Gideon Warns about Kookaid

Pastor Jackson,

Lots of good reading on your blog over the past month or so.  I really appreciate the analysis on the catechisms over time.  That was a real eye opener.  I didn't understand why your paid so much attention to it initially (months and months ago), but I do know now.

This crazy doctrine (UOJ, OJ/SJ) is just but a single facet of the decline of American Lutheranism, and I am not speaking of just the numbers.  I keep asking myself "why?"  And, the only answer I can come up with is that they must believe this clap-trap.  They are always talking a good game, but they have dumped the notion of efficacy of the Word altogether.  Why else would they always attempt the enhance the Gospel (UOJ) and enhance the Bible (NIV and others).  They talk about the Word, but apparently they don't believe God will deliver or He needs their help.

I read a book lately on the Third Use of the Law (Scott Murray - CPH).  Have no idea what the author's position is on Justification, but the book was an eye opener.  He defended the position that the Law does indeed have a use after conversion. Seems ridiculous that anyone would say that it doesn't but, at any rate he chronicled Lutheran thought on the topic since WWII, after which American Lutheran pastors and theologians were infected with Barthian Existentialism.  But, the theme that made an impression on me was this:  Some theologians made the subtle error of allowing their systematic theology to overrule Scripture.  The theology was correct....until it crossed the line to judge Scripture.  Some theologians actually used Law and Gospel (as a theology) to judge Scripture.  Who could argue with Law and Gospel, right?  Doing so allowed some theologians to draw some interesting conclusions with regards to the 3rd use (some dismissed it in the name of the Gospel for example).

 Gideon is dead on target with "improvements,"
which are described in the last paragraph.

I think the same is the case with the Synodical Conference over the past 150+ years.  Layers and layers of small "improvements" in theology and so forth have calcified in American Lutheranism.  With a healthy dose of nepotism make it harden.  UOJ is just one example, perhaps the most glaring error of them all. But, it can't be questioned, because "that's how daddy did it!"  In a sense, UOJ is American Lutheranism's analog to Catholicism's Purgatory doctrine.  As was demonstrated a few weeks ago on your blog, someone wrote in and blew UOJ to smithereens with nothing more than simple Scripture used in context.

You wrote recently:  "The advantage laity have over clergy is their lack of synodical brain-washing. Seminaries train future pastors to be synodocrats. Those who conform best and think least are rewarded with non-parish jobs, high-carb dinners, and free deluxe travel. One could start a new synod simply from settled, hush-hush lawsuits each year.

So "I'm only a layman" is an advantage, not a liability."

I would only add this qualifier:  ONLY if they spat out the Kool-Aid, and shook off the slick ministry plans, etc. and simply read the Scriptures.  

This isn't easy.  It took me many months of examination after stepping back to get a larger perspective.  After all you're supposed to implicitly trust your pastor and synod.....to judge Scripture for you?  Friendships, relationships, euphoria...meanwhile who's reading the Bible as it was intended?  When you're inside you just don't see clearly because it never occurs to you to challenge or test the spirits.  You're in the program!  You drink the Kool-Aid.  You open your wallet.  

Most members I have known don't even know what UOJ or OJ/SJ is; they are easily steered by ministry efforts to enhance the Gospel. They just go along because they just like that smiling nice man.  And, I think there are a lot of pastors too that have been suckered in by the program.

American Lutheranism is dire need of Reformation.  They need to shed corporate influence (let Thrivent go back into the business of paying for funerals), return to solid theology and as much as I hate to admit it, they need to downsize by giving the congregations back to the congregations.  This can happen when they start teaching the Bible again instead of worksheets and stupid thick catechisms that no one will really read anyway.  There's plenty of good theology out there; we don't need any more improvements.  The theologians that have calcified the Lutheran Church are progressives.  And that progress needs to be rolled back.

SDG,

Gideon

Relax, folks - their replacements will be worse.
Some thought ELCA Bishop Hanson was bad, then came Liz.

Some Clarity about Objective Justification versus the Chief Article

The heart of Objective Justification is the same in all its flavors and its names - God has already declared all men absolved (justified, free of sin, as a judge would) when He raised Jesus from the dead.

This general absolution is not the Atonement, which is sidelined and almost ignored. For Walther the German speaker, general means "every single one."

Note that in America, "general knowledge" does not mean that most people know a fact, only that many do. But in German, the word is algemeine or - universal.

Pulling phrases from the Bible is contrary to teaching the Word. Shouting thesis statement is also inadequate.

Walther's language clearly comes from Halle Pietism, through Bishop Stephan, seducer of  young girls, via Halle University, the center of rationalistic Pietism.

This odious sermon borrows deceitfully from Romans 4:25 and 1 Timothy 3:16.

Romans 4:25 KJV

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

1 Timothy 3:16 KJV  justified in the Spirit,

First impression of Romans 4:25 - That is an incomplete sentence, but also lacking a world absolution based upon the Resurrection.

What about 1 Timothy 3:16? I chose only the phrase being used, but there is also no world absolution in that creed or hymn, which is exclusively about Jesus. Six aorist verbs are about Him, not about you being born forgiven.

1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Hint to all the hip modernists and Evangelicals - you are just repeating the vapid subjectivism of the Halle rationalists. They - like Schleiermacher - lacked faith in Jesus so they made it all about themselves, just as Karl Barth and his delightful slave mistress assistant, Charlotte Kirschbaum did.

What better shopworn creed with which to launch a thousand clergy adulteries? - than Barth's at Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek! But I digress - a serious weakness when the topic of UOJ comes up. But it is a short mental trip from the felt needs of Karl and Charlotte to the felt needs approach of Fuller, WELS, and Paul Calvin Kelm.

Objective Justification blends the Atonement and Justification by Faith together, rendering their new language contradictory and ridiculous.

Synonyms:
The Atonement is the Gospel, the datum that the Son of God died for the sins of the world. This is also called the Reconciliation, the Redemption, the Expiation, and the Propitiation. Some call it preaching the cross.

Preaching the cross - or those synonyms above - does not absolve the unbelieving world of its sin. The Holy Spirit carries  this Gospel message to individuals and plants faith in their hearts. See the Parable of the Sower for how that can turn out. Or the True Vine in John 15 about those who no longer remain with the Means of Grace.

UOJists love terms that convey God's universalism, which is utterly contrary to the Scriptures:

1. The Justification of the World - John Sparky Brenner
2. Universal Objective Justification - David Valleskey
3. General Justification - Germans in general
4. Objective Justification - O. J. Webber
5. Justification - Liars when they want to conceal their dogma
6. The Chief Article - Zarling, Bivens the Plagiarist, and S. Valleskey (WELS graphic below). They open with "Justification," apply the Chief Article attributes to it, then slither into UOJ - as if Absolution without Faith is the historic, Biblical Justification by Faith.

 The Three Chief Article-ists of WELS,
posing formally and informally.

The Lutheran Church Methodist Synod Has Lost 500,000 Members Since 2000 - In Spite of UOJ and Church Growth

"The Lutheran Church Methodist Synod is losing members twice as fast as we are, so we are feeling great. Besides, we have our own gay ministry. Keep your friends close and your enemies uncomfortably closer. That's what I say."

How could this happen? LCMS lost 500,000 members since 2000? They have five (5) in the Church Growth Hall of Fame, named by C. Peter Wagner hisself!

They have Herman Otten as their PR director, story-spiker, and UOJ advocate. He is a long-time spin-doctor for David Valleskey, the sainted Waldo Werning, and many other Fuller alumni.

Let's be frank - the leaders of LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC (sic), ELCA, and the Church of Rome are Fuller trained, sometimes by zombies trained by Fuller, but bilge is bilge, even when pre-digested.

Ominous signs - Fuller canceled their own expansion plans and shut down satellite campuses when they ran out of fools willing to part with big bucks for worthless degrees.

Now the little piggie seminaries feeding off the Mother Sow are closing down too. Few people show up to spend three years plus a vicarage for an iffy vocation in a failing church body.

Will Christian News issue a profound apology for backing these synodical thieves and liars, who gladly rob widows and orphans for another round of booze?