The Dresden of the 1820s is the America of today - in one respect. The abuse practiced by Pastor Martin Stephan is well established today among the SynCon Lutherans - and it has multiplied.
LutherQuest (sic) has two long threads based on the assumption that universal forgiveness without faith is the message of the Reformation, the Gospel itself.
Therefore, one theme is "WELS Defends OJ." District President Jon Buchholz and his finger-puppets (the officers of the tiny district) decided to accuse Pastor Paul Rydecki of false doctrine for teaching justification by faith. They should just admit to the public, "We hate Luther's doctrine. We disagree with the Apostle Paul. We reject justification by faith."
The second thread is on Romans 4:25. Be sure to avoid Romans 4:24, boys. The trouble with Romans 4:24 is that it ruins the colossal pile of dung you have heaped up in support of your imaginary Easter absolution - straight from Calvinist Samuel Huber and that brilliant Halle Pietist Rambach.
By all means, LutherQuest (sic) - ignore the whole point of Romans 4, its harmony with the Means of Grace in Romans 10, and the Pauline arguments for justification by faith in Galatians. The point of Romans 4? I am so glad you asked. The entire chapter is about Abraham as the father of faith, the example of a man justified by faith alone. And not just Abraham. Wait for it.
KJV Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
I have to highlight, because the dullards who keep repeating UOJ cannot comprehend simple English.
These champions of grace really hate grace. Forgiveness can only come about through grace - I am sure everyone agrees about that. No grace, no forgiveness. Am I getting too far from the topic? I think not.
So let look for a clear passage where Paul teaches how we receive grace -
KJV Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
There it is - access to grace through faith, combined with justification by faith and peace with God. But these nit-pickers* comb through the Scriptures and isolate a few words they can use to overturn the Gospel. Mostly they repeat genius statements from the Roman Catholic theologian Edward Preuss. They use their own logic, which is not too good anyway, and ignore the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
*Sorry for the pun, Martin Luther College. That the WELS school where students run screaming away when they hear there will be a LICE SEE'UM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nit
