Walton's Mountain in Bella Vista, no other Lutheran group has the same position.
ELCA, WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie all teach UOJ. The WELS UOJ hero, Richard Jungkuntz, became a UOJ advocate for Missouri, and then for the proto-ELCA American Lutheran Church. UOJ is the cement gluing the mainline, apostate denominations together.
ELDONA's bishop, James Heiser, has been publishing much needed books of Lutheran Orthodoxy, including the giant Harmony of the Four Evangelists written by Chemnitz, Gerhard, and Leyser. I imagined the cost of the set would be too high, but the volumes are reasonable priced for one of the great works in Lutherdom.
I have the first volume and will publish more about it soon.
Heiser has been busy getting Gerhard and other post-Concord authors published in English. He has also written some books of his own.
If someone published Chemnitz, Gerhard, Leyser and other pre-Pietistic theologians and then promoted UOJ, I would have to ask about that person's study habits or doctrinal discernment. Once upon a time, Heiser thought UOJ was a synonym for the atonement. So did I.
Those used to the language of the Bible, the Book of Concord, and the post-Concord theologians would have a tough time with the new Pietistic dogma of UOJ. Besides that, Hunnius and Leyser already repudiated an early version of UOJ, when they demolished the claims of Samuel Huber and kicked him off the faculty.
David Valleskey, with the same position as Huber, became president of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, a proud alumnus of Fuller Seminary, and a pestiferous author of pro-Church Growth publications.
Unity begins with the Gospel and Sacraments taught correctly.
