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| John Brenner's tabs say - Calvin won, you lost! He admitted in his dissertation that Election without Faith is another argument for Objective Justification, which he calls The Justification of the World. What is his term for Justification by Faith? - The Individual Appropriation of Forgiveness - right out of Romans 5, in the New, New, WELS NIV. |
Election without Faith
CFW Walther must have had a great struggle promoting the Objective
Justification of Halle Pietism. His second assault on Justification by Faith
came from his series of dogmatic presentations, not Scripture studies, where he
argued that God’s election must be without any consideration of faith, because that
would make faith a work of man. This circular reasoning had a three-fold effect
on the Synodical Conference. Those who disagreed with Walther broke off in
disgust, making him the pope of the Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod, and the
future Evangelical Lutheran Synod, relieving him of significant opposition
within the conference.[1]
The third effect was the use of Objective Justification and Election without
Faith as double-weapons against Justification by Faith.
Documents prove that the Missouri Synod did not teach Objective
Justification in its early, official catechisms and dogmatic work.[2]
That developed slowly and blossomed here and there, but bore bitter fruit in
making canonical the works of Walther, Pieper, and Edward Preuss - who became a
Catholic. The Brief Statement of 1932, a political document, enshrined
Objective Justification with unsupported claims and erroneous Biblical
citations.
Article XI in the Formula of Concord, Book of Concord, warned against
the very thing Walther promoted, speculating about predestination.[3]
13] Therefore, if we
wish to think or speak correctly and profitably concerning eternal election, or
the predestination and ordination of the children of God to eternal life, we
should accustom ourselves not to speculate concerning the bare, secret, concealed,
inscrutable foreknowledge of God, but how the counsel, purpose, and ordination
of God in Christ Jesus, who is the true Book of Life, is revealed to us through
the Word, Book of Concord, Formula of Concord, SD, Election.
Walther’s Calvinism, Unionism, Pietism, Rationalism
The end result can be seen
in Walther’s Calvinism, which is so much like the Geneva chameleon’s dogma.
Calvin pretended to be Lutheran so he could prosper in Luther’s shadow, but
that also included a jealous rivalry concerning the doctrine of the Bible.
Calvin taught against the efficacy of the Word and downgraded the Sacraments to
ordinances reflecting man’s obedience. Calvinists pressed for church unions on
their terms, so unionism was the cradle of Walther’s Christian education. He
grew up in a rationalistic pastor’s household and received a rationalistic
university education, seeking relieve in the Pietism of Pastor Martin Stephan -
a Pietist, cell group leader, and promiscuous adulterer. Calvinism and Pietism
do not last long in the original form, but degenerate into rationalism, lacking
the anchors of the Word’s efficacy in the Means of Grace.
Between Objective
Justification (without faith) and Election without faith, Walther became the
New Calvin, not the American Luther. Forgiveness has nothing to do with the
Gospel Word or faith, because everyone has been declared forgiven (OJ). God
determined this with no regard to faith. Should anyone wonder that the more
this took over, the worse Missouri, WELS, and the ELS became?
[1]
Their work is The Errors of Modern Missouri, which is conveniently
available as a free ebook from The Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry, lutheranlibrary.org.
[2]
These documents are listed and quoted in The Path to Understanding
Justification.
