Ichabod Lutheran Lexicon - Walther's Election without Faith

 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?

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[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.

[3] The article on Election can be found here - http://bookofconcord.org/sd-election.php.

Ichabod Lutheran Lexicon - Creation

 Raised without man-madechemicals and toxins, this Falling in Love rose is patrolled by beneficial insects and this tiny spider.

 This Easy-Does-It rose (center) bloomed spectacularly for our granddaughter's wedding, about 40 blooms on two bushes, May 19th, 2019.

Creation by the Word

Compromising Calvinists have undermined God’s Creation by the Word, ever since they decided that the Scriptures need to be reasonable and relevant.

Genesis 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The more people place human reason above the revelation of God, the more they admire their intellect, the less they comprehend God’s mysteries revealed in the Word.

In Six Days

Rather than concede God’s power, the 19^th century scholars debated the length of a day in Genesis 1. The Hebrew word day (yom) being 24 hours long became the breaking point for many, their enlightened moment.

John 1

Since John 1 is a commentary on Genesis and the Pentateuch, the Spirit clearly reveals that the Son of God is the Logos, the Creating Word of Genesis 1.

John 1:3 All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

The domino method of modern Biblical scholarship is to knock one down and watch in mock surprise as the others follow. In the 19^th century, Evolution judged Genesis 1 and found Creation wanting. Next, John’s Gospel was so doctrinal and compelling to believers that it had to be dismissed by rationalistic scholars as Hellenistic, late, unreliable, and symbolic rather than revealed truth.

But the domino method pays tribute to the truth – everything is linked together in the Bible, from beginning to end. Consequently, God’s Creation is all around us, an interdependent perfection revealed in its engineering and management. Those who find gardening with man-made chemical solutions will find great satisfaction in building an environment where all creatures can live, struggle, reproduce, and flourish as God intended.

The divine harmony of the Scriptures can be seen in the Son as the Creating Word using that Creation in His parables, each example so clear to those familiar with gardens, farms, and wildlife. This harmony naturally carries over to the language of our Faith.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature[1] [creation]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The Word created the universe in Six Days, and the Holy Spirit in the Gospel Word converts us into His New Creation.

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[1] Examples of the Greek word  as Creation - https://biblehub.com/greek/2937.htm

 He developed the Queen Elizabeth rose. A PhD in plant genetics, he taught the Creation of the universe in Six Days.

Ichabod Lutheran Lexicon - Initial Entries Will Be Made

 Samuel Johnson, English genius and Christian, graces the introduction to the Ichabod Lutheran Dictionary because he used his freedom to have fun with words and to omit words he detested.

Ichabod Lutheran Lexicon

Intuitu Fidei – In View of Faith

The term intuitu fidei comes from shortening the phrase “in view of the merits of Christ apprehended by faith.” Nothing is wrong with the longer or shorter phrase, but it does show a weakness in Lutheran scholasticism, using Latin terms to wax philosophical. That is a dangerous weapon.

Inuitu Fidei

The Appleton WELS version is inuitu fidei, which apparently means “the faith of the Inuits, or Eskimo.” That may be a nod to Edward Preuss who claimed the Hottentotts and Eskimeaux were justified, without hearing the Gospel or believing.

In Few of Faith

A fervent supporter of one discussion blog called it “in few of faith,” which seems to describe the Objective Justification faction with great precision.

Unfortunately, the original term is used in a prejudicial way to make Justification by Faith seem to be false doctrine of the worst kind. In fact, the Chief Article is hated so much by the Objective Justification lobby that it is called Calvinistic, Arminian, and Pietistic.

 

 

Ichabod

Ichabod comes from the Hebrew, meaning “the glory has departed” from Israel.

1 Samuel 4 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.

The name of the blog came from a sainted WELS pastor calling Detroit – “The Ichabod District - the glory has departed.” Ichabod was a good name for a blog devoted to polemics against the final era for man – The Age of Apostasy. An apostate is not an atheist in the pure sense, but someone who was once a Christian believer but has fallen away from the Faith.

2 Thessalonians 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (apostasia in Greek) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Mrs. Ichabod

It is the custom of bloggers to name family members after the blog, in some cases for privacy. Therefore, Mrs. Ichabod is the wife and encourager of the blogger.

Little Ichabod

The name seems outgrown, but that is the name of the son who did so much to encourage education in computer science, which led to online education teaching, which led to website design and social media – blogging, Facebook, Ustream, and more to come.

Ichaboat and Ichabode

The 1994 Lincoln Town Care, which served 10 years and went to another owner, is the Ichaboat, for its size and deluxe splendor. The Ichabode is wherever the family lives.

Justification by Faith – The Chief Article of Christianity

Those who despise the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace are by default opponents of Biblical, Lutheran doctrine. Nothing is distinctively Lutheran about Justification by Faith, except that so many sects oppose it, leaving the article to the Lutherans and now to a small and despised group within those dwindling groups. Justification is a clear word, the act of God making a declaration of forgiveness. Starting with Abraham in Genesis 15:6 and continuing with the patriarch as the prime example of Justification by Faith in Romans 4, Galatians 3, Hebrews 11, and many other places. This plain concept means that the Gospel Promises effectively create faith in one’s heart, and one is declared forgiven through this God-given faith.

Objective Justification

Objective Justification is the favorite term among those who also say General Justification, Justification of the World, and Justification of the Sinner. In each example, the declaration of God is the justification, but this is consistently the absolution of the entire world, without regard to faith. Objective Justification is not the Atonement, but the terms are mixed up among the adherents, who should be cautioned about wielding the weapon of the Word. Some derive the universal absolution from the cross, though the Holy Spirit is silent about this event. Others deduce it from a false, Pietistic reading of 1 Timothy 3:16, which makes the empty grave the declaration of universal forgiveness. This results in two conflicting moments of absolution, two different causes of an absolution never mentioned anywhere until Calvinism and Pietism arrived in the fulness of time.

Subjective Justification

Many try to market Subjective Justification as Justification by Faith, but Walther and JP Meier, giants of confusion and error, present Subjective Justification as making a decision in favor of universal forgiveness without faith – Objective Justification.