Obnoxious Oddities from a WELS District President - Yet Taught by WELS

The following quotations have been reverently copied from the two convention essays delivered by Jon Buchholz, ex cathedra, at a WELS convention. And yet the California Arizona district voted him in later as a District President.

Buchholz is really serious about discipline. He spent years studying the Jeff Gunn parish before welcoming the Church and Changer. He was "concerned about the souls there," he claimed.

Justification in Mission and in Ministry - Pastor Jon D. Buchholz 

The term objective justification never appears in the Lutheran Confessions. Without using the term, however, Luther and the confessors taught that God’s justifying work in Christ stands as an objective, accomplished fact, which is apprehended by faith. It wasn’t until nearly 350 years after Luther that another controversy in the Lutheran church forced theologians to formulate terms to relate the justification completed at the cross to its appropriation by faith. 

The status controversiae which precipitated a thorough discussion of the universal nature of God’s forensic act was a dispute among Lutherans in the later 1870s about the nature of faith and God’s eternal election to salvation. Part 2, page 1.

No, Luther and the Confessors did not teach forgiveness without faith, also known as the Easter absolution of the entire world. Nor did Walther's promotion of Halle Pietism create the term Objective Justification. That came from the Calvinist's English translation of the Halle professor, Knapp. Walther adopted the double justification scheme, which actually traveled to Germany first and bounced around before Walther discovered the double justification scheme.

The English translation was published before the Stephanite ships landed in New Orleans,
but Walther learned Easter absolution dogma from Martin Stephan,
the Halle-trained cult leader who found the LCMS.

Walther correctly observed that Ohio’s doctrine of election was synergistic.2 It undermined God’s grace, and it incorrectly made faith—something inside man—into an effective cause of salvation. Walther stood with Luther and the early Lutheran theologians and insisted that there are only two causes of salvation: (1) the grace of God and (2) the merits of Christ. Part 2, p. 1.

Why do these false teachers always begin with Walther? The main reason is their ignorance of Scripture, Luther, and the Confessions. Another reason is clear - they cannot derive their precious Objective Justification from Genesis 15, Romans 3-4-5, Galatians, Luther's Galatians Commentary, or anything else - except the heretic Huber - before the age of Pietism.

Like all UOJ Enthusiasts and Walther, Buchholz treats faith as a work of man and conveniently ignores Augsburg Confession Articles IV and V, not to mention the entire purpose of John's Gospel and the Bible - to instill faith in Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Walther stood with Stephan - against Luther. Neither Pietist had an adequate education, and both were inordinately proud of their own opinions.

Synergism is "making a decision for Christ," not having faith in Christ. This charge is ironic, because Walther's dogma (JP Meyer, et al) demand that the individual "make a decision for UOJ."

The two Kokomo families were kicked out of their WELS congregation
for rejecting this nonsense, a rehash of Walther. See below.

Walther says - you must make a decision for UOJ.

"The Word of God is not rightly divided when faith is required as a condition of justification and salvation, as if a person were righteous in the sight of God and saved, not only by faith, but also on account of his faith, for the sake of his faith, and in view of his faith.3" Part 2, page 1. Walther, Law and Gospel, Thesis XIV

Does Walther condemn Paul? - faith is the condition of justification
here and everywhere else except UOJ Pietism.

Buchholz pretends to be Biblical, but - like all Enthusiasts - he begins with dogma and searches for scraps to support his opinion. Theological libraries are packed with volumes dedicated to the same method.

Buchholz is infatuated with himself and will listen to no one. When I told him he was getting there with his restaurant napkin exposition on the Means of Grace, he immediately contacted Brett Meyer and said I agree with him - Buchholz - against Brett. That was clearly not so.

I was appalled that Buchholz had a free copy of Thy Strong Word but excused himself from even glancing at it. Subsequently the District President proved to be full of duplicity and cowardice in promising to discuss justification with the congregation in New Mexico and kicking them out with glee while trying to foreclose on their mortgage.

As I recall, he excommunicates by email after having the chance to discuss matters face to face. Walther did the same thing. That may be why Buchholz prefers Walther to Luther, Rambach to St. Paul.