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| Thy Strong Word: The Efficacy of the Word in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions |
A Reader Wrote This, Published with Permission:
Pastor Jackson,
There's so much for me to comment
about, but I can't keep it all front and center in my mind --especially
since I started reading Thy Strong Word. It is not a bed-time reader
because it is so stimulating. THANK YOU for writing and giving me this
book!
But, what I really wanted to comment on
was yesterday's blog on UOJ. You answer the question, "What does the UOJ Dogma Ready Say To People." You've spent most of your career
standing on the chancel looking down at guys like me in the pews, so
naturally you focus on what UOJ says, but I couldn't help but think about what it does.
What's the effect on the flock? And, you addressed just about all of
it: making sin and repentance superfluous, confusing confession,
repentance, absolution, hymnary, etc, and finally destroying Justification
by Faith.
And, it does all that. But, what I
have observed sitting in my pew listening over the last 15 years or do
is the gradual erosion, de-emphasis on faith, but even worse the
devaluation of the Gospel. In other words, a real good question is what
does UOJ do to the Gospel itself? Without the things you mentioned in
your first two points, what is the value in the Gospel anyway?
To
speak more directly or concretely in the world in which I live, where I
am surrounded by unbelief I listen and talk to these people. The
message of UOJ ( or OJ, or General J, or whatever) has no appeal at all
to people because the UOJ Gospel is worthless to them (as it really
isn't the Gospel at all). Most unbelievers' response to the pitch of the
Gospel tainted by UOJ with , "So? What do I need that for?" "What
good is it?" "Saved? Saved from what exactly?" "I'm a good person!"
We've heard it all before.
For the man in the
pew it certainly does destroy or erode faith because the Gospel is
constantly being devalued like currency. They overuse that passage 2
Corinthians 5:21 and forget we are sinners too and that we need to drown
that old Adam. And, so if the man in the pew will either fall one of
two sides:
- He has a conscience that's screaming "Oh my sin!" but it's just never treated from the pulpit, in this case it devalues the Gospel leaving the poor soul in despair as he surely is thinking "I am too horrible to even be in this place because everyone around me is so good." Why else is law not being treated? or
- Faith is destroyed because it is no longer necessary since there is no conviction of sin at all. No need for the Gospel since we're innocent to begin with. These folks seem think that as long as they work hard and play nice (that is they are being pious in their dealings with their fellow man), that is all that's required.
..and it all boils down to
faith in the end. That's why I believe that theology is such an
important part of any Lutheran (yea, any Christian) congregation
because of its impact on faith. False doctrines like UOJ undermine
faith and devalue the Gospel. Why they feel that UOJ is even necessary
to begin with escapes me except that mayhap they feel like that God
needs their help. But, every time man tries to do God a favor, things
get messed up (cf. scholasticism, UOJ, Church Growth, NIV11, Rock Band,
etc. ad nauseam) it usually is at the expense of faith, which can only
come from the Word.
I sometime wonder what it would look like if one of these pastors tended their flock with the focus on their faith?
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| The LCMS and CPH responded to the Reformation's 500th by selling these glasses, perhaps a Lutheran version of Church Growth Eyes. |
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| The UOJ LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC-ELS faculties are united: the blind leading the blind. |
***
GJ - I responded - "Yes, I agree with you, and I have seen the impact of UOJ among the WELS clergy. There is no sin because they are all forgiven and saved. That catches up with them and then they are truly a mess. I don't think most of them lay it on the congregation so hard, but some do, and it is always implicit in what they say and do, as you say."
Gausewitz is the great divide. Once upon a time, almost everyone in WELS learned the Small Catechism with the original Gausewitz. Thanks to the influence of JP Meyer, the synod moved 100% into UOJ and abandoned Gausewitz for Kuske. The false teachers found UOJ a convenient cover for their apostasy, because nothing matters once UOJ is adopted - as the mainline denominations gleefully acknowledge. All of modern theology - including Roman Catholicism - is UOJ.
The LCMS is not monolithic, so many pastors and congregations get away with Lutheran doctrine and worship. I am getting new FB friends daily from the LCMS, because they contact me.
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| They cannot even confess the Biblical doctrine of Creation at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The faculty's position is ELCA lite. |