Someone is trying to claim on Bailing Water that WELS advocates a quia subscription to the Book of Concord. A quia subscription means that they follow the Book of Concord because (quia) it is a proper exposition of the Sciptures.
A quatenus subscription means they follow the Book of Concord insofar as (quatenus) it agrees with the Scriptures. That is supposedly the ELCA position, assuming they can find their Confessions under their gay pride journals.
I posted before that one of the WELS publications has an essay asking about the sect being bound by the Confessions. Their answer is "No!" The set is either Our Great Heritage or the Wauwatosa set, both luxuriously bound in green, three volumes. I had both at once time, but no longer. I joked before that I used them for kindling, but I would not want to subject my home to the toxic fumes.
How Did This Happen?
All three parts of the Synodical Conference have degenerated into sects by turning the recent publications of their mediocre leaders into the ruling norm of faith and life. No one can debate these nuggets of wisdom because everyone is related to the people who wrote them. Besides, the only doctrine taught with any consistency in these sects is worship of the sect. Someone who loses his awe of the sect is tossed. Doctrinal aberrations (except for the previously mentioned Sin Against the Holy Spirit) are adiaphora, matters of indifference.
Some are saying, "There he goes again, exaggerating."
How was one pastor thrown out of WELS and excommunicated? Bruce Becker (Church and Change, WELS Perish Services) wrote a letter insisting on the non-efficacy of the Word. The pastor had to comply with that letter. He did not, so he was given the Left Foot of Fellowship - for adhering to the ruling norm of Scriptures and the ruled norm, the Book of Concord.
WELS tossed two families out of their sect for not agreeing to the ridiculous Kokomo Statements. Next, WELS lied about this while making matters even worse, with Sig Becker chiming in. No one could argue with Sig Becker, especially since he died soon after. Disagreeing with Sig Becker was blasphemy! The ELS never quite liked Becker, but they live and breathe justification without faith.
The same things go on in the LCMS. They pose as a group defending the Book of Concord, but they have been creating personality cults ever since C. F. W. Walther's and Francis Pieper's. Both men published some good material, but no one can oppose their invented (or copied from the Pietists) Objective Justification. That would imply the LCMS could err. No, the LCMS is inerrant and infallible. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, still the same. Amen.
The nano-sects are no different. Sometimes they ape Big Brother. Sometimes they rage against some slight from 45 years ago. They find a totem opinion or leader and circle that object forever. Did a pastor drop dead from AIDS? Never happened. Etc.
Not Studied Seriously
The Book of Concord is simply not studied. All of the Lutheran sects would do well to take a year to appreciate and study the Large Catechism, which is not the Small Catechism in a Large Print edition. (I know some prep grads read this, so I try to explain here and there.) The explanation of the Third Commandment would greatly advance the destruction of false doctrine.
Reading the Book of Concord without sect-filters is essential. The norms are not 19th, 20th, or 21st century.
The ruling norm of the Word is clear, plain, and easy for anyone to understand.
The ruled norm of the Confessions creates a capacity to learn as we study, just as the Word does.
Every pastor and layman has to make this knowledge his own. Books do not substitute for individual study and application.
