Jon Buchholz and WELS District Presidents Are Anti-Luther, So Please Do Not Tarnish the Reformation with More UOJ Nonsense

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-matthew-91-8-nineteenth.html

Luther - Trinity 19, Second Sermon:

12. For this reason the greatest skill and intelligence is needed to grasp and understand this righteousness, and in our hearts and before God rightly to distinguish it from the above mentioned outward righteousness. For this is, as has been said, the skill and the wisdom of the Christian, but it is so high and great that even all the beloved Apostles could not speak enough of it; and yet it meets the painful misfortune that no art is mastered as soon as this.

There is no greater theme for a preacher than the grace of God and the forgiveness of sin, yet we are such wicked people, that, when we have once heard or read it, we think we know it, are immediately masters and doctors, keep looking for something greater, as though we had done everything, and thus we made new factions and division.

13. I have now been teaching and studying this subject with all diligence for many years (more than any one of those who imagine they know it all), in preaching, writing and reading, yet I cannot boast of having mastered it and am glad that I still remain a pupil with those who are just beginning to learn. For this reason I must admonish and warn all such as want to be Christians, both teachers and pupils, that they guard themselves against such shameful delusion and surfeit, and understand that this subject is most difficult and the greatest art that can be found upon earth; so that even Paul had to confess and say ( 2 Corinthians 9:15) that it is an unspeakable gift, that is, one which cannot be described among men with words so that they may regard it as highly and dearly as it really is in itself.

14. The reason for this is, that man’s understanding cannot get beyond this external piety of works, and cannot comprehend the righteousness of faith; but, the greater and more skillful this understanding is, the more it confines itself to works and rests upon them. It is not possible for man in times of temptation and distress, when his conscience smites him, to cease from groping around for works on which to stand and rest. 

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GJ -

Roughly one day after I posted this selection on this blog, it appeared on the Facebook post of another pastor, someone in the LCMS. That does not prove he kelmed my post. Anyone can copy from Lenker's edition of Luther, but few do. I was pleased to see this significant point repeated in another forum.

I found it while waiting in the doctor's office. I usually grab a Luther volume when I anticipate waiting. Sometimes I get very tired of reading Lutheran history, but I never tire of Luther's sermons. The older I get, the more I appreciate Luther's insights on everything. Lenker published two sermons on this text, each one filled with spiritual wisdom.

I see no evidence of nominal Lutheran leaders enjoying a steady diet of Luther. Their approach to Luther, the Book of Concord, and the Scriptures reminds me of chickens walking around the farmyard,  suddenly pecking at a scrap of food. If the observer scatters some grain, they cluck like wild, flap their wings, and settle down for a feast. Give the UOJ Flock a new citation and they throw up a loud cry of glee and devour it.

The same points get re-cycled regularly. Here is the one about the Keys, which I posted long ago:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/02/false-support-of-uoj-exposed-by-layman.html

That excerpt from Humann (40:366) is the third or fourth time I have seen that particular portion of Luther's commentary pulled from its theme and used badly in support of UOJ.

It is from Luther's writing: The Keys.

The whole section is proving that binding and loosing is binding and loosing. If that is not believed, action of the keys is still true. Here is the section from which that small portion is pulled and misused. The boldface is mine. 

On page 366 there is more from Luther:

Rely on the words of Christ and be assured that God has no other way to forgive sins than through the spoken Word, as he has commanded us. If you do not look for forgiveness through the Word, you will gape toward heaven in vain for grace, or (as they say), for a sense of inner forgiveness.

But if you speak as the factious spirits and sophists do: “After all, many hear of the binding and loosing of the keys, yet it makes no impression on them and they remain unbound and without being loosed. Hence, there must exist something else beside the Word and the keys. It is the spirit, the spirit, yes, the spirit that does it!” Do you believe he is not bound who does not believe in the key which binds? Indeed, he shall learn, in due time, that his unbelief did not make the binding vain, nor did it fail in its purpose. Even he who does not believe that he is free and his sins forgiven shall also learn, in due time, how assuredly his sins were forgiven, even though he did not believe it. St. Paul says in Rom. 3[:3]: “Their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God.” We are not talking here either about people’s belief or disbelief regarding the efficacy of the keys. We realize that few believe. We are speaking of what the keys accomplish and give. He who does not accept what the keys give receives, of course, nothing. But this is not the key’s fault.

Luther, M. (1999, c1958). Vol. 40: Luther's works, vol. 40 : Church and Ministry II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (40:366). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the Atonement, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, but describes a special application of the Word. The misquoters ignore the sentence just preceding the boldface portion, misunderstand 'binding' and Luther's pointed underscoring, and skip the reference to faithlessness in the Romans 3:3 excerpt that follows. 

Far be it from me to get into an argument with Mr. Humann. You, Brett, LPC, and now Rick, are well more able than I at that. It is clear that Humann is misusing Luther's words just as the UOJ Enthusiasts misuse quotations from Scripture, which he also did. 

The quotation I sent is the two sentences immediately before the above section. Thank you for thinking my effort worthy of emphasis.

What great lengths those folks go to as they try to bolster their erroneous teachings.

MichGander

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "False Support of UOJ Exposed by Layman":

MichiGander, here are additional quotes from the Confessions which clearly show that the Office of the Keys to remit sins applies only to those who have faith in Christ alone. Also, Luther confirms that changing anything that God instituted, as he instituted it, including the keys, removes God from it and makes it invalid.

Book of Concord
6] Let any one of the adversaries come forth and tell us when remission of sins takes place. O good God, what darkness there is! They doubt whether it is in attrition or in contrition that remission of sins occurs. And if it occurs on account of contrition, what need is there of absolution, what does the power of the keys effect, if sins have been already remitted? Here, indeed, they also labor much more, and wickedly detract from the power of the keys.
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_10_repentance.php

From the Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests, “For we must believe and be sure of this, that baptism does not belong to us but to Christ, that the gospel does not belong to us but to Christ, that the office of preaching does not belong to us but to Christ, that the sacrament (of the Lord’s Supper) does not belong to us but to Christ, that the keys, or forgiveness and retention of sins, do not belong to us but to Christ. In summary, the offices and sacraments do not belong to us but to Christ, for he has ordained all this and left it behind as a legacy in the church to be exercised and used to the end of the world; and he does not lie or deceive us. Therefore, we cannot make anything else out of it but must act according to his command and hold to it. However, if we alter it or improve on it, then it is invalid and Christ is no longer present, nor is his ordinance.”

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "False Support of UOJ Exposed by Layman": 

MichiGander is correct - the Lutheran Confession's teaching concerning the Office of the Keys has been perverted by those wanting to establish the false gospel of UOJ as the central article of Christian faith. Here are a few.

Pastor Steven P. Dorn, WELS
Exegesis of Objective Justification Passages
2010 Spring Pastoral Study Conference, April 2010
"Reconciliation; that is, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; meaning, he no longer counts against the people of the world, their "trespasses." 
In his discourse on the Ministry of the Keys, Luther explains the objective nature of God's verdict of forgiveness apart from faith. …
Page 8
http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dorn-exegesis-paper.pdf

Pastor Schleicher quoting Siegbert W. Becker
Is Objective Justification Universalism
And the Lord Jesus also promises to stand behind the word of those who speak for him. “Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” “They are remitted” is a perfect tense, and we can really say ‘”They have been forgiven long ago,” or as Luther says, “before we prayed or before we ever thought of it.”
Page 11
http://scdwels.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/schleicher-paper.pdf

Siegbert W. Becker
Justification
Page 2
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerJustification.PDF

Pastor Kurt Marquart
JUSTIFICATION-0BJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE: A Translation of the Doctrinal Essay Read at the First Convention of the Synodical Conference in 1872
So then the Absolution is an object for our faith and not a mere pointer to faith . The promise must always stand before our eyes, and in it all terrified souls are to seek consolation and forgiveness and be lifted up by it. On the other hand, if faith must be there first , then faith is made into something quite different from what it really is; it is then no longer a grasping and accepting of the existing benefits. [GJ - This is the Eduard Preuss argument, which is never associated with his switch to being a Roman Catholic theologian.]
Page 35
http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/lutherantheology.marquartjustification.html

(W)ELS CA/AZ DP Pastor Jon Buchholz
Justification, given at the 2005 WELS Convention
“God has forgiven the whole world. God has forgiven everyone his sins.” This statement is absolutely true! This is the heart of the gospel, and it must be preached and taught as the foundation of our faith. 
Page 7

“God has forgiven all sins, but the unbeliever rejects God’s forgiveness.” Again, this statement is true—and Luther employed similar terminology to press the point of Christ’s completed work of salvation.16 But we must also recognize that Scripture doesn’t speak this way.
Page 8
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BuchholzJustification.pdf

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LPC has left a new comment on your post "False Support of UOJ Exposed by Layman": 

MichiGander,

Thanks for the full quote. Your observation is correct, it is the habit of UOJers to pull quotes out of context. 

As usual, a text without a context is pretext for promoting false notions and teachings.

Now these people are no ordinary non-seminary trained pastors. No, they are very trained and seminary graduates and yet, and yet, and yet... their arguments and methods are so high-schoolish that a layman applying a bit of discernment will notice how their method is so faulty and scholarship so unreliable.

We would be fools to hand over the health of our souls for their care. 

There is such as thing as quack doctors;by analogy, these people are quack pastors.


LPC

The Class of 1982, The Sausage Factory, Mequon

Thirty years after graduating, the Class of 1982 has left an indelible bad impression on WELS. How did so many go bad?

1. Jeff Gunn - the Emerging Church copycat with the atheist son.
2. Paul Jahnke - the DP famous for getting rid of pastors (but not Church Growthers). 
3. Joel Fredrich - the professor who caved on "making disciples," the favorite CG gloss on the Great Commission.
4. Keith Free - Lavish BAM funder of Church and Change projects, like The CORE and Rick Johnson.
5. James Mattek - mysterious role at WLCFS.
6. Mark Freier - P-Boy! No longer WELS and never Lutheran, he got a grant to help out Parlow's non-Lutheran congregation.
7. Bruce Becker - Church and Change board member and Perish Services salesman, now a Mark Jeske gofer. Or did he join the Church and Change staff at Wisconsin Lutheran College?

How Much Time for Stealing $8 Million? - None

The big doll house

$1M ‘Church Lady’ embezzler gets prison

• By LAURA ITALIANO
• Last Updated: 4:10 AM, October 12, 2012
• Posted: 3:12 AM, October 12, 2012

Goodbye, dollies.

An angry judge sentenced an elderly embezzler obsessed with Madam Alexander Dolls to at least 4 1/2 years in prison yesterday for stealing $1 million from the Archdiocese of New York — calling her crime “outrageous.”

Anita Collins, 69, of Schulyerville in The Bronx, blew much of the money on the pricey dolls, Belleek China, furniture from Bloomingdale’s and clothing from Brooks Brothers.

Collins, described as a devout churchgoer by friends, has forfeited possession of all of her dolls and other trinkets, which now sit in storage in dozens of boxes in the Manhattan DA’s Office in preparation of being inventoried and sold to reimburse the church.

Steven Hirsch

‘GRAN’ LARCENY:Anita Collins was sentenced yesterday for stealing $1 million — much of which went to buying Madam Alexander dolls.

“You were put in a position of trust by a trusting religious organization,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone told Collins, who had pleaded guilty to grand larceny last month. “You stole $1 million — that is an outrageous amount.”

“The church gave you a second chance,” the judge added, referring to Collins having been convicted of grand larceny back in 1999, for stealing from a temp agency.

“And look what you did,” he said. “It was outrageous.”

Collins ripped off the church while working for seven years as an accounts-payable clerk in the archdiocese offices at 1011 First Ave.

She took the money by writing herself check after check — a total of 450 of them over the years. She’d cover her trail by always sending the church false invoices in amounts less than $2,500, the threshold for supervisor approval.

Her forfeited dolls and other ill-gotten loot is valued at only $30,000 to $40,000, according to Collins’ lawyer, although a law-enforcement source predicts the appraised value will be “substantially” higher.

The rest of the stolen cash is unaccounted for, and Collins has insisted there is none left. She technically owes $1,073,358.83 in restitution, but the odds on any repayment are long, given her age and looming prison sentence.

“Nobody can really explain what happened to the money,” Collins’ lawyer, Howard Simmons, told reporters afterward. “They lived very plain lives in a simple apartment. She was very well thought of at the archdiocese. She’s a very nice woman.” She’s lost 40 pounds” since her arrest in February, he said.

Collins’ daughter, Helen, for whom Collins had been the sole care-giver, is dying of cancer, and is fighting for the return of some of the seized items, including a printer and jewelry, which she insists are hers, the lawyer said.

“The defendant managed to embezzle from her employer through incremental theft, which exceeded $1 million over 7 1/2 years,” said DA Cyrus Vance Jr.

“Companies that believe they have been victimized — including nonprofit organizations and religious institutions — should be on watch for theft by insiders,” Vance said.

The DA’s Special Prosecutions office, which handles such crimes, has a hot line at 212-335-8900.

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GJ - Who went to prison when $8 million disappeared from WELS funds? No one. Piepenbrink lifted about $300,000 and WELS had a fit. He should have done file-sharing, as fellow staffer Hochmuth did: public absolution and less than one year in the hoosegow.

Or - what is the penalty for buying a new office building without selling the old one? For not having a contingency contract in a down market? "We will complete this purchase only if we sell the falling-down piece of garbage called The Love Shack. Otherwise, no deal."

Vote for Romney, so real estate prices go up and there is actually a demand for commercial real estate in Milwaukee.

Cheering news - Appleton must be thriving, because a twice-failed bar is worth over $500,000. How much offering money from the entire synod was donated by Free and Schroeder to buy this stinky old bar? How much was loaned to remodel it? When will WELS tell the truth about this? Never.

Does Paul McCain Read CPH Books? Especially Those with His Name on Them?

bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Bedfellows of Apostasy - Paul McCain, FB Friends w...":

Paul Rydecki comments on Facebook, referring to McCain:

I'm trying to figure out at what point it became anathema in the Lutheran Church to teach justification according to Augsburg Confession, Art. IV. I'll even quote from the McCain translation:

"Our churches teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By His death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in His sight (Romans 3 and 4 [3:21–26; 4:5])."

Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (P. T. McCain, Ed.) (33). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.

Justified when? "When they believe..." Received into favor when? Present tense. Sins are forgiven why? For Christ's sake. Sins are forgiven when? Present tense. Christ made satisfaction when? On the cross (past tense).

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GJ -

UOJ was not the ruling norm on justification until after the Brief Confession of 1932. That could not have been with the German catechism and the Luther materials used before that time. But WWI made the German language something to be shunned.

The Walther claque slowly took over via Francis Pieper and Stoeckhardt. The bad yeast slowly permeated the Synodical Conference. Finally it became acceptable to drive someone out in the name of UOJ, as the Preus brothers did with Walther A. Maier, denying him the presidency of the practical seminary. Robert Preus was the beneficiary of that controversy.

WELS had its show-trial with Kokomo, driving two families out in the name of universal forgiveness without faith.

The literature shows that both sects were teaching justification by faith in their own catechisms, but that is now so buried that McCain can rave against justification by faith while selling a catechism that is only justification by faith.

The Robert Preus Fan Club cannot bring themselves to address the obvious repudiation of UOJ in Justification and Rome.

DP Jon Buchholz wrote to me, four years ago, 8-27-2008:

You mentioned the concern that confessional guys get nailed and ousted, while enthusiasts don’t. I share that concern, but there’s also a reason why that happens: Enthusiasts don’t confess. Pinning them down is like trying to nail Jell-o to a wall. Their sins are sins of glaring omission in matters of doctrinal truth, not often glaring sins of commission that can easily be identified, confronted and disciplined. They often say one thing (in lip-service) but do another. When their outrageous, aberrant statements are challenged, they reply, “Well, what I meant was . . . “ and then recouch their view in orthodox Lutheran terminology. And since we’re operating in a legalistic environment of literalistic Biblicism where “only chapter and verse matter,” the problem is doubly compounded. Believe me, it’s a very challenging and vexing problem.

Go back again and read Bente’s history of the crypto-Calvinist controversy, and you’ll see similar challenges that were very difficult to confront in that day. In fact, had not the cryptos slipped up and tipped their hand as to their real agenda, I sometimes wonder whether the gnesio-Lutherans would have prevailed as they did. (I’m talking here specifically about enthusiast pastors who are difficult to discipline in congregations, not published authors who have flagrantly revealed their doctrine and haven’t been disciplined. That’s a different, albeit related, problem).

[end of Buchie quote]

Buchholz was wrong in claiming that Enthusiasts don't confess. They never stop yakking. He is a prime example, extolling his personal version of UOJ at every stop. He admitted in his email that he is "not apt to teach" and unqualified to be a pastor. Neither is he discerning. I doubt that he ever read Thy Strong Word, although he is the one who wanted to discuss justification with me. I have an entire chapter on Zwingli and Calvin, quoting Bente of all people. But how would he know, even though Brett Meyer gave him a free copy to study.

I found it quite amusing that he told me to study Bente on the crypto-Calvinists. An NPH book book noted that in WELS the Calvinists were no longer crypto. Once again, Buchholz is the prime example of that, marketing his UOJ paper as the last word in Lutheran Orthodoxy when he does not even grasp justification and cannot be called a Lutheran - not even a mild Lutheran.

The previous inept DP out in the West was Jahnke, who was famous for yanking pastors from the ministry, although that man was less savage, heavy-handed, and overbearing than Buchholz. One Lutheran observer said Buchie was already trying on his jackboots as a tutor, insisting that he be called Tutor Buchholz at all times. The Changers in WELS (Lawrenz, Olson) are very fussy about their names.

SP Mark Schroeder and DP Jon Buchholz have both shown their willingness to come down hard on the side of false doctrine and practice, as public absolvers of immoral church workers and private opponents of the truth.

Has any Church and Changer be disciplined in WELS? Ever?
Image courtesy of Joe Krohn.