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| If you want to be a pope, stay awake on the job. Surround yourself with Rothweilers and pitbulls, who will attack anyone for a meal. |
Later I was invited to a KJV conference, hosted by the two families kicked out of WELS over the Kokomo Theses. I had a chance to talk to them about the actual events, and they gave me copies of the letters kicking them out of WELS. They appealed to the seminary, the Sausage Factory in Mequon, and Armin Panning confirmed the excommunication.
This is how the controversy developed:
1. Pastor Papenfuss began teaching UOJ, and the two families were alarmed by his claims.
2. Papenfuss gave them J. P. Meyer's Ministers of Christ to study. That made the families even more alarmed.
3. The families wrote down the three most offensive statements from J. P. Meyer and asked if that was WELS teaching. They also added the fourth, which was from an old discussion on this, one between the Swedes (justification by faith) and the Norwegians (UOJ). Papenfuss agreed to the fourth statement being added.
4. Eventually the families received separate letters, each one listing the four statements and telling them that they were being kicked out of the congregation for NOT believing those statements. (Not believing in Unbelief Justification is an excommunication offense in WELS. The irony is endless.)
The families sent a letter around, so the issue became national and inter-synodical, Christian News-worthy.
Note this published lie from WELS about Kokomo:
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LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Joe Krohn's Free Blog":
One more thing...
http://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=45&cuItem_itemID=2835
Click on it or copy and paste.
Someone else needs to do some homework.
From Joe Krohn in his first UOJ manifestation:
Q: What is the WELS teaching on objective justification? My friend and I have had a discussion, and he pointed me to the Kokomo articles, or theses, as an example of what WELS teaches. Being just a layman I was wondering if I should use these to teach others who may have the same question, as he did for me.
A: The teaching of objective justification is that God the Father declared the sins of the whole world forgiven because Christ had paid for all sin. To benefit from that payment and that declaration it is necessary that a person be brought to faith in Christ as his Savior (subjective justification) (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
The so-called Kokomo Statements should not be taken as representative of WELS teaching. Much that has been put out and circulated about the Kokomo Statements has been a misrepresentation of the WELS position. The Kokomo Statements were not drawn up by anyone in WELS as a presentation of our position. They were drawn up by opponents of the WELS position. Three of the statements are taken from WELS sources, but taken out of context, they caricature the WELS position and should not be taken as as an adequate presentation of WELS teaching. Anyone circulating the Kokomo Statements as a representation of the WELS position is not giving a fair and balanced presentation of WELS teaching.
A brief evaluation of the so-called Kokomo Statements is contained in a 1982 paper by Siegbert Becker, "Objective Justification," which is available from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary library. Papers on objective justification also appear in Vol. III of Our Great Heritage, available from Northwestern Publishing House.
Brett Meyer replied:
Joe, I'll address the statements in your WELS Q&A quote using the accepted (by WELS and the Q&A you quoted) essay Objective Justification written by WELSian Siegbert W. Becker. The essay can be found online here http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF
The Kokomo statements are as follows, 1) Objectively speaking, without any reference to an individual sinner’s attitude toward Christ’s sacrifice, purely on the basis of God’s verdict, every sinner, whether he knows it or not, whether he believes it or not, has received the status of a saint. 2) After Christ’s intervention and through Christ’s intervention, God regards all sinners as guiltfree saints. 3) When God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, he individually pronounced forgiveness to each individual sinner whether that sinner ever comes to faith or not. 4) At the time of the resurrection of Christ God looked down in hell and declared Judas, the people destroyed in the flood, and all the ungodly, innocent, not guilty, and forgiven of all sin and gave unto them the status of saints.
Note that the WELS Q&A states, "(The Kokomo) Statements were not drawn up by anyone in WELS as a presentation of our position." Then it states, "Three of the statements are taken from WELS sources, but taken out of context," Becker confesses, "The first three statements are taken verbatim from WELS sources." This is a continuation of the constant double speak and contradiction this false doctrine produces in those who reject Scriptural Justification by faith alone.
Joe Krohn states on June 30, 2009 8:13am, "No WELSian should believe this garbage." Becker retorts, "The third statement is a basically good summary of our position" Becker follows with, "it is especially necessary to point out that the statements do not contain false doctrine." Joe Krohn states, "Someone else needs to do some homework."
Kokomo statement #1 - Becker, "the meaning of the statement is nevertheless clear and correct."
Kokomo statement #2 - Becker, "we could say that when God forgave the sins of the whole world he regarded all sinners as guilt-free, but if they are guilt-free we might also say that they are considered sinless in the sight of God. But a sinless person is a holy person, a saint."
Kokomo statement #3 - Becker, "The third statement is a basically good summary of our position,"
Kokomo statement #4 - Becker, "Even the fourth statement can be defended even though it leaves much to be desired. As we have said, the statement is not drawn from a WELS source. If it is true that God has forgiven the sins of the world then it is also true that he forgave the sin of Judas."
Joe, you are wrong to state that the WELS rejects the Kokomo statements. They are accepted by the WELS when it pleases them and works for them and moments later they will deny they ever said such a thing. The Kokomo statements are in perfect harmony with the doctrine of UOJ in all its many definitions taught by the Lutheran synods.
In Christ,
Brett Meyer
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New Stages of WELS Kokomo Justification:
I heard graduates of Mequon grieve over Ministers of Christ being out of print and Sig Becker's lectures being lost.
WELS is such a personality cult that the pastors accept all the bilge coming from selected super-stars. Valleskey had the same effect on his students, and he was another UOJ fanatic, as his Fuller friend Frosty Bivens is.
The new stage of Kokomo Justification is the re-issuing of Ministers of Christ, with Armin Panning serving as the editor. Although NPH promised to edit out the controversial sections of the book, I saw nothing changed.
Therefore, anyone challenging Unfaith Odious Justification will have a sweating, red-faced official shouting angrily, "Are you calling J. P. Meyer a false teacher? And the faculty of our beloved seminary? They agree with him."
Last Nail in the WELS UOJ Coffin
WELS will adopt the New NIV as their one and only Bible, while denying it (of course). If anyone doubts the doubters, they will open up Romans 3 and quote the double-all NNIV passage - "all have sinned and all are justified..." The second all is a complete travesty, since it is invented and inserted, turning the justification by faith passage upside-down.
Repeat the sweating, red-faced official shouting... "Are you against the Word of God, too? The entire faculty has endorsed this translation. Our beloved synod has agreed. For the last time: Stop. Reading. Ichabod."
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| This is decision theology or synergism, in a confused twist, but Mequon calls justification by faith synergism. Have they ever read Luther? |
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| In the Scriptures, only believers are saints. All believers in Christ are saints because they receive the righteousness of Christ through faith. |
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| Imputation is the a key term in justification by faith. See Romans 4 - 5:1-2. This bizarre statement parrots Edward Preuss, who became a Roman Catholic defender afterwards. |
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| McCain was Otten's Secret Agent Man for Al Barry's presidential campaign. McCain began dumping on Otten as soon as Paul got his new job at the Purple Palace. |
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| Mad Jack has always been Otten's counselor at Christian News. True Waltherians - except they have not kidnapped anyone. |
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| Valleskey, as president of The Sausage Factory and cheerleader for Church Growth, revealed in print that he did not understand a word of the Bible. The New NIV will exonerate him. |
