Calvin's Style Is Barth/Kirschbaum's Style. We Find the Same Protestant Papal Style in the UOJ Stormtroopers

 John Calvin shared Zwingli's Enthusiasm
but expressed it with more elegance.

“We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is fore-ordained for some, eternal damnation for others.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21, Paragraph 5) Cited on this Calvinist blog.

The above statement is the famous double predestination decree found in all editions of Calvin's Institutes of Christian Religion. The style - a thesis statement - reminds me of JP Meyer, below.

The first time the Lutherans contended with Calvinistic justification pitted Polycarp Leyser and Hunnius against Samuel Huber, a former Calvinist who became Lutheran and taught at Wittenberg, until his dogma was revealed and his position vacated.

Webber argued the same position, parroting Jon Boy Buchholz.

 All the information is available on the Net. Why have Lutheran clergy passively accepted the demonic reign of UOJ?

I knew quite a few LCMS clergy and laity in Midland, Michigan, during the 1980s. One layman was being trained in the official LCMS program for lay ministry. And whom did he quote all the time? R. C. Sproul.

I think that many people who call themselves “Calvinists” haven’t studied much about Calvinism.  They probably heard a passionate sermon from Paul Washer (and YES, HE IS a Calvinist), read an article by Charles Spurgeon, read a book by John Piper, listened to a James White debate, watched an R.C. Sproul lecture or read a John MacArthur Commentary.  Then they put their theological “stake in the ground” and say, “I’m a Calvinist”. Source

While Calvin is heavy-duty, industrial strength Enthusiasm, separating the Holy Spirit from the Word, Fuller and Trinity Divinity are the insta-answers of Enthusiasm that follows, easy on the brain and conscience. Thus the Calvinism behind the LCMS (via Stephan's and Walther's rationalistic Pietism) has become a bug-eyed devotion to the idiocies of Church Growth, now branded as Missional since the earlier label has worn thin from caressing.

 This is too deep and too Biblical for today's crop of initiates in the LCMS-ELS-WELS. Besides, they may start thinking and studying on their own. Heaven forbid.

UOJ Came from the Calvinist Samuel Huber

From a Reader:

I kept thinking..."Where did I hear that name before..." Then I remembered Repristination Press, and did some searching -- sure enough: http://repristinationpress.org/2017/10/07/hunnius-aegidius-theses-opposed-to-huberianism-a-defense-of-the-lutheran-doctrine-of-justification

"As Hunnius wrote in the dedication to this work, “we propose…not only to wash away the charges he has made, but especially to refute his shameful errors concerning the eternal election and predestination to eternal life, not only of the children of God, but also of the children of the devil (that is, all the impenitent); similarly, his errors concerning the universal justification of all men—of unbelievers no less than believers..."

Summary Statements about UOJ and Its Sordid History

1. "It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled." - Mark Twain
2. Universal Objective Justification was never taught by a respectable Lutheran, during the Reformation or after.
3. Samuel Huber, a "former" Calvinist, tried to impose his teaching of  righteousness without faith, but Leyser - an editor of the Book of Concord - and Hunnius utterly refuted him. Huber was deposed as a Lutheran teacher for advocating what dominates the SynCons today - and the "Steadfast" website.
4. Influenced by Calvinism and Unionism - Pietism at Halle University became the modern incubator of UOJ.
5. The single greatest source of UOJ was Pietism, through Halle University, which sent over so many leaders of American Lutheranism.
6. TLH hymn-writer Rambach (#298) advocated righteousness without faith. His interpretation of 1 Timothy 3:16 is used deliberately by UOJ to teach the Easter absolution of the world. He was a Halle Pietist.
7. Georg Christian Knapp's lectures were published in German and English, before Stephan landed his sex cult in New Orleans and Walther helped make him bishop-for-life. Knapp taught at Halle University, and Bishop Martin Stephan studied at Halle.
8. Knapp's lectures, still in print today, were influential in Europe and even more so in America, where all the mainline schools used his lectures in English.
9. The English translation made Leonard Woods, a Calvinist, famous. Woods coined - or at least franchised - the double-justification formula used so lovingly today.  Woods graduated from Andover Seminary and served as president of Bowdoin College.
10. Walther learned his UOJ from Martin Stephan, an event that "saved his life." Walther never departed from the Easter absolution of the entire world - without faith - of Halle and Stephan.
11. Stephan never graduated from a university and was not qualified to be a pastor.
12. Walther's training consisted of a rationalistic bachelor's degree and subordinating himself to two different abusive Pietistic sect leaders - Kuehn first, who died, and then Stephan.
13. Walther, his brother, Fuerbringer, the lawyers, and the leading clergy were all aware of Stephan's rampant adultery and unethical behavior. Would any of you Walther worshipers today be allowed to walk alone in the woods at 2 AM with a young woman? Would you take a mission call to another country, leave your dying wife and children, and take your mistresses along?
14. Walther and his snuck-in parrot, Pieper, gradually imposed UOJ on the LCMS. The Brief Statement of 1932 marked the beginning of the end. That opened the door to Unionism, the Biblical doubters, Pentecostalism, Church Growth, and Paul McCain. 
15. The Synodical Conference has been and continues to be double-focused. Many believe and teach Luther's justification by faith, without persecution. At the same time, certain assassins wig-out against the Biblical doctrine and make sure the person is ousted.
16. The LCMS still markets a justification by faith Small Catechism, the KJV catechism Over 2 million sold!
17. WELS used the Gausewitz (as others did) which also taught justification by faith. The cult replaced it with an "expanded and improved" one and then with the Kuske UOJ version. Papenfuss (best name in WELS) knew nothing about UOJ until he attended Mequon. That says a lot, don't it?
18. Robert Preus changed his position on UOJ, moving decidedly against it. Earlier he used quotations on both sides of the issue. His last book clearly repudiated UOJ. His sons remain clueless.

Book of Concord Editor, Chemnitz Biographer Polycarp Leyser on the enumeration of causes in justification | Faith Alone Justifies

Might the biographer of Chemnitz, an editor of the Book of Concord,
a specialist in justification by faith, get this topic right?

Polycarp Leyser on the enumeration of causes in justification | Faith Alone Justifies:

Polycarp Leyser on the enumeration of causes in justification

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Rev. Rydecki

Like Chemnitz and Hunnius, Polycarp Leyser also wrote of various “causes” that are involved in the justification of sinners.  Like the other orthodox Lutheran theologians, Leyser speaks of faith as the “instrumental cause” of justification.  In other words, this is the means by which God justifies sinners.  Faith is not the one who justifies sinners (that is, the efficient cause).  Nor is it what motivates God to justify sinners (the interior motivating cause), nor is it that which earns the justification of the sinner (the meritorious cause).  Instead, the Word of God and the faith to which the Word gives birth are the “how” of justification.  All of these “causes” are involved, so to speak of justification as already having “taken place” or “happened” apart any of these “causes,” including the “how” of faith, is, Scripturally speaking, nonsense. As the Apology says in IV:67,

But God cannot be treated with, God cannot be apprehended, except through the Word. Accordingly, justification occurs through the Word, just as Paul says, Rom. 1, 16:The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Likewise 10, 17: Faith cometh by hearing. And proof can be derived even from this that faith justifies, because, if justification occurs only through the Word, and the Word is apprehended only by faith, it follows that faith justifies.

Or as the Formula of Concord enumerates the causes in SD:III:25 (without using the word “cause”):

For not everything that belongs to conversion belongs likewise to the article of justification, in and to which belong and are necessary only the grace of God, the merit of Christ, and faith, which receives this in the promise of the Gospel, whereby the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, whence we receive and have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, sonship, and heirship of eternal life.

Here is an excerpt from Leyser’s larger work, the year after the Book of Concord was first published. 

Theological Assertions Concerning the Justification of Man before God

Polycarp Leyser, 1581

The efficient cause of justification is the entire Holy Trinity.  For the Father justifies us, in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6).

The interior motivating cause is not any preceding merit of ours, nor any subsequent satisfaction, but only the free and infallible mercy of God, who sees the miseries of the human race, procures their redemption, and freely justifies us without any condition of the law having been fulfilled by us.

The exterior motivating or meritorious cause is the obedience, suffering, death and resurrection of Christ, the Son of God and of Man, by which He has perfectly made satisfaction to the Law for us, has made atonement for sins, has defeated death, has conquered Satan, and with the gates of Hades having been broken, has freed us for the freedom of the sons of God.

The formal cause is no inhering quality in us, nor is it the essential righteousness of God dwelling in us.  But it is the remission of our sins and the righteousness of Christ alone which the heavenly Father imputes to us as our own, and by this He pronounces us to be righteous.

The instrumental cause with regard to God is the ministry of Word and Sacrament, in which God opens His heavenly treasures, hidden in the Son, and offers them to all men without discrimination or condition.

The instrumental cause with regard to us is faith, which acknowledges the fullness of the divine promise about Christ, offered in the Word and sealed in the Sacraments; embraces it with firm assent; and rests in it with great confidence that has no doubt concerning its salvation.

And since no works of the Law, neither preceding nor present nor subsequent, constitute any cause (either of merit or of application), therefore we rightly and piously declare thatman is justified by faith alone in Christ.

The final cause of this free justification is not only that the dignity of God’s righteousness may be acknowledged, but also that our consciences, afflicted by sin in general, may have peace before God.

The effects are: adoption as sons of God, regeneration, the indwelling of God, vivification, eternal life, and innumerable other things.

'via Blog this'

Universal Objective Justification - Arguments and History Summarized

Art by Norma Boeckler.

Visitors come to this blog and wonder what Universal Objective Justification is, so I will summarize the discussion briefly. 

Justification means being declared forgiven of all sins by God. The Holy Spirit works through the Gospel to create faith, and that faith receives all the blessings of the Gospel. This Gospel is the invisible Word of teaching and preaching, the visible Word of the Sacraments. That is why the Word and Sacraments are called Means of Grace, since they are God's instruments of grace to bring forgiveness to people.

The Bible, Luther, the Book of Concord, and Lutheran theologians all teach justification by faith. The Lutheran theologians include Melanchthon, Chemnitz, Chytraeus, Andreae, Gerhard, Calov, Quenstedt, and many others.

Pastor Paul Rydecki translated Hunnius, who eviscerated Samuel Huber.

Samuel Huber, UOJ Stylist
UOJ first appeared shortly after the Book of Concord was published in 1580. Samuel Huber, a partial convert from Calvinism, got a teaching gig at Wittenberg and began railing against justification by faith. Alas, he was like a gunman robbing a gun store. The Lutheran orthodox opened up on him. Polycarp Leyser, the biographer of Chemnitz, an expert on justification, and Hunnius, another genius, shredded the weak arguments of Huber and removed him from his post.

Huber taught that everyone was already righteous, by virtue of Christ's resurrection.

Pietism and Halle University, the Mother Ship of Blended Doctrine
Pietism won the battle against Lutheran orthodoxy, and Halle University served as the main (but not the only) source of Pietistic ministers and missionaries.

UOJ emerged again with the peculiar argument of the Halle Pietist Rambach and others that the entire world was absolved of sin the moment Christ rose from the dead. Although Romans 4:25 is commonly used today for this bizarre notion, Rambach argued his case from 1 Timothy 3:16.

Rambach's world absolution is still argued by Jay Webber (ELS) and Jon-Boy Buchholz, the tantrum prone WELS District President.

Stephan-Walther UOJ Sex Cult Expelled from Europe
Bishop Martin Stephan, who infected his wife and children with syphilis, gathered the Walther circle of Pietists around him, demanding total obedience in all his edicts. Pietism was the alternative to state-sponsored rationalism, so the Walther group gravitated from one abusive Pietistic leader (Johann Gottlieb Kuehn) to another (Stephan) when Kuehn died. 

When Stephan's troubles from adultery and misuse of money grew, he planned a mass exodus to America, the first such emigration from Europe. He was under house arrest until his departure, when he took his main mistress along (Louise Guenther) and left his wife and children in Dresden to manage without him. Stephan only took his healthy son along, even though the society made arrangements for the entire Stephan family to move.

Walther and his brother kidnapped their niece and nephew from their father's parsonage, so Walther escaped arrest warrants (unlike his future mother-in-law) and left Europe in a hurry.

Walther learned his UOJ from Stephan, and Stephan studied at Halle University. 

Walther's UOJ
Walther's UOJ never varied from what he gained from Stephan, a fact that should make his diminishing fan club shudder.

Walther taught that God declared the entire world absolved of sin. People just needed to be told they were already forgiven and then believe in this world absolution. He later approved the double-justification language from the English translation of Knapp, the Halle Pietist.

Walther was unable to gain total dominance of the Halle position in the Synodical Conference.

Gausewitz was president of the Synodical Conference, and his catechism did not teach UOJ. 

Hoenecke graduated from Halle, but he definitely gave UOJ a light touch in his Dogmatics.

Concordia Publishing House still publishes a KJV catechism (2 million in print!) that omits UOJ entirely.

UOJ, Church Growth, and Gay Activism
The UOJ advocates (WELS COP, Valleskey, Bivens, Wayne Mueller, VP Huebner, SP Mark Schroeder) are also the Church Growth salesmen in their synods (denying it, of course).

Gay activism thrives in the Fuller Seminary alumni, whether they are nominal Lutherans like Mark Schroeder, or emergent church gurus like Andy Stanley  or Brian Mclaren.

Calov Repudiates the UOJ Position, As Robert Preus Demonstrated in Justification and Rome

Given this statement quoted by Robert Preus,
should we assume that Calov repudiated his own clear statement
about justification by faith?

LPC has left a new comment on your post "Cannot Spell, Cannot Write, Cannot Grasp Justifica...":

That quote on Bellarmine and Calov is spurious. Marquart and Kilcrease are painting their own spin on the debate between Calov and Bellarmine.

What Calov was speaking about is the real-ness of the justification because... because... because of the Gospel because... because it is a Promise.

Even Marquart quotes Calov in his paper but Marquart puts his own spin on it...

[Justification] is the object of faith in that it is offered by God in the Gospel; it is the effect [of faith], to put it thus, in so far as grace having been apprehended by faith, the forgiveness of sins happens to us by that very act.

This is what Calov says, so says Marquart. This has to be checked for accurate quotation. Marquart said he took this from Calov's Commentary on the Apology of Augsburg.

At any rate a careful re-reading of Calov would reveal that since it is an offer, the justification of the person only happens upon faith. It does not thereby mean that the justification is already accomplished for the sinner before faith and it has already been conferred to him like what the UOJers think. Otherwise why would Calov call it an offer?

I hope people catch my sense.

LPC

***

GJ - Jack Kilcrease appeals to Paul McCain because the CPH blogger is no more advanced in English than his instructor. Both write, spell, and argue at the high school level - not the Moline High of the 1960s, but current public high schools. I know that from teaching writing to over 1,000 incoming university students.

Moreover, both UOJ Enthusiasts argue at a junior high level.

I will stick with the Intrepids' two-source argument. We have the Scriptures and the Confessions. One is the revelation of the Holy Spirit, clear enough for any person. The other is the witness to that truth from the finest Biblical teachers of Christendom:

• Luther, 
• Melanchthon, 
• Chemnitz, 
• Chytraeus, and 
• Selnecker.

The only UOJ taught by a Lutheran before the Age of Pietism was from Samuel Huber, who was repudiated and fired by P. Leyser and the Wittenberg theologians.

LutherQuest Is Still at War Against the Gospel

Especially important for the topic of universal absolution -
P. Leyser, an editor of the Book of Concord, rejected it.
Samuel Huber was removed from the Wittenberg faculty.

Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Warming Up the Tar and Feathers on LutherQuest. No...":

Luther Quest is at war with Christ today.

The apostate UOJ promoters should address these quotes from the BOC and Luther:

The Christian Book of Concord declares it is by faith alone through which we are accepted by God and not before faith as Objective Justification teaches.
BOC: 71] But when it is said that faith justifies, some perhaps understand it of the beginning, namely, that faith is the beginning of justification or preparation for justification, so that not faith itself is that through which we are accepted by God,
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, That Faith in Christ Justifies
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justification.php

Martin Luther on Faith, Justification and Cain-like saints who persecute the Holy Spirit’s faith: the righteousness of Christ:

12. As before said, they regard faith of slight importance; for they do not understand that it is our sole justifier. To accept as true the record of Christ--this they call faith. The devils have the same sort of faith, but it does not make them godly. Such belief is not Christian faith; no, it is rather deception.

15. ...You see how they make faith of no value to themselves, and so must regard as heresy all doctrine based upon it. Thus they do away with the whole Gospel. These are they who deny the Christian faith and exterminate it from the world. Paul prophesied concerning them when he said (1 Tim 4, 1): "In later times some shall fall away from the faith." The voice of faith is now silenced all over the world. Indeed, faith is condemned and banished as the worst heresy, and all who teach and endorse it are condemned with it. The Pope, the bishops, charitable institutions, cloisters, high schools, unanimously opposed it for nearly four hundred years, and simply drove the world violently into hell. Their conduct is the real persecution by Antichrist, in the last times.

22. Now, the Cain-like saints have not, as they themselves confess, the Christian faith which would assure them of being the children of God.

29. You cannot extricate yourself from unbelief, nor can the Law do it for you. All your works in intended fulfilment of the Law must remain works of the Law and powerless to justify in the sight of God, who regards as just only believing children.

37. Note, Paul everywhere teaches justification, not by works, but solely by faith; and not as a process, but instantaneous. The testament includes in itself everything--justification, salvation, the inheritance and great blessing. Through faith it is instantaneously enjoyed, not in part, but all. Truly is it plain, then, that faith alone affords such blessings of God, justification and salvation--immediately and not in process as must be the case with works

74. But what is the process whereby Christ gives us such a spirit and redeems us from under the Law? The work is effected solely by faith. He who believes that Christ came to redeem us, and that he has accomplished it, is really redeemed. As he believes, so is it with him. Faith carries with it the child-making spirit. The apostle here explains by saying that Christ has redeemed us from under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons. As before stated, all must be effected through faith. Now we have discussed the five points of the verse. http://www.trinitylutheranms.org/MartinLuther/MLSermons/Galatians4_1_7.html

Joe Krohn continues to avoid this BOC quote which shows his teaching that God has been propitious to those outside of faith in Christ is contrary to Scripture:
Apology to the Augsburg "80] ...Thus, therefore, we prove the minor proposition. The wrath of God cannot be appeased if we set against it our own works, because Christ has been set forth as a Propitiator, so that for His sake, the Father may become reconciled to us. But Christ is not apprehended as a Mediator except by faith. Therefore, by faith alone we obtain remission of sins, when we comfort our hearts with confidence in the mercy promised for 81] Christ's sake."
http://www.bookofconcord.org/defense_4_justification.php

Open versus Closed Discussions:Hate-Filled UOJ Fanatics Hate the Truth

Martin Luther - a new theologian to study - for Mequon graduates.

Pope Paul the Plagiarist says that I rob people of the comfort of forgiveness without faith. Lenski used to call that "carnal security." If I have robbed the poorly taught of their carnal security, I am pleased.

The UOJ Enthusiasts have been trying to silence me for many years, even though I have no position to threaten them, no money to give or deny.

In contrast, I want people to study the crafts and assaults of McCain, Cascione, Werning, Olson, Kelm, Valleskey, and Moldstad. The only way to defeat false doctrine is to know their weapons, take away those weapons, and throw the Gospel down in defeat. And bounce the rubble.

UOJ leaders hate discussion, unlike the Means of Grace people. I am thankful that the obdurate ignorance and false claims of the crypto-Universalists have gotten me into a study of the post-Reformation era. P. Leyser? I knew who he was. I used to own his edition of the Examination of the Council of Trent, in Latin. The book is now in a secure, undisclosed location. 

But I did not know anything about Leyser. He was chosen as an expert on justification by faith early in his career. He was an editor of the Book of Concord, 1580. And he demolished the UOJ of Samuel Huber. Note - there were conferences on justification during and after the Reformation. Those conferences led to the superb discussion of The Righteousness of Faith in the Formula of Concord.

This is how sad and sick Lutherdom has become - most Lutheran pastors and few Lutheran leaders have any grasp of the Formula of Concord. 

Lutherans have never been afraid of study and discussion. Papalists hate study and discussion. 

Timid Tim Glende Quits Again - Cannot Face Opposition to His False Doctrine

Valleskey agrees with Huber and Knapp, two heretics.
UOJ antinomianism feeds crimes against children (Werner)
and Church Growth (Radloff and Valleskey).

Real Ichabod said...

We're calling it quits with the conversation between quiet WELSian and LPC. LPC had another remark he wanted to post, but it was so absurd we deleted it. Remember the reason for Real Ichabod. We're here on the web to show the errors of Dr. Gregory L. Jackson, and that he's not the confessional Lutheran hero some misguided souls seem to think.

***

GJ - I am just a blogger who signs his name to his work, Tim.

I will be glad to post Dr. Lito Cruz' post when he sends it to me.

Rutschow is the manly man who backs up
Mark and Avoid Jeske, the head of Church and Change,
so Mark is Tim Glende's real boss.
The supernatural glow is Enthusiasm.

Lots of rotten apples came from the 1970 tree.
Not one of them is a Church Growther - just ask them.
Oh no. Neither is Valleskey or Radloff.

Mystery Solved: The Secret Behind Robert Preus' Justification and Rome

Robert Preus earned two doctorates in theology
and the respect of all Protestants for his scholarship.

When I bought Robert Preus' Justification and Rome, I read it carefully. I was interested in what he said about Rome, which was not going to be a surprise. And I also wanted to know how he expressed himself on justification.

I knew what he wrote and taught before. His little essay, which Jack Cascione lovlingly reproduced, quoted his distant relative Eduard Preuss offering the fabulous opinion that we are justified before we are born.

I also knew that UOJ was untouchable by LCMS standards because it was embedded in the 1932 Brief Confession, doubly blessed.

First of all, that particular statement was the swan song of Franz Pieper.

Secondly, the Olde Synodical Conference fixated on that particular confession as the infallible truth of all time, far above the Book of Concord (in practice).

Big shock. Robert Preus quoted various sources against UOJ and definitely confirmed his opposition to that strange heresy. My intuition was that his sources were arguing against someone or something. Later, when someone showed me the double-justification from the English version of Georg Christian Knapp (Halle University, mother ship of Pietism), I was still stumped. The Preus citations were pre-Knapp, pre-Pietism.




Just recently, another researcher--name withheld--fell upon the Hardt essay involving Samuel Huber and Polycarp Leyser. That explained the Preus citations. The post-Concord theologians were arguing against Huber's weird justification - the absolution of the whole world. As Dr. Lito Cruz has pointed out in his cogent posts and comments, the merging of the Atonement and justification is a hallmark of Calvinism. Huber came over from Calvinism. Spener got his cell groups from Calvinism.

The Walther mythology deceives people into thinking he delivered American Lutherans from Pietism. CFW Walther was a Pietist who swore allegiance to the Pietist Stephan, a cell group fanatic. Cell groups continued in the foundering Missouri Synod, because all the pastors were Pietists. They did come to struggle against the unionism of America. So did the General Council, another Pietistic group. The Wisconsin Synod was Pietistic and moved away from it (with mixed success) - thanks to Hoenecke and Bading.

Therefore, enjoy the graphics gathered below and see how they are reactions against the false doctrine of Samuel Huber. If you agree with Huber's version of justification, you are roundly condemned by Leyser (Chemnitz' biographer and also an editor of the Book of Concord) and other great theologians.

Preus repudiated UOJ in this statement and cited
Calov in support.

This statement is answering the claim that
everyone in the world is absolved of sin (OJ).

I heard Preus lecture about how much he
loved Quenstedt.

J. S. Bach, who was orthodox, owned the famous
Calov Biblical commentaries.

Gerhard co-authored a famous book with Chemnitz.
No Lutheran before Huber taught universal absolution.
Huber was kicked off the faculty for teaching what the
Olde Synodical Conference leaders love the most.

Quenstedt was a precise writer.

Some of these theologians have been cited as supporting UOJ,
just as Tim Glende claimed I did.
UOJ fanatics are not very bright.

Quote of the Day - Huber's Easter Absolution Shot Down by Book of Concord Peers. Someone - Please Tell Jay Webber, Pope John, and Rolf Preus

***

GJ - Does the Little Sect on the Prairie have an excuse for promoting the Walther/Huber Easter absolution, contrary to the Book of Concord editor P. Leyser and his peers at Wittenberg University?

Tom Hardt is the court theologian for the ELS, and his essay is linked by Erling Teigen at Bethany Lutheran College.

Please - someone email Jay Webber, Rolf Preus, and Pope John the Malefactor.

The Wittenberg Theologians or Walther and Valleskey? I Will Get Back To You on This.

Please explain to me how this make-a-decision-for UOJ
is an antidote to synergism and semi-pelagianism.

Who Is Polycarp Leyser? The Founder of a Dynasty of Orthodox Theologians, Chemnitz Biographer, Huber's Opponent

Polycarp Leyser, 1552-1610

Wikipedia:


Supported by his father, his uncle Andreae and later his stepfather Osiander, and also with input from his teacher Martin Chemnitz, Leyser came to have an ingrained support for Lutheran orthodoxy - indeed, at a difficult time for Lutheranism, he was one of those who founded that orthodoxy. In the creative force of his Loci theologici (1591/92), Harmonia evangelica (1593),Postilla (1593) and De controversiis iudicium (1594), his theological position was forged by the dispute sparked by Crypto-Calvinism in Saxony, by the 'Exorzismusstreit', by the difficulties over Lutheran Christology and by Huber's debate.

Education

Polykarp's father Kaspar Leyser (20 July 1526 - end of 1554, Nürtingen) was a pastor in Winnenden then in Nürtingen, giving Polykarp an insight into theology at an early age. Kaspar agreed with Jacob Andreae that government of the laypeople should remain entirely in the pastors' hands, amounting to the establishment of a denomination-wide consistory. He also corresponded with John Calvin, who reserved judgement on the project. They incurred the disapproval of Christoph, Duke of Württemberg. At the instigation of Johannes Brenz this suggestion failed, since Brenz feared it would lead to the church in Württemberg losing control to a centralised consistory.

Polykarp's mother Margarethe was a daughter of Johannes Entringer (a merchant from Tübingen), making her a sister of Jakob Andreaes. On Kaspar's death in 1554, she remarried to Lucas Osiander the Elder. In 1556 the family moved to Blaubeuren, where Polykarp attended the Klosterschule and grew up alongside three of Lucas's sons. In 1562 he continued his education in the Pädagogium in Stuttgart. On his mother's death in 1566 his stepfather sent him to the University of Tübingen, where he studied Protestant theology on a ducal stipend. In Tübingen he met Ägidius Hunnius the Elder, soon becoming close friends with him. In 1570 he became a Master of Arts and soon became a 'Stiftsrepetent'. His main theological influences at this time were Jacob Heerbrand, Andreae and Erhard Schnepf. Leyser distinguished himself with outstanding exam results and so in 1572 Andreae let him take over leadership of disputations on the doctrine of justification by faith. In 1573 he was ordained and was granted a parish in Göllersdorf in lower Austria, where he joined the imperial councillor and erbtruchsess Michael Ludwig von Puchheim (1512–1580), who introduced him to court life under Maximilian II. He soon made his mark in Graz and wanted to look for a job there, but Osiander and Puchheim discouraged him. Instead he returned to Tübingen, where he rose to become a doctor of theology on 16 July 1576 alongside his friend Hunnius. Initially he had limited job prospects, but this was soon to change.

[edit]Wittenberg Wittenberg University had seen drastic changes in personnel since 1574 due to the overthrow of the Philippists, along with student discontent against the lecturers. After the death of Kaspar Eberhard, head of the theology department, in October 1575, the students asked David Chytraeus to take over the Generalsuperintendentur in Wittenberg - he refused the offer. Next, in November 1575, they chose Leyser, who accepted. With the post came that of parish priest of the Stadtkirche Wittenberg.

At first Leyser was merely on a two-year loan from Louis III, Duke of Württemberg to Augustus, Elector of Saxony. On 20 January 1577 he preached a trial sermon in Dresden. On 3 February he was formally inducted into his role at Wittenberg. Leyser then made quick trip from Dresden to Austria to "pick up his bags". On 12 May he was back in Wittenberg and took up his official duties, aged only 25. Such a young man holding the highest church office in Wittenberg, before even being noticed in theological circles in Saxony, attracted much attention and some imputed his appointment to nepotism - until 8 June he was not even a professor of the theology department and until 20 November 1577 not a member of the consistory.

However, Leyser's calming of the situation after the expulsion of the Crypto-Calvinists and the reorganisation of the university was so successful that his critics were soon silenced. He was best served by his rhetorical skills and by an undemanding and reliable character, increasing his popularity among his students, including Philipp Nicolai and Johann Arndt. Leyser's skills were also seen in the drafting of the Formula of Concord and the publication of the Book of Concord in 1580. He developed close links with Martin Chemnitz and Nikolaus Selnecker. Leyser and Selnecker were asked to sign up to a Commission in Saxony on the Formula, that Leyser himself had signed on 25 June 1577 as first minister. He immediately took part in the important theological meetings in Saxony, acting as their recording secretary. The inhabitants of Wittenberg always saw him as an outsider, however, and acted as a thorn in his side. To neutralise this he married a local girl in March 1580, namely Elisabeth, daughter of the painter Lucas Cranach the Younger. The marriage took place in the Wittenberger Rathaus and was overshadowed by student rioting and heavy drinking, which the town authorities had to deal with later.

In 1581 Leyser was again a 'visitator' to the Saxon Kurkreis, where he was mainly concerned with primary education and the Fürstenschules in Meissen, Schulpforta and Grimma. His publications at this time were limited to funeral sermons and disputations, above all attacking opponents of the Formula of Concord. Tilemann Hesshus was his bitterest opponent at this time in the enforcement of 'Ubiquitätslehre'. The disputes were fought at symposia, including one at 1583 in Quedlinburg, where Leyser witnessed the last speech by his mentor Chemnitz. On 9 September 1584 the superintendent of Brunswick resigned and its inhabitants wanted Leyser to take over the post, but he refused it on Selnecker's advice due to his obligations to Augustus of Saxony.

Leyser gave Augustus's funeral oration after the latter's death in August 1586. His successor, Christian I, tended towards Calvinism and so this began to prevail. Christian freed pastors and teaching staff from their obligation to sign the Formula of Concord at their ordination. Considered to be the main representative of the Lutheran concord under Augustus, Leyser was increasingly exposed to the hostility of Nikolaus Krells and Johann Major, whose influence in the university and Konsistorialangelegenheiten was rising. Leyser was so incensed by this hostility that he warned his students off studying for a master's degree under Major. When the Calvinist Matthias Wesenbeck was buried in the Schlosskirche at the feet of Martin Luther, Leyser preached the funeral sermon, in which he claimed that Wesenbeck had renounced Calvinism on his deathbed and died a good Lutheran. This provoked such an uproar that Leyser had to move to Brunswick.