Here are some reasons given for why Missouri went bad after the 1930s:
1. They called it a church instead of a synod.
2. They stopped teaching Latin.
3. They stopped using German.
4. Pieper died.
5. The evil liberals stole the synod out from under the noses of the orthodox.
6. The leaders did not enforce the Brief Statement.
Someone called the Brief Statement a union document. I need more information about the work and its origin - an honest, analytical work, not the usual hagiography.
Missouri had previous Brief Statements. Didja ever see them mentioned or quoted? Why is the 1932 effort the Summa Theologica of the Lutheran Church, surpassing the Book of Concord, Luther, and the Bible?
I have another argument. The Brief Statement was the time bomb that blew up the entire Synodical Conference, destroying any chance it might be Lutheran one day.
The Brief Statement established error as the central doctrine of the Syn Conference. Like papal infallibility, its minions began working to enforce this error--UOJ--in the publications and the schools.
The Reim essay on the history of the terms reminded me about how recent this way. The BS of 1932 does not even use the term OJ or UOJ, but the anti-Christian quasi-Universalist world-absolution is there, plain as day.
After that, more terms clustered around the cancer cells planted by Pieper and Company. General Justification became Objective Justification, and OJ became UOJ. The concept remained the same. WELS loves the term UOJ now.
Halle promoted UOJ before Walther touched America's shores, and American Evangelicals (soon to become the mainline liberals embracing evolution) embraced it. They reprinted it and studied it the entire 19th century - Knapp's prolix and boring theology lectures. Double justification is laid out in clear English.
After 1932
After the BS, the LCMS and Syn Conference:
- Abandoned Luther and the European theologians.
- Grew close to mainline Protestants (who read the same Halle lectures earlier).
- Treated orthodox pastors and theologians like dirt.
- Went soft on evolution and grew shy about Creation.
- Ran from inerrancy.
- Cuddled up to the future ELCA partners in various pastoral conferences and seminary cooperative efforts.
- Fell for secular counseling methods via clinical training.
- Embraced Fuller Seminary training for world and American missions.
- Let false teachers ran riot everywhere while discipline was reserved for conservatives alone.
- Allowed homosexual pastors in all synods, not just the future ELCA partners.
Given UOJ, nothing matters in doctrine, worship, or practice.
The 1932 BS was the beginning of the end of Missouri, WELS, and the rest. They are so invested in forgiveness without faith that they cannot deal with justification except to repudiate their infallible past.
