I read David Scaer's book on Kindle - Surviving the Storms, a rather brave title for someone who had tenure soon after being hired at Concordia Seminary Ft. Wayne (nee Springfield).
My review of the book is here. Do not worry - negative reviews sell, too, so he should be happy, giving the $35 Lulu price.
I was thinking about the situation, when Waldo Werning - several fries short of a Happy Meal - spent countless hours pursuing Scaer on false doctrine charges. How could anyone take Waldo seriously?
But today, a light went on. Scaer and the Righteous Brothers (Jack and Bob Preus) did the same thing to Dr. Walter A. Maier II.
The parallel to Werning is perfect. Waldo was a false teacher with a fake doctorate - and a popinjay. But he was treated with great respect as he continued to attack Scaer through letters, meetings, and faculty trials.
Scaer revealed a similar obsession with WAM II, never dreaming that his own Objective Justification was - and is - a joke and a half, sillier and far more dangerous than Werning's Church Growth obsessions.
I was reading Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889). A Critical History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (Kindle Locations 2-6). Unknown. Kindle Edition. The famous author identified Objective Justification with Calvinism, Justification by Faith with the Lutherans.
Scaer definitely knows the Stephan-Walther teaching of Objective Justification is peculiar, but seems unaware that it can be found in so many other places, even among the Adventists.
See these links.
Analysis of the Doctrine ofUniversal "Legal" Justification
Larry J. KaneIntroduction
According to the 1888 Message Study Committee ("1888 MSC"), the 1888 message reveals many "fresh, beautiful truths . . . that are not usually understood today."[1] One such "truth" is the concept that Christ's death at the cross accomplished a legal or objective justification which is universally and unconditionally applied to all men.[2]
Obsession -
- 129 mentions of WAM II in Scaer's book
- 275 for Werning
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| Waldo Werning was known for friending people and turning on them if he felt they dishonored him(told the truth). |
While biblical inspiration and authority was foundational for Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics, Franz Pieper was absorbed with the doctrine of objective justification throughout his three volumes. Also known as universal justification, it distinguished the Missouri Synod from other synods as no other doctrine in the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century did.
Scaer, David P.. Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer (Kindle Locations 5541-5544). Luther Academy. Kindle Edition.
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Support for Walter A. Maier II as synod president cannot be ruled out as a reason for Jack Preus asking his brother Robert to handle Maier II’s doctrine of justification. Relations between the Preus brothers were not without their rough spots.
Scaer, David P.. Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer (Kindle Locations 5645-5646). Luther Academy. Kindle Edition.
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Justification by Faith translated as Denial of OJ!
Yet both Robert Preus and Jack Preus could not accept what they saw as the denial of objective justification by both Walter Maier I and his son Walter Maier II. His views also became an issue in September 1989 with the calling of Walter Maier III, whose views were seen by some faculty members as virtually identical with his father’s view. Neither understood this doctrine according to traditional Missouri Synod definitions. For the Preus brothers, this was not a minor issue.
Scaer, David P.. Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer (Kindle Locations 5646-5650). Luther Academy. Kindle Edition.
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So Robert Preus worked out a compromise with WAM II that satisfied people for the moment - but not Scaer!
Equally tragic was that in the matter of justification, John Saleska stood with Robert Preus to the point of his being angry for not solving the question of objective justification once and for all. Saleska was reported to be upset with Robert Preus because he did not “go all out to get Walter A. Maier II.”
Scaer, David P.. Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer (Kindle Locations 5679-5682). Luther Academy. Kindle Edition.
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So the Righteous Brothers, who transferred into the LCMS from the OJistic ELS, were as obsessed as David Scaer about the Maier family not being true to the LCMS tradition of Halle Pietism.
But a little bit of research will show that the Stephan-Walther-Pieper infatuation with Objective Justification was never the official doctrine of the LCMS and was excluded from such guideposts as the
- 1905 German catechism,
- the Gausewitz Synodical Conference catechism, and
- the KJV catechism.
One LCMS DP said to a candidate - a few years ago, "We cannot exclude you for teaching Justification by Faith, because we have never had an official statement on OJ."
