The Missourians have observed a strange method in the defense of their new theological foundling. From the beginning and all along they have dealt in mysteries at wholesale. When it was objected, that their doctrine of election militated against the order of salvation, the exclaimed, Mystery! When it was shown that it made God a respecter of persons, by rejecting some on the ground of unbelief, whilst He elected others, who were, when election took place, in the same condition, they cried, Mystery! When it was answered that they made God act partially in removing willful resistance to converting grace in some, and not in others, thus allowing them to perish, they said, Mystery! When it was replied: that to set up a secret will of God to run counter to His revealed will in His Word, was to upset the whole Gospel, they vociferated, Mystery! You nasty Rationalists, don’t you see the Mysteries! And thus they led a charmed life and were invulnerable, whilst they handled the Bible proofs of their opponents with the most palpable rationalism.
Of late, however, as the constant cry of mystery had become insipid, they have resorted to a really desperate way of defending their indefensible cause. It is that of impeaching the moral character of their opponents, of throwing stones whilst they themselves live in glass houses, in which Mr. Kaehler, we suppose on account of his peculiar moral fitness, took the lead and wore the bell. In the absence of argument, in which they have always been very sparing throughout the present controversy, and in which, like a good housewife, they have made a very little go a great ways, and have virtually acknowledged themselves bankrupt in this respect, they have taken to throwing mud, setting themselves up as moral censors and pronouncing their opponents “a collection of unclean spirits” of vain and puffed up men, who have an ax to grind or a grudge to serve against these saintly innocents. This we consider the testimonium paupertatis concerning themselves and their “thoroughly educated faculties.” But if it is the best they can do, we will have to be satisfied. An evil cause is difficult of defense even in skillful hands, but when undertaken by poor cobblers, such as have lately come to the front and to the rescue, we can look for nothing else. Do the best that you can, gentlemen, and no reasonable man can justly ask any more.
From “The Lutheran Doctrine Of Election: Its Scriptural Evidence And Proof. By Rev. P. Eirich, Hoboken, N. J. Article II.” in The Columbus Theological Magazine, Vol 1, 1881, Matthias Loy, editor. LutheranLibrary.org
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GJ - Those church bodies which promote the RSV, the ESV, and the NIV (all minorities in the Bible business) also promote Church Growth and universal forgiveness without faith - aka Universal Objective Justification.
The New KJV is a way to re-introduce death by footnotes, where the Nestle-Aland-UBS Greek text is treated better than Elizabeth Taylor getting her makeup. The KJV translators were told to skip the footnotes, which can effectively create a new Bible out of the main body, just by adding "or" as the RSV showed and the others copied so adroitly. The same goes on with the New KJV, the new RSV, and the ever-new NIV, all changing rapidly without notice.
