David Scaer is selling his autobiography
Surviving the Storms through Lulu.com for $35.
I knew, met, or heard talks from the following, who are mentioned in the book:
Fr. Wayne President Dr. Robert Preus +, and his brother
LCMS Synod President Dr. Jack Preus +
Pastor Rolf Preus - see
Rolf Trashes Sainted Pastor
ALC Synod President David Preus - cousin and friend of Robert and Jack.
Rev. Waldo Werning +
LCMS Synod President Ralph Bohlmann +
Walter A. Maier II (known as WAM II)
Ft. Wayne Professor Kurt Marquart +
Ft. Wayne Professor Heino Kadai +
Pastor/Editor Herman Otten
Father Richard J. Neuhaus + (LCMS, AELC, ELCA, Rome)
Robert Wilken (LCMS pastor, Roman Catholic layman)
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| WAM II taught what his father (and Luther taught) Justification by Faith and the inerrancy of the Scriptures. What kind of a fraud makes Justification by Faith a crime, a reason to suspect WAM III (now at Ft. Wayne)? "Dr. Walter A Maier II, Pastor Maier's father, Dr.Paul Maier, Pastor Maier's uncle, in blue Pastor Maier, and on his left is Walter A Maier III, Pastor Maier's brother." |
I took a class from Scaer in the summer school, when I was leaving the LCA. I also heard lectures from Marquart and Preus. I went to a class with Jay Webber to hear Scaer and Kadai. Dr. Kadai, a liberal, did not like my repetition of a favorite Barth description - "Preaching with a newspaper in one hand, a Kalashnikov in the other, while standing on the Bible." Webber was angry with me for making Kadai upset. Barth was a Marxist adulterer and plagiarist - I was being too kind.
Scaer can be provocative and funny, but he is also rude, insulting, and tyrannical. Unfortunately, Ft. Wayne encouraged a cult following for Scaer, Preus, and Marquart. Students follow Scaer around the campus and sigh about how great he is. I asked Scaer a question in class, and a student answered it, as if he had to fend off anything threatening to his idol.
Ingredients for P. Hale's Ignorant Book - Scaer's Anti-Lutheran,
Non-Christian, Bait-and-Switch Dogma
I used to be weary of the
Objective Justification salesmen. But now I am intrigued that so many can teach the Book of Concord (like Scaer), the New Testament (like Scaer), and Dogmatics (like Scaer) while dodging the obvious, explicit, often repeated teaching - we are justified by faith alone.
I am going to take readers through Scaer's chapter on
Objective and Subjective Justification, page by page, paragraph by paragraph.
Excursus XIII, Objective and Subjective Justification, p. 251-258.
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| Scaer claims that Objective Justification is unique to the LCMS - so funny - when Knapp's textbook was being used before Bishop Stephan and Pope Walther landed in New Orleans. Adventists say - "Universalism is avoided by bifurcating justification into objective and subjective categories." WELS says that, too. |
Page 251
P. 1 - Scaer used Pieper to make the (Halle Pietistic) claim - God justified the world at the resurrection of Christ. Does he name the "contrary claim" - No. Does he mention the Chief Article from the Book of Concord? - No. Does he cite or quote Genesis 15:5 or Romans 4 in defining Justification? - No. Instead he listed some modern theologians who teach that "faith makes justification effective." Maybe they do, but that is not the definition of Justification by Faith (Name it not! - as John Sparky Brenner seems to think; Sparky swerves from the phrase with "individual appropriation of forgiveness, which would make Romans 5:1 much clearer,
nicht?).
P. 2 - Objective Justification did not arise from arguing with the Ohio Synod, Scaer's strikingly fraudulent claim. Perhaps Scaer is simply ahistorical and cares little for the known facts, easily researched. Walther caught
OJ from Bishop Stephan, who doubtless learned it as a Pietist. Stephan studied at but never graduated from Halle University or anywhere else. Fact - Stephan taught Walther UOJ. Another fraudulent claim is that Walther's
Election without Grace, which he used to break up the Synodical Conference, was a remedy for synergism. Excluding faith is soooo Calvinistic, that most veterans of Calvinism recognize it right away. Synergism really applies to "making a decision for" - language found in Walther and JP Meyer - see the graphics below.
Justification by Faith is not synergism. Walther violated Article XII of the Formula of Concord with his foolish and divisive speculations. The end result of Walther's Election war was that he was the sole dictator of doctrine in his group, now rid of "false teachers." Note that Scaer made Luther a Synergist! Radio genius Todd Wilken calls
Justification by Faith Calvinism - with a chuckle.
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| Walther - "must accept by faith..." sounds like synergism to everyone but the Waltherians. |
Page 252
P. 1 - Already we can see Scaer is a dabbler in the Scriptures and unable or unwilling to teach the plain meaning of the Word. Professor Shallow decided to make Lenski his pin-cushion, even though Lenski wrote widely admired commentaries on all the New Testament books. Like WELS, Scaer attacks Lenski for finding
Justification by Faith in Romans. But he does not say those words in blue, which are universally known for defining the Reformation, Luther, Romans, and Galatians.
P. 2 - The "other side" is a virus introduced by the Great War, the growth of English in a German synod. LCMS Pastor showed that Missouri taught Justification by Faith officially in its German catechism in 1905, and in English after. Radicals in Missouri and WELS forced
OJ onto everyone, a nifty weapon to unite their cabal and exclude others.
P. 3 - "If subjective justification completely defines..." This confused and double-tongued paragraph uses
SJ to attack
Justification by Faith. One is an invention of Calvinists, Adventists, and Pietists (
SJ). The other is Biblical -
Justification by Faith. God creates faith by the Gospel Word - it is monergistic, not synergistic.
OJ/SJ is a synergistic combination - one implies the other. They go together like Stephan and syphilis.
P. 4 - This is funny, reminding me of how Mormons brag about being weird. Unique dogmas cause difficulties, like papal infallibility, thus
OJ causes problems for Missouri. Scaer did not realize that his analogy condemned his
OJ/SJ, which is invented - it is
Enthusiasm - just like papal infallibility. The analogy also fails because all mainline denominations teach
OJ, and so do the Adventists. Unique? Hardly -
OJ is the chief article of mainline and cult religion.
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| The Pietist argument from false exegesis, 1 Timonthy 3:16 is that God justified mankind when Jesus rose from the dead, absolving everyone of sin. |
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| Look up P. Leyser's history and see if he has more credibility than Scaer and Walter. |
Page 253
P 1-5 - Scaer takes us on a false narrative about
OJ, which comes from Pietism, clearly stated by Rambach, above, but attempted before by Samuel Huber, a "former" Calvinist at Wittenberg. Huber was defeated and kicked out. Norwegian Pietists were naturally attracted to Walther's Pietism. Rolf Preus likes to wear Herman Preus I around his neck, his perpetual relic of an OJ martyr and saint. But Herman lost his call for only a few days and returned to his pulpit to continue teaching
OJ.
The loyalty of Jack and Robert Preus to
OJ came from Pietism, not from the Bible, Luther, the Confessions, Chemnitz, or Gerhard. Both men moderated the toxic effect of
OJ. Jack translated Chemnitz (rather than Baier? how significant!). Robert repudiated
OJ in
Justification and Rome.
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| As chairman of the board of Seminex, Jungkuntz approved his school for training future Metropolitan Community Church (gay) pastors. Many Seminex leaders were graduates of Northwestern College (WELS), where he taught earlier. |
Page 254
P1 - 3 - As John Sparky Brenner acknowledges, Walther promoted
Election without Faith to prop up his
OJ. Walther's predestination claims, so similar to Calvinism, drove away those who understood
Justification by Faith and made CFW the Pope of the remnant. As many have observed, Walther's exclusion of faith excommunicated the
Means of Grace, too. But Jack and Robert Preus took this seriously, unlike cousin David. Scaer attempts to blame ELCA's apostasy on The ALC's failure to embrace
OJ. But the Seminex gang, led by Jungkuntz (
OJist) shaped the merger commission with quotas and efforts to remove Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (The Trinity won on a vote of 33-30. Whew!)
I wrote to David about communion with the Reformed. He made fun of the
Real Presence in his response. The ALC-LCA leadership was pathetic, but Missouri longed to unite with them. The years since have shown that ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC sic are in the same abyss of
OJ apostasy and pan-sexuality.
P4 - Now we begin to smell the pot roast. The Maier Family! Woe, woe, thrice woe. Jack Preus called WAM II to teach at Springfield (which moved to Ft. Wayne). As Scaer says, after four years on the same campus, Jack should have known what WAM II. "The students did!" I can hear the sound of ominous thunder in the background - no facts - but scary, dreadful sound effects.
P5 - When Jack was elected LCMS President, with vast help from Herman Otten's
Christian News, people ached for something to be done about the blatantly liberal Concordia Seminary faculty, St. Louis. Many of us knew that WAM II was the logical alternative to replace Jack if he did nothing. WAM II did not have Jack's carpet bag baggage. According to Scaer, WAM II remained an alternative to Jack Preus as synod president.
Page 255
P1 - WAM II was so respected by his students that they wrote out notes on his lectures, which were available to Scaer. Though he is glib in making WAM II a false teacher, he did not bother to study them or give the reader his impression. He had access to Maier's dissertation, but "lacked the fortitude to wade through" all the materials available.
P2 - Scaer passed over the disgraceful Jack and Bob tag-team clobbering of WAM II, but conceded WAM II was a threat to Jack's tenure as synod president.
Jack and Bob could (get this) accept the "denial of Objective Justification" by Dr. Maier, WAM II, and - oh noes - WAM III, being called to Ft. Wayne. I and III earned Harvard doctorates - but I am not sure of WAM II's.
The faculty worried that III agreed with II and I. Note this Scaer quote verbatim -
"Neither understood this doctrine according to traditional Missouri Synod definitions." The Scriptures? The Book of Concord? Luther? Chemnitz? No mention is made, and
Justification by Faith is left unheralded. LCMS is the Church of Rome, Missouri franchise, which is why so many pastors join the Real Thing.
P3 - This was "not a minor issue" for Jack and Bob. Ralph Bohlmann was looking at the issue. Missouri had been "Protestantized" and was becoming Arminian.
Justification by Faith is the
Chief Article, but it is
Arminian? For the innocent - Bohlmann was 100% political and a dedicated liberal, backed by Otten to follow Preus.
P4 - Scaer's jealousy of the Maier family knows no bounds. This is his description of Dr. Walter A. Maier, who virtually invented radio evangelism, taught
Justification by Faith as the capstone and inerrancy as the cornerstone of Christianity. Scaer:
"Here was a potentially deadly potion of historical, theological, political, emotional and family issues."
P5 - Robert Preus - who is raised by Scaer to the level of greatest Lutheran theologian in this book - went to the Calvinists for support for his position. Preus knew the Calvinists had
OJ, but it was a different
OJ than Lutheran
OJ! But I thought that
OJ was born during the conflict with the Ohio Conference. Please do not use Scaer's book as a history of doctrine textbook.
Page 256
P1 - Scaer wrote "The Sides of Justification" for
Christianity Today during the extended roast of WAM II. Wally Schulz told him twice that he was not at his stellar best, and "he obviously did not approve..."
"It may show that Maier II's views were representative of a large group in the Missouri Synod, even those who saw themselves and were seen as conservatives." Aha, so
Justification by Faith makes someone a liberal. However, there is a decided lack of detail in this paragraph, only a brotherly shiv in the back for Wally.
P2 & 3 - WAM III's interview for a position "raised the same concerns about the son that they had with his father."
P4 -
"Walter III's appointment to the faculty would assure that what the faculty once saw as an aberrant doctrine on justification could be perpetuated for another generation." Scaer is Henry II shouting,
"Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?"
P 5 - Scaer reverted to the WAM III case and said they forged a compromised based on 1 Timothy 3:16, which Scaer found contrived.
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| Kilcrease is the OJ fanatic who also co-authors with Scaer. Kicrease, who teaches at a Catholic school, became famous on this blog by posting lame arguments and erasing his comments soon after. Therefore, "Kilcreasing became a verb for erasing." He teaches at the ELCA online seminary where Jay Webber finally got an STM. |
My Intuition about the LCMS-WELS Fake Solution
This is said today by
OJists correcting, they imagine,
Justification by Faith - "We are justified
BY GRACE! through faith."
That may be the formula Bob Preus urged onto WAM II, because it could be seen two ways. The phrase might not seem wrong by itself, since it reminds us of the Scriptures, but it allows the
OJists to say, "Ah yes, everyone is declared forgiven because of God's grace, and this is accepted by faith in the universal absolution."
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Parsing the sentence stops OJ from creeping in on little cat feet. "Saved through faith" belongs together. Paul contrasts grace and works, faith and works.
Lenski: "God accomplishes his purpose of delivering the Ephesians when by the power of his grace and the means of this grace (Word and Sacrament) he kindled faith in their hearts. Faith is not something that we on our part produce and furnish toward our salvation but is produced in our hearts by God to accomplish his purpose in us. Col. 2:12 states this directly: "through the faith of the operation of God." One often meets careless statements such as: "Grace is God's part, faith ours. Now the simple fact is that even in human relations faith and confidence are produced in us by others, by what they are and what they do; we never produce it ourselves." Ephesians 2:8-9
