Time for My "Whisper Low in Jerusalem" Graphic. Universal Objective Justification Must Whisper Low on Facebook Lest the Dogma Be Heard and Understood! in the Pews of Gath

I did not join the discussion because I was kicked off the board some time ago. I impetuously said that a Southern Seminary education (ELCA) explained all I needed to know about one moderator's position. That seminary is now a college department.

I posted large parts of the discussion because one of our church members wanted to see how UOJ hucksters argued their case.

My second post on the "Confessional" Lutheran Forum's UOJ.

First Post on the "Confusional" Lutheran Forum's UOJ

Rolf Preus is a great authority on UOJ. I can tell because he always links his own blog as the last word on the topic, in hopes of boosting his monthly pageviews above two digits. However, he offers no evidence of studying the topic or reading Justification and Rome, which he supposedly edited with his brother.

Rolf is terribly offended that I quote his father's last book. He must have confused Justification and Rome with their private Preus Family publishing effort. Scholarly books are meant to be studied, debated, and quoted, with or without the approval of kin.

 A running joke is Jay Webber's ceaseless praise of Jon-Boy Buchholz as a theologian. Compared to Jay's middler-year abilities, it must be awe-inspiring.

The funnest part of the discussion came when Webber and others wanted to compare the slant of obscure theologians on the topic, to determine why one branch of UOJ was better than another.  Navigating between those "bad and good expressions" of OUJ is like picking a favorite toxin. Buchholz stood before the WELS convention and declared the entire world was forgiven and saved. "Period. End of story." No rocks were thrown, no tomatoes tossed. In WELS, those projectiles are saved for anyone teaching the Chief Article, Justification by Faith.

Anyone can start with a key Justification by Faith passage and move back and forth across the Scriptures to add insights and perspective.

These hipsters must have excellent vision, because they can find UOJ in the midst of a Justification by Faith passage. Better, they can only remember a citation and a phrase, ignoring its context. Relentless Rolf Preus repeated "raised for our justification Romans 4:25" for years. Thus a convention document, the Brief Statement of 1932, welded Romans 4:25 into many a seminarian's brain.

Did they stop to study Romans 4? Seminary supposedly teaches young brains to work on the New Testament in Greek. The chapter is so clear:

1. Abraham was justified by faith. He believed the Messianic Promises about being the father of many nations, a pivotal issue in John 8 - "Before Abraham was, I AM."
2. Abraham is not alone in having righteousness imputed (counted). Imputation is another name for God's declaration.
3. If we believe (a bitter pill for UOJ) in the One who raised Him from the dead, we are also forgiven. He was delivered for our sins and raised for our justification.

Is not the resurrection of Christ the foundation of our faith in Him? No other event in the Bible gathers together so many Promises and reveals the power of God so well. Romans 4 is not only a faith chapter, but also a Justification by Faith chapter, summarized by Romans 5:1-2.

Romans 4:21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

5 Therefore* being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

*Therefore, in Greek, is a soft bridge between one statement and another. The Bible does not use chapter and verse numbers but grammatical signals, like "therefore." To find UOJ in Romans 4:25 is a prodigal feat of obstinate blindness, since Romans 5 is the definition and explanation of Romans 4:24-25 as Justification by Faith.

Grace is "world absolution" in the mind of Bishop Stephan's disciple and enabler. ELCA agrees with Walther about this.

So these peddlers of pedestrian poison insist that here and there - throughout the Bible - God inserts their foundational dogma, that all are are forgiven and saved without faith, just so some can hear this and make a decision for world absolution without faith. This is the only dogmatic formula that excludes faith completely and dares to hide in the shadow of the sola list - by Scripture alone, by grace alone, by faith alone. True, we can grant UOJ artists a few examples of sola:

• Without reading
• Without comprehension
• Without spiritual discernment
• Without Luther
• Without Melanchthon
• Without Andreae
• Without Chytraeus
• Without Chemnitz
• Without P. Leyser
• Without Gerhard
• Without Henry E. Jacobs
• Without Krauth
• Without Schmauk
• Without the 1905 Missouri catechism
• Without Gausewitz
• Without the last book of Robert Preus, Justification and Rome.

Lest this jeremiad be incomplete, it should be mentioned that the UOJ parasites grossly insult the Biblical doctrines of grace and faith, making it appear that one is the enemy of the other.

Thus they stumble about, like blindfolded drunks in a shop, breaking everything but somehow finding the cash register and emptying it of all but the pennies.

 Thus God is passing judgment on WELS for repudiating the Gospel and selling their hideous New NIVs to cover up the stench.

Evil Emanates from UOJ - Even If You Have Never Met the Big Shots of WELS/ELS/LCMS. Theology for Mental Ants

National ELCA and Episcopalian leaders,
Canada and US.
They also teach UOJ, which came from
Halle pietism and rationalism.

From WELS's Meditations, March-May 2014, for Monday, 17 March 2014.  The howler is in the second column which reads:  "No matter what you did yesterday -- or failed to do -- and no matter what you will do tomorrow, God has forgiven you."

Consider a sin from the second table of the Law.  

Were I to say, for example, that I committed adultery yesterday and I'm going to do it tomorrow, God has forgiven me.  That is ridiculous and dangerous.  Nor would it be any more Biblical were I to say "murder" or theft" or anything other sin, "big" or "little." 

This statement is foundational for allowing anything and everything, with one exception - denying UOJ.

This is the Dreck peddled in WELS Meditations -- and remember, this is the stuff that goes unfiltered into the homes of the unsuspecting. Leftover Meditations are sent to nursing homes, hospitals, and prisons (appropriately - big WELS presence there).

Everyone wants to stay as clergy and members in the City of Destruction,
because they get free calendars and napkins from Thrivent.

Classic Ichabod - Karl Barth's UOJ - Smells like LCMS-WELS UOJ

Charlotte Kirschbaum was the Commie babe who bedded Barth in his own home, moving in shamelessly. Many Barthians claim she was a major contributor to the gaseous Church Dogmatics that Barth claimed as his own. Note the Church Growth parallels with adultery, apostasy, and plagiarism.

Karth Barth was so cute in his Swiss Army uniform - I had to post this photo for laughs. It looks like a scene from Laugh In.

My friend from Yale explored Barth's love for Marxism and his known affinities with the red cause. Barth-Kirschbaum is the official theologian for Fuller Seminary, where most of the leaders of WELS, Missouri, the ELS, and ELCA have attended.

Here ve haff da luffly Barth family, Karl mit Charlotte, und Kinder, und Frau Barth way over on da outside right. Das machen me schniffle ein bischen. Zo touching und varm. Der kleine Hans hat two mommies - eine Hausfrau und eine va-va-voom Commie. [Translated into German to keep the caption G-rated.]

Carl Braaten, the son of missionaries, latched onto Leftist theologians, incorporating Barth-Kirschbaum and Tillich (another adulterer) into Lutheran theology. Barth's $1,000 set now sells for $99. Tillich is a has-been, known chiefly for his promiscuity and sadistic fetishes.

Note the catchy subtitle, which came from an orthodox Lutheran.
The UOJ dimwits use that phrase in all their essays attacking justification by faith.

Carl  Braaten, Justification, 1990:

We cannot hold a universalism of the unitarian kind. People are not too good to be damned. There is no necessity for God to save everybody nor to reject anyone. God is not bound by anything outside of himself. He is not bound to give the devil his due. If we take into account God's love, he would have all to be saved. If we reckon with his freedom, he has the power to save whomsoever he pleases. This does not lead to a dogmatic universalism. But it does mean that we leave open the possibility that within the power of God's freedom and love, all people may indeed be saved in the end. This follows as a possibility from the fact that God is free from all external factors in making up his mind. (p. 139)

...

Then Why Evangelize? (heading, Braaten, p. 140)

...

Barth's doctrine is radically objective. [Bratten now quotes Barth-Kirschbaum verbatim.]

There is not one for whose sin and death he did not die, whose sin and death he did not remove and obliterate on the cross...There is not one who is not adequately and perfectly and finally justified in Him. There is not one whose sin is not forgiven sin in Him, whose death is not a death which has been put to death in Him...There is not one for whom he has not done everything in His death and received everything in His resurrection from the dead. (Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV, 1, 638)

In the face of literally hundreds o fsuch beautiful passages, evangelicals understandably ask, Then what is the point of evangelism? If the heathen are already saved in Christ, and nothing more needs to be added, then where is the urgency in world evangelization? (Braaten, p. 140)


Universalism-Denying
The parallels with WELS, Jon Buchholz, Jay Webber, and Don Patterson are obvious. They deny they are Universalists while confessing the basics of Universalism. Texas WELS even featured an essay where someone read from the Universalist creed and said, "See - we are not Univesalists." The truth hurts.

The language is borrowed the Halle's Knapp, because Halle was pivotal in the transition from a Biblical Pietistic school to a Rationalistic university.

Earlier, Samuel Huber taught the same way, but the Wittenberg theologians crushed him like a bug. The same kind of Enthusiasm came back via Pietism, since that movement was allergic to orthodox confessions but overly fond of unionism. Spener was the first union theologian, but not the last.

UOJ makes anything possible (except rejection of UOJ). Take money from unrepentant adulterers? No problem? Plagiarize the false doctrine of Fuller Seminary? That is spoiling the Egyptians. Engage in child porn file swapping? You are forgiven because you are sorry you got caught again.

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From Wikipedia and George Hunsinger:

Relationship with Charlotte von Kirschbaum

When Barth first met Charlotte von Kirschbaum in 1924 he had already been married for 12 years to his wife, Nelly, with whom he had also had five children.^[14] In 1929, von Kirschbaum, with Barth's consent, moved into the Barth family household. This arrangement–described by one scholar as "convoluted, extremely painful for all concerned, yet not without integrity and joys"–lasted for 35 years.^[15]

A kind of household of three relationship developed between Barth, von Kirschbaum and Barth's wife, Nelly. The long-standing situation was not without its difficulties. "Lollo",^[16] as Barth called the 13-year-younger von Kirschbaum, once wrote to Barth's sister Gertrud Lindt in 1935, where she expressed her concern about the precarious situation:

"The alienation between Karl and Nelly has reached a degree which could hardly increase. This has certainly become accentuated by my existence."^[17]

The relationship caused great offence among many of Barth's friends, as well as his own mother.^[18] Barth's children suffered from the stress of the relationship.^[18] Barth and von Kirschbaum took semester break vacations together.^[18] While Nelly supplied the household and the children, von Kirschbaum and Barth shared an academic relationship. Barth has fallen victim to criticism for his relationship with Charlotte von Kirschbaum. One critic has written: "Part of any realistic response to the subject of Barth and von Kirschbaum must be anger."^[19] Hunsinger summarizes the influence of von Kirschbaum on Barth's work: "As his unique student, critic, researcher, adviser, collaborator, companion, assistant, spokesperson, and confidant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum was indispensable to him. He could not have been what he was, or have done what he did, without her."

1. ^ George Hunsinger's review of S. Seliger, Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology.
2. ^ Hunsinger
3. ^ Eberhard Busch, Karl Barths Lebenslauf, München: Kaiser, 177ff.
4. ^ Karl Barth: Gesamtausgabe, Teil V. Briefe. Karl Barth – Eduard Thurneysen: Briefwechsel Bd. 3, 1930–1935: einschließlich des Briefwechsels zwischen Charlotte von Kirschbaum und Eduard Thurneysen, eds. Caren Algner; Zürich: TVZ, Theologischer Verlag, 2000, p. 839.
5. ^ ^a b c Busch, Karl Barths Lebenslauf, 199 = Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts (Fortress Press, 1976), 185-6.
6. ^ S. Seliger, Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth; quoted in K. Sonderegger's review.

---

http://www3.ptsem.edu/Content.aspx?id=1933&menu_id=72

	Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology Department of Theology 102 Hodge Hall Phone: 609.252.2114 Fax: 609.497.7728 Email: george.hunsinger@ptsem.edu (Presbyterian)
Profile
George Hunsinger is Princeton Theological Seminary’s Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology. He earned his B.D. from Harvard University Divinity School and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University. He served as director of the Seminary’s Center for Barth Studies from 1997 to 2001. He has broad interests in the history and theology of the Reformed tradition and in “generous orthodoxy” as a way beyond the modern liberal/conservative impasse in theology and church. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he was a major contributor to the new Presbyterian catechism. He teaches courses on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Reformed tradition, the theology of the Lord’s Supper, the theology of John Calvin, and classical and recent Reformed theology. He is the founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. --- http://www.theopedia.com/George_Hunsinger George Hunsinger is an ordained Presbyterian minister and theologian. He is currently the Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Hunsinger was the director of the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton from 1997 - 2001. Hunsinger received a BD from Harvard University Divinity School and an MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University. His work has focused primarily on the theology of Karl Barth. Hunsinger was the recipient of the 2010 Karl Barth Prize and joins previous prize recipients Eberhard Jüngel, Hans Küng, John W. de Gruchy, Johannes Rau, Bruce McCormack, and others. Hunsinger has also been associated with the postliberal movement and is an authoritative interpreter of Hans Frei. He has a long history of anti-war and human rights activism and is also an open critic of the war in Iraq. Since 2003 he has been active in the Ecumenical movement through the Faith and Order commission and recently completed a book on The Eucharist and Ecumenism: Let Us Keep the Feast, published by Cambridge University Press in 2008. --- http://libweb.ptsem.edu/collections/barth/reviews/CharlotteKirschbaum.aspx?menu=296&subText=468&disclaimer=668 Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology Suzanne Selinger, Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998), viii + 206pp. $29.00 Reviewed by: George Hunsinger When Charlotte von Kirschbaum first heard Karl Barth lecture in 1924, she was 24 years old, financially almost destitute, and in poor health. Deeply religious and a voracious reader with a keen interest in theology, she had already devoured Barth's 1919 Römerbrief, at the recommendation of her pastor, shortly after it had appeared, and then avidly kept up with Barth's work through the journal Zwischen den Zeiten. At a time when only a tiny fraction of the general population, virtually all male, went on for a university education, she had been trained for a career as a Krankenschwester or Protestant nurse. It was George Merz, her pastor, who first recognized her intellectual gifts. After guiding her through confirmation in the Lutheran church, Merz included her in the intellectual circle he had gathered around him in Munich, which included Thomas Mann. It was also Merz, by then editor of Zwischen den Zeiten and godfather to one of Barth's children, who had taken her with him to that lecture, and who introduced her to Barth afterwards. Barth invited them both for a visit to his summer retreat, the Bergli, in the mountains overlooking Lake Zurich. Merz and von Kirschbaum went to the Bergli that summer and returned the next. Von Kirschbaum made a very good impression. She was drawn into the circle of theological friends who spent their summers at the chalet. Pastor Eduard Thurneysen, Barth's closest friend, and Gerty Pestalozzi, owner with her husband of the Bergli, took an interest in furthering her education. (Becoming a Krankenschwester had required no special academic training or higher degrees.) Ruedi Pestalozzi, Gerty's husband and a wealthy businessman, paid for her to receive secretarial training, after which she became a welfare officer at Siemans, a large electronics firm in Nuremburg. In October 1925 Barth switched university teaching appointments from Göttingen to Münster. His wife and family remained behind until a suitable residence could be found. In February 1926 von Kirschbaum visited Barth for a month in Münster, shortly before his family was to join him, but while he was still living alone. Barth's situation at this time is worth noting. He was 39 years old, had been married to Nelly (then aged 32) for nearly 13 years, and had five young children. The marriage, not a particularly happy one, had by his own account left him feeling resigned to loneliness. After his parents had prevented him in 1910 from marrying Rösy Münger, whom he deeply loved and never forgot -- and who died in 1925 -- he had submitted in 1911 to an engagement and then in 1913 to a marriage, with Nelly, that had in essence been arranged by his mother. (Barth always carried a photograph of Rösy with him for the rest of his life, sometimes wept when looking at it, and would continue over the years to visit her grave.) Although we do not know exactly what happened between Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum in that fateful encounter of 1926, we do know that from that point on they were in love with each other, that Barth immediately gave her manuscript after manuscript for advice and correction, and that she committed herself henceforth to doing everything she possibly could to advance his theological work. After spending a sabbatical at the Bergli in the summer term of 1929, with von Kirschbaum at his side as his aide, Barth announced in October that she would be moving into the family household to be a member of it. This arrangement -- convoluted, extremely painful for all concerned, yet not without integrity and joys -- lasted for nearly 35 years until 1964 when von Kirschbaum had to be admitted to a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. These were exactly the years of Barth's most productive intellectual life. As his unique student, critic, researcher, advisor, collaborator, companion, assistant, spokesperson, and confidant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum was indispensable to him. He could not have been what he was, or have done what he did, without her. The reverse would also seem to have been true. Von Kirschbaum was a strong, noble and unconventional woman who made her own choices and willingly bore their great costs. The costs of the arrangement with Barth were many, not least a total rejection by most of her own family, and a thousand constant humiliations from church, society, and the larger Barth clan (not excluding Barth's mother, who eventually tempered her harsh disapproval). Many real exits opened up along the way (such as a proposal of marriage from the philosopher Heinrich Scholz), but she never took any of them. What she once wrote in particular to a friend would seem to hold true of her whole life: "It is very clear to me that Karl had to act in this way, and that comforts me whatever the consequences." From her first encounter with his theology in her youth to the very end of her life, she felt gripped by a sense of the greatness of Barth's contribution, an excitement that she once described simply with the words, "This is it!" During one of Barth's last visits to her in the nursing home, she said, "We had some good times together, didn't we?" We may well wonder also where Nelly Barth was in the midst of all this. There is undoubtedly much we will never know. But we do know that in her own way she never ceased to believe in her husband and his work. We know that the two of them experienced a reconciliation after Charlotte departed the household, that she and Karl both visited her at the nursing home on Sundays, that she continued those visits after Karl died in 1968, and that when Charlotte herself died in 1975, Nelly honored Karl's wishes by having Charlotte buried in the Barth family grave. Nelly herself died in 1976. Visitors to the Basel Hörnli cemetery today can see the names of all three together engraved one by one on the same stone. The book by Suzanne Selinger is not the first to cover this territory, nor will it be the last. As a study in the history of theology, it succeeds reasonably well. The sections on how Barth and von Kirschbaum respectively viewed male/female relationships as bearing the image of God are interesting and worth reading. As a biographical study, however, the book seems less successful. The author seethes with so much resentment toward Karl Barth that as I closed the book I had an image of him as St. Sebastian. At the level of adjectives, he takes a lot of hits. Unfortunately, Charlotte von Kirschbaum fares little better. The author unwittingly undermines her purposes of sympathy and compassion -- unless one can persuade oneself that it is not demeaning to scorn the life that Charlotte von Kirschbaum actually chose for herself and openly affirmed, as opposed to one that could not have been and never was. --- http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-01824-0.html --- http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1465536?uid=3739536&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=47698978832417 --- Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel 1 year ago   Ichabod, Thank you for posting this about the late liberal esteemed Karl Barth. I say, "Liberal, esteemed," because, up until this Ichabod posting, I never knew anything much about Barth, except that he was highly regarded by some, to be, a first rate (questionable and liberal) theologian. I offer a few comments of this Ichabod posting regarding Suzanne Selinger's book, as it is reviewed by George Hunsinger. By reading his review, I think that it leaves the reader with more questions, than answers - most, likely, better, that way....: Hunsinger says the following: (1) "........This arrangement -- convoluted, extremely painful for all concerned, yet not without integrity and joys -- lasted for nearly 35 years until 1964 when von Kirschbaum had to be admitted to a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. These were exactly the years of Barth's most productive intellectual life....... My comment: Oh! really? - I wonder why that was so? I thought Barth's attraction to this highly intelligent woman was her love of theology, - and that they "shared" this mutual "interest?" Hunsinger says the following: ........From her first encounter with his theology in her youth to the very end of her life, she felt gripped by a sense of the greatness of Barth's contribution, an excitement that she once described simply with the words, "This is it!" During one of Barth's last visits to her in the nursing home, she said, "We had some good times together, didn't we?"....... My comment: "Gripped?" "Was Charlotte von Kirschbaum's "gripping experience" that mutual love for theological stimulation?" Hunsinger says the following: ......Nelly honored Karl's wishes by having Charlotte buried in the Barth family grave. Nelly herself died in 1976. Visitors to the Basel Hörnli cemetery today can see the names of all three together engraved one by one on the same stone...... My comment: "Were they all buried horizontally? And, if so, in what order? Right to left or left to right? Or, were they all buried vertically? And, if so, - in what order? As I intimated earlier, this review leaves much to be desired - many questions still linger..... Ichabod - Thank you for the great read! It has inspired me, enough now, that I feel that I can throw away all my drug store tabloids and save the 3 dollars plus per issue! I'd rather read about some past theological history, instead of all those drug store scandal sheets. Finally – I feel that I can now appreciate, Barth! I never knew how much effort, Barth put into all his liberal theology! How much he is to be admired! I wonder if he is (now) being commensurately rewarded for all of his endeavors. I suppose that last statement, could have ended with another question mark.....Or, maybe not...... Nathan M. Bickel - emeritus pastor www.thechristianmessage.org www.moralmatters.org

Loyalist-Conservatives Endanger Everything Except Holy Mother Synod

The Seven-Headed Luther is the basis for
The "Facts" about Luther, a bitter and bigoted book of falsehoods about Luther,
sold by Herman Otten as part of his Reformation package.

Many Lutheran pastors consider themselves conservatives, but when tested by any issue, remain synod loyalists. In many cases they are stomach-loyalists, always considering the potential price of bearing the cross and thereby missing a meal.

They say they are believers, but really are not. They believe in the power of Holy Mother Synod - all powerful and wise - but not in the power of God, Who is treated as unable to take care of the faithful.

At the height of the conflict in the Fox Valley Circuit, several years ago, the Intrepid Lutherans said and did nothing at the district convention. I know someone who attended that meeting simply to witness something being done--or at least said--about the Anything Goes district of WELS. Tim Glende, Ski, and Deputy Doug excommunicated a long-time member of St. Peter in Freedom, Wisconsin, while pretending to discuss matters with him. The member, an attorney, was understandably upset about the two pastors plagiarizing Craig Groeschel in all their sermons. Tim even lied about this dishonesty, denying that he was stealing sermons from Groeschel and taking credit for doing the work of pastor.

Notice how the Mark Schroeder administration has protected and funded Tim Glende.

The circuit pastor who tried to do something about the plagiarism was replaced. The assistant pastor dishonestly hired to share in the stealing was allowed to take another call. The honest member was kicked out in a disgraceful and duplicitous manner. And Deputy Doug defended clergy plagiarism in his epic paper, A Clarion Call. The Intrepids, or some members of the group, were treated like dirt. But they said nothing and did nothing. Everything is fine.

Missing man formation.
The missing man is Circuit Pastor Steve Spencer.

Synod Pope Mark Schroeder wanted the Intrepids started as a lobby to back him and counter the influence of Church and Change, headed by Mark and Avoid Jeske. The first conference, this year, provided an excuse to break up the group, when Pastor Paul Rydecki gave a paper where he included a reference to justification by faith.

Suddenly, District Pope Jon Buchholz decided he had a monstrous heresy threatening to obliterate the entire synod - justification by faith. The same DP who could do nothing about Jeff Gunn in four years went hair-on-fire in four months to get rid of his circuit pastor, publicly calling him a false teacher while promising to study the matter in the coming months. Who appoints the circuit pastors in WELS? The DPs do. So Buchholz was trusted to be the Circuit Pastor for a period of time but was suddenly forced out after giving one paper? Bizarre and unstable behavior - by the DP.

Buchholz claimed that no other district pastor agreed with justification by faith, a claim that would be difficult to support anywhere in WELS. Many grew up with Gausewitz and also study the Book of Concord. Papenfuss admitted in Kokomo that he never heard of UOJ until he got to The Sausage Factory.

Some pastors in the district agreed with Rydecki, I have heard. No district discussion or study was allowed because Buchholz suspended Rydecki by mail--such courage!, such audacity! When Buchholz solemnly declared his latest version of UOJ, the district pastors said nothing at the meeting. Buchholz agrees with Roman Catholic doctrine - the pope is infallible and irreformable. His decrees are not subject to the consent of the Church. (Schaff, Creeds, II, p. 234ff. Cited in Heick, II, p. 313)

Whenever the infallibility of the Word is transferred to a person, there is a papacy. It is true, to quote Frosty Bivens, that WELS is small potatoes. And it is true that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but it also rocks absolutely.



I am dying to read their Reformation sermons, those pastors who agreed with justification by faith in secret but silenced themselves in public.

Will they praise Luther for his bold stand against the pope, risking his life for many years just for teaching the Word of God?

Will they sing ELCA's "Lift High the Cross" this Sunday?

I hope the synod-loyalists avoid real Lutheran Reformation hymns this Sunday:

1. Zion Mourns - a real downer, very upsetting, pass the pizza and beer.
2. A Mighty Fortress (which should be A Holy Mother Is Our WELS, A Source of Food and Housing).
3. Selnecker's Lord Jesus Christ - bad news, a wobbly Lutheran became a Concordist.
4. Lord Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word - inappropriate
5. Any hymn by Gerhardt - that man was a fanatic!

Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.WELS Attacks Justification by Faith To Celebrate the Lutheran Reformation

"Let me explain."

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Letter to WELS District President Jon Bucholz, Pre...":

It's refreshing to hear a Christian speak freely in defense of Christ's doctrine and in opposition to false teachers who teach contrary to Christ and His Church.

It won't be long before the (W)ELS spin machine produces people who will say to Pastor Rydecki, "I hear you believe Pastor Jon Buchholz did you wrong ..." What they don't understand is that the false teachers are inconsequential. The world is the devil's and most serve him in one capacity or another. The issue is the false doctrine which his minions preach which has as its sole intent to separate men, women and children from the forgiveness of sins and salvation. Buchholz labeled himself a heretic in his 2005 WELS Convention essay teaching the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification.

Jon Buchholz, “In each example, the mark of heresy is to go as far as Scripture goes – and then to go one step further.” Page 7

"God has forgiven the whole world. God has forgiven everyone his sins." This statement is absolutely true! This is the heart of the gospel, and it must be preached and taught as the foundation of our faith. But here’s where the caveat comes in: In Scripture, the word "forgive" is used almost exclusively in a personal, not a universal sense. The Bible doesn't make the statement, "God has forgiven the world." Page 7

"God has forgiven all sins, but the unbeliever rejects God’s forgiveness." Again, this statement is true—and Luther employed similar terminology to press the point of Christ’s completed work of salvation.16 But we must also recognize that Scripture doesn't speak this way." Page 8

"God has declared the entire world righteous." This statement is true, as we understand it to mean that God has rendered a verdict of "not-guilty" toward the entire world. It is also true—and must be taught—that the righteousness of Christ now stands in place of the world’s sin; this is the whole point of what Jesus did for us at Calvary. However, once again we’re wresting a term out of its usual context. In Scripture the term "righteous" usually refers to believers." Page 8
http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BuchholzJustification.pdf

What Pastor Jon Buchholz is accomplishing is blantantly showing the heart of UOJ. Since it is a false teaching that doesn't exist in Scripture or the Christian Book of Concord but from the pit of man's reason it is a constantly moving target. There is no BOC style confession of UOJ: this we believe, this we reject. Buchholz clarifies the false teachings and in comparison with the many versions being taught in the (W)ELS, CLC, LCMS, ELCA it shows the disunity that the Lutheran Synods have over their common chief article of their religion.

For those who hold to Christ's doctrine of one Justification solely by Faith Alone, the official doctrine of UOJ taught in all Lutheran Synods eliminates any question whether any religious denomination in the world is Christian. Based on their common perversion of the chief and central article of Christianity here are no official religious denominations that are Christian.

There are certainly Christian people and individual churches but there are no religious denominations that are Christian.

It is a sign of the times, the last days of a wicked world. May others take Pastor Rydecki's example to publicly and boldly suffer all for Christ and His true Word and continuing in that Word endure unto life everlasting as a witness to a world that is increasingly falling into abject apostasy.

We now return you to the (W)ELS news channel....Moderator: "The beatings will continue until moral improves!"

Links about Justification by Faith 

and Justification without Faith (UOJ)

Pastor Rydecki's blog

Luther's Galatians endorsed by reader

Luther's Galatians on Gnesio Lutherans

Roman Catholic adjunct Jack Kilcrease as Humpty Dumpty

Calov, quoted by Robert Preus, repudiated the UOJ position of WELS

Kilcrease, the McCain tutor, equivocates.

Buchholz is anti-Luther

Pastor Bickel on Tossing Rydecki Under the Bus

Church and Changer Jeff Gunn and His Mequon Class of Shrinkers

Paul McCain and Jon Buchholz - Bedfellows of Apostasy

Abraham Is the Common Theme in Justification - Justification by Faith

Pastor Rydecki's Account of His Suspension - October 9th

Intrepid Account October 6th- Pastor Rydecki Suspended

LutherQuest (sic) Opposes Justification by Faith

Warming Up the Tar and Feathers on LutherQuest (sic)

Pastor Bickel Answers Jon Buchholz

Kokomo Statements - WELS UOJ - JP Meyer

Jack Kilcrease Showing Signs of Stress

Dr. Lito Cruz and Brett Meyer Dispatch the UOJ Stormtroopers on Extra Nos

The Authorities Cited Also Determine the Outcome of a Discussion

The two-headed calf of WELS.
One head says, "We have a quia subscription to the Book of Concord."
The other head says, "The Book of Concord is boring and irrelevant."
Which statement gets a promotion in WELS? Right - boring and irrelevant.

"Grasp God's Justification" will be delivered ex cathedra by District Pope Jon Buchholz, Holy Mother WELS, on October 17th. Resurrection Lutheran Church, Phoenix, Arizona.

I am not kidding about ex cathedra. That is the Roman Catholic teaching that the pope is infallible
whenever he speaks on the topic of doctrine. Pope Pius IX had this defined  by Vatican I, even though his own son, a cardinal, argued with him about it. Roman Catholics teach, like WELS, that their leaders can simply generate Christian dogma on their own, which emanates from the shrine of their hearts.

Jon Buchholz, MDiv, with only a parochial education and no evidence of scholarship, will deliver his next version of UOJ:
1. Everyone is already forgiven and saved. OJ.
2. Grasp it for yourselves - see, that is justification by faith, which we call SJ in our circles.

I can predict the authorities cited in the paper:

• The clear teaching of Our Beloved Synod. (Gausewitz who?)
• Walther, Pieper, JP Meyer, Sig Becker
• Our sisters in the dogma of Unfaith Justification.
• Favorite false citations and deliberate hoaxes about Luther, the Book of Concord (Ambrose), and the post-Concord orthodox. (Luther wrote a Galatians commentary? Huber? His UOJ is inferior to our UOJ.)

By glancing through the footnotes one can identify the authorities in any persuasive essay. Often they are cribbed from others who have used and abused them. Jon Buchholz is Jay Webber's catechumen, so Jay feeds bad citations to Jon. Jay gets them from Kurt Marquart, whose badly written essay is now frozen as canonical.

Everyone was absolved on Easter because the Halle Pietist Rambach said so. That is valid because Marquart said so. That is valid because Jay quotes Marquart, and Jon cribs from Jay. Jon locutus est, causa finita est. (Jon has spoken, the case is closed.)

Did anyone here pledge a quia subscription to a Marquart essay? JP Meyer's odious book? The Kokomo Statements? Walther? Pieper? Knapp? Rambach? Spener?

If Buchholz began with Luther's Galatians Commentary or the Formula of Concord, III, The Righteousness of Faith, or the Augsburg Confession, the outcome would be completely different. But that is precisely why the UOJ Hive avoids the authoritative documents of sound doctrine.

Links about Justification by Faith 

and Justification without Faith (UOJ)

Pastor Rydecki's blog

Luther's Galatians endorsed by reader

Luther's Galatians on Gnesio Lutherans

Roman Catholic adjunct Jack Kilcrease as Humpty Dumpty

Calov, quoted by Robert Preus, repudiated the UOJ position of WELS

Kilcrease, the McCain tutor, equivocates.

Buchholz is anti-Luther

Pastor Bickel on Tossing Rydecki Under the Bus

Church and Changer Jeff Gunn and His Mequon Class of Shrinkers

Paul McCain and Jon Buchholz - Bedfellows of Apostasy

Abraham Is the Common Theme in Justification - Justification by Faith

Pastor Rydecki's Account of His Suspension - October 9th

Intrepid Account October 6th- Pastor Rydecki Suspended

LutherQuest (sic) Opposes Justification by Faith

Warming Up the Tar and Feathers on LutherQuest (sic)

Pastor Bickel Answers Jon Buchholz

Kokomo Statements - WELS UOJ - JP Meyer

Jack Kilcrease Showing Signs of Stress

Dr. Lito Cruz and Brett Meyer Dispatch the UOJ Stormtroopers on Extra Nos