Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Concordia Publishing House -
Waste $90 So the LCMS Can Sell the Reformation Down the River Again!
Happy 500th, Dr. Martin Luther: Justification Without Faith



So many red flags pop up. At first I did not find the Chief Article on the Table of Contents list sent around, because the framework of this disaster is so odd. I found Justification by Faith under the Holy Spirit.

Does this overblown and overpriced set really teach Justification by Faith? That would mean repudiating the dark menace of Paul McCain, whose real job is getting Synod Presidents elected. McCain never really served as a parish pastor. The LCMS and WELS are staffed with UOJ - Justification without Faith - fanatics. The two cannot be reconciled.

Speaking of reconciliation. Here is one topic - Objective Reconciliation, under the heading of the High Priestly Office of Christ - and again later under Contemporary Issues. Let's be frank - there is no such category in the Scriptures, Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, or the Book of Concord. I highly suspect that this is the bait and switch trick used by Zarling and Bivens, who are UOJ WELSians to a fault.

Once the Objective Justification filter is placed over the Scriptures, all kinds of distortions take place. Those who are used to the Bible and Luther hear "Justification by Faith. " But the elite, the knowing, the secretive and malignant Stormtroopers think "Universal Forgiveness and Salvation without Faith." They merge the Atonement with Justification and polish their hybrid invention.

How can I be so harsh, when CPH intention$ are clearly so honorable? My wife and I have experienced cancer, which has only three cures - cut it out, poison it away, and burn it out. Love does not apply to false doctrine, because the Word, not love converts. And false doctrine is definitely a cancer - or like gangrene, depending on the translation.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

I see Gerhard Forde is so precious to CPH that he is commended as an author in a footnote (introductory material sent around).

Forde contributed to the LCA dogmatics text
that rejected every article of faith -
from the Trinity to the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ.

They think Christian Dogmatics is worth $1.83!
Too much!


Christian Dogmatics is a two-volume survey of the twelve major loci of Christian doctrine, each treated extensively in terms of its biblical foundations, historical tradition, and contemporary significance. From the perspective of the Lutheran tradition and in view of the unique questions and issues of the American context, each locus is developed independent of the others by six theologians, themselves influenced by divergent theological movements: Carl Braaten, Gerhard Forde, Philip Hefner, Robert Jenson, Paul Sponheim, and Hans Schwartz. Volume 1 discusses dogmatics, the Trinity, the identity of God, creation, sin, and Christology. Volume 2 treats atonement, the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, the sacraments, justification by faith, and eschatology.


Modern Theology Is Anti-Faith and Bankrupt - Stemming from Halle's UOJ

Hardly any modern theologians are worth reading, especially the "Lutheran" ones. Sasse is an exception. They may say "Justification by Faith" but they mean "Faith without Belief." They can write enormous, weighty volumes on every category of theology, but they have no faith in what they address.

This attitude came from the very source of UOJ - Halle University - and the pivotal theologian of modernism - Halle's Schleiermacher. He even wrote a Life of Jesus, but he did not believe, never did believe. Karl Barth, the Swiss Communist, followed that example and wrote his dogmatics with his mistress doing most of the work - Charlotte Kirschbaum. UOJ and adultery make a good team.

The style of this CPH monstrosity is definitely Barthian, and I know some of the names on their list - more saps from the same old Kirschbaum.

F. Pieper, the WELS drop-out, is also mentioned. Picked by Walther for his subservience to UOJ, elected because Walther broke the synod's rules on calling a professor, Pieper canonized the Walther-Stephan error of UOJ.



Besides - and I rest my case with this - WELS-ELS and the LCMS have already announced their excitement, their joy, their satisfaction that they agree on UOJ. That also gives them permission - yea even, motivation - to work at all levels with ELCA. They are not going to betray the war they have already won against Luther and the Book of Concord. What would Liz Eaton say?

Rough copy of Harrison's book cover -
who put Knapp, Loehe, and Stephan in there?

Schmauk on the General Council


“THE ONE CONSERVATIVE LUTHERAN BODY”

The future work of the General Council will devolve more and more upon the second generation, and by them and by all Lutherans in this land, two facts should not be forgotten:
The first is this, that the General Council is the one conservative Lutheran body in this country, accepting unreservedly both the Confessions and the history of the Church. As over against any radicalism, which would cut away the Confessional fullness of our Lutheran Church, or which would make a syncretistic combination between parts of our heritage and other doctrinal elements in America which are not our own, the General Council stands firmly for the complete and concordant sum of Lutheran truth. With equal firmness does it accept and build upon the historical past, both in Europe and in this country, and avoid that other radicalism which, instead of purging the hay, straw and stubble from the old foundations, would begin, without just recognition of the good that is in the past, to erect, by means of an exclusive ecclesiastical organization, a new Lutheranism, without regard to any previous or contemporary work of Providence in the land...
The attitude of Luther toward the Catholic Church in the Sixteenth Century is the attitude of the General Council toward all forms of Lutheranism today. It would conserve the past and upbuild the future on the basis of a sound faith. Its depth is the depth of salvation which is in Jesus Christ. Its length is the length of history, and its breadth is the breadth of our own land and our own time.”

From George W. Sandt, Theodore Emanuel Schmauk A Biographical Sketch, Chapter 12.

Anti-Confessions: So ELCA, So WELS




From the biography of Schmauk:
The Minister of Christ will manifest Christ in the strength of individuality. He will not follow the stream whichever way it leads. From the cut of his coat to the formation of his opinion, from the most trifling act to the weightiest decision, he will not do only as others do. He will not dread being in a minority. He will not become a mere reflection, an echo, a shadow of those with whom he mingles. He will not imitate either preacher or thinker. Rooted firmly in the Word, he will develop and proceed in his own way, as God intended he should. — Schmauk.

From George W. Sandt, Theodore Emanuel Schmauk A Biographical Sketch, Chapter 5.

***
GJ - I was reading a little of the ALPB Online, about the latest scandal in ELCA. Their star ELCA pastor, who is also a journalist, began yapping about the Book of Concord:
"Can we trust anything in the Bible, Pastor Fienen, that is not verified by that collection of Lutheran partisan documents written to historically specific situations 500 years ago?" 
If someone presses a WELS pastor to offer a class on the Book of Concord, he will snort and say, "The Confessions are old, boring, and irrelevant." When using their double-talk, which they perfect in their hazing sacrament at Mordor, a WELS pastor will declaim about a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, a book he has barely opened and secretly despises - as he was taught by the profs.
Pastor Austin's attitude is exactly the same as taught in the LCA in the 1970s. The LCA assumed - Nothing mattered after 1530. Chemnitz, in the LCA, was not a genius faithful to Biblical theology, but a retrograde placing cast iron over every Biblical phrase.
The dunderheads in WELS motivated me to study Chemnitz, the Book of Concord, and the confessional struggles in the General Council/General Synod (which also involved WELS' history).
Schmauk represents the battle which he and others were fighting but losing to the future ULCA. Nevertheless - Schmauk, Krauth, and Henry E. Jacobs are worth reading and quoting today.
 "Beyond them..." opens the gates to UOJ, Church Growth,
and everything else.