Ecclesia Augustana: Decisions, Decisions. WELS, LCMS Love Mark and Avoid Jeske

Ecclesia Augustana: Decisions, Decisions:

Decisions, Decisions

     Ever since the memorial regarding Time of Grace was sent to the Synod Convention two years ago, I have looked at Time of Grace's Facebook page daily. There have been some extremely concerning posts on there. Here's one from September 16:
"Only the love of Christ heals wounds. Only YOU can decide to let Christ calm your spirit and speak gently about what's hurting you.- PMJ"
Here's another from the day before that:
"Today, focus on letting God work in your heart-and don't be so suspicious of his motives.-PMJ"
Yet another one from September 2:
"Guess what? God guides your daily walk. He cares enough about your life to help you deal with life's toughest questions. Do you feel surrounded by darkness and unsure of what to do? Let him speak to you.- PMJ"
Here's another post from August 13:
"God's there for us when we need him. When we trust in him, we give him the chance to make even an illness work for us and his glory.- PMJ"
And here's another post from August 5:
"When we choose to believe Jesus, we release his blessings into our lives and miracles happen all over again. -PJM"
Here is the most recent one, which is from December 10
"Something to focus on this Christmas season-are you one of the INN crowd or one of the STABLE few? Will you make room for Jesus?"
(The emphasis in the quotes above was added by me and the pictures are from Time of Grace's Facebook page, accessed by my iPod)

Notice something wrong with the underlined words? In every case, there is blatant decision theology. Decision theology is a doctrine that has been condemned by the Lutheran Confessions in the Augsburg Confession article XVIII. It says that "it (man's free will) has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness." The quotes from Time of Grace seem to say the exact opposite! Martin Luther also says in his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed that "I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him." Since these statements are part of the Confessions with which one must "agree in doctrine and practice" in order to be a member of the WELS, and since Time of Grace's Rev. Mark Jeske is a member of the WELS, shouldn't Time of Grace publications indicate that decision theology is wrong, too?

     Another interesting post has been published on Time of Grace's Facebook page today. This is a link to the Time of Grace blog.  Pastor Jeske posted a list made by Thom Rainer about the top 10 things church members desire in a pastor. The article seems to insinuate that a pastor's success is measured by how well he is "meeting your needs."  The congregation needs to "know" that their pastor "loves" them, otherwise nothing else matters.  But what about preaching the Word of God in its truth and purity? The closest the article comes to expressing this truth is saying that members want their pastors to spend time in the Word, but only in the context of "effective preaching." If he teaches the Word truthfully, isn't that effective? What happened to Isaiah 55:11? God said through Isaiah that "so is my Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."  What if the purpose God desires through a pastor's preaching is to harden sinful hearts?  That probably won't seem very "loving."  Does that make the pastor ineffective?

This article pretty much says a pastor should be charismatic, an "effective" preacher, and love the church.  That's all well and good, but it's not what really matters.  A pastor can love his congregation even when he doesn't seem very "loving" to their sinful, fallen natures.  He can be an effective preacher even if he seems to drone on and on, or sticks to the historic Lectionary rather than following the "real, relevant, and relational" sermon series that are today's hits in American Christianity.  But this article would have us believe that "loving" the congregation and meeting what members feel are their "needs" are the primary goals of a pastor.  That is wrong! The pastor should preach the Word truthfully! It is effective by itself! That is the true and only way that a pastor can be a loving, effective preacher, meeting his congregation's TRUE needs.  In this context, I find it disturbing that Time of Grace would publish this article and find it to be "helpful, fair, and evangelical."

     Does anybody else find this scary?

 

'via Blog this'

More like the whole graphic.
Turn it upside-down.
EW_W_W_W_W_W!
Mark Jeske's own graphic at the top is all about Mark Jeske.

My Summary of UOJ - Its Crafts and Assaults

The WELS Conference of Pussycats went looking for false doctrine, and found it - in justification by faith.

The Scriptures
Justification by faith is taught by the Holy Spirit, throughout the Scriptures. That is the Chief Article of the Christian Faith.

The Lutheran Reformation
Luther, Melanchthon, Andreae, Chytraeus, and Leyser contributed in various ways to the Book of Concord, 1580. All taught justification by faith. On this distinguished list, no one taught or even implied any version, flavor, or nuance of Universal Objective Justification.

Samuel Huber's UOJ
Samuel Huber, a former Calvinist, promoted the first version of Universal Objective Justification, shortly after the completion of the Book of Concord. He was serving on the faculty of Wittenberg University. Polycarp Leyser and A. Hunnius defeated the efforts of Huber, who became a wandering exile from Lutheranism.

Huber's UOJ sounds exactly like WELS UOJ today. And that is really no different from the eructations of Eduard Preuss, the St. Louis professor who turned Roman Catholic apologist - everyone is already forgiven. When Christ died on the cross or (alternately) rose from the grave, God said, "OK, every single Hindu, atheist, cannibal, and polytheist is forgiven and saved." No one ever recorded that statement in the Scriptures, but the UOJ Stormtroopers tell me that universal absolution is the whole point of the Bible and the Reformation.

Pietism influenced Calov, but not enough to make him spew UOJ.

Robert Preus admired Quenstedt's detail and precision in theology.

Lutheran Orthodoxy Fading
If the Lutheran Reformation, Luther and Melanchthon, are all neglected today, the next generations of Lutheran scholars are treated with even greater indifference. The list in Robert Preus' two-volume work is filled with names that mean nothing to most of us. Preus was the last in a line of Americans who really knew those writings - Lenski and Hoenecke being among them.

The age of Lutheran Orthodoxy became mixed with Pietism, so the list in Robert Preus' work is not one of scholars totally devoted to Luther and the Book of Concord. He stated that Calov was influenced by Pietism. I imagine Sebastian Schmidt was a Pietist, because Schmidt seemed to produce a lot of UOJ material that Preus quoted in his earlier days.

Pietism as the Great Filter
All of the America Lutheran church bodies came over from Pietism, and they were established in Pietism.

Muhlenberg was a Pietist from Halle University. He established the ULCA branch of the LCA/ELCA. 

Bishop Stephan was a Pietist who studied at Halle. He taught his version of justification to CFW Walther, and Walther never changed.

Loehe was a Pietist who founded the Ft. Wayne seminary and the LCMS. His men invited the Stephan cult to join them. Loehe was flushed down the memory hole by Walther, but he was a positive influence on the LCMS in many ways. 

The Walther ministers were trained in rationalism and associated themselves with two Pietist leaders, the second one being Stephan. Absolute obedience to the guru was demanded and enforced.

The Swedish and Norwegian Lutherans who came over in the 19th century were also Pietists, which means the entire history of American Lutheran church bodies was one of dominant Pietism. 

Adolph Hoenecke, the WELS dogmatics professor and author, graduated from Halle

Halle was the center of Pietism, so Halle and Spener were sacred cows.

UOJ and Pietism
Rambach is a convenient historical marker for Pietism, Halle, and UOJ. The first baptism hymn in The Lutheran Hymnal was written by Rambach.

Knapp is the direct connection between the Synodical Conference (WELS, LCMS, ELS) and UOJ. The Halle professor taught there forever, and his published lectures pre-date the voyage of Stephan's sex cult to Perryville, Missouri.

Knapp was so dominant in the 19th century that his dogmatics book (in English) was used in all the mainline seminaries in America. The English translation used the language of two justifications, so fondly used by all the Waltherians today. 

UOJ and Mainline Universalism
Hoenecke's mentor at Halle, Tholuck, was a self-proclaimed Universalist.

UOJ became the dogma of all mainline Protestant bodies, so the Synodical Conference (for all its posturing) simply blended with the liberal unionistic bodies it was so keen to criticize. 

That is why the SynCons are so comfortable with ELCA unionism today - they all teach the same dogma of universal absolution - in the name of pure grace.

Did Justification by Faith Survive in the Synodical Conference?
Walther ruled over his sect, following the example of Bishop Stephan. He picked the subservient F. Pieper to parrot his teaching, which he cloned from Stephan. Nevertheless, it was a Germanic group, so access to Luther was easy. Missouri produced a gorgeous set of Luther's works in German, high quality paper and binding. I once owned that set and sold it to a WELS Quisling.

Gausewitz (WELS) was respected enough to be president of the Synodical Conference. His original catechism contained not a word of UOJ. Mark Schroeder should dig up Gausewitz' body and burn him at the stake. No wait. His First VP, James Huebner, has done one better - making Gausewitz disappear completely from Grace, Milwaukee. 

The LCMS German catechism taught justification by faith in 1905.

The English KJV catechism being sold by CPH teaches justification by faith, not UOJ. "2 Million Sold!" Harrison should excommunicate Paul McCain.

Adolph Hoenecke - WELS took forever to translate his work.