Blasphemy Part Three - Who Infused the LCMS-WELS-ELS with Objective (Faithless) Justification? Answer - Pietists and Universalists

 

 Bishop Martin Stephan, STD and Bishop Randy DeJaynes, LCA.
Parts 1, 2, and 3 here.

Even the most dense can agree that ELCA is the fool's gold standard of Lutherdom today. That  merger of mergers has gathered the LCMS-WELS-ELS under his/her/its wings and laid down the rules for enjoying Thrivent money and programs.

ELCA is the bellweather in declaring that everyone is born forgiven because of God's grace. That comes from two sources - the Pietists and the rationalists.

Rambach was the Halle University hymn writer (see The Lutheran Hymnal, #298) who wrote these words, treasured by Jay Webber, among others. Stephan studied at Halle and was a Pietist.

Walther was a Pietist and his friends followed one Pietist guru, then Stephan after their earlier leader moved away and died. Walther was thrilled with the letter Stephan wrote him and never drifted from that dogma. After losing their earlier guru, they followed Stephan all the way to America, after he was convicted of consorting with young women and misuse of church funds.

Later, Walther was thrilled with the double justification terms used by the Calvinist translator of Knapp, another Halle University theologian, one much admired in America and translated into English, a standard work for over 90 years.

The Reformed-Lutheran union movement enjoyed the peaceful physical and doctrinal merger of the two schools of thought. The Woods translation fostered the use of Objective Justification and Subjective Justification, with OJ dominating.

Rationalism, born at Halle and other places, gravitated toward God's grace acting without means (Word and Sacrament) and saving the entire world back to Adam and Eve.