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| Martin Chemnitz is ignored more than Luther, and Luther is ignored entirely today. |
LCMS President Jack Preus signed my copy of Chemnitz' Two Natures of Christ at the Indianapolis convention.
Chemnitz is like Luther. One can randomly open a book by either author and find great insights about Biblical truths and how to study theology.
The Chemnitz insight that I keep reading over is a simple concept. No one should introduce new categories or distinctions in theology. Nothing describes Universal Objective Justification better than that.
The precious SynCon essays have to admit that
- General Justification,
- Objective Justification,
- Universal Objective Justification, and
- Subjective Justification
are all new labels. Recent American Lutheran history shows that UOJ is leaven introduced by Stephan, Walther and their fellow Pietists, a minority opinion until 1932, when it was canonized in the Brief Statement.
Two sources prove that justification by faith was a prevalent teaching in the LCMS and WELS in the early days, in spite of Walther's popish rule over the Synodical Conference.
One is the German catechism of 1905, where justification by faith is clearly taught, without any hint of UOJ. That continues today with the KJV catechism still being printed by Concordia Publishing House - "over 2 million sold!"
The other is the original Gausewitz catechism, used by the Synodical Conference and dominant in WELS for many decades. WELS thought the Gausewitz had to be expanded in 1956 and replaced by the horrid Kuske UOJ catechism later.
Pastor Papenfuss himself, Mr. Kokomo, admitted to the families he kicked out that he never heard of UOJ until he got to Mequon.
Recently, Paul Kuske, the former District VP in Michigan, caused a fuss by calling out Mequon for teaching UOJ and turning out another batch of false teachers in the graduating class. DP John Seifert stripped Kuske of his emeritus status at a conference meeting, which really made a big deal of the issue. This recent episode is proof of someone being in the synod structure and yet continuing in justification by faith, which was taught earlier.
Nostalgia buffs claim that the Synodical Conference began falling apart after 1932 because Francois Pieper died. A better explanation for that apostasy is the elevation of the 1932 Brief Statement to canonical status and the insidious takeover of Missouri and WELS by the UOJ Storm-Brownies.
Both synods went through periods of the historical-critical method taking over Biblical studies and no one officially noticing. Both moved rapidly into fellowship with the LCA/ALC. They also suffered from Pentecostalism and now the endless assaults of the Church Growth/Emergent Church screwballs.
Missouri and WELS are so bankrupt in doctrine that they sponsor idiotic Emergent Church congregations as if that were perfectly natural for "conservative" Lutherans.
They also denounce ELCA, gay ordination, and abortion on demand while working closely with ELCA, whose practices they supposedly find abhorrent.
The SynCons have reached the point where they can no longer teach the next generation of pastors or youth because they have no grasp of Biblical, Lutheran doctrine. They are like grocery stores where the real food is gone, so they substitute candy, junk food, and soda pop to make up the difference - because those food groups are so popular with the young.
