Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Getting into Calvinist Dogmatics and the Destructive Effects Thereof.
Calvin Ruined the Protestant Faith

VP James Huebner is a Fuller alumnus, like the rest of the WELS leaders.


This Universalism won in the latest version of the NIV, where in Romans 3, not only have all sinned, but all – yes all – have been justified, though the second all is not in any text. That no longer matters when the clergy know little Latin and less Greek.
New NIV Romans 3:22b There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all [GJ – not in any Greek text] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Young Calvinist, Old Unitarian

Sages of the past have said, “Young Calvinist, Old Unitarian.” Those regions dominated by Calvinists – like New England – show that effect, and the congregations shrink accordingly. The effect of rationalistic and contradictory Calvinism on people is to gradually reduce their trust in the Scripture and rely instead on Dame Reason. If we allow our human reason and fickle emotions to judge the Bible from the beginning, that lady’s work will not finish until nothing divine is left.

Universalism Is No Better

Calvinism is a type of closeted Universalism, so no one should wonder that Objective Justification is so similar. The Calvinist will consider the vast majority of people condemned to hellfire from eternity as a poor reflection on God’s grace, asking instead why not declare everyone forgiven and saved, familiar words to DP Jon Buchholz. Under such conditions, conclusions will be:
1.     Everyone is saved – basic Universalism.
2.     Everyone is saved and only needs to agree with that statement.
Those are hollow statements, derived from contradictory assumptions and clearly opposed to the Gospel, God’s grace, and the Word of the Holy Spirit.
In Romans 10, Paul shows that we are forgiven through faith in the Gospel. All who call upon the Name of the Lord will be forgiven and saved. They only come to faith from hearing the preached Word – reflecting on Isaiah 53, the Old Testament Gospel. Therefore, we must proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and salvation come from the broadcast of God’s Word, not from philosophical speculation.





From Orthodoxy’s Prolixity to Barthian Bombast

Lutheran Orthodoxy and Calvinist Attacks

Chemnitz compared the Calvinists and Zwinglians to renters in his brilliant conclusion to the Apology of the Book of Concord. The Swiss interlopers are like the renters who tell the owner of the properties that they would behave if only landlords did what they were told by those living in their homes and apartements. The Reformation began with Luther, Melanchthon, and many brilliant and faithful men drawn to Wittenberg. As stated before, Zwingli and Calvin pretended to agree with Luther until they had another way of viewing the Scriptures, the very source of false doctrine, separating the Spirit from the Word. They were no different from the Pope declaring revelations from the throne of his heart or Mormons writing and revising books from convenient revelations shared only with them.

Chemnitz studied under Luther and Melanchthon, feeling the force and anger of the Swiss separatists and their influence upon the Reformation. The forces against Rome were thus divided by not continuing a faithful witness to the Word. Chemnitz continued the style of Luther and Melanchthon, drawing out the lessons of the Word through careful teaching from the appropriate texts. After Gerhard, who worked with Chemnitz on the Harmonies, Lutheran Orthodoxy became far more philosophical and opaque in answering the philosophical objections of the Swiss.

Concentrating on the Third String

Certain Lutheran groups would have people sigh like rock fans when they hear the term Lutheran Orthodoxy, but that is misleading. One should picture enormous Calvinist tomes answered by equally large Lutheran volumes, each one engaged in the Latin terms for their philosophical structures built to replace the size and splendor of Medieval cathedrals.

Luther did not write a systematic theology, but later writers did, and the field of Christian theology became dry, sterile, and aching for replacement. Unfortunately, Pietism was the ecumenical answer and confessing the truth from the Scriptures was sidelined.

Walther and Pieper found it practical to teach from J. W. Baier and Pietism, rather than from Luther, Melanchthon, and Chemnitz.[1] By concentrating on the late, third string orthodox, the leaders were able to construct a rationalistic structure clogged with Latin terms. There is even a book published to help people with all of Pieper’s Latin terms. A key to the Scriptures would be more useful, especially since Walther and Pieper taught against the Bible, against Luther and the Book of Concord, against the Reformation.
American Protestants of the 19th century were influenced by rationalism, Pietism, and Lutheran or Calvinist orthodoxy. Some went through times when they sought to recover their founders’ wisdom and fidelity. Although Walther’s sect was considered or at least fashioned a repristinating movement, it was really a smorgasbord without the Swedes. They were brought over by a bishop, Stephan, and taken over by a pope, Walther. All the Stephanite leaders were cell group Pietists, though Walther pretended otherwise and everyone has officially forgotten the facts.
A lot of great work was done in publishing but the Halle Pietism of Objective Justification took over, pushed forward by Walther and his carefully selected successor, Pieper. No one should wonder that the Missouri Synod has two multi-volume editions of a dogmatics textbook – Pieper and Harrison. Both contradict the style and content of the Reformation, which brings us to the era of Barth-Kirschbaum.


Karl Barth and Charlotte Kirschbaum – Infidelity Personified

Once upon a time I met a graduate student at Yale. His wife worked at the Yale Medical School Library, where I labored in xeroxing rather than pediatrics or neurosurgery. He went on to write Karl Barth and Radical Politics, to head the Barth Center at Princeton. Barth was called the “red pastor of Safenwill” and his group of pastors the red circuit. His initial Romans commentary made him famous, and he was elevated or ejected into academic life, where he was over his head. His beautiful young assistant, Charlotte Kirschbaum, helped him with his research and everything else. Frank Fiorenza, former president of the Barth Society, said the Barthians concluded that she did the small print work in the dogmatics while he constructed the outlines. He took the glory for her labor, but he dedicated his first volume to Charlotte, lived with her in a cottage each summer, writing together, and moved her into his home with his wife Nelly and their children.[2]

Simply put, that enormous set of books is an intellectual structure to enhance and promote the Marxist politics of Karl Barth and his mistress, Charlotte Kirschbaum. Barth did more than cheat in his marriage and ordination vows. He also plagiarized the work of his lovely assistant, who worked for nothing, only pennies for expenses. When people gave him material for his colossal set of dogmatics, he included their work verbatim, without attribution.
A few conservative Protestants saw his clever claptrap for what it was, a mask over apostasy, where he presented an idea and undermined traditional Christian teaching. Like all Calvinists, he loathed Lutheran doctrine and made that plain in comments like this, “He was a good Lutheran, too good a Lutheran.” He finally dedicated his last volume, which was not finished, to Nelly, after Charlotte became sick and died. The Dogmatics ended with Charlotte’s life, but the damage has continued.

Barth has fooled the conservative Evangelicals to such an extent that one Hillsdale College professor tore my head off when I suggested Barth was an apostate and a fraud.

Just as Scheiermacher was the first liberal theologian, a product and a professor at Halle University, so Barth was the most ecumenical apostate of the 20th century and beyond. Two influential professors at Fuller Seminary studied under Barth and brought back his rationalistic view of the Bible – it contains God’s Word but is not God’s Word. One WELS pastor earned a DMin at Fuller Seminary and wrote to me in a note, “You are right. Barth is the official theologian of Fuller.”

The famous Battle for the Bible narrative, about Biblical inerrancy being excommunicated from Fuller, is based upon Barth’s influence on the seminary’s leadership. Harold Lindsell wrote about the agony caused in a school founded to teach inerrancy and turned another direction by Barth alumni, one the founder’s son. Is there a better Absalom than Daniel Fuller?
2 Samuel 18:33 O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
Fuller expanded greatly after abandoning inerrancy, sending out a brochure which is comical in its angry confession of principles –

"Were we to distinguish our position from that of some of our brothers and sisters who perceive their view of Scripture as more orthodox than ours, several points could be made: 1) we would stress the need to be aware of the historical and literary process by which God brought the Word to us... 4) we would urge that the emphasis be placed where the Bible itself places it—on its message of salvation and its instruction for living, not on its details of geography or science, though we acknowledge the wonderful reliability of the Bible as a historical source book; 5) we would strive to develop our doctrine of Scripture by hearing all that the Bible says, rather than by imposing on the Bible a philosophical judgment of our own as to how God ought to have inspired the Word."    David Allan Hubbard, "What We Believe and Teach," Pasadena, California: Fuller Theological Seminary, 800-235-2222 Pasadena, CA, 91182. [emphasis added]

Fuller Seminary went after the leaders of all denominations in world missions, then did the same with Church Growth. They did not exclude Roman Catholic leaders. No one missed the message that study at Fuller was the best way to leverage one’s career, especially when the executives suggested it, funded it, and rewarded it with promotions. All Protestant denominations are burdened with Fuller Seminary alumni, many with drive-by DMins, all anxiously and energetically destroying their denominations in the name of growth. These know-it-all bumpkins wreck worship, evangelism, and Scripture while sowing hatred and various levels of infidelity. All this can be laid at the feet of Barth and Kirschbaum, their knowing enablers, and those too timid to object.

Creative Dogmatics tune in tomorrow




[1] Baier was born a century after the Book of Concord (1580) was published. That is like teaching the U. S. Constitution from the Chicago Tribune of 1920, using German philosophical terms.
[2] Marcus Barth spoke to Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, a small group gathered in a lecture room. Otto Heick gasped, “He is the picture of his father.” The Barth children were constantly embarrassed by his father’s living arrangements, hinted at in the Fortress Press biography of Karl Barth.