Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "The ELS Catechism Is Not Luther's Catechism - Nor ...":
It is all too common for the UOJists who endeavor to publicly establish their false gospel of Universal forgiveness and righteousness without faith to make monumental contradictions.
Moldstad is simply pulling a Buchholz by his fraudulent attempt to imply the UOJ quotes are taken verbatum from the faithful Lutheran Confessions. In Jon Buchholz' 2005 WELS Convention paper on Justification without faith he made three UOJ statements and then immediately contradicted himself by admitting that Scripture didn't speak that way and neither does it say those things.
Moldstad is doing the ELS a favor by his public heresy. He shows how much in harmony the new age false gospel of UOJ has with the Roman Catholic Antichrist. You see, they both anathematize (damn to Hell) anyone who confesses men are justified by faith alone. In harmony with August Pieper (favored student of Universalist Tholuck at Halle U.) the current versions of UOJ in the Lutheran Synods teach that the heart of the gospel is torn out if anyone emphasizes justification solely by faith. [GJ - August was educated in America; Tholuck wanted Hoenecke to stay in academics.]
What Moldstad's comparison shows is that the Lutheran Synods and the Roman Catholic Church have come together on the consequences of teaching justification solely by faith alone. Does anyone think the Antichrist will kick the Lutheran Synods out and refuse to embrace and fund them because they teach another gospel diversion? No. To Satan, one false gospel is as good as another.
All official teachings of the world's denominations are now pitted against one Justification solely by Faith in Christ alone.
The WELS 2013 Convention, the 62nd biennial, starting July 29th should be the turning point when WELS laity reclaim the truth of Scripture - the chief article of Christian faith - from the tyrants and hirelings that are leading their men, women and children toward the New World Religion of the Antichrist and away from the one true Gospel of one Justification by the gracious gift of faith in Christ alone worked through the Word and Sacraments alone.
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GJ - I know that Hoenecke was favored by Tholuck. I was trying to track Augie's education, but I only found the following link, which quotes Pieper but focuses on Hoenecke.
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2008/11/hoenecke-and-tholuck.html
Nevertheless, Brett's point is valid. In Europe, the rationalists were pitted against the Pietists, with the rationalists in control of the state church. Anyone trained for the ministry was greatly influenced by the rationalists at Halle, Leipzig, and elsewhere.
The men who formed the Synodical Conference and the other 19th century Lutheran groups were definitely Pietists with a side-order of rationalism. They had greater or lesser degrees of attachment to the Book of Concord. The unifying factor was not the Confessions but Halle and Spener.
The Swedish Augustana Synod came to America with the concept of each communicant needing to describe how he became born-again. They were in favor of unionism too, because in Sweden all the dissenters were united against the rationalistic Church of Sweden. In America they realized what a disaster faced them with a multitude of sects and a lack of confessional standards. They chose their name to honor the Augsburg Confession but merged into the LCA in 1960 with hardly anyone in that era knowing what the Augsburg Confession taught.
One cannot be a Pietist and an orthodox Lutheran. One must displace the other. The double-talk of Buchholz, Mark Schroeder, and the Moldstad boys reveals their need to market UOJ as true Lutheranism. One might as well paint over rust and say, "There! No more rust."
Stop all rust with WELS RUST-OLEUM. Simply paint over all doctrinal problems. |
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Daryl Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Brett Meyer - The Contradictions of UOJ":
Augie's mother emigrated to America in 1870 with her four younger sons. He graduated from Northwestern College in '77, then attended sem in St. Louis under Walther, Schaller, Guenther, Lange, Brohm, and brother Franz, graduating in '79.