Part Three - Repudiation of the Webber OJ Essay at the Emmaus Conference

Book cover designed by Norma Boeckler

C. Law and Gospel Section p. 6



Webber’s fundamental mistake starts with assuming that the Gospel is the universal absolution of the world – without faith. Walther has some good statements in the copied (not written) Law and Gospel lectures, but those insights are from Luther. Like all those suffering from rationalistic Pietism, Walther contradicted himself without fail. So does Webber and the entire, small group of Lutherans who think they are orthodox because they agree with Halle Pietism and ELCA rationalism.

Because the OJ crowd does not comprehend the Atonement, they confuse it with the man-made dogma of universal forgiveness/absolution without faith. They imagine that every mention, every praise of the Atonement is another example of their precious OJ concept. Examples are:

• The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – but this does not mean absolving the world, Hindus and atheists without faith.
• He died for the ungodly – but Christ did not die for the godly.
• He was raised for our justification – but they ignore the preceding words – if they believe…
• Justified in the Spirit – since Jesus was declared righteous to the world, the world became righteous at the moment of resurrection, the dogma of Pietism – not the doctrine of Chemnitz.
• It is finished – Jesus was not speaking of His death, but UOJ. 

This universal absolution cannot be reconciled with any part of Scripture, though they may find a few sentence here and there, among the theologians, that elicit a gasp of awe as they declare “We have found the OJ core,” but that is irrelevant – even if true. The Scriptures are the ruling norm, not Luther or Ambrose or the early Robert Preus or the elderly JP Meyer.

Webber’s meandering prose about Law and Gospel is simply incomprehensible. That is the problem with someone pretending to be confessional without identifying what he condemns. He appears to be against justification by faith, but he cloaks this opposition, which would fall harshly on unwaxed ears. There is no confession, only another monologue from the Amen Corner of mainline Protestantism. His fellowship with mainline apostasy is revealed in his anxiety to commune ELCA members, meaning they believe the same things.

Do I need to mention that Webber quotes the ESV, the Calvinist edition of the National Council of Churches’ Revised Standard Version? Here is a discussion of the odious RSV, and its update, the ESV –

http://www.av1611.org/vance/nrsv_esv.html



Webber solemnly declares on page 8, “Do not try too hard to understand this,” and then quotes from the classic efficacy passage of Old Testament – Isaiah 55. Like Darwin, he can observe and study something for years and miss the entire story while publishing minute and largely irrelevant details. The efficacy of the Word, the work of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel Word – that is entirely missing in this botch.

After using up some of his notes from Old Testament class, Webber renews his attack on justification by faith on page 10.

A conditional message about a potential justification is not the Christian Gospel. It is no Gospel at all. It cannot calm the fears of a troubled conscience. It cannot grant comfort or elicit faith. Quite simply, a conditional message about a potential justification cannot forgive sins.

Compounding the stupidity of this straw man is one even worse, from Ken Schurb, whose only distinction is an alliance with Al Barry and Paul McCain. The verbiage is even more foolish – [Note the “in Christ” which is another fundamental error of Webber. The New Testament term applies only to believers, but that is conveniently ignored.]

A crushed unbeliever must be told that God is no longer angry with him in Christ, that all his sins are forgiven, that God has declared him “not guilty” (i.e. justified him) – or he will not believe…In other words, he must know objective justification.

Clearly, these two beginners have no grasp of justification by faith, so they distort both sides of the issue, calling their hogwash The Gospel and erecting a straw man instead of fairly and honestly describing justification by faith.

Some points of clarification were never taught them or the points were untaught them in seminary. Many never progress beyond required readings in school, especially when they keep an eye on how to get ahead in sects taken over by apostates. As the promulgator of the Kokomo controversy admitted, he never heard of UOJ before seminary at Mequon.

1. The Gospel Word has the divine, efficacious power of the Spirit to create and sustain faith, and this faith receives the promises and blessings from Christ’s atoning death and triumphant resurrection.
2.  Justification in the New Testament, Luther, and the Book of Concord only means justification by faith. Justification is always individual and always a matter of faith rather than works. If justification by faith is denied, the only alternative is justification by works. 
3. The entire work of the Christian Church is based upon justification by faith, preaching and teaching, Sacraments, pastoral visitation and counseling, marriage and burial of the dead. To say that the Gospel is teaching Universalism is an abomination.

Links - Repudiation of Jay Webber's OJ Paper at the Emmaus Conference, 2015

Copied from Robert Preus, Justification and Rome.

Complete review of the Emmaus Essay, Rough Draft

Links To Each Part

Part One

Part Two 

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven - Sloppy, One-Sided References

Part Eight - Gross Errors about Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Calov

Part Nine - The Pietists are Orthodox?

Emmaus Papers Below

Jay Webber PDF - Dropbox Link

DP Buchholz PDF - Dropbox Link

DP Mueller PDF - Dropbox Link

Additional

Apology of the Augsburg Confession

Cascione's Reprint of the early Robert Preus UOJ Essay

Martin Teigen book on Consecration - Free.

Thy Strong Word - Against Church Growth and UOJ

The Significant History of the Doctrine of Objective Justification - Rick Curia - This really exposes the inanity of Objective Justification. Judas Iscariot is forgiven, too!

Veterans Honor Roses for Mrs. Gardener - Pure Red and Fragrant. Double Delight for a Bonus

Veterans Honor bloomed all at once.

Double Delight added to the bouquet.
The granddaughter said, "Disney roses!"

Mrs. Gardener really enjoys red roses, so I planted Mr Lincoln along the fence and Veterans Honor in the main rose garden. The corner rose burst into bloom in the front, so I cut the best ones and put them in a vase. The Double Delight were fully bloomed, so I added them.

Family was there when I delivered the vase (and got two back). The kids wanted to smell the fragrant roses. The little girl said, "Just like Disney roses!" In one production, the roses are painted, and Double Delight roses do look painted.

I like cutting buds ready to open, because they unfold and last longer. Most people like the rose fully bloomed for show. The Double Delights were especially large and well formed.

The chewing and sucking insects seemed to have become food for the beneficial insects. I help by spraying the blooms and buds with a healthy, strong stream from the garden hose. Aphids cannot climb back if they are knocked loose.

Our Avon girl came by with an order, two vases, and went back with some roses for her mother.

No, I did not neglect Mrs. I. She admired the vase of roses the first half of the day. When I delivered the roses, I cut a new vase with Pink Peace and our first two John Paul II white, fragrant roses. John Paul II was attacked severely by rabid Lutheran insects, but now they are almost damage free.

I thought of spraying the buds and blooms with something stronger than water, but if it came to that, I would use a garlic spray instead.

Our helper mowed today. He is very impressed with the wild garden. Many flowers and plants are taking shape there - Cow Vetch, Butterfly Bush, Queen Ann's Lace, clover, and buckwheat.

John Paul II,
since he also has a degree from Notre Dame.

Night Drama - When the Second Shift Takes Over the Garden. Creation with a Purpose

The Chaste Tree alleviates PMS.
 

Another world opens up in the garden at night. For example, the slugs come out to do their work. An insect that hides from bright light will also feel comfortable at night.

Flowers that pollinate at night need no colors, because white flowers show up best.

I have gone outside late at night with my little LED flashlight, to see what is happening to various plants. I found slugs in the mulch, on the walls, and around young plants. When I set out the beer bowls, I saw this -

1. Crawling into the bowl and dying, night one.
2. Another bunch crawling into the beer trap, night two.
3. Slugs and leftover beer completely consumed by some creature - night three.

A dog or a raccoon could have had slugs and beer. That bowl was clean at the end. I stocked up on cheap beer and will try some more slug hunting. I thought they were under control, but as the woman says on TV, "I was living in a fool's paradise." They were chomping my newly purchased plants.

Now I have copper tape, which stops slugs by taking advantage of their electrical charge, an electricla fence of their own undoing.

I have looked at the white and yellow roses at night. One beetle likes to sit and chew vigorously on the flowers. I also have some aphids, but not on all the roses.

Walliser wrote, in her book on beneficial insects, that she became so enchanted by the dynamics of the insect world that she lost most of her interest in flowers - too static. I can understand that feeling, although plants are still my favorite part of Creation.

We divide Creation into parts, although they really constitute a living unity, balanced or achieving a new balance when something is over or under produced.

• The soil itself is an ocean of life, with the foundation of all plant, animal, and human health managed by fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and nematodes first and the larger creatures like earthworms second. 
• The surface is alive with the interplay of flowers, fruits, insects, spiders, toads,slugs, and ground-feeding birds, to name just a few. The birds count on certain seeds, fruits, worms, and insects, while the flowers  depend on bees, other pollinators, and each other for health. Garlic is the all-purpose medicine, insect repellent, and fixer in the garden.
• In the air, insects and birds do their work, day and night. The food controls the population of food eaters, so an explosion of bugs in the spring is met by a baby boom among the birds.

This little outline is so simple, compared to Creation, that it is more like the Cliff Notes of a Golden Book on Creation, and yet these lessons are lost on many.

Not one living thing listed above is capable of thinking about its role in life, its purpose, or its relationship to anything else, and yet we can observe and commend on this infinity of dependencies and marvel at their steadfast work. That shows the Hand of the Creator and His gracious purpose. Medicine is still being squeezed from the soil and the plants.

After I planted the Chaste Tree, I looked up more information about it. In ancient times it was thought to suppress the libido, but now an extract has been proven to help women with PMS. Scientists know that the natural world around them is full of medicines yet to be discovered. Since antibiotics can be counterproductive, fostering superbugs that eat the antibiotic for lunch, people are turning to Creation cures. A combination of garlic and onion has been used successfully on resistant infections. -

Scientists recreated a 9th Century Anglo-Saxon remedy using onion, garlic and part of a cow's stomach.

They were "astonished" to find it almost completely wiped out methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA.

Their findings will be presented at a national microbiology conference.

The remedy was found in Bald's Leechbook - an old English manuscript containing instructions on various treatments held in the British Library

If you do not know someone who has battle MRSA, you do not get out very much.

Veterans Honor - I dug a hole and got an armload of these.

Roses for Health

Rose hips are still used for Vitamin C, because the seed pod (hip) is packed with that vitamin. Some people enjoy rose hip tea, and others chew on tablets made from rose hips. Birds love rose hips, too. 

I see another side of roses - emotional health. "A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine." Nothing is quite so cheering as a bouquet of roses. We currently have seven families enjoying roses.

I reached the number five at first, but added some more as I thought about it. People love the sight and fragrance of roses, which last days in a vase and showboat their beauty outdoors. When we open our front door or approach the house, we get a rush of rose fragrance each time.

I have to prune roses to get more flowers. The plant goes through a hormonal change when the flowers are left on. They change from wanting to flower to setting seed and not needing to flower. Virtually all harvests are based on flowers, seeds, and fruit of plants. Some harvests are roots and tubers.

When I prune roses, they have to go somewhere. Spent flowers become mulch. Some flowers come indoors. The rest go to neighbors and family. Big smiles follow, especially when the roses are fragrant besides - a new trend.

Most of us have emotional memories about certain plants or flowers. I liked one weed-like plant because we had one growing next to our house while I was growing up. My paternal grandfather grew roses and citrus in Florida. A family story insists that he invented a seedless tomato and that my uncle lost the plant. The story is so dark that I was told never to bring it up, and I only learned it relatively late in life. If that story is true and my uncle had been more careful, I would be in the Bahamas now on a yacht or in court defending and pursuing various legal matters.

So here I am, reliving the sight of my grandfather's garden in Florida. Team Jackson often participates in gardening, when we have a grilling event. "Welcome to Jurassic Grill." We prune roses or pick edible pod peas. 

In Bella Vista I set up a corn cob feeder for the squirrels and blue jays - for our grandson, of course. He loved it as much as I did. Seeing a squirrel sitting on a little chair eating corn is great fun.

Birds splashing in the extra large bath, squirrels swinging from ripe sunflowers, roses blooming - all lend a great feeling of cheerfulness and make each morning an event. That may be God's plan.

"I shall not be moved."
Try to scare a squirrel from a window sill. He knows better.

I stopped at a bird feed store -
and bought squirrel food.

Part 2 - Repudiation of Webber's Emmaus Essay

Part 2 of review - Jay Webber Essay, Emmaus Conference, 2015

Webber’s claim to find only minor differences within the Synodical Conference view of justification is patently false. Wishing the differences away will not make that illusion a reality. (p 4)

1. The 1905 Missouri catechism, in German, taught justification by faith and never mentioned Objective Justification.

2. Concordia Publishing House, LCMS, still prints a KJV catechism with no mention of OJ in it, bragging that “two million copies have been sold.”

3. The original Gausewitz catechism, used by the entire Synodical Conference, perhaps standard for WELS, did not mention OJ but taught justification by faith.

4. Even within the OJ dream team, there exists a radical difference between the entire world being absolved at the death of Christ or at the moment of His resurrection. The dates cannot be reconciled, simply another part of the nonsense call UOJ.

5. In quoting Sasse about the Book of Concord, Webber is using a red herring, since the Book of Concord teaches justification by faith, not the anti-Christian dogma of justification without faith. (p. 4)

6. The Brief Statement quotation is correct about the Confessions, but the Brief Statement is utterly wrong about justification, serving as the triumph of the Stephan-Walther-Pieper faction. Besides that simple fact, the Brief Statement has no canonical or confessional authority whatsoever and only marks the beginning of the end for Lutheran doctrine and practice in Missouri and allied sects.

Webber, like Buchholz, imagines that declaring something to be true, without any evidence for that claim, is sufficient. But neither man has credentials for more than repeating the bromides of the Walther-Kokomo faction. If everyone is united, apart from trivial details, why is another windy essay needed? This farrago of unwarranted claims was so compelling to DP Bucholz that he gave it to his WELS congregations to read, mark, and inwardly digest. More than one got indigestion from it.

B. In the Webber Essay, Forgiveness in the Old Testament

Webber wants his audience to believe that he is being consistent with the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord. He quotes the Third Article, misunderstanding the Atonement, but fails to name the Article – III. The Righteousness of Faith. Why are these Enthusiasts allergic to the word faith? Justification by faith is slandered by calling it Calvinism or – oddly enough – Arminianism. One is the opposite of the other, so how ignorant can these people be? To remain consistent with the Great Walther, who had a limited education—only a bachelor’s at a rationalistic school—Webber has to treat faith as a work and make it inconsequential.

The ultimate irony is that Walther’s entire concept of justification came from a man with little interest in a theological education, who never completed his – Martin Stephan. But looking at the official history of the Missouri Synod, Stephan does not exist. According to the LCMS, the synod suddenly birthed itself, with Walther as the leader, in 1847, not when the cult landed in New Orleans in 1839 and Walther joined in making their Pietistic leader a bishop for life.

https://www.lcms.org/aboutus/history

Significant and damning details are omitted about the forgotten eight years between the landing in America and the formation of the Synod. So Webber is really defending the dogma of Pietistic era, a Pietistic cult leader who literally saved Walther’s life by turning him from unhealthy penitential works to the Gospel – or a bad version of the Gospel. 

 

He [Kuhn, their first Pietist leader] urged the group to practice various kinds of denial and hardship in order to test and prove their conversion and commitment and join Christ in His sufferings. It was said of the leader that he had come to his spiritual certainty through many temptations and believed others should do the same. Walther practiced these spiritual exercises to the extreme, depriving himself of food and exercise because he thought these things were sinful. Walther’s condition was described by Franz Delitzsch: “During that period of struggle he was wasted like a skeleton, coughed blood, suffered from insomnia, and experienced the terrors of hell. He was more dead than alive.”

Stephan, Philip; Stephan, Philip (2008-04-07). In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan's Journey (p. 67). Lexington Books. Kindle Edition.

Later, as Stephan degenerated in every possible way, he decided he was in charge of the souls and the bodies of young women. Kuhn was all Law, but Stephan was a Universalist, clinging to the formulae of Halle University.

When this was debated on the Intrepid Lutherans blog, Webber chose the explanation of Rambach the Halle Pietist, over Martin Chemnitz, the senior editor of the Book of Concord and Formula of Concord. Rambach over Chemitz? The Pietist Quistorp extolled as an orthodox Lutheran? The Pietist Stephan erased from history and replaced by Walther, another Pietist, now rechristened as an orthodox Lutheran. I see a pattern.

The heroes of the LCMS are the clergy underlings of Stephan who did not notice their leader’s adultery, in spite of massive evidence, including their leader leaving his sick wife and children in Dresden while taking his healthy son and his mistress on the same ship. The Walther circle chose not to see the obvious until the time came to organize a mob, threaten, rob, and kidnap their bishop for life. CFW Walther was already their leader, at the age of 29+, parish experience, about two years.

You must make a decision for world absolution - OJ:
Walther's and JP Meyer's confused synergism.

JP Meyer's synergism.
Will he accept or decline?
Make a decision for Kokomo Justification - no faith required.

Fashion Another Straw Man

Webber would have us accept his conformist (to mainline Pietism) views of faith. (p. 5) He must make his solemn declarations mesh with the sonorities of the Walther-Pieper-JP Meyer faction. That means dodging the teaching of Luther, Chemnitz, Melanchthon, Gerhard, and the Scriptures themselves. The OJ faction would like to have us believe they are not Universalists, but what definition fits those who declare the entire world forgiven and saved, as Webber and Buchholz do. When they walk their reasoning back to some authority, it is the Preuss who became a Roman Catholic after seeing a beautiful sunset – a sign from God to pope. Ignoring that, they say, as their cult does – “I cannot believe I am forgiven unless it has already taken place.”

This kind of statement shows the danger of engaging in slogans, which are repeated until they become a substitute for the Scriptures. OJ is a turn away from the Atonement, but that turn is a veering off the cliff into absurdities like the ones to be quoted from Webber.

“Our faith does not rely on a potential righteousness or even a righteousness that is not yet ‘our righteousness’ before God.” (p. 5)

“Our faith does not contribute, in whole or in part, toward bringing ‘our righteousness’ into existence.” (p. 5)

Martin Chemnitz Press Books - Free PDF Links Posted on the Left

As requested by Alec Satin, I have posted all the Martin Chemnitz Press books on the left. The PDFs are free for everyone to use and free to share.

It is too bad that I have closed down so many blogs, or they could post my book links and use them to prove how horrible I am. Maybe WELS and Missouri could pick up the slack.

• Look at that, he believes in justification by faith.
• How horrible, he teaches Creation. 
• Oh no! He gives away his books. Here they are.
• Closed communion? Here is the proof.
• A picture book about Jesus in full color. So evil.
• True story - Jay Webber to another pastor - "Don't listen to Jackson He has a demon."

The link list will not stay at the top, but it will be somewhere in the upper half of that column. New sticky posts tend to drive the rest down in time, so the list gets re-adjusted from time to time.

Many Lutheran resources are found here.

Thoughts from a Reader

Dear Pastor Jackson,

Just a short note to tell you how much I'm appreciating Thy strong Word.  So far I've finished the first chapter and am about halfway through the second.  Your defense of the Received Text was among the best I've seen.  It balanced well the narrow road of making it clear without overwhelming with minutia.  This seems not easy for many to do.  Extremely helpful to me was your discussion of the 3 "rules" of textual criticism.  I've discussed this with a Pastor friend (ret.) who has done some work on defending the AV in Reformed circles.  He took it very seriously, and was glad to hear it.

Also generous of you to provide your book for free on your website.  Thank you.

A thought - have you ever considered offering the book more visibly on your site?  If you offered it in individual chapters as well as the full PDF, it might be more accessible to people who would not choose to take the time to go through the whole thing.  The content is too important to allow it to fall by the wayside.

On a side note, your garden seems to be shaping up well.  Happy Spring!
Alec

Today's thought on alecsatin com: Good morning America, how are ya'? Monday Morning Rail

***

GJ - Thank you for the encouragement, Alec.

Here is the free PDF version of Thy Strong Word. I will set up some sticky links on the left.

I am not going to post an entire chapter at a time, because 50 pages of text is too much for a post. I may assign a chapter to study from time to time.

I am banned, censured, and shunned in so many Lutheran circles that having my books mentioned always shocks me.

Logia, the vanity journal started with Schwan guilt money, would not accept paid ads from me.

Resisting the Monoculture - Planning for Fall

Imagine eight of these Veterans Honor roses on one plant.
They last up to two weeks in a vase.

Veterans Honor burst into bloom yesterday - eight perfect, fragrant, red roses on one bush. Planning ahead meant the soil was ready for the roses, long before they were planted. Soil creatures were abundant in each hole dug - red wiggler earthworms bailing out of shovels-full like paratroopers. Jackson Mulch and daily watering got the roses off to a good start.

The few laggard roses, poised on the edge of non-growth, caught up from extra prunes to waken them and rainwater to give them the best Intensive Creation Unit care.

Sharon Lovejoy and Jessica Walliser offer a three dimensional view of the garden, with plants as the backdrop for a wide array of God's creatures involved in a constant drama, like classical Greek theater, antagonists and protagonists, slugs and assassin bugs, All of Western literature is based upon the clash of heroes and a chain of events centered around Helen of Troy, "the face that launched a thousand ships and toppled the topless towers of Ilium."

In the garden, the events began at Creation, with each element designed to relate to all others. Unraveling all the relationships is like studying Greek literature and history, which still affect and influence us today, but Creation is far more complex and inter-related.

But we’ve also got some problems with them that will probably never be sorted out. As you already know, fewer than 1 percent of insects are considered agricultural pests, but those that are present some big challenges. As we continue to turn to more ecologically friendly methods of pest control, the use of natural enemies to aid our efforts becomes more and more valuable. The science of biological control, or biocontrol, uses one living organism to help control the population of another.

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 2889-2893). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

We can change the drama in the garden by setting the stage differently. The props are already there and freely available. My distant neighbor has two KnockOut roses in his yard. He pruned one carefully, and it looked like an oil painting when it bloomed. He even built a  base  around it and added some soil or compost. The other rose was left alone and soon looked neglected. Now both are neglected and sport old, tired, woebegone roses.

Batman or Catman.

The landscaper is now ready for his red wigglers, as soon as he is done installing Jackson Mulch in his rose beds. He is tearing out his collection of weeds and putting down newspaper and mulch. The newspapers are free leftovers - "You won't get mine anymore," he warned me with a smile. The mulch costs very little.

Our artist-in-residentce, Norma Boeckler, just finished installing Jackson Mulch in her garden, observing how neat it made the garden.

The first is to not consider it a dedicated border per se but rather to incorporate as many of the plants profiled in the previous chapter into your existing landscape as possible. Scattering them about in hopes of increasing the structural and floral diversity of your existing landscape will likely lead to an increase in the numbers and diversity of beneficials you find on your property. To some extent, this is how I got started with my own insectary plantings. I already had a handful of perennial gardens, a vegetable garden, and lots of shrub beds and foundation plantings. Instead of adding plants that I thought were pretty, I began to incorporate some of the species known to provide for beneficials (many of which also happen to be very pretty plants). The addition of any of these plants to any part of your landscape is a decent place to start.

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 2923-2929). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

From various authors I realized that adding a few plants will create a haven for beneficial insects who will earn their way in the garden. Simply leaving pests alone will draw beneficial creatures to this bounty of food.

Another change was adding an abundance of water sources for the birds and toads. "They have plenty of water already. This is not a desert." If you think this is a minor matter for birds, reconsider. My community pool for birds - a former kiddie pool - is messed up each day and needs to be dumped and refilled frequently, with a good hosing to clean it out.

I refill all the shallow water pans twice a day - mark that well. If one birdbath is enough, why are they using up 10 of them? The abundance attracts even more birds and creatures, and the guests stay to earn their keep by patrolling the yard and feeding on insects and grubs.

How many plants have decided to grow a bug on their flowers,
to keep pollination active?
And yet so many deny Creation.

In the Fall
I have a natural wooden border for the wild garden in the back. If the landscaper trims more of his trees, I will have more logs to place on the lawn as a low fence, bug-bird-toad haven. The grass is growing tall, because we no longer mow the wild garden. Bushes and favored weeds are growing up to shelter insects.

Queen Ann's Lace is Bird's Nest
for its manner of bunching up when seeds are maturing.
Beneficial insects count on this flower for nectar and pollen.

Queen Ann's Lace is often found in neglected areas, a group created by their prolific seeding. In the wild garden I have several growing alone, mulched, watered, earth-wormed to a fare-thee-well. They are majestic in reaching their full potential.

That is the fun of weeds. They survive almost anything, so a little pampering turns them into real showboats. Pigweed shoots up and spreads out. Queen Ann's Lace spreads its branches to gather more sun and pollinators. Cow Vetch clmbs the fence to catch the morning sun and drop more seed for future generations.

The wild area will be mulched with cardboard, newspaper, and autumn leaves this fall. Quenching the lawn in the back area will feed the soil and set the stage for new plants in the spring.

A cold wet spring gave way to summer heat and dryness.
Rain may be back next week.

Beginning of the Repudiation of the Emmaus Essay

Jay Webber Essay, First Part

The Term Justification and the Double Justification of OJ and SJ.

            The essay begins with the routine, practiced dishonesty of the crowd who took over the Synodical Conference and sold its members down the river to mainline apostasy and union with the ELCA. Nothing is more appropriate than to have Jay Webber write - an advocate for open communion with ELCA. Moreover, as a Lutheran missionary in the Ukraine, Webber was happy to work with and obtain money from Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, Church Growth advocate extraordinaire in Columbus, Ohio – unfaithful in marriage and doctrine, expelled from the LCMS but embraced by WELS/ELS.

            The essay is not about justification but the pet dogma of the mainline Protestants, CFW Walther, and Martin Stephan – universal absolution without faith. Webber chooses to call this “an aspect” of justification in focusing on Objective Justification. But for the heirs of rationalistic Pietism, Objective Justification is the Gospel and faith is only an afterthought. Yes, their Gospel message is – “The entire world has already been forgiven and saved, without faith.” Their afterthought is, “But you have to believe this for it to matter for your sin-free, guilt-free soul.” This afterthought is called Subjective Justification, which has also been demoted by Webber to an “aspect of justification.”

            These peculiar labels, Objective Justification and Subjective Justification, have a history, but one outside of the Lutheran Church. Long ago, when few theology books were printed, Georg Christian Knapp published his Halle University lectures in German. He was considered the last of the old fashioned Pietists at Halle, which was established to promote Pietism. The university rapidly became rationalistic, and some of that certainly rubbed off on Knapp. He denied that the Christian Church’s definition of the Holy Trinity was in harmony with the Bible. But Knapp was old-fashioned for his time, and his book was translated by the Calvinist Woods in America. Knapp was already established as a famous and traditional theologians for all Protestants, so this translation was published well before the Stephanites landed in New Orleans in 1839. However, the group remained German speaking for many decades and doubtless relied on the German edition of Knapp. The Calvinist translator explained Knapp’s opaque language in a footnote -

"This is very conveniently expressed by the terms objective and subjective justification. Objective justification is the act of God, by which he proffers pardon to all through Christ; subjective, is the act of man, by which he accepts the pardon freely offered in the Gospel. The former is universal, the latter not (Woods, p. )."

“His [Woods'] translation of Georg Christian Knapp's Christian Theology (1831-1833) was long used as a text-book in American theological seminaries.” (http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Leonard_Woods)

            The terms, conveniently expressed, did not come from Confessional Lutherans, but from a famous Calvinist with no Lutheran training. The impact of the English Halle lectures made itself felt when the two terms were adapted in Germany and pleased Walther, who approved their use. This does not make them orthodox or Lutheran, although the soothsayers would have us believe that. Instead, the adoption of Objective Justification reveals the common thread of Halle Pietism and rationalism in America. All the Lutheran groups were Pietistic to some extent and this Pietism soon displaced their loyalty to any Confessions, whether Calvinistic or Lutheran. The spirit of Pietism—which favors cooperation over sound doctrine—makes it easy for the LCMS, WELS, and ELS to work with the ELCA – especially through Thrivent.  Their own LCMS/WELS pastor, Mark Jeske sits on the Thrivent board.

Halle Rationalistic Pietism

            We should never underestimate the power and influence of Halle University and its rationalistic Pietism. The founder of the ULCA/LCA tradition was Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who taught at the Franke Foundation orphanage at Halle. The real founder of the Missouri Synod, Martin Stephan, attended but did not graduate from Halle University. In fact, Stephan never graduated from a university and was not qualified to be a pastor. His position as a Bohemian and Pietist gave him the credibility to be called to the Pietist congregation, which was closely allied with the Pietist Zinzendorf. The Pietist Stephan attracted the attention of the Pietistic Walther group of clergy, who gravitated to Stephan when their Pietist guru - Johann Gottlieb Kuehn - suddenly died.

The main theologian of the Wisconsin Synod, Adolph Hoenecke, graduated from Halle University in 1859. His mentor Tholuck was a Universalist. Thus we should not be too shocked that Hoenecke wrote about General Justification, a misleading translation of the German term – algemeine Rechtfertigung – Universal Justification (every single one, no exceptions, as in Universal Conscription).

            As one theological student asked, “What happened to Subjective Justification in the mainline denominations like ELCA?” The best explanation comes from the meaning of the term – not faith in Christ, but faith in Universal Justification – “the former is universal, “as the Calvinist Woods translated. The nature of Subjective Justification dooms it to make faith irrelevant, as Webber’s essay has demonstrated with countless, stolid, prolixic, redundancies.

Another Obscure Pietistic Hero

            Webber enjoys citing Pietists and baptizing them as orthodox or confessional Lutherans. The seldom-cited Quistorp gets that treatment from Webber, which would make church historians gasp in wonder. Strangely, Webber begins his essay citing Professor Caroll Herman Little, who once served as president of the seminary I attended – Waterloo Lutheran in Ontario, Canada. Robert Preus once mentioned Little to me and doubtless taught Little as an example of a ULCA pastor who agreed with the LCMS about doctrine. One little problem remains – the Canada Synod was Pietistic. For example, when one of the patriarchs of the synod visited a home and saw the boys playing cards, he said nothing. On Sunday, old Reble delivered a blistering sermon on the evils of playing cards – a typical Pietistic sermon for that era. Like most readers I have to wonder why Little’s opinions about justification matter to anyone.

Misuse of Justification as a Term

            The Objective Justification cabal has decided that their peculiar dogma is the justification of the Reformation, the Book of Concord, and the Scriptures. Rather than attack justification by faith directly, they simply substitute their philosophy for Biblical doctrine, knowing well that their OJ terminology is found no earlier than Pietism – after the Reformation – and freely witnessed in various denominations and even in cults.

“As an objective fact, justification is applied to the entire human race fully redeemed in Christ. [Read Rom. 5:18.] – Adventist website - http://www.jacksequeira.org/issues06.htm

“ Legal universal justification implies that all human beings come into the world legally saved, pardoned, justified; from God's perspective they are not lost. If it is true that every human being who has been and will be born on this planet was present in Christ when he died and that they all were legally justified, then those who are not yet born have already been justified.” Adventist website –

https://www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/materials/theology-salvation/some-problems-legal-universal-justification

One should not be shocked by Synodical Conference authors praising justification in the words of Luther and switching to OJ for the rest of the essay. Webber is almost this obvious.

            Indeed, Webber on page 3 indulges himself in the usual potpourri of Scriptural citations that do not fit. He quoted Romans 5:18 – as the Adventist did. In spite of Romans 4 being a chapter about justification by faith, climaxing with Romans 5:1-2, Webber fished out Romans 4:25, part of a verse, avoiding the real meaning of the sentence, chapter, and epistle.

^{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. KJV

As we see in many LCMS publications, the citations are simply stated as if they prove a contentious point, but there is no contention since the OJ mob does not recognize, quote, or acknowledge justification by faith. For example, Webber studied under Robert Preus but in this essay never mentioned the last book of Preus, Justification and Rome, which eviscerated OJ in a series of quotations from orthodox Lutherans.

More Confusion – In View of Faith

            As many have observed, the second part is just as distorted and strange as Objective Justification. Note the additional terms – Individual, Personal, and Subjective Justification. So many terms are needed to replace justification by faith. Webber defines this Subjective Justification as faith in Objective Justification –

“… the actual acceptance by faith in the Objective Justification.” (p. 3)

The plot grows even shallower –

“If personal or subjective Justification is the acceptance by faith of Objective Justification it is manifest that it does not take place ‘in view of faith.’ Thus a synergistic view of Justification is avoided. (p. 3)

The logic is bizarre, because Webber proves his assumption with his assumption, reasoning in a circle. Justification by faith is synergistic or Calvinism – I can never figure those accusations out. If justification by faith, as taught by Paul, Luther, and the Book of Concord, is synergistic, then what is faith in OJ, as taught by Stephan, Walther, DP Ed Werner, and David Valleskey?

            This in view of faith accusation seems to have originated in Walther’s febrile mind, where he imagined faith as a work. And yet, the self-contradicting Walther told his gullible followers they had to make a decision for OJ, precisely what Webber is claiming.

Naturally, one can never be accused of anything when aping Walther, but the circle of rationalistic Pietists supporting rationalistic Pietists is not a compelling Biblical or Concordist argument.

No Grasp of Lutheran Doctrine

            Webber displays no grasp of Lutheran doctrine as he wanders from point to point, something to be expected when someone starts with a Canadian-American professor of Pietism as the ruling norm of doctrine. There are minor disagreements among the Lutherans, say Little and Webber, but no worry. (p. 4)

            One would never imagine that this Webber essay is an extended, if bloated, attack on justification by faith, the Bible, Luther, the Book of Concord, the post-Concord orthodox Lutherans, Gerhard, groups within the LCMS, and Gausewitz. Dismissing a long history of justification by faith and large numbers of people who find OJ alarmingly foul, Webber tries to jawbone the new Synodical Conference into an agreement that never will happen. Too many people, when informed of the agenda of OJ, disagree with great energy and conviction.

           

           

               

Did You Plant That on Purpose? A Next-Door Nursery Trumps a Local Nursery

Coreopsis or tick-seed has many varieties,
and they favor beneficial insects.

More than once someone has said to me, "Did you plant that on purpose?" Many overlooked plants are the best possible treatment for the ills caused by monoculture - too much of the same plant.

My blog-friend and reader has a vineyard, and he points out the difficulty in controlling all the evils drawn in by a mass of grape vines. I see the same problem with rows of roses. Fortunately, I can drop beneficial insect plants wherever I want and provide host plants for my little allies.

Almost Eden is the next-door nursery, and the owner has the same philosophy about planting that I do. His wife works in hospitality for Walmart, so I do not have to listen to rants about our local mom and pop store.

I went through his website, looking for hummingbird plants - not only a major education by itself but also great encouragement for the future. The distant and expensive online nurseries deliver plants where the first question is - "Has it died yet?"

Any supplier is going to make me dizzy with the varieties of plants I have never grown. I know some of the names superficially, but that does not make me knowledgeable about how to use them and enjoy them. Some brand new names for me were - Chaste Tree and Beautyberry.

Now I am especially interested in plants -

1. Favored by beneficial insects. The life stages of various beneficial insects need more than food for their babies. The adults need their own food and shelter.
2. Visited by hummingbirds. Free hummingbird food is a plus since I do not own or fill feeders.
3. Loved by bees of all types. In Phoenix we had the leaf-cutter bees, black and ominous, but harmless. They lumbered through from time to time, harvesting leaves from my bougainvillea jungle. There are many varieties of bees, and they have their special roles.

I planted my latest finds from Almost Eden this morning. Sassy, after enjoying her 6 AM walk, sat nearby and supervised each hole.

Mrs. Ichabod wants screening plants to block the unscenic back alley view. I was able to put the Chaste Tree in just the right spot to grow 10 - 20 feet tall. This shrub-tree is the ultimate bee plant, which is fine with me. The flowers are beautiful and fragrant.

The Big Slug Trap
I began with one can of beer in the old roasting pan.

• First night - 24 slugs were in the brew and dead.
• Second night - more slugs were slowing moving in. In the morning many dead slugs were missing and the pan was almost dry.
• Third night - the pan was completely cleared of all beer and all slugs.

Hummingbird Plants - a complete list