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| John Brenner, Mequon aka Mordor His father was a great guy - John Slick Brenner. His grandfather was John W. O. Brenner. |
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| John Slick Brenner was energetic and lived to be 94. He asked me, "Why do you understand the issues and our own guys don't?" |
Crucial Section from Jars of Clay,
His History of Mequon
August Pieper Reflections, 1922
"Make no mistake," Pieper insisted, "The secret of Walther's power lay in his clear, popular, joyful, and convincing presentation of objective justification. That was also Luther's power , Paul's power, and the power of the Gospel itself, the power of God which creates faith unto salvation."
He goes on to explain -
In contrast to the justification scheme of later dogmaticians, Walther taught, not a justifying act of God in view of faith, but rather a faith in view of God's justification. God's act of justification [GJ - OJ] forgiveness of sin] precedes faith. It is not that the sinner must first believe [and only then that God forgives sin]. In this connection Walther repeatedly cited Luther's example of a royal castle that was actually bestowed on a beggar, whether he accepted it or not.
Jars of Clay, pp. 64-5
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| August Pieper became president of the seminary after Kohler was removed. |
"God's act of justification" is August Pieper's filter than places a gauzy layer of distortion over the Four Gospels. As Pieper admitted, Walther did not draw his dogmatic lectures from the Bible, not did he lead students into the Scriptures. He simply declared his statements, quite the opposite of Luther.
Luther did not preach a man-made institution, as the Synodical Con-men did. Each one was better than the other, yet they all agree against the Chief Article of Christianity - Justification by Faith.
Their use of the "Justification" is a smokescreen for Absolution of the World - Without Faith. That might seem to protect them from the charge of Universalism, but OJ is Universalism with a different set of words for the same content.
The treasure of the Gospel, as the Book of Concord says - using the words of Luther - is the Atonement, Christ dying for our sins. To confuse that with Justification by Faith is a crime of stupidity or one of gross deception.
