How To Deceive the Flock - Your UOJ Textbook

A Missouri Synod congregation sponsored the Win Arn seminar,
and St. Paul got behind it 100%.

The vast majority of Synodical Conference members do not realize that their leaders are teaching a veiled, dishonest version of Universalism. Here are some of the rhetorical tricks.

Justification by faith - When they use this phrase, they mean faith in universal absolution, which is the one and only dogma involved in UOJ. Walther made this clear at the beginning, borrowing it from Stephan and Halle University, and the SynConference has aped it ever since. Note below. "You must accept the general absolution, pronounced 1800 years ago...."

They denounce synergism - making a decision for Christ - while teaching synergism.

If Walther was not clear enough, above, then read J. P. Meyer below.

The pseudo-Gospel of universal absolution is presented, and - "What will be his reaction when he is informed of this turn of events? Will he accept or will he decline?"

Justification of the sinner - that really means declaring every single person forgiven, with an emphasis upon absolving unbelievers, just the opposite of Paul's meaning in Romans. Note that this booklet by Edward Preuss is often cited as the epitome of UOJ Lutheran orthodoxy, when it is really a compilation of hyberbolic nonsense. Nor do they say that this great orthodox Lutheran theologian joined Rome and began advocating the worst of papal errors, saying, "Give me the documents and I can prove anything." Your hero, Jack?

Means of Grace - This is reduced to telling people, "You were already forgiven." In a discussion on confession and absolution, one LCMS pastor said, "When people come to me for confession, I tell them - you were forgiven before you came in here."

If every single person on earth is born forgiven and in a state of constant forgiveness, without the Word and without faith, as UOJ claims, then the Instruments of Grace (as they are called in the BoC, alternately) are meaningless symbols. Original sin is vanquished by fiat. Can anyone name a better motivation for doctrinal and marital adultery? No wonder the Church Growth pastors are noted for their ecumenism and their infidelities - confessional and conjugal.

Evangelism is nothing more than telling people they can continue as before, since they were already absolved of all sin, even before they were born. Evangelism is signing people up and getting their money to pay for more gimmicks, bigger woofers on the stage, more settlement money for the lawsuits stemming from clergy abuse.

A theological expert in WELS is someone who mindlessly repeats the absurdities of UOJ and engages in mission creep to prove his hyper-orthodoxy (really his amateur Enthusiasm). Above is DP Buchholz' claim that the entire world is saved, past tense, finished, certain. That is just a little more honest way of recycling Walther's Pietism.

This rancid Pietism is not all grace, but all law - legalistic and Antinomian at the same time. Clergy adultery? You have to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt, even though everyone knows it already. Result - the pastor is promoted to The Love Shack and gets to travel at the members' expense. UOJ is rewarding, though the trail ends in sulfurous flames. Disagree with the synod? Extend the Left Foot of Fellowship.

The WELS system brain-washes all of its victims against the Confessions, then calls itself "confessional." SP Mark Schroeder claims his sect is getting more "confessional" all the time. That must mean that more staffers at The Love Shack are confessing their felonies as part of their plea bargains. Above, Wayne Mueller has the most atrocious approach to the Confessions that anyone could imagine. But wait, there is David Scaer below and Dan Deutschlander.

Those in-house degrees are not worth much when it comes to critical thinking.
But who cares as long as the Pennsylvania lawsuit never comes to trial?

Historic St. John Lutheran Church, Milwaukee. Forgetting the Past - A WELS Obsession

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Historic St. John Lutheran Church Organ Concert - ...":

My estimate of the attendance was at least 60. Pastor Hastings gave a little synopsis of the history of St. John's after the concert. What was apparent from that was how Pastors Bading and Brenner served at St. Johns in both formative and turbulent times.

Most Pastors today could not hold a candle compared to these two stalwarts of the Faith. It reminded of how weak and sickly the WELS really is right now. I was encouraged by the increased attendance over last year's concert. Singing hymns from the 1941 TLH also reminded me of how pathetic the WELS Christian Worship  hymnal is.

What could be more full of meaning?--for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Edward Preuss' Blasphemies Available Here on Dropbox Link

Bob Preuss promoted Edward Preuss
during the time Church Growth was the agenda of Ft. Wayne.
UOJ and CG go together like nitro and glycerine.
Cascione has killed the link to this essay - Ichabod effect?

I have established a public link to the Edward Preuss book - The Justification of the Sinner Before God -PDF. The booklet can be purchased from Concordia, Ft. Wayne.

Read the introduction about Preuss - this yahoo joined the Roman Catholic Church while serving as a Concordia, St. Louis faculty member.  Another St. Louis professor did the same - two in a row. Why? They found a better form of Enthusiasm, a better pope than Walther.

I will soon post an analysis of leaders fooling the members about justification.

The original German can be found here as a PDF.

I am leaving both PDFs up as public links on Dropbox. If you want to use Dropbox for free and get generous amounts of free storage, send me an email at gregjackson1948@qwest.net. My friends and I use Dropbox for easy, quick transfer of large files, backup of important files, and public links.

If I want someone to have a free copy of one of my books, I just right-click the PDF in the public folder and paste it into an email or FB text box. Some pastors have sent me collections of papers this way, too.