The WELS KGB, as Jack Preus once called it, will soon meet with members of the Intrepid Lutherans (tm) to make sure that no one agrees with justification by faith.
Most Lutherans should know that justification by faith is the Chief Article of the Christian Faith, the Master and Prince of our religion, but the Intrepids (tm) will go along with the retreat demanded by the Wisconsin Sect.
Mark Schroeder's spokesman has written in public that he did not even think the topic should be discussed, was not important, etc. Instead, Spencer wants to pursue the NNIV, a feminist-paraphrase that exists chiefly to make UOJ normative in all mainline denominations. Therefore, the Intrepids (tm) will roll over and play dead about justification by faith while objecting to the NNIV, the first Biblical effort to repudiate justification by faith.
No will will be asked, "Do you agree with us or the Apostle Paul?" Instead, each and every one will be asked, "Do you agree with Paul Rydecki's opinion?"
That will allow everyone to crab-walk back to UOJ, apologize profusely for upsetting Mark and Avoid Jeske, and crumple up into a complaining, useless group of people.
All this shows that WELS has only one dogma, Universal Objective Justification. Once established, UOJ makes everything else irrelevant.
Who are the stakeholders in UOJ?
Walther Mythology
The Synodical Conference myth teaches people that a tiny band of orthodox Lutherans, to preserve their faith, left Europe in four ships. God kept CFW Walther from drowning in one ship so the Stephan hatchet-man could organize the mob a few months later.
The Great Kidnapper, an expert in pastoral theology after two years in the parish, got rid of their cell group leader Stephan and obtained (by robbery) a large collection of books, gold, personal effects, and land. Walther was truly God's angel. From that time on, everyone realized that all Scripture and all doctrine must pass through the Walther filter, because he actually graduated from a university with a bachelor's degree. And - Walther's scheme got the colony the gold, land, and books they needed. When Seminex stole the books from the St. Louis seminary, they were just following Walther's fine example.
Why Work with ELCA, Fuller, and Willow Creek?
Everyone needs to ask why the great conservative revolution,--as celebrated by Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect--has been accompanied by a flood of SynCons studying at Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek Community Church, and Trinity Divinity in Deerfield.
As Larry Olson (DMin, Fuller) crowed, more LCMS guys have "graduate" degrees from Fuller than from LCMS seminaries. More importantly, the best way to get ahead in the LCMS, WELS, and ELS is to have plenty of credits from Fuller and related pest-holes.
The SynCons also work happily with ELCA on a host of national and local projects, most of them concealed from the prying eyes of Ichabod. The conservative members do not understand denouncing ELCA for homosexual pastors, women pastors, and health plan abortions, while working with ELCA, so why tell the rubes? If they find out, just yell, "Who told you?" Then denounce whoever told.
The double issue is this - why the great happiness with Fuller and ELCA?
The answer is obvious - ELCA, WELS, Missouri, and the Little Section on the Prairie all agree about their central dogma:
Universal Salvation.
ELCA teaches everyone has been forgiven and saved. So do the SynCons who work with ELCA while denouncing ELCA (as Mark Schroeder and his criminal Director of Communications did).
Fuller? They repudiated inerrancy before the Church Growth Movement and adopted the adulterer Karl Barth as their official theologian. Barth taught universal salvation too, making it easy for him to make a living in theology while moving his mistress into his home. Fuller is definitely a UOJ shop, but various sects have different names for it. The differences do not matter, because the end result is the same.
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| I would hire him as a plumber or electrician any day. "This is not working - I don't know why - pay up." |
Origins in the 19th Century
I pursued some research projects at Notre Dame on the topic of grace. The reading began with Augustine and Pelagius, Luther, Erasmus, Calvin, Melanchthon, Schleiermacher, Barth, Ritschl, and
Harnack. Later I returned to the 19th century theologians because my topic, the Social Gospel, involved the 19th century and liberal theology.
I remember well the Great Blizzard of 1978, when we were completely snowbound in Sturgis, Michigan. We had no traffic on the state highway for a week, but we had lots of food, coffee, and a fresh stack of ND library books to read for comprehensive exams.
I used to be sorry that I spent so many hours reading liberal theology, especially Tillich, another serial adulterer. They all had a knack for using theological words while rejecting their actual meaning. They had this one trait in common - identifying the atonement with universal salvation. According to all the liberals, it was not grace unless God absolved the entire world. I recall this mantra, "Faith must not be contingent." That is a philosophical way of saying, "Do not say someone is forgiven if he believes the Gospel."
KJV Romans 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him [Abraham] 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.
A. Ritschl, in one place, noted that some distinguished between the atonement and justification. That one passage supports what I have seen so many times in the past - generic liberal Protestantism simply merged the atonement and justification, making faith irrelevant and all doctrinal matters adiaphora.
Not only that, liberal Protestant theology teaches that denying their universal salvation is the same as denying grace. One LCA teacher said on a teaching tape, when bitterly denouncing conservative Evangelicals, "There is not one bit of grace in their teaching." A bad way for the LCA to approach that would have been, "They actually believe in the Word of God." But it was a better ploy to say instead, "No grace there at all."
What Wigs Them Out?
Murder, adultery, abortion, child abuse, child pornography, homosexual ordination and marriage - those issues do not bother the SynCons.
They go crazy in hunting down justification by faith.
Let this sink in - the LCMS, WELS, and ELS are mainline, through and through. Ganz mainline. Ganz liberal. That means the leadership is apostate: professors, DPs, SPs.
Therefore, it is entirely appropriate for them to get rid of anyone teaching justification by faith, and very wholesome for those being removed if they are.
The SynCons are just an extension of the sex cult Bishop Stephan brought over to Missouri. Walther, his brother, and the other pioneers of Missouri went along with the female groupies around their bishop until it was convenient to dump and rob him. Expect no better from Harrison, Schroeder, and Pope John the Malefactor. They are all in bed with ELCA because they disbelieve the same.
The radical gay lib element in ELCA came from WELS UOJ. The core of Seminex graduated from Northwestern College. Their gay seminary chairman of the board, Jungkuntz, was a favorite professor in WELS and - wait for it - panted for UOJ.
They all meet at Fuller and Willow Creek because they disbelieve the same.
They all love pathetic new Bibles and hate Luther's English Bible (KJV) because they disbelieve the same.
