narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":
I may not be the brightest bulb in the stadium, but I don't see how UOJers can read Pr. Rydecki's letter and continue to label JBFAers as Arminians, semi-Pelagians, synergists, or as people who put faith in one's faith (according to No Call Paul).
The SynCon has destroyed the Means of Grace and the Sacraments. I would label them as semi-Revivalists. Why? Because even if unbelievers are justified, then Baptism is just an "act of obedience;" the Lord's Supper is only a "memorial meal."
We are certainly capable of rejecting the Gospel, but the Holy Ghost gets all the credit when we believe. Is the unrepentant thief also in Paradise?
---
quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":
"Pure gold."
---
LutheranUniversalistsBeDamned has left a new comment on your post "No Bad Translation Will Efface the Word of God, Wh...":
"Hunnius' work is not the only evidence against UOJ: the Scripture foremost and the BoC are the main evidences against it."
This is absolutely correct. In fact, Scripture and the Confessions ought to be the only necessary evidences against it. If these were the only sources consulted by Universalists in the Lutheran Synods, the case against JBFA could not even be opened. But they don't limit themselves to Scripture and the Confessions. Laying behind their interpretations is the claim that "the Church has always taught Universal Objective Justification," and that the Scriptures and the Confessions cannot be properly understood without also accepting that UOJ has been the "unanimous orthodox teaching of the church throughout its history." Pressed for evidence of these claims, UOJ fanatics have provided such responses as "of course, we don't see it taught directly, it was always assumed," or worse, have supplied quotations from the church fathers and others that are stripped of their context, often not even complete sentences, while declaring them to be characteristic of the entire teaching of the church on the matter. To their shame, it has too often been discovered that their use of such quotations is deliberately misleading (i.e., Ambrose), and the qualifications they supply for some of the theologians they quote are deliberately incomplete and/or misrepresentative (i.e, Rambach). This is evidence of fraud within the UOJ movement, and only leads to greater suspicion. Why are they doing this?
But now we know better. The Church clearly has NOT taught UOJ all along. As evidence, we now have in Hunnius and the Wittenberg faculty, a specific rejection of UOJ in direct terms. Hunnius and others like him are significant, not because they supplement or replace Scripture and the Confessions, but because they deprive Lutheran Universalists of all foundation for practicing their eisegesis, for reading their assumptions of "what the church has always taught" back into the Scriptures. Without these false assumptions guiding their interpretation, no one could ever conclude that Scripture and the Confessions taught Universal Justification.
Links about Justification by Faith
Luther's Galatians endorsed by reader
Luther's Galatians on Gnesio Lutherans
Roman Catholic adjunct Jack Kilcrease as Humpty Dumpty
Calov, quoted by Robert Preus, repudiated the UOJ position of WELS
Kilcrease, the McCain tutor, equivocates.
Buchholz is anti-Luther
Pastor Bickel on Tossing Rydecki Under the Bus
Church and Changer Jeff Gunn and His Mequon Class of Shrinkers
Paul McCain and Jon Buchholz - Bedfellows of Apostasy
Abraham Is the Common Theme in Justification - Justification by Faith
Pastor Rydecki's Account of His Suspension - October 9th
Intrepid Account October 6th- Pastor Rydecki Suspended
LutherQuest (sic) Opposes Justification by Faith
Warming Up the Tar and Feathers on LutherQuest (sic)
Pastor Bickel Answers Jon Buchholz
Kokomo Statements - WELS UOJ - JP Meyer
Jack Kilcrease Showing Signs of Stress
Dr. Lito Cruz and Brett Meyer Dispatch the UOJ Stormtroopers on Extra Nos
---
 |
| "Not again! Martin Luther College spelling and grammar! Plus Matthew 18." |
Justin Hieb has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":
okay (sic) clearly some things were said that shouldnt (sic) have been said. And scripture (sic) needs to prevail over all else. But did this really need to be up on the internet for everyone to scoff at? no (sic). what (sic) ever (sic) happened to Matthew 18:15? Shameful. Its (sic) shameful that we have resorted to all of this mudslinging.
***
GJ - All posts are subject to my my blue pencil. I am happy to do the editing your Martin Luther College professors have failed to provide, Justin.
---
Febreze has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":
Justin:
It was being discussed privately between the District President, Pastor Rydecki, and other pastors. He was finally booted from the WELS for teaching that sinners are justified by faith alone. Does that not raise a red flag? Especially during the Reformation month?
He certainly didn't need to do anything in private, but he did, probably in the attempts to have the WELS see their error. He could have gone public right away, but didn't. Public error certainly needs public rebuke so others won't be led astray. All the WELS publications that proclaim their "universal justification" are public. Why on earth do we discuss public sin privately? Have you read Luther's explanation of the 8th Commandment?
"All this has been said regarding secret sins [Febreeze - Matt. 18:15]. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it."
It turned from a matter of discussion to him being labeled a heretic. Does anything in this letter stand out to you? The only thing you have concern with is Pres. Buchholz' integrity? How about Pastor Rydecki after falsely being charged with heresy? The WELS has shown itself to teach a different Gospel than what has been handed down to us.
P.S. This isn't mudslinging.
---
Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":
Ichabod -
I read [this] Pastor Rydecki's letter to DP Bucholz, and I cannot help but think that the Scriptural substance is above and beyond this DP.
I hope and pray that Pastor Rydecki will move on quickly and pay no mind to these ecclesiastical dead horses. After this excellent letter, I would think that there is no more reason to waste one's time beating the Bucholz synodical horse.
At some point, one has to conclude that it is humanly fruitless to prevent the blind from leading the blind.
Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
---
solafide (http://solafide.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":
Mr. Hieb, yes, it needs to be on the internet.
The WELS has published that Pastor Rydecki was suspended and offered no explanation as to why. He certainly gets the opportunity to defend his good name.
As with Pastor Rydecki, I am truly bothered by DP Buchholz promising one thing and only a few days later taking action contrary to what he promised.
As Brett Meyer has said, this is really refreshing to finally hear someone (other than us undesirables who post on this blog) challenge the false teachers in the WELS.
***
GJ - This dogma of universal absolution is much bigger than the Wisconsin Sect, because it remains the official error of the ELS and LCMS as well.
ELCA and all mainline denominations also teach that God's grace means every single person on earth is justified, whether that person ever believes or not.
